Succession's Roys vs. Real-Life Murdochs

0:01 Voyage. Welcome to watch this tonight. I'm your host, Dan Bettimore. I'm a produced writer of film and television and now a podcast producer. And despite having every streaming service, I never know what to watch. So anytime I watch something good, I talk about it on the show. This way, you'll never have the same problem I do. I watched this tonight. There's always something good to watch. Let's get started. Today on the show, we're doing successions, Roy's versus the real life Murdocks. So this is something I've always been interested in. I'm a big fan of succession. I wanted to do an episode about succession, but I didn't want to just, you know, do a run of the mill episode of succession, right.

0:56 I always want to give you something here that maybe you're not getting from every other podcast. So I was always curious because you know, you hear a lot about the parallels between the real life Murdoch's and the Roys and Succession, and so I just did kind of a deep dive and researched it, and I wanted to present to you if it's something you were ever curious about, the incredible amount of similarities between the Murdoch family and the Roys on succession, so in real life, and this is I drew a lot from a couple of articles people and Vanity Fair did on this. When asked who would be next to succeed him, Rupert said, let the chips fall where they will. It's a very Logan Roy sentiment. Much like Logan Roy. Vanity Fair reported that Murdoch has basically almost died a bunch of times in recent years.

1:45 And by the way, obviously this is going to have spoilers, so if you're not, you know, reasonably caught up on succession, you should get out of here. So quote QUOVID was only the most recent medical emergency that sent Murdock to the hospital. In recent years, Murdoch has suffered a broken back, seizures, two bouts of pneumonia, atrial fibrillation, and a torn Achilles tendon. Many of these episodes went unreported in the press, which was just how Murdoch liked it. Murdoch assiduously avoids any discussion of a future in which he isn't in command of his media empire, and then they're quoting him. I'm now convinced of my own immortality, he famously declared after beating prostate cancer in nineteen eighty nine at the age of sixty nine. He reminds people that his mother, Dame Elizabeth, lived until one hundred and three. But unlike the politicians, Murdoch has bullied into submission with his tabloids. Human biology is immovable. There's been a joke. This is someone. A source close to Murdoch said, there's been a joke in the family for a long time.

2:46 But forty maybe the new thirty. But eighty is eighty. On March eleventh, he turned ninety two. This is another quote from Vanity Fair. He long wanted one of his three children from his second wife, Anna Elizabeth, who's so it's three kids. It's he has Anna Elizabeth who's fifty four, Lachlan who's fifty one, and James's fifty to take over the company one day. So two boys, one girl, just like succession. Murdoch believed a Darwinian struggle would produce the most capable air a person closes his family is quoted as saying he pitted his kids against each other their entire lives. It's sad again from many Fair. Elizabeth was by many accounts the sharpest, but she is a woman, and Murdock subscribed to old fashioned primogeniture. So that's another interesting notion, especially considering the current season of the show. It does feel like there's been kind of rumblings of that throughout right, that HIV is sort of, you know, at an unfair disadvantage just by virtue being female, because of the misogyny of sort of the world that she's in. Another quote, Lachlan's future will be decided by his siblings, all of whom sitting on the board of the trust that controls the company through special class of stock.

3:58 According to sources briefed on the trust's governance, Murdoch has four votes, while Elizabeth Laughlin James and Prudence Murdock Starter from his first marriage, each have one. Murdock's daughter's Chloe and Grace from his third marriage to Wendy Dang, have a financial state but no voting rights. After Murdoch's death, his votes will be distributed equally among the four eldest children, the source said. Quote, the question is when Rupert dies, how are the kids aligned? Set a former set, a former News Corp. Executive. So again, just like in succession, right, this idea of like the different kids have votes, and like, if they could all work together, they could be in control. But how are they going to work together? Murdoch obviously controls Fox News, which and this is vanity fair folk, but it's also just like obvious if you watched Salvidion, Fox News became de facto, de facto state TV. It was a continuation of Murdock's time tested strategy of forging alliances with politicians across the ideological spectrum as long as they advanced his interests. This is a big thing in the current season. There's even a scene when a couple of characters are talking and they talk about how it's like basically the version of Fox News on Succession. They're literally just doing like campaign notes for a presidential candidate. And then obviously also in Succession, like mergers are a big deal, and you know, merging these big companies, and then in the current season a merger where the idea of Fox News being kind of carved out of the deal. So this is when they tried to basically so Disney and the

