Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Shirley You Can't
Be Serious Podcast. Jason, tell me what we got today.
Speaker 2: Today we are doing something that the patreons requested.
Speaker 1: Oh wow. So guys, if you haven't joined our Patreon family,
it's a big, happy family. You can do it by
going to patreon dot com backslash Shirley Podcast and for
at little five bucks a month, you get access to
all of our episodes and you get a voice in
what episodes we are going to do. So tell me
about this one.
Speaker 2: So we put it out to our patreons. We said, hey, guys,
here's a couple of matchups we got coming up. We like,
what do you think which one would you like to
see first? And the people voted, and today we are
covering Big Versus Twins.
Speaker 1: We call it the Big Twins Episode, Ladies and Twins Episode.
I was gonna tell you, so, you had not seen
Twins when we started this, right, that is correct. I
watched it for the first time last night.
Speaker 2: So my first thought when we had said that, I said,
you know, to myself, I'm like, wow, d is a
Twins virgin. Yeah, And when you said, hey, I'm gonna
watch it tonight. I was like, tonight is your nye bro,
your nyebrow.
Speaker 1: If only it had been the same type of experience
with Kelly Preston exactly, then that's where we could go.
Speaker 2: Okay, man, I'm dying to get into this with you, right, Okay.
Speaker 1: So, Kelly Preston was born in nineteen sixty four.
Speaker 2: Let's can we just talk for an hour about Kelly
Preston play.
Speaker 1: I really, honestly I had written this, hold On, I
gotta say this, I gotta say this.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: Kelly Preston was born October thirteenth, nineteen sixty two, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Her given name was Kelly Kama lay le Lua Smith.
She would later change it to Preston. Her middle name,
Kama lay lay Lua means a flowering, evergreen garden. And
if I could just go play in the garden of
Kelly Preston's evergreen flowers, I would do it every day.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, we're both in love.
Speaker 1: After watching this smoking hot and then I was gonna say,
and that's all that I have to say about Twins.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, we're gonna get into it because this is
a much beloved movie. And before we really dive into it.
We are starting our Summer of eighty eight celebration right exactly.
So here in the next few weeks we're gonna bounce
around a little bit, but we're gonna celebrate the summer
of eighty eight. So this week we'll be covering Big
and Twins. Twins was December of eighty eight. Yeah, a
couple of weeks from now, we got Poison open up
and say ah, Living Colors Vivid, and then later it'll
be Cinderella, Long Cold Winter and Know You eight one
two by Van Halen. All came out in the summer
of nineteen eighty eight and gonna be a lot of fun. Yeah,
so you definitely want to stick around. Push that subscribe
button so you don't miss any of those great up episodes.
Speaker 1: So summer of eighty eight, you're probably just getting your
driver's license quite I was fifteen fifteen, okay, so I
was twelve going on thirteen, So I'm the same age
as Josh in this movie. As things are happening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we were talking about how the age difference really
kind of plays into the enjoyment of this movie. Yeah,
I was not really interested in being a kid or
being an adult I just wanted to drive.
Speaker 1: You wanted to drive?
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 1: Ironically, that's exactly what Tom Hanks said in an interview
during the production of Big. They was like, did you
want to grow up?
Speaker 2: And He's like, actually, I just wanted to drive.
Speaker 1: That was what I wanted to do. I wasn't I
was having fun. I wasn't trying to go be an adult.
I just wanted to be able to have wheels and
maybe some money.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was that was basically me. Hey, before we
get too far down the road on this, we we
got three little things we got to check off our
list here right yep. So we discussed how the Patreons
actually selected this episode. Yep. For us, I think it
won over Mister Mom versus nine to five, which we
still think is a fantastic episode.
Speaker 1: We will cover it.
Speaker 2: That's coming down the road at some point.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Another thing I want to throw out a special shout
out to our buddy Jeff Johnson.
Speaker 1: Okay, Jeff is a good.
Speaker 2: Friend of ours. He runs the Film by podcast with
his buddy Brad and they do a super job over there.
If you haven't checked them out, you definitely want to
do that. He sent us a very very special gift
to the mail the other day. Yeah, so we just
got done with our Outsiders episode. Yes, okay, we did
et last summer yep, and we did the Outsiders yep.
He bumped into see Thomas Howe backstage at a convention. Yes,
so they talked to him for like fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1: It's fantastic. Just got done with the Outsider's episode and
he's over there talking to pony Boy.
Speaker 2: That's right. And his buddy who was there, said, Hey,
did you you talk about the hit your episode that
the film I did, or did you talk about what
we're gonna do? And he said, no, it's too busy
pumping up the Shirley podcast on the Outsiders, which I
thought was hilarious. So he sent to you a signed,
like an autograph picture of see Thomas how on the Outsiders, says,
d stay gold, see Thomas Howe.
Speaker 1: Pony Boy, Thanks, Jeff, I really appreciate it. It's so cool, right,
very cool.
Speaker 2: That's and that's now hanging at Shirley Studios.
Speaker 1: And I'm sitting here drinking out of my film by
podcast cup as we're doing this episode, the one that
changes colors exactly, wearing my T shirt that's exactly right.
Speaker 2: And then he actually sent me a signed picture from
d Wallace my namesake. Right, Yeah, listen to what d
Wallace wrote to me. Okay, so I'm a huge fan
of the movie Secret Admirer.
Speaker 1: Right to me, it's Kelly Preston.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so to me, that is an overlooked movie from
the eighties. I don't know why it's not listed as
a classic teen comedy. See Thomas Howe, Corey Ham, Laurie Laughlin,
Kelly Preston, d Wallace, fred Ward Cases, Samsco. Full of People. Anyway,
Jeff knew that I was a big fan of Secret Admirers,
So since d Wallace was in that movie, he had
her sign and she just signed this on her own.
It says love you Jason from your not so Secret
Admirer d Wallace, Your heart go pitter patter, and she's
the mom of the eighties.
Speaker 1: I loved it, you know, Et Baby.
Speaker 2: Et Kujo, Secret Admirer, the Howling Yeah, yes, okay.
Speaker 1: And then there's one more person that we absolutely have
to give a shout out to. We we got ladies
and gentlemen. We've gotten several reviews on the podcast, but
we got what is probably the longest and maybe funniest
review that we've ever had, and so we have to
read it out loud to you. Now, this is a
little tooting our own horn, but it was worth it
for what this guy put down.
Speaker 2: This is tooting our own horn, but really we're tooting
his horn because we really want to shake the wishes
and have him come out and contact us through email,
because absolutely, yeah, we we'd love to get to know
this guy. But this is from Morgan's Morgue. Okay, yeah,
he said. I teach social studies at a military school
in Virginia. I feel it is imperative that I keep
up with current events so as to best explain topics
that may come up in my classes. But I discovered
the Shirly Guys just before Thanksgiving of twenty twenty two.
Prior to this, I would listen on my morning drive
time show to stay up on local current events and
listen to public radio to get more in depth coverage
on national and global issues. Boy was I a moron.
Since Turkey Day, I have not turned on my radio
or from my thirty minute commute each way because of
these guys. I have been loving every day's drive to
and from work, reliving the glory of yesteryear and getting
a new perspective on things I was too dense to
understand as a teenager in the late eighties and early nineties.
