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‘Tiger King’: Where Everyone in the Series Is Now
After watching Netflix's "Tiger King," check in with what Joe Exotic, Carole Baskin, Doc Antle, John Finlay and Rick Kirkham are doing now.
variety.com
- Feb 14, 2004
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If they ever made this into a movie, this would be my cast listing:
* David Spade as Joe Exotic
* Jack Black as Garretson (the informant)
* Dean Norris (Hank from Breaking Bad) as Glover (the hitman)
* John Mulaney as Dial (campaign manager)
* Clint Eastwood as Lowe (guy who took over Exotic's zoo)
* Sam Rockwell ("Guy" from Galaxy Question) as Tabraue (the drug smuggler)
* Brendan Frasier (think "Blast from the Past") as Doc Antle (goatee)
* David Spade as Joe Exotic
* Jack Black as Garretson (the informant)
* Dean Norris (Hank from Breaking Bad) as Glover (the hitman)
* John Mulaney as Dial (campaign manager)
* Clint Eastwood as Lowe (guy who took over Exotic's zoo)
* Sam Rockwell ("Guy" from Galaxy Question) as Tabraue (the drug smuggler)
* Brendan Frasier (think "Blast from the Past") as Doc Antle (goatee)
- Feb 14, 2004
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1. Joe Exotic is 100% Zaphod Beeblebrox. He escaped to earth and opened a tiger zoo. End of story.
2. My four favorite characters were Kirkham (the original filmmaker, he just tells it like it is & lays it all out there), Finlay (the first husband shown, such a nice, genuine guy), Reinke (seems like a solid dude), and Cowie (dude just wanted to hang out with tigers, man!).
3. Glover taking the hit money and partying it away was awesome.
4. Joe is masterful on preying on the vulnerable, whether it's a young & naive guy as a lover or for people getting out of prisons who are in bad spots in their lives & need the structure.
5. Lowe is a master con artist. He's like Matchstick Men come to life. Plays it cool & just keeps on doing what he does. Tigers, lovers, crooked business transactions, get-out-of-jail-free cards, he does it all!
6. Joe's character arc was really interesting. He went from an animal lover to a showman to a descent into darkness. His early life was super rough...getting rejected by his dad & then driving his car off a bridge. Even in prison, he still needed to be the star of his own show & was still plotting his revenge!
7. The show was a spectacle for the first half, then got pretty dark once Joe went off the deep end. He incriminated himself with all of those videos about killing Carole. Playful banter against a competitor is one thing, but shooting the mannequin, blowing up the mannequin, etc...yikes.
8. He was a really interesting dude, but man did he leave a trail of destruction! His second husband commits suicide by accident, and two months later he gets re-married & invites the previous guy's mom to be there, with virtually no one else, just to look good on social media, and then ghosts here. Pretty heartless! What hit me at the end was Cowie working the burger line & just being depressed. Poor guy.
9. The filmmaker was extremely talented at both spectacle & pacing. Perfect timing with us being quarantined too! One of the most interesting things about the series was how they got you to see the story from the character's points of view, whether it was Fisher (escaping Antle's cult) or Antle. I never really got into reality TV because it was always so clearly scripted (and boring), but this was like...just legit insanity all the way around. Wow.
10. I just want to see a weekly show following James Garretson around. The last shot with the Rocky music with him on a jetski was epic lol.
11. One of the most intriguing things was the power the animals had over people. There's got to be a switch in your brain that turns off around them. I mean, who wouldn't want to hold a baby tiger?? But man, there's a certain type of person who is attracted to that whole tiger-zookeeper lifestyle, and it seems like most of them are out in left field...drug dealers, con artists, master manipulators, etc.
12. Finlay's face when he's asked about Garretson being an informant & learns about it for the first time. Wow.
13. I felt like they should have warned us about the footage with Dial's reaction from the accidental suicide; I wasn't quite ready for that. You knew from the way they were talking, things weren't going to end well for Travis, but man, they just kind of stuck that right in there almost like a jump scare. I'm sure Dial is scarred for life from seeing that, and Travis' mom...man, I feel so bad for her. Somebody open her up a kickstarter! Likewise, they needed a warning before Saff's footage when he lost his arm. Dang.
