Speaker 1: All right, everybody, welcome back to the Shirley Can't Be
Serious Podcast. We are back again to talk about two
of the biggest movies in nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 2: Yes, we're doing our series on nineteen eighty four, and
I just got to say, it may seem like we
had some really great planning, but this is really just
pure divine intervention that these things ended up this way.
We're doing Brimlin's, We're doing Ghostbusters. We had planned to
do those in October, we rearranged the schedule because the
new Top Gun movie fell out, and so we're like, oh,
let's put this with this, which stuck it in between
Huey Lewis and The News and Born in the USA
and Footloose and Purple Rain, and we're like, wait, all
of these things are nineteen eighty four. What an incredible
year this is. We're doing an entire six part series
all things that happened in nineteen eighty four, and so
this is how we have summer of nineteen eighty four.
It's gonna be fantastic.
Speaker 1: Last week, we hope you enjoyed our sports versus Born
in the USA.
Speaker 2: I thought that turned out really well.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 2: This week we're going to talk about.
Speaker 1: Really two gigantic movies that came out on the.
Speaker 2: Same day, the same day. Again, we totally were like,
what movie do we compare to Ghostbusters? Because Ghostbusters is iconic,
and we're like, what movie do we compare to Grimlins.
We're like, oh, they're perfect, They're comedy sci fi. Let's
do that released on the same day. How we didn't
even know it? Amazing, amazing. Okay, before we get going,
I got a little bit of a non humble brag,
like just a regular brag. Yeah, Okay, So I was
looking and we are the number one film podcast in
Brunei and Brunei and Brunei, na I don't. I got
to say hello to all of our listeners in Brunei.
Thank you for listening to us. We really appreciate that
I do not know as much about your country as
I wanted to, and so I decided to look it up.
Looked up BRUNEI, sent you the information and you sent
it back with the date of formation circled and what
year was it? Nineteen eighty four? Nineteen eighty four. Was
that a coincidence? I think not, so. Thank you, Brunei.
Thank you to everybody else who's listening to us all
over the world. We love you all. We've really been
humbled by and overwhelmed by the amount of folks that
we have taken part in this fun journey with us.
So thank you very much. And without further ado, let's
jump into Ghostbusters and Criminals. We came, we saw, we
kicked it that you have.
Speaker 4: Freaking Okay.
Speaker 2: Since these two movies came out on the same day,
I couldn't figure out which one to start with, and
so as I was going through the note skin today,
I decided, let's start with the one that has the
guy from Oklahoma in it. Okay, Grimlins, Yes, all right.
Speaker 3: Don't ever feed him after midnight.
Speaker 2: Mister Hoyd Accident is from Oklahoma. We'll get into all
of that fun history a little bit later on in
the episode, but let's begin with Grimlins.
Speaker 1: Okay, so before we get into the plot and different
details and tidbits and stuff like that. Grimlins and ghost
Boasters were both released June eighth, nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 2: I was shocked.
Speaker 1: I know that Steven Spielberg produced Grimlins, Joe Dante directed it,
and Chris Columbus was the writer.
Speaker 2: These are three heavy hitters.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well they weren't at the time, they weren't.
Speaker 2: Well, Spielberg was Spielberg, yes, but not Joe Dante and
certainly not Chris Columbus. Right that the story starts with
Chris Columbus And if you don't know, Chris Columbus is
the guy who directed Ventures and Babysitting the Home Alons
the Harry Potter series. I mean he's a big time.
I mean, yeah, he's a big time. But at the
time that this all started, he was a guy living
in a loft apartment that was infested by mice. Just
to give a little history, both his parents were factory workers,
but they encouraged him in his love for film, and
so after high school he went on to study at
NYU's Film School, where he was the schoolmate of Charlie
Kaufman and Alec Baldwin talked about a couple of guys
that became vicators as well. Although he received a scholarship,
he forgot to renew it and he was forced to
take a factory job himself in order to pay for schooling.
And so while he was on his shifts, he secretly
worked on this twenty page screenplay, which one of his
teachers later helped him to get an agent with and
that's how ultimately he was able to get the script
that I'm going to tell you about in front of
mister Steven Spielberg. Okay, so he had a roommate he said,
you love these monster movies, why don't you just write
a monster movie? And so at the time, he was
living in this loft apartment that was infested by mice,
and so he falls asleep with his hand hanging off
the bed and he wakes up as he feels them
like scurrying across his fingers, and he's like petrified that
they're going to start nibbling on his fingers. So he
decides to write this story about a house that is
infested with tiny monsters. The original version of the script
is much more terrifying than what we got. Mom's severed
head comes rolling down the stairs, the dog gets eaten.
Billy and Kate walk into a McDonald's and like, all
the food's still there, but all the customers are eating.
Speaker 5: It was pretty rough. But he takes the name from
the little creatures his.
Speaker 2: Dad would talk about, because you know, his dad is
a World War two era eye so his dad would
blame all of the problems with the car on these
little Grimlins, just like Murray in the movie Murray Futterman does.
Speaker 5: This is what his dad does, So he names these
guys Grimlins.
Speaker 2: Now, you may remember that there's some old Bugs Bunny
cartoons that have a Grimlin in it. It's a reference
to the old World War II thing that Murray Futterman
would talk about, the you know, the big one WWII.
Speaker 1: Right, Oh, yeah, for sure, I told you earlier. I
am a lover of the old Looney Tunes, so I'm
very familiar.
Speaker 2: I think it was called falling hair yep.
Speaker 6: A constant menace to pilot at the Rimlins brick planes
with the Dieppo little Sabeji, This.
Speaker 1: Little goofy, little green guy drives Bugs Bunny crazy and
scares him to death and tries to crash the plane
the whole time Bugs Bunny.
Speaker 2: Is on the plane. Yes, one of the few Bugs
Bunny cartoons where Bugs Bunny is like the losing end
of the cartoon the whole he gets worked over by
this guy.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: So, Chris Columbus, he lives in New York City at
the time, and he's poor as can be, and he
loves going down to Chinatown to buy stuff because you
can get food cheap, and he's fascinated by all the
little hidden shops and that's kind of where the okay,
the intro to the movie comes from. And so while
he's down there, one day, he finds a Chinese dictionary
and he looks up the name for devil in the
Chinese dictionary and the word is magwai nice. So he
completes the script. He sends it to his agent and
it is rejected by about forty five different producers. Six
to eight weeks go by and his roommate comes in
the room and says, Steven Spielberg is on the phone.
Yeah right, okay, whatever, Yeah, you're right. So it's just
like the Michael Jacksonaty van Halen story. It's that, hey,
you know, no, this is really really he was really
Steven Spielberg. So his script had ended up on Spielberg's
desk in like this giant stack of scripts.
Speaker 5: And Spielberg takes it home for the weekend.
Speaker 2: And so this is where Chris Columbus looks at He's
looking over these scripts and he notices the name, not
the name Grimlins, the name Chris Columbus.
