Speaker 1: Hello, It's a Jimmy on Sunday from the lake in Sweden.
I'm out fishing today and I don't get any hooks
at all, but oh shit, I got something now. It's
it looks like a big one and it pulls and
pools and I get it up in a boat and
it's a rattle lot.
Speaker 2: And it looks like a I surely can't be serious podcast.
Speaker 1: And there they're wiggling around in the in the book.
A bet I throw them back here, okay, Jason. So
you know a lot of people ask me what we
do here at the Shirley Podcast, and I say, you know,
there's gonna be sex, drugs, rock and roll, chips, dips, chains, whips,
you know, basic high school org type of thing. I mean,
I'm not talking candle wax on the nipples or witchcraft
or anything like that. I don't know. Just a couple
of hundred kids running around in their underwear acting like
complete animals. That's hilarious. You totally sell my life. That
was my.
Speaker 3: That's great, that was what I had ready to go.
Speaker 1: Well, so welcome back to the Shirley You Can't Be
Serious Podcast? Everybody. Every time we're about to start an episode,
Jason or I will say to each other, do you
have an intro for this episode? And I today said
do you have an intro? And he's like, yeah, I
got an idea. And I'm like, okay, well I gotta
got one. Yeah. He's like, okay, well I'll build off
of yours. Totally undercovery on all that. Well, what do
you little maniacs want to do? First? Shall we do
casting for real genius?
Speaker 3: How about we do part two a real Genius versus
weird science and we start with casting of real genius.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that is where we're going. Welcome back to
the Shirley you Can't be serious podcast everyone, or if
it's your first time here, welcome for the first time.
I hope you enjoy it, and if you do, hit
that little subscribe button on your podcast listening app or
the YouTube video whatever you like. So we got to
give a shout out to our new Patreon members executive
producers for this episode and every episode for as long
as your membership lasts. Right, we have got Sammy Jay.
Speaker 3: Sammy Jay who does all the great intros that he's
been sending us.
Speaker 1: They are fantastic. I love your intro Sammy keep on
bringing them. That's right, the hits just keep on coming.
We've got one Kim Possible slow Runner. We haven't actually
had an exchange to find out if Kim is Possible's
real name or if it's a pseudonym, but it's a
heck of a heck of a name. I love it.
That's all right. One can possibly slow Runner, thank you
very much.
Speaker 3: It's like, how can they possibly be sillier than I am?
Speaker 1: Not sure? It's Kim Possible, right. And then our newest member,
just five days ago, we had Jeremy Jasper join us
on Patreon. Guys, if you want to join our Patreon family,
we truly appreciate it. It helps us finance some of
the things that we have to buy for being a podcast,
but we don't ask you to do it for nothing.
We will give you a member's only pass to our
one Hit Wonder episodes that are Patreon members only episodes.
There are some of our best episodes, and if you
if you do a little bit more, a little higher tier,
we start sending you presents because you know, we like
to give back.
Speaker 3: Quick shout out to our Patreon members. We don't say
it often enough. We don't call them by name, but really,
if you are a Patreon member, we are so thankful
for you.
Speaker 1: Absolutely and and this is this is true not only
for our paid members, who obviously very much appreciate your
financial contribution, but we've got a we've got a significant
portion of people who are just on the Patreon page.
They're not paid, but they are still participating in our conversations,
still get to take part in all of those polls.
You can join up for absolutely free and start be
a part of the family. So come check us out
Patreon dot com, slash Surely podcast. All right, that's enough
advertising for now. Let's get into Oh wait, no, there
is one other now. One of the things you all
can see in our cool little background here that we've
got and this is literally right here behind us. We
have a wall of albums back here. We've had a
ton of contribution from our Patreon member Chris Webber, but
we've gotten some new ones in. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, I was on a recent podcast with our buddy
Jim and Lindsey Butler for Children of the Eighties, and
I met another podcast guy there. His name is Sean
Jones and he does the Smoking Sounds podcast. If you're
a cigar guy at all. You got to go listen
to them. They do some great stuff.
Speaker 1: It's it's pop culture, say Cicario, cigar, cigar. I knew
what you were saying. I'm messing with you here. I
like a good cigar. You not so much. But they
still have an entertaining podcast they do.
Speaker 3: It's it's it's a lot of fun. And they're an
Oklahoma podcasts. So they're out of Tulsa anyway, So my
sooner baby, sooner baby. So I got talking to Sean
and he just mentioned he's like, hey, he used to
be in radio in some way. I had a friend
who's like, I don't need these albums anymore? Do you
want them? And he's like showing them to me. He's
like do you want these? I'm like, yes, yes, yes,
you know and you say.
Speaker 1: No to anything, well not very much.
Speaker 3: So anyway, he sent those to me and I offered
to pay, but he said, no, man, keep it. So
he and I are going to hook up at some
point and Tulsa I have lunch and anyway, thank you
Sean for sending us to me.
Speaker 1: I think you I think you might be able to
catch it over my shoulder here. But we've got We've
got Skyscraper by David Lee Roth. We've got Inexcess in
Listen like Thieves. We've got the Europe The Final Countdown album.
We've got a CDC Back in Black that is a
prize right there, right, I know. And then of course
up at the top, we've got Ricky Springfield Glass Dog. Yeah, yeah,
there you go, Jesse's girl. Right.
Speaker 3: So anyway, Thanksean, appreciate you man.
Speaker 1: Thanks Sean. Okay, now I think it is time that
we get into the nuts and bolts. We're going to
talk We talked casting for Weird Science at the end
of our last episode. Let's talk about casting for Real Genius.
Speaker 3: Okay, So leading off, the main guy in Real Genius
obviously is the one, the only, the late great Val Kilmer. Yeah,
he plays Chris Knight.
