Speaker 1: Oh, come on, guys, it's so simple. Maybe you need
a refresher course.
Speaker 2: It's all shirley these days.
Speaker 3: Okay, d I've got a trivia question for you. There
is only one actor to have three movies in the
top twenty at the box office for nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 1: Okay, do you know who that is? I feel like
I'm in church and the answer is always Jesus. And
given that we're here to talk about three movies by
chevy Chase, I feel like that's going to be the
right answer. But then I feel like you're going to
tell me and you're going to say.
Speaker 3: The answer is not Jesus. That's how much I can
tell you at this moment.
Speaker 1: Okay, chevy Chase.
Speaker 3: Chevy Chase, who start in Fletch, European Vacation and Spies
like us. The only actor to have three movies in
the top twenty at the box office in nineteen eighty five.
Now here's my trivia question to you.
Speaker 1: Oh I thought that was the trivia question. No, no, no,
all right, okay, all right.
Speaker 3: So obviously today we're here to talk about those three movies.
We're doing a Chevy Chase.
Speaker 1: Three way trifecta.
Speaker 3: Three great movies from nineteen eighty five, funny classics. Chevy
Chase really at the top of his game in nineteen
eighty five.
Speaker 1: Yep. Okay.
Speaker 3: There were two actors who had two movies in the
top twenty in eighty five.
Speaker 1: Two actors who had two movies in the top twenty.
So I'm gonna guess Michael J. Fox with Back to
the Future and Teen Wolf.
Speaker 3: Not in the top twenty. It's a good guess, though, Okay,
I'll give you a hint. We just talked about him.
Speaker 1: Anthony Michael Hall.
Speaker 3: No, Sylvester stallone, Oh.
Speaker 1: Right, right with Rocky four and Rambo Rambo and Rocky four.
Speaker 3: That's exactly right, and the other one is a little
bit harder me hip. He was also in the movie
Three min and a Baby.
Speaker 1: Okay. So Ted Danson hasn't been in any good movies,
Tom Sellick, that was the only movie he was in
that year, So I feel like we've got to be
Steve Gutenberg.
Speaker 3: Steve Gutenberg had two movies in the top twenty in
nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 1: And he guesses when did Three Minute a Baby come out?
Speaker 3: Eighty seven?
Speaker 1: Okay, so Police Academy two. Yep. And cocoon cocoon. Well done,
That is the answer to the trivia question. Wow, so
I've just got the stonecutters. The we made Steve Gutenberg
a star from the Simpsons. Thing going through my head,
like how did he become famous?
Speaker 3: Steve Gutenberg? The goot is big in eighty five, but
not as big as Cornelius Crane Chase. Did you know
that he was a Vanderbilt Vanderbilt University.
Speaker 1: Well, that the university was named after a he's a man. Yeah, wow,
so not really. Oh, by the way, everybody, welcome back
to the Shirly You Can't Be Serious podcast. We are
here talking about three movies starring Chevy Chase from nineteen
eighty five, which are all phenomenal. We have fletch, we
have spies like us, and we have European Vacation. It's
the nineteen eighty five Chevy Chase trifecta. You just weren't
getting any hotter than Chevy Chase in nineteen eighty.
Speaker 3: Hot as a firecracker in nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 1: Yes, and so I'm James D. Graves and you're not.
And this is my co host Jason Colvin. If it's
your first time watching me. Welcome aboard. We will be
telling you by the end of our second episode. This
will be the first episode. End of the second episode,
how we rank these three movies. Which is the best
and which is the worst.
Speaker 3: We're gonna rank them one, two three at the end
of this final judgment, I will tell you this. So
I was curious because three movies in nineteen eighty five,
that's working, right, And so I looked at the filming dates.
So just so we're kind of on the same page.
Fletch was released May thirty first, nineteen eighty five, European
Vacation was released in July twenty sixth of nineteen eighty five,
and then Spies Like Us December third of nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 1: Yep, he filmed Fletch first in early eighty four, he
filmed European Vacation in late eighty four, and then he
filmed Spies Like Us in early eighty five.
Speaker 3: Here's the interesting thing. You're exactly right. The Fletch shoot
was in and around Los Angeles, Okay, and they had
to move the shooting schedule around the Olympics.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right to.
Speaker 3: Kind of place it for you. The eighty four Olympics
in La was such a big deal they had to
move the shooting of Fletch around the Olympics.
Speaker 1: Marrily Retton, Merrily Retten. Was Bruce Jenner still around or
was that? I think that's after him? And then Carl Lewis,
Edwin Moses.
Speaker 3: You had Mary Decker. The girl fell down. I think
Zola Bud tripped her up and she's laying there on
the track crying. But great year for Chevy Chase in
nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you got a gold, a silver, and a bronze
on these three movies. I think that's right. That's right.
Speaker 3: Speaking of nineteen eighty five, your favorite movie of all time?
Back to the Future was released in nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and of all of these movies, of all of them,
I would not have picked this one to do this,
But European Vacation knocked it out of the top sport.
This lodged it from number one. It had been number
one for three weeks, and then along came National Lampoon,
European Vacation, and as the power phouse that he is,
Chevy Chase dethroned Michael J. Fox for a week and
then back to the Future came back for another eight
weeks after.
