Groundhog Day (1993) vs. Multiplicity (1996): Part 1

<v Speaker 1>Then put your little hand.
<v Speaker 2>In the.
<v Speaker 1>Mountain we can't find. Okay, Shirley Fans, rise and shine
<v Speaker 1>and don't forget your booties cause it's cool.
<v Speaker 3>It's cold out there every day. What is its Miami Beach?
<v Speaker 1>Jason? Do you have daja vo? I don't know, but
<v Speaker 1>I can check in the kitchen. Do you think Phil
<v Speaker 1>is gonna come out and see his shadow today? Pak
<v Speaker 1>Satani Phil. That's right, Woodchuck Chuckers.
<v Speaker 3>It's grown day.
<v Speaker 1>Shirley Fans, welcome back to the Shirley You Can't be
<v Speaker 1>Serious podcast. We are here with season four. I can't
<v Speaker 1>believe we've been doing this for three seasons now. It's
<v Speaker 1>like day one. It's just exciting and fun every single time. Jason,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know what you're doing later, but can you
<v Speaker 1>call in six ladies? And I am d Graves and
<v Speaker 1>I am here with my co host Jason Colvin, the
<v Speaker 1>fastest jack in Johnson County.
<v Speaker 3>We have a great matchup today to begin season four.
<v Speaker 3>This is one we've been wrestling with a little bit. Today.
<v Speaker 3>This will be Groundhog Day versus Multiplicity. These are both
<v Speaker 3>Harold Ramis directed movies.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, we've got lots of cast members in common. We've
<v Speaker 1>got an almost cast member in common, and we can
<v Speaker 1>talk about why Groundhog Day was such a monumental success
<v Speaker 1>like it was, and Multiplicity definitely fell short.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, we definitely need to talk about that for sure.
<v Speaker 3>I've got some ideas, like small changes that would make
<v Speaker 3>Multiplicity way better because it was funny. There's definitely some
<v Speaker 3>funny parts.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, we will definitely get into that. And just
<v Speaker 1>as a teaser, ladies and gentlemen, in nineteen eighty three,
<v Speaker 1>March of nineteen eighty three, almost exactly forty years ago,
<v Speaker 1>Peter Ivers, a young Harvard graduate who had been making
<v Speaker 1>the underground scene as what Waters came, was the best
<v Speaker 1>blues heart player in the world. He was also a
<v Speaker 1>host on a TV show that was kind of a
<v Speaker 1>pre runner for MTV, and he was bludgeoned to death
<v Speaker 1>in his skid Row apartment on March third, nineteen eighty three,
<v Speaker 1>and one of the key members of these two movies
<v Speaker 1>was immediately a suspect in the murder.
<v Speaker 3>I had forgotten about that. We've already talked about that
<v Speaker 3>in our Ghostbusters episode.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, our Guestbuster's episode. So that's the teaser. I will
<v Speaker 1>bring you back to that story. When we get to multiplicity,
<v Speaker 1>you do such a great job of laying the hook,
<v Speaker 1>the bludgeon to death thing.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I'm on the hook and I've heard the story.
<v Speaker 1>But before we jump into all of the other stuff,
<v Speaker 1>we got to say something about our fans. Number one,
<v Speaker 1>Shirley fans are the best fans in the world. Number two,
<v Speaker 1>we got to give a special shout out to Chris Weber.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, Chris Weber has sent us, over the course of time,
<v Speaker 3>three different records, right, and so he has sent us
<v Speaker 3>the airplanes soundtrack record Perfect which who knew airplane had
<v Speaker 3>a soundtrack? Right, It's got the Notre Dame fight song
<v Speaker 3>on there, among other things, the girls singing the River
<v Speaker 3>Jordan and its super fun record, which Chris sent to
<v Speaker 3>us a while back. And then since then he sent
<v Speaker 3>two other records that he found the record store k
<v Speaker 3>Tell collection of nineteen eighty three and it's like nineteen
<v Speaker 3>eighty three songs up and down from Ktael. It's super fun.
<v Speaker 1>The Ktell story in and of itself should be a
<v Speaker 1>episode all to its own, because that is an incredible
<v Speaker 1>story right there. Ktel Records. We will probably find a
<v Speaker 1>way to sneak that in maybe it'll be a Patreon episode.
<v Speaker 1>By the way, thank you to all of our Patreon
<v Speaker 1>members who have stood with us through the test of time.
<v Speaker 1>We appreciate your support. We couldn't do all that we
<v Speaker 1>do without it. Thank you so much. Guys. If you're
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<v Speaker 1>level up, we send you fund special gifts. But probably
<v Speaker 1>the best gift is for any Patreon member, and that
<v Speaker 1>is getting to hear our super secret one hit Wonder episodes.
<v Speaker 3>Do We have recorded ten special Patreon episodes now covering
<v Speaker 3>you know, quote unquote one hit wonders of the eighties
<v Speaker 3>and nineties and even seventies.
<v Speaker 2>Right.