Who cares about global warming, geopolitical issues and pledge week
When you've got so many episodes of the Shirley Camp
series podcast, I am learning so much about movies and
music that made me and using that knowledge to influence
another generation of misspent youth. I am seriously thinking of
developing a few lesson plans on entertainment trends of the
eighties and nineties in my classroom, and I can thank
Jason and d for that. Do yourself a favor and
drop into the best eighties and nineties pop culture podcasts
on the interwebs. You will thank me later, and more importantly,
you should thank the Shirley guys.
Speaker 1: Lord Morgan, take off your mask, tell us who you are,
a wise and witty man. We need to know your
real name. Hit us up Shirleypodcast at gmail dot com,
or you hit us up on Twitter our Facebook. There's
a bajillion followers that we've got out there for those,
but feel free to just email us. We want to
know who you are and maybe send you a special
present for that awesome review. Guys, if you want to
help us out, submit a review is if it's as
hysterical or even close to as funny as that one was,
we will be happy to read it on the air.
Speaker 2: Lord Morgan, thank you you made both Diana's day. That
was great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, onto the podcast. Jason, Yep, you got something,
Tell me you got something.
Speaker 2: Just name, address, and badge number right here in LA.
Speaker 1: We are not talking about die Hard today, but that
is related to what we are talking about because I
discovered as we're doing our research that we typically do
that the young actress who gave the line that Jason
just gave to us is Penny Marshall's freaking daughter. That
blew my mind, dude, and her birth is possibly a
pivotal moment in the life of Penny Marshall that changes
entertainment history.
Speaker 2: Really Okay, yeah, what do you got for?
Speaker 1: Well, before we get in there, let me just just
to throw back to a film buy. We covered Ghostbusters
two as guests on the film Buy It was back
in November of twenty one. If anybody wants to go
check out that particular episode we talked about Ghostbusters two
when we talked about Ivan Rightman. I listened to it
again today because it's been two years. I needed to
refresh my own recollection of the history of Ivan Rightman,
and so I went back and listened to it. I
encourage you guys to It's so fun. I have such
a good time with Jeff and Brad doing those guest episodes. Yeah. So,
I don't want to rehash the whole history of Ivan
Rightman again since we've already covered in that episode, but
I will give it a brief refresher. Okay.
Speaker 2: So, Ivan Wrightman's history is pretty freaking interesting.
Speaker 1: Like he came over as a little kid as a
stowaway in the bottom of a boat with his family
to escape Czechoslovakia, like it was crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right.
Speaker 1: He ends up in Canada, doesn't speak the language, has
to learn to speak the language, ends up going to
college to become a music major. He wanted to be
a composer, but he couldn't find any good, good movies
to put his music to. So he's like, well, I'll
just make my own movies. And so he ends up
making movies and realizes, hey, I'm actually kind of good
at this directing thing. Let's see what else I can do.
And so he directs a student film. It gets it
up in a show, it gets it into one of
the contests one of the festivals that they have, right
and so after he gets the film in the film festival,
he does really well, ends up winning the film festival.
Has a guy come and talk to him afterwards, who's like,
this is actually really good. I was really impressed, and
I work for a major studio, so I just wanted
you to know. And so Ivan Rightman is mister Hutzba like.
He's immediately, well, hey, what do you think about maybe
putting this is like, it's only twenty minutes long. What
if we do like a little pre show for some
movie that you guys are going to release? And he's like, uh, okay,
let me think about it, all.
Speaker 2: Right, I'll talk to you, mat I get back to
you on that one.
Speaker 1: Right. A few weeks later, young college age Ivan Rightman
is in the office of David Brown and Richard Zanuk
of Fox Studios, the guys who would go on to
produce Jaws, right right, and he's like, Hey, I love
it if you guys just put this as an intro
piece to this new Dustin Hoffman movie that you've got
coming out, and they say, okay, we'll do it. So
Ivan Rightman is a college kid, gets his movie, his
student film, as the opening reel for this big Dustin
hoff I mean Dustin Hoffman, top of his game, right.
Imagine if we put a twenty minute film together and
somebody said, yeah, I'll put this at the beginning of
all of the Tom Cruise movies that are coming out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you very much. Yeah, that'd be great.
Speaker 1: So he does that. I mean, it looks like he's
already just rocketing up the ladder. And then he directs
another movie that's called The Columbus of Sex. Well, as
it turns out, place in Canada that he decides to
air this film is very conservative, and he gets arrested
for pornography. Okay, yeah, So all of a sudden bad
right turn right, you know, oh crap, and then he's like, okay,
I got to make this work. He gets out of
his legal troubles, He's like, I got to make this work.
So he goes into absurd debt making the movie called
Cannibal Girls. Cannibal Girls, right, So he's got this movie
called Cannibal Girls. He's got Eugene Levy in it, yes,
and so it's you know, it's funny and it's horror
and it's raunchy. And he manages it to get it
in the con Film Festival and it's kind of this
wow gorilla operation with him and all his production crew
where they start putting up posters where they're not really
supposed to all over the place to try to get
people to come in to see the movie. Some folks
come in, as it turns out, one of them ends
up being a big producer, and he stops Ivan Wrightman
after he's done watching the movie, like literally like day
before the festival is over, and he's like, hey, I
saw your movie. It might be bad enough that we
could make some money on it. And Ivan Wrightman was like, great,
what do we do?
Speaker 2: Sounds awesome?
Speaker 1: And he's like, I'm going to this thing, you know,
talk to me tomorrow. Well we'll figure it out. And
he's like, well, how how do I talk to you?
And he's like, Oh, I'm at the DuPont or something,
some big fancy hotel. Just come by ask for me,
and so he evan rightman. Of course, goes by. When
he gets up to the guy's room, there's this it's
a giant penthouse. There's this huge party with all of
these stars, and again, Ivan Wrightman is just this young
twenty something guy.
Speaker 2: Just hi, Hey, it's right Redverend, Hey, it's yea.
Speaker 1: And so he gets this guy and he's like, hey,
he told me to come see He's like, oh yeah,
that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, hey, we'll get together. I'll
meet you at the studio. And Ivan Ryman's like, can
we do something like now, I'm just a little worried.
And the guy's like, okay, go back in my bedroom
and we'll talk. Okay, yeah, right, So he goes back
to the bedroom. It's not anything, you know, not anything
weird like that, but.
Speaker 2: Go back in the bedroom, get undressed. I'll be there
in a minute.
Speaker 1: And the guy, the guy, the producer, comes back in
and he's like, listen, I tell you what. I'll give
you fifty thousand dollars for it. Keep in mind he's
one hundred thousand in debt. Right. He goes, I'll give
you fifty thousand dollars for it and a percentage of
the profits. Does that sound good?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: Trying to get him out of the right house, right,
you know. Yeah, So Ivan Wrightman says, yeah, do you
mind writing that down? And the guy's like, okay, here,
here's a napkin, all right, fifty thousand dollars and a
certain percentage of the profits. Here you go. And Ivan
Ryman is like, do you mind signing that? And the
guy's like, listen, here is my name, shake my hand.
I'm telling you this will be the deal. And sure
enough he follows through with his words.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: Cannibal Girls gets released, but the studio is worried about
some particularly scary scenes and some particularly raunchy scenes, so
they do this thing where they put warning bells in
whenever there's a scary scene, Like they literally have a disclaimer.
It's part of the trailer. It's like, this movie is
so scary, we have to warn you before you have
a sexy scene or a scary scene, right, and so literally, yeah,
as the movie is going on, it's like it's like
the harpo Mark's horn is like, and then it shows
the scary scene and then when it's safe, you know,
it's like the big bom and you're you know, you
can open your eyes again and watch whatever's going crazy
and Ivan Rymond's like, this is kind of killing all
the surprise in the movie, and they're like, dude, that
is not why people are coming to watch this movie.
