For many sports journalists, getting to appear on TV at all is pretty cool. Getting to appear in a dramatization rather than a documentary is maybe more remarkable still (it’s at least more rare), and getting to appear in a dramatization based on a book you wrote is truly unusual. But that wound up being not as great of an experience as Jeff Pearlman hoped, thanks in particular to his allergy to the wig glue used.
How did we get here? Well, in 2014, famed writer and author Pearlman released the book Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s. That book, which received strong reviews despite some of the access hurdles he faced, would lead to his fourth appearance on the New York Times best seller list. And it would eventually become the foundation for HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty dramatic series, which premiered last spring. But, as Pearlman told AA’s Michael Grant last February, there was a long and rocky road from option to production.
The show’s now in its second season, though. And that second season wound up with the rare circumstance of Pearlman (who’s a producer on Winning Time) portraying a fictional journalist on camera in an episode (episode five, The Hamburger Hamlet, premiering Sept. 3) of a dramatic series based on his book. But, in a conversation with AA Thursday, Pearlman discussed that while he was thrilled to get that opportunity, it wound up leading to an unfortunate consequence for him. To start with, though, Pearlman said that’s part of a surprisingly high level of involvement he’s had with the show, something he vastly appreciates.
“It’s not like I’m there every day,” he said. “My main thing is, I have a production credit. And it’s funny, because a couple of months ago my wife and I were watching an old episode of Entourage, and I think Eric, the character of Eric Murphy, said ‘I’m a PINO.’ And they’re like ‘What’s a PINO?’ ‘A producer in name only.’ And I’m like ‘Oh my god, that’s kind of me!’ But this season, number one, they let me actually have some input in casting, which was amazing. They sent me the reels of people auditioning for Season Two, ‘Jeff, what do you think of this guy? What do you think of this guy? Does this guy pull it off?'”
He went on to say that beyond that, he takes a look at each script, and is involved in many of the conversations about historical accuracy.
“I read every script. They call me all the time about sort of fact-checks, ‘Does this work, does that work?’ I play a reporter in episode five, it’s great. It’s fun, I’m not saying I’m great. There’s been a lot of messaging with the executive producer, I talk to him about 14 times a week, ‘Does this work? What do you think of this? How do you think the show’s doing?’ They could have easily kicked me to the curb. And there are a lot of stories of writers getting a check, being invited to set one time to take a picture with whoever the star is, and it’s been the exact opposite.”
And he said the overall experience has been terrific, and remarkable considering that this book didn’t initially stand out to him as much as some of the others he’s written.
“The funny thing is, a friend of mine named Michael Lewis, not Moneyball Michael Lewis, said to me the other day, ‘Do you consider Showtime one of your top, most memorable books?’ And I don’t consider Showtime one of my top most memorable book experiences; I enjoyed it, and it was cool, and I had some amazing experiences, but every book has those amazing experiences. The difference is, just being blunt and kind of obvious, I’m living this dream.”
“This is a dream, this is honestly a dream, this is insane. I get paid for a show that’s on HBO, that I get to appear in, that’s based on a book that I wrote. My wife was out of town, but my kids and I went to the premiere party last year, and we’re sitting there smoking, my teenage kids, in a bad parenting moment, we’re smoking a cigar with Michael Chiklis and we’re listening to Adam McKay talk about me. I mean, it’s a fantasy. The thing about it is it’s pure fantasy, pure dream. I have literally zero complaints about how this has gone. I just want it to survive, because I’ve loved every minute of it.”
However, Pearlman said that actual appearance in the show was a little rougher. His day as an actor started well, but didn’t end that way. And Jason Priestley warned him.
“It was miserable,” he said. “It’s funny, years and years ago, I did a story for TV Guide and visited the set of a show in New York. It was called Love Monkey, and it starred Tom Cavanaugh, and Jason Priestley was in the show. I remember sitting down with Jason Priestley, and I’d watched the show film one scene for about a couple hours, and I was saying ‘Man, this seems kind of boring,’ and he was like, ‘Brother, you have no idea.'”