Speaker 1: Something strange happened to me this morning.
Speaker 2: Was it a dream where you see yourself standing in
sort of sun god robes on a pyramid with a
thousand naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at No?
I am I the only person that has that dream.
Speaker 3: When he auditioned for this movie, he read the script
and realized Chris Knight is not a polite guy.
Speaker 1: Hmm.
Speaker 3: So when he came into the room, he was cocky
and introduced himself to Brian Grazer, who is the producer.
Speaker 1: The producer. Yeah, and he's Brian Grazier, big producer. Like
he's done a ton, like worked with Ron Howard and
done a ton of stuff. He's done a ton of stuff.
I don't think he had done quite that, not much
at that point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like splash was his big thing at that moment, right,
But he introduced himself. Brian Grazer says, Hi, how you doing,
I'm the producer, and al Kimer said, you look like
you're twelve.
Speaker 1: I like to work with men.
Speaker 3: And they thought, you know what, that cocky attitude, that
self confidence, this is our guy.
Speaker 1: That's exactly what Chris Knight needs to be. Yeah, the reformed,
rebellious nerd. That's right, that's right. Didn't want him to
think he was stuffy. You know, I'll bring no penis. Wait,
don't eat that. I've heard it can cause enormous breath.
Oh my god, I'm too late.
Speaker 3: Some of his lines in this movie are so funny.
I really really enjoy this movie. I'll be interested to
see how you weigh in at the end of this
when we do our final judgment.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, So tell me, did you see this movie
when it first came out? Like the theater? This was
a HBO staple for me though, Okay, I don't remember
it in theaters. I did see Weird Science in theaters, huh,
but this was a regular on HBO for I'm pretty
confident my brother took me to see this one. This
is okay, yeah, this is one of those ones. It
wasn't it wasn't up to the Diehard or The Future
that he did that with me with, but this was
definitely one that we went and saw together.
Speaker 3: I did see Top Secret in the theater, and I
saw Top Gun about twenty times in the theater, so
you know.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, no, Top Secret was We loved it because
we're big airplane fans and that was I mean, same guys,
So we watched Top Secret a lot. Actually, we may
have had that one on VHS.
Speaker 3: Right, So, I just want to run through some of
these titles for Val Kilmer. I mean, we all are
pretty familiar with his career, I think, but I mean,
listen to some.
Speaker 1: Of these names.
Speaker 3: You've got heat you've got Ghosts in the Darkness. You've
got Wonderland where he plays John Holmes. Kind of interesting.
Speaker 1: Wow, I missed that one.
Speaker 3: You have Top Gun, Yes, you have Willow. Yeah, you
have The Doors.
Speaker 1: Mad Martigan. Yeah, Jim Morrison. You you have thunder Heart.
Remember what his name Wasn't that that's a good movie
because I don't remember his name. But you have Tombstone. Gosh.
I saw the Babylon b headline on the day that
he died, and it said, all men across the country,
in honor of Val Kilmer's death are quoting too Stone
just like usual. That's good. I like it.
Speaker 3: And then, of course he was in Batman Forever.
Speaker 1: Hm hmm, how about that.
Speaker 3: We need to talk about that sometime.
Speaker 1: Actually, yeah, we do have a we do have a
What the heck Happened coming up where we've got the
same director right still, Joel Schumacher, but after Joel and
Val parted ways. I remember I remember seeing Joel talk
about not rehiring Val and literally saying Vow was an apple,
and I was just like, wow, I didn't I wouldn't
have expected that. I mean, he's definitely a character, but
I don't think he was probably the worst actor in
that particular scenario, especially after Batman and Robin came out.
Batman and Robin made his performance in Banman Forever looked
good Oscar worthy. But I've got something and we're going
to talk about that with Jeff Johnson this summer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Badman and Robin versus Superman returns.
Speaker 1: Yes though too. What happened episodes bat Nipples versus Stoker Superman.
Speaker 3: When you've got a Stocker Superman, you've got a problem.
So I want to tell you this, this idea that
Joel Schumacher found Vlkilmer difficult. I think Martha Coolidge found
him difficult. I know Tony Scott found him difficult.
Speaker 1: He's a difficult guy. Okay.
Speaker 3: The director of the Island of Doctor Moreau, Oh, which
is a legendary terrible production.
Speaker 1: Yeah, is that that's the one with Marlon Brando, right,
Marlon Brando? Okay, I believe it was John Frankenheimer. I
know he was the director of that show. Okay, he said,
and I you know, I'm quoting from the Val documentary.
If I were making a movie called The Life and
Times of Val Kilmer, I would not hire that a hole.
And I was like, dang, yeah, okay.
Speaker 3: Legendary actor, fun on the screen.
Speaker 1: Difficult to get along with them, not a friend of
directors apparently, all right, okay, well it's good to know. Okay.
Speaker 3: Now then, as Mitch, we have Gabriel Jarrett.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want you to think about what you've done, Kent,
and from now on, stop playing with yourself. Yeah, that
was gonna be more excited. Yeah until last year, year
and a half ago.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so, I mean he's bounced around a little bit,
he's done some stuff.
Speaker 1: Upon thirteen, he was like, he was like, what fourteen
when this when the film? This movie? Right, he's born
in nineteen seventy so yeah, yeah, and this came out
in eighty five, so yeah, he's probably fourteen maybe just
hit fifteen, right, And interestingly enough, just a year and
a half ago it circled full circle when he was
old and after a fourteen year old girl he got
arrested in a not arrested, not rest. He got caught
because that the police. Oh that's right, those guys weren't cops. Yeah.