Speaker 3: That, so obviously Back to the Future was the big
movie that summer. But that's showing some clout that Chevy
Chase can come in.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, excuse me.
Speaker 3: Number one spot. Yeah for a little while anyway.
Speaker 1: So have you. I don't know if you remember, like,
do you remember seeing these movies for the first time?
Speaker 3: Yes, oh yeah, okay, so I'm twelve, uh huh, and
these movies are just naughty enough for me to really
want to see them, you know. But yeah, I think
I saw all three of these in the movie theater.
Speaker 1: I know, I saw European Vacation in the movie theater
and I have not seen it again since then until
like I just finished it ten minutes ago, right, I
can tell you that having seen boobies for the first
time with National Lampoon Vacation, Yes, all I was waiting
for when I saw that movie was Beverly DeAngelo to
show me her boobies again. And then I got a
behind the back flash from the towel and I was
like disappointed for the rest of the movie.
Speaker 3: The Hot Shower Wife or whatever the name of that
movie was.
Speaker 1: Hot Wife in the Shower hot wife in the shower. Okay,
so his biological parents. His dad passed away early on
when he was just I think maybe ten years old
or something like that, and his mother remarried a descendant
of the Vanderbilts and became kind of a socialite for
a time. Now they ended up splitting up as well,
but she's still kind of trying to maintain that social class.
But he kind of said it was it was hard life,
like she was hard on him, but because of their
kind of social status, he got to go to some
pretty good schools, which means he got to get kicked
out of some pretty good schools. I told you a
story this week.
Speaker 3: I heard him tell a story where, you know, it's
one of those deals where he was acting up in class,
disrupting the class, and the teacher said, mister Chase, I
demand that you stand up and apologize to the class
for your behavior. And so he stood up and, in
young Chevy Chase fashion, was like students faculty loved ones.
I just want to apologize for my and he continued
to go on and improv.
Speaker 1: I'm just wondering if he started talking about the teacher
and how she's recovered from syphilis, and her face looks
so much. The nose looks all about it now.
Speaker 3: And he said he kept going, kept going going until
she's like.
Speaker 1: Get out. He's like, I did what you told me. Yeah.
He somehow managed to get into a college, but also
got himself expelled from that college. What I heard was
that he this is speculation, but might have snuck a
full grown cow into one of the dorm rooms. I've
heard that.
Speaker 3: I've heard rumors of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so of course he's got this. He's got this
witty humor. You know, he's obviously a card. He's a
guy that I think his mouth gets him a lot
of success and also in a lot of trouble.
Speaker 3: He's really good at poking fun at people. And if
you're on the observing end of that, you're like, this
is hilarious, right, But if you're on the receiving end
of that, it's not so funny.
Speaker 1: Amy Heckerling said she disliked Chevy Chase so much that
she refused to go on set unless she had a
ticket to New York in her hand, so that she
knew if she wanted to leave she.
Speaker 3: Could had to have it at all times. Because he's
such a rear.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Now we've already talked about this. We've covered Chevy Chase
in Vacation, which we pitted against the Great Outdoors.
Speaker 1: Ye, go back.
Speaker 3: That's a couple of summers ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, talked about Christmas Vacation versus Scrooge. Christmas Vacation he
chased off Chris Columbus, which is yeah, I mean within
a couple of days.
Speaker 3: And Chris Columbus had to have the job, like had
to have it and said I can't work with this guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's gotta be pretty bad.
Speaker 3: Christmas Vacation and Scrooge that was fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a good one. Yeah. So he ends
up deciding, you know, hey, this thing that I'm good
at of being funny, I'm going to go try to
make something of myself with it. He ends up doing
an improv troop. He ends up with Belushi and the
Lemmings in La and then ultimately, you know, he's got
some experience. He even drove a taxi for a little bit,
got himself cast in a play because a casting director
got in the cab and he heard casting director and
immediately was like, let's start doing some impressions, and got
himself a bit part in a play, but he just
kind of grinded the pavement and took every opportunity to
act up that he could. And then he's in line
to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and the
other guy that he happens to see in line is
Lauren Michaels that he recognizes and is low and Lauren's like, hey,
you know, how's it going? And they start talking and
Chevy of course starts being Chevy and Riffin and Lauren's like,
I'm developing this new skit concept. I think he'd be
really good as a writer on this, and so he
comes in as a writer, but is so charismatic that
they're like, we got to get this guy in front
of the camera. And of course he lays the foundation
for Saturday Night Live News, which are we end update?
We we end update with Chevy Chase. I'm Chevy Chase
and you're not why from New York.
Speaker 3: It's Saturday night, you know, Chevy Chase. To give him credit,
he had the rare combination of being really funny and
having like leading man type looks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was watching some of like it was the
scene in European Vacation where he like rips off the sunglasses,
you know, like Mom's been kidnapped, right, He's doing the
Superman thing and ripping off the sunglasses, moving from Clark
Kinnon to Superman, and I like, I just kind of
got this Harrison Ford vibe like he could have been
he could have been Indiana Jones and actually done a
great job at it. He's got the size, he's got
the looks, he's got the I mean, I think Harrison
Ford's probably more charming and more you can take him
more seriously. Sure, but you know, things went a little different.
I could totally see Chevy being an action star.