Just trust us, and you know, history is made. He
goes on and he starts his own theater company, he
starts his own TV production company.
Speaker 2: So, for those who don't know, Ivan Rightman did meat Balls, YEP, Stripes, Yeah,
Bolt with Bill Murray. Yeah, And of course later he
does this little movie called Ghostbusters. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I might have heard of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. From there, I mean he did Kindergarten Cop and Twins,
which we're going to talk about today Junior with Danny
DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Again. Yeah, So he's had a
really really successful.
Speaker 1: Movie career, right, I mean Ghostbusters is the big atomic
bomb for his career for sure. Right, there's just no question, absolutely,
And that was nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 2: David Wright write that down and I have this ongoing
argument about what the best year in movies is.
Speaker 1: So right, So now this movie, this Ivan Wrightman movie
that we're about to talk about, didn't come along until
a few years later in nineteen eighty eight, year before
Ghostbusters two came out.
Speaker 2: That's correct.
Speaker 1: Okay, So how did he get this movie? I don't
know the answer to that yet, but I can tell you.
You've also got a story with the writers. Okay. So
the writers on this, we've got two teams of guys. Okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So one of them is a British set of partners
and one of them is an American set of partners. Okay, okay.
So the British writing team is William Davies and William Osborne.
This is their first significant screenplay. I mean they have,
you know, a little bit of work, but really they
came over from England. Now, William Osborne was a barrister,
like he was, went to Cambridge Law school, became a barrister.
But then he and his buddy William Davies says, you
know what, let's go to California and write movies. And
he's like, okay. The only preparation that they made before
they went out to California was that they bought the
book screenplay and read it five times. That is it. Wow,
no other experience did they have. They came out to
la and started writing and this is their first movie.
Now they would go on to do the Johnny English franchise,
a bunch of animated hits, Flushed Away, How to Train
Your Dragon, Puss in Boots, most recently lyle Lyle Crocodile,
which I don't know if that's good or not.
Speaker 2: Anyway, well, those are big titles in that world.
Speaker 1: Oh for sure. If you don't have kids, just let
me tell you. Those are CDs or DVDs that are
in a parents catalog at my house. Yep. Right, And
also this is hilarious. William Davies also co wrote Stop
or My Mom Will Shoot with mister Blake Snyder of
Save the Cat.
Speaker 2: Interesting. Okay, there's a whole backstory with that with Ernold
Schwarzenegger and sylves Alone.
Speaker 1: That's right, exactly exactly. And then just a side note,
just a relative. William davies brother, Michael Davies is the
guy who brought U Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
to TV.
Speaker 2: It's just an interesting, small little show there you go.
Speaker 1: Might have heard of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: Now the American team is a couple of guys named
Timothy Harris and Herschel wind Guard. Okay, okay, these are
the guys who wrote Trading Places. Nice, yes, and that was,
so they have, They've got a few movies under the belt.
They did Trading Places, they did Brewsters Millions. They would
go on to do Kindergarten cop again with Ivan Wrightman
and Arnold Schwarzenegger. But I didn't even realize this when
we cover Trading Places. Did you know that it was
nominated for an OSCAR for Best Original Screenplay? I think
we com Yeah, yes, I totally missed that. Wow, there
you go. Not only are they based on three Stooges skits,
but they are nominated for Oscars. So these four guys
are the writers behind Twins. So you told me you
know the story of how it becomes the movie.
Speaker 2: Well, so I've got a little bit on this.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ivan Rightman, and Robin Williams are all
at dinner in Snowmas, Colorado, and I think this is
like Winter of nineteen eighty four. Okay, Now, that's a
big year for Ivan Rightman because Ghostbusters was everywhere, and
Arnold had just done The Terminator, and of course Rob
Williams was already a star with Morganmindy and a million
other movies, right right, So they're all sitting around dinner talking, drinking, eating,
having a good time, and Ivan Rightman is laughing and
he's like he turns to Arnold, He's like, you know what,
you're a funny guy, and Arnold said funny. How like funny?
Like no, he did take you laugh. I'm here to
amuse you. So Ivan Rightman is just like, no, you're
really funny. We need to see this on the screen.
And arnld Schwarzenegger's like, well, thank you. He's like, there
is a funny side to my personality, yeah, but nobody
will let me express it. Like because I'm the action
hero guy, I'm not a comedian, but I do like
to be funny. And Ivan Rightman is like, dude, we
have got to figure out a way to get your
comedic side on the big screen. Ars Schwartz was like, great,
I would love to be directed by you, So let's
do this. Let's figure out a way. And so I
was like okay. So he came back to him with
five ideas and they laid them all out and Arnold's like,
this is the best one. Like I think this one
right here twins would be the funniest, has the potential
to be really funny, and Ivan Rightman's like, well, who
do you do you think would be your twin and
Arnold schwarzenergraph it says Danny DeVito because physically they're opposites,
right and Ivan Rightman's like, that's a great idea, I know, Danny,
let me call him right now.
Speaker 1: Perfect.
Speaker 2: And so from that they go and they all have
dinner together and they sit around the table and they
talk about it and said wonderful, brainstorming, lots of funny ideas, Arnold, Danny,
Ivan Rightman, and they said, let's do this. And so
they all signed a napkin basically said I'm agreeing to
do this project called Twins. Danny DeVito still has that
napkins like signing in his living room.
Speaker 1: Cool story, right, absolutely, so Arnold is telling him, hey,
nobody's ever given me the chance to be funny, that's right, right, yes,
And even on Wikipedia it says, and I quote notably,
this was Arnold Schwarzenegger's first time starring in a major comedy. Yes,
I pointed out to you that that's a bunch of baloney.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, tell me about this.
Speaker 1: So when I was a kid, there was a show
that used to come in all the time. My dad
thought it was funny.
Speaker 2: I watched it.
Speaker 1: I thought it was funny. It's got Kirk Douglas, Okay
and Margaret and Arnold Schwarzenegger. And it came out in
nineteen seventy nine, nine years before Twins.
Speaker 2: What is what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: This movie is called The Villain The.
Speaker 2: Old West where the villain were shy?
Speaker 3: Do you mind taking hold of these police chop.
Speaker 2: The Indians where restless?
Speaker 3: And the villains for the heroes of the day Kirk
Douglas and Margaret, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Foster Brooks, mel Tillis, Ruth
Buzzy and Paul linked in The villain lated.
Speaker 1: Peg or if you happen to be from anywhere besides
the United States, you might know it as Cactus Jack.
But Kirk Douglas plays a villain cowboy like a black
bart mustache twirling dressed in black who is going after
Arnold Swartzenigger and and Margaret as they are making their
journey on a horse drawn carriage. Arnold is literally dressed
in the same clothes that the old Lone Ranger used
to wear, like it's the blue shear tied at the
top costume. Okay, and it is a balls out comedy.
That is, it is an homage to all things Looney Tune.
And when I say it's an homage, there's characters named
Avery Simpson and Parody Jones, which, of course the two
big guys from Looney Tunes biggest guys tex Avery and
Chuck Jones. Right. Avery Jones played by Jack Elam.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the guy from Canniball Run.
Speaker 1: Right, and Parody Jones is played by Strother Martin who
is a huge cowboy guy. But Canniball Run is important
because the director of the villain was how Needham himself.
Speaker 2: How Needham smoking the band a Canniball Run.