So this was like the citizens per patrol or per
patrol something like that name. Yeah. So anyway, basically a
watchdog group that would lure guys into fishing text threads
with girls that were under age allegedly which were not
girls at all, just these guys out on witch hunts
for these guys trying to uncover the pervs. And yeah,
and Gabrielle Jarrett was meeting someone who he thought was
a fourteen year old girl at the end of a
pier somewhere, and once confronted, he argued for a bit,
and then he took off on his little scooter a
little like limewires. Can you just imagine the embarrassment of
the situation, only to be intensified by the fact that
you're escaping on a little battery phone app scooter.
Speaker 3: He might have to go home and live in mom
and dad's, So yeah, pretty awkward.
Speaker 1: But as I point it out to you, you know,
they turned over all their stuff the police. Just to
be the devil's advocate here, They turned all their stuff
over the police, and they still haven't filed any charges
against him. So he maintains that he never posted anything inappropriate.
They say he did. He said it was her who
posted all the inappropriate stuff and he was just coming
to let her down easy in person. It was his story.
I don't know why you'd not be able to do
that by text, but I.
Speaker 3: Rolled up a muscooter. I was gonna let her down easy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, wearing my hoodie and dark sunglass. I don't know
that I'm making that part up. I'm just kidding, Oh
my gosh. Yeah, but anyway, kind of a kind of
a sad end to a not quite career.
Speaker 3: But yeah, we didn't know that when we started this podcast.
And sadly Mitch is in big trouble. Yeah, possibly maybe
maybe we see who knows?
Speaker 1: All right, Michelle Myrink.
Speaker 2: I never sleep.
Speaker 1: I don't know what.
Speaker 3: Had a roommate and drove her nuts.
Speaker 1: I mean really, I have to take away an ambulance
and everything. But she's okay now. But she had to
transfer to News your school. But I don't know if
that anything, it would be my fault. But listen, if
you ever need to talk any help saying, just let
me know, because I'm just a couple of doors down
from you guys, and I never sleep. Okay, Okay, So
I dove deep on Michelle Myra. Oh good, okay, because
I mean she is It's a literal like who's Who's
list of movies in the eighties that she's in.
Speaker 3: She had a string of great movies she.
Speaker 1: Had Okay, so she had The Outsiders, she had The
Joy of Sex, which I don't think was a great movie,
but uh, I mean it had it looked like it
had potential. I could see how she would be confused
with it. Okay, just to interrupt you real quick. Joy
of Sex. Yeah, I haven't seen that movie, but I
do know it was directed by Martha Coolidge. Oh okay, yeah, yeah,
so like the year before, working with the same director.
So just a Martha Coolidge real quick. Because she's got
there's some interesting things about her. Number one, she is
a distant relative of Calvin Coolidge, the president. Oh yeah, wow,
I thought that was pretty cool. After film school, directed
a bunch of documentaries about New York City, but then
went and studied with Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler studied
the craft of acting, not because she wanted to act,
but because she wanted to direct. And then she went
and went to la and joined Zoetrope Studios with Francis Ford,
cole Ford Copola. Right, she does Valley Girl.
Speaker 3: She basically discovers Nicholas Cage absolutely. I mean, he had
been in been in Outsiders, Rubblefish.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Yes, he had been in Rubblefish.
Speaker 3: Right, because he's Francis Ford Coppola's nephew. But she's the
one who actually gave him a shot. But you can
see the connection there because he she's working. Yeah, that's right,
that makes the connection makes sense. She was ended up
being the first female president of the Director's Guild of America.
So I mean not to say she's killing it.
Speaker 1: But back to Michelle Myrink, Okay, So list of her
shows nineteen eighty three, The Outsiders nineteen eighty three, Valley
Girl nineteen eighty four, Joy of Sex nineteen eighty five,
she was on an episode of Family Ties. I'd love
to talk to you about that, okay. Then of course
Real Genius, which we're talking about today. And then she
did a few more movies, including Nice Girls Don't Explode.
I'm really kind of curious about that one. But then
in eighty nine she just said, this is not the
life that I want. She went and studied like Zen
Buddhism with her husband, and they now live up in
Canada and she's opened her own acting studio up there
where she tries to train people in the way that
she was trained in the acting schools in Hollywood. Interesting. Yeah,
you know.
Speaker 3: One title that you didn't mention, Revenge the Nerds.
Speaker 1: Oh, yes, I totally jumped right over it. Yes, Yes,
she's one of the girl Nerds.
Speaker 3: Yes, So I want to talk about her Family Ties
episode real quick, Okay, okay, do you remember Skippy, Yes,
Alex's buddy. Yeah, love was like a nerd yea and
he's always hanging around Alex p Keaton. So Michelle Myrink's character,
I can't remember her name. She was one of Mallory's friends.
She comes over the house and Skippy's like in love
with her and he wants Alex to set them up
on a date. And so Alex is doing his best
to match make and Skippy leaves whatever. And so Alex
and Michelle Myrink's character are at the kitchen table, you know,
the Family Ties kitchen table, and he's trying to like
build up Skippy and she's like, Alex, I've been waiting
for this moment my entire life. And she plants one
on him and he's like, he's like frozen.
Speaker 1: But she's like a little vixen in this one.
Speaker 3: Nice I was like, let's go Jordan.
Speaker 1: Oh. And her character is I mean, it's steal. She
steals every scene that she's in, that scattered, manic little thing.
Are you done yet?
Speaker 3: I can't start weird because I'm here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And she's like, yeah, she's just here and there.
I never sleep, so come down and talk to me.
Speaker 1: And yeah, great character, great character.
Speaker 3: Speaking of great characters, we have the wonderful William Atherton
as Professor Hathaway in this movie.
Speaker 1: What are you looking at your laborers? You're supposed to
be laboring, That's what I guess. We're not having an education.
