Coach Beard and After Hours

I remember when this episode – “Beard After Hours” – aired and there was a lot of confusion about it. Some critics clocked the reference to After Hours (and well they should, especially if they’re paid the big bucks), but others didn’t even mention it. Kind of egregious. No excuse. It took a simple Google search to discover the homage. I was disappointed that more critics didn’t take the opportunity to dig into the source material, excavating the comparisons and associations, and also maybe talk a little bit about the original? Am I the only one who thinks that would be a cool way to approach a TV re-cap?? Others had zero idea what was going on. A friend of mine said to me, “I know this is referencing SOMEthing but WHAT IS IT.” I told her. She was very excited and I was psyched she KNEW already even if she didn’t know what the episode was in reference TO.

I mentioned this episode in my essay on After Hours, clocking just a couple of the “nods”. Keys. Underground nightclubs. A bouncer. An endless night.

I mentioned it expressly because After Hours has a devoted fan base (understatement) and many people name this as their favorite Scorsese (particularly among younger Gen-Z-ers, according to my nephew. This is fascinating and should be talked about more. I told “Marty” about my nephew’s thoughts in this regard and he was very interested. I’m proud of that! lol). But what influence did it have on the industry? Where did it GO? What shadow did it cast? You can look at Richard Linklater’s films, and their experiments with time – the “Before” trilogy, of course – each movie taking place in a 24-hour period. You could look at some of Seinfeld’s more hallucinatory surreal encounters, the absurd and the random careening through people’s lives. There are other “one wild night in New York” movies, but … is that really an After Hours nod? Vincente Minnelli’s The Clock came out in 1945 and it’s the quintessential “24-hours in New York” movie.

“Beard After Hours” aired long before I got the Criterion gig, but it made me happy because I remember seeing After Hours in the theatre, and how much fun it was. Decades passed before I saw it again and I remembered it vividly. Shots, characters, mood: all fresh in my brain as though I saw it yesterday. Not every film is like that!

So I did just want to shout it out, as the most explicit “nod” we have to a great and under-sung (except by its fan-base) film – and a fun and intriguing way to get people to check out the source material.