Speaker 5: Because he's like, is this guy really Chrish?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's his given name. Is his given name is
Chris Columbus. So he's like, that's what piqued his interest
to pick up the script and wow, the Weekend reads
it and he says this, it was a delightful, like
a candy store full of devilish mischief. And so he's like,
I want to make this movie. And that's why he's
calling Chris and his tiny mouse infested home. That is
a great story.
Speaker 1: I mentioned to you that I thought maybe there was
a connection to the Twilight Zone movie because Joe Dante
had written and directed one of the episodes shown in
the Twilight Zone movie. Steven Spielberg had produced the Twilight
Zone the movie. Yes, there's the most scary impactful episode
John Litkow footloose right, and there's the gremlin on the
wing of the plane.
Speaker 2: By the way, original Twilight Zone episode of that had
mister William Shatner exactly. Now, Dan Aykroyd is also in
Twilight Zone. The movie is connection to you, Ustbusters, you
want to see something really scared?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean so I thought maybe that those guys
saw that movie and thought hey, let's make a movie
about Grimlin.
Speaker 2: So I think that Spielberg definitely had a lot of
influence over how the story went. It's obviously hyper violent
ratedar movie, but Spielberg wants it to be a more
family friendly kind of movie, and so he gets them
to tone down the script. Now, I've heard that Spielberg
had this kind of idea of an Et part two
where these other Et beings come down to Earth and
it turns out they're bad aliens instead of good aliens,
and so it's this kind of Et and Elliott against
all of the bad aliens. And so I think probably
what happened is he took that concept to Chris Columbus's
script with Grimlins, and it's like, let's make this the story.
Speaker 5: Because Chris Columbus says he's.
Speaker 2: The one who said Gizmo should remain a radio, remained
the Mogwire, not turn into the Grimlin. He should remain
the sweet, cute thing that we can all love throughout
the movie. So he tells he gives this idea to
Chris Columbus make it more family friendly. But important note
here it's really still pretty dang violent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's interesting that you bring that up because Indiana
Jonespan Temple of Doom came out May twenty third third,
nineteen eighty four, so two weeks before Gremlins. Yeah, and
there was already some of these rumblings about do we
have a PG and an R and then something in between?
Speaker 2: Right, Well, there was a big outcry, like after Temple
of Doom and after Grimlins, parents were pretty upset, right,
I mean, you've got spoiler alert in the end of Gremlins.
You've got Stripe melting down to a skeleton in this
kind of awful, bubbly mess, not to mention the blender
scene and the microwave scene. So a lot of parents
walked into PG thinking, Hey, I can send my kid
in here and not even have to be with them,
because PG just meant a babysitter, right right, and so
pretty shocking. I didn't see it when I was a kid. Well,
but Temple of Doom, even Temple of Doom, you've got
to Jim pulling out a heart, yes, and which burns
burns in his hand as the guys dipped into law.
That was that was a little scary. Yes, it was intense.
Speaker 1: It was intense, Yes, not to mention monkey brains and
eating roaches and all that stuff that's upsetting the kids.
Speaker 2: So whenever all of this starts happening, Spielberg is the
one that speaks up and says, you know what, you're right,
we should have a different rating that's in between PG
and R. Why don't we do a PG thirteen so
that parents will know, hey, this isn't appropriate for little kids, right,
the kids should probably be at least a teenager before
they watched this.
Speaker 1: I read the article and it was so long ago
that it was calling it PG two. It's like the
sequel to PG gart. Yes, it's a little pgere than PG.
Speaker 2: You know, PGG.
Speaker 5: So you know what the first movie was that was
rated PG thirteen?
Speaker 2: Is it Red Don? You got it? Red Don nineteen
eighty four? Got it? Yes? Same year? Same year? Okay,
so Spielberg, then he's got Chris Columbus reworking the script,
which he rewrote the script about ten times before they
finally got what was the filming script. And so he
needs now a director. As you mentioned, he had worked
with Joe Dante on the Twilight Zone. As far as
I can tell, Spielberg's a pretty hands off producer. So
it was kind of like, he's our guy that's gonna
direct this episode. So do you know which episode of
Twilight his own Joe Dante did? Was it the Elderly People? No, No,
it's the one remember the kid that's like has sign powers,
I can do anything he wants. His sister has no mouth. Yes,
that was maybe the most terrified creepy yeah. Right, So
Joe Dante had done this is interesting. He had done
back in seventy eight, had done the movie Parana, which
he fully says is a total ripoff, like this was.
He was back with Roger Corman. Then, okay, we've talked
about Roger Corman. He was Roger Corman was the producer
of all of the Gorilla Style. You know, let's make
this movie for ten thousand dollar and we're still going
to make one hundred thousand on it, So that's a
ninety thousand dollars profit, right, I mean, it's just right,
that's good math. He the book, Roger Corman's book is
I've made one hundred movies and none of them have
lost money, you know, yeah, but they're all cheap. They're
own yeah, or knockoffs. And so Joe Dante was the
one who did the knockoff of Spielberg's Jaws. Yeah. So
it's interesting that later on he's like, well, you know,
I liked the knockoff of my script. I'm going to
put that guy on episode number three in the Twilight Zone,
which was written by Are you ready for this? Yes,
Richard Matheson Ah, who is the father of Christopher Matheson.
Speaker 1: Who wrote Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure Excellent. All right, Hi,
one quick tidbit before I forget it. When you're talking
about Joe Dante and Chris Columbus and Steven Spielberg.
Speaker 2: Joe Dante was still in the.
Speaker 1: In the process of trying to keep Steven Spielberg impressed, right, sure,
And so one of the things that he did is
on the movie theater in Grimlins, the Marquee shows two
movies being played. One is Watch the Skies and one
is A Boy's Life. Yes, and a Boy's Life was
the original working title for et right, and Watched the
Skies was the original working title for Close Encounters of
the Third Time yep. And he said, the only reason
I did that is because I wanted to put a
smile on STEVENS.
Speaker 2: Bielberg's face when he was watching dailies. Right. Obviously, he
did a good job on Twilight Zone, but he had
also in nineteen eighty one he had done one of
the two mega werewolf movies that we will be covering
in October, yes, called The Howling. It was based on
the novel by Gary Brander and it had been written
for the screen by John Sales, who had been the
writer on Purana.
Speaker 1: John Sales who directed the Born in the USA video.
Speaker 2: Bingo boom, how about that?
Speaker 6: So?
Speaker 2: And also I just love this. So I came across
this old video of Joe Dante and one of the
actors and one of the actresses from Karana talks and
he's talked, and like three quarters through he pulls out
this little creature and says, this is one of the
creatures that we use. He's kind of been out of
shape because they're using him, like Phil Tibbott did all
of our creatures for Piranha, and now he's using this
in Star Wars too. Wow. Wow, that is so cool
to go back to see that. So he had directed
The Howling. It did obviously did well, fantastic movie, but
it was it did make him a millionaire, Okay, he
ended up directing some TV series. You know what this
He directed some of the episodes of Police Squad, precursor
to the Naked Gun movie. Wow, that's fantastic. You know
why he didn't have any money? I heard this? Oh no, yeah,
tell so the reason why he was broke.