Not Peck, not Walter Peck, and not Harvey Thornberg. Right,
he is in the trinity. We have completed our trinity. Uh,
we've completed our trinity of a whole characters played by
William Mathton with a math to think.
Speaker 3: Let's rank these real quick. Okay, you got Ghostbusters. You
got the Environmental Protection Agency Walter Peck.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm Walter Peck.
Speaker 2: I represent the Environmental Protection Agency the third District.
Speaker 1: Great, how's it going down there?
Speaker 3: You got the news reporter from Diehard, the one who's
gonna call I N S. If they don't let him
in Thornburg.
Speaker 1: Thornberg. Yeah, all right, Look, sim I tell you what.
You don't want to give me a truck, I'll go
and I'll steal a truck. Hey, give us a break, Thornburg, Harve,
eat it, Harvey.
Speaker 3: And then you've got Jerry Hathaway.
Speaker 1: Yeah, hello, Jerry. I told you before. Can't you don't
get to use my first name? Did I?
Speaker 3: Who asked Mitch if he asked Mitch's parents if he
was possibly adopted?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Or well better than that. He was like, you
won't graduate. Even if you pass, you don't pass. Right,
Like he's gonna screw over one of the geniuses because
he doesn't give him the stuff he needs for the
under the table money that he's using to build his house. Right,
I mean, so, which is the slimiest of those three? Woh,
that's hard call. I'm gonna go with this one. I'm
gonna go with Professor like he's he is bad in
all respects.
Speaker 3: I'm with you, I think despite his terrible characters, you know,
he's dickless and ghostbusters right, and he's he at least is.
Speaker 1: He believes he is fighting the good fight. In that one,
he's the EPA, like these guys are these guys.
Speaker 3: These guys are releasing now's just chemicals and we have
and you're right, but Professor Hathaway complete scumbag, vindictive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, everybody loves and he's condescending and awful. Right, Yeah,
this is this one wins for sure. I'm with you. Yeah,
and I'm just gonna say, if you're playing a reporter,
you kind of they're all slimy, So sorry say that
l after right, Sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 3: This is the last chance these kids are gonna have
to speak to their parents.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I want to talk about Robert Prescott for
a second. Okay, check it out. Well, yeah, for what mistakes?
I guess he said you guys were stuck.
Speaker 2: No no, no, no no no no no no no no no.
Speaker 1: Let's get something very clear here. Okay, when Jerry's not here,
you do what I he plays Kent.
Speaker 3: It goes to Jerry to me, playing with yourself.
Speaker 1: He's a bit over the top.
Speaker 3: Okay, so he drove you crazy. Yes, I thought he
was awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's supposed to be unlikable, but yeah, I found
his acting unlikable. But it's fine for this movie. He's fine.
Speaker 3: So I first kind of discovered that actor in Bachelor Party.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3: He's the guy that's vying for Tony Katain's love, yes,
and like her dad really wants them together, and he
just can't stand Tom Hanks.
Speaker 1: And right, he's the blonde, handsome boy from the club, right.
Speaker 3: That's right, the one that they dangle out, the one
don't naked Bachelor Party. Yeah, and then of course he's Kent,
who's like chief.
Speaker 1: Of the butt heads in this movie.
Speaker 3: Right, so he actually remember, he sabotages the laser by putting.
Speaker 1: He's pretty slimy too, putting oil on his optics. So
that at the end scene in the movie, whenever he's
going to what he thinks is some sort of revelatory
experience from God, let me have it. And like as
the popcorns popping, he's just standing there and his hands
are in this kind of I don't know, like almost
epileptic form behind him. Like I'm like, what he thinks
he's getting a sign from God. Okay, Okay, it's ridiculous,
but all right, yeah, that's right. Yes, I think he
does great in this movie. I love having somebody to
fight against you know, right, Okay, all right, I want
to talk about John.
Speaker 3: Grys for a second. Okay, okay, he's the guy who
plays Laslow, the guy who lives in their closet.
Speaker 1: Yea, so that's Low Hollyfield Leslow Hollyfield. So do you
know that this is based on a real person? Tell
me his name is Hopfeld? What? Yes? Literally, they and
Martha Coolidge talks about meeting this guy like this, this
is a legitimate guy who was up at the top genius. Cracked,
went kind of crazy, she said, when he came in,
like he's nastier than Holyfield, like Hopfeld like didn't cut
his fingernails, like he walked in and they were like
long and you know, going to church and Atlanta a
long kind of deal and I got you and and
just bizarre, like smelled bad, just weird but obviously stratosphere
genius with all these weird quirks and yeah, which I'm sorry.
What was the actor's name, John Grice, Wry John Grice,
who has been in a bunch of stuff. He was
the werewolf in Yes, and he's uncle whatever his name is. Yeah,
I mean he's done so many memorable parts, but this
one he I heard him talking about it, and he's like,
I really want to kind of wanted to hone in
on the fact that he's wounded, and he nails that
because he's very lovable, like Hollyhells. Even though he's so
weird and mysterious. He's like you can tell that he's
been like he's like the dog that shakes when you
go to petit, but kind you know, it's it's great.
Speaker 3: I love when he comes to tell them. They're celebrating
this breakthrough in the laser and he comes to tell
and they're having a party or whatever, and they're like,
what do you think they're going to use this laser
for it?
Speaker 1: Right? Yeah, he's the one that like tips the hand
for the bad guys.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is like, how about a big block of
Swiss cheese? And you know, but he's like no, he
points it out to them and they realized they've been duped,
you know. Okay, so his dad is a director. Okay,
did you ever see the nineteen seventies version of Helter Skelter. Yeah,
oh yeah, yeah, he directed that movie.