14. Saff is hardcore man. Back to work days after getting his arm ripped off. Not only that, but just straight-up saying nah to physical therapy & going for the amputation straight-up instead. Hardcore. Dang.
15. It makes me sad to think that people like Cowie, Saff, Reinke, etc. will probably never get a chance to be in a situation where they're around big cats for the rest of their lives, and it really had become a core part of their identity. None of those people deserved the cards they were dealt at the end.
16. Whether or not you like or agree with Carole, I think I ultimately ended up agreeing that people really shouldn't have private zoos. Just based on the documentary series, it seems to attract a certain type of person & there are a lot of dangers involved, not just to the staff & visitors, but also to the people in town. Funding alone is a horrendous cost, just to feed the animals. Nearly $100,000 a month in some cases. I though it was bonkers that one, there are upwards of 10,000 big cats privately owned in America, and two, that's more than like double of how many tigers there are left in the wild in the whole freaking world! Apparently it's pretty easy to get one, too!
17. Although I'm kind of sad that Lowe's baby tiger party bus concept failed. I would have thought that would have been a HUGE money-maker!
18. Joe was a very likable guy...upbeat attitude, high-energy, bit dreams, and actually followed through on a lot of them. He found his passion & was able to live it, at least for a period of time. And also made for the perfect start of a TV series, or as Forbes succinctly put it, "Joe is deeply narcissistic, eccentric, and sociopathically self-confident."
19. Probably the most disappointing part of the whole show was that Joe went all Milli Vanilli on his music. He should have just hired the band & then auto-tuned himself into it. But, that's how he rolled...he needed to be the star of his own show!
20. Looping back to the type of people & the allure of big cats, it's just such an interesting combination. When asked how they would characterize "tiger people", the filmmakers said, "I would say the big cat people see tigers as sort of a status symbol, as you would a Ferrari or fancy car collection. They have the animals to elevate their position. It makes them special." In particular, "The other thing I would say about all these people is that there was a lack of intellectual curiosity to really go and understand or even see these animals in the wild. Certainly, Carole really had no interest in seeing an animal in the wild.... The lack of education, frankly, was really interesting — how they had built their own little utopias and really were only interested in that world and the rules they had created." This seems to line up with the "horse girl" meme from grade school, where it's a combination of "this makes me special" & "my world, my rules".
21. The consistent takeaway from the various "tiger kings" of their individual kingdoms was that they had no problem using people. Joe used his employees, Doc used his women, Carole used her followers, Lowe used his partners. It was a strange combination of a high degree of social intellect combined with a low amount of integrity. As Frank Herbert described it in the sci-fi classic Dune, there were "wheels within wheels within wheels". Even as Joe was running a parade & handing out flyers & t-shirts, he was allegedly plotting to kill Carole. The Thanksgiving meal he put on for donations was apparently to generate enough cash to give to Lowe to fund Glover to kill Carole. He wasn't being enthusiastic disingenuously, however - it was just another side of him coming out, not a cover story. He was different things to different people, and he was full-bore on each face he wore, whether it was being the Tiger King or the generous husband or a lover of animals or a politician or anything else.
2. My four favorite characters were Kirkham (the original filmmaker, he just tells it like it is & lays it all out there), Finlay (the first husband shown, such a nice, genuine guy), Reinke (seems like a solid dude), and Cowie (dude just wanted to hang out with tigers, man!).
3. Glover taking the hit money and partying it away was awesome.
4. Joe is masterful on preying on the vulnerable, whether it's a young & naive guy as a lover or for people getting out of prisons who are in bad spots in their lives & need the structure.
5. Lowe is a master con artist. He's like Matchstick Men come to life. Plays it cool & just keeps on doing what he does. Tigers, lovers, crooked business transactions, get-out-of-jail-free cards, he does it all!
6. Joe's character arc was really interesting. He went from an animal lover to a showman to a descent into darkness. His early life was super rough...getting rejected by his dad & then driving his car off a bridge. Even in prison, he still needed to be the star of his own show & was still plotting his revenge!
