Wahl Street (2021–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - Lock Down & Out - full transcript
[solemn music]
♪ ♪
[line trills]
- Okay.
- Shut down because
of the coronavirus.
We're the last production shut
down in the world, I think.
Uh, so we're all gonna go home
and quarantine,
make sure we're all good,
and then come back about,
I don't know,
maybe four, six weeks,
continue shooting.
But we must go home now.
[paint can rattles]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[line trilling]
Um...
it's, uh--it's crazy.
I've never seen this before
in my lifetime,
you know, the level
of uncertainty, you know?
We're all just praying that,
you know,
we get back to normal,
or is this our new normal?
Who knows?
Yeah, and it's just,
like, craziness.
Absolute craziness.
Uh, I was a day away
from starting shooting
"Uncharted."
The head of the studio called
and said,
"We're shutting down,"
so everything's in limbo.
And then, trying
to keep my kids
from going stir-crazy
with boredom
and keeping them
on their studying,
their Zoom meetings
at school, but, you know,
my son had to spend
his birthday indoors
and can't see friends.
It's, uh...been crazy.
So when I heard yesterday
that the quarantine was
gonna go
from what they thought
would be Easter
to at least the end
of the month,
I set up a team with my wife.
I said, "These are things
"that are out of our control.
"Let's just focus on
the things
that we have control over."
You know, we should be trying
to lend a hand
where needed for people
being affected financially,
their health,
so we're feeding
doctors and nurses,
and giving people
everything
that they need.
A big thank you to all
of our first responders.
You know, it really puts things
in perspective,
though, about what's important.
Make for some quality time
with your family.
So that's what we're doing.
♪ Everything is going crazy ♪
The good of it all is that
we're spending
so much quality time.
A little bug! Ah, help!
- Hi.
- Sorry about that. Hi.
- Ooh, it sounds like
you need nails and makeup.
- Makeup and nails?
- Mm-hmm.
- I don't even like
doing makeup in the movie.
Okay, so quarantine now.
I'm getting pedicures,
manicures,
and apparently full makeup.
She's got her whole kit there.
And yeah, this is
what's happening now.
[eerie music]
♪ ♪
[line trilling]
Harry.
- Can you see me?
- Ryan.
- Hey.
How are you?
- How are you doing?
- Just wanted to check in.
- During this pandemic.
I think the best advice
I can give is,
like, to stay connected to
your people as much as you can.
Checking on each other,
making sure everybody's
doing okay.
You know, those kinds
of empathetic messages
is really the key.
- Hey.
How's it going?
- I just wanted
to check in with you.
Hey, buddy.
- Hi.
What are we doing here?
- Let's talk Wahlburgers first.
How many of our stores
are open?
- None.
[tense music]
- Can you give me a little
update on where we are?
- We're having significant
supply chain challenges now
with both of the U.S. suppliers
that we have.
Both are under quarantine.
There's no one working
for at least 30 days,
and that creates
a pretty significant
liquidity crisis for us.
- So how is everybody
holding up?
How are all the employees
and everybody?
- In terms of the studios that
we actually own and operate,
you know, we've had to suspend
all operations right now.
- Wow.
- So we just pumped
the brakes on everything.
- So we really gotta do
some hard thinking here
and take a long, hard look
at what stores are,
uh,
you know, gonna be able
to rebound,
and what stores aren't.
This has been a very, very
difficult day.
A lot going on...
- What we're going right now
is,
we're engaging landlords
to talk about rent suspension
or deferments.
We're just basically trying to
reduce the overhead right now.
- Everybody's scared,
and it's really creating
a ton of stress
beyond just
the business stress,
worried about people's safety.
You know, those people
are counting on us.
- [blows raspberry]
I'm a little down.
I had an hour and a half
of, like,
happiness and joy,
cutting up and laughing,
and then, you know,
the rest of the day,
just kind of down
and depressed.
And it's just hard, you know?
You get down, no matter--
all the other stuff
doesn't matter, right?
- Yeah.
- All the success,
everything else,
you know what I mean?
It's like not having
the ability
to stay strong physically,
and especially mentally.
- Yeah...
- Right, Wallie?
- Yeah.
- Are you depressed?
- Yeah.
- You understand
what he's saying, right?
- I've usually been, uh,
pretty positive,
kind of, you know,
optimistic guy,
and, you know, certainly doubt,
and fear,
and all of those things
have come into play.
I mean, whatever was happening
with Wahlburgers
was happening with F45,
which was happening
with Municipal.
