Speaker 1: Anyone Juice Everything Podcast. Hello and welcome the All Eighties
Movies Podcast, the podcast where we talk about the blockbusters,
the flops, and everything in between from one of the
precious decades from movies, the nineteen eighties. I'm your host
Phil bet Long Beyond this journey revisiting eighties movies is
my co host Jason Massek. Hello, Jason, Remember missus farmer.
Whenever you buy a house, whatever's in the ground belongs
to you, whether it's gold or oil or Claude Muscleman.
That's right, listeners, we are discussing with spoilers of plenty,
the nineteen eighty eight Fish out of Water comedy Funny Farm.
It was produced by Film Futures and distributed by Entertainment
Film Distributors. Movie stars Chevy Chase and Madeline Smith. Directed
by George roy Hill, This movie's right at PG with
a running time of one hour and forty one minutes.
This movie was adapted from the nineteen eighty five comedic
novel of the same name by Jay Cronley. So what
is this movie about? What's on the box if you
grow up in the nineteen eighties, and what's your local
video store to rend this movie. You would fine this
description on the back of the VHS box. It is
what's on the box. Take it away, Jason.
Speaker 2: When chevy Chase plays a Manhattan sportswriter who abandons his
career for life in the country, you know that getting
away from it all will inevitably mean Chevy's getting in deeper,
and that the serenity of smalltown USA will hilariously turn
into a city slickers nightmare. Funning Farm delivers the gut
busting fund you expect from chevy Chase. National Lampoon's Vacation,
National Lampoon's European Fagation. Fletch Spies Like Us and The
Three Amigos tops It's performances in all those films with
his pratt falling portrayal of urban transplant Andy Farmer. Madeline
Smith co stars as Andy's supportive wife. Together, the Funny
Farmers learned that the eccentric people and events of their
new hometown outnumber even the mosquitoes. The postman guns along
the back roads like mad Max. The sheriff travels nowhere
without a chauffeur. Gruesome discoveries turn up in the garden
and pond, and Andy becomes the punchline of the movie's
rowdiest gag when he unsuspectingly brags call me mister lamb
Fryes call Funny Farm. Endlessly entertaining, filled with comic delights.
It also features the buoyant direction of George roy Hill,
a vibrant Elmer Bernstein score, and the lush cinematography of
Miroslav Underchek. Harvest the good times from Funny Farm.
Speaker 1: Funny Farm, So that was what's on the box. Let's
move on to her eighty snapshot as we highlight some
of the creative forces from this movie.
Speaker 2: Jason. For my eighties snapshot, I chose Jeffrey Boom, the
screenwriter of Funny Farm. Jeffrey Bohm, writer and producer from Rochester,
New York. Here's a little trivia actually from IMDb about
Jeffrey Boem. Before becoming a successful screenwriter, he actually worked
as a studio executive for many years. I never knew
that Boem's films that he wrote screenplays for have a
cumulative gross of over one billion dollars. That's right, folks,
one billion dollars. Here's his eighty snapshot as a writer.
These are the highlights the dead Zone in eighty three.
He's uncredited on Lethal Weapon in nineteen eighty seven. He
pens Innerspace in eighty seven, The Lost Boys in eighty seven,
Funny Farm Here in eighty eight, Indiana Jones, and The
Last Crusade in eighty nine, and then Lethal Weapon two
in eighty nine. Not a bad eighties run. He would
go on to write Leith Wepon three in ninety two,
and then The Witches of Eastwick in ninety two. He
does twenty seven episodes of the Adventures of Briscoe County Junior,
which I thought was really cool. He penned The Phantom
in nineteen ninety six, so those are some of the
highlights there. He did pass away on January twenty sixth
and two thousand due to a heart failure from a
rare lung disease. So here's a little quote from Jeffrey Boem.
I get the thing in my head and see it
from start to finish. Then I sit down and start
writing it. I don't have any kind of routine where
I do notes or outlines or character sketches. I just
try and live with it in my head until it's
ready to be spat out. Jeffrey Boem great screenwriter. He
pops up every once in a while and these huge
eighties films and I'm like, man, this guy had quite
the career and we lost him too soon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely agree with that. I mean, you just
listed off an impressive list of credits. As a writer,
you would hope to maybe two two of those titles
he has all then Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, every time I hear his name, I think of
the opening credits of Last Crusade. For some reason, Oh yeah,
I can see it with that backdrop of where do
they shoot that opening, like in Utah or wherever that was?
Speaker 1: Yeah, with that.
Speaker 2: Font they use for the credits in Indiana Jones Alascrusda,
it just kind of pops. I'm like, oh, Jeffrey boem Right,
he wrote this too, good stuff. What do you have
for your idies? Snapshot Bill bant So.
Speaker 1: I went with director George Roy Hill, and George wasn't
your typical Hollywood director. Born in nineteen twenty one to
a wealthy Irish Catholic family in Minneapolis, Hill grew up
loving music, airplanes, and stories, the three passions that would
later define his life. He studied music at Yale under
the great composer Paul Hindermith ran the university's drama society,
and then went off to war. Hill served as a
marine pilot in both World War Two and the Korean War,
an experience that fueled his lifelong obsession with flying. After
the war, he acted on stage in Ireland and on Broadway,
and then turned to directing, first in live television and theater,
and eventually in film. His first movie, Period of Adjustment, came
out in nineteen sixty two, but it was Butch Cassidy
and The Sundance Kid that made him a household name.
Hill was the one who assisted on p arring Paul
Newman and then up and coming Robert Redford, a decision
that changed both their careers and movie history. He reunited
with the duo for The Sting, a clever con artist
caper that won seven Oscars, including Best Director for Hill.
Hill goes on to direct the hockey comedy classic Slap Shot,
again with Newman in nineteen seventy seven. By the nineteen eighties,
George Roy Hill's film career was winding down. His major
work from that decade was the World According to Garp
in nineteen eighty two, based on John Irving's novel, starring
Robin Williams and gun Clothes. The film was both a
critical a commercial success, earning Oscar nominations for Close and
John Lithgow. H'll followed it with The Little Drummer Girl
in nineteen eighty four, darring Diane Keaton. Though ambitious, it
received mixed reviews and struggled at the box office, and
then his final film was This Funny Farm in nineteen
eighty eight. After stepping away from Hollywood, He'll return to
Yale to teach drama, sharing his love of storytelling with
a new generation. He passed away in two thousand and
two at the age of eighty one, after a long
battle with Parkinson's I was director George roy Hill.
Speaker 2: Great stuff. That was excellent nineteen twenty one. Man, that
guy goes way back, Yeah he does. I did not
realize he also directed a slap shot that's awesome.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. One of the actors that was driving up
the wall when I was watching this brat Sullivan was Brock,
the one who wants to kill Andy throughout the movie.
Speaker 2: Sure, what do I.
Speaker 1: Know him from? And then I was like, oh, yeah,
he's a slap shot and that's one of my favorite
lines of the movie. Here you go. I don't think
it's appropriate to repeat on this podcast.
Speaker 2: Love it all right.
Speaker 1: So this leads to earliest memories of the movie. Jason
start us off. What do you remember about Funny Farm
way back when?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, let's get funny with this film. Yeah, you
know what, I remember always liking this movie. If I
caught it on cable. It was one of those Yeah,
if I caught it in the middle of it, I'd
watch it. I'd watch the rest of it, at least
a few scenes. It was always enjoyable to me as
a young person. I've always been a fan of Chevy
Chase and the livery and his physical comedy. There's the
pratt falling that was mentioned in the What's on the
Box segment, and that's was his talent. I recall being
a fan of miss Madeline Smith in this. I always
thought she was very attractive, She is quite adorable. I
thought she gave a decent comedic performance. I remember a
few of the highlights, of course, I mean before even
watching this. I recall the lamb fries, of course, the
crazed alcoholic Maleman, and I remember enjoying the holiday Christmas
cheer of the ending. It just always gave me a warm,
fuzzy feeling inside. I definitely remember the very scenic atmosphere,
that rural feel, and that's pretty much it in a nutshell.