<v Speaker 3>So we've done songs like don't You Forget About Me
<v Speaker 3>by the Simple Minds. Yeah, we've talked about Don't You
<v Speaker 3>Want Me by the Human League. That was our latest one.
<v Speaker 3>We did September by earth Winded Fire. We did video
<v Speaker 3>Kill the Radio Star and it's been a lot of fun,
<v Speaker 3>got a lot of great stuff over there. I think
<v Speaker 3>some of our best work on the Patreon and it's
<v Speaker 3>only five bucks a month and you can get access
<v Speaker 3>to all that stuff over there. Definitely need to go
<v Speaker 3>check it out over there.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, ten special episodes Jason's Pixar especially special like short
<v Speaker 1>but special kind of episodes. But there's still worth the listen.
<v Speaker 3>I promise they're kind of like Michael Keaton number four
<v Speaker 3>episodes over there.
<v Speaker 1>Right ey thieve.
<v Speaker 3>This episode is going to be number four.
<v Speaker 1>Right are.
<v Speaker 3>Okay? So you're ready to dive into the creation of
<v Speaker 3>these two movies.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, So let's talk about Harold Ramis. He was the
<v Speaker 1>director for groundhog Day. He was the director for Multiplicity.
<v Speaker 1>He probably wrote nearly most of both scripts. But let's
<v Speaker 1>just back up and get a little picture of who
<v Speaker 1>he is. And if you don't know the name Harold Ramis,
<v Speaker 1>let me just say Egon Spengler. Yes, yeah, that would
<v Speaker 1>have worked if you hadn't stopped me.
<v Speaker 3>I collected spores, molds, and fungus.
<v Speaker 1>Egon, Egon, Egon Spinler. So when Egon was just a
<v Speaker 1>young Spindler, he was Harold Ramis. In Chicago, where he
<v Speaker 1>was raised, his dad owned a food and liquor store.
<v Speaker 1>Raised Jewish, went to Saint Louis to Washington University to
<v Speaker 1>go to school there. After school, he worked, I'm not
<v Speaker 1>kidding here, he worked in a psych ward for several months,
<v Speaker 1>worked in a psych ward, and he is he is
<v Speaker 1>not to say this helped me when I moved to
<v Speaker 1>Hollywood in how to deal with people. He was like,
<v Speaker 1>I'm not getting like legitimately, like when you're working with actors,
<v Speaker 1>you don't know what mental playing they're coming from, and
<v Speaker 1>so you just got to go, Okay, this guy's not
<v Speaker 1>thinking the same way I am. I can work with that.
<v Speaker 3>I guarantee you. He thought about that when he was
<v Speaker 3>dealing with Bill Murray. Yeah, okay, and he dealt with
<v Speaker 3>Bill Murray from the beginning. But let's not get ahead
<v Speaker 3>of ourselves, all right. So went to the Washington University
<v Speaker 3>in Saint Louis, worked at the site ward, came back
<v Speaker 3>to Chicago, started teaching inner city kids at a high
<v Speaker 3>school there, but then also was doing stuff in like
<v Speaker 3>Guerrilla TV, like TV TV, and became a joke editor
<v Speaker 3>for Playboy magazine. And then he started working for the
<v Speaker 3>Second City Improv group.
<v Speaker 1>And so through all of this, you know he's teaching,
<v Speaker 1>but he's got his love for entertainment and improv and
<v Speaker 1>obviously Second City is something that later becomes Second City TV,
<v Speaker 1>so he does more TV stuff. He gets asked to
<v Speaker 1>come right for Saturday Night Live, but doesn't want to
<v Speaker 1>do that, sticks with SCTV and ultimately starts working with
<v Speaker 1>Bill Murray and they end up doing their first projects together.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah. So Harold Ramis wrote Meatballs, which starred Bill Murray
<v Speaker 3>that came out in nineteen seventy nine. Ivan Rightman directed
<v Speaker 3>Meatballs right and if you want a really cool crossover episode,
<v Speaker 3>we did a crossover with the guys on the film
<v Speaker 3>Buy One podcast on Ivan Ryman. It was Ghostbusters two
<v Speaker 3>and we kind of dive into this story a little bit.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely check out Ghostbusters too, Ivan Rightman is a fantastic story.
<v Speaker 1>I loved going really episode and I always love doing
<v Speaker 1>stuff with Brad Jeff's so it was perfect. Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>In nineteen eighty, Harold Ramis gets his first directorial movie,
<v Speaker 3>Caddy Shack.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, we talked about that one in our Caddy Shack
<v Speaker 1>Versus Happy Gilmour episode and the craziness that went on there.
<v Speaker 1>But Harold Ramis finally is able to establish himself as
<v Speaker 1>the director of a high quality movie.
<v Speaker 3>And then in nineteen eighty one he works with Bill
<v Speaker 3>Murray again for Stripes. Later on, in nineteen eighty three,
<v Speaker 3>we're talking forty years ago, he gets Chevy Chase in
<v Speaker 3>the movie Vacation.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, we got that one coming up in the future
<v Speaker 1>in this season where we're going to compare that one
<v Speaker 1>to The Great Outdoors, another comedy classic Summer.