Speaker 3: You know, I totally agree with you. A couple of
years ago, I went on the Film By podcast and
I discussed the movie foul Play, which Goldiehan, Goldiehan and
Chevy Chase, and that movie is he has some goofy moments,
they're capitalizing on his SNL presence, but he also has
some serious moments. It's a cop drama. I mean, he's
he shoots a guy. I mean there's some action involved
in that. And when you watch that movie, which I've
seen that movie thousand times, it's it's similar to like
Fletch in that there's some really dramatic moments, and you
could see him being a serious actor, but he just
never really leaned into that full on. I don't think
he could have been great at it, though.
Speaker 1: I think I Chevy being goofy Chevy is the Chevy
that I want to see most of the time.
Speaker 3: I just got to say, well, I mean that's true
though with Robin Williams. Like Robin Williams is off the hook.
He's hilarious. We all love him, he's super funny, but
then also we get good will honey.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know. So No, he definitely can do do
some seriously.
Speaker 3: He could pull off both. I just don't know why
he never did.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, it's interesting. I don't Chevy Chase ever in
like a genuinely serious movie, like not a comedic movie
at all. I can't think. I don't think so.
Speaker 3: I don't think he ever stretches like I think Fletch
maybe the furthest he ever stretched.
Speaker 1: Right, you know, stretched and Fletch, Yeah, stretched and Fletch.
Speaker 3: You know the end scene with Tim matheson mister Stanwick
and he's like, cut the crap, get down here, and
it's tense. Yeah, yeah, And that's that's about it.
Speaker 1: Had things played out differently. With the way that we
compare movies, I can totally see us having compared Beverly Hills,
cop Arms Seth Fletch. It's like just such a similar vibe.
You've of course got two SNL alumni leading the show
on both of these things. But let's you know, let's
start there with Fletch. So, Fletch was actually a series
of books from like the seventies. You said you had
some of these books.
Speaker 3: Right, I've read a couple of these books. It's been
a forever ago since I've read. Gregory MacDonald is the author.
Fletch is humorous in those books, but he's also more serious.
Speaker 1: Right. So they started developing a script for that book,
those stories in the seventies, and it went through multiple
production companies, multiple producers, and I mean just basically it
could never really see the light of day. So from
basically from nineteen seventy four until about nineteen eighty two,
it just was in development.
Speaker 3: Hell, right, and then something happened. Michael Douglas stepped in. Yes,
that Michael Douglas. He saw the potential for a character,
like a reoccurring character. It bounced around from you know,
it was with Columbia, it was with Universal, it was
with Fox, it was with Paramount and Warner Brothers, and no,
everybody kind of passed on it. And then Michael Douglas
steps in and says, I think there's something here. You know,
it's one of those where Okay, well maybe you should
star as Fletched. So Michael Douglas was considered for this character.
I mean you want to let's talk about the list
of names who could have been Fletchka. All right, so
here are the names that I have for you that
could have been Fletched. Okay, Burt Reynolds, yes, Richard Dreyfus, No,
George Sigal well maybe maybe Richard I could he was
funny in Steakout. Yeah, well he was funny in Steakout.
Speaker 1: I've not seen sake he was funny. And what about
Bob I could see him being I mean, yes, he's
he does some good comedic work. Okay, yeah, okay, go ahead.
Speaker 3: George Segal, the guy from Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?
I mean the Grandpa and the Goldbergs, right, okay, yeah,
all right, Barry Bostwick, Okay, sure, okay, Charles Grodin.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I could see that too. Jeff Bridges definitely, Oh, definitely, yeah,
Jeff Bridges would have been an incredibly good fledge.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I could see that. Yeah, how about this one?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Nick Jagger, somebody was smoking some crack when they
came up with that idea. So as I understand it,
the author McDonald Gregor McDonald, yeah, he because it went
through so many options that eventually he was like, I
want veto rights on whoever's going to star in this thing?
And and he was absolutely like, no, you're not casting
McJagger right as Irwin Fletcher. No, not gonna happen.
Speaker 3: Come on, And so they offered a Chevy Chase.
Speaker 4: And I'm sorry, who are you again, I'm Frida's boss.
Who's Frida my secretary?
Speaker 3: He actually turned it down, which he said, I didn't
turn it down, my manager turned it down. Yeah, And
when it came back to him, I think he got
a little more involved saw it and it's like, yeah,
I think maybe, And that's when Gregory McDonald sort of
blessed that Chevy Chase as Fletch.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Hey, I think our problems may just be staved. McMahon.
I think I just one of million bucks. Yeah, win,
m Fletcher, you choose? Oh boy, I lost again. Sorry.
Speaker 1: So chevy Chase really tuned in and decided he wanted
to play it when he found out the guy writing
the screenplay was going to be Andrew Bergman. Okay, so
Andrew Bergman has before this wrote Blazing Saddle, Blazing Saddles. Yes, yeah,
I mean I could. I mean if you yes, I
mean nineteen eighties. If you're telling me the guy that
wrote Blazing Zaddles is going to write a movie that
I can be a part of, and I'm chevy Chase. Yeah,
one percent, I'm doing that right now. Do you know
what movie he wrote in the future that we're going
to cover later? What? No? What tell me? Okay, it
came up. It keeps coming up. I don't understand why
it keeps coming up. It came up whenever we were
talking about we're talking about the Eagles. One of the
co writers of the songs wrote a book. His most
famous book was called Strip Tease. Andrew Bergman wrote the
screenplay for Strip Teas. So you guys tune in. It's
not that we love Strip Tease. We are going to
go and we're going to cover strip teas and God
help me show Girls and ask the question, what the
heck happened?