You know, it's--
I mean, there's so much.
I'm, like, really right now
just kind of at a loss
for words.
It's hard 'cause,
I mean, even like me,
I'm just down some days,
and depressed,
and feeling like, God,
I don't know,
when is this gonna end?
- Yeah.
- And then, I have you guys
out there working
every single day.
I really got
to stop complaining.
You know, there's people
out there really having it bad.
I just--and I'm, like,
a super positive person.
I don't know.
It just all kind of got me.
All this doom and gloom
just kind of got me down.
It's gotten...
It's gotten to me a little bit.
- Part of it is just, yes,
shit hit the fan,
and how do we wanna
emerge from this?
And how does the company
want to grow through this?
We're kind of thinking
futuristically
as opposed to just right here
and right now.
- A great entrepreneur
understands the value
of hiring the right people
who bring that
positive mindset
so that they can lead you
through the crisis
and enable you
to show up right,
show up ready.
- As long as
we keep our health,
we'll get through this,
we'll be fine.
- That's awesome.
Well, you've given me
the pep talk that I need.
All right.
Wallie, be nice to your sister.
- You hear that?
- Give Lucy a big hug.
And no punch-punch.
- [chuckles]
- Okay?
All right, buddy.
Well, you know,
I don't say this
as often as I should.
I appreciate you.
I love you.
- I love you too, man.
Don't worry.
We all--
we all got each other's backs
on this one.
And anything you need from me,
let me know.
Whatever it is, dude.
Always, 24/7.
You know that.
- Talking to the team today,
you can't help but feel like,
wow, this is fantastic.
Despite all that was going on,
they were actually still
very positive,
so I was able to kind of pause
for a second
and kind of think about
what exactly I want to do
or can plan to do now
moving forward.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
Hey, I'm inviting everybody
to come and work out with me
on Instagram.
We're working out with Shannon.
- We're gonna tune in
at 10:30, Pacific time,
on F45's official Instagram.
- Safe distance apart.
We're gonna get after it.
50 countries,
1,500-somewhat studios
all shut down
at the same time.
People who had come so far
in their fitness journeys,
and now, not being able
to go into the gym,
we wanted to try to pivot
and create
as many at-home workouts,
you know,
and try to stay engaged
with people
and keep people focused.
- It feels so different,
but it's really just like
every other day, you guys.
It's gonna be great.
- Certainly,
it wasn't seamless.
You know, you just try
to do anything
and everything that you can
because you're worried
about your members,
your franchisees,
and the health
of the business as a whole.
- I think so.
- Okay.
Okay?
You're feeling it.
Hold it!
You got 15 more seconds.
Keep moving.
If it doesn't challenge you,
it doesn't change you.
Here we go.
- You know, people
who are quarantining
with us,
we're working out together.
We're motivating and inspiring
each other in that way.
Great job, guys.
Can't wait to get back
into an F45 studio
with all you guys.
Got the kids
down there a couple times
in the gym.
That was probably a plus.
Look at that,
I found a plus
in this whole thing.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
- Oh, no.
No, you didn't.
- Are you nuts?
[laughter]
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
We were teaching my daughter
about business,
and buying materials, and--
and, you know, being smart
about managing costs.
And then, she started
a hobby horse business.
Tell them what
you're doing with this.
- I'm selling them.
- She made them all by hand.
What's the price?
- $30.
- She's making
five, ten horses a day,
but she was putting
real effort into it.
She was selling hobby horses
at a rapid rate.
- I'm gonna go stuff this and
then come back to do the rest.
- The Kardashians
were requesting
custom-made hobby horses,
and the business
had turned into being
pretty lucrative
pretty quickly.
[imitates neighing]
- [laughs]
- Because of Grace's
hobby horse business,
Brendan starting
getting jealous.
When he saw the kind of money
that she was making
making these horses, because
he's very entrepreneurial,
and they really became
very engaged.
- These businesses can
teach them about value.
And when they own something,
taking care of it,
preserving something,
handling it with delicacy--
there are many valuable lessons
to be learned there.
Whoo!
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[line trilling]
- Hey, Harry.
- Hey, Mike.
- Um, I have
some very bad news
about Municipal.
- Okay.
- So I spoke to Mark,
and when the stock market went
from an 8,000-point drop
in the DOW
in such a short period
of time.
It's a free fall.
- Yep. Terrible.
- So that created
a significant strain
on our liquidity
and required us to scale back
some of our funding
commitments.
- Yep.
- Including Municipal.