I was a fan of this movie when I was
a kid, a teenager. I didn't think it was the
greatest thing ever, but it was just simple feel good
movie and I got a kick out of the goofy
characters and site gags. Nothing else really to break down here,
Bill Band. I didn't think it was outrageously hilarious, but
always found it amusing. That's all I got for you
for early memories. What are yours?
Speaker 1: Yeah, this was a rental for me. I do remember
seeing the ads in the paper of Chevy Chase with
the egg on his head, thinking it was a movie
about farming, and then renting it and it's not even
about farming whatsoever. But I do remember enjoying it, and
I watched that one a lot on cable. I bet
I watched Funny Farm more at one point than I
watched Fletch right, just because it was on more. Not
that I'm saying it's a better movie. It's almost like
a comfort food kind of film.
Speaker 2: I just it was on. I like it.
Speaker 1: It just kind of flows. That's my earliest memory. I'm
right there with you.
Speaker 2: It's one of those things that just happened to be
on a lot, and you smile when chevy Chase does
his thing. He's great, He's very charming, and he's good
at falling down. Let's just put it that way.
Speaker 1: I agree, all right, So initial thoughts now of a
funny farm all these years later.
Speaker 2: Yeah, an interesting rewatch as an adult, let's just talk
about that cast real quick. I think chevy Chase is
fine in this. Is he given a lot to do.
I guess this is how I use the word serviceable.
And I felt like Madeline Smith as Elizabeth Farmer, the
wife of Andy Farmer played by Chevy Chase. I thought
Madeline Smith was fine. I'm watching it now just saying,
what's the relationship between her and chevy Chase? Is a
good chemistry, etc. And they were good together. I thought
they matched well together. It was fine. I wasn't necessarily
laughing out loud at moments, but I found myself smiling often.
There's just several moments throughout this film where I found
it amusing once again as an adult. I must say
the movie looks good to me. Credit to veteran DP
director of photography Miroslav Underchek Elmer Bernstein. Love him he
does the score for this film. Love his past work,
wonderful Resume, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Animal House, Meatballs,
Airplane Stripes, Trading Places, Ghostbusters, that's Elmer Bernstein. Now we
have Funny Farm. It's fine. It's fine. That's kind of
my overall feeling about this film this far.
Speaker 1: Did you have any commentary on you You're saying fine.
I think my word for this is safe. This movie
feels safe.
Speaker 2: Bill Bant is one of the last notes I wrote,
and I was saving it for my conclusion. I wrote safe,
it feels safe. I wrote that exact same thing. I'm
glad you said it. Please continue.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was trying to think about how I would
describe this movie. Because I do like it, I do
enjoy it. I would recommend it. But if I recommend
to someone and they never watched it, they're not really
missing anything. But if they watched it, they wouldn't be like,
why the hell did you recommend this movie? It's just there.
It's just there. I'm not sitting through it. Going, oh
my god, what is this going to end? I put
it on and I chuckle a couple of times, and
I like the premise. I mean, there's a one scene
that does stand out that we'll talk about, but outside
of that, there's nothing groundbreaking about it. It is funny
when I was researching, how many people like chasing.
Speaker 2: This, Yeah, including himself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wish a little more could have been on
the humor. The fish out of Water could have been
hammered a little bit better. I think the issue is
they make it seem like this town is full of
crazed lunatics. It almost has that northern exposure shows with
have all the quirky characters, but we never really get
to see the quirky characters. We just kind of see
how Andy and Elizabeth aren't adjusting well to life outside
the city. Right. Maybe if it got a little more
into that, had more of those standout characters, I think
it would be a more fun film. So it just
plays it safe, wholeheartedly.
Speaker 2: Agree, wholeheartedly agree that's safe, and it's on the surface.
Jeffrey Boem himself was hoping to when he was writing it,
was hoping to get a little more I don't know
if gritty's the right word, but more based on the
actual novel itself versus George roy Hill decided to go
in a different direction with it and ultimately had control
in the actual direction, of course, and it was on
the life. That's the way he went with it, and
it's pretty clear. But yeah, I'm going to get into
it here. I mean, I actually want to take a
step back and say that I had an interesting viewing
experience this time because I was joined by a friend
of mine, and she's a female friend of mine. She's
significantly younger, she's a millennial, and she was watching it
for the very first time. So I was watching it
wondering in the back of my mind how she was
seeing it. And of course, as we all know, watching
a movie with someone else is an entirely different experience
than just watching it by yourself. So what it did,
interestingly enough, was make me look at it without my
nostalgic glasses on. It wasn't as if I was watching
this with like a contemporary like you in the room,
Bill Bant, or a buddy of mine that grew up
during the eighties and we could predict that next scene
coming on or already start laughing about what was coming
up next, or smile in that nostalgic moment. It was different.
It's just different. So I felt I was a little
more critical upon this viewing as an adult. So Funny
Farm It's one of those movies just feels like a
series of hijinks for the first hour or so. There's
just not much in the way of story or character development.
Like you were talking about these townsfolk that just fill
out the scenery and you want to know more, but
they all are just kind of the one note, one stick,
one trick ponies. It's mostly like National Lampoon's vacation. Especially
regarding Chevy Chase's character, Andy Farmer, He's like Clark Griswold
on a farm, I guess, but it's or in the
country and he's trying to stay positive all the time
while everything is falling apart. However, the difference here's the wife,
Elizabeth Farmer. She clearly isn't happy and he's oblivious to
it the whole time. And then there's this series of
light gags, silly gags, the one note characters, these one
note character we really don't learn anything about these characters,
like Sheriff Ledbetter, or that Brock character, or the crazed
mailman who we learn as crumb Peatrie, the antique dealer
that sells everything related to dead relatives. It's funny on
the surface, but we don't get to know them at
all or see a relationship developed between those characters. With
Andy and Elizabeth Farmer, there's just no bond between them, really,
so it's just more hyjinks of things going bad while
now Andy Farmer. The whole idea here, folks, if you
haven't seen the movie for any reason, is that Andy
is moving on from the big city as a sports
writer and he's been given correct me if I'm wrong,
he's been given in advance by a publisher to write
his great, the great novel he has within him. Right,
has he given like a ten thousand dollars advance?
Speaker 1: Ten thousand?
Speaker 2: Right? So the idea is that he and his wife
Elizabeth have looked at this beautiful property out in the
country and they're going to move there, and he's going
to write this novel and live out their lives in
this serene location. So then throughout these hijinks, Andy has
writer's block. Then he manages to write a terrible first
draft of his novel. Meanwhile, Elizabeth has inspired to write
her own children's book, which becomes successful, and then Andy
betrays her. Then they decide to divorce and sell the
country house. And then they recruit, slash bribe the townspeople
to help them sell the house. So the townspeople selfishly
go overboard with the Christmas holiday costumes, caroling and themes.
And after the farmer see what the fantasy of this town,
which is called Redbud out in the country could be,
they decide to make up and not get divorced, and
they decide to stay after all this, the problem is
that they're still hated by the townspeople and all of
it is a facade. And more importantly, Andy was a
complete asshole to Elizabeth and she somehow just forgave him overnight.
I'm getting into my complaints clearly here, but that's like
the gist of this movie as I'm watching it as
an adult, Like this is how I'm seeing it. So
I don't mean to sound overly critical, but I was
a little surprised of like, this movie is really flawed.
Everything else I said still holds true, where it's still
fun and light on its feet at times, but from
a story structure standpoint, I found it extremely flawed, and
I did not understand the character's motivations at the end,
and I found there was just real no connection to
the town or townsfolk at all, which was concerning to me.