Speaker 1: And kind of shockingly so after the Howling had done well,
that company, the company that produced The Howling, yeah with bankrupt.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, and.
Speaker 1: So he was shorted on his salary.
Speaker 2: I do remember hearing that. That's right, I've forgotten about that.
What's interesting is he's got a huge respect for the screenwriter,
and so he wants to make sure that screenwriter is
there on set the whole time, which doesn't typically happen.
So the way he works his way around it is
he will cast the screenwriter as a part in his
movie so that he can say he's, you know, he's
on set as an actor.
Speaker 5: But then he's got him there as a sounding word
as a creative.
Speaker 2: I think it's fantastic. So anyway, he is poor, sitting
in this ratty office, barely hanging on, wondering where his
next job is coming from. When Steven Spielberg sends him
the script and so he and his partner named Mike
Fanell try to figure out how to make it. Mike
had also worked with Roger Corman before, but one of
the first movies that he did without Corman was the
movie Airplane, in which he is listed to the end
credits as generally in charge of a lot of things.
Speaker 1: That sounds like a Zucker credit right there.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So Joe Nante Mike Fanell confer on this and
they decide they're going to take this horrific movie and
they're going to put it in a Norman.
Speaker 3: Rock wall paint.
Speaker 2: Nice. Yeah.
Speaker 1: By the way, one of the things I wanted to
mention before Steven Spielberg settled on Joe Dante, one of
the guys that he considered as director.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Tim Burton, Yeah, I heard about that, but Burton
hadn't done any full featured film at that point. And
so no, sir, No, all the beauty of what Jodande
has done here is this kind of juxtaposing of things.
I mean, you've got comedy and horror, putting all of
these devils inside of American It's like the nineteen fifties, right, Yeah,
it's like November nineteen fifty five.
Speaker 1: Remember Fifth nineteen fifty five, which when you watch Grimlins
and you look around and you see that town square,
if you don't recognize it, you need to go watch
Back to the Future right now exactly.
Speaker 5: I mean that was the first thing when I sat
down to rewatch this again.
Speaker 2: I don't think I had ever seen the beginning part
of the movie, like I'd always it was all it
was like when it was on, I try to watch it,
but I never sat down and watched Scrimblins from beginning
to end until we started to do this. But when
that first scene started and she's walking through the town,
I'm like, I recognize this town. Yeah. And when I
when I you know, went back and looked again, I'm like, oh,
there's the clock tower. There's a freaking clock tower right there. Yeah,
it's like seeing my hometown. I'm like, hey, let's got
the future. That's Hill Valley, Till Valley. Okay, we're ready
to talk about Ghostbuster's origin stories.
Speaker 7: Let's talk about ghost closure supports.
Speaker 1: For whatever reason, Ray call it Ay, call it long,
call it karma.
Speaker 5: I believe that everything happens for a reason.
Speaker 2: I believe that we were destined to get thrown out
of his dump.
Speaker 7: For what purpose to go into business for ourselves?
Speaker 1: We're right.
Speaker 2: So dan Ackroyd had started on the script for this
one back in late nineteen eighty one, and it was
supposed to be a project for him and John Belushi
and Eddie Murphy.
Speaker 1: Can we just sit and think about the movie that
could have been that ulternate universe where a movie starring
Dan Akrod, John Valish and Eddie Murphy as ghostbusters.
Speaker 2: Yeah. When I first heard about Eddie Murphy, what I
had heard was that he was supposed to be in
the Winston Zedmore Park. It wasn't that. It turns out
he had imagined him from the beginning. It was just
supposed to be only three ghostbusters, and it was entirely different.
It would have been that they were traveling through different
times and dimensions. It took place in the future. It
was a completely different script. It was a huge, huge story.
Speaker 1: In fact, they said that if they would have shot
the script as it was from dan Aker, it cost
like three hundred million dollars in nineteen eighty four money,
which is outrageous, I mean a ton of money.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So then tragically, as he's writing a line of
dialogue for John Belushi. He gets a call from a
friend who says John's gone, So he's passed away. It
obviously costs away too much money to do the script
the way that he's written it, and so once he
talks to Ivan Rightman about it, they have a meeting
and it becomes a completely different script. But let's talk
a little bit about how Akroyd came up with the
idea in the first place. Yes, let's do it, okay.
Dan Ackroyd had grown up like in a family of
mediums and seance parlor type of folks, Like his grandfather
was a guy who had talked to people about maybe
making a radio with crystals that could communicate with the dead.
Speaker 5: I mean, it was a big thing in his family.
Speaker 2: And if you listen to him talk about it, this
is an incredibly intelligent guy who fully thinks that if
we devoted more true scientific thought to the afterlife and
communicating with the afterlife, that we could actually arrive with something.
So he's got that background right, and then he starts
thinking about all of those old ghosts like the app
and Costello movies from the forties and fifties, and he's like,
what if I kind of took those things and put
them together. It took the much deeper and more factually
based stuff and combines it with that silliness of going
out and catching ghosts. So just like Grimlins, the script
here was much darker, much more about the underworld. Although
Steve Puff marshmallow Man was in the original script.
Speaker 3: Yep, it's the stay Puff marshmellow Man.
Speaker 2: You know who else was in the original script? Moogli movie? Yes,
do you know who Moogley is? Fimer No. Moogli is
the logo the ghost with the circle and the slash.
He's got his name, and he's got a name, and
his name is Moogli. And that that logo was already
in dan Akroid's original script. That is one of the
most iconic features of the whole thing. Did you have
a button? Did you have a like a no ghosts
button when you were a kid?
Speaker 1: I had a shirt, yeah, that had the ghost with
the slash threat.
Speaker 2: I had. I had a button like a pin you
know button, Yeah, that had the ghost the slash through
that was covered in slime and it said I've in slime. Nice.
I remember that I had it on my gene jacket
that I had gotten after I'd seen back the Future. Okay,
so Staypuffman appeared like thirty four pages in. He wasn't
the end of the movie. Like I said, The Ghostbusters
were traveling through.
Speaker 5: Multiple times and dimensions.
Speaker 2: And he's diving into his upbringing with these mediums and
spiritualists and he goes really deep. So his dad, Peter Ackroid,
actually has a book called a History of Ghosts and
he describes his childhood as a family seance parlor. His grandfather,
doctor Samuel Ackroyd, actually worked with Samuel Morris on the
possibility of creating a telegraph that would use vibrating crystals
that could communicate with the dead, the radio for speaking
to God. So he's got this script and Ivan Rightman
takes a look at it and he's like, you know what,
let's have lunch. They go to a deli. He's like, Okay,
we can't make this script, right, how about this? How
about it to going into business for ourselves kind of script?