<v Speaker 3>It's gonna be great.
<v Speaker 1>Okay. So now new guy to talk about. We've got
<v Speaker 1>a guy named Danny Rubin.
<v Speaker 3>Right, Danny Noonan No, oh, that's Kedyshe.
<v Speaker 1>You do drugs, Danny every day? What's the problem? So,
<v Speaker 1>so Danny was a guy who got his master's degree
<v Speaker 1>in film television and then again went and was teaching
<v Speaker 1>high school and realized, I don't want to do this
<v Speaker 1>for the rest of my life, right, So he moves
<v Speaker 1>out to California, is going to try to make his
<v Speaker 1>way as a script writer. And he comes up with
<v Speaker 1>this script idea after reading an Anne Rice novel.
<v Speaker 3>So he is sitting in the movie theater and he's
<v Speaker 3>reading The Vampire Lestat.
<v Speaker 1>Why why is he reading in the movie theater?
<v Speaker 3>I guess he's by himself as born. I don't brings
<v Speaker 3>books to the movie theater, right, But if you've ever
<v Speaker 3>seen the Interview with a Vampire, the character that Tom
<v Speaker 3>Cruise plays in that is the vampire less stat Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>and he's immortal and he just continues to live forever
<v Speaker 3>and ever and ever. And he started to question what
<v Speaker 3>life would be like if I were immortal.
<v Speaker 1>So that leads him to develop this script. Now, his script, interestingly,
<v Speaker 1>it starts in the middle of the story, like he's
<v Speaker 1>already in the loop. He's in the time loop. And
<v Speaker 1>you don't get the you don't get the foundation of
<v Speaker 1>him getting there. It's just he's there. And that's how
<v Speaker 1>this script starts. And so he shops this around to
<v Speaker 1>dozens of production companies and everybody says the same thing.
<v Speaker 1>I love the script. We can't make it right. It's
<v Speaker 1>just too hard. But then Harold Ramis gets a hold
<v Speaker 1>of the script, and then we get studio money involved.
<v Speaker 1>Because by this time it's nineteen ninety three. He has
<v Speaker 1>been established now for over a decade as a heavy hitter,
<v Speaker 1>and he loves the script, and he loves the fact
<v Speaker 1>that it starts in the middle. And he goes to
<v Speaker 1>Danny He's like, I love this. I love that it
<v Speaker 1>starts in the middle. We are definitely keeping that, yeah, exactly, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>except that then, of course, Hollywood is what Hollywood is.
<v Speaker 1>And one of the studio executives comes in and says,
<v Speaker 1>wouldn't the audience like to know how he got there? Yeah?
<v Speaker 1>And Harold Ramis is like, I don't know. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>I really like that it's in the middle, and she goes,
<v Speaker 1>why did you just write it and just see how
<v Speaker 1>it turns out? Just see what you know, just for funzies. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>And so he writes it, and of course that becomes
<v Speaker 1>the intro for the movie.
<v Speaker 3>One of the things we need to talk about in
<v Speaker 3>this movie. And I don't want to show my hand
<v Speaker 3>particularly early. I think I already have. But they literally
<v Speaker 3>make every right decision, like every time they reach a
<v Speaker 3>fork in the road. Yeah, everything that they decide makes
<v Speaker 3>the movie better.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it really does. It really does, because I got
<v Speaker 1>to say, the intro to the movie is not particularly
<v Speaker 1>exciting until the point that he hits his first second day,
<v Speaker 1>you know, like his first repeat day, and at that
<v Speaker 1>point then it's fascinating. Then it's like what's going on here?
<v Speaker 1>And we needed to have that moment. But we also
<v Speaker 1>the reason that the intro is important, not because the
<v Speaker 1>story is particularly great, but it establishes who Bill Murray's
<v Speaker 1>character is, who Phil is right, and he is the
<v Speaker 1>same guy from Scrooge to just a few years early.
<v Speaker 3>And we talked about this, he's Frank Cross right.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>By the way, Danny Rubin's script didn't start out as funny.
<v Speaker 1>No, it's much darker.
<v Speaker 3>It's much darker. One of the things that he and
<v Speaker 3>Harold Raimis talked about was the suicide attempts. Yeah, because
<v Speaker 3>at some point, when you're stuck in this loop, dark
<v Speaker 3>things into your mind.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely, And this is interesting and we'll talk about this
<v Speaker 1>when we get to kind of the production side of things.
<v Speaker 1>But this is something that follows the three act structure,
<v Speaker 1>but it also follows the five stages of grief, which
<v Speaker 1>is really interesting. It's not like any other script before it. Now,
<v Speaker 1>this script has become a trope in and of itself.