Speaker 1: The stuntman exact Cooper.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And just to be clear on how much of a
dedication to the Looney Tunes catalog this is, I was.
I'm pretty confident, and it's been a couple decades since
I've seen the movie. There's a part where Kirk Douglas
paints a cave on the side of a wall and
Arnold Schwartzenigger and a Margaret drive their carriage straight through
the cave, and then Kirk Douglas swings down and smashes
his face into the rock painted.
Speaker 2: Like a cave, the old paint the rock trick.
Speaker 1: They even had Mel Tillis in it to be the
stutter and kind of porky pig character. At one point,
mel Tillis says to Arnold Swartznigger, you talk funny, and
Arnold Swarzenigger says that that's easy for you to say.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, Hey, mel Tillis is
in a movie. We're getting ready to cover every which
way but loose.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, I'm so excited about it.
Speaker 2: And he sings like an angel.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I love it. I love it. Be sure
and stay tuned, Hit the subscribe button, hit the follow button,
because Jason and I just happen to find that we
love these two crazy old Clint Eastwood knockoff of the
Burt Reynolds Smoky in the End of Fame. We love
these movies and we're just we just said, heck with
whatever we got scheduled market on it, we're doing this.
So go check out that movie. I can't promise that
it's good. It ranks in the five so like it's
gets I got a five point two on IMDb and
it was an absolute financial failure. I think that is
The reason that is known by another name in all
other countries besides the US is because they're like, well,
maybe we'll have more successfully rename it practice to Jack.
That didn't work either, It was it was dismal. So
what happens is that the studio is like, Arnold's never
been a part of a comedy, and they're like, oh wait,
the villain, and like, okay, they've he's never been a
part of a comedy. That's good, right, and so they
don't want to finance the movie.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right. So here's the deal. When they're sitting
at dinner with Ivan Wrightman, Danny DeVito, and r Schwitzenegger,
they all agree they're not going to take a salary.
They are actually the ones taking the risk. So no
studio really wanted to do a comedy with arn Swarzenegger.
Think about in nineteen eighty eight. This is pre kindergarten
cop this is pre junior, this is this is the
Conen and Terminator days, and you know Predator, right, So
they all agree, no salary, They're just gonna get a
percentage of the back end. Yeah, okay, Well it turns
out Twins made over two hundred million dollars. When it
all figured out, his percentage plus whatever comes up to
be thirty five million dollars.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: They sit around and they talk about how this was
the best decision they ever made financially for Ivan Reitman,
Danny DeVito, and Arne Schwarzenegger. It was fantastic and in fact,
it became such a historic deal the studio. They will
never do that again. Right, they just sat there and
watched these guys just rake in money.
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, let's jump over to big. Transition back to Big, the.
Speaker 3: Space goes Downtown Babe, Downtown Sweet Sweet Babe, Sweet sweet.
Speaker 2: Tlemic Chimmi, Shimmy Cocoa, Chimi Shimmy rock chim Coco about
Chimmi shim rot Ah Man a girlfriend a triscu, She said,
get a biscuit. Ice couln't sort o sell what?
Speaker 1: Then the seats ten times I said, I call my
mama's crowd cool.
Speaker 3: I'm sucking a.
Speaker 2: Stem three more times.
Speaker 1: Okay, Now it has to be said from the outset.
Nineteen eighty eight and late nineteen eighty seven, YEP, was
the time period with little boys in men's bodies.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was kind of for whatever reason, there was
a trend there where four movies came out right around
this time. Yeah, with the same sort of premises Big.
Speaker 1: Right, So let's let's talk about it, because all of
these movies except for Big have a Freaky Friday style
to them, right. I mean, if you don't know what
I'm talking about, Freaky Friday's movie that came out in
seventy six, and it's where they both make the wish
at the same time, I wish it could be young again,
I wish it could be old, and they switch bodies, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so in nineteen eighty seven, four studios at the
same time say we want to revisit that, except let's
make them guys instead of girls. Right. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So you had Like Father, Like Son, which came out
in October of eighty seven.
Speaker 1: Okay, Like Father, Like Son is the one with Kirk
Cameron and Dudley Moore, that's right. Okay, so eighty seven,
Kirk Cameron is at the top of his fame. I mean,
the key's the poster on Every Girl's wall in Every.
Speaker 2: Girl, Mister Tiger Beat.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for sure, Like that movie's that guarantee success.
Speaker 2: By the way, we talked about this movie in a
previous episode, did we because it features two songs off
of Girls, Girls Girls by Molly Crue.
Speaker 1: I did not remember that. Yes, yes, okay, like father,
like son, Dudley Moore, I mean he Dudley Moore is
doing all right in the eighties, of course, Arthur funny
drunk guy.
Speaker 2: All right, go yeah. Then you have eighteen again.
Speaker 1: Okay, eighteen again is the one with George Burns. Yes,
and the Ferris Bueller got from the TV show Firs Bueller.
Speaker 2: You exactly right?
Speaker 1: Yes, what's that dude's name.
Speaker 2: David later later? Yes?
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, good, yes, good, good for us to
remember that.
Speaker 2: Hey, wait to go, okay, and then you have vice
versa remember that one?
Speaker 1: Yes, so that was Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage again,
a guy who's I mean an up and coming star. Right,
of course one should have been huge as well, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Judge reyan Holds fresh off of Beverly Hills
Cop Yeah, fast time it's originally high. Yeah, he's an
up and coming movie star.
Speaker 1: I can tell you I saw every single one of
these movies at the theater. Laughed at every single one
of these movies. Now, keep in mind I was eleven
and twelve, but I enjoyed them. I mean I can
remember after eighteen again seeing Schlater whatever, David Schlater doing
his George Burns impression, going that guy is a brilliant actor.
Like I can remember having that conversation like this is
so good. Yeah, yeah, So tell me how did these movies?
How'd they rank? How they fall?
Speaker 2: Well, so here you go, fu like, Fatherlikes Son is
a five point two, eighteen again is a five point
seven vice versus a five point nine. But let's not
forget there was a TV movie called fourteen Going On thirty,
which came out in March of eighty eight.
Speaker 1: So you throw that into the fourteen Going on thirty,
fourteen going on thirty, not thirteen going on third.
Speaker 2: Jennifer Gardan, No, this is another TV movie that came
out right at the same time as all this stuff.
I mean, it's just for whatever reason, it's a trend.
Speaker 1: Everybody thought now's the time to do this, and so.
Speaker 2: The last one at the table is big. Thankfully that
one actually got nominated for Oscars, I know.
Speaker 1: Okay, so before we get there, all right, so this
is this is great. It's it's so interesting that you've
got all of the I mean, just to imagine all
of these similar style movies all coming out, most of
them with phenomenally big stars, and then you've got big
which I mean Tom Hanks was not the Tom Hanks.
Speaker 2: Yet this is what made him the Tom Hanks.
Speaker 1: It is exactly what made him the Tom Hanks. And
he did it. I mean, you can't give credit to
anybody but himself. I mean, Penny Marshall obviously did a
great movie. But let's let me back up. I'm getting
We're into the movie and I haven't gone the history yet.
All right, Okay, so I gave you the history in Hivan, rightman,
I'll give you the history a little bit on Penny Marshall. Right, okay.
So so Penny Marshall grew up in the Bronx, right, Okay.
She had an older brother and an older sister. Older
brother's name is Gary Marshall. You've probably heard of him.
Speaker 2: Definitely heard of him.