Speaker 3: We might love strip teas after watching show Girls.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if I'm still alive and haven't slipped my wrists vertically, yes.
Speaker 3: All right, so we want to go through the Fletched
cast real quick.
Speaker 1: Well all right, so.
Speaker 3: So obviously Chevy Chase, Irwin M. Fletcher aka Fletch aka
John Cock, Toastin Igor Stravinsky, right, Jane Doe, Don Corleone,
Doctor Rosen Rosen, Ted Nugent, Harry S.
Speaker 1: Truman, Yeah, mister Poone, Manchi Indian.
Speaker 4: Oh, it's me doctor Rosen, Poenis. I'm just here to
check out Damwick's file, Doctor Rosen Rose.
Speaker 1: And I'm here to get a runner again. I get
doctor Rosen, I want to check out records and doctor Rosen.
Speaker 3: So he plays all these characters in the same movie.
And Chevy has said this is his favorite movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I felt like he got to be him. The
director Michael Richie said that basically he would do two
takes every time. First one by the script, second one
Chevy do what you want to do, whatever you want. Yeah,
and he Chevy loved that, like he really just and
you can tell, I mean, you can tell that he's
I think you put it like, he's always winking at
the camera.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's very self aware. Yeah, you and I were
talking a few minutes ago. The thing that makes Chevy
so funny in his movies is that he's always smirking.
Speaker 1: He's very self aware.
Speaker 3: He we know, we're in on the joke, right, And
we saw a video this week. Chevy's in his eighties now,
and he.
Speaker 1: Doesn't seem to be as self aware. Yeah. It made
me sad, like, what are we doing? Where are we going?
He actually said where am I going? Where am I going?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Like yeah, But they took him to a put golf
course called Caddy Shack and he went up and he's
all right, I'm Chevy Chase and the guy was like.
Speaker 1: What Yeah, that's great. All right.
Speaker 3: So let's go through the Let's go through the cast
of Fletcher real quick. Okay, So Jodn Baker is playing
the police captain.
Speaker 4: You're serious? Ask anybody? Can I ask anybody? Now? How about?
Speaker 1: Can I call my mom?
Speaker 4: Tell her how much I love her?
Speaker 3: We talked about him in our Jimmy Buffet episode, actually
not him specifically, but a role that he.
Speaker 1: Played walking Tall, Yes, where he played uh Sheriff Pusser.
That's right, you for Pusser for Pusser, that's right. Jonn
Baker also plays two different characters in the James Bond universe.
Oh okay.
Speaker 3: He plays a good guy in GoldenEye and a bad
guy in the Living Daylights.
Speaker 1: One of the few people to do that. That's interesting. Okay, okay.
I love the way he handles this character too, because
he's just an absolute slime ball, but he plays him
as this kind of smiling, jovial We're just gonna laugh
through all of this yeast a. Yeah.
Speaker 3: When he's when he's pointing the gun out of him
in the jail cell and he's like, what's it gonna be,
mister Fletcher, And he's like, hey, your beach. He's like,
come on, may I, you know, come on out of there.
It's like they're buddies now, you know, all right. Dana
Wheeler Nicholson, she.
Speaker 1: Was smoking hot in this movie. My gosh, yeah.
Speaker 4: Who is it? It's John.
Speaker 2: John?
Speaker 4: Who? It's John John loves and I don't remember Don Cocks. Hi, Hi,
I was hoping you'd say that. I just got out
of the shower. Yeah, can I borrow your towel? Persect?
My card is hit a water buffalo.
Speaker 3: Nice place you have here in her little tennis outfit, towel.
Speaker 4: Hit.
Speaker 1: She made Chevy laugh during the audition. She doesn't even
remember what she said. He laughed.
Speaker 3: That was her in Yeah, And I think everybody was
just kind of in love with her.
Speaker 1: She just cute, cute as she can be, not at
all like she was in Tombstone. Yeah, she was in Tombstone.
Speaker 3: She played whites ou Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: Just yeah, totally, she's I'm surprised she didn't do more, honestly. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Here's my little titbit on her. Okay, I've got I'm
ready to drop this bomb on you all kay. She
is the granddaughter of Malcolm Nicholson. Is a name ring
bell to you? He is the founder of National Allied Publications.
Speaker 1: Does that mean anything to you? That later became d
C Comics? Wow? Wow, how about that? I hate to backtrack,
but I forgot to bring up did you know that?
In the in the Move to success as Chevy was,
you know, driving taxicabs around? He also wrote for Mad magazine.
I heard that isn't that crazy. I want to go
look up and see what kind of storyline Chevy Chase
came up.
Speaker 3: I used toill love Mad Magazine all the time, all
the time. Okay, Tim Matheson plays Alan Stanwick.
Speaker 4: Yes, these will be open when they normally be locked. Sometimes, yes,
sometimes know the staff usually forget. Oh yeah, I have
the same trouble with my home.
