Bob Dylan Wanted To Star In A Slapstick Comedy Series For HBO
Bob Dylan had plans for what he wanted to do in the 90s, and it wasn’t just about music. Larry Charles (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm) says a couple of decades ago, Bob Dylan had the plan to create, write and star in a slapstick comedy series for HBO. Charles told the story on Pete Holmes’ podcast “You Made It Weird”.
According to Charles, Bob Dylan was dead set on doing a comedy after binge watching Jerry Lewis movies while on the road. Larry Charles said he told Dylan that he had to go to the HBO pitch meeting because the channel would never have the nerve to say no to his face. Charles described Dylan’s mindset, “No matter how crazy it might seem to anybody else, he does what he thinks. That’s what he wants to do.”
Charles showed up for the meeting in pajamas. Bob Dylan went dressed “like a Western guy who’s carrying six guns.” Business-wise, the meeting went well. Personally it was off putting for Dylan when an HBO exec showed him his Woodstock tickets to impress him. Dylan told him, “I didn’t play Woodstock.” And then kept his back to the group for the rest of the meeting.
However by the end of the meeting, HBO had signed on. But that’s when Dylan signed off. By the time they left the meeting and got to the elevators, Dylan was out, calling the idea “too slapsticky.” Who knows how history would have changed if Bob Dylan did an HBO series in the 90s? We might have never gotten “Arliss”.
Hear Larry Charles story on “You Made It Weird” with Pete Holmes.
