RUSH: Open Line Friday. Let’s be true to my promise and try to take more phone calls on Open Line Friday. To do that, we have to take some calls in the first hour. So we’re gonna do that. We’re gonna start in Birch Bay, Washington, with Shirley. I’m glad you called. It’s great to have you here. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush! How are ya?
RUSH: Very well. Thank you.
CALLER: Good. Listen, I want to talk to you about Downton Abbey because you said right after the season started that the ending was gonna come just right out of left field and we would just absolutely be shocked. Well, when I watched the ending, my mouth dropped, and I just kept sitting here with the tears running down my face going, “Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no! Now what are we gonna do?”
RUSH: Let me ask you a question, Shirley.
CALLER: Yes?
RUSH: I told you, you’re gonna have an hour-and-a-half finale — that’s 90 minutes — and you’re gonna watch 89-1/2 minutes of this and then the last 30 seconds are just gonna beat you upside the head totally.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: I mean, there’s no indication anything of the sort is coming or happening out of the total blue. However, about ten seconds before the actual event, did the way they film it give you an idea that something was going to happen?
CALLER: Yes. I saw the wheels of the truck and then I saw him in his car.
RUSH: So they’re cluing you that there was a collision coming up?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: And you knew it?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Here’s what happened. The man who’s married to the eldest daughter of the family of the great estate —
CALLER: Matthew! I’ve been watching it all through last three seasons.
RUSH: Right. He recovered from paralysis.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: He’s a young guy, good-looking guy. He’s gonna take over the estate.
CALLER: Yep.
RUSH: He married the eldest daughter and his baby’s just been born.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: I mean, on his way back to the estate from the hospital, seeing his baby —
CALLER: You’re giving me the shivers right now even thinking about it again.
RUSH: Right. He has a collision with a milk truck and dies, and that’s the end of the season. Nobody inside the Abbey has been told.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: As the show ends, nobody knows he’s died.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: Already this season, one of the other daughters died in childbirth, and that kind of shocked people. That made people mad.
CALLER: It did.
RUSH: Do you know that in this country and over in the UK when it happened, this episode aired on Christmas Day in the UK?
CALLER: (Gasp!) Really?
RUSH: It did. There’s outrage over this. The writer of the series, the creator and the writer is a guy name Julian Fellowes.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: And he said, “Well, these actors said they’re leaving. They’re taking other deals.” This Dan what’s his name is going to the a movie.
CALLER: I figured that.
RUSH: So there are now cartoonists who are making fun of this guy Fellowes ’cause he’s killing off all these actors leaving the series, and other people say, “Why not just recast the character? Why you have to kill these people off?” It’s like he’s got vengeance against the actors.
CALLER: Oh, my goodness!
RUSH: This really has upset a lot of people. I kid you not. I’ve been reading about it all week, ever since it aired on Sunday.
CALLER: Well, they’re already filming season four.
RUSH: That’s right, and it will not air here until next January. It will air in the fall in the UK. But if you’re like me — if you’re powerful, influential member of the media — you will get the UK version of the episodes by October, maybe November.
CALLER: Wow. Oh, wow.
RUSH: They’re already in production on season four. You know what? I had forgotten I mentioned that. So when I saw your call up there I got excited, ’cause you’re right.
CALLER: (giggling)
RUSH: I tried to give all of you Downton Abbey fans a heads-up that this thing is gonna end in a way that you won’t see coming. There’s no indication of it in the entire show for an hour and a half, and it was a very popular and beloved character. His baby’s just born! I mean, he’s on the way home, the hospital to tell everybody — and he’s hit by some lug head in a milk truck, and the guy driving milk truck? Not a scratch!
Anyway, Shirley, I appreciate the call. That’s a great Open Line Friday call.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: One good thing, folks, about the TV show Downton Abbey: At least these characters weren’t killed off because of the sequester. Now, that would have been bad. It’s bad enough they get killed off, but if they’da died because of the sequester, I don’t know if people coulda handled it. I really don’t.