Speaker 1: This is a beautiful tie to the to all of
these things because last year we covered Revenge of the
Nerds versus Animal House. We did, which is of course
directed by John Landis. Yes, and John Landis didn't want
Chevy Chase to be in Animal House, but he was
the he was the obvious choice at the time, but
you got Belushi in there. He didn't want it to
be a Saturday Night Live reunion thing, and he knew
that Chevy wanted to be a star, and so he
reversed psychology to him, and he was like, you're gonna
love this. You're gonna be part of this big ensemble piece.
You know, it's gonna likely you're a big part of
this big group. And he was like, yeah, I'm out. Yeah,
And then of course John Landis cast Chevy Chase in
one of the movies we're talking about today in spies
like us hundred percent. But who do they have come
into the role of Otter for Animal House Matheson and
Matheson and here they are in Fletch together.
Speaker 3: I've got a funny Tim Mathieson story for you.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: First of all, that's that's great little tie in right
there with John Landis and Animal House and all that stuff. Okay,
and we've actually got another tie with Fred the Dwarf
Doorfman here in a second, Maybe should just hit that.
Speaker 1: While we're here. Well, okay, So in Fletch, he stands
up in the middle they're having like it looks like
a rotary club or something like that, Kawanas ring or something, right,
big honorary there, and he stands up and does this
this thank you and you know, doing a speech. Nobody
knows who he is, Fred the Dwarf Dorfmann as they're
all coming in and Fred Dorfman apparently is the brother
of Flounder Darfman from Animal That's right, Yeah, so I
guess it all ties. What a nice little ti there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So here's my funny story with Tim Tim Matheson. Okay,
we have talked in the past about who had the
greater twenty four hours in the eighties. Is it Lionel Richie.
Speaker 1: Richie or is it Billy Joel Billy Joel.
Speaker 3: Right right, I present to you Tim Matheson Okay, okay.
So he was some special birthday, maybe his thirtieth birthday, okay.
And for his thirtieth birthday, he got a knock on
the door. He's a Hollywood actor, knock on the door.
One of his next door neighbors, young hot woman is like,
guess what here, I am your birthday present. So she
gives herself to him as his birthday present.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: So she leaves, knock, knock, knock. Another neighbor comes over here.
I am happy birthday.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: Now he had a girlfriend who is out of town.
Keep that in mind, okay, Okay. After she leaves, knock knock, knock, here,
I am happy birthday.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: Except this third woman, this is Kirsty Alley. Okay, okay, yeah,
So keeping we're keeping count at home.
Speaker 1: This is number three. Yeah, and Kirsty Alley's peak hottness.
Speaker 3: No, dad, he said she was the wild girl from
which tah right, okay. And after afterwards they're laying in bed, knock, knock, knock.
His girlfriend had flown home to say happy birthday, and
so Christy ally goes out the side window.
Speaker 1: Gosh, girlfriend comes in town. Happy birthday. Here I am.
I hope he was stalking some Oh my lord, So
there you go. Tim Matheson Otter similar, Yeah, okay, yeah,
all right, all right.
Speaker 3: Richard Libertini, he plays Frank, He plays the boss at
the newspaper.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I love him, right, he's hilarious.
Speaker 4: Pat's him is a story. There's a source behind him. Well,
they were in a kind of a gray area. All right,
oh gray charcoal.
Speaker 1: He's shaking the coffee.
Speaker 3: Here's my tidbit on him. That's gonna blow your socks off.
Do you know he was married too? He was married
to Melinda Dillon. Does that name ring a bell to you?
Speaker 1: It does ring a bell for me, but I can't
remember why.
Speaker 3: She was one of the girls, one of the ladies
in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, okay, I know you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
She's the mom of the little kid who gets pulled away. Yes,
and she's also the mom in Christmas Story.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, she was married to this guy. The Mom
from the Christmas Story. Interesting, m Emmett Walsh was also
in this movie. He's doctor Jellyfinger.
Speaker 1: Isn't there a children's book about an elephant named.
Speaker 4: Bar I don't know. I don't have any no children,
no elephant books.
Speaker 1: Right, Yes, I can't see that guy and not think
about him shooting at at Steve Martin in The Jerk.
Speaker 2: The Jerk.
Speaker 1: He hates these cans? Are you gasper?
Speaker 3: He was also in Blade Runner, which we've talked about. Yeah,
and he was in Raised in Arizona. Yeah, not that mother.
Speaker 1: Scratcher, That mother scratch Have.
Speaker 3: You ever heard of the Stanton Walsh rule?
Speaker 1: And not ringing a bell for me?
Speaker 3: Okay, so apparently this is a rule that it's kind
of well known around Hollywood that if you have Dean
Stanton or m Mt Walsh in your movie, it automatically
makes your movie good.
Speaker 1: I can see that.
Speaker 3: Actually, they called the Stanton Walsh rule. Yeah, okay, the
exception to that rule Wild Wild West. I guess Walsh
was in Wild wld West. Yeah, So okay, quickly, you've
got George went who plays fat Sam.
Speaker 1: Norm Norm from Cheers, Right he just lost him? Yeah,
I just lost him.
Speaker 3: So He plays fat Sam Okay, Gena Davis in an
early role from.
Speaker 1: Her Dude, she was smoking hot back in nineteen eighty five,
looking good and immensu member.
Speaker 3: Limber and smart, smart and an Olympic qualifier in archery?
Speaker 1: What come on?
Speaker 3: All that and looks too?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Okay? How about uh?