- Our funding source,
FOD, backed out.
They were gone.
They were done.
Because we were pre-launch,
we weren't a business that
was currently operational.
They had to focus on
their current operations.
Those were the ones
that had to take priority.
- Hopefully you guys get
to turn the corner.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
The responsible thing to do
as a business leader
is to let everyone know
these are the realities.
Dave, Kim, do you guys
got a sec?
So...
we got bad news from FOD.
They just--they had
to pull our funding.
- So how are you feeling?
Are you freaking out?
- I'm fucking panicked.
Everybody on the team believe
in Municipal.
They believe in Mark.
And above all that,
they trusted me.
Getting to this point
was the hard part,
and now, like, we're getting it
pulled out from under us.
- I know.
I just felt like, oh, my gosh,
do I need to start looking
for something else?
But nobody's hiring right now.
Like, what's gonna happen?
- My guess is, we're gonna be
tightening our belts here,
to basically put ourselves
on life support.
- There's definitely risk
involved
when you work for a start-up.
And I've worked for start-ups
before,
and I've had them fail.
- The hits just keep coming.
- We have to look
at every single
option to get us
moving forward,
but I don't know
if we're gonna survive
as a company.
[eerie music]
♪ ♪
[line trills]
- Hello.
- Hey. What's up?
[chuckles]
- Has Father come on?
- Sorry about the delay, guys.
I had a little issue
installing Zoom on my laptop.
- No problem.
- This project came to us
about this story
of a priest
who also runs a hedge fund
on Wall Street.
The documentary series
centers around the father
as he takes on the SEC
and Big Pharma.
I told Mark about the project,
and Mark was so intrigued
by this priest
that he wanted to meet him.
Father, would you kind of just
tell your story
as far as, you know,
what your "side job" is,
and so forth?
- Yeah.
I'm Father Emmanuel Lemelson,
and I'm a Greek Orthodox priest
and an activist investor.
Well, an activist investor
typically
gets involved with companies
in order
to protect the interest
of common shareholders.
You know, most clergy
in the Eastern churches
are married.
A number of Orthodox clergy,
we have lay vocations,
and you learn about priests
who are maybe doctors
or lawyers,
but apparently,
there hasn't been any
who've really worked
in finance,
at least not in the capacity
I have.
It's been controversial,
but I've come to learn
that controversy's
not necessarily
a negative thing.
- I just thought
it was fascinating--
a man of the cloth was also
a man in the investment world.
Most of the priests
that I know
stick to working for the Lord,
but he's a multitasker.
- As a young man,
my heart's desire was to serve
the church as a priest,
but I was always aware
of the business world,
though, as well,
and maybe it is like
a second calling.
And I think that
as Christians,
we should embrace our work,
even in the financial world.
- Archie, when you told me
the doc,
I was like,
"I gotta meet that guy.
I gotta meet that guy."
It's exciting that
we'll get to do
a lot of interesting things
together.
We want to make some
compelling television,
but also, you know,
with a message.
- Yeah, absolutely.
- And I said to Archie,
this can really be something
that's really special
and really has an impact
on people.
And it's complicated.
You're a complicated dude.
You're, like--you're a priest,
but you're also--you know,
you have a hedge fund.
- [chuckles]
Um...
- Father, real quick.
Sorry to interrupt.
Say hello to my beautiful wife.
- Rhea, it's so nice
to meet you.
- Hi. Nice to meet you.
- My wife thinks you're
so beautiful, by the way.
- Aw, thank you.
- And so do I.
All right, give me a kiss.
- Okay.
Your dinner's ready.
- I ate my dinner.
- Oh, you ate it already?
- Oh, yeah.
- That was mine.
- I ate some--
oh, it's really good.
Vegan pasta.
- By the way, you know,
my wife is with me too
behind me here
on the computer screen.
- We both overachieve, Father.
Well, Archie,
we'll follow up tomorrow,
and Father,
I'll call you tomorrow.
- You guys have a good night.
Archie, take care.
- Good night, everyone.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[line trilling]
- What's up?
Where are we at?
- Good. Talked to Lev
for a while this morning,
kind of filling him in
on everything again,
but we have to figure out
what we're gonna do
'cause we're--
we really only have
three weeks of cash left.
- Yeah.
- Since our funding source
pulled out
at the worst time,
we had to really make
a lot of hard decisions.
You know, we're getting
close to launch,
so we have to get
really creative on
how are we gonna get us through
the end of the year and beyond.
I'll put together a bunch
of different scenarios
so that we can decide
how we wanna go forward.