Speaker 1: The sister's name was Ronnie. They both end up going
into television. Gary Marshall writes for like the Dick Van
Dyke Show, a whole bunch whole slew of these other things.
Of course, Ronnie is also in television production doing work.
When Penny is born, our given name is Carol Any.
They had changed it to Marshall at this point.
Speaker 2: They you know, an americanization of an Italian name. Okay.
Speaker 1: Well, her first name Carol was because her mother loved
Carol Lombard, the actress. Okay. Her middle name Penny was
because her older sister Ronnie thought they were getting a
horse and was saving her pennies to get a horse.
And when they're like, we're not getting a horse, but
we'll name her Penny if that makes you feel better.
Somehow a little big sister Ronnie felt better that they
were going to give her the middle name Penny. But
of course she ends up going by that middle name, right.
Speaker 2: Sure.
Speaker 1: She grew up at thirty two thirty five Grand Concourse
in the Bronx, Which why does that matter. I'll tell
you why because here are some other people who grew
up in that building, same building, in the Bronx. Okay,
Neil Simon, the odd couple of course, ye, Calvin Klein
and Ralph Lauren. Wow, all of these guys and Penny
Marshall all grew up not at the same time, but
all his children grew up in thirty two to thirty
five Grand Concourse in the Bronx.
Speaker 2: Calvin Klein made Marty Mcli's underwear. That's fantastic, all in
the same building. Yeah, and so she's got she's got
this interesting religious history. Gary was christened in the Episcopal Church, okay,
Ronnie was christened Lutheran, and Penny was the Congregational Church.
And basically, why you know, three siblings all with different churches.
And she said, well, my mom was a piano player
and so basically she needed places to do recitals. And
so if they had a place for her to practice
and give recitals, we joined the church. So Penny ends
up going to college, is there for two and a
half years, but then gets pregnant with what ends up
being a daughter that they named Tracy Okay, who then
goes on to have a bit part in a movie
called Diehard. You know what college she went to, tell me,
University of New Mexico from the Bronx. Yeah, you know
why she went there? No, because her father wanted her
to lose her Brooklyn accent. She's like, it didn't.
Speaker 1: Work, that's hilarious. So she two and a half years
into college, drops out to marry the father of Tracy,
a guy named Michael Henry. They are only married for
about three years. This is nineteen sixty six. They get
a divorce. She's like teaching dance classes, not sure what
to do. But Gary and Ronnie are both in television.
They're like, hey, come out to La, we'll put you
to work. Yeah, And so she goes out there. She
does some help for them. Her first that's a terrible,
wonderful story.
Speaker 2: Her first acting job was a head and Shoulders commercial. Okay, yeah, okay,
all right, good start.
Speaker 1: Her part was the girl who had the stringy, unattractive hair,
uh huh and the girl who had the beautiful bouncy hair.
Farah Fawcet Mercy.
Speaker 2: Shampoo. Got a roommate. Can't you have it by your
own stuff?
Speaker 1: Ouch. So she's in the midst of, you know, they're
filming the commercial and they have stand ins, and she
notices that her stand ins placard says homely girl, and
that the other girls that Fara Fawcett's stand ins placard
says pretty girl. And Fara Facet sees her looking kind
of like dismal about this, and so to help the situation,
Fara facet goes over and crosses out the word homely
and writes plain its thank you, thanks Parah.
Speaker 2: Know what I think you think you look adorable? Not
just that, Hun, I think your shampoo did a terrific
sexy number on my hair.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: I'm glad. Now you could buy the head and shoulders.
We're out, Okay, gonna buy some money in fairness, fair
of face, I mean. She would go on to be
one of the most beautiful women in the.
Speaker 1: World, especially known for her bouncy hair, among other things.
So she gets other acting parts, one of which is
a reoccurring role of miRNA as the secretary on the
TV series The Odd Couple. So it all comes back
full circle, right yep. And then pivotal moment in television history.
Her brother casts her and Cindy Williams as two loudmouth,
obnoxious brewery workers to go on a date with Arthur
Fonzarelli and Richie Cunningham. Yes, Gary Marshall is the creator
of the TV series Happy Days, and because when they
do this episode November eleventh of nineteen seventy five, if
you care to go back and check it out, all right,
it's called a date with Phonsie, and if you remember
every time before the before Happy Days starts, they stay
filmed before a live studio audience. Yes, the studio audience's
reaction to the characters named Laverne and Shirley was so
strong that it caused them to start their own show.
Speaker 2: That's fantastic. Yeah, I got something for you. You know
who else got their start on Happy Days? Tell me,
mister Tom Hanks.
Speaker 1: That's right, the karate episode.
Speaker 2: That's it. I loved that.
Speaker 1: I love that. That's fantastic. There you go, kicks Phonsie
through the freaking playing glass window in the back of
Owl's restaurant. That's it. I can't believe it.
Speaker 2: You got it. So they've been friends a long time yep.
Speaker 1: She Interestingly, another big show for the Networks at that
time was a show called Taxi. It's absolutely starring, among others,
Tony Danza. You got Danny DeVito, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd.
So ro back to twins. She and Danny DeVito both
in Taxi at the same time. There you go interesting
a little bit, right, So she stars obviously in Laverne
and Shirley. That spins off. I mean, talk about Gary
Marshall and a string of its. He gets Happy Days,
he gets Laverne and Shirley, and then the spinoff from
that is Morecan Mendy Robin Williams.
Speaker 2: Who is at the dinner table with Ivid Ryman and Arswitzlan.
Speaker 1: That's exactly what I was thinking. And so she's got
success as an actress, and then she kind of tests
the waters by directing a few episodes of Laverne and Shirley.
She directs some other TV episodes, and then in the
early eighties, she gets the opportunity to direct Peggy's Who
Got Married, but she had creative differences with the writers
and she bails.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know who they got to direct that one? Instead,
tell me Francis Ford Coppola with Nick Cage. Yep, you
know what she ends up doing. Instead of that, She
has a friend named Woopy Goldberg. Yeah, who says, I'm
doing this movie project, Why don't you come direct me
in this movie? Yeah, it's called Jump and jack Ah.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's what it's called.
Speaker 2: Yes and would be. Goldberg eventually becomes a big star,
and this is kind of a stepping point for her.
Speaker 1: It's stepping point for both of them. And so this
is Jumping Jack. Flash was Penny Marshall's first movie, her
second movie, Big Big. Okay, so this is the first
screenplay for a couple of people. Okay, the two writers
on this movie. The writers are number one. Gary Ross
ends up being neighbors to a woman that you might
have heard of. Her name is ann Spielberg and Spielberg.
She has a very famous father. His name is Arnold Spielberg.
He was an electrical engineer for Ge. He invented several
very important computer things.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: One of which, being a restaurant guy like you are,
you probably know, is the computer controlled point of sale. Yeah, folks,
if you know you're in a restaurant and they're bringing
you up on a computer, that is the responsibility of
Arnold Spielberg and Spielberg's dad. So that's her famous relative
that we can talk about is that it is well
and here's another interesting story. Or he went over to
Moscow at some point and it just so happened that
this was right when the powers thing was going on
with the B fifty two, and so like he gets
pulled up, you know, the Russian guy knows he's American,
and he gets pulled up and he kind of yells
at him about this is what your country is doing
to us and all this other stuff, and that actually
becomes the subject of a movie called Bridge of Spies,
which stars.
Speaker 2: Tom Hanks and is directed by who is the director
on that one? That would be Steven Spielberg.
Speaker 1: Oh so is he related to Anne and Arnold?