Speaker 1: Oh wow. Okay, yeah, crazy okay.
Speaker 3: And actually I was listening to John Gray's tell the
story of how he got involved in acting. So he
was hanging out at his dad's job. Essentially, they're on
the lot, his dad's working and John was, you know,
bugging him, and he's like, just go play on the
on the Bonanza lot and sends him over to the
Bonanza lot. Well, he had just lost a front.
Speaker 1: Door working about Little Joe Yes and haws.
Speaker 3: Yes, Bananza okay, Yeah, and he had lost a tooth
and he's out there just screwing around. He's bugging his
dad to death. So he sends him over there and
basically somebody looks at him and thinks, you know, that
kid'd be pretty good. So that's how they discovered him.
Come here, Yeah, I need you right here playing on
the Bonanza lot.
Speaker 1: Right. Wow.
Speaker 3: So okay, So I've got a couple other names I
want to share with you before I drop my big
my big one. Okay, okay, So you've got Yugi Okemono.
I can't remember how he say his name properly.
Speaker 1: He's the Howard Kosel from Better Off Dead or it
was it real gene or no, it was better off Dead.
It was better Off Dead.
Speaker 3: He does the uh language lessons.
Speaker 1: Right, Yes, And we mentioned that he is of course
also in Karate Kid two as the bad is chosen
and he's chosen, and then shows up in Corporate Kai
as the same character again, but he is briefly in
this it's at the pool party. He looked into the
right scene to be a part of in this movie,
as is the guy that we talked about last time,
Real Smooth Cliff. He's in that scene as well from
sixteen Candles.
Speaker 3: Okay, just while we're here. The pool party is one
of the most ridiculous scenes in the entire movie.
Speaker 1: I if wanted to have a party like that for
my entire life.
Speaker 3: But I'm totally with you, right because it looks like
a blast. But literally, they've set up a pool in
like the orchestra section of the auditorium of the auditorium,
and they've got a water slign and somebody said, yeah,
let's set up a pool in this room and have
the Tanning Invitational come.
Speaker 1: Hey, hey, if people buy tickets, sell tickets, that's my gosh,
it literally was.
Speaker 3: I was just looking at this going, could the production
not afforded to have this at a pool somewhere?
Speaker 1: No, this makes it so much better because I think
that that's kind of part of the atmosphere that they
were going for in this movie. I mean we talked
about how this is kind of based on cal Tech, right,
and so it would be more likely that those students,
instead of going to an actual real pool, would go
how can we make a pool out of a theater?
You know? Right? And and and even the you know
the scene where everything is ice. You know this ice,
This is what happens to water when it gets cold.
So that was based on a real thing that that
happened at cal Tech. I don't know if it was
precisely that, but that same idea. And you'll notice the
walls have cartoons all over them. You notice as they
were walking on right, that's what the cal Tech like.
They literally went to cal Tech. They went to the
dorm that these students were in, and they took pictures
of the walls. I mean, this wasn't like some creative
genius put this up there. They took the pictures from
cal Tech and re painted them, drew them all over
the walls. And then she had some cal Tech students
come in and they were like consultants to talk about
how things worked. But then like when people left and
they were still there with Martha cool and she'd be like,
go draw on the wall some and they loved it.
They would go put more stuff on the walls. Right,
But that that kind of crazy. Let's spink outside of
the box. Let's do something different. Okay, that's fair, Yeah,
all right.
Speaker 3: You also have Deborah Foreman in this movie. She has
kind of a smaller part. She plays Susan Yep, she's
the girl who asked Chris Knight if he can ye know.
He's like, have you ever seen a body like this
in your entire life?
Speaker 1: That's my daughter? Oh, I guess you have right.
Speaker 3: And she says, can you drive a six inch spike
through a board with your penis? And he's like, not
right now?
Speaker 1: Like a girl's got a habrstandards. Yes, that's Devorah Foreman.
She's Valley Girl. She was in Valley Girl. Yeah, she
was the val She was the Valley Girl.
Speaker 3: So, just to recap, we haven't talked about the movie
Valley Girl, but we have talked about Deborah Foreman.
Speaker 1: We've now talked about Michelle Myrink. We talked about eg
Daily in our Better Off Dead episode and Nick Cage Yeah,
and Martha Coolidge.
Speaker 3: We're kind of making our way through Martha around.
Speaker 1: Hovering around it. Maybe Valley Girl versus Past Times a
Richmond High maybe maybe maybe.
Speaker 3: All Right, here's the name I want to talk to
you about.
Speaker 1: Okay, Okay.
Speaker 3: There is a older woman in this movie who's like
a groupie.
Speaker 1: She's like a nerd groupie, nerd group Yeah, okay. Her
character's name is Cherry Nangel. Yes, is that right. I've
been looking for you for sixteen years. Yeah, yeah, Cherry Nougel.
I think is her name? Uh huh? Okay.
Speaker 3: So she's played by Patty de Bonvi.
Speaker 1: Okay, it's a French name. Okay, Okay, now it's a
d apostrophe, the apostrophe.
Speaker 3: She was a model in London when she was a teenager. Okay, okay,
So this is my connection back to Weird Science where
we talked about. There is a song written about Kelly Lebroc.
Oh right, right, right, Man Eater, Man Eater, Go back
and listen to our part one, part one. Yeah, Kelly Lebroc.
The song Man Eater by Hollan Notes was written about
Kelly LeBrock, right, Okay, And I tease you you up
that there's actually another song written about somebody in real
genius's this lady. So I'm gonna tell you a little
just a little bit about her.
Speaker 1: Okay, So she was a model in the sixties.
Speaker 3: She was in this really important French erotic film in
the seventies, very artistic.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: Know a lot about it, but I saw the movie poster,
and the French are okay with nudity on movie posters.
