“It is about the story of the emotional life of George Carlin, and what kind of person felt the need to do this, what were the stages in his life,” Judd Apatow said during a TCA press conference for the two-part HBO documentary George Carlin’s American Dream. “He had issues with addiction and he had heart problems, and he was trying to be a good father and a good husband during the ‘70s when things were pretty out of control. It really is a story of someone who’s trying to keep their comedy evolving while trying to be a good person, and a good person with their family.” The life and legacy of one of the greatest stand-up comedians of all time will be honored on Friday and Saturday, May 20th and 21st, on HBO at 8/7c.
(HBO)
Kelly Carlin, George’s daughter, not only appears as an interviewee in the film but also helped the directors procure archival material from her father’s personal collection. “It was fun, to be able to see some of the footage that Judd and Mike found,” Kelly shared about her father’s ability to remain relevant decades after introducing his material. But of most importance was humanizing her father and showcasing his personal life. “I’m an only child, and the documentary covers a bit about my experience in being so tight with my parents. I actually wrote a memoir called A Carlin Home Companion that talks about my relationship with my mom and my dad, the Carlin Family story. He was a guy who was on the road a lot. He was a working comic. He missed a lot of my recitals and a lot of my events, but we were very close emotionally, very tight. And I think Judd and Mike do an incredible job of telling my family’s story weaved throughout in order to get a real reflection of my father as a husband, as a father, as a man, and of course the person behind the artist.”
Joining Judd Apatow as co-director is Michael Bonfiglio. “There was an extraordinary amount of footage between the stuff that was commercially seen and things that hadn't been seen in decades,” Bonfiglio revealed, adding that the filmmakers also received materials from the National Comedy Center. “He was a meticulous saver of things. So there was really just an incredible crushing amount of material.” The biggest challenge ended up being what to include and what to leave out. “The film itself really is about his evolution in a lot of ways. How he went from a very mainstream, clean comic, to the counterculture guy, to sort of his final incarnation in the late '80s until he died in 2008. So that evolution as an artist and as a human being is really a lot of what comprises the film.”
“He had been working on his autobiography, and so we found 23 hours of him telling his life story, of audio. so we were really lucky to get that type of insight directly from him,” Judd Apatow added, revealing why now is the perfect time to tell George Carlin’s story. “One of the reasons why we wanted to make the documentary was because he kept trending on Twitter and has for a really long time. Whenever anything happens in the news, people start putting clips up on the internet. And it’s really shocking how many subjects he has the best routine about and the best insight about. So it really felt like, even though some of this material is decades old, it really applies to all of the divisions and the problems that we're seeing right now.”
George Carlin’s American Dream is a perfect fit for HBO because the comedian headlined 14 specials on the cable channel. It also created a full-circle moment for Judd Apatow. “My first job was working for Comic Relief at HBO when I was 18 years old,” the co-director shared. “My job at the first event was to have everyone on the show sign 50 posters. So that was the first time I met George Carlin was forcing him to sit there with me to sign these posters. I mean, it certainly was the perfect place to tell George Carlin’s story.”
In addition to broadcasting on May 20th and 21st on HBO, George Carlin’s American Dream will also be available to stream on HBO Max.