Speaker 3: So here's the one we talked about before, Kenneth Mars.
He plays Gale Stanton's dad, the head of Boyd Aviation.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: You and I were talking about him. You recognize I
did not.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's the he's the commandant in Young Frankenstein, the
guy I got the picture, the nice grouping. Yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: Okay, so he's obviously that main character in Young Frankenstein.
Here's the one that blew me away. He is the
voice of King Triton in The Little Mermaid.
Speaker 1: I consider myself a reasonable murmur.
Speaker 3: I set certain rules, and I expect those rules to
be obeyed.
Speaker 4: But is it true you rescued a human from drowning?
Speaker 1: Daddy, I had contact? Oh yeah, I could see that
now that you said I did not know that. How
about that one? Yes? Great? Okay?
Speaker 3: Uh. You have Larry Flash Jenkins as Gummy Do you
recognize him?
Speaker 1: He was he in total recall?
Speaker 4: Am I remembering that? Right?
Speaker 1: No, that's the different guy. Okay, then I don't know.
Speaker 3: He is one of the car attendants in Ferris Bueller's
Day Off.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, the yeah, the one where the car is cresting.
Speaker 3: He's like, yeah. You also have James Avery, who plays
Will Smith's dad in the Fresh Princeville area.
Speaker 1: Oh right, yeah, he's one of the two goon cops. Yep, yep,
you told me the other goon cop was one of
the football players in UH sixteen. She's a child, Jake.
What do you think of her? I try not to, right,
he's the guy who's doing the pull ups. Then you
panned back and you realize he's just standing there. And
then you also have Alison LaPlaca.
Speaker 3: We talked about her. She plays the pan Am clerk.
Speaker 2: Stand like.
Speaker 1: You are confirmed on PanAm flight four forty one to
Rio de Janeiro tomorrow evening eleven pm, first class.
Speaker 4: That's terrific. Thank you you're reconfirmed this morning? You bet
I did. I'm a bear for detail. I hope there's
nobody sitting next to me. You see, I always travel
first class and I take both seats up. I'm afraid
there is someone sitting next to you. Oh god, don
don who is it? Mister Singlendon know the names Kavanaugh Kavanaugh?
Speaker 2: Ah?
Speaker 4: Is that Morris or Pierre? Sally Ann Kavanaugh Sally Anne?
Well terrific. In fact, you purchased the ticket form as Kavanaugh.
Doesn't mean I want to sitting next to me, does it?
Speaker 1: Oh? Right? Yeah? She was the she's the boss. She's
Rachel's boss from friends. That's right. Yeah. Yes.
Speaker 3: And then finally you have who dies.
Speaker 1: Like gets hit acrossing the road or something like that.
I remember that, that's right, Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3: You have Chick Hern, the voice of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Speaker 1: Yes, and you have Kareem abdul Jabbar. Yes.
Speaker 3: How about Fletch? Yeah, well Fletch helps us win. He
does all the hard stuff.
Speaker 1: Look at him shake Defenders six five six nine with
the afro. That scene is so funny.
Speaker 3: Did you know that they had him as a hockey
player and as a picture and baseball pitcher as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, you can see pictures early posters that shows
him as the hockey player with the picture scene. This
ties into a scene that they left in the movie
that didn't really make a whole lot of sense. But
in the picture scene he or in the Dodgers scene,
he is playing a picture and Tommy Lesorta comes in
and takes him out of the game. Yes, and then
you have this moment where he punches the picture and chief, Hey, hey,
Tommy Lisorda. That's how that all makes sense. That's right.
Speaker 3: Dodgers and the La Kings pre Wayne Gretzky La Kings.
Speaker 1: Right, all right, so are we ready to talk about
next movie, which is European Vacation. Let's talk about European Vacation.
Speaker 4: I want to write, I want to paint, I want
to sculpt something massive. I want to I gotta creative.
Speaker 2: Urge to Yeah, I wonder if there's a men's room here?
Speaker 4: Anything?
Speaker 1: Okay. So obviously with this one you have a very
easy This is a sequel to a absolute smash from
nineteen eighty three. Clearly you gotta have Chevy Chase come back.
Clearly you got to have Beverly DiAngelo come back. And
then Anthony Michael Hall goes and f stuff's up by
agreeing to do this weird movie called Weird Science.
Speaker 3: She does Weird Science instead of this movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So Dana Baron played Audrey in the first one.
She was cast as Audrey in European Vacation. But when
they couldn't get Anthony Michael hall Amy, Heckerling's like, well,
we're going to change both the kids then, and that's
how you get into this habit of different kids in
every single Vacation movie.
Speaker 3: I think that kind of sucks for Dana Baron, sure,
but the girl who steps in and plays her, yeah,
is funny, she's good, she's comedic, she's got she does
some stuff that's fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah. She was sad, Yes, sad moment she passed away
at thirty two. She had struggled with diabetes her whole
life since a little girl. Actually, it's what caused her
to have to get out of something she was involved
sports or something like that she was involved in and
move into acting, which, okay, you know, she got cast
quite a bit as a child actor and then because
of the diabetes, started doing voiceover work later on in
her career. But yeah, tragically it got her at age
thirty two, very young, very young. Yeah, So obviously we
the first vacation we talked about, and that was a
John Hughes creation. From his days writing for National Lampoon magazine.