<v Speaker 1>I mean this, this idea has happened over and over
<v Speaker 1>again in different iterations, but this is the original as
<v Speaker 1>far as I can tell. Like, this is the first
<v Speaker 1>one where it was I wake up and everybody else
<v Speaker 1>is doing the exact same day, and I'm the only
<v Speaker 1>one who knows we already did this, right, and it's
<v Speaker 1>great in that. How many times, I mean, in our
<v Speaker 1>forties now, how many times have you just got up
<v Speaker 1>in the morning and thought, God, I feel like I'm
<v Speaker 1>doing the exact same thing and have been doing the
<v Speaker 1>exact same thing for years now.
<v Speaker 3>In our lexicon. Now, when you're like, I'm just stuck
<v Speaker 3>in Groundhog Day, yeah, we all know what that means.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, guys, we're releasing this on Groundhog Day twenty
<v Speaker 1>twenty three. Right, most people in the world don't know
<v Speaker 1>what that holiday is. It is a strictly American holiday, right,
<v Speaker 1>Puck Satani Phil the groundhog comes out. If he sees
<v Speaker 1>his shadow and gets scared, it means six more weeks
<v Speaker 1>of winter. If he doesn't see his shadow, it means
<v Speaker 1>that spring is right around the corner. Well, it's six
<v Speaker 1>more weeks of winter anyway. It's just some dumb, meaningless ceremony,
<v Speaker 1>a bunch of people coming out to worship a rat.
<v Speaker 1>I remember when we used to kill a rat. But
<v Speaker 1>the movie itself has taken over the whole idea, like,
<v Speaker 1>I mean, worldwide, even though they don't celebrate Groundhog Day.
<v Speaker 1>They know what Groundhog Day is because of this movie,
<v Speaker 1>and it's now no longer this does the groundhog see
<v Speaker 1>a shadow? It is the idea that you have a
<v Speaker 1>repeating cycle. You're stuck in a time loop. You're doing
<v Speaker 1>the same thing day after day after day.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, you know why Danny Rubin chose Groundhog Day to
<v Speaker 3>be that day?
<v Speaker 1>Tell me so.
<v Speaker 3>After he wrote the script, you know, the time loop script,
<v Speaker 3>he's like, oh man, I'm onto something, right, this is
<v Speaker 3>a good idea the time loop. He pulled out his
<v Speaker 3>calendar is like, what's the nearest holiday that hasn't been done? Yeah, right,
<v Speaker 3>bim February second, Groundhog Day.
<v Speaker 1>Boom.
<v Speaker 3>That's the reason.
<v Speaker 1>That's it.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Well, and here's the thing he in the script that
<v Speaker 1>he wrote he also had showing at the theater was
<v Speaker 1>It's a Wonderful Life. To him, the movie that you
<v Speaker 1>saw every year, like it was the movie that just
<v Speaker 1>kept coming up year after year after year. And so
<v Speaker 1>this idea that that would be the one movie that
<v Speaker 1>was showing at the theater seemed perfect to him. But
<v Speaker 1>when Harold Ramis read the script, instead of this dark,
<v Speaker 1>kind of morbid comedy that he had. It's like a
<v Speaker 1>George Bailey style story, right where he gets to see
<v Speaker 1>the world if he wasn't in it. And in this
<v Speaker 1>scenario we see the same type of idea. And that's
<v Speaker 1>how Harold Ramis decides to go with this movie.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, really, we're talking about Bill Murray dropped off
<v Speaker 3>in It's a Wonderful Life.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, kind of, kind of. It's just this, yeah, a
<v Speaker 1>very weird paradox.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that is never explained. See, that's the right decision
<v Speaker 3>there too, right. I know they talked about it because
<v Speaker 3>the studio was very concerned, like will the audience go
<v Speaker 3>with you on that? You know what they talked about
<v Speaker 3>how at one point they thought maybe it would be
<v Speaker 3>a curse from somebody, you know, somebody got mad at
<v Speaker 3>you and cursed you, or you know, your hit on
<v Speaker 3>the head, or you know, there's always some sort of
<v Speaker 3>magic what happens. It's never explained.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm gonna jump ahead in our normal time sequence
<v Speaker 1>and talk about post production stuff. Okay, but I think
<v Speaker 1>it touches on this point in that there is a
<v Speaker 1>universal understanding of this epidemic of you feel like you're
<v Speaker 1>stuck in a time loop. Because Groundhog Day gets released
<v Speaker 1>on a Friday, as you know normally movies would, and
<v Speaker 1>it actually is like a week or so after the
<v Speaker 1>actual Groundhog Day. They like release it mid February oddly enough,
<v Speaker 1>why they would have tried to get before at least
<v Speaker 1>on the day guys Suirly podcast take it out all right. Anyway,
<v Speaker 1>it comes out on a Friday, and on that Sunday,
<v Speaker 1>he gets a call from his writing partner and his
<v Speaker 1>producing partner. The partner says, they're picketing your movie in
<v Speaker 1>Santa Monica. And he's like what why, And he's like, well,
<v Speaker 1>they're not against the movie. He goes what's going on.