- Yeah, well, a lot of people
made a lot of sacrifice
to launch this business,
so, you know, if we're going
into business together,
we're betting on ourselves.
Let's just finance it
ourselves.
You know, Lev and I
are both prepared
to step up,
whatever we have to do,
to continue to finance
the business, so...
♪ ♪
- Um...
- Hello?
[line trills]
[speaking native language]
- Huh? Do you speak English?
- Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
- And we'll go after it.
- Okay.
- I'll fill you in
if anything happens
between now and the next time
I talk to you.
- All right, buddy.
Hang in there.
- Okay, you too, Mark.
See you, man. Bye.
- Bye.
[tense music]
- So we found ourselves
having to scrap
our whole business plan
and start really over
from the beginning.
Now, we're trying to figure out
what's the best avenue
for Mark and Lev.
They're like,
"Let's just do it ourselves."
But I don't have that
kind of cash lying around,
so I'm really nervous
about hurting the team
if I can't go forward.
Like AJ on our team,
he's a young guy,
just has a family.
Like, I wanna bust my ass
so that that guy can
buy a house someday.
And...
that's why we're here,
you know?
I think about that.
[solemn music]
- We're going through a very
hard time in this country.
At first, I was like,
okay, we'll be shut down
for a few weeks,
just like everyone else.
And then, of course,
a few weeks
became a month, two months.
It really is
a daunting feeling
because it's
a real possibility
if we can't sell shows,
that this company
will go away,
and with that, a lot of jobs.
I'm working as hard as
I ever have in my entire life,
just scrambling
to try to figure it out.
- Hey, Archie.
How are you?
- You know,
craziness.
Trying to work out of your home
and accomplish that all,
it's a lot.
Here's Wallace.
- Hi, Wallace.
Your children are so beautiful,
Archie.
- We're gonna get a call
from Zoom.
Cuteness overload.
- [giggles]
- 'Cause it really tests you
being a great dad.
Ryan has sent me the materials.
- [babbles]
- Sorry, that's my kid.
And being a great
business partner,
and owning a company, you know?
I wanna be there for my kids.
Hey, buddy.
It's so tough.
I'm on a pitch,
and my son is like,
"Daddy, Daddy,
let's play football."
[voice breaking]
You know?
It's hard.
It's hard.
- [indistinct]
- [laughs] Hey.
[laughter echoes]
[melancholy piano music]
♪ ♪
[indistinct chatter]
- Okay, so go ahead.
Start with the bad news,
and then give me
the worst news.
You know, when
the pandemic hit,
you know, just a combination
of things just
started happening.
And, you know, hundreds
of thousands of people
have been out of work
with no end in sight.
We told them what
was going on...
...People will feel safe.
Rhea, that's the problem.
I mean, I was on
eight to ten Zoom calls a day
to make some hard decisions,
but when it comes
to the state
of these businesses...
The stakes are
pretty damn high.
I mean, there's constantly
lots to overcome,
things coming
from out of nowhere.
- There's too many
COVID cases there.
- Hold on one sec.
That's my line. Hold on.
I've got to be hands-on
and, you know,
solving problems
and fixing things.
- What do you mean you have
to go back and look?
Everybody that
I'm involved with
has good, hard-earned money
involved in these businesses.
Why wasn't I asked
if it was okay?
Tom, what the fuck is going on?
- Do you see the number
that you're responsible for
versus the number
that I'm responsible for?
- [sighs]
- All right, I'm gonna hang up
on you now.
[dial tone]
Are you fucking kidding me?
- Going into this pandemic,
there is nothing but problems
every day
in business.
My philosophy and outlook
on it is,
you not only need
to have the vision
and be passionate,
but you have
to be a really good
problem solver.
Any type of problem
that comes your way,
you have to have the answers
and the solutions.
[dial tone]
[tense music building]
♪ ♪
The more I think about it,
the more I think
I should have my hands
in the businesses
on a day-to-day.
Have all the right people
that make decisions.
I got to go out there
and actually
really handle it myself.
[dramatic music]
And, um, ultimately,
I have to stop the bleeding.
And it has to happen
immediately.
It's about fucking time!
- ♪ Get ready,
get, get, get ready ♪
♪ Get, get ready,
get, get, get ready ♪
♪ Get, get, get,
get, get, get, get ♪
♪ Get, get, get, get,
get, get, get, get ♪
♪ ♪
♪ It's game time ♪
[vocalizing]
♪ ♪
- ♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey ♪
♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey ♪
♪ Hey ♪
♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
[line trills]
- Okay.