This one is based on the same characters, but he
doesn't just get a character's thing. He gets a writing
credit on this because a lot of the ideas from
those original stories they used in this. Even though he
said he didn't even know they made the movie until
he saw a preview for it on TV. How crazy
is that? That's ridiculous. Like he's like, hey, they're making
a sequel to my movie. Yeah, I mean, how do
you not just mention it to John Hughes. I mean,
because he's hot at that moment, he's got sixteen candles
this come out. He's in the middle of breakfast club
and about to do weird science dealer. Yeah. I don't
know how that happens.
Speaker 3: But so they took the pieces that, like the leftover
pieces from the first movie, incorporated them into the script,
and then they asked, So John Hughes is unavailable or
I guess they didn't even try. Yeah right, Well, he's
busy with breakfast club and.
Speaker 1: Doing other things. Let's not bother him. So this guy named.
Speaker 3: Robert Clain filled in the gaps.
Speaker 1: Robert Klaine famous four week Beekend at Bernie's what Yes,
which is funny.
Speaker 3: Yes, okay, now here's the interesting thing. Okay, So Harold
Raimus directed Vacation. Okay, he's busy playing Egon in Ghostbusters,
which huge movie for nineteen eighty four. Sure, okay, So
they get Amy Heckerling just coming off fash Times at
Richemont High and Johnny Danger.
Speaker 1: Is dangerously that's right. And you know the the honeymoon couple,
the Garlands. Yes, missus Garland was like the main like
the girl and girl in Johnny Danger like his wife
or whatever, his girlfriend whatever she is, get out of here. Wow, Okay,
I think he's gonna port her dad. No, he's not
gonna work. He my porkers. That's two episodes in a
real got his hand on her boop. All right.
Speaker 3: So do you remember the connection between Harold Ramis and
Amy Heckerling.
Speaker 1: Get it out. It's in there. It's in there. Man,
you're gonna have to remind me to go. We haven't
got time for me to search you the mental mansion.
I know there's something there be, So Harold, Harold, wait wait,
they have a child together.
Speaker 3: They have a love child together, that's right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and she's an actress too, Molly Heckerling. Molly Heckerling
just looked her up. Yes, born September of eighty five.
That would mean and that's that's the eighth month this
movie was shot in late eighty four. That would mean
the hookup between Harold Ramis and Amy Heckerling was going
on as he was finishing up Ghostbusters and she was
in the process of about to film or finishing filming
European Vacation.
Speaker 3: Egan getting some from a fan.
Speaker 1: Wow, how about that. Now here's the other thing. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So Amy Heckerling took that experience with Harold Ramis, director
of Vacation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he directed the first vacation, she directed the second one. Yes,
and while she's directing the second one, he impregnates her. Yes,
that's crazy. Okay wow.
Speaker 3: And from that experience she goes on and makes another movie.
Speaker 1: Uh huh called oh oh, the one with Diane Keaton.
Speaker 3: No, baby Boom, No, it's not baby Boom.
Speaker 1: Look who's talking? Oh that's right, looking with Kirsty Ally,
with Kirsty Alley, Oh my gosh. Yeah. And she cast
her daughter in those two movies like she was in
Look Who's talking? And Look Who's talking? Too, like she
was a baby in one of them and a little
girl in the other one. There you go, I think
that's mind blowing. That is crazy. Okay, we just kind
of came up with that on the spot right here.
Speaker 3: All right, let's go through the rest of the cast. Okay,
we have Beverly di'angelo back as Ellen Griswold.
Speaker 1: Minute you walked in the joint, I could see you
a man of distinction a real bit. We talked about
her strong memories. Yes, she We talked about her quite
a bit when we talked about every which way but
loose and anyway the way you can remember the.
Speaker 3: Character she played Peaches what was it echo Echo what?
Speaker 1: Yes? And we found out that she had sang backup
for the group that became the band after she left
the band.
Speaker 3: You know, speaking of bands, we didn't even mention the
fact that Chevy Chase played drums for what would become
Steely Dan.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the two like two founding members of Steely Dan
were in a band with Chevy Chase before Steely Dan.
I can't remember what the name of the band was though.
That'll be a tribute question for you guys. If you
guys know the band name that Chevy Chase was in
with the guys from Steely Dan before they were the
guys from Steely Dan. You tell us in the comments
yacht Rock that rock band Steen Henry will come up
in any episode we have a chance to bring it up.
Then I think, oh, it's so good.
Speaker 3: They did not like Van labeled yat Rock.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: So in Dana Baron's spot, you have Dana hill Ye
who played Audrey. She was in a TV movie called
Fallen Angel. Do you remember that I watched that as
a kid. I was talking to Kathy. We both have
memories of this.
Speaker 1: It was like.
Speaker 3: A little girl who somehow gets wrapped into like like
a child pornography ring. It was very disturbing.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen it in forty years. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3: But she's like somebody's stepdad is trying to get her
to shoot nudie pictures.
Speaker 1: It was very, very disturbing.
Speaker 3: It's like a TV It's like an after school.
Speaker 1: Special type of thing. ROAs Okay, okay.
Speaker 3: The guy who plays Rusty is Jason Lively. Yes, okay,
Now he was in Night of the Creeps.
Speaker 1: You you did an episode I did so.
Speaker 3: Jeff Johnson, Johnson and film my podcast.