<v Speaker 1>He's like, well, it's all of these Hasidic Jews and
<v Speaker 1>they are walking around in circles with signs saying are
<v Speaker 1>you living the same day? Over and over again? Now,
<v Speaker 1>I mentioned that Harold Ramis was raised Jewish, but this
<v Speaker 1>is kind of a Jewish thing. Like in the Jewish tradition,
<v Speaker 1>they start the Torah, reading the Torah on the same
<v Speaker 1>day every year, read the same verse, like every Jewish
<v Speaker 1>practicing person is reading the same verses on the same
<v Speaker 1>day throughout the year, and so they have that repetition,
<v Speaker 1>and they've got that idea. Harold Ramis's mother in law
<v Speaker 1>is a Zen Buddhist, like lived in a commune Zen
<v Speaker 1>Buddhist community for like thirty years, and when she saw it,
<v Speaker 1>she's like, oh, yeah, this is totally a Buddhist concept. Right.
<v Speaker 1>Yogi's were calling him, The Christians were calling him saying, hey,
<v Speaker 1>you've got like the Catholics were saying, he's in purgatory.
<v Speaker 1>This is obviously he hasn't done what's right enough, but
<v Speaker 1>not what's wrong enough, and so he's got to absolve himself.
<v Speaker 1>And you have this whole in the Buddhist tradition, you
<v Speaker 1>have ten thousand years to renew your spirit. Right, all
<v Speaker 1>of see, he's still all all of the and psychoanalysis.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, my gosh, I mean it's just all. It
<v Speaker 1>all has this communal, moral and philosophical relationship. He just
<v Speaker 1>managed to hit everything. And so you don't need to
<v Speaker 1>know why because everybody has it as their understanding.
<v Speaker 3>It's fascinating. I know they're thrilled about it. Yeah, but
<v Speaker 3>it just magically happened and everybody identifies with it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's exactly.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, So let's jump into multiplicity I'd like you to
<v Speaker 3>meet four what that guy Gate?
<v Speaker 1>Right? Okay? So Groundhog Day came out nineteen ninety three,
<v Speaker 1>Multiplicity is just three years later, nineteen ninety six, right, right,
<v Speaker 1>And before I get there, back to Peter Ivers. Yeah, okay,
<v Speaker 1>So Peter Ivers, like I said, Harvard Grad, incredible musician
<v Speaker 1>on the punk scene underground, seemed to be writing a
<v Speaker 1>lot of quality stuff. Seemed to be a guy who
<v Speaker 1>who is just on the fringes of becoming famous. And
<v Speaker 1>then mysteriously he is murdered in his own apartment. He
<v Speaker 1>had gotten he had broken up with his girlfriend. He
<v Speaker 1>moved into this kind of rat invested apartment next to
<v Speaker 1>skid row, Like you know, I heard story, you know,
<v Speaker 1>dead prostitute in the trash can. Kind of deals. Bad
<v Speaker 1>place to be to begin with, right, And he was
<v Speaker 1>the type of guy who just inherently trusted people. But
<v Speaker 1>he was the host of this TV show called New
<v Speaker 1>Wave Theater, and that show was developed by a guy
<v Speaker 1>named Dave Jove. At some point, Peter Ivers tells Dave Jove, hey,
<v Speaker 1>I don't want to do this show anymore. And it's
<v Speaker 1>not too much longer than that that Harold Ramis's wife
<v Speaker 1>starts calling people because she's a nurse. He hasn't shown
<v Speaker 1>up for his appointment. He's got an appointment with her
<v Speaker 1>and he hasn't shown up, and this is completely unlike him.
<v Speaker 1>And so Harold Ramis's wife is the one who really
<v Speaker 1>kind of sets the alarm of hey, what where's Peter.
<v Speaker 1>Somebody needs to go check on Peter, okay, And that's
<v Speaker 1>where they find him in his bed, so badly beaten.
<v Speaker 1>It looks like it was a gunshot to the head,
<v Speaker 1>but it wasn't. He was just beaten this badly, right.
<v Speaker 3>Wow.
<v Speaker 1>The police botch this investigation so much that to this
<v Speaker 1>day it is still unsolved. Like they let all of
<v Speaker 1>his friends come into the apartment and wander around. Dave
<v Speaker 1>Jove literally collects his bloody sheets and takes them out
<v Speaker 1>of the apartment, and they never get investigated. The cops
<v Speaker 1>because this guy's just living on skid row just thinks
<v Speaker 1>it's some vagrant or somebody who he was being nice to,
<v Speaker 1>who are a drug deal gone bad. They're blowing it off,
<v Speaker 1>and so they don't really do a significant investigation in this.