- Shut down because
of the coronavirus.
We're the last production shut
down in the world, I think.
Uh, so we're all gonna go home
and quarantine,
make sure we're all good,
and then come back about,
I don't know,
maybe four, six weeks,
continue shooting.
But we must go home now.
[paint can rattles]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[line trilling]
Um...
it's, uh--it's crazy.
I've never seen this before
in my lifetime,
you know, the level
of uncertainty, you know?
We're all just praying that,
you know,
we get back to normal,
or is this our new normal?
Who knows?
Yeah, and it's just,
like, craziness.
Absolute craziness.
Uh, I was a day away
from starting shooting
"Uncharted."
The head of the studio called
and said,
"We're shutting down,"
so everything's in limbo.
And then, trying
to keep my kids
from going stir-crazy
with boredom
and keeping them
on their studying,
their Zoom meetings
at school, but, you know,
my son had to spend
his birthday indoors
and can't see friends.
It's, uh...been crazy.
So when I heard yesterday
that the quarantine was
gonna go
from what they thought
would be Easter
to at least the end
of the month,
I set up a team with my wife.
I said, "These are things
"that are out of our control.
"Let's just focus on
the things
that we have control over."
You know, we should be trying
to lend a hand
where needed for people
being affected financially,
their health,
so we're feeding
doctors and nurses,
and giving people
everything
that they need.
A big thank you to all
of our first responders.
You know, it really puts things
in perspective,
though, about what's important.
Make for some quality time
with your family.
So that's what we're doing.
♪ Everything is going crazy ♪
The good of it all is that
we're spending
so much quality time.
A little bug! Ah, help!
- Hi.
- Sorry about that. Hi.
- Ooh, it sounds like
you need nails and makeup.
- Makeup and nails?
- Mm-hmm.
- I don't even like
doing makeup in the movie.
Okay, so quarantine now.
I'm getting pedicures,
manicures,
and apparently full makeup.
She's got her whole kit there.
And yeah, this is
what's happening now.
[eerie music]
♪ ♪
[line trilling]
Harry.
- Can you see me?
- Ryan.
- Hey.
How are you?
- How are you doing?
- Just wanted to check in.
- During this pandemic.
I think the best advice
I can give is,
like, to stay connected to
your people as much as you can.
Checking on each other,
making sure everybody's
doing okay.
You know, those kinds
of empathetic messages
is really the key.
- Hey.
How's it going?
- I just wanted
to check in with you.
Hey, buddy.
- Hi.
What are we doing here?
- Let's talk Wahlburgers first.
How many of our stores
are open?
- None.
[tense music]
- Can you give me a little
update on where we are?
- We're having significant
supply chain challenges now
with both of the U.S. suppliers
that we have.
Both are under quarantine.
There's no one working
for at least 30 days,
and that creates
a pretty significant
liquidity crisis for us.
- So how is everybody
holding up?
How are all the employees
and everybody?
- In terms of the studios that
we actually own and operate,
you know, we've had to suspend
all operations right now.
- Wow.
- So we just pumped
the brakes on everything.
- So we really gotta do
some hard thinking here
and take a long, hard look
at what stores are,
uh,
you know, gonna be able
to rebound,
and what stores aren't.
This has been a very, very
difficult day.
A lot going on...
- What we're going right now
is,
we're engaging landlords
to talk about rent suspension
or deferments.
We're just basically trying to
reduce the overhead right now.
- Everybody's scared,
and it's really creating
a ton of stress
beyond just
the business stress,
worried about people's safety.
You know, those people
are counting on us.
- [blows raspberry]
I'm a little down.
I had an hour and a half
of, like,
happiness and joy,
cutting up and laughing,
and then, you know,
the rest of the day,
just kind of down
and depressed.
And it's just hard, you know?
You get down, no matter--
all the other stuff
doesn't matter, right?
- Yeah.
- All the success,
everything else,
you know what I mean?
It's like not having
the ability
to stay strong physically,
and especially mentally.
- Yeah...
- Right, Wallie?
- Yeah.
- Are you depressed?
- Yeah.
- You understand
what he's saying, right?
- I've usually been, uh,
pretty positive,
kind of, you know,
optimistic guy,
and, you know, certainly doubt,
and fear,
and all of those things
have come into play.
I mean, whatever was happening
with Wahlburgers
was happening with F45,
which was happening
with Municipal.
You know, it's--
I mean, there's so much.