You know. One thing I wanted to see a little
more of, too, was really Andy's process, Like, because I'm
a writer, you're a writer, you want to see what
a writer goes through. And we just kind of see
him frustrated with having the writer's block, and we see
that Elizabeth goes behind his back to write her children's book.
We're not getting into the process of a writer, in
the head of a writer and what the a writer
goes through and trying to develop a novel. It's all
again just kind of safe and on the surface and
goofy stuff happens, and that's it, and then it's over
and I'm going to save more for favorite scenes and complaints.
But watching it as an adult, it's all right, it's
all right. I don't know if I need to see
it again for a while. I feel like it was
a different experience this time watching it, and if it's
not terrible, it's just Okay, that's all I got, Bill.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I took. My big complaint about is there's definitely
a disconnect between the farmers and the residents I red bud. Yeah,
because when they decide to sell the house and then
they present to the townsfolk, Hey, we need you to
stop acting like idiots so we can sell our house.
How did we get to this point from what I understand?
And he's only had trouble with two of the townsfolk, right,
It's not like they're walking through the town they're getting
jeered and made fun of. Nothing really that bad has
happened to them up to this point. So there's a
disconnect that I didn't see him, Like, what am I
missing that they've gotten to this point? All the characters
are just one off jokes. The sheriff the fact that
he cannot drive, right, I find that funny definitely. But
let's bring something else. We meet the brothers Lahn and Dirk,
who are supposed to be your goofballs. I think of
a new Heart with Larry, Daryl and Darryl. I'm like, okay,
let's beat into that a little bit more. Nope, they
don't really do anything. Yep, crumb, Yeah, you get a
little bit out of him, and then Brock, who he
was doing the fishing with, and Brock just always wants
to kill him. Well, the other two guys on the
boat weren't any better than what Andy was doing, so
why is the hate all towards him?
Speaker 2: Mm hm.
Speaker 1: I just wish they got into more of what the
animosity is between the farmers and the residents of Rosebud.
Play that up for laughs and develop the characters a
little more. I do like Chase is in Smith's chemistry.
Speaker 2: Agreed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean there's some other complaints about their relationship.
I'll get into the complaint department, but.
Speaker 2: Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1: I just had to go back to it. It's a
safe movie if you watch it. I think there's nothing
groundbreaking about it. Kind of weird that Chase is the
star of the movie but doesn't feel like he's the
star of the movie. I would almost feel like it's
more Madeleine Smith's movie.
Speaker 2: I like that take.
Speaker 1: Because she's the one that's going through changes throughout the movie. Right, Yeah,
I think you learn more about her than you do
Andy in this.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I you know again, you said, you know, fish
out of water. It's clearly a Fish out of Water story,
and even within the movie, you have Madeline Smith writing
this children's book which is based on Andy, but in
the form of a squirrel being a fish out of water.
It's going from the city to the country life. It's
a change of pace, scenery, and again the town, the
type of people. So you mentioned like northern exposure, but
these are the farmers become strangers in a strange land,
and I want to see how that affects their relationship.
And there is a hint in the beginning when they
first move there that Chevy is urging his wife to
give this a chance, because he says, not only are
we here to enjoy the scenery, but we're here to
be together to work on a relationship. And I was like, oh,
you've just planted a seed here. Was there something wrong
with their relationship prior to this or something missing or Okay,
So now move to the country supposedly is going to
help them find some peace and serenity and they can
work on themselves and being together. And we just don't
get a lot of that. It's just more he's trying
to write, she's frustrated, he's oblivious to it. Then she
writes the book, and then he becomes jealous and turns
to alcohol, and then she wants a divorce, And You're right,
it's interesting looking at it now, thinking it's more of
hers journey that we're following. But then it just turns
all of a sudden in the last twenty minutes where
everything becomes honky dory, and I'm like, I missed something
in the just relationship development between the farmers and the
relationship between the farmers and the townsfolk. That's it.
Speaker 1: I didn't think going into this move that they had
an issue with their relationship. I think just because it's
fast paced. He's a sports writer. I'm sure he's not
around a lot. They go somewhere else where it's slows down,
so they can actually have a family family right, thinking
about having kids move in that direction, So I thought
that was one of the reasons for the move. Also,
outside of in the events for the book, I didn't
think they really had issues until they moved and Elizabeth
realized this is not really the life that she wants initially,
but that does change by the.
Speaker 2: End, right, Yeah, because simply nothing's working. There's no phone
in the house, there's a giant sea snake, and there's
water snake in the bond, there's a dead body, there's
bones buried in the garden. I mean, it's just one
thing after another seems to go wrong, and she's increasingly
becoming distraught about it, which is understandable. Yeah, I just
would have liked to seen more a little more sensitivity
from his character to her in recognizing that. It just
feels like he's very much kind of self centered or
self serving and working on his book, Like he's just like,
I'm here to do this and it's going to be
this is my dream and nothing's going to get in
the way of it, while she's struggling the entire time.
Speaker 1: So it's basically Chevy Chase playing himself off screen.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, all right, So I just I think I
just laid out all my complaints already, so I jumped
away ahead anyway. Yeah, we can move on, all right,
let's move on.
Speaker 1: Two favorite scenes or moments. Think I'm going first on
this one, and it's just a laugh out moment for me.
And then there was like a little follow up joke.
So Andy and Elizabeth get to the house. They're all excited.
They're running around and looking at it, and there's a pond,
and there's ducks, and you might have a few mosquitoes.
But they're about to go into the front door, and
he decides that he's going to pick up Elizabeth and
carry her through the threshold, and he opens the door,
not knowing that the door is split top half bottom half,
so it only opens the top half, and drops Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: Through the door, which hurts.
Speaker 1: It's funny at the same time, but I'm like, oh God,
that must have hurt. So he opens the door, you know,
make sure that she's okay, and then she says she's
all right, and then they're talking about the house, and
then she has this throw away line about I wonder
how long it takes an ambulance to get here, meaning
that she's still hurt from the fall. I don't think
I ever caught that before, because I think the action
of her him dropping her through just feels natural and
like I could see that actually happening. How do they
know the door is not locked to be connected, so
it all opens a one piece. And then of course
saying that you're okay, okay, But really, when everyone walks
away and you're still like, oh Jesus Christ, that really hurt,
might crack my tailbone kind of thing. So it's really brief,
but I found it funny because it felt natural. It
felt real to me. It wasn't like a stage little
bit which happens throughout the movie.
Speaker 2: I laugh out loud every time it happens, and it
caught me off guard a little bit on the rewatch,
even though just at the very last millisecond I knew
it was coming because it just made laugh so much.
As a kid too, I definitely remember that moment, but
it just happened so quickly in the film. It's it's
smartly edited. I feel too. You just you forget that
They're like, oh, here got and then he just walks
her and drops her, and it's pretty brutal. It's a
great physical bit. And with the clever line from her afterward,
and she has some actual good lines in this, it
made me think of a line it happens right after
that when they have to spend the evening in the
house without any of their belongings because the moving truck
got lost and they're sleeping on the floor, and she
says something to the effect of, oh, I know why
they call them hardwood floors, because they're hard wood floors,
so there's some good stuff. She has some good stuff,
but that particular moment dropping her over the doors, it's priceless.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, What do we have next? I think
we both are in agreement with this next scene.
Speaker 2: A thousand percent probably the most memorable scene for a
lot of those of you that have seen this film.
This is kind of a go to probably remember this.
It's the lamb fries, that's right. It just so happens
that it is the Farmer's anniversary and they're going to
go out on the town for a little bit. So
they decide to go to the local diner restaurant and
just cuts to the waitress who's also the cook. As
it turns out, she's just frying up some land fries
that look like meatballs basically in a pan, and she's
serving them up to Andy Farmer, and they're sitting right
at the actual counter, and they're all dressed to the nines,
looking good, but they're enjoying some of the good local
fair and the grub and these lamb fries that look
like meatballs. Well, Andy Farmer's just chowing down on these things.