I just let you know about that, all.
Speaker 1: Right, Google search. Yes. And so she was a kind
of a happening babe, you know.
Speaker 3: And she went to a party where there are a
bunch of musicians and you know, musicians they like their
hot babes.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, those weird musicians like the babe I know.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: So she goes to a party in New York City,
right before she goes back to London to work on
her modeling career whatever. So just attendees at this party.
You have Jimmy Page, you have Steve Winwood, you have
Eric Clapton.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you've dang, You've got the Yeah, you've got
a trifecta of English rock stars there.
Speaker 3: That's incredible, I mean, right, yea, Now this is you know,
early seventies.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but she meets Kat Stevens there, okay, yeah, moonshadow,
that's right. Yeah yeah, go.
Speaker 3: Back to our American Werewolf in London episode here.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: So in nineteen seventy he releases a song called Lady
de Bonvie.
Speaker 2: My Lady da Banvie, Why.
Speaker 1: Do you sleep? So, Steve, Lady de bond Vi And
this girl's last name is de Bonby yep, so I'm
going to make the mental leap that the song is
about her. Yes? Was he at this party with Jimmy? Yeah? Yeah,
Cat Stevens. Stevens was there and he's still Cat at
that point, that's right. He wasn't used tohamada yeah whatever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so they started a relationship. He kind of was
like struck by her beauty. Obviously wrote a song about her.
It reached number eight in the UK. Oh wow, so
kind of a hit song. Cool, not what I was
familiar with. But I also want to drop this song yet, okay.
Patty de Bonvie yes, also was on a Miami Vice
episode and she and Don Johnson were married basically common law.
Speaker 1: Married for four years eighty one to eighty five, cohabitated huh. Okay.
Speaker 3: They have a son together Wow. What she and Don
Johnson were like an item. Wow for several years. That's crazy,
during the Miami Vice years.
Speaker 1: Wow. Nice.
Speaker 3: And now she's in nineteen eighty five. She's chasing down
Mitch because he's the smartest guy around, but she ends
up with Laslow.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: All right, so that's the cast a real genius.
Speaker 1: Yeah, love it? Okay, tidbits yeah, hit me all right,
which we're gonna start with, go back to Weird Science. Now,
let's go back to Weird Science. All right, dude, but
wad So here's the tidbit I have on Weird Science. Okay, okay,
So you remember what goes wrong when they try to
recreate the that's a Persian missiles? Yeah right, my name
is Chet. I didn't think it was a whales, right right,
So that scene obviously was not an inexpensive scene to shoot, okay. Yeah,
And so they literally had to rig up the floor
so that this gigantic missile would up through the floor. Yea,
the whole you know, all the cast members are their
carpet parts and all of this is happening. And as
it reaches its peak, Anthony Michael Hall lets one go,
Like the place just starts lacking and John Hughes is
like you, and so they had to they had to reverse.
They had to pull it back down.
Speaker 3: And like film clip it together, like they.
Speaker 1: Filmed it taking it back down, because the carpet's already
ripped at that point, right, so they might to film
it coming back down and then reverse the footage so
that it looked like it was coming up. Because Anthony
Michael Hall spoiled the million dollars shot.
Speaker 3: With Wow, that's hilarious.
Speaker 1: That is hilarious, man.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, I've got just a couple of tidbits for
you on Weird Science. Okay, all right, So I thought
this was interesting. You know how when they advertise or
distribute a movie in other countries sometimes they changed the name.
So Weird Science in other countries is not called Weird Science.
In Sweden, it's called dream Woman. In Russia, it's called
oh the Science right. Germany is called cool Magic with Lisa.
In Denmark it's Touched Me, I'm yours, Okay, okay, but
this is my favorite one. In Japan, it's called Electric Venus.
Speaker 1: I really thought you were gonna say electric vagina, electric venus.
So okay, there was.
Speaker 3: A scene apparently that was filmed.
Speaker 1: It was in a script.
Speaker 3: It was filmed where the two bullies, the Robert Downey
junior character and Robert Wrestler is the other guy's name,
Ian and whatever the bullies where Lisa turns them into
like a pig and a donkey, and really we don't
really get any sort of resolution and resolution with them.
They just kind of vanish.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they go away, but a pig and a donkey. Yeah.
There's another scene in the movie that they cut out
where like these guys show up for the party and
they're all wearing like devo hats. Yeah, at least it's like, no,
you can't come in. Really yeah, okay, yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 3: Okay, I did like this. John Hughes described Lisa as
Mary Poppins with breasts.
Speaker 1: Well, okay, Mary Poppins had breasts, so I don't really
understand that.
Speaker 3: But okay, I mean Julie Andrews, Kelly LeBrock.
Speaker 1: Dude, don't don't go there. Julie Andrews is hot. At
least she was back in the day. That's fair. It's fair. Okay.
I want to just throw something at you. See what
you think about this? Huh?
Speaker 3: In the John Hughes universe. Weird Science takes place at
Shermer High School. That's the same school that The Breakfast
Club takes place at. Yes, it's also the same school
that Ferris Bueler's Dale takes place at.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 3: I think probably Pretty and Pink and others some kind
of wonderful Probably there is an alternate reality where Ferris
and Ian are buddies, you know, and like, you know,
Sloan goes to this party and runs into Lisa Or
she's friends with deb and Hilly. They're on the cheerleading squad. Yeah,
I think it's kind of fun to think about maybe
Sloan and Claire from Breakfast Club and Helly and Deb
or on the same cheerleading squad.
Speaker 1: Sure, And Anthony Michael Hall is the nerd from sixteen
candis Or from Breakfast Club either on both is also
the nerd from Weird Science. I mean he could be
the same guy in each one. I mean, obviously his
name is different, so that kind of messes things up.