“The day I went to set, I got out there, I was supposed to start filming maybe at 11, I got there at 9 because I was so excited. And you go through wardrobe and it’s really exciting, they made me look like a reporter, and then you go through makeup, and they put a wig on me and they attached sideburns. And then then there’s craft services, free food, and every journalist, especially sports journalists, loves free food. And then I go to the set, and I have three lines. I wrote them on my hand, because I was really nervous, so I had some talking points on my hand. And I’m sitting there and they shoot the first scene, and they shoot it, and I’m like ‘Okay.'”
“And then they shoot it again. And again. And again, and again, and again. And they shot that freaking thing 104 times. And by the end, I just wanted to go home; it was like 9 at night, I was exhausted, I was bored out of my mind.”
But that got worse still, thanks to the wig glue.
“The crazy thing is that night my head got really itchy, I started getting lumps on my head, and the next morning when I woke up, my head had exploded. I had an allergic reaction to the wig glue, I had to go to urgent care. So Jason Priestley, all those years ago, was dead on.”
While Pearlman’s on-set work may not have ended as well as he had initially hoped thanks to that glue allergy, he’s still full of praise for the show. And when asked how he thinks Winning Time is portraying the many Lakers‘ conflicts in this time period (1980-84 for the second season), he said he’s been impressed with how the show’s handling that.
“Really well, actually. The thing is, there was a lot of tension building during that time period. If you look at the different elements, which are Magic’s return, Norm Nixon feeling threatened, Paul Westhead losing touch with the team, Kareem kind of aging a little on the outskirts, Pat Riley finding his voice, and Jerry Buss not really fully understanding what’s going on, like, why is this conflict going on, and also truly viewing Magic as a partnership, all these things swirling at the same time, I do feel like the show captures it pretty well.”
He said this particular period of the history has a lot of notable elements, and he thinks the show is covering them well.
“I’ve always loved, from the time I was a kid watching on TV, the Magic-Bird dynamic and the buildup. And I think, as an example, episode three of this season, which is sort of the backstory of Larry Bird, there’s a scene in that episode where he’s at Indiana State playing in a game in jeans and boots and a flannel. I think it’s one of the great sports scenes I’ve ever seen on a TV show, and I had nothing to do with that, I just think it’s great. And I just love, love the dynamic of Magic-Bird. I’ve always been a sucker for it, whether they appear on Letterman together, whether it’s the play, I saw the play that was on Broadway for about a week, I love that. And I feel like the show is trying really hard to sort of build up, as Bird arrives, this lovable villain kind of thing.”
As a dramatic series based on the book rather than a documentary, Winning Time does deviate from the actual history in some ways. Pearlman said that’s been an adjustment for him, but he’s okay with it.
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“So I feel like I had to adjust to this kind of medium being a part of it and understand, ‘Okay, this is a dramatic interpretation of what happened. It’s not a literal thing. It’s not a documentary.’ And you basically just need to accept that or you’re not going to be involved, and I accepted that and embraced that, and I know what it is.”
And he said the backlash from depicted figures has been interesting, as there was “zero, literally zero” backlash to his Showtime book before the series came out. But he’s fine with where he stands as a result.
“It puts me in a funny, actually weirdly-good, position. If people are mad at the show, I can say ‘Well, I just wrote the book.’ And if people love the show, I can say ‘Thanks! It was a really great experience’ and blah, blah, blah. It’s a can’t lose for me.”
Pearlman’s bigger concern at the moment is trying to drum up viewers for Winning Time to ensure a third season. He likes the show and working on it, and wants it to continue.
“Please watch the show. We need views, need viewers. Really, honest to god, we need views, need viewers. I think it’s a great show, and I just want it to keep rolling.”
Winning Time’s fourth S2 episode, “The New World,” premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO, and is also available to stream on Max. A preview clip can be seen here. The fifth episode, “The Hamburger Hamlet,” with Pearlman’s reporter cameo, will premiere Sunday, Sept. 3, at the same time.