Speaker 1: Yes, so check that one out. Okay, everybody here's a
fan of The Knight of the Creeps. Right, good news,
good news your dates here, bad news, they're dead. It's
such a fun movie. Oh my gosh, real me.
Speaker 3: So Jason Lively his mom was like a involved in
casting for movies, which is how he conceived. His sisters
are Robin Lively and Blake Lively.
Speaker 1: Blake Lively married to Ryan Reynolds. Wow wow, how about
that interesting? Okay?
Speaker 3: All right, So at the beginning of The Pig and
the Pope, you've got John Aston, who we talked about
in the.
Speaker 1: Goonies, right because he was the alleged father one of
three possibilities with Patty Duke of Sean Aston.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's true. You also have William Zabka playing Jack.
Speaker 1: Johnny from Karate Kid, which we covered versus Last Dragon.
Go check that episode out.
Speaker 3: And we've built built quite the library. I want to
talk about Mel Smith. We've moved now to England. He
is the hotel manager.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you texted me. He's the guy who's speaking English.
Nobody can understand him.
Speaker 4: I'm a Clark w Griswold. We're from the United States.
Of America, and I believe we have reservations for four now.
The one rules of Cotton. He places full of macaroone
to my own gymans, pap down want travel. Why daddy's
speaking English?
Speaker 1: I know?
Speaker 3: And you're like, you know who this guy is? And
I text you back the bit of despair. Dispair shouldn't
even think about trying to escape? Yes, So he's in
the Princess Bride.
Speaker 1: Original hotel, Clerk. And then while they're in the hotel
and she's in the bath, and Clark walks out whistling
a tune that the other guy overhears, and what was
aus he's walking back in and she thinks she's talking
to Clark. That's Robbie Coltrane, who is very famous for
playing Hagrid in the Harry Potter series. That's right, among
many others.
Speaker 3: Obviously, you remember we talked about when Robbie Coltrane made
his feature film debut and all he was doing was
unloading a suitcase.
Speaker 1: Was this in a James Bond movie? He was in
a James Bond He was in GoldenEye. Okay, but that
wasn't what I was talking about. You'll have to give
it to me. I can't remember he was.
Speaker 3: In Flash Gordon at the very beginning.
Speaker 1: I literally had that thought go through my head and
I was like, no, that's not it.
Speaker 3: Haang it little know no speaking part in that, right, Okay,
all right? You also have Eric Idol, who plays the biker.
Speaker 4: Well, I think I got to have it now, Please
please let me help you.
Speaker 1: Oh no, no problem nor no harm, dumb, it doesn't
doesn't hunt much at all.
Speaker 4: Let me pay for the damage. Oh good, heavens no,
no need for money.
Speaker 1: No, no, best part of the movie, like every time
he's in there, I am laughing. And then the throwback
speaking of Monty Python, it all comes full circle. Chevy
Chase gets his SNL part waiting in line for Monty
Python the Holy Grail. Eric Idol, of course, is one
of the main Monty Python guys in The Grail. And
in the Holy Grail you have the battle with the
Black Knight where he cuts off his leg and he's
it's like your legs up, it's a flesh wound. And
Eric Idol re says that line or not Re says it,
because it was John Cles originally said it who they
considered for that part. Yeah, absolutely, but yes, brings it
all back, so fricking funny. That part is hilarious.
Speaker 3: When he's like pointing, He's like, you go down and
and just blood.
Speaker 1: She's like ah, and she's trying to clean his leg.
Speaker 3: He's like, it's just a leg. Honestly, I have another one.
Super funny.
Speaker 1: Eric was.
Speaker 3: In fact, he and Chevy Chase became friends, so much
so that they thought about making a vacation movie called
Swiss Family. Griswold's I thought it was Vacation Australia. Well,
they had two different ideas. Okay, I think one was
on a cruise ship. Okay, yeah, the vacation Australia. All
they could come up with was a shark attack idea
and then they gave up. Still what we could have
had there, it would have been funny.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right.
Speaker 3: The only other notable person that I could find in
European vacation is the girl from California that Rusty meats
while in Rome. I asked you if you recognized her,
I wouldn't blame it if you didn't. That's Moon Unit Zappa.
That's Frank Zappa's daughter. The song that Valley Girl was
written about, right Beverly DiAngelo was friends with Frank Zappa
and his family, and that's how Moon got that.
Speaker 1: Part musical connection. I bet there you go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, remember when we talked about Frank Zappa.
Speaker 1: We've talked about him several times, but the biggest story
is when Steve Lukether went into audition for him and
got his head cut. Basically, that's it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he got embarrassed by Frank Zappa.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, So that does it for European Vacation.
We've run out of time for episode one. We will
come back to you episode two, where we will talk
to you about casting and stories on spies like us.
We will talk about a surprising hit song from one
of these movies. I'm not gonna tell you what it
is yet, but major artist, big hit. You can't think
of it. We couldn't either. All right, you'll join us
next week when we'll talk about that, and then of
course final judgment, who wins the gold, who wins the silver,
and who wins the bronze. In the Chevy Chase nineteen
eighty five, Trifecta does the darts and it's like, sorry,
promise this never happens. It's funny. Did you switch arms
on me here. How Come I got the weedy arm?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 1: Oh I did. Sorry, that's okay anyway,