<v Speaker 1>But Harold Ramis's wife shows up and when she realizes
<v Speaker 1>what has happened. She's absolutely hysterical, and so when they
<v Speaker 1>see her reaction, they suspect Harold Ramis for the murder
<v Speaker 1>because they think, oh, with her reaction, nobody who wasn't
<v Speaker 1>in some sort of romantic relationship with Peter Ivers would
<v Speaker 1>react this way, and so they suspect Harold Ramis. Of
<v Speaker 1>course he had an alibi, it wasn't him. But interestingly,
<v Speaker 1>Dave Jove, when Peter Ivers dies, develops a brand new
<v Speaker 1>show called The Top and that is produced and written
<v Speaker 1>by Harold Ramis, Like you can see how you could
<v Speaker 1>go wow, he kind of took over his spot after
<v Speaker 1>he died. He was a suspect in the murder. But
<v Speaker 1>Harold Ramis, everybody will say, is just the nicest guy
<v Speaker 1>in the world.
<v Speaker 3>You know, I've heard that, and he seems to be
<v Speaker 3>this very warm, jovial, easy to get along with guy.
<v Speaker 3>And we know we know Bill Murray is a pain
<v Speaker 3>in the butt and very difficult. Yeah, Bill Murray and
<v Speaker 3>Harold Ramis after a Groundhog Day. Keep in mind they
<v Speaker 3>made Caddy Scheck Stripes, Ghostbusters Ghostbusters two.
<v Speaker 1>They worked in Chicago. They were working right like they
<v Speaker 1>were fifteen years of close friendship.
<v Speaker 3>I saw Harold Ramis's daughter talking about this. She's like,
<v Speaker 3>I don't really know what happened, but they were friends
<v Speaker 3>when they made the movie, and then when they finished
<v Speaker 3>the movie, they weren't friends. And they were not friends
<v Speaker 3>all the way until Harold Ramis was on his deathbed
<v Speaker 3>about to die, and that's when Bill Murray showed up
<v Speaker 3>and they reconciled.
<v Speaker 1>They didn't speak for twenty years. It's crazy, it's nuts.
<v Speaker 3>And then you get that little tribute in Ghostbusters Afterlife,
<v Speaker 3>Yeah to Harold Ramis. Yeah, kind of nice, yep, Okay,
<v Speaker 3>so multiplicity. I'm sorry we got steered off right there.
<v Speaker 1>Harold Ramis a suspect, but we know it wasn't really him.
<v Speaker 1>But Harold Ramis did know Peter Ivers.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>And Peter Ivers had another close friend who was also
<v Speaker 1>close friends with Harold Ramis. Okay, and his name was
<v Speaker 1>Douglas Kenny.
<v Speaker 3>Doug Kenny.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, So all of these guys worked together in various ways.
<v Speaker 1>And Douglas Kenny, of course, key member of the Animal
<v Speaker 1>House Group, key member of Caddie Shack, has a very
<v Speaker 1>weird death circumstance himself. It is. There's a great documentary
<v Speaker 1>out there on it, but Harold Ramis says, Okay, I'm
<v Speaker 1>going to go back to one of my one of
<v Speaker 1>the National Lampoon stories that I've seen, and I'm going
<v Speaker 1>to make the main character's name Doug Kenny number two.
<v Speaker 1>No more dougs. That's it.
<v Speaker 3>This is plenty. I think.
<v Speaker 1>Morning we're out of the Doug making business all together.
<v Speaker 3>That's really cool. Yeah, by the way, if you don't
<v Speaker 3>know who Doug Kenny is an Animal House, he's got
<v Speaker 3>a real prominent, real famous, real quotable line. It's the
<v Speaker 3>guy is like, well, what the hell was supposed to
<v Speaker 3>do you moron? That's Doug Kenny.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>He died in Hawaii under very mysterious circumstances. Yeah, they
<v Speaker 3>just found his body at the bottom of a cliff.
<v Speaker 1>I'm trying to remember the quote. I think it was
<v Speaker 1>something like I think, and it may have been Harold
<v Speaker 1>Ramis that said this. I think Doug fell when he
<v Speaker 1>was looking for a place to jump off. I think
<v Speaker 1>that's I think that's basically where they got with that one.
<v Speaker 1>But another guy that was close with Doug Kenny was
<v Speaker 1>an act in National Lampoon Animal House with Doug Kenney
<v Speaker 1>and also a writer on The National Lampoon was a
<v Speaker 1>guy named Chris Miller. And just to tell you how
<v Speaker 1>close he is, his nickname when he was in college
<v Speaker 1>was Pentot.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, interesting, Yeah, there you go.
<v Speaker 1>He would go on and write several other things. He
<v Speaker 1>was a writer on Square Pegs, the series with.
<v Speaker 3>Sarah Jessica PARKERSCA Parker.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. But he wrote a story in nineteen ninety three
<v Speaker 1>in The National Lampoon that was called Multiplicity. And it
<v Speaker 1>was this same story that Harold Ramis decided to take
<v Speaker 1>and make into a full movie. And once again, he
<v Speaker 1>probably wrote forty percent of the script. But because of
<v Speaker 1>the rules if you're the director, you can't have writing
<v Speaker 1>credit unless you write fifty percent or more. So he
<v Speaker 1>is not listed as a writer on this movie. But
<v Speaker 1>he probably is right right, But Chris Miller is the
<v Speaker 1>guy who penned the original story. Now I will say this.
