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Fishing with John

Fishing with John is a 1991 television series conceived, directed by and starring actor and musician John Lurie. On the surface, the series resembles a standard travel or fishing show: in each episode, Lurie takes a famous guest on a fishing expedition. Since Lurie has no expert knowledge of fishing, the interest is in the interaction between Lurie and his guests, all of whom are his friends. Nothing particularly unusual actually happens, but the show is edited and narrated in a way to suggest that Lurie and his guest are involved in dramatic and even supernatural adventures.

The guests featured are film director Jim Jarmusch, actor Matt Dillon, musician Tom Waits, actor Willem Dafoe and actor-director Dennis Hopper. The series ran for 6 episodes, each featuring a different guest and locale, except for episodes 5 and 6 which both feature Hopper in Thailand. Each episode has voice-over narration by Robb Webb, which is sometimes bizarre and off-topic. The soundtrack is by Lurie, with several guest performers.

Fishing With John originally aired on Bravo in 1991, and re-ran on IFC (Bravo's then-sister channel) in 1998. The Criterion Collection released a DVD of the complete series in 1999.

Since its release, the series has earned a cult following. Lurie had a spiritual successor to the series run for three seasons on HBO, Painting with John (2021–2023).

Fishing With John centered on actor and musician John Lurie taking fishing trips with various celebrity friends of his. Jim Jarmusch, Matt Dillon, Tom Waits, Willem Dafoe and Dennis Hopper all appear in the series.

In the Criterion DVD commentary, Lurie notes that the original plan was to film in Alabama, but funding issues forced the filming to happen in Jamaica, where Waits was already on vacation. Lurie claimed that following their trip to Jamaica, Tom Waits was displeased to the point that he did not speak to Lurie for two years afterwards.

Lurie claimed that Dennis Hopper was so high on sugar during his two-part episode that he was unable to concentrate long enough to fish. Also in the commentary, Lurie explains that the choice of Matt Dillon was largely pushed upon him by the Japanese group financing the episodes. The filmmaker had originally wanted Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers to accompany him on the Costa Rica episode.

The narrator of Fishing With John is Robb Webb, a professional sounding announcer who often interjects with bizarre non sequiturs and dramatic inventions unsupported by the footage, such as claiming that Dennis Hopper has "seen a map on the wall of the monks' monastery that leads him to believe that somewhere in this area is the lair of the giant squid".

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