Speaker 2: That's her brother. There you go, Steven Spielberg. And in fact,
think with me in this alternate world, uh huh, where
Anne Spielberg writes a screenplay, maybe she gives it to
her brother Steven, who decides, you know what, I think,
I like this story. I'm going to make this movie
with Harrison Ford as Josh. Right. That was actually on
the table at one point.
Speaker 1: That was probably the first thing and what would have
seemed like the most likely thing at the point at
that point, right, absolutely, And you asked me, You're like,
what happens if this movie? Is it going to be
as good if it's directed by Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford?
And I said absolutely not, Absolutely not. I think Spielberg
would have pulled it off, but it wouldn't have been right.
It would have been to Hollywood. And I think that
Harrison Ford would have screwed it up. He's an old
grumpy codger. He came out of the womb, an old
grumpy coder with a stubble on his face. I mean,
there's just he cannot play childlike sweet, which is what
you need for this part in this movie.
Speaker 2: I agree with you. Harrison Ford has never been a kid. No,
So this project bounced around between famous directors, right and
Steven Spielberg. So he had a son named Max at
the time, needed a bail. Plus he really didn't want
to steal his sister's thunder on this deal. Yeah, so
it was offered to Frank Oz, Richard Donner, w Amy Heckerling,
John Hughes, what yeah, wow, Ivan Reitman shut up. Yeah, yeah,
that's great and lands with Marshall.
Speaker 1: How does that happen?
Speaker 2: Well, I guess when everybody else says no, you end
up with who's left by the way.
Speaker 1: Just a side note, Yeah, this is the first movie
directed by a woman to earn more than one hundred
million dollars one.
Speaker 2: It's incredible. It's groundbreaking.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I told you. I can remember her acceptance speech
at the Oscars where she was like, well, there were
a whole bunch of these movies. I don't know why
this one's better, but thanks.
Speaker 2: She's so funny, she's hilarious.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Tom Hanks says, if you want to imitate Penny Marshall,
just clinched her tooth together and ACTI pist all the time.
So Penny Marshall got the script. No studio wanted to
do this movie, right, Here's what jump started the project. Yeah,
Robert de Niro was looking for a commercial project, okay,
and he said, hey, I'll do this movie. And so
when Robert de Niro at that time says I want
to do something cute and funny and mainstream, They're like, okay, yeah,
mister DeNiro, you want to do this, we'll green light it,
we'll get a going. And he signed on for like
two weeks later says, you know what, this is not working.
Speaker 1: Doesn't feel right now.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: What's interesting is he would go on to do A
Young Boy inside of an Old Man's Body with Annie
Marshall just a couple years later when they do Awakenings.
By the way, go check out the film by episode
on Awakenings. It's fantastic, But in this one, it's more
it's a true story and it's a kid who went
comatose basically as a ten or eleven year old and
then wakes up in an old man's body, an old
man's body.
Speaker 2: Y that's exactly right. By the way I heard, I
wasn't able to verify this young Josh and Billy. Yep,
they had crisscrossed them, like they had hired Billy to
play young Robert de Niro, and when he dropped out
of the project and Tom Hanks came aboard, Yeah, they
flip flopped those kids.
Speaker 1: Those kids. Let me just say this, those kids are
a key element to this movie, right, Yeah. I mean
Tom Hanks doesn't appear until the movie's been going on
for maybe it's ten minutes before he shows up, right,
But in the first seven minutes you fall in love
with Josh Paskins.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so important to love the kid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you the credits are going by, like
you're seeing directed by, edited by, written by, all of
these things going by, as Josh and Billy are having
a great time and Josh is living the life of
a kid that every single adult watching the movie is
going Yeah, I remember that. I remember what that was
like being in love with the blonde, pretty girl and
wondering why she has such a dweeby brother, you know,
just getting all of those emotions whenever you see her,
and then the mortification that comes along with your dad
and an alligator hat and your mom taking pictures at
the fair waving right right, Josh, and then that doubled
by the fact that you can't get on the ride
because you're too small.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's talk about that for just a second. Okay, Right,
So this is a fair Kernival type of atmosphere, which
I loved at that age, right, the mobile roller coasters
that would show up, and the tilted worlds and the
funny stuff and the carneies that would run this thing.
It was all very sketch, but it was super fun
as a kid at that age. Okay, Yeah, One of
the least believable parts of Big is the fact that
this guy would not let Josh ride this roller coaster
because he was not tall enough. Those carnies could have
cared less what you did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, I don't know. I've had some kids denied
because they were too short and we're like, come on,
she's like three milimeters there, Like, I'm sorry, it's rules,
it's safety. We won't do it. So I felt his pain.
I identified with him because I was his same age
and I wasn't short, but I understood being kind of
in love with the older at that age frequently taller
young girl.
Speaker 2: And she turns to him, she invites him in line
with her. Yeah, He's like, whoo, here we go. And
then she's like, hey, here's my boyfriend. He drives, He
drives like that is all you need right there?
Speaker 3: Right? Ah?
Speaker 1: Yes, So those two kids playing in those parts for
that first seven and a half half minutes of the
movie is key, and they delivered it so perfect, so
well done. Tom Hanks gets tons of credit, but those
kids definitely deserve credit for this too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. Just on a little side note, do you
know that this is one of only three movies that
drop the F bomb and still maintain their PG rating.
Speaker 1: I had forgotten about that.
Speaker 2: Who you think you are?
Speaker 3: Hurt? They are?
Speaker 2: Josh Baskin? Remember you broke your arm on my roof
in my basement with Robert? Did look get it to you?
This is important?
Speaker 1: This is it's it's Moscow that drops the line, right
he does, Billy.
Speaker 2: Who the F do you think you are?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: And it's a super important moment in the movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And now, by the way, I'm three months older
than you. Ale. Yeah, these are all things that I
didn't notice as a kid, But then when I'm watching
it with my own kids, I'm like, what.
Speaker 2: There are three movies rated PG says the F word Spaceballs,
which we covered, Yeah, Flashback Spaceballs. Yeah, caddye Scheck too,
which is one of the worst movies of all time.
It came out in summer of nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: And then Beatle Juice. Of course we ready to talk
cast Let's do it, Okay. So the characters in Twins,
you have Julius Benedict and you have his brother Vincent.
Speaker 1: My name is Julius, and I'm your twin brother. Oh.
Speaker 2: Obviously, the moment I sat down, I thought I was
looking into a mirror.
Speaker 1: Let's let me just stop you right there, because you
sent me this little golden nugget early on in our research,
and my mind was frigging blown, and I'm gonna steal
it from you. I'm just gonna steal it. Hey, I
don't care.
Speaker 2: I have given it to you.
Speaker 1: This is this is Jason's gold that I am sharing
with reci you right. So the characters' names in this
are Julius and Vincent, Jules and Vincent. If you will
uh huh. And if those two names, said like that
don't spring a little trigger in your brain, then you
are not a big enough Tarantino fan, because that is
the name of John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson's characters
in pulp Fiction.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: I love sharing this sorry with my friends. I've done
it multiple times since you told me, right, And I'm like, so,
do we just think that's a coincidence? No, because guess
who one of the producers of Pulp Fiction was, mister
Danny freaking de Vito. This was an homage to his
art and his partner's part in Twins. What the heck?
Speaker 2: How about that? Spiked the football gold nugget right there?
Speaker 3: Love it?
Speaker 1: Love it?
Speaker 2: So Jules Benedict played by Arnold Schwitzenegger. He is Vincent's brother.