And he talks to him about the idea, right yeah,
And then he's like, and maybe we bring over Harold
and have him help out with the rewriting of the script.
Ivan Rightman, now he's like, got Dan Akroid's idea. He
knows Acroage's willing to work around with it, so he
has to make a pitch to Columbia to get the
movie made. So he doesn't pitch Dan's script. He pitches
the storyline as he's envisioned it, but he doesn't have
the script yet, and so Frank Price from Columbia says, okay,
seems interesting. How much to make it? And Ivan Rightman says,
I had no idea, so I thought, okay, the one
successful movie that I've done so far as Stripes, and
it costs ten million, so this will be three of those.
So thirty million, that's what he says. Then, and he says,
and then Frank Pryce says, okay, we'll do it, just
need you to have it released by June of eighty four.
We got one, well, this was May of nineteen eighty three.
Ivan Rightman hangs up the phone and he's thinking, yeah,
they said yes, And then he's thinking, oh crap, we
only have thirteen months to release and we don't have
a script, we don't have a special effects team.
Speaker 5: And we don't have all of our stars yet.
Speaker 2: Don't get busy. Yeah, okay, no special effects team ILM
is involved with this other movie that's being made at the.
Speaker 1: Time, Indiana Jones of the Tembla Doom Yes, yeah, kind
of a big deal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and consumed ILM. So they have to come up
with their own special effects team. So Columbia fronts Richard Edlund,
who had been with ILM and who was ready to
get out and do something on his own. They front
him five million dollars as a part of the thirty
million to have him start his own special effects company,
which becomes Boss Films.
Speaker 5: Throw back to Fright Night.
Speaker 2: They are the guys who, right after Ghostbusters, took all
of their stuff and went over and made Fright Night. Nice.
So here's some new stuff that I discovered on Richard Edlin.
Right his first filmmaking job, he was hired as a
cameraman by John Dykstra for the movie Star Wars. Nice. Yeah,
So throw back to our Caddyshack episode John Dykstra in
the you know, in addition to being like gigantic in allthings,
he was also the guy that created the gopher for Caddyshack,
the dancing goverh Okay, So but get this, here's the
deep deep, here's the hope. This blows your mind. You're ready, Rea. Okay, So,
Richard Edlin, the guy who did all of the special
effects for Ghostbusters and all of the special effects for
Fright Night, was married to a woman named Rita Cogan
who was the daughter of Michael Cogan, who was the
founder of Tauch And if you don't recognize that name,
it's the company that did Space Invaders. Mind blown. That's
that's awesome. I mean, I mean, how that's pretty close.
So go back to throw back again, throw back to
our history of video games episodes. Go check that out
so you can hear the whole history of Space Invaders there.
That is amazing. Okay, so we know that the movie
is called Ghostbusters, Yes, but it wasn't going to be
called Ghostbusters.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there were multiple names.
Speaker 2: But do you know why.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because there was an old, stupid seventies television show
and cartoon yep called Ghostbusters.
Speaker 3: Yeah you know that.
Speaker 7: I'm calling gouss.
Speaker 2: The Ghostbusters nineteen seven seventies children's show that was owned
by Universal. Remember, Columbia is the one that's trying to
do it, and they keep trying to get the rights
from Universal, and Universal says, no, Ryan, you've got a
really great movie, and I don't want you to have
a great title. You know, we're competitors, right, right, And
so options for other names included ghost Stoppers, ghost breakers, Yes,
ghost smashers. This is going on while they're filming, right,
They still don't they're not sure. And so that scene
where the crowd is chanting Ghostbusters, ghosts, they had to
have them chant ghost breakers sucked. It sucked. You know.
It's like the guy, the second unit guy is like
calling up. He's like, listen to this, and he's like,
it's terrible. We have to have Ghostbusters. And so from
that point on they're just like, it's gonna be Ghostbusters.
I don't know what's gonna happen, but it's gonna be Ghostbusters.
Speaker 1: Ghostbusters. What do you want?
Speaker 2: Well, as it turns out, Frank Price did have enough
of Columbia. He was done with them during the filming
of Ghostbusters, and he just happened to become the head
of another studio called Universal, at which point he sold
Columbia the title for five hundred thousand dollars plus one
percent of film's profits. Nice job. Given Hollywood's accounting practices.
The film technically never made a profit. But that's just
the way that that works.
Speaker 1: You can side note, Yes, thirty million or so budget
for Ghostbusters. Yeah, it made two hundred ninety five million dollars. Wow,
is the second biggest movie of nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 2: First movie. Okay, so here's my tie in. You ready
for this?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Okay. If you lived in nineteen eighty.
Speaker 1: Four, it was this huge phenomenon, right, it was the
gigantic movie of nineteen eighty four. And for me, when
I saw that it was the second biggest movie of
eighty four, I'm like, what the crap?
Speaker 2: Was bigger? Right? Okay in nineteen eighty four?
Speaker 1: Right, Well, remember the third Ghostbuster originally Eddie Murphy. He
left Ghostbusters to go make this little movie called Beverly
Hills comp Now, that didn't come out until December of
eighty four, right, but technically because it was at least
in eighty four at all, and all of the products.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you talk about the Ghostbuster's name that was
owned by that seventies show that I was telling you about.
The company was named Filmation, Yeah, okay, which you may
recognize as they produced the TV show the animated show.
Speaker 2: He man, Oh yeah, that's right, right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So at one point the biggest opponents to Ghostbusters were
Coca Cola and he.
Speaker 2: Man, it's an eighties battle to end all that I
have the power. Okay.
Speaker 1: So one of the things I wanted to mention the
originally both of these movies were intended to be more
adult movies, like they were supposed to be R rated,
both of them. And Spielberg came in and softened Grimlins
and then you know Ghostbusters. They ivan rightman, kind of
softened Ghostbusters.
Speaker 5: Yep, yeah, no, I mean we I wouldn't have been
able to watch them as a kid.
Speaker 2: Nope. So talking about Harold Ramis, he was obviously not
only just a very intelligent guy, but he was an
experienced director, an experienced writer. He had also been a
second city guy, and so his improv skills were on point.
So the scene this is one of my favorites, the
scene where Bill Murray where Peter Linkman comes into the
library and Egon is listening to the table with the
out loud and he says, there's something that's not related
to this at all, but he's like, this is like
that one time that you tried to drill a whole
through your head.
Speaker 5: You remember that, and with I mean there's not a
beat missed.
Speaker 2: That was an improv thing from Bill Murray without missing
a beat, Harold raymis is like that would have worked
if you hadn't stopped, Like what's so good? Very good?