7. The show was a spectacle for the first half, then got pretty dark once Joe went off the deep end. He incriminated himself with all of those videos about killing Carole. Playful banter against a competitor is one thing, but shooting the mannequin, blowing up the mannequin, etc...yikes.
8. He was a really interesting dude, but man did he leave a trail of destruction! His second husband commits suicide by accident, and two months later he gets re-married & invites the previous guy's mom to be there, with virtually no one else, just to look good on social media, and then ghosts here. Pretty heartless! What hit me at the end was Cowie working the burger line & just being depressed. Poor guy.
9. The filmmaker was extremely talented at both spectacle & pacing. Perfect timing with us being quarantined too! One of the most interesting things about the series was how they got you to see the story from the character's points of view, whether it was Fisher (escaping Antle's cult) or Antle. I never really got into reality TV because it was always so clearly scripted (and boring), but this was like...just legit insanity all the way around. Wow.
10. I just want to see a weekly show following James Garretson around. The last shot with the Rocky music with him on a jetski was epic lol.
11. One of the most intriguing things was the power the animals had over people. There's got to be a switch in your brain that turns off around them. I mean, who wouldn't want to hold a baby tiger?? But man, there's a certain type of person who is attracted to that whole tiger-zookeeper lifestyle, and it seems like most of them are out in left field...drug dealers, con artists, master manipulators, etc.
12. Finlay's face when he's asked about Garretson being an informant & learns about it for the first time. Wow.
13. I felt like they should have warned us about the footage with Dial's reaction from the accidental suicide; I wasn't quite ready for that. You knew from the way they were talking, things weren't going to end well for Travis, but man, they just kind of stuck that right in there almost like a jump scare. I'm sure Dial is scarred for life from seeing that, and Travis' mom...man, I feel so bad for her. Somebody open her up a kickstarter! Likewise, they needed a warning before Saff's footage when he lost his arm. Dang.
14. Saff is hardcore man. Back to work days after getting his arm ripped off. Not only that, but just straight-up saying nah to physical therapy & going for the amputation straight-up instead. Hardcore. Dang.
15. It makes me sad to think that people like Cowie, Saff, Reinke, etc. will probably never get a chance to be in a situation where they're around big cats for the rest of their lives, and it really had become a core part of their identity. None of those people deserved the cards they were dealt at the end.
16. Whether or not you like or agree with Carole, I think I ultimately ended up agreeing that people really shouldn't have private zoos. Just based on the documentary series, it seems to attract a certain type of person & there are a lot of dangers involved, not just to the staff & visitors, but also to the people in town. Funding alone is a horrendous cost, just to feed the animals. Nearly $100,000 a month in some cases. I though it was bonkers that one, there are upwards of 10,000 big cats privately owned in America, and two, that's more than like double of how many tigers there are left in the wild in the whole freaking world! Apparently it's pretty easy to get one, too!
17. Although I'm kind of sad that Lowe's baby tiger party bus concept failed. I would have thought that would have been a HUGE money-maker!
18. Joe was a very likable guy...upbeat attitude, high-energy, bit dreams, and actually followed through on a lot of them. He found his passion & was able to live it, at least for a period of time. And also made for the perfect start of a TV series, or as Forbes succinctly put it, "Joe is deeply narcissistic, eccentric, and sociopathically self-confident."
19. Probably the most disappointing part of the whole show was that Joe went all Milli Vanilli on his music. He should have just hired the band & then auto-tuned himself into it. But, that's how he rolled...he needed to be the star of his own show!
20. Looping back to the type of people & the allure of big cats, it's just such an interesting combination. When asked how they would characterize "tiger people", the filmmakers said, "I would say the big cat people see tigers as sort of a status symbol, as you would a Ferrari or fancy car collection. They have the animals to elevate their position. It makes them special." In particular, "The other thing I would say about all these people is that there was a lack of intellectual curiosity to really go and understand or even see these animals in the wild. Certainly, Carole really had no interest in seeing an animal in the wild.... The lack of education, frankly, was really interesting — how they had built their own little utopias and really were only interested in that world and the rules they had created." This seems to line up with the "horse girl" meme from grade school, where it's a combination of "this makes me special" & "my world, my rules".