I'm, like, really right now
just kind of at a loss
for words.
It's hard 'cause,
I mean, even like me,
I'm just down some days,
and depressed,
and feeling like, God,
I don't know,
when is this gonna end?
- Yeah.
- And then, I have you guys
out there working
every single day.
I really got
to stop complaining.
You know, there's people
out there really having it bad.
I just--and I'm, like,
a super positive person.
I don't know.
It just all kind of got me.
All this doom and gloom
just kind of got me down.
It's gotten...
It's gotten to me a little bit.
- Part of it is just, yes,
shit hit the fan,
and how do we wanna
emerge from this?
And how does the company
want to grow through this?
We're kind of thinking
futuristically
as opposed to just right here
and right now.
- A great entrepreneur
understands the value
of hiring the right people
who bring that
positive mindset
so that they can lead you
through the crisis
and enable you
to show up right,
show up ready.
- As long as
we keep our health,
we'll get through this,
we'll be fine.
- That's awesome.
Well, you've given me
the pep talk that I need.
All right.
Wallie, be nice to your sister.
- You hear that?
- Give Lucy a big hug.
And no punch-punch.
- [chuckles]
- Okay?
All right, buddy.
Well, you know,
I don't say this
as often as I should.
I appreciate you.
I love you.
- I love you too, man.
Don't worry.
We all--
we all got each other's backs
on this one.
And anything you need from me,
let me know.
Whatever it is, dude.
Always, 24/7.
You know that.
- Talking to the team today,
you can't help but feel like,
wow, this is fantastic.
Despite all that was going on,
they were actually still
very positive,
so I was able to kind of pause
for a second
and kind of think about
what exactly I want to do
or can plan to do now
moving forward.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
Hey, I'm inviting everybody
to come and work out with me
on Instagram.
We're working out with Shannon.
- We're gonna tune in
at 10:30, Pacific time,
on F45's official Instagram.
- Safe distance apart.
We're gonna get after it.
50 countries,
1,500-somewhat studios
all shut down
at the same time.
People who had come so far
in their fitness journeys,
and now, not being able
to go into the gym,
we wanted to try to pivot
and create
as many at-home workouts,
you know,
and try to stay engaged
with people
and keep people focused.
- It feels so different,
but it's really just like
every other day, you guys.
It's gonna be great.
- Certainly,
it wasn't seamless.
You know, you just try
to do anything
and everything that you can
because you're worried
about your members,
your franchisees,
and the health
of the business as a whole.
- I think so.
- Okay.
Okay?
You're feeling it.
Hold it!
You got 15 more seconds.
Keep moving.
If it doesn't challenge you,
it doesn't change you.
Here we go.
- You know, people
who are quarantining
with us,
we're working out together.
We're motivating and inspiring
each other in that way.
Great job, guys.
Can't wait to get back
into an F45 studio
with all you guys.
Got the kids
down there a couple times
in the gym.
That was probably a plus.
Look at that,
I found a plus
in this whole thing.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
- Oh, no.
No, you didn't.
- Are you nuts?
[laughter]
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
We were teaching my daughter
about business,
and buying materials, and--
and, you know, being smart
about managing costs.
And then, she started
a hobby horse business.
Tell them what
you're doing with this.
- I'm selling them.
- She made them all by hand.
What's the price?
- $30.
- She's making
five, ten horses a day,
but she was putting
real effort into it.
She was selling hobby horses
at a rapid rate.
- I'm gonna go stuff this and
then come back to do the rest.
- The Kardashians
were requesting
custom-made hobby horses,
and the business
had turned into being
pretty lucrative
pretty quickly.
[imitates neighing]
- [laughs]
- Because of Grace's
hobby horse business,
Brendan starting
getting jealous.
When he saw the kind of money
that she was making
making these horses, because
he's very entrepreneurial,
and they really became
very engaged.
- These businesses can
teach them about value.
And when they own something,
taking care of it,
preserving something,
handling it with delicacy--
there are many valuable lessons
to be learned there.
Whoo!
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[line trilling]
- Hey, Harry.
- Hey, Mike.
- Um, I have
some very bad news
about Municipal.
- Okay.
- So I spoke to Mark,
and when the stock market went
from an 8,000-point drop
in the DOW
in such a short period
of time.
It's a free fall.
- Yep. Terrible.
- So that created
a significant strain
on our liquidity
and required us to scale back
some of our funding
commitments.
- Yep.
- Including Municipal.
- Our funding source,
FOD, backed out.
They were gone.
They were done.