So good? Okay. So I say all that because I
want you to know that I hold Harold Ramis in
the highest regard. But I found out some really interesting
stuff completely unrelated to what we're talking about, but it's
just fascinating. So in March of eighty three, right before
all of this starts, like May is when i'mon Wrten's
making the pitch to Frank Price. Right in March of
that year, Harold Ramis has a close friend named Peter Ivers,
who's a fantastic musician that's been connected with a ton
of stuff. Muddy Waters had called him the best hard
player around. I mean he's a significant guy. Well, he
was found bludgend to death in his apartment, and because
he had this close relationship with Harold's wife, Ann, Harold
Ramis was actually a suspect in the murder for just
a brief period of time, which is weird enough, right,
that's weird enough. He got cleared he had an alibi.
That's fine. But then after the movie has done shooting,
he takes Peter Iver's job as a host of this
new show that they're developing. Has to He tries to
get Bill Murray to come in to host the first show.
Bill Murray can't make it because Ghostbusters shooting late, so
he gets chevy Chase to come in and host the
first show. Chevy Chase gets in a physical fistfight with
somebody in the audience on the very first show. I mean,
it's nuts.
Speaker 5: I'm like, this is so good, it's deserving of its
own episode.
Speaker 2: But I just I just wanted to say that that
was really bizarre to know that right where when all
of these things were happening, herold Ramis was a suspect.
Speaker 5: In a murder case that has remained unsolved to this day.
Speaker 1: Okay, you brought up chevy Chase, and I know we're
going to get into casting here in a second, But
Harold Ramis and Caddy Shack and chevy Chase flashbacktor our
Caddy Scheck episode right. Chevy Chase was considered for the
role of Peter Bankman in Ghostbusters right, Okay, chevy Chase. Also,
Chris Columbus was going to direct Christmas Vacation, but he's like,
I can't work with this jerk.
Speaker 2: Yep. Talking about chevy Chase. Right, as far as I
can tell, everyone in Hollywood hates him, it's pretty amazing. Yeah,
so you want to go into casting.
Speaker 5: Yeah, let's go back to Grimlins and start talking about casting.
Speaker 2: Let's go back to Grimas.
Speaker 3: Okay, so I don't kill it, all.
Speaker 1: Right, So casting the lead of Billy is Zach Gallaghan.
When he auditioned, Yes, he auditioned with Phoebe Kates.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: He just sat down next to her. He put his
head on her shoulder and they kind of cuddled. Yeah,
And Steven Spilberg's like, look, they already love each other. Yeah,
you're cast, that's it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's an unknown.
Speaker 5: So they'd considered some other guys too, right.
Speaker 1: So they had considered a couple of other guys, a
couple of other names that you might recognize, Emilio Estevez, right,
this is before Breakfast.
Speaker 2: Club and Jued Neilson. Oh yeah yeah yeah, prior to
Breakfast Club. Yeah, kind of interesting. Yeah, I could see
either one of those guys in this part. But I
think they both kind of have an edgier bit about
them that Zach doesn't have. He's he's got more of
a kind of an angelic look about it. He's a
little softer and he's more innocent, and he's playing a
guy who's like, it's kind of like he's a thirteen
year old boy even though he's, you know, obviously in
his twenties working.
Speaker 6: At the bank.
Speaker 1: He is a twenty something who works at a bank. Yeah,
who brings his dog to work. And his best friend
is like a thirteen year old kid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of weird. Yeah, but again I think it's
the morphing of the script. So the thirteen year old kid,
Corey Fieldman, Corey Felman, which is this is one of
his first movies, Friday the Thirteenth, Part four.
Speaker 5: Okay, right, so he done that.
Speaker 2: He'd done some commercials but hadn't done a whole lot.
He was the voice Foxing the Hound in Foxing the Hound. Yeah,
he was a dog. Oh yeah, Yeah, he was Copper.
He's the dog.
Speaker 1: I don't remember.
Speaker 2: I think he Copper was his name. I think the
dog was Copper.
Speaker 1: Ultimately, he is the kid in Grimlins, and then goes
on to work with Steven Spielberg later in The Moonies,
wearing his purple rain.
Speaker 2: Shirt Summer of eighty four.
Speaker 1: Come back in a couple of weeks for that one, right, Okay,
all right, I want to talk about Phoebe Kates for
a second.
Speaker 5: Oh okay, here's to my arm.
Speaker 1: Okay, So Phoebe Kate's was in Fast Times the originally
High Was she in that? Yes?
Speaker 2: If you know that, I have to say that you
have not seen it. I'm just kidding, of course, the
most memorable see of all.
Speaker 1: She wrote a horror videotapes with people pausing to the VCR.
Speaker 2: Doesn't any knock anymore?
Speaker 5: Okay, so do you know who directed Fast Time Times
to Richmond High?
Speaker 2: Amy Heckerling? Right, who had a child with Harold raymis
That blows me away? Right?
Speaker 5: And that child, that illegitimate child?
Speaker 2: They were never married. Yes, was in a movie about
an illegitimate child that was directed by Amy Heckerling named
Look who's talking? Wow? How about that? You're all over
the place? Yeah, Molly Heckerling. Look her up. She's she's
been and stuff. Now she's she's grown up. Now, isn't
that weird that Look who's talking and she's probably in
her thirties. Oh my gosh, that's crazy. It's nuts, all right.
So Phoebe Kate's.
Speaker 1: When they hired her and they brought her in, they
were worried about her playing this sort of innocent, sweet girl.
Speaker 2: Next door character. Yeah, because she had gone topless in
Fast Times. Yep.
Speaker 5: But she totally has the sweet, innocent looking down.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So going back to your original kickoff thing, Hoyd Axton,
Oh yeah, as the dad.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, Hoy Axton is from Oklahoma. He ended up
leaving town because he had tried to pull this prank
and end up burning down the local hardware on graduation night.
Speaker 1: Right, he needed the bathroom buddy to fire extinguisher that up.
Speaker 2: Okay, So you had written he tried to blow my
mind with some songs that he had done, which we'll
talk about in a second. We're about to blow your mind, right, okay,
and this is only going to be your mind, like
except for our Oklahoma listeners, nobody else. Everybody else is
going to go why are you ready for this? Yes?
He's first cousins with David Bourne. Get out of town,
be right. So David Bourne just for those non Oklahoma
folks out there, as president of the University of Oklahoma
for the like decades, including the time that Jason and
I went to school there. He also was a US
Senator and all kinds of stuff. But anyway, Wow, songs
that he's.
Speaker 1: Written go Joy to the World by Three Dog Night,
Jeromiah was a gold Frog.
Speaker 2: What a good friend of mine? Right? He also wrote
Never Been to Spain, also by three Dog Knight, also
wrote The Pusher, also wrote the No No Song where
Ringo star wrote Della and the Dealer, and wrote Greenback Dollar.
I mean, all big songs in the sixties and.
Speaker 5: Seventies, right, But did you know that his mother wrote
a song as well.
