{"id":536297,"date":"2026-03-21T07:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T07:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/536297\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T07:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T07:34:08","slug":"how-a-local-outcast-found-his-nudist-haven-in-hbos-neighbors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/536297\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Local Outcast Found His Nudist Haven in HBO’s \u2018Neighbors\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t[This story contains mild spoilers from the Neighbors<\/a> finale.]<\/p>\n

\n\tA few days ago, 72-year-old Danny Smiechowski left his house to greet his chauffeur. There was a limousine parked outside, waiting for him. For much of his life, Smiechowski had been an outcast in his San Diego neighborhood, insulted and ostracized for his penchant for wearing nothing but yellow briefs while exercising in his driveway. He describes the treatment as \u201cemotional abuse.\u201d But here he was a local celebrity, the star of a hot HBO<\/a>\/A24<\/a> series getting picked up for a splashy finale event in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe neighbors were looking out their window, going, \u2018Oh my God, that guy,\u2019\u201d Smiechowski says over coffee (well, he just drinks water) in West Hollywood, acting out their disbelief. \u201cYou can\u2019t really believe it could be true, but it\u2019s true.\u201d He\u2019s wearing an A24 sweatshirt as Harrison Fishman and Dylan Redford, the creators of the show, Neighbors, sit on either side of him. They crack up at the story. \u201cAmazing,\u201d Fishman says. \u201cThey must be like, \u2018What\u2019s going on?!\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEach of the six episodes in the first season<\/a> of Neighbors, billed as a late-night documentary<\/a> series, depicts random but intense disputes within local communities across the country. Filmed in an immerse, chaotic style that recalls the work of executive producers Josh Safdie<\/a>, Ronald Bronstein and Eli Bush (Marty Supreme<\/a>), the installments intercut between multiple feuds at a time \u2014 except for the finale, which is both supersized and focused exclusively on Smiechowski. It follows him from his initial unhappy state in California to the Florida nudist community he decides to move into. He winds up back in San Diego, though, after realizing that home is home, for better or worse \u2014 a fitting final note for a series dedicated to the brutally funny daily indignities that, for many of us, come with simply coexisting with others.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe best revenge is success, so that\u2019s the nail in the coffin with [my neighbors] \u2014 and now they ignore me,\u201d Smiechowski says. \u201cThere\u2019s this French guy who was horrible to me during my [mayoral] campaign. He betrayed me with money, he told me that I was a crook. And now, he called me a couple days ago and left a message. He goes, \u2018Wow, congratulations. Can I go to LA with you?\u2019 Like, oh my God \u2014 what are these people thinking?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s the result Smiechowski had hoped for when he first responded to a Craigslist ad put out by Neighbors<\/a> casting director, Harleigh Shaw, several years ago. \u201cI just wanted to do it to get the word out,\u201d he says. After an initial conversation, he didn\u2019t hear anything for more than a year and grew incredibly frustrated \u2014 so he blocked the phone numbers of almost everyone associated with the show. Fortunately, producer Rachel Walden was not one of them, and she got in touch with him when they were ready to officially bring him in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHBO<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe had come across a couple disputes in nudist communities\u2026and Harleigh had the idea of, \u2018Would Danny be interested in living in a place like this?\u2019\u201d Fishman says. Redford adds, \u201cHe had considered moving at various points, so it felt like a natural experiment that Danny was interested in doing and wanted to try.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThey spent a month together all told, with dozens of hours of footage left on the cutting-room floor. What we do see in Neighbors is an awfully compelling character study, though. We meet Smiechowski in San Diego as locals call him out in front of the cameras for showing so much skin, and he\u2019s baffled by their criticisms. \u201cI do it to be happy, I do it because I feel good inside \u2014 I feel younger,\u201d Smiechowski says now of why he prefers not to wear much clothing. \u201cWhat\u2019s so ironic about this is that for the people who were abusing me \u2014 and are abusing me \u2014 this is almost impossible for them to believe.