Emmy Award Winning Producer Kurt Engfehr and NAACP Image Award Nominee Ray Nowosielski Team Up With iHeartPodcasts For New Series 鈥淕eorge Bailey Was Never Born鈥
The 10-part series takes a definitive look at 鈥淚t鈥檚 a Wonderful Life,鈥 one of the most popular movies of all time, the story of Americans鈥 decades-long love affair with this cultural institution and how it may offer a light down the path we walk today
NEW YORK 鈥 November 21, 2023 鈥 Today, iHeartPodcasts, Emmy Award-winning producer Kurt Engher and 2022 NAACP Image Award Outstanding Podcast nominee Ray Nowosielski announced the release of 鈥淕eorge Bailey Was Never Born,鈥 a one-of-a-kind podcast experience that takes a definitive look at 鈥淚t鈥檚 a Wonderful Life,鈥 one of the most popular holiday movies of all time. The new series is available now and everywhere podcasts are heard.
The series is a co-production of 含羞草传媒 and Double Asterisk, in association with True Stories, created by Engfehr, editor-producer of Oscar- and Palme d鈥橭r-winning documentaries from director Michael Moore, and Nowosielski, producer of 鈥淕umbo Coalition,鈥 which began streaming on Max Nov. 6th, and a story producer on 鈥淭he Super Models,鈥 streaming on Apple TV since September.
Joseph returns to narrate the podcast, reprising the character who tells fellow angel Clarence the story of Jimmy Stewart鈥檚 George Bailey over the 1947 Frank Capra directed classic. The podcast features conversations with Stewart's daughter Kelly Stewart Harcourt, co-star Donna Reed's daughter Mary Owen, Capra's grandchildren Frank Capra III and Monica Capra Hodges, original story writer Philip Van Doren Stern鈥檚 grandchildren and others, as well as American influencers, artists and real modern small-town corollaries to the characters from the movie.
鈥淕eorge Bailey Was Never Born鈥 details many never-before-told stories, ranging from the failure by Rashida Jones鈥 grandfather to renew the film's copyright to how Republic managed to regain control of it in 1993, from how the New York Times helped start a popular phenomenon of upside-downing the meaning of 鈥淚t鈥檚 a Wonderful Life鈥 to the abolitionist and anti-fascist intentions behind the movie鈥檚 creation, with implications for the MAGA movement today, and much more.
Three episodes take listeners inside the "real" Bedford Falls, Seneca Falls, New York, one spotlighting community banker Menzo Case's efforts to bring affordable housing there through his own Seneca County Habitat For Humanity Bailey Park. Case passed away suddenly of a heart attack on October 13th, leaving that initiative in doubt. Double Asterisk is donating a portion of proceeds to Bailey Park and encouraging listener donations to that, to their local Habitat for Humanity and to AFSP, in honor of the movie's twin causes of affordable homeownership and suicide prevention.
鈥溾 is distributed by iHeartPodcasts.
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About Double Asterisk
Double Asterisk, Inc., is the documentary and podcast media company of John Duffy and Ray Nowosielski. DA鈥檚 first major podcast series, After the Uprising, was nominated for a 2022 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Podcast. Visit DoubleAsteriskMedia.com for more company information.