Speaker 2: Okay, it's a little song called Heartbreak Hotel sang by
mister Elvis Preston. Well this is my bed lived A
new place to dwell was done the Lone Street. That's hot, dude,
I'm blowing your mind.
Speaker 1: You are coming up with some amazing stuff today.
Speaker 2: So Chris Columbus is excited to get on set because
he wants to meet Hoyd Axxton, not because of any
of the songs that Hoyden accent has written, but because
he's a huge Elvis fan, and he wants to meet
the guy who's mom wrote Heartbreak Hotel. And then, of course,
a few years later, he goes on to direct a
movie himself about Elvis called Heartbreaks Out. That's fantastic, starring
Keith David or David Keith. I never remember which one
of those guys is.
Speaker 5: Which Keith David the less dark work.
Speaker 1: Not the guy from something about Marry The Other Guy.
Speaker 2: Yes, the guy who's the bad guy in like every
other movie, the guy who's the bad guy in Major
League two. Yes, yeah, he's the dad in Firestarter. Yes,
another big movie, Summer of eighty four. Right, so Hoyd
Action is cast as the father and then the mom,
the mom. Her name is Francis Lee McCain right, and
I sent you her list of movies, and she had
a stellar three year period. Right, let's talk about it. Okay,
so this is freaking amazing. You've probably not seen her
in anything made before nineteen eighty four or anything made
after nineteen eighty five, but in a just a couple
of year period, she was the mom in Footloose, Rin's Mom,
Rin's Mom. Yes, she was the mom in Grimlins. She
was Lorraine's mom in Back to the Future, and she
was Corty's mom in stand By Me. I mean that's
eighty four, eighty five, eighty six. She is the mom
choice for casting if you want to make a good movie.
Fantastic gladdered head didn't roll down the stairs.
Speaker 1: Too, And you know what, just on a side note,
her character nearly wipes out all the Gremlins.
Speaker 2: She kills five of them.
Speaker 1: Hey, Yes, tosses him in the blender, kicks them in
the microwave.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's like Rambo. Did you know that the dog
in Gremlins his name is Mushroom. I did not know that.
Speaker 1: Okay, the one that the Grimlins like hang up by
Christmas lights.
Speaker 2: Better than getting eaten them and it's pretty rough. Yeah,
he plays Barney.
Speaker 1: He also stars as Less Hendrix's dog in.
Speaker 2: Pumpkinhead the movie.
Speaker 1: Well, she got the voice of Gizmo none other than
Howie Mandel.
Speaker 5: Yes, and even in his stand up deal he would
do my name is Billy.
Speaker 2: Maybe he would have that character that he would do
back when Howie Mandel still had hair and was still
putting a rubber glove over the top of him. Right,
So at that time he was doing the voice for Gizmo.
Do you know who did the voice for Stripe? No,
mister Frank Welker, who is best known for voicing Fred
in Scooby Doo. The first thing we'd better do is
split up and search the school for clues. Here's an
interesting fact about mister Welker. He has been doing these
voiceovers and other movies for decades. As of this year,
he holds over eight hundred and sixty film, television and
video game credits, making him one of the most iconic
actors of all time, but also making him the third
top box office growing actor at seventeen point four billion dollars.
What the guy who's the voice for Stripe and Fred
and a jillion other things is the third highest box
office gross actor in existence. Wow, that's amazing. That's amazing.
I got something for you. Okay.
Speaker 1: Judge Reynold is also in Gremlins, a kind of the
h He's infested with Phoebe Kates.
Speaker 2: Doesn't any locked the door right? Yes, they're seeing They're
scene is intertwined.
Speaker 1: Yes, he plays the bake manager.
Speaker 2: He's kind of a jerk.
Speaker 1: He's like twenty twenty three yuy six, He's like the
bad guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: He was also in Beverly Hills Cop with Eddie Murphy
as the largest movie nineteen eighty.
Speaker 2: He was a hot thing for a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he has a scene that didn't make the final cut.
The gremlins are like attacking the bank and he locks
himself in the vault and it's like he's going nuts,
like he's literally like his brain has broken and he's insane,
breaks out, locks himself in the vault.
Speaker 2: Kind of a darker Yeah, okay, so here's some other surprise.
So I told you that Dante is big about putting
other movies in his movies. You know, he is also
big about putting actors who have been in big things
in the past in his movies as well. So the
guy who's walking around with the pipe who said I
paid for my tree to the sheriff, you know, that's
Harry Carey Junior, who is in a ton of john
Ford movies, all Cowboy movies. But then he also went
on to be one of the three old timers in
Back to the Future Part three. Oh nice, And he's
one of the only actors that was in both Tombstone
and Wyater.
Speaker 5: Chris Marshall White and Tombstone.
Speaker 2: Right, Okay, Tombstone we're gonna hopefully cover later on this year.
Speaker 8: Yes, so now, mister Wang Wing, mister Wayne, sorry, I
know that one.
Speaker 2: Mister Wing grandfather is a guy named Key Luke who
was number one son for the old Charlie Chan films.
He was he was the first son of Charlie Chan.
Speaker 3: Huh.
Speaker 2: And he was the original ca in like the Early
Like thirty nine forty forty one of the Green Hornet series.
He was Kato, the sidekick. Right.
Speaker 5: He did the voice for Bracket Space Ghosts in the sixties.
Speaker 2: But here you go, you're ready. Yes, he was Master
Poe in the television series Kung Fu Take the Storm
from My Hand, Grasshoppa, al right, Master Poe is the
one that owns the Magwai. Wow.
Speaker 1: Hey, you know what we talked off air about this.
But the little grandson who works in the store. Yes,
that is not the kid from Goonies, and that's not
Short Round from Indiana Jones and the Couple of Doom.
But he does wear a Yankees Cabins style kind of
resembling Short Round.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, they're dressing the Asian young actors in Yankee attire.
Hold on Lady We Go for a Wide you call
him doctor Jorman. Okay. So one other guy that I
got to mention because I mentioned him back on our
third episode on Airplane Okay, Kenneth Toby is the guy
who's the gas station attendant that he he's trying to
sell the smokeless ashtray too. I guess name's Ken Toby. Okay.
He was also the he was in the original the
thing like in nineteen fifties. He was in the on that.
But he's the guy an airplane on the phone. It's
like he's a danger to everything in the air. Yes,
birds too nice. Oh, here's something interesting on Phoebek's keep talking.
Her father was one of the creators of the sixty
four thousand dollars question, which is pretty cool. Yeah, her
husband is Kevin Klein, who like could be her dad.
I think like he's like they met she auditioned for
the Megtilly part in The Big Chill, and they're both
seeing other people at the time, but I guess, you know,
met each other then and a few years later, when
they were both unattached, they met again and have been
married since then since like the late eighties. It's incredible.
Speaker 1: Kevin Kline to go Kevin Klin, Yes, we're giving it up.