And there's some locals also at the counter, and they're like, wow,
he's going to town on these things, and just well,
in particular, Elizabeth like, that's your third plate. Pretty impressive,
and of course she says, yeah, that's your third plate,
and he's like, well, calling mister lamb Fries. And then
you have the local that's sitting to the right of Andy,
I believe, who says, now, that's a man who knows
when he's got something good in his mouth. And then
we quickly discover that he's actually this is Andy about
to break the record for eating the most lamb fries,
these little meatballs. And there's an actual chalkboard hanging up
behind the waitress and she's got a piece of chalk
and she's changing the tally. She's telling up how many
he's eaten. The record I believe is twenty eight, and
he's at like twenty six, twenty seven. Then all of
a sudden, he's, of course, chevy Chase is all proud
of himself as he downs number twenty nine, breaking the record,
and she has to change the number on the chalkboard
and he's like wait, wait, wait, like he's got more
in him. And then he eats number thirty and I
believe he goes to eat thirty one, and you just
hear the line most folks don't seem to have a
taste for testicles no more. You hear Elizabeth goes testicles,
and then you hear the again. The locals say, yes,
ma'am sheep balls. Tell them why yours are so tasty?
As he's talking to the waitress, and the waitress responds,
the trick is you gotta clip them off way up high,
and she makes this gesture with like ess like doing
the fingers like sit and then of course Andy spits
the lambfry slash sheep ball right out of his mouth
and makes for the exit as Elizabeth follows him out
of the diner. It's actually a quick scene. It's memorable.
You almost kind of see it coming. It's set up
in a certain way, but it's still funny because of
the performances by both the waitress and the local that's
sitting next to Chevy Chase. And I also like the
fact that it's subtle. But you see the waitress then
erase the thirty one and she puts it back to
thirty because he spit out the last lambfry, and I,
for whatever reason, I don't know if this is like
the Mandela effect, but I thought he was going to
actually throw up in that she erased the entire board
and it went back to twenty eight, the prior record.
But he don't actually see him throw up. So I
was going to save this for additional questions. But do
you think he actually throws up or should he retain
the record at thirty?
Speaker 1: I think he should retain the record, Yeah, I say so.
Speaker 2: I think so.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, if you missed the thirty
one to thirty, I was gonna point that out. But
here again, here they are at the diner, the waitresses
being nice, the towns focus being nice. When he breaks
a record, everyone in the restaurant is clapping. So why
later down the road does there seem to be a
disconnect between them and the townsfolk. It's not showcased in
this scene. It would make more sense if the record
was sacred in the fact that Andy broke it, that
people are pissed, and then well you're eating land testicles.
But it's a funny, memorable scene.
Speaker 2: I have nothing that you make a really good point
that they all are getting along, because I'm starting to
think of the other scenes where there was real, like
an antagonistic nature between them and the townsfolk. Elizabeth doesn't
really have any negative run ins with anyone that go awry.
It's just Chevy Chase and that boat scene with Brock
and the other guy that goes and they're fishing and
it goes all to hell. And then we have the
crazed mailman, but we don't even know the man, like
Andy doesn't have a relationship to the man man except
that he just keeps blowing by the mailbox, throwing the
mail out the window. We don't even see his face.
We don't know why, if or why the mailman would
hate Andy. We know why Andy doesn't like him. But
as for the other townsfolk, they seem to all be
getting along. It doesn't so why do they feel they
all hate them? At the end, I don't know anyway,
going off on a tangent.
Speaker 1: That's okay. So for my next well, it's a big
scene because it's almost a third act of the movie,
but I do like the premise of it. Unfortunately, it's
gotten to the point where Andy and Elizabeth are talking
about getting a divorce so they have to sell the house,
and in their mind order to sell the house. The
townsfolk need to help because they think the townsfolk are
part of the problem of why they're getting divorced. So
they speak at the local town hall meeting and they
want the town to mimic basically Norman Rockwell paintings. So
when prospective buyers come to look at the house, still
think this is the most beautiful place in the world
to be is in Rosebud.
Speaker 2: I like that, you said, Rosebud. That's great, little slip there,
little citizen Kane slip Rosemud. So yeah, so Redbud.
Speaker 1: And we do have a couple that's coming to look
at the house, and it just happens to be during
the holidays, and the townfolk go all out, Yeah, Christmas,
Carol's in the backyard. They take this couple downtown. They
have this huge tree. Everybody, of course, is coming up
and being super nice. The police chief, who can't drive
all of a sudden, pulls up in a car and
comes out and says, hell, he makes sure he sees
the farmer house twice a day and checks the neighborhood
whilst car drives off and runs over a tree. What's
funny about this because when they have the town hall meeting.
The farmers do say, hey, if we sell the house,
we're going to donate x amount of money to Redbud,
and if anyone does a active kindness in front of us,
we'll give them fifty bucks. So the townsfolk are all
going out, so just a factor walk across town. Everyone's
coming up, Hey, Andy, hey, lisbit that kind of stuff.
And then they give their names so they know they
owe fifty bucks. And it gets to the point where
they go back to the house, their house, and basically
the whole town is outside. Kids are making snowballs, snowball fights.
You know, we got the singers again. Andy invites them
into the house and they're sharing eggnog. So they're going
all out, and it's just funny because they're all doing
this just to get fifty bucks per act of kindness,
and plus with the money that the town is getting
for them to sell the house. I just find it
very amusing. I kind of forgot that there is a
whole Christmas setting to this, and the third act it
does kind of remind you like, oh, if I lived
in a small town, this is exactly how I would
like it to be during the Christmas time. I did
enjoy it, just I did like that third act, how
it kind of plays out, and how even Andy and
Elizabeth have to keep up this front. They really love
it here. They love each other, but unfortunately, due to circumstances,
they have to move.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, you know, I'm glad you just covered the
entire third act that now it's interesting. I'm going to
jump to a complaint here again, mister complaints here. Sorry, folks,
that's okay. This entire sequence doesn't actually really kick off
until an hour and twenty one minutes into the film.
There's only twenty minutes remaining in the entire movie, and
this is my favorite part. It feels like this is
when the movie really starts to kick into high gear.
All the high jinks that ensued prior to this were
fun and light and I get it, and it creates
tension and causes obstacles for our protagonists. But because of
the lack of kind of relationship development, either between the
farmers or with the townsfolk, it was just high jinks.
But now this is like an interesting problem where they
do have to directly deal with all of the townsfolk,
almost all at once. Where they're doing this performative bit
embracing this Norman Rockwell lifestyle, and it's wonderful. I love
the holiday spirit, the Christmas spirit, the feel of this
whole thing. Because I grew up in a small town.