\u201d (Smiechowski says that since filming the show and returning home, his situation is \u201cabout 90% better.\u201d)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOnce he gets to the Florida nudist community, called Eden, Smiechowski is taken aback by the feeling of liberation. He meets a welcoming group of people. He lets loose at karaoke. He falls hard for a much younger woman who shows, at least initially, a glancing interest in him. In other words, it\u2019s a rather naked \u2014 pun sort of intended \u2014 presentation of Smiechowski, and a seemingly vulnerable one. He didn\u2019t see it that way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI just threw caution to the wind \u2014 if they say jump, I say how high, and that\u2019s what we did,\u201d he says. He committed to the nature of doc production: \u201cI would repeat something literally 20 times until I got it right, and then I would go, \u2018Well, let\u2019s do it again\u2019 \u2014 because I had that Iron Man in me.\u201d\u00a0 He believes this all speaks to his unique constitution: \u201cDr. Michael Dean was known all over the world as a hypnotist in San Diego. He tried to crack me. He couldn\u2019t do it, and he became frustrated because he was hypnotizing everybody in the room. I was the only one. So I\u2019m one of the few people in the world who cannot be hypnotized.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter filming concluded, Smiechowski started taking drama classes and has been attending consistently in the run-up to the episode\u2019s airing. \u201cPeople are going to call me a freak, but they don\u2019t understand\u2026. Even my drama teacher said to me, \u2018Danny, I\u2019m really sorry for you. You\u2019re going to take a lot of abuse,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cI said, \u2018George, don\u2019t even worry about it, man. Water off the duck\u2019s back. Just forget about it.\u2019\u201d Fishman turns to his subject with a smile and says, \u201cIt\u2019s rare to find somebody who is so truly themself. You\u2019re, like, aggressively yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHBO<\/p>\n

\n\tFishman and Redford grew increasingly interested in nudist communities the more they learned about them. \u201cOnce we got in there, we saw that a lot of these communities were actually functioning much at a much higher and more forgiving level than many of the neighborhoods that we had been to throughout the country,\u201d Redford says. \u201cEveryone there really wanted these communities to work. They didn\u2019t want to lose it. They didn\u2019t want the infighting or whatever conflict existed within there to get to a point where they would lose this place that they love so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFishman adds, \u201cPeople were so happy there. It was insane.\u201d This is very clear in what Neighbors shows. \u201cThere\u2019ll be a minority that will, what\u2019s the word to use, gravitate or become interested,\u201d Smiechowski says. He is less confident it will lead to significant changes in perception.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFor most people, it\u2019s too socially dangerous. They would be embarrassed. Most people couldn\u2019t do it,\u201d he says. Does he still consider himself a part of the nudist community while living outside it? \u201cKind of an existential question,\u201d he replies. \u201cMy behavior, where I live, is somewhat related to that community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNeighbors has been officially renewed for a second season<\/a>, and while it seems obvious Smiechowski would be up for another round \u2014 perhaps for the best that it\u2019s unlikely, since he\u2019s at relative peace on his block now \u2014 Fishman and Redford see a ton of runway for where they can go next.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s so many subjects and places that we didn\u2019t get to explore in season one for a bunch of different reasons, so we\u2019re just so excited to get back and see what\u2019s out there,\u201d Fishman says. \u201cThe more we\u2019re painting this portrait of America, in a way, and the more that we add to it, the more exciting it gets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first season of Neighbors is now streaming in its entirety on HBO Max. Read THR\u2018s in-depth feature<\/a> on making the series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[This story contains mild spoilers from the Neighbors finale.] A few days ago, 72-year-old Danny Smiechowski left his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[17979,236,1129,88,1035,56101,56102,36255],"class_list":["post-536297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-a24","tag-celebrities","tag-documentary","tag-entertainment","tag-hbo","tag-josh-safdie","tag-marty-supreme","tag-neighbors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}