Brockmire is back
Hank Azaria reprises his baseball announcer character in new podcast
Apart of Hank Azaria wasn't really ready to let go of foulmouthed baseball announcer Jim Brockmire, a character he affectionately calls a “debauched freak.”
So less than a year after the last episode of the off-beat TV series “Brockmire” aired on the IFC channel, comes “The Jim Brockmire Podcast,” promising a recapturing of the character's zany roots.
“This is sort of more returning to the frivolous, fun, silly version of the character that's making fun of everybody and everything and himself,” Azaria said.
The half-hour podcast features guests across sports and entertainment, including Charles Barkley, Joe Buck, Don Cheadle, Steve Cohen, Colin Cowherd, Rich Eisen, Jemele Hill, Dan Patrick, Ben Stiller and Joy Taylor.
Guests can expect questions about the week's sports headlines and a “Between Two Ferns”-type send-ups, as well as a “frivolous" game section. Barkley will play a game called “Did Shaq Endorse It?” in which Brockmire throws out the names of commercial items, and Barkley has to choose if his Hall of Fame colleague endorsed it.
“It's definitely a comedy, and it sort of works whether we have folks on who are kind of in on the joke and like to play along or who are just completely playing it straight — it works just as well,” Azaria said.
On the four-season IFC series “Brockmire,” Azaria increasingly evolved from sports and juvenile humor. The last season saw the character sober, married, a father and wrestling with life's meaning and a brain disorder in a dystopian future.
“We told the story we wanted to tell, and it was kind of done,” said Azaria. “It was an easy transition. We didn't really even have to think about it.”
Over the years, Azaria had promoted his IFC show on plenty of sports talk shows, and so the idea of returning the character to its jokey sports roots came naturally.
“It sort of organically grew into, ‘Well, why don't we just reverse it and have Brockmire host these guys on? Because we've done it so many times?' And so far it's working really well.”
Producer Sheena Datt is guiding the show along — or, as Azaria describes it, she is Robin Quivers to his Howard Stern. The two often get into sports conversations, and at some point, he told her she should be a co-host. Datt says the show is a homecoming of sorts.
“I honestly think a podcast is such a good format because it's Hank, and the whole thing about Brockmeier is his voice. What better way to keep him alive?" she asks. “That interesting blend of sports and just unfiltered inner monologue coming out — it's funny.”
Azaria, an avid New York sports fan, based his character on former Big Apple broadcasters Bob Murphy and Phil Rizzuto. His Brockmire wears a plaid jacket and has a voice that sounds like a mix of bourbon and butter, announcing home-run calls like, “Some might call that ball Istanbul, but I call it Gone-stantinople!"