21. The consistent takeaway from the various "tiger kings" of their individual kingdoms was that they had no problem using people. Joe used his employees, Doc used his women, Carole used her followers, Lowe used his partners. It was a strange combination of a high degree of social intellect combined with a low amount of integrity. As Frank Herbert described it in the sci-fi classic Dune, there were "wheels within wheels within wheels". Even as Joe was running a parade & handing out flyers & t-shirts, he was allegedly plotting to kill Carole. The Thanksgiving meal he put on for donations was apparently to generate enough cash to give to Lowe to fund Glover to kill Carole. He wasn't being enthusiastic disingenuously, however - it was just another side of him coming out, not a cover story. He was different things to different people, and he was full-bore on each face he wore, whether it was being the Tiger King or the generous husband or a lover of animals or a politician or anything else.
Yeah, we watched most of it last night. Got to feel really bad for that guy. He just sits there with his hands on his face. It looked like a still image, but the time code keeps moving. He was frozen in shock.
It's a crazy story from all parties involved. You really come away thinking "Wow, all of these people are fucking insane!".
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I watched the time code too because I thought Netflix had frozen up. That poor dude.
And I mean poor dude on so many counts...like when he was like "yeah, Travis pointed that gun at me all the time but hey, that was just Travis!" I would have noped out of there so fast man. But he went from working at Walmart to becoming a campaign manager for a really interesting dude & I can imagine why he wouldn't want to give that up...
So many people got screwed over by Joe. Like, literally everyone who worked there or who he came in contact with. Whether Carole killed her husband or not, and whether you agree with her stance on animal rights or not, being under the constant threat of violence & eventually death is just straight-up crazy. Those videos of Joe shooting the mannequin & blowing up the mannequin was just too much...he needed to just keep it to a simple online feud, which was financially beneficial for both Joe & Carole because it generated funding through ad revenue & donations for both of their parks.
Overall, it's a good cautionary tale about how people can get so focused on themselves that they don't care about the trail of destruction they leave. Joe got so self-centered & so focused on money that he lost sight of the amazing animals that were under his care, as well as the amazing team that he had put together, and started to justify various criminal activities, from euthanizing tigers to breeding & selling cubs illegally to trying to hire someone to kill another person.
He's an amazing person in many respects...he was able to take a ragtag group of misfits and run a zoo with hundreds of incredible animals, have an Internet show, make albums (ish), but he drank his own kool-aid & spiraled out of control & started justifying terrible behavior because of his need for attention & money.
I still can't believe Kirkham didn't have a backup.
Last edited:
- Oct 9, 1999
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Coming back around to this. I have not watched the Joel special episode. Need to do that!
Carole seemed to be full of crap. She used the front of being an "activist" to run her own exotic zoo.
Also, as a producer and editor, it's absolutely insane to not have a backup of the footage he shot. It's impossible to believe they had no backups, at all. Something is very weird about all of that. No clue if something went sideways during his time there and he pulled out or was threatened, but he was professional. Professionals don't do that shit and not back up footage.
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I love that he's famous in Norway lol
Also Saff is just straight-up hardcore. Safety training video YIIIIIIIIKES lol.
- Feb 14, 2004
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They have a brief but good interview with him on the Joel special. I'd imagine he's feeling the loss of his documentary not being the one sweeping the globe. But yeah, I mean, he used to work for Inside Edition, you'd think backups would be like priority #1, especially on such a long documentary job. Still, I feel bad for him...we've all made mistakes in the realm of IT & having the last job before retirement literally burn had to be heartbreaking.
I also hope that Josh Dial gets all of the help he needs. That poor dude had to go back to work & stare at that bullet hole in the wall every day for years. His GoFundMe has already exceeded its goal:
Counseling for Joshua Dial from Tiger King organized by Kristen Wichers
<strong>Imagine if millions of people watched the worst moment of your life… Kristen Wichers needs your support for Counseling for Joshua Dial from Tiger King
Notably, they did not interview Carole Baskin. I would have thought she would have liked to have her say post-release...
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