His Bunnies role in my opinion, fish called Wanda, Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: I love it. The radio DJ is Don Steele, who
is like one of the most famous radio DJs in
LA for years and years, and then they did this
contest where it was catch you know, catch Don Steele,
and he was driving around in LA and like people
ran over like they had a huge wreck trying to
catch and catch him, and it became a huge case,
like a big liability case that went to the Supreme Court.
It's now a case that they study in law school. Yes,
so for any dj Ricky rialto that's dressed up like
on the billboard like Indian Jones. Yeah, yeah, that's that's
his history. One more, let's go just one more. We've
already talked about bugs Bunny, but in the scene in
the bar whenever Billy is showing his artwork of Missus Degle,
we can't forget missus Deegele. Oh my gosh. Okay, so
we're gonna talk about Missus Deagle on a second. But
the guy who's like, oh, you've really captured her likeness
is mister Chuck Jones, who directed about a million Bugs
Bunny episodes. And then this is Degle. This is missus Deegle,
who's a.
Speaker 1: Cross between we talked about. It's the bank manager from
It's a Wonderful Life. Yes, it's Ebenezer Scrooge and it's and.
Speaker 2: It's the Wicked Wish to the West. Oh for sure,
I'll get your little dog too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly when she got it from the Grimlins, I
was like good friends to her.
Speaker 2: Caleb actually cheered out loud. He's like, yeah, blew her
out of the window. What a great scene that is.
Speaker 1: Now who is the actress who plays her?
Speaker 2: So, Missus Deagle is played by Polly Holliday, who you
might know better as Flow from Alice's Diner. Kiss my grit,
Kiss my grits. Excuse me Flow like the TV show.
And then we also, of course had Jonathan Banks, who
is also in forty eight Hours and Beverly Hills Cop
and Breaking Bad. He is the deputy sheriff. Oh yeah
that's right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's the bad guy in Beverly Hills Cop.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I want to drive, you're drunk, you always drive.
Speaker 2: I'm the sheriff. He's the man who wrecked my ante.
Speaker 1: All right, let's flip over to Ghostbusters and talk about
casting for Ghostbusters. I am the key Master, I am
the gatekeepers.
Speaker 2: Tell about the Middle Time that rely the big all right.
So Dan Akrott obviously the writer. He was always going
to be Race Dance.
Speaker 1: So when I've in Ryman brought in Harold Rams. Harold
Ramis is like, yeah, I'm happy to help you, right.
I also think I'd be great for this Egon Park.
But they did have a couple other guys.
Speaker 2: They were kind of fishing around with. But first, before
we get there, let's talk about Peter Bank. That was
the biggest.
Speaker 1: Hire of all Roman sacrifice, dogs and cats living together,
Pario enough, I.
Speaker 5: Get the point, right, John Belushi replacement, right right?
Speaker 1: They wanted John Blushy. Originally they talked about Chevy Chase.
When chevy Chase looked at the script, He's like, guys,
this is the script is crazy.
Speaker 2: I don't understand it. It's too weird.
Speaker 1: But so it was very different when he looked at it.
Speaker 2: Talked about Cherry Chase.
Speaker 1: They talked about Steve Gutenberg, who went on to make
Police Academy This year, Tom Hanks, Robin Williams Michael Keaton
as big.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that would have been a good. That would have
been a good if you didn't get Bill Murray. Michael
Keaton would have been great. Yes, all right for Egon.
Speaker 1: Before Hirovermus came on board, they talked about Christopher walking right,
he could have been a weird Egon.
Speaker 2: Very much more on the weird side, yes, John Lithgow, Yeah, yeah,
Phi Louis Phil Loose, he's doing for Loose and he
had just done okay, go ahead, Christopher Lloyd, Oh wow,
that's interesting. And like you said, Jeff Goldbwlind, Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: So once again, let's think about alternate universes where we
have Michael Keaton, Christopher Lloyd and dan Aykroyd.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I am glad that and of those guys got
it because I love what Harold ramers on the character.
He did it so well.
Speaker 9: Well, let's say this twinkie represents the normal amount of
psychokinetic energy in the New York area. According to this
morning sample, it would be a twinkie thirty five feet long,
weighing approximately six hundred pounds.
Speaker 2: That's a big twinkie. Did it so well? Okay, now
here's something are you ready for this? Yes. Before they
start filming, they've got to work on a script, right,
So they go to Martha's Vineyard over the Fourth of
July weekend and Ivan and Dan and Harold they spend
like two weeks in the basement of this place in
Martha's Vineyard writing this script together, high as a kite
most of the time, right, But ultimately they end up
with a structure. Right, it's like a guideline, but they
really don't know how it's going to end, and they're
kind of making it up as they go. Now, one
of the things that they don't have in that original
script is a female part, right, Yeah. But once they
start doing on this, there's like words starts to spread
and wants Somebody named Sigourney Weaver hears about it. She's like,
I want to be in that movie. She's freaking Ripley. Yeah,
she's Ripley from Alien. So when she came in to
talk to Ivan rightman about being in the movie, she's
the one that comes up with the idea. She says,
you know those dogs on the roof, I think I
should be one of those dogs.
Speaker 5: And he's like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 2: And she gets up on the desk, gets down on
all fours and starts wiggling around, and all of a sudden,
Ivan Rightman thinks it's a great idea about having the
lady be the dog, and he has he has a
great idea about the way the rest of the movie should.
Speaker 1: Get that really sort of makes the movie. How she
becomes possessed and later becomes the dog and they actually
kind of rescue her.
Speaker 2: Out of the Charred remains the dog. It's really cool, right,
she's awesome. Yeah, she's awesome. Now. Of course, like you said,
they get Bill Murray for Peter Vinkman. But Bill Murray
is notorious for never sign an a contract and you
just don't know to show up or not.
Speaker 1: Right. Ivan Ryman had worked with him on Meatballs and Stripes,
and he knew how difficult he was, right, And he's like, well,
I we think that Bill's going to show up for
the first day shooting. Dan says, he is right, but
we're not positive.
Speaker 2: So do you know the story about Razor's Edge? No,
tell me the story. So, I mean, there's not a
big story. But basically, Bill Murray had really wanted to
make this movie The Razor's Edge, which is a straight
piece for him, Like it is not comedy at all.
I mean there's a little bit, but it's almost weird
in the movie. But he really wanted to make this
but couldn't get anybody to go for it. And I
think it was Dan Aykroy that says, why don't you
use this as leverage? And he says, Okay, I'll do
Ghostbusters if you guys finance Razor's Edge. And I think
Dan says, you should go make that movie first, because
they may not do it if you do Ghosts. Yeah,
he's right, he's right.
Speaker 5: I mean he's taken care of his friend, right yep.
So he goes and does a Razor's Edge.
Speaker 2: Iavan Rightman then picks him up from JFK Airport about
a week before the shooting was about to start. They
have to do some camera testing and wardrobe testing when
they get there, so like before real shooting starts, he
decides to shoot some of the montage scenes with them
running around New York City and their coveralls and the packs.