Because we were pre-launch,
we weren't a business that
was currently operational.
They had to focus on
their current operations.
Those were the ones
that had to take priority.
- Hopefully you guys get
to turn the corner.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
The responsible thing to do
as a business leader
is to let everyone know
these are the realities.
Dave, Kim, do you guys
got a sec?
So...
we got bad news from FOD.
They just--they had
to pull our funding.
- So how are you feeling?
Are you freaking out?
- I'm fucking panicked.
Everybody on the team believe
in Municipal.
They believe in Mark.
And above all that,
they trusted me.
Getting to this point
was the hard part,
and now, like, we're getting it
pulled out from under us.
- I know.
I just felt like, oh, my gosh,
do I need to start looking
for something else?
But nobody's hiring right now.
Like, what's gonna happen?
- My guess is, we're gonna be
tightening our belts here,
to basically put ourselves
on life support.
- There's definitely risk
involved
when you work for a start-up.
And I've worked for start-ups
before,
and I've had them fail.
- The hits just keep coming.
- We have to look
at every single
option to get us
moving forward,
but I don't know
if we're gonna survive
as a company.
[eerie music]
♪ ♪
[line trills]
- Hello.
- Hey. What's up?
[chuckles]
- Has Father come on?
- Sorry about the delay, guys.
I had a little issue
installing Zoom on my laptop.
- No problem.
- This project came to us
about this story
of a priest
who also runs a hedge fund
on Wall Street.
The documentary series
centers around the father
as he takes on the SEC
and Big Pharma.
I told Mark about the project,
and Mark was so intrigued
by this priest
that he wanted to meet him.
Father, would you kind of just
tell your story
as far as, you know,
what your "side job" is,
and so forth?
- Yeah.
I'm Father Emmanuel Lemelson,
and I'm a Greek Orthodox priest
and an activist investor.
Well, an activist investor
typically
gets involved with companies
in order
to protect the interest
of common shareholders.
You know, most clergy
in the Eastern churches
are married.
A number of Orthodox clergy,
we have lay vocations,
and you learn about priests
who are maybe doctors
or lawyers,
but apparently,
there hasn't been any
who've really worked
in finance,
at least not in the capacity
I have.
It's been controversial,
but I've come to learn
that controversy's
not necessarily
a negative thing.
- I just thought
it was fascinating--
a man of the cloth was also
a man in the investment world.
Most of the priests
that I know
stick to working for the Lord,
but he's a multitasker.
- As a young man,
my heart's desire was to serve
the church as a priest,
but I was always aware
of the business world,
though, as well,
and maybe it is like
a second calling.
And I think that
as Christians,
we should embrace our work,
even in the financial world.
- Archie, when you told me
the doc,
I was like,
"I gotta meet that guy.
I gotta meet that guy."
It's exciting that
we'll get to do
a lot of interesting things
together.
We want to make some
compelling television,
but also, you know,
with a message.
- Yeah, absolutely.
- And I said to Archie,
this can really be something
that's really special
and really has an impact
on people.
And it's complicated.
You're a complicated dude.
You're, like--you're a priest,
but you're also--you know,
you have a hedge fund.
- [chuckles]
Um...
- Father, real quick.
Sorry to interrupt.
Say hello to my beautiful wife.
- Rhea, it's so nice
to meet you.
- Hi. Nice to meet you.
- My wife thinks you're
so beautiful, by the way.
- Aw, thank you.
- And so do I.
All right, give me a kiss.
- Okay.
Your dinner's ready.
- I ate my dinner.
- Oh, you ate it already?
- Oh, yeah.
- That was mine.
- I ate some--
oh, it's really good.
Vegan pasta.
- By the way, you know,
my wife is with me too
behind me here
on the computer screen.
- We both overachieve, Father.
Well, Archie,
we'll follow up tomorrow,
and Father,
I'll call you tomorrow.
- You guys have a good night.
Archie, take care.
- Good night, everyone.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[line trilling]
- What's up?
Where are we at?
- Good. Talked to Lev
for a while this morning,
kind of filling him in
on everything again,
but we have to figure out
what we're gonna do
'cause we're--
we really only have
three weeks of cash left.
- Yeah.
- Since our funding source
pulled out
at the worst time,
we had to really make
a lot of hard decisions.
You know, we're getting
close to launch,
so we have to get
really creative on
how are we gonna get us through
the end of the year and beyond.
I'll put together a bunch
of different scenarios
so that we can decide
how we wanna go forward.
