Audacy today announced the launch of “One Handshake Away: Peter Bogdonavich & The Icons of Cinema,” a seven-part limited-run series featuring Academy Award-nominated director, writer,

actor, producer, critic, and film historian Peter Bogdanovich in conversation with some of the greatest directors past and present including Orson Welles, Greta Gerwig, Quentin Tarantino, and Alfred Hitchcock from both new and never-before-heard archival interviews. 

“One Handshake Away” is one of the last projects Bogdanovich worked on before his death. When Bogdanovich passed away in 2022 before the project could be completed, his ex-wife Louise Stratten stepped in to serve as narrator and co-host, with three-time Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro filling in as host for the final three episodes. 

“One Handshake Away: Peter Bogdanovich & The Icons of Cinema” will launch with the first two episodes on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, on the Audacy app, and everywhere podcasts are available. New episodes will be released weekly through March 13. Listen to the trailer and follow the show here. 

In each episode, Bogdanovich–and del Toro for the final three–sits down with a contemporary prominent director to pay homage to a master, offering insight and perspective on the influence and impact the legends who came before them had on their career and filmmaking.  

The discussions, which are uniquely candid and provide unprecedented access, are framed around a bounty of never-before-heard archival interviews that Bogdanovich conducted with auteurs who inspired him, like Hitchcock, Welles, John Ford, Howard Hawks, and Don Siegel, as well as conversation with some of this generation’s greatest living filmmakers, including del Toro, Gerwig, Tarantino, Rian Johnson, Ken Burns, Julie Delpy, and Allison Anders. The series is called “One Handshake Away” because, through Peter Bogdanovich, the contemporary directors are one handshake away from the pioneers.

“Peter loved doing the TCM podcast ‘The Plot Thickens’ – he loved working with Ben Mankiewicz on that. It inspired him so much that he wanted to take his old recordings of his interviews of these original directors that mentored and inspired him and started his career,” said Louise Stratten. “He had the idea to come full circle and share his treasure chest with the current directors that he admired and were friends with to have a conversation about them and to keep these directors that inspired him in the current conversation. Hence ‘One Hand Shake Away.’ He would be very excited and proud that we have finished it in partnership with Audacy, and that TCM is also involved.”

“Peter Bogdanovich is the epitome of a Hollywood legend – a master behind the camera and a devoted student of the greats who came before him,” said Jenna Weiss-Berman, EVP, Podcasts, Audacy. “‘Guided by Louise Stratten, ‘One Handshake Away’ is a treasure trove of intimate, fascinating conversations with leading directors of our time.”

“One Handshake Away” is executive produced by Jenna Weiss-Berman, directed by Perry Crowell, and produced by Louise Stratten; Oren Segal; Luke Moore, Jon Teague, Charlie Morgan of Stak; Crowell, and Ian Mandt.  Edited, mixed, and mastered by Crowell, Mandt, and Andy Jaskiewicz. Crowell and Mandt serve as story editors. 

Peter Bogdanovich is a renowned Academy Award-nominated director, writer, actor, producer, film historian, bestselling author, and former film journalist. His most critically acclaimed film is The Last Picture Show (1971). He began working in movies in 1966 as Roger Corman’s assistant on the hit The Wild Angels. He went on to direct a number of films, including the hit screwball comedy What’s Up, Doc? (1972) and the award-winning highly acclaimed Paper Moon (1973). He published over twelve books on various aspects of film and filmmaking, including thebestselling Who the Devil Made It.  

On Monday, February 5 at 8:00 pm ET, TCM will air a block of programming inspired by “One Handshake Away” featuring three Hitchcock movies – Notorious (1946), The Wrong Man (1958), and I Confess (1953) – and excerpts from conversations between Peter Bogdanovich and Guillermo del Toro.

Download the cover art here for “One Handshake Away”  here.

Visit www.audacy.com for more information.