<v Speaker 1>I didn't realize it before, but multiplicity is a psychological
<v Speaker 1>term as well. Do you know what it means? Ready?
<v Speaker 1>For this?
<v Speaker 3>Multiple personalities?
<v Speaker 1>It is a psychological in which a body can feature
<v Speaker 1>multiple distinct or overlapping consciousnesses, each with their own degree
<v Speaker 1>of individuality. So, okay, then he takes this nineteen ninety
<v Speaker 1>three story, and it just so happens, just knowing that
<v Speaker 1>when filming had to take place, and how long editing
<v Speaker 1>takes place. They've got this plan to release this movie
<v Speaker 1>in nineteen ninety six. Well, do you know what else
<v Speaker 1>happened in nineteen ninety six? The Summer Olympics, not where
<v Speaker 1>I was going. Do you know what else happened in
<v Speaker 1>nineteen ninety six?
<v Speaker 3>No?
<v Speaker 1>What they cloned Dolly the Sheep? Oh yeah, okay, so yeah,
<v Speaker 1>everybody remember, I mean, the cloning science has been around
<v Speaker 1>for over one hundred years, but nineteen ninety six was
<v Speaker 1>a pivotal moment when Dolly the Sheep was cloned and
<v Speaker 1>everybody started asking questions.
<v Speaker 3>Dolly the Sheep? Yeah, okay.
<v Speaker 1>So you've got Michael Douglas, a list incredible actor, right,
<v Speaker 1>Michael Douglas. Okay, that's his real name. I always do that.
<v Speaker 1>So you've got Michael Keaton.
<v Speaker 3>We're talking about ram Matcy in the Stone era.
<v Speaker 1>You've got Michael Keaton. You've got Annie McDowell, who had
<v Speaker 1>you know she'd come off of Groundhog Day, which is
<v Speaker 1>a huge success. You've got strong investment behind it, You've
<v Speaker 1>got the cinematographer from Ghostbusters and some of the other
<v Speaker 1>great movies. Right, You've got the special effects guys from
<v Speaker 1>Ghostbusters and Star Wars working on these, you know, green
<v Speaker 1>screen where we're getting different versions of Doug Kenny and
<v Speaker 1>all the shots. It looks like a movie that has
<v Speaker 1>to be a success, like Great Surefire, I mean, and
<v Speaker 1>it comes out the same time as the cloning news
<v Speaker 1>blows up.
<v Speaker 3>It doesn't make any sense. I did you see this
<v Speaker 3>in theaters?
<v Speaker 1>No, I saw this. This is interesting. I did not
<v Speaker 1>see this movie until two days ago. I have never
<v Speaker 1>had never seen this movie until two days Oh my.
<v Speaker 3>Gosh, I saw this in the theaters. Okay, yeah, so
<v Speaker 3>ninety six wasn't even a strong movie year, right, No,
<v Speaker 3>not a lot of competition. Okay, here are the movies
<v Speaker 3>of ninety six, I mean, and I'm scraping the bottom
<v Speaker 3>of a barrel for these. Okay, so we're talking about Twister, Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>and Mission Impossible, The Rock, The Cable Guy, The Nutty Professor,
<v Speaker 3>Strip Teas.
<v Speaker 1>These are the best movies of nineteen ninety six Independence Day.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, these are not bad movies, but they're the best. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>like this is these are second best movies to any
<v Speaker 1>good year. Right.
<v Speaker 3>Oh yeah, I mean the Rock is great. You know,
<v Speaker 3>an Independence Day is kind of fun, But yeah, these
<v Speaker 3>are not It's not like dressed like ninety four or
<v Speaker 3>something like that.
<v Speaker 1>Right, But Multiplicity, with a budget of forty five million dollars,
<v Speaker 1>grossed twenty one million.
<v Speaker 3>Dollars, slarising. I don't get it.
<v Speaker 1>I don't either.
<v Speaker 3>They talked about how they blamed it on the Summer Olympics. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>the Summer Olympics.
<v Speaker 1>All of the other movies had the Summer Olympics to
<v Speaker 1>compete with against as well. That's not a reason.
<v Speaker 3>No, it seems like Ghostbusters did alright in eighty four, right.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, yes, yes it did. That's hilarious. The question is
<v Speaker 1>if you saw the movie back then, do you still
<v Speaker 1>love it? Like, did you enjoy it back when you
<v Speaker 1>saw it? And have you seen it multiple times?
