The podcast series THE DON chronicles the wild anecdotes and escapes of Hollywood’s last great showman, Don Simpson, the producer who made such 80s classics as AMERICAN GIGOLO, FLASHDANCE, BEVERLY HILLS COP and TOP GUN. Don created a mythological persona known as “The Don” where in order to convince Hollywood to make his high-octane movies he had to live a high-octane lifestyle. But the lifestyle became all-consuming. His industry colleagues said that Don was so passionate about the movies that he was willing to die for them. And sadly, that’s what happened. “The Don” tells the epic, gonzo tale of one man’s obsession with his dream of making movies and how that dream led to his tragic downfall.

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Episode One introduces Don Simpson, the producer behind such blockbuster hits as Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop, and Top Gun. Don, like the Tom Cruise character in Top Gun- had a “need for speed.” Don lived a gonzo, high-octane life. By day he was a fast-talking Hollywood producer who knew how to sell a movie and get the greenlight. Many in the industry thought he was a creative genius— and that genius was validated with big box office successes. But all the success couldn’t keep him away from his demons. The show’s fictitious journalist Pierce Benton begins to investigate what might have caused Don’s tragic death. Pierce is the fawning, obsequious journalist Don might have wished he had while he was alive. Pierce is distraught to how Don died— with over $60,000 in pills in his bathroom. He concludes that someone else must have been complicit.

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Pierce was called to Los Angeles by Don’s former drug dealer, Royce Newton, just hours after Don’s death. Royce is concerned that it was his cocaine that killed Don and he wants Pierce to find out the truth as to what might have killed him. Pierce sneaks into Don’s estate looking for clues. His search leads him to Allan Carr’s house- the producer of "Grease”— Don was the executive on the film in his early days at Paramount. Here Pierce learns that Don was influenced by gay culture and that Don had boasted of a homosexual relationship. Pierce also learns that one of the extras in Don’s disasterous flop- Grease 2- was under the care of one of Don’s Dr. Feelgood physicans. Perhaps she might provide some clues into Don’s death.

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