We had lots of excitement this week on the Nerdist Podcast Network, including visits by an Oscar-winning, legendary actress, the writer/director of that little flick called Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, the guy who brought us his dad’s blurtings and turned it into a career, and the guys who wrote some great movies talking about their craft, and a bonus: Kevin Heffernan peeing on Steve Lemme’s foot. Again. Here’s the rundown:

Sally Field, legend, and her Hello, My Name Is Doris director/writer Michael Showalter stopped by the Nerdist Podcast to talk about working on the movie, which opens today in New York and Los Angeles and elsewhere next Friday. And Sally talks about going from Gidget and The Flying Nun to Smokey and the Bandit to Oscar winner. Michael adds his own journey from The State to prominence directing and writing mainstream movies.

We got a second Nerdist Podcast this week, too, with Chris heading over to Bad Robot for a chat with J.J. Abrams and Dan Trachtenberg focusing on the new 10 Cloverfield Lane, which Dan directed while J.J. was distracted by some little project he was working on, something about stars and wars and forces and stuff. Turned out Chris and Dan’s worlds overlapped from Dan’s time at Revision 3, where he hosted The Totally Rad Show. (Yeah, he’s THAT Dan Trachtenberg.) And we learned how Dan came to J.J.’s attention, and about The Twilight Zone, and about that starsy-warsy movie, so do not miss this one. 10 Cloverfield Lane also opens today.

Justin Halpern visited The Jonah Keri Podcast to talk about his ascension from being the guy who started the “Shit My Dad Says” Twitter account to success in TV writing and production. You might also remember that he’s from San Diego, so we got plenty about the Still San Diego For Now Chargers, and some Tony Gwynn memories. And Jon Hamm, and William Shatner, because of course there are Shatner stories.

How did the guys who wrote Problem Child become the guys who wrote Ed Wood, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Man on the Moon, and Big Eyes, and the creators of the current hit TV miniseries American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson? Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski told all on The Writers Panel. And on another episode, we met Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, so, yes, we got some inside stuff on The Vampire Diaries and The Originals and the other zillion shows they’ve done as a team and individually.

Repeating Lemme’s nightmare, he lost an Oscar bet again and got a Golden Footbath from Kevin on Chewin’ It, and if you’re thinking, you know, that’s more of a visual thing, no, no, it isn’t. You do not want that visual.

On The Jackie and Laurie Show, the hosts made it clear that they do not want feedback from “Comedy Feedback.” Make no mistake about that. Also, Jackie did Uncabaret and it reminded them of the early alt-Comedy days when hanging out was part of the gig, and they talked about dead comics and comics “walking the room” and other fond and less-than-fond memories.

Writer M. Miller Davis joined Pete for You Made It Weird this week. Singing, sex dreams, reality, time, Dia de los Muertos, life feeding off death, consciousness…. yes, it gets deep again, but funny, too.

Actress Amanda Lund (Goosebumps) visited Janet on The JV Club. It went all over the map, from a princess at Disneyland to mazes and puzzles and escape rooms and practically everything else.

Ghost Hunter Susan Slaughter joined Jess and Bowser for their first video live-streamed Bizarre States, replete with penis candle and Jess’ emotional poop story.

Actor Jade Hassouné of the newly-rebranded Freeform channel (you knew it as ABC Family, and Fox Family before that, and Family Channel before that) show Shadowhunters hit Razzle and Dan with some facts on Today We Learned. There goes a narwhal!

Stage nudity and time travel: yeah, we had another Half Hour Happy Hour.

Crossover time! The crew from Comicpop helped Comic Book Club review a bunch of comics, because sharing is caring or something like that.

After some formatic detours, Kurt returned to the classic “Get Lost” format by blindfolding Barry Rothbart and taking him to another strange, cool place on The K Ohle.

Dana DeArmond talked about the porn life on Love, Alexi. In other sex news, Dave Ross, Danny Solomon, Jiavani Linayao, and Jono Zalay took the stage for Round 1 of the Championship Edition of Competitive Erotic Fan Fiction. And sex coach and author Amy Jo Goddard talked empowerment and how to be a “Woman on Fire” on Sex Nerd Sandra.

Quincy Jones — not THAT Quincy Jones, the other one, the funny one — and Tom Martin invaded The Todd Glass Show.

No guest, but plenty of Bachelor discussion and boob analysis from the crew were available on Will You Accept This Rose?

Asian fusion cuisine was on the menu from the Komodo food truck on Dining with Doug and Karen.

Mas wrestler Martins Licis talked about how he became a champion on Pro You.

Oh, and we have some great stuff coming up, too. (We even have a visit from a punk-progenitor icon whose concert was the very first rock concert I ever went to, so, yeah.) You gotta hear it all, I’m serious. So go to the Nerdist Podcast Network homepage and Facebook page and subscribe to everything. You will not regret it.

Contributor: Kyle Clark
Photo: Roadside Attractions/Stage 6 Films