<v Speaker 3>Since I saw this movie in the theater and I
<v Speaker 3>laughed my rear off. Okay, there are definitely funny parts. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>of course, I was in my twenties and now as
<v Speaker 3>a mid forties guy, I identify a little bit more
<v Speaker 3>with Doug Kenney about his everything in life being in
<v Speaker 3>an emergency and he's got to be here, here, here,
<v Speaker 3>and here, and I certainly identify with that, but this
<v Speaker 3>time around, I felt like he's just a little bit
<v Speaker 3>more of a jerk, you know. He just didn't appreciate
<v Speaker 3>his family and was angry all the time. And I
<v Speaker 3>don't know, Michael Keaton is a fantastic actor. I can't
<v Speaker 3>figure out what it is about this movie. I know
<v Speaker 3>that people who saw it back in the nineties still
<v Speaker 3>like I talked to Arlen and he's like, oh, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>that's just one of those movies that we just go
<v Speaker 3>to in my family and we just watch it and
<v Speaker 3>it's just fun.
<v Speaker 1>Right. It's a Christmas vacation type of thing for a
<v Speaker 1>whole lot of people. But for me, having never seen it.
<v Speaker 1>I was watching it and there was a lot of
<v Speaker 1>it was a lot of Okay, let's let's get this going,
<v Speaker 1>let's have something happen here. And I had some laugh
<v Speaker 1>out loud moments, But I was at the beginning, I
<v Speaker 1>was like you, I was completely identifying it. I was
<v Speaker 1>I was like, yeah, I hear you. I gotta do
<v Speaker 1>I gotta take care of this. Dad's got to take
<v Speaker 1>care of this. Dad's got to take care of this.
<v Speaker 1>Dad's got to take care of this Who's going to
<v Speaker 1>take care of dad? Right? Like, there's my job first,
<v Speaker 1>then my family, and I'm like a distant third.
<v Speaker 3>Right bringing up the rear.
<v Speaker 1>Right, So with me, it's probably family first, job second,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm still a distant third. So I identify with it, right,
<v Speaker 1>I'm like strongly identifying. But it's not like making me
<v Speaker 1>warm and fuzzy.
<v Speaker 3>It's just Okay, I've got a simple solution to making
<v Speaker 3>Multiplicity a better movie. Okay, you ready for this? Okay,
<v Speaker 3>So here's the kind of a list of sins that
<v Speaker 3>Doug Kenney Michael Keaton's character makes in this movie. Okay, Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>So he clones himself obviously without his wife's permission or
<v Speaker 3>even knowledge. Whatever that amounts to that dollar amount. He
<v Speaker 3>changes that three or four times, right. He also, you know,
<v Speaker 3>when number two comes along, he gives up his family
<v Speaker 3>and they have the same consciousness, the same everything, the
<v Speaker 3>same experiences, and number two is like, yeah, fine, you
<v Speaker 3>keep the family and you keep the wife, and.
<v Speaker 1>He's taking care of number one, and he's taking care
<v Speaker 1>of number two so that he can get after taking
<v Speaker 1>care of number three himself.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and then they all, of course they all sleep
<v Speaker 3>with his wife without her knowledge. This is terribly wrong.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah right.
<v Speaker 1>That was one of the funnier parts.
<v Speaker 3>Of it was it was funny. It was funny. Funnier
<v Speaker 3>part of the thing is is that she doesn't know
<v Speaker 3>what's going on, and that's the problem, right, That is
<v Speaker 3>what's different. In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray is trying to
<v Speaker 3>bring her along and say, listen, I've got this problem
<v Speaker 3>and can you help me with it? And in multiplicity
<v Speaker 3>he just lies to her the entire time. Yeah, so
<v Speaker 3>here's thing. Okay, they needed to have some moment in
<v Speaker 3>the movie where they enlighten her. Yeah, okay, so here's
<v Speaker 3>what I've been dealing with. Hey, here's number two, here's
<v Speaker 3>number three, here's number four, and the oh my gosh,
<v Speaker 3>freak out scene. And then here's how you fix it.
<v Speaker 3>All you have this great dramatic moment where she's brought
<v Speaker 3>into the problem and they solve the problem by get
<v Speaker 3>this cloning her and then you got pairs and then
<v Speaker 3>they go happily ever after. With their cloned pair.
<v Speaker 1>They go to start their own commune, and all eight
<v Speaker 1>of them.
<v Speaker 3>If they I mean they didn't have any scruples about
<v Speaker 3>these four guys, they clone her. They all get married
<v Speaker 3>and they start a pizza place in Florida, and that's
<v Speaker 3>how you wrap it all up. And everybody feels good
<v Speaker 3>because she's in on it. They didn't light her the
<v Speaker 3>entire time. They just treat her like crap the entire movie.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, well, okay, let's jump back to that because
<v Speaker 1>that makes me think of something else. Let's jump back
<v Speaker 1>to Groundhog Day. Okay, And well I'll share this story
<v Speaker 1>with you and then we can jump in a cap.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, yeah, then put your little hand in mine.
<v Speaker 1>There no mountains, we can't fine. Okay, Shirley fans, rise
<v Speaker 1>and shine and don't forget your booties because it's cool.
<v Speaker 3>It's cold out there every day. What is It's Miami Beach?
<v Speaker 1>Jason, do you have daja vo?
<v Speaker 