So those scenes that you see them running through the streets,
those were the very first scenes that they shot. That's
really cool. We haven't talked about Ernie Hudson. What can
you tell me about Ernie? Well, here's the deal with
Ernie Hudson.
Speaker 1: So obviously when he was hired, he was filling the
character that Eddie Murphy left, right, And according to Dan Aykroyd,
when Eddie Murphy left the Bankman character became the comedic
voice of the movie. So it wasn't a one to
one trade. But anyway, they brought in Ernie Hudson. He
had to be the guy that the audience could relate to.
They originally brought in and read Reginald bell Johnson for
the part of Winston's enymore right.
Speaker 2: Well, he's in it.
Speaker 1: He got the consolation prize of the prison.
Speaker 2: Right. This is the first movie that we see Reginald
Bell Johnson as a cop in it, and then he
goes to do a cop and a cop and another cop.
Speaker 1: He plays a cop in Family Matters and he plays
the freaking cop.
Speaker 2: Al Powell and.
Speaker 5: Die Hard doing pretty appreciate it out.
Speaker 1: Also from die Hard you get William Atherson talk about
a three year stretch. He plays the Dead and Ghostbusters
and real genius.
Speaker 2: Nobody's listening, that's true. This man has no dick And
in die Hard yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Lewis totally for a second. Yeah, so
they wanted John Candy, but he wanted it to play
like a German. He wanted to have this accent. He
always want to have dogs around, and they thought Man
just really wasn't what they wanted. So he didn't really
like the character. So anyway, they split.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's he was like, I really don't get this,
and then there became a paycheck issue and he's like, eh,
I'm not really that interested. So literally, on the same
day that John Candy says no, Ivan Rightman sends the
script to Rick Moranis who I mean, those guys work
together on SETV Righty are friends. But Rick gets it
and the first thing he does is call back and say,
I just want you to tell John thank you for
turning this script down because I think it's amazing and
I have got the character. I knew exactly how to
play fantastic. Yeah, And he was like Rick Moranis had
an accounting background, like he knew it, so all those
little accounting foibles that hews out there are totally him
improving that stuff. Do you have any exagement or extra
strength timing them?
Speaker 1: I think Oh my god, it's a seat of sell
and sell a gas generic.
Speaker 2: See I can get six hundred tablets, so that for
the same price as three hundred of a name brand.
That makes good financial sense, good advice. Hey, this is
real smoke sabit from Nova Scotia, Canada, twenty four to
ninety five a pounds. It only cost me fourteen twelve
after tex though. I'm giving this whole thing as a
promotional expense. That's why I invite a client's instead of friends.
Speaker 1: I can't even riff on a podcast. We had to
edit this whole thing. He talks NonStop for like three minutes.
He's talking about Hey, it's Susie.
Speaker 2: They talk about getting the carrecter, Like, just take your line,
let me and let me in to take that and
turn it into let me in, let me in of
the doors lamps. That's gold.
Speaker 5: I mean, that is true brilliance in acting.
Speaker 2: And you know what Rick moranis was shooting up the
star Rocket nineteen ninety four. His wife passes away, he
stops acting, goes home, takes care of his kids for
the next twenty years. Totally respect it. I can't. I mean,
it's just amazing. It's amazing. You have that kind of
dedication that you would go, I'm gonna leave this thing
that is making me millions of dollars and instead I'm
going to focus on my children for the next twenty
It's amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, real quickly, Eddie deson Gozer. They originally wanted
Paul Rubens in the part of Gozer. Oh that's right,
pee Wee Herman was almost Gozer pee wee hermon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how about that. Yeah. I also heard that Grace
Jones was considered as well. I can see that. Yeah,
that's some more.
Speaker 1: I mean, you still at the flat top, so anger
the flattop.
Speaker 2: So we didn't mention the name of the actress played Gozer.
Gozer ultimately was played by slat Viza Jovin, who was
this Yugoslav model.
Speaker 1: I heard that her character is supposed to be a
cross between David Bowie and Grace Jones. Okay, yeah, okay, yeah,
but this is this, this is the funny part.
Speaker 2: Right when they.
Speaker 1: Were rehearsing the Gozer scene. So she's from Yugoslavia, so
she has this strange accent. So when she's saying the
line Jews and parish, right, it sounded like she said
jews and berries, and Bill Murray kept saying there are
no jews in berries here, jews.
Speaker 2: And berries, so they ended up changing her voice. It
was voiced by a voice actress named Patty Edwards who
has a few films. She played Bloatsom and Jetsam in
The Little Mermaid. Notice the smoke damage voice there as well.
Real quickly, I've got a couple of cameos. I've just
got to talk about it. Okay.
Speaker 1: Casey has a cameo in it as he's reading the
top forty countdown just his voice, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Hey, the Ghostbusters and this and that and on with
the countdown. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: His wife, Jeane Casem she plays the tall woman at
the party.
Speaker 2: Who's dancing with Rick Ranis right. She's also she plays
Loretta on Cheers. Yep. If you want a really interesting story.
Speaker 1: You need to go find out the battle over Casey
Casum's body when he passes away.
Speaker 2: That's really weird.
Speaker 1: She keeps moving it from his kids and all this
weird stuff. Weird anyway, Gene and Casey Caseum.
Speaker 2: Okay, I want to say this scene. You remember the
scene where the reporter is like, well, I remember my
grandma used to spend yarns around like you remember that
you the guy that's in the background that looks that
Legit was a guy who is not an actor like
it was a guy who was like, oh, they're making
a movie. Yeah, I'll get on the movie. So now
for you know, eternity, he's in this huge blockbuster movie
and he was just the guy who was just looking around.
There's always an abundance of morons.
Speaker 1: Okay, but here's the one that really blew me away. Okay,
the girl at the birthday party when Rick moranis comes
up and.
Speaker 2: Is banging on the live in right here. Yeah. Yeah,
the girl the breath of party. You don't really get
a good look at it. It's the back of her head.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 2: That is Debbie Gibson, as in Debbie Gibson from the.
Speaker 1: Eighties, as in Only in My Dreams, Electric Youth, Lost
in your Eyes.
Speaker 2: Yeah to Debbie Gibson. Wow, how about that? That's awesome?
All right, friends, that does it for this week's episode.
Please come back next week we will continue the discussion
on Grimlins and Ghostbusters. We will talk production, we will
talk special effects, we will talk soundtrack, and we will
talk final judgment about which of these two iconic eighties
nineteen eighty four movies is the best. It's gonna be amazing. Listen.
Speaker 1: We are an independent podcast. If you can support us
through Patreon, we would sure appreciate it. Go check our
Facebook page, Go check out our Twitter page. Find us
on Patron as well. Yeah, we look forward to seeing
you next week. Dogs and Cats living Together, mass Hysteria