Blank Check with Griffin & David
Presentation
Hosted by	Griffin Newman David Sims
Genre	Film Comedy
Language	English
Updates	Weekly
Production
Production	Ben Hosley (Production) Marie Bardi-Salinas (Social Media/Production, 2020–present) Alex Barron (Editing) AJ McKeon (Editing) Angela Ferraguto (Co-Production, 2018–2020) JJ Bersch (Research)
Theme music composed by	Layne Montgomery and The Great American Novel
Audio format	Podcast (via streaming or downloadable MP3)
No. of episodes	467 (as of March 3, 2024 (2024-03-03))
Publication
Original release	March 23, 2015 (2015-03-23)
Provider	UCB Comedy (2015–2017) AudioBoom (2017–2021) Independent (2021–present)
Related
Website	Audioboom/ BlankCheckPod

Blank Check with Griffin & David is a film podcast following the career output of notable directors who had significant success early in their careers and were then offered a figurative blank check to pursue their passion projects. Most episodes focus on a single movie from the director's filmography, and the show is grouped into "miniseries", in which some or all of the director's films are reviewed. The show is hosted by The Atlantic film critic David Sims and actor Griffin Newman. ^[1]

Notable guests who have appeared on the show include Rachel Zegler, Jamelle Bouie, Leslye Headland, Jamie Bell, Kevin Smith, David Lowery, Patton Oswalt, Tatiana Maslany, Richard Lawson, Lulu Wang, Ayo Edebiri, Karina Longworth, Alex Ross Perry, Roman Mars, Nia DaCosta, Bowen Yang, Amy Irving, and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Series overview

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The Blank Check website describes the podcast as:

Not just another bad movie podcast, Blank Check reviews directors' complete filmographies episode to episode. Specifically, the auteurs whose early successes afforded them the rare 'blank check' from Hollywood to produce passion projects. Each new miniseries, hosts Griffin Newman and David Sims delve into the works of film's most outsized personalities in painstakingly hilarious detail. ^[2]

Origins: Griffin and David Present

The podcast was originally entitled Griffin and David Present, and assessed the Star Wars prequel films as if in a universe where the other Star Wars films did not exist. Originally planning to spend 50 episodes on each film, producer Ben Hosley convinced the hosts to only do ten. Having used a lengthy analysis of a filmography as a means of discussing the films' director, Newman and Sims decided to use a similar approach in reviewing the works of other directors, and retitled the show Blank Check with Griffin and David. ^{[3] [4]}

Blank Check with Griffin & David

Each miniseries is given a loosely comedic title which combines the word "podcast" with either a title of a film or the director's name. If a director they've previously discussed releases a new film, they will work it into their schedule of upcoming shows.

Blank Check: Special Features

On January 1, 2019, Newman and Sims created a Patreon page, Blank Check: Special Features, where fans could pay a monthly amount in exchange for extra content. Blank Check Special Features focuses primarily on audio commentary about films that are part of franchises, including the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Toy Story, Mission: Impossible, The Santa Clause and Alien. ^{[5] [6]} The Patreon feed also offers monthly bonus episodes and other content related to the current miniseries or general interest.

As of November 2023 ^[update], the Blank Check Patreon was ranked 15th in the podcast category and 39th overall based on the number of paying supporters, with 18,692 subscribers. ^{[7] [8]}

Blank Check: March Madness

Every March since 2018, there has been a March Madness style bracket pitting thirty-two directors against each other, allowing listeners to vote and decide a director to be covered later in the year. ^[9] Until 2022, the votes were cast through Twitter polls, but were later moved to the Blank Check website following use of bots to influence match-ups. ^[10] Since 2020, there have been brackets exclusive to the Patreon to decide a franchise to cover.

Reception

Blank Check has been positively reviewed by Paste, ^[11] Decider, ^[3] and The A.V. Club. ^[12] The show was included in Esquire's list of the best 21 podcasts of 2018, ^[13] as well as on Paste's list of the top 30 podcasts of the decade. ^[14] It has also been featured in Vulture and Entertainment Weekly as a selection of the week. ^{[15] [16]} In May 2023, Luis A. Gómez of The New Yorker wrote about the podcast, stating that "Newman and Sims reveal themselves as connoisseurs of context in engaging, discursive conversations" and are "a positive, authoritative voice in the film-podcasting landscape." ^[17]

Notes

References

External links

• Official website