I always wanted it to be that way. It did
feel that way in moments, for sure, and I fall
in love with it. And every time I think of
this particular film, Funny Farm, I will think of the
lamb fry scene, and I will think of this entire ending,
and I always feel like it's a bigger part of
the movie, and it really isn't. It's the very end,
but it's so great, and it's very funny because all
these townsfolk, they just want the farmer's money. They're just
doing it for the extra fifty bucks. One scene in
particular I want to call out has to do with
our crazed alcoholic mailman. I assume he's an alcoholic. The
sheriff led better. He does mention that the reason why
the mailman is so angry by the time he reaches
the farmer's household in Red Bud is that he's been
drinking during his whole the mail route, and that he's
good and saucy by the time he gets there and
just honre and so he doesn't even stop to deliver
the mail. He just throws the mail out of the
truck window and keeps driving off, and you kind of
hear his cackle fading off in the distance. And thus
you have Andy standing there next to the mailbox, just
left to pick up the mail off the ground. So
that's a stick that runs throughout the movie. It's a
runner throughout the movie and now here because they've made
this proposal. They're going to pay everyone fifty bucks if
they make an extra effort to be a traditional small town,
the perfect small town in this setting of the Christmas
and feeling all the holidays here while the farmers are
entertaining these prospective buyers of their house and they're all
sitting inside. You see this is great because you see
Andy hear the backfire from the truck approaching the mailman's truck,
and he recognizes it right away and he's like, oh no,
this is going to ruin the whole ruse. If the
mailman comes in or just drives by and is rude
and throwing the mail out the window, it's just going
to show a crack in this whole idea, and he
doesn't want these buyers to see this. But then knock
on the door, ring the door, and Anni Farmer goes
to the door, and there's the mailman, crumb Petree, looking
pretty good, cleaned up. He's wearing his coat, his scarf,
his hat. I think he's got even like a mailman
insigny on his coat. And he's personally brought the mail
to the farmers and steps in and he says, oh,
and by the way, missus Farmer, Missus Petrie, my wife
wanted to give you this. This is her traditional rumnut
plum raisin cake of the season. And then he's introduced
to I think it's the Culbertsons who are these prospective buyers.
By the way, there's recognizable character actors throughout this, and
I think it's Gilpin is his name. I can't remember
that his first name is one of the culbert sins here,
but another recognizable actor in this, and the crumb Peatree
is introduced to them, and now he's all put together
and he seems to be the nicest guy ever and
sober on top of it, and mentions, oh, he's going
to be really sorry to see the farmers go, and
as immediately as he says that, oh, it'll be really
sorry to see the farmers go, he lets out the
most amazing cackle and I won't even try to impersonate it,
but I want to give a shout out to Kevin Conway,
who plays Crumb Petrieck, because I love that cackle. And
then he even pours on a little bit extra here
and says, oh, you know what, later on, I'm just
going to go do some ice fishing, you know. By
the way he's looking at the buyers, he says, you know,
I'm gonna pull out some nice sized pike out there
ice fishing, pouring it on thick, just portraying this as
the perfect small town, and then ends up leaving and
to make sure to look at Andy and say, hey,
you're going to be paying me a little extra, you know.
And so I love that because one of the funny
things throughout it is that runner with the mailman blazing
by the mailbox and throwing the mail out, and now
we see him all put together, but he still does
the cackle, and we see him do it in person.
It's great. So I found that very amusing. Also, yeah,
I just wanted to back you up on the fact
that when all the krollers go inside the house and
they're all still singing, that they all make that point
to say their full names one by one as they're
exiting to Andy, to make sure he remembers that they
are all individually owed fifty dollars. It's great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say of all the characters, the mailman
does pay off for me because you are interested. In
the beginning, you never see him. You just see the
cars go all by, and you just see the mail
fly and a cackle, and and he becomes obsessed with
trying to get him to stop. At one point tries
to roll a boulder into his mail truck. So then
when he finally comes, there's that comedic tension because you're like, oh,
is he going to screw this up just because he
hates the farmers or we don't even know if he
hates the farmers, he just hates the fact he's got
to drive out there for the mail, so you don't
know what's going to happen. The fact that he's so kind,
you're like, oh, okay, but he has to say something
at the end, like I'm only doing this for the
fifty bucks. The son of a Bitch. I'm out, Yeah,
it does work for me. I think it's the one
character outside of Andrew Elizabeth that you kind of get to.
I wouldn't say no a little bit, but I think
the character overall pays off.
Speaker 2: I agree you see at least there's a change in
the character. He almost has a mini arc, if you will,
like a mini mini mini arc. But still it's something.
So I'm glad you highlighted the whole third act, if
you will, because it's a lot of fun and that's
really the highlight of the movie for me. There is
some fun in this. I don't want to be mister
Debbie Dunner either. There is definitely a movie that maybe
you just look back on and it's funnier when you
quote it, almost funnier than when you're watching it.
Speaker 1: Okay, So that takes us to Swiss Cheese and Complaints Apartment,
and what don't we call it.
Speaker 2: Swiss Cheese because although this movie is delicious, it does
have burnt manuscript holes.
Speaker 1: Yes, and if it doesn't have those burnt manuscript holes,
we just file the complaint with the Complaints Apartment. So, Jason,
do you have anything left for Swiss cheese or complaint.
Speaker 2: I know, right, Well, let's go back to you briefly
touched on this the title itself. How do we feel
about the title? Funny farm? Terrible, not great? No, it
implies either they're actually living on a farm with crazy
things happening, which is not true, or that it's a
mental asylum with crazy people running around. And yeah, we
have some goofy townspeople, but it's not a mental asylum,
and we get that. Of course, their last names are
they're the farmers, are protagonists, are protagonist couple, But still
it just doesn't ring true the title.
Speaker 1: No, And even if you look at either of the posters,
there's the one poster where Chivi Chase has an egg
on his head, nothing like that happens in the movie,
and the other one he's in a tractor with the dog.
At least we have a dog at some point, very briefly.
The first one he buys runs off, which is kind
of funny, but it's very misleading. I don't know what
I would call it, because I'm always terrible when it
comes to titles, but I definitely would not have come
up with plenty farm.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, what do you have.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, my complaint is Andy's treatment of the movers. Okay,
Andy gives them a map of how to get to
the house, so they get lost. So Andy and Elizabeth
have to sleep on the floor one night. Sound like
it's been a couple of days. It's literally one day.
Like my wife and I moved out to California, we
didn't have furniture for four days, but we knew that
going in. Yeah, so I'm like, sleep on the floor
for one night is not going to kill you. And
when they show up, Andy is laying into them hard.
Oh yeah, refund blah blah blah blah, And I'm like, dude,
at least your stuff is there. I'm sure there's tons
of horror stories about movers, and I've read a lot
about it, Like when you're moving and you're researching, that
is a scary thing. There's so many times where you
hear stories about movers who will bring your stuff and say, well,
now you have to pay this charge in order to
get for us to start on loading your stuff. So
the fact that they showed up and started unloading right away,
granted it was going into the lake out back.
Speaker 2: I was going to say, another actual fun moment, let's
give credit to that is. I love that moment when
that character one of the movers, is like, immediately they're
unloading the truck after you have Andy like running alongside
the truck as it's pulling in, berating them, and he
just goes straight for like the office chair walks right
and Andy's like, okay, finally you're unloading. You're gonna move
this stuff into our house. And the guy just walks
right by Andy with the chair in hand and throws
it directly into the lake. Really funny.
Speaker 1: You're just excited that they showed up and just be like,
oh right, I'd be more curious, like you know what happened?
Are you?
Speaker 2: Okay? Yeah, what happened to you? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So the way he came into them, like, no,
I felt the movers did the right thing. I think
I would have threw his chair in the lake too.
I would give a crap at that point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's funny. There's a funny line earlier than that,
when you see the movers are stuck in the truck overnight.
They have to basically sleep outside. They're in the truck technically,
but one of them says to the other is something
about you need to hold onto that map because I'm
gonna need it as evidence as to a murder or
something along the way. He's like, yeah, why, He's like,
because I'm going to kill the son of a bitch
true that map. It's pretty fun anyway, I have some
character issues, motivation issues. There's a couple scenes maybe that'll
explain this. The anniversary evening for the farmers. We know
the lampfry scene right, very amusing, very funny, memorable. But
then they move on to a bungalow where they're going
to spend the evening in just a romantic little bungalow,
and the fireplace is there. It's a beautiful setting here.
And then this is where Andy just turns extremely selfish.
It's the evening of their anniversary, and his gift to
Elizabeth is the fact that he finally finished the first
draft this manuscript of his great novel, which I think
is it called The Big Heist. It sounds right, it
was something like that he called it. It's basically The
Ocean's Eleven Ideas, and he forces Elizabeth to read the
entire draft there that night in front of him, and
it's just kind of like what are you doing? Man?