5:32 Disney CEO Biby Iger, he meets the super Murdock. This is two days before the Charlottill rally. Quote Murdoch hosted Disney CEO Bob Iger for a glass of wine and his twenty eight point eight million bell Air vineyard Moraga, one of the only vineyards in Los Angeles. As the two moguls discussed the rapidly shifting media landscape, Tiger floated that Disney would be interested in buying twenty first century Fox, Murdock's movie studio and entertainment assets. Murdock would have finally dismissed the overture in the past, he was, after all, a pirate who conquered media companies, not dispensed with them. But in the streaming age legacy Hollywood players like Murdoch and Iger lacked the scale to compete with tchech giants like Apple, Amazon, and Netflix. The logic of selling twenty first century Fox to Disney made a lot of sense. Plus Murdoch we get to keep Fox News and his beloved newspapers, the source of his political influence. Disney certainly wanted no part of those, so again, very similar. I mean, even in the most recent episode, there's a part when Jerry basically says Tech is coming right like they are fossils, they're dinosaurs their time, He's going they have to sell. There's a quote here that is very reminiscent of the character of Kendall. Lachlan's whole self image was that he was going to be the next Rupert, a person close to him said. According to three sources, he suffered a panic attack about the merger and was briefly treated in an La area hospital, but a person close to Lachland denied this. James took his walk away money and launched a media fund called Loopa Systems and investing in liberal leaning companies like Vice and Tribeca Enterprises. Lupa is Italian for she wolf,

7:05 as in the one that raised brothers Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome before Romulus murdered Remus. So yeah, I mean, if you're the writer's succession, you see the name Romulus, Romulus and Remus, you know, like just there's no way that that's not from that. Like I would bet all the money in the world that they took that idea of having Roman's name, you know, they you'll sometimes hear Brian Cox's calling Romulus right coming from that. Now again, like I said at the beginning, if you haven't caught up on succession, you probably should get out of here. This is very reminiscent of the way that Logan Roy ultimately dies. So quote in the state room aboard Sarissa, which I believe it's his boat, when she bolted awake at the sound of Murdoch moaning and agony. This is talking about one of Logan's wives, Jerry Hall. She later told friends that she found her eighty six year old husband in extruciating paying the cabin floor. He said he fell down a step trying to get to the bathroom and couldn't get up.

8:07 Hall alerted the captain and so he ultimately survived. Right, But that's very reminiscent of the way that Logan Roy dies in a succession. Also, the sort of brutal pretty much will fire anybody if it benefits the company. Also is based very much up Murdock quote. Murdock looked for other measures to modify Trump's audience. This is after Fox News got a lot of heat for being the first to declare that Biden had won Arizona on November twentieth. Murdock suggested to Scott that Fox Fire, it's Washington managing editor Bill Salmon, who's a senior executive on the decision desk. They made the Arizona call Murdoch. They have this quote from Murdoch. It was in court filings. Maybe best to let Bill go right away, which would be a big message with Trump people. Samon ultimately retired in January twenty twenty one. The same month Fox letco of Chris Stirewalt, another decision desk member. According to court documents, Murdoch even discussed buying the rights of The Apprentice very much as Shiv in this season talks about getting rid of the ATN News because the toxic asset. She uses those that term right. This is again from Vanity Fair. James would opt to sell Fox News to a private equity firm just so he could get be rid of a toxic asset and if there was any doubt that the show is clearly cribbing from the real life Murdock's. According to another source, Lachlan told Rupert that James was leaking stories to the writers of Succession hbos acclaimed drama about a Murdoch like media dynasty. A person close to the Lachlan A person