Which is the one joke that this movie tells the
entire hour and forty five minutes.
Speaker 1: You said that, I think there's two jokes. The first
joke is their opposites and their twins. The second joke
is Arnold Schwarzenegger this big bulking guy is a naive
virgin walking around in LA.
Speaker 2: That's fair, okay, cool? All right, So we talked about
how they were friends. Danny Veto, they called him up. Also, conveniently, Ivan, rightman,
Arnold Schwitzenegger, and Dan de Vito are all presented by
the same teleent agency that helps, which makes it a
lot easier. Right, It's called packaging. So they called him up.
They all signed that magical napkin, so that was a
done deal, rightman, Schwarzeneggerdavito Ry. So before we go any further,
I want to tell you that Danny DeVito and arms
Swarzenegger were also offered Suburban Commando as a possible comedy.
So what happened was they got to choose which one
they wanted and the other one would go to Hulk
Cogan and Christopher Lloyd. Okay, and so DeVito and Schwarzenegger
selected twins. Hulk Cogan and Christopher Lloyd got Suburban Commando,
but it could have easily been the other way.
Speaker 1: Wow, are we going to be covering Suburban command our future?
Speaker 2: To cover that one? Yeah, it just depends on what
you if you are in love without one, okay. So
let's talk about Marty Mason and Linda Mason. Linda Mason
played by Chloe Webb.
Speaker 1: Yep. If you've seen Sid and Nancy with Gary Oldman
as Sid Vicious and girlfriend Nancy, she's Nancy.
Speaker 2: She did a great job. She's lovable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's cute. Yeah, she's yes, she is.
Speaker 2: She's a homely girl, she's yeah, she's.
Speaker 1: Well built, she is put together. She is well built,
but has a more plain girl face.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then you have her sister, Marnie Mason, played by
eighties heart throb Kelly Preston.
Speaker 1: I bagged you some cookies, cookies, I guess I don't
not at all. I'm really looking forward to tossing Ben now.
Kelly Preston had been acting for a little while, but
hadn't been in a whole lot of stuff before this.
One of the movies that she was in you mentioned
already was called Secret Admirer, not super well known.
Speaker 2: Love it one of my all time favorites.
Speaker 1: Another one was the movie Mischief Mischief, and then she
was also in Space Case Camp. Yeah, I can't forget
that that. By the way. First a film by episode
that I listened to I think was Space Camp eighty six.
There you go, yep, and then she gets cast in Twins.
When we were texting back and forth, you sent me
this Kelly Preston a little greater than sign Elizabeth Perkins,
and my response was, Kelly Preston greater than everyone, smoking hot,
great actress, believable. I don't know why she didn't do more, honestly,
other than that she hooked up with John Travolta and
he was the star of All Stars at that time.
Speaker 2: And we're not discrediting Elizabeth Perkins because we think she's
really really pretty for a big.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she and they, I mean they didn't make her
the sex kitten in Big like they did with Kelly
Preston in Twins, right. I mean, she was supposed to
be business woman like, She's got her hair pulled back
in a bun. She's wearing ridiculous shoulder padded pantsuits. She's
not so supposed to be ultra sexy. She's supposed to
be the girl in the office who's gets around a little.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she sleeps her way at the top is what
she does.
Speaker 1: So before she gets into mischief, if you will. She
auditioned and was top contender for the movie Blue Lagoon. Yeah,
lost out to Brooks Shields, who is younger than her.
By the way, can you imagine Kelly Preston, let's all
take a moment. Okay, all right, So Kelly Preston, I
just got to throw this out there. She dated a
few folks before she married John Travolta.
Speaker 2: He has know this.
Speaker 1: You know the list of folks.
Speaker 2: Well, I know one of them? Is it Charlie she
Charlie Sheen.
Speaker 1: Apparently he shot her in the arm.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what I mean, That's what happens when
you date crazy people.
Speaker 1: How do we not know more about that story?
Speaker 2: We need to dig into that one.
Speaker 1: That one is nuts.
Speaker 2: You also have a young David Caruso in Twins. Yep,
he's Dan DeVito's buddy Al that gives him cars to steal.
He runs that parking garage. David Cruso goes on to
do CSI. Yep. Yeah, so David Caruso is Al Greco.
You have Trey Wilson as beat Root.
Speaker 1: Would you buy furniture from a place called Unpainted hough Ies.
Speaker 2: We love Trey Wilson man. So he plays the same
character in every movie. Boulder hum Raised in Arizona beat Root.
All right, Uh, just another thing I want to point out.
You have Heather Graham playing an uncredited Marianne Benedict.
Speaker 1: Talk about smoking hot girls.
Speaker 2: Wow, this is right before she kind of takes off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean her her kind of step out was
playing Mercedes on License to Drive.
Speaker 2: In eighty nine next year.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: And then one other thing I want to point out
real quickly, playing Mother Superior is Francis Bay, who was
the Grandma and Happy Gilmore exactly.
Speaker 1: Be sure and go check out our Happy Gilmore versus
Caddyshack episode.
Speaker 2: And I just did an episode with Jeff Johnson on
his Patreon on the movie Nomads, which was John mcnernan's
first movie with Pierce President. And Francis Bay played a
nun in that movie.
Speaker 1: So that's interesting there you go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, that's all I got on cast for Twins.
All right, let's flip over and do the cast for Big.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure we should do this yet.
Speaker 2: Through what Well, I mean, I like you and.
Speaker 1: I want to spend the night with you. Do you
mean sleepover?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, but I get to be on top fantastic. Okay.
So we talked about how Penny Marshall ended up getting
the job. Right, Here's the list of names that they
thought about for Josh.
Speaker 1: Okay, big Josh, Big Josh.
Speaker 2: Right, So we already talked about Harrison Ford. You have
the names Bill Murray, Judge Reinhold, Michael Keaton, Kevin Costner,
Robin Williams, who would later go play a boy in
a man's body in Jack with francyport Coppola.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I just say, Judge Reinhold, that means that he
picked what vice versa? Can you imagine him just kicking himself?
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 1: I think they're on one, because I mean he could
play he can pull off suite of course. Yeah, childlike
has that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think Michael Keaton would be great in this role.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: John Travolta really wanted this part. Considered box office poison
at this time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is look who's talking to time?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Ouch right, yep.
Speaker 2: Steve Guttenberg could have easily done this. I think. Wow,
Dennis Quaid wanted it, but he did Everybody's All American instead.
Speaker 1: Okay, Matthew Modine, Now I heard that Sean Penn was
considered for this. Yeah, they thought he was too young
to play the adult, right, ok And then they considered
Gary Busey.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but they didn't think he could play the adult.
How about that?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: All right? Jeff Bridges Andy Garcia. So Andy Garcia was considered,
but the studio executives did not want to pay eighteen
million dollars to see him grow up to be a
Puerto Rican. That's dude.
Speaker 1: That is terrible, dude, that is there? Wait a minute.
Andy Garcia is from Cuba.
Speaker 2: He's Cuban. Yeah, screw you guys up from Cuba.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. That's that is awful, so awful.
Speaker 2: How about that. That's kind of an interesting list right there.
All right, Okay, before they ultimately settled on Tom Hanks.
Do you know who turned down the role of Josh Baskin? No,
Tom Hanks? What, he turned it down initially and then
it came back to him.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: So let's just let's talk about Tom Hanks for just
a minute.
Speaker 1: Okay, yep. So this is nineteen eighty eight, right, They're
probably making these decisions in late eighty seven, right, yep.