- Yeah, well, a lot of people
made a lot of sacrifice
to launch this business,
so, you know, if we're going
into business together,
we're betting on ourselves.
Let's just finance it
ourselves.
You know, Lev and I
are both prepared
to step up,
whatever we have to do,
to continue to finance
the business, so...
♪ ♪
- Um...
- Hello?
[line trills]
[speaking native language]
- Huh? Do you speak English?
- Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
- And we'll go after it.
- Okay.
- I'll fill you in
if anything happens
between now and the next time
I talk to you.
- All right, buddy.
Hang in there.
- Okay, you too, Mark.
See you, man. Bye.
- Bye.
[tense music]
- So we found ourselves
having to scrap
our whole business plan
and start really over
from the beginning.
Now, we're trying to figure out
what's the best avenue
for Mark and Lev.
They're like,
"Let's just do it ourselves."
But I don't have that
kind of cash lying around,
so I'm really nervous
about hurting the team
if I can't go forward.
Like AJ on our team,
he's a young guy,
just has a family.
Like, I wanna bust my ass
so that that guy can
buy a house someday.
And...
that's why we're here,
you know?
I think about that.
[solemn music]
- We're going through a very
hard time in this country.
At first, I was like,
okay, we'll be shut down
for a few weeks,
just like everyone else.
And then, of course,
a few weeks
became a month, two months.
It really is
a daunting feeling
because it's
a real possibility
if we can't sell shows,
that this company
will go away,
and with that, a lot of jobs.
I'm working as hard as
I ever have in my entire life,
just scrambling
to try to figure it out.
- Hey, Archie.
How are you?
- You know,
craziness.
Trying to work out of your home
and accomplish that all,
it's a lot.
Here's Wallace.
- Hi, Wallace.
Your children are so beautiful,
Archie.
- We're gonna get a call
from Zoom.
Cuteness overload.
- [giggles]
- 'Cause it really tests you
being a great dad.
Ryan has sent me the materials.
- [babbles]
- Sorry, that's my kid.
And being a great
business partner,
and owning a company, you know?
I wanna be there for my kids.
Hey, buddy.
It's so tough.
I'm on a pitch,
and my son is like,
"Daddy, Daddy,
let's play football."
[voice breaking]
You know?
It's hard.
It's hard.
- [indistinct]
- [laughs] Hey.
[laughter echoes]
[melancholy piano music]
♪ ♪
[indistinct chatter]
- Okay, so go ahead.
Start with the bad news,
and then give me
the worst news.
You know, when
the pandemic hit,
you know, just a combination
of things just
started happening.
And, you know, hundreds
of thousands of people
have been out of work
with no end in sight.
We told them what
was going on...
...People will feel safe.
Rhea, that's the problem.
I mean, I was on
eight to ten Zoom calls a day
to make some hard decisions,
but when it comes
to the state
of these businesses...
The stakes are
pretty damn high.
I mean, there's constantly
lots to overcome,
things coming
from out of nowhere.
- There's too many
COVID cases there.
- Hold on one sec.
That's my line. Hold on.
I've got to be hands-on
and, you know,
solving problems
and fixing things.
- What do you mean you have
to go back and look?
Everybody that
I'm involved with
has good, hard-earned money
involved in these businesses.
Why wasn't I asked
if it was okay?
Tom, what the fuck is going on?
- Do you see the number
that you're responsible for
versus the number
that I'm responsible for?
- [sighs]
- All right, I'm gonna hang up
on you now.
[dial tone]
Are you fucking kidding me?
- Going into this pandemic,
there is nothing but problems
every day
in business.
My philosophy and outlook
on it is,
you not only need
to have the vision
and be passionate,
but you have
to be a really good
problem solver.
Any type of problem
that comes your way,
you have to have the answers
and the solutions.
[dial tone]
[tense music building]
♪ ♪
The more I think about it,
the more I think
I should have my hands
in the businesses
on a day-to-day.
Have all the right people
that make decisions.
I got to go out there
and actually
really handle it myself.
[dramatic music]
And, um, ultimately,
I have to stop the bleeding.
And it has to happen
immediately.
It's about fucking time!
- ♪ Get ready,
get, get, get ready ♪
♪ Get, get ready,
get, get, get ready ♪
♪ Get, get, get,
get, get, get, get ♪
♪ Get, get, get, get,
get, get, get, get ♪
♪ ♪
♪ It's game time ♪
[vocalizing]
♪ ♪
- ♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey ♪
♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey ♪
♪ Hey ♪
♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪
♪ ♪