And I get there's supposed to be some comedy to this, right,
it's a funny thing. But he's just so oblivious to
taking care of It's their anniversary, he should be taking
care of her and thinking about her needs. But he
forces her to read the draft and then that goes
to hell because she hates it, and then he throws
it into the fireplace and then has to try to
save it anyway. After this, then, of course she is
It's revealed that she's been working on her own book,
a children's book, and has completed it, has turned it
into a publisher, and has received five thousand dollars in
a contract to have it published, all these things, and
this sets Andy off. He becomes a jealous jerk, and
he turns into a drunk and then ends up betraying
her and stealing her manuscript and handing it over to
his publisher as if it were his own. And it's
like he really turns into a prick, and that makes
him very unlikable. And what I don't understand Bill, then
is at the end, when we have our beautiful scenic
Christmas seasonal third act, she seems to make a quick
turnaround and I don't understand why he treated her very poorly.
She wants a divorce. They're going to the lawyer, they're
trying to get a divorce, and they're selling the house.
But now because everything looks on the surface so perfect,
because they've paid off the townsfolk, it kind of gives
them this feeling of, oh, now we realize we're in
the right place, we made the right move. This is
so beautiful here and the people are so great. And
now she's back in love with Andy. She's forgiven him.
It seems real quick to me, And I had a big,
big complaint with that. It just made no sense to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really didn't like Andy's jealousy towards Elizabeth with
the children's book, and when he says to her, you
know nothing about writing, but then says she's an English teacher.
She seems pretty qualified. Just with that alone, right, And
just because she doesn't like it doesn't mean it's finished, right, Yeah, absolutely,
it's just the first draft. Yeah, so just ask what's
wrong and see what he needs to fix. But he
just goes on this whole ti rate. And then with
the children's book, he gets super upset about that that
didn't work for me. I think at least he comes
to realize he made that mistake. I think with a
Elizabeth because that she didn't like living out there, but
then it inspired her to write that book and maybe
many books in the future. She learns to forgive Andy
for it. But yeah, we don't see it. It just
seems very abrupt because it almost sounds like they don't
want to get divorced because I had to wait till
July and it costs a lot of money because they
don't love each other. And Andy realizes what a dumbass
he was, which he kind of emits at one point,
at least when he has to sleep on the floor
and he says, I basically fuck everything up, right.
Speaker 2: That's there's a moment.
Speaker 1: And I think that's why people actually like Chase's performance
in this because it's the one time he almost humanizes
himself a little bit.
Speaker 2: I see that, Okay, I like that. I like that. Now.
Just going back I think to the overall complaint is
the fact that this entire holiday scene, this Christmas scene,
doesn't start until an hour and twenty minutes into the film,
and it's only an hour and forty minutes forty one
minutes long, so I do appreciate the run time. By
the way, However, structurally I would have liked to see
and I don't mean to rewrite the movie, but I
just would have appreciated less high jinks in the beginning,
maybe only twenty minutes or so, let's get to really
meet some of these townsfolk. But it's very interesting to
me the idea of going to a town where then
all the people that live there are faking it, like
they're really putting on a show, so everything so I
like that idea. There's something about pretending and that everything
being on the surface level everything looks great, but then
finding out that there's more underneath, and that could relate
to also the farmer's relationship when they're moving out there,
pretending as if now we've changed locations and we're in
this beautiful place, everything's going to be great. I will
be inspired to write the perfect book, and she's going
to be the perfect wife, and we're going to have
the most romantic build a family out here, when that's
just not the reality. The reality is life is hard
no matter where you are, and people are quirky and
weird and goofy, and shit happens and we all have
to find a way to get along and prosper together. Right,
So I would have liked to kind of seen that
theme play out, not just in the last twenty minutes,
but throughout three quarters of the movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it would be kind of funny if the town
really portrayed this ideal setting and the longer they live
there they start seeing the cracks and just tell everybody
is weird and quirky.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, for sure. The scene that plays out on
the boat with the fish hook in the neck and
pulling it just was really over the top for me.
It gets like really gaggy, and it's just kind of
I didn't care for that scene that jumped.
Speaker 1: That was a little cringe for me. Yeah, that whole
scene doesn't work.
Speaker 2: When he's fishing in his own lake behind their beautiful
home and he pulls that giant water snake out, that's
goofy and silly because you can tell it's like a
giant rubber thing that probably comes fright out, but it's
still a little bit of a surprise, And it's kind
of funny because he's a great physical comedian in the
way he reacts to it. It works in that scenario.
But the boat, You're right.
Speaker 1: That's the thing. The snake scenario is plausible. You're fishing
in the lake. There's sometimes snakes and lakes. Yeah, But
here it is. You go downtown with your wife. These
guys ask you to go on a fishing trip. It's
not a twenty minute trip. Your wife's going to come
back from the store and go where the hell's my
husband and he's gonna be fishing for the next three
hours or two hours? Why would you agree to go
on the boat?
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: It's just an unplausible scenario. So the rest of it
just doesn't work for Maison Fountain to find it very funny.
Speaker 2: All right, I'm gonna stop there.
Speaker 1: Time to move on to Hey, it's that actor? All right?
So this segment we spotlight a character actor you have
seen in many other films, an actor making their big
screen debut, or an actor that makes an un ready
to cameo. It's Hey, it's an actor. So who do
we choose this week? Because there are a lot of
choices in this one. I was surprised, Yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 2: Every other actor in this is a Hey it's that
actor that's recognizable you're like, Wow, who is he or
she from?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 2: What is that movie that they were in? It's great?
So this week we've chosen for our Hey, it's that actor,
Mike Star, Mike Starr. He plays one of the movers,
and funny enough, the other mover actor actually is a
hey it's that actor too. As soon as I saw him, like, hey,
isn't he the guy driving the black Jack war and speed?
Isn't that that guy?
Speaker 1: Yeah? It is?
Speaker 2: Yes, Goodwe totally so. But Mike Starr is great, immediately
recognizable American character actor from New York City, standing tall
at six three and a half. Known for playing bullying characters,
he worked as a bouncer and bartender before landing a
small part in the film Cruising in nineteen eighty. As
it goes back to nineteen eighty, he's got two hundred
and forty five credits on IMDb. So yes, Mike Starr
was in Cruising in nineteen eighty. Then he was in
the Natural in eighty four. He's in the Money Pit
in eighty six, looking forward to doing that on this podcast.
He was in a couple episodes of Crime Story in
eighty seven. The film Who's That Girl? With Madonna in
eighty seven, Funny Farm in eighty eight, and Punchline in
eighty eight, Lean On Me in eighty nine, Uncle Buck
as a character called Pooter the Clown in eighty nine,
and then he is briefly featured in Born on the
Fourth of July, also in eighty nine. So here's some
highlights of his After the eighties. He was in Blue Steel,
good Fellas as character Frenchy Miller's crossing Billy Bathgate, free
Jack the Bodyguard, the Hotsucker Proxy, and he has a
great role in ed Wood. That's one film you definitely
would recognize him from. But the film I always associate
him with is Dumb and Dumber. That's what I think of. First,
he plays the character Joe Medalino, and I believe the
big scene with him and Jim Carrey when he's choking
on the hot peppers initially when they're at the diner restaurant,
and then Carrie accidentally feeds him the poison pills as
that's what happens, and then he's like foaming at the mouth.
Speaker 1: Mike Stars, Oh, I remember the together the most annoying
sound in the world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course. Yeah, So Mike Starr great, done it.
He does a ton of TV episodes, makes appearances on
a variety of soap opera's Funny Enough and still working.
Has some upcoming projects. Love Mike stars, great character actor.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's funny. When you were listing off his credits,
I was like, oh, yep, I remember what seeing he said,
Oh yep, I could see it as clear as today.