And so at that time, the only thing besides like
TV episodes and mazes and monsters. If you remember that one.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: He'd been in Bosom Buddies, which, of course I loved
Bosom Buddies.
Speaker 2: You're a great show.
Speaker 1: But he comes into the movies with splash. Yep, loved it.
Speaker 2: Great movie.
Speaker 1: Then does Bachelor Party.
Speaker 2: Awesome, hilarious, money so good in.
Speaker 1: It, but not a huge success. Run Anyone does The
Man with One Red Shoe, so volunteers loser. Then he
does The Money Pit, which is hilarious, great movie, but
not super successful. Sure I love The Money Pit, by
the way. Then he does nothing in common.
Speaker 2: With Jackie Gleason, which again is it's okay. And then
Dragnet that would with.
Speaker 1: Dan Akroy and Akro should be a phenomenal success, and
it's not right. It is not so at that point
he's not the IT actor.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: He is not the I mean, I understand why they
went through fourteen guys, including a Cuban they thought was
a Puerto Rican before they land on Tom Hanks. But
it is the most important decision they made.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: By the way, he did Punchline, he did Punchline before
it came out after because of the editing process. But
Punchline what came out that same year obviously not as successful,
but and not as.
Speaker 2: Good, right, and not as good by the way, when
they had Robert de Niro for this role, he wanted
six million dollars, which was part of the problem, part
of the reason why he left the project. They got
Tom Hanks for two and it made over one hundred
million dollars, completely worth the investment in Tom Hanks.
Speaker 1: At the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, So let's talk about the role of
Susan played by a. Sabeth Perkins. Okay, we both agree
she does a great job in this movie. Yeah, and
she looks beautiful today, very elegant woman, plays the business
woman part, and we believe that she's not afraid to
lay on her back a little bit to get to
the top. They offered this role to Meg Tilly. Didn't
your sister in law hang out with.
Speaker 1: Meg Tilly a little bit roommate for a few weeks?
Speaker 2: Yeah, how about that? Yeah, so family friend Meg Tilly.
Then you also had Deborah Winger. Ye, Deborah Winger was
like a shoe in like she was, she had it. Yeah,
and then they had trouble casting Josh. Then Deborah Winger
went to Penny Marshall and said, why don't you switch
the parts and make the female one the big ones,
you know, And Penny Marshall's like no, and then Debra
Winger got her feelings her and then she's like, forget this,
I'm out of here.
Speaker 1: Which is interesting because I mentioned that Penny Marshall was
supposed to direct Peggy Sue got married. Yeah, Debora Winger
was the one who was supposed to play Kathleen Turner.
Speaker 2: Oh wow. Okay.
Speaker 1: When Penny Marshall had the falling out with the writers
up her, Winger left in loyalty to Penny Marshall. So
I can see how at that moment when she's like,
why don't you make Meet the Star And Penny Marshall's like, nah,
right that, yeah that might have Yeah, you have that
one badly.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Okay, Andy thoughts on Susan.
Speaker 1: Okay, but I get to be on top.
Speaker 2: We both talked. So there's some funny parts in Big
that I texted you, you know, and you're talking the
other day. The part when she bends over to pick
up the papers he had knocked Robert Los's character on
the ground. Tom Hanks has been over to pick up
the papers she's been over, and her blouse opens a
little bit.
Speaker 1: And see her flowers.
Speaker 2: There's some lacey underlings underneath.
Speaker 1: And Tom Hanks is like, yeah, looking at it, looking away, looking,
pulling his head away, and his eyes are darting back down. Yeah,
just like a twelve year old boy would be doing.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Super funny. And then eventually later on the movie,
when they actually sleep together, right Susan and Josh, she
introduces you know, she opens his eyes to this wonderful world,
and she takes her shirt off, her bras on. She
goes to hit the light switch to turn off the lights,
and him, staring at her chest, reaches back and turns
the light back on. Yes, and she giggles and smiles.
It's really a kind of an endaring moment.
Speaker 1: It is a sweet moment, and in a moment that
as a twelve year old at the time and have
been like, yeah, he turned the lights off for I've
never seen this before, my light exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about mister McMillan played by Robert Loja.
Speaker 1: Robert Loja baby.
Speaker 2: Right, they call him Mac in the movie. I think
that's kind of cute.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 2: That character was based on Fao Schwartz, CEO Peter Harris.
Speaker 1: Cool.
Speaker 2: Okay. Now, then for the role of Paul played by
John Hurd, who's the dad and Home Alone, who's a
sweet guy in Home Alone. Yeah, he's a kid in this. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I saw this first.
Speaker 2: So this he was just I was like, I don't
give you the ball, Yeah, give you the ball. I
did not hit it.
Speaker 1: It was over the line.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So that they actually looked at Charles Rocket to do that.
He plays the bad guy in Dumb and Dumber.
Speaker 1: Oh, oh, okay, I got you. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And they also talked to John Lithgow about playing this role,
and we talked about him when we did our Footloose episode.
He was the Reverend Shaw Moore in Footloose. And then
we talked already about Jared Ruskin who played Billy, and
David Moscow who played Young Josh. So let's talk about
the boys for just a second. David Moscow plays Young Josh. Okay,
super job.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: They actually had to dye his hair and had to
wear contacts to make him look more like Tom Anks.
Speaker 1: Oh really okay yep.
Speaker 2: And then Jared Rushton played Billy. Right, They actually did
some really cool stuff. We'll talk about that in production.
But these two boys and Tom Hanks would hang out
and Penny Marshall would kind of take notes on how
they interacted and incorporated into the movie. We'll talk more
about that here and just on the next episode. Yeah,
but the one lady I really want to mention is
Mercedes Rule. Okay, she plays Josh's mom.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and she's she's like another Penny Marshall. Okay, Italian
has that kind of Bronxi accent.
Speaker 2: Josh, bring your sister down here. Yeah, yeah, she plays
She's in Fraser. She plays Fraser's girlfriend. She plays dirty girl.
There's a great episode where he's a bad boy and
she's dirty girl. Anyway, my wife and I think that
episode is super funny. She's dirty girl.
Speaker 1: You can't leave out John Lovetts, John Levittz.
Speaker 2: His co workers, kind of sleezy co worker who makes
sure to point out the See that girl over there,
she'll be wrapping her legs around you and squeezing you
to death. Okay, I'll stay away.
Speaker 1: From her and stay away from her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that girl over there in the red.
Speaker 1: Say hi to her and she's yours.
Speaker 2: She'll wrap her legs around, so you'll begging for mercy. Well,
I'll stay away from her. Then, John Love, it's like
thought this was going straight to DVD, like I thought
it was a tank. Thought it was a crappy movie.
So he was sick one day and he thought, I
just don't know if I'm ever going to go back
to work. And Penny Marshall's like, get your butt up here,
so he did and finished it and it turns out
to be this wonderful big hit.
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, So that does it for part one of
our Big Twins episodes. Join us next week for part
two will where we will talk about production. We will
talk about composers and music, and we will talk about
how these movies were received and importantly, why we're comparing
these two movies. I mean, there's the similarity that might
be obvious to some, but there's more that you might
not know about. Be sure and come back next week.
Speaker 3: So that you will hear that.
Speaker 2: I've got a big question for you for you to
think about between now and then. Okay, if you were Josh, yeah,
would you choose to stay big?
Speaker 1: Would you go back? You have an answer to that question,
all right, we'll talk about it next week, See you guys.
Then rang in the dogt