9:39 close to Lachlan denies. Laughlin told Rupert this, so it's in dispute, but the fact that it's even discussion is sort of funny. Ruper Murdock would ultimately divorce Terry Hall, and one of the terms of the settlement, this is from Vanity Fair, was that Hall couldn't give story ideas to the writers on the Succession. Now most recently on Succession, you have a situation where Roman goes and he, you know, is getting more into the studio movie studio side of the company. In real life, Lachlin became the executive chairman at twenty first Century Fox and the chairman and CEO at Fox, and much like Kendall, is sort of embarrassingly like awkwardly into rap music and you know, has wrapped in front of people at events in the show, cringingly so.

10:28 James Murdoch attended Harvard University before dropping out to launch his own hip hop record label called Raucous Records. This is per a book the label, but it's quoted in Vanity Fair. The label counted most Deaf and eminem as some of its artists before being acquired by a news corp in nineteen ninety eight. That's another really interesting part of this. If you look at the research, there's a lot of examples of like his kids start companies and then news Corp. Eventually acquires those companies. Again very similar to succession. We keep seeing where the kids try to start something and then they just kind of give up on that to back of the fold. And then I thought, of all the stuff that I read, this was the most telling quote from Vanity Fair.

11:09 Credit to Gambriel Sherman, who wrote this article. This is what he said. He said after interviewing dozens of people for this story, I was struck by how sad all the Murdoch's scene. Some Murdock profiles, like in his late career, are to Shakespeare's King Lear. Murdoch is the aging monarch confronting his mortality. I think the tale of King Widas is more accurate. Murdoch built a seventeen billion dollar fortune out of a small newspaper company he inherited from his father. The only thing that mattered was profit, but amassing that wealth acquired Murdoch to destroy virtually anything he touched, the environment, women's rights, the Republican Party, truth, decency, even his own family. You know, it's almost like, regardless of how one to one the stuff is from the Murdocks, which obviously a lot of it is the sentiment is clearly there, right that the only thing that mattered was off it. And that's one of the reasons that I think it's fascinating now seeing the kids have grief, you know about their dad. He was so he was so terrible to them. It's like this abusive relationship in the show. And yeah, they all definitely seem sad. I think that is very accurate to what Succession is doing. All these people are hyper hyper rich, but I don't know that I would trade places with any of them. So, yeah, it was just really interesting. You know, you watch this stuff and Succession is so brilliant. It's so brilliantly written. And I think the reason that you know, I initially didn't like it. It took me like three tries to get into it. You have to kind of give it four or five episodes and

12:39 then at a certain point that it just kind of takes you and when you just go with it, you're in that world. And I think one of the reasons that it ultimately does work emotionally is because you really feel for the kids, you know, you feel how much they got messed up by their Dad, And I'm not saying that in real life for Murdock is as bad as Logan Roy is on the show. But really you can see where they got the idea, and so it's just fascinating that, you know, they were able to draw so much from real life stuff. You know, again, it's I'm sure it's exaggerated for drama, but it is. It is so interesting that more than I thought seems actually based in some sort of a reality. So that's succession, the Roys versus the Murdocks. That's the show for today, A little bit of a different show than usual. I'm casting about for what I'm going to talk about next. I kind of this is like a mini I took a look at Citadel, which obviously is a massive budget show on Amazon, and I just I don't know if I'm going to do an episode that one. You know, I would like to find something that I can speak really passionately about, and I don't know that I'm passionate about that. So I'm going to be casting about for what I'm gonna do next. It'll be a surprise to you, is it'll be a surprise to me. But we'll have obviously a new episode on Friday, so look forward to that and as always, thank you so much for listening. If you enjoy the show, you can always reach out to me and hey, give me suggestions on what to cover next. You can reach me at Dan at voyagemedia dot com, betamore Dan on Twitter, watch This Sun on Instagram,

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