If you asked me before to name I'm like, I
can't name anything outside Dumb and Dumber. But as soon
as you're saying the credits, I'm like, oh, yeah, I
remember what's seen yous in that movie. So yeah, definitely
an excellent choice for Hey, it's that actor.
Speaker 2: Just gonna give it a couple of shout outs to
some other Hey it's that actors, because I was trying
to remember this gentleman's name. He plays one of the Culbertson's,
the prospective buyers of the Farmer's house. That was Jack Gilpin,
very recognizable. I believe it's Alice Drummond who plays Ethel
Dingis or Dingus who has the antique store. She's very recognizable. Yep,
there you go. There's more that I'm missing here. Oh
who is it that plays the lawyer. He was very
recognizable to Michael.
Speaker 1: Oh no, it's thinking of the publisher guy, Michael Sinclair.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah he too, Yeah sure, yeah, anyway, he watched
the movie a lot of recognizable faces. So I apologize
for not naming all the actors here, but we got
to move along.
Speaker 1: Yep, many, many all right, Time to move on to
facts and trivia. What are some facts of trivia we
have about Funny Farm.
Speaker 2: The film was mostly shot in southeastern Vermont, including the
towns of Windsor, Vermont and Townshend, Vermont, and they were
using locals as extras. This is from IMDb. By the way,
the Townshend Common, the Townshend Common area today has an
unusual souvenir from the production of Funny Farm, because to
make the trees on the common look as if it
was mid autumn, the film crew dyed the leaves, which
killed all the trees except for one in the middle
of the common. Today, the ring of newly planted trees
around the edge of the common are significantly shorter than
the much larger one that survived the filming of Funny Farm.
Speaker 1: Whoops, yeah right, oops, see so this was interesting. You know,
who is supposed to be in this movie. Jason tell
me Bill band Sarah Michelle Geller was he supposed to
play one of Elizabeth's students in an early scene in
the movie.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, Well that would make sense because I'm like
she had been very young at that time. Yea.
Speaker 1: So unfortunately that scene was to lead it and I
couldn't find it anywhere. M Yeah, I think that would
have been one of her first credits.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 1: Things turned out okay for her, she did.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So Ivy's Cafe where Andy eats lamb fries was not
in fact an actual restaurant. It was a set built
in Townsend, Vermont, specifically for the film, and was destroyed
after filming goes over. The site of the set is
now occupied by residential homes which are across the street
from the gazebo in Townshend where Andy is seen running
to the softball game while Elizabeth goes antique shopping.
Speaker 2: This Funny Farm was the first of three consecutive movie
adaptations of Jay Cronley novels in three consecutive years. The
subsequent adaptations were Let It Ride in eighty nine, one
of my cult favorites, and another cult favorite quick Change
in nineteen ninety. We'll have to save that one for
the All Nineties Movies podcast. Yes, love both those movies.
I'm a big fan of Let It Rite.
Speaker 1: Yes, we know that one for sure.
Speaker 2: It was a rough year at the box office for
mister Chevy Chase. So yeah, this was one of two
nineteen eighty eight movies starring Chase. The other was Caddyshack two.
I guess they're saying, well, Funny Farm was a minor hit. Well,
Caddyshak two was a box office bomb, but Chase also
cameoed in the box office bomb The Couch Trip of
the same year in eighty eight.
Speaker 1: Ooh, yeah, tough year for him. So the kid who
steals the street sign at the beginning of the movie
was an extra from Windsor High School, where a fair
amount of the filming takes place. He had not becoming
a local cop.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had that too, that's funny. Last one I
got here real quick bill is the four thousand dollars
bill for Claude Musselman's funeral. That's the the casket with
the bones that was dug up in the farmer's backyard.
That was claud Musselman in there. The four thousand dollars
bill for Claude Musselman's funeral would equate to a little
over eleven thousand dollars in twenty twenty five. Ouch, yeah,
chuck a change, all right.
Speaker 1: Moving on to box office, so, Funny Farm was released
on June third, nineteen eighty eight, in one thousand, five
hundred and fifty seven theaters with an estimated budget of
nineteen million. Bunny Farm pulled in twenty five point five
million domestically. The film debuted number four at the box office,
behind Big, which also opened that week in less theaters,
and Funny Farm would only last another three weeks in
the top ten and would be the thirty ninth highest
grossing movie of nineteen eighty eight, just ahead of Alien Nation,
which we covered back in season four.
Speaker 2: Yeah going against Big, that's tough.
Speaker 1: Yeah, who knew, right? Moving on to reviews. When growing
up in the eighties, we would watch at the movies
with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert to hear the reviews
and watch clips of upcoming movies. Their review of Funny
Farm was unanimous two thumbs up. Ebert described the film
as one of the year's Funniest Movies, while Ciskel called
it the best chase film his made. Together, Ciskel and
Ebert praised the film for its abundance of laugh out
loud moments, sharp direction, striking cinematography, and precise editing to
consistently end scenes at the perfect moment.
Speaker 2: Wow, no kidding, You know it's funny Bilt because I
left out one piece of trivia here and I'll just
put it appropriately in this segment. Gene Siskel said he
received the most complaints from Ciskel and Ebert viewers for
recommending this film. So the viewers the audience did not
agree with Ciskel and Ebert's very positive outlook on this film.
Speaker 1: So Rotten Tomatoes gives it a Tomato Meter score of
sixty four percent, with the Popcorn Meter score of fifty
one percent, and also has an IMDb rating of six
point two. So that takes us to additional thoughts and questions.
What are some additional thoughts and questions you have about
Funny Farm?
Speaker 2: Did you have a question right off the.
Speaker 1: Top, Jason, what is the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?
That is great?
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, I wish I could remember I was on
a cruise ship and we went to a restaurer was
a great like themed restaurant. I want to say. It
had an Alison Wonderland theme. And there were some really
strange dishes they were serving and I can't think of them.
It was just interesting recipes and you wouldn't think to
put this with that, but it paired nicely and it
was very tasty. And now I can't think of any
of those items. I just I can tell you this much.
I'll never forget the first time I tried octopus a
sushi restaurant. I know that's not weird for a lot
of people, but it was for me because I had
never had sushi and this was my first time ever.
And this was in Miami, and I remember Craig Rose
being there and he's like, oh, yeah, I try this
octopus and I'm chewing on a tentacle with the suckers
on it, and I'm like, this is not for me.
This is definitely not for me. I wasn't going to
break any record eating the most amount of octopus in
one sitting. However, Yeah, I'll have to think about that
and see if I can come up with something else.
But the weirdest strangest thing I've ever eaten. What do
you have for this?
Speaker 1: I think my number one would be jellyfish?
Speaker 2: Okay, wow, just because the.
Speaker 1: Connotation of jellyfish is stinging and stuff like that. Where
did you have jellyfish in Hong Kong? Okay?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: And it's very chewy and not much flavor to be honest,
so I don't think you have to try. But yeah,
when they put it at our table, I was the
only one that would try it. I'm like, what's the
worst it going to happen?
Speaker 2: That just makes me think of when you hear the
nightmare stories about is it puffer fish? Oh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, the.
Speaker 2: Very poisonous if you get the wrong Yeah.
Speaker 1: Just looks like a giant piece of gelatine. Just but yeah,
I was super chewy. Second, I would go with cow's tongue. Okay,
I can't remember where I had that at, but we
were at there was a bunch of us and we
were at a deli and they were serving it and
everyone was daring each other to try it, and I'm like,
I'll try it.
Speaker 2: Actually wasn't bad. There you go, tastes like chicken. Just kidding.
Speaker 1: No, Well, the third thing people say taste like chicken
A lot alligator of course. H down in South Florida,
I would say that's very close to chicken. So maybe
people would be like, no, dude, you actually ate chicken.
They just said it was alligator, But no, I think
it was alligator.
Speaker 2: This was my mom. That would be my big three
Great stuff. Man, Bill Bant, you're a writer. Sometimes I'm
gonna ask maybe a few questions regarding this, and you're
you're writing relationship with your wife, Hillary the Lovely Hillary Band.
Have you ever had her read something of yours to
give you feedback and how have you reacted to this feedback?
Have you ever had to react to perhaps negative feedback
as Andy Farmer has to deal with from Elizabeth in
this film.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's a good question. There's definitely some things I've
given her to read. I don't think she's ever given
like pure negative feedback like Elizabeth did. But yeah, sometimes
she'll have questions and I'll have to answer or constructive criticism,
which I think most of the times warned because maybe
something's not explained correctly, so I have to go back
and fix it.
Speaker 2: So you do share your writing with her when it
comes to your Yeah, on occasion like screenplays. Yeah, yeah,
not talking novels here, of course, we're taking more like
writreen writing. Yeah, okay, okay, Because I was just going
to ask, then, what how would you feel if Hillary
wrote a screenplay and managed selling it for a million dollars?
Speaker 1: I wouldn't care.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you'd love it? Yeah, exactly, you are. Bill Bant
doesn't get jealous for.
Speaker 1: A million dollars. I'm not gonna tell.
Speaker 2: You be like, way to be Hillary, keep writing?
Speaker 1: Yeah, god, one thousand dollars, I'd be excited.
Speaker 2: I'm just going to keep rolling with this writing theme
that I just was in my head about, just because
I always I am curious with other writers, you know,
as to their process. Right. So Andy and Elizabeth they
move out to this beautiful country and Vermont, and that's
where he feels he will find his inspiration, find the
the space and the time to pursue his novel. What's
your great What's what's your preferred creative space? Bill Bant
is a writer, what's your ideal space to work in?
Speaker 1: I don't think I have it right now? Pretty much
whatever the house I can find. Yeah, yeah, so if
I had the perfect setting, it would be like a
house over looking the beach. Yeah, that would be it.
I mean the countryside's cute with the bird out there.
But I always thought about it if I had the money,
if I was really successful, I'd want some beachfront property
and I'd be sitting by a huge window overlooking the beach.
Speaker 2: There you go. Yeah, it's similar. I mean it's similar
to this film. Similar to you, I would I'd be
up in the mountains. I'd have a cabin in the mountains.
I'd like the rural setting. I'd like that type of scenery. Also,
I really love my quiet. I need the quiet, which
is interesting. It's changed over the years where I used
to always be listening to music, and I still very
very much thousand percent need music as inspiration. I have
to have my music. But I used to listen to
music a lot while I was writing, versus now I
think I really just treasure the silence.
Speaker 1: So it's funny you brought this up about the money
with the equivalent nowadays. But I wanted to know how
much it was going to cost Andy and Elizabeth today
if they tried that with the thifty dollars. Oh yeah,
so yeah, that equiveland today would be one hundred and
thirty six rounded up one hundred and thirty seven dollars
they would have to give each townfolk for kindness today's dollars.
Speaker 2: I also was wondering just guestimating how many townsfolk there were?
How many people? I mean, what was the population of Redbud? Like, right,
you think they probably had to pay like fifty people,
seventy five more?
Speaker 1: Oh, I would say over one hundred.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was a lot, a lot of people participating,
that's for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think I would have started around the ten
dollars mark, Yeah, start low. Last thing for me, I
found this very interesting and it certainly made a lot
of Smith sense. So Madeline Smith was actually the first
choice to replace Shelley Longlan cheers no kidding. Yeah, but
supposedly she has health issues which kind of prevented her
from taking the role. Huh when you think about it,
you know, then they picked uh Cursty Allie. Yeah. I
wanted to make sure I said it right. Christi Ali,
I'm like, oh, it makes sense. They look almost alike.
Speaker 2: Oh, Bill, this is great. I could totally see Madeline
Smith in that part. Yes, thousand, absolutely, she would have
been great. Yeah, yeah, she would have been excellent on cheers.
I think I think she had some comedic chops in
this movie. She's pretty funny in her delivery. I thought
I thought she was good. Yeah, I said serviceable earlier,
and that sounds as though it's a ding, but it's
not really. I think she was good in this agreed. Well,
I didn't really have anything else for thoughts or questions,
not as of now.
Speaker 1: Let's move on to rating then. All right, all right,
so here we go on a scale of one to
five lamb Fries. What do you give funny Farm?
Speaker 2: So I'm going to surprise our listeners here a little bit.
I'm kind of in a because of the I do
love the ending, and I do have a nostalgic attachment
to this film, and I do still look upon it
overall fondly. I I'm going to give it three lamb Fries.
I may begrudgingly maybe have to downgrade it to two
point five that was my initial lamb Fry rating, but
I'm going to give it three because I'm feeling positive
and upbeat today. I have to say it's a little
wild to think that the director of Butch Casside and
The Sun Dance Kid made this movie and went safe
with it doing this version because the book was not
as safe, and that's what Jeffery Bowe wanted to do.
But anyway, this is George broy Hill's vision of it,
so it was, yeah, I agree with you, Bill, fine safe.
I just felt like the development, especially at the end
of the relationship between Andy and Elizabeth, wasn't fully fleshed out.
I wished the obstacles with it of their relationship, the
writing and the betrayal and stuff had happened sooner and
that we could have gotten to the good stuff this
Norman Rockwell Christmas painting of Red Bud. I wished all
that had happened sooner in the films because that was
the most fun. But chevy Chase, he's fun to watch.
He might you know why chevy Chase. He reminds me
of my dad. And I'm not you know, I'm not
at all talking about chevy Chase is off screen persona
or the things that say this is strictly the chevy
Chase characters that he portrays, particularly Clark Griswold and National Lampoons.
Just the always like kind of a gentle giant, tall,
handsome guy that's always positive, always has an idea of
things to do in itinerary, a plan and goals and
things like that, and just wants to enjoy the outdoors
and travel and all these things. That's my dad. And
he's goofy and he's silly too, and he has silly
jokes and things. So I do appreciate Chevy Chase characters
for that because those characters he portrays remind me of
my dad in the best possible way. So he's good
in this. I didn't think. This is not Fletch, it's
not National Lampoon, it's not Candy Shack. But he's good.
I found the chemistry between him and Madeline Smith fine
and good, and yeah, I would still. I think you
said this earlier too, Bill, so to reiterate, if you
come across this, give it a watch, give it a watch.
It's feel good at the end. So I'm gonna give
it three lamp fries.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you. I originally wrote three, and then
we're going through the podcast, I'm like, do I need
to knock this down to two right that half? But no,
I think I'm gonna keep it at three because I
do laugh. It does make me smile. But when you, yeah,
break it down, there's a lot of flaws. It's just
a weird thing. It's like, if you never see the movie,
you'll be okay. But I think if you watch it,
you'll enjoy it. It's not a must watch if you're
gonna watch Chevy Chase movies. Yeah, this is probably the
fifth or sixth to one I'm gonna list. Oh yeah,
you're not missing anything, but it won't hurt to watch it.
And uh yeah, I've watched a ton of times. I
was still enjoying it. It goes by quick. Yeah, but yeah,
you're right. That ending scene, Yeah, I wish that did
play a little bit longer, well said. Okay, that about
wraps up for this episode. As always, we appreciate you
tuning in. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite
streaming platform, leave your rating, and then drop us a review,
hopefully positive one. I want to know more about our show,
of course you do. Head over to All Eightiesmovies podcast
dot com. We hopefully join us next time as we
dive into another classic from the greatest movie decade ever
in nineteen eighties. Till then, stay cool. We have an
excellent to everyone.
Speaker 2: As a novelist. I turned out to be a pretty
good sports writer. Thanks for staying up with us. Goodnight World,