But yeah, it's still fun to think about it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, tidbits from Real Genius do so if
you ever watch the trailer the original trailer for Real
Genius there's a scene where Chris Knight is in a
lawn chair and there's like helium balloons and he's floating
and he's you know, he's got his ray bands on.
He's being cool and he's floating around in a launch
air propelled by helium balloons. They actually cut that from
the movie, I think because they were afraid that people
were going to try that.
Speaker 1: Ah, okay, and then they tell you up came out there,
you go. I do think people would have tried that,
and people may still try people have tried that.
Speaker 3: Okay, Let's talk about the popcorn scene for a second. Okay,
So literally, it was somebody's job for six weeks to
do nothing but pop popcorn.
Speaker 1: Right. It turns out that popcorn is very flammable, because
they rented a warehouse to pop all of the popcorn,
and they just throw it in the bag there, popped
all of the popcorn, stored it, and then they burned
down the warehouse because the popcorn was flammable. And so
they said, okay, we have to do something to keep
it from number one catching on fire and number two
from rotting in the interim between when we pop it
and when we have it in this house, and then
of course they rig up a whole system so that
they can like blow it out of the you know,
cause it's they're not actually popping the corn, right, they're
the tin foils over it to create the illusion. But
it's already popped. People. It's the magic of Hollywood, right,
And so they're they're they're gunning it out basically and
gunning it out of the windows. But the buttery looking
part of things is like a flame retardant sort of
anti rot spray that they put all over.
Speaker 3: It, and they had to protect it from the birds.
They were real worried the birds was gonna eat it
and they get you know, die because of this flame
retardan stuff all over it, right, right, so they had
to be real careful about that.
Speaker 1: Okay, now you sent me something. This is a little weird.
You sent me something, or maybe I just came across it.
This is there is a rumor that Tom Hanks has
like a brief cameo in this. I keep in mind,
this is nineteen eighty five, okay, and so if you
if you search Tom Hanks cameo real genius, you're gonna
find some screenshots and you're gonna be like, is that
Tom Hanks, because it really it could be so at
You remember when Mitch first gets to the college, he
says hello to a lady and he's like, I'm looking
for this. She's like, oh, I'm glad to know that
we have one, and she takes him to the weird guy.
Never always check your references, yes, And then at that
point he's like, well, I gotta go, and he backs
up and he backs into somebody. That person. I mean,
they've got their back to the camera, but just briefly like,
go like this and it really looks a lot like
Tom Hanks. But I say that in the same way
that I think that the guy in the Rosanna video
looks a lot like Patrick Sways.
Speaker 3: It is Patrick Swaves, not Patrick Swade.
Speaker 1: It does look like him, but it's not him. And
this guy and then I saw some other people are like, no,
that's not Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks is in the popcorn
scene and he's got this white but I can't find
any pictures of that. So I think this is urban bs,
is what I thin. I think this is.
Speaker 3: The only connection I can think of. Splash, Well, you
have Splash with Brian Grazer bachelor Party and Robert Prescott
was in bachelor party as well. Yeah, so there are
some connections there.
Speaker 1: It could have happened. Yeah, interesting, Yeah, okay.
Speaker 3: On the subject of popcorn, yes, they tried to simulate
this idea that popcorn would burst through the doors blow
out the windows.
Speaker 1: They did find that you could you could heat the
popcorn up with a laser and make it.
Speaker 3: Pop legitimate okay from space.
Speaker 1: Well that probably would have been a little hard for
MythBusters to pull off. The test for that one, come on, guys.
Speaker 3: But basically they found that the that was kind of
busted because the popcorn would just char and yeah, not
tear the house down, right. Yeah, okay, so I just
got a couple more tibits. Right, William Atherton's real last name.
Speaker 1: Is Night. Oh it's William Atherton Knight. Huh. I guess
Bill Knight would be too common. Atherton is less or
maybe just maybe it's his mother's maiden name or something.
I don't know.
Speaker 3: Interesting, when they were promoting this movie, they actually there's
stuff out there I saw that claims this is the
first movie that was promoted by the Internet. Now it
wasn't really the Internet. Well, it's they had a computer. Like, okay,
so here's here's the rest of the story on that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So what they did was this. They promoted this
was the first like movie conference, teleconference or whatever where
they would appear by computer. And so Martha Coolidge and
Brian Grazier were in a different place than all of
the reporters, and they were connected with the comserve intranet's thing.
I mean, it's just like in the movie where you
see them put the phone receiver on the little thing.
It looks like a couple of bunchs of right and
so and so they had this, They had their conference
through the computer. It was wild and crazy. You know.
Speaker 3: I remember the first time I saw one of those
little where you put your phone actually, which is I
guess the modem. When I saw Matthew Brodders's character do
that in War Games, I was like, oh, I need
one of those, right, And I had no idea how
it worked or what it did.
Speaker 1: Right, So yeah, and it would have done nothing for
ten years, right, I mean, yeah, absolute useless to you
unless you were the ultra nerd who could actually, you know,
break into your school's computer and change your grades, change
into pencil.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, okay, before we get into final judgment.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: Something I found interesting is that Weird Science and Real
Genius competed head to head at the box office. They
were released within a week of each other.
Speaker 1: Nice. Yeah, so pretty good matchup, I think. Heck yeah,
absolutely a couple of songs that we just got to
touch on real quick, okay, and they were big songs.
And I say Big One was big and is still
big like we and so throw back to our cheers
for Fears songs from the Big Chair episode. We have
the end scene credits roll and we've got Everybody Wants.
Speaker 3: To Rule the World playing magical.
Speaker 1: My kids love this song. You know, this is a
song that has definitely stid the test of time. And
then for Weird Science we have Oingo Boingo and Danny
Elfman with like his I mean, this is really before
he became the composer, Danny Elfman, he's still with Oingo Boingo,
but John Hughes hits him upbout He's like, hey, I
w should write a song for this, and literally driving
home within a couple of days, he like comes to him,
runs home, plays it and that's that's the song. And
I gotta tell you you heard me singing it when
I come up the stairs. Every time I'm watching this movie,
that song gets freaking stuck in my head. It's a
great tune that I think kind of also stands the
test of time. But it it only made it up
to like forty five. But that's Wingo Boyn's biggest hit.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, absolutely, I've got something for you on this.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: I don't know a lot about the legal details of it,
but the mall scene where Lisa is walking around and
she's like driving the bullies crazy with her crazy good
looks whatever, and you know you have these underwear and
barbed wire, right, So in that music montage for like years,
when I saw it, pretty Woman by Van Halen was
playing in that spot.
Speaker 1: In the movie. Oh, I kind of remember that.
Speaker 3: If you were, I mean, if you're of our generation
and you watched it on HBO, pretty Woman was playing.
Speaker 1: But it's not. It's the Weird Science song.
Speaker 3: Now, weird Science, that's right.
Speaker 1: Interesting must have lost the rights somehow. I don't know
how that works.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, once we've talked before about how like
people movies and music didn't they didn't realize what big
business it was, you.
Speaker 1: Know, sure, and and I mean in contracts back in
the eighties there would have been no mention of something
that had the concept of streaming service or or digital
disc even possibly sure. So yeah, so when you make
a good deal like hey, we can use this for
any of these mediums, and then they're like, well, you're
streaming it on Netflix. It's no longer that medium anymore.
And so no, we're not gonna let you use our
song unless you pay us a bunch of money. And
they're like, screw you, we got our own song, right
something like that.
Speaker 3: By the way, I just wanted to before we got
off that subject, go back to our Tears for Fears episode.
That song makes that moment so enjoyable.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Anyway, we're moving towards file and judgment, But.
Speaker 1: Yeah, why don't you go first? Okay, So this is
this is a genuinely hard decision for me, Okay, because
I love, love, love both of these movies. And Weird
Science is the biggest departure from the John Hughes standard
canon of any movie that he made at that time. Right,
It just it's wacky, wacky. It's that you know, weird,
magical things that are unexplained non things, you know, and
so I I had some reservations about it because of
just how weird appropriately titled it was weird. Yeah, and
Real Genius is genius, like it's funny and really smart,
like they're they're spouting science that is real. Martha Coolidge
did months of research to try to be as accurate
as she could about the lasers and the CIA operatives
and how Caltech students operated in all of this stuff.
But ultimately, very simply, I'm making my decision on the
laugh meter, okay. And I watched these movies one right
after the other. Watch Real Genius, then I watched Weird Science,
and the laugh meter for Weird Science was substantially higher
than for Real Genius. And so because the laugh meter
has to win out, I gotta I gotta pick a
winner somehow, right and the other all respects. These are
head neck to neck, nose to nose had a head
awesome movies, But the one that wins the day for
me is Weird Science because it's just funnier.
Speaker 3: I can't really disagree with you like Chet's character every
single time, and I've seen this movie one hundred times. Cut,
I mean just I just bust up laughing every time
he's on the screen. You know, for me, it's almost
the exact opposite what you said. So when I watch
Weird Science, the absurdity takes me out of it a
little bit. The poop monster, you know, is funny. It's
all that is crazy, goofy funny stuff. You know, the
dog on the ceiling, you know, the pink skies, all
the absurdity of it. Is it fun?
Speaker 1: Yes? Do I laugh all the time? Yes? I love it.
Speaker 3: And it's a clearly a teenage boy fantasy. But for me,
I enjoy real genius due to the cleverness and the
smartness of it, which I know you do too, and
it's just by a nose.
Speaker 1: But if I'm walking out the.
Speaker 3: Door, I've got one DVD I need to grab and
I want to spend the weekend with it.
Speaker 1: For me, it's real genius. I can't fault you. Yeah, well, guys,
tell us what you think. Which movie do you pick?
Is it the weird or is it the genius? Because
that's basically what it seemed to come now to right
h Check us out. You can find us on Facebook
at Shirley Podcast. You can find us on x at
Shirley podcast. You can email us, but be careful. If
you email us, we will pull you in, make you
our friend, and then you'll be co hosting an episode
with us. But email us Shirlypodcast at gmail dot com.
Go check out the shirlypodcast dot com website for all
of our episodes. And like I said before, be sure
and hit that subscribe button. Hit the five stars for me. Man,
Come on, man, you've lasted this long. Hit that five
star for me.
Speaker 3: Hit the subscribe button too. While you're there, there you go.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much. What do we got coming
up next week?
Speaker 3: Next week we have the Black Crows Shake Your money Maker?
Speaker 1: Oh dude, I've dived into this story so hard. This
story is move be worthy.
Speaker 3: I really want them to make a movie out of
just it's nuts.
Speaker 1: I mean, talk about adversity, talk about confrontation. This is
this story is full of them. I can't wait to
talk about these guys.
Speaker 3: Shake Your money Makers turning thirty five years old.
Speaker 1: Thirty five years old, and we will be comparing.
Speaker 3: That one to Tesla Great Radio Controversy.
Speaker 1: Another fantastic episode. I feel like these guys will get
along better than the Robinson brothers. Doude. Everybody gets along
better than this. But I've got obviously a very special
place in my heart which I will tell everybody about
whenever we come to that episode for Tesla. So it's
gonna be last. It's gonna be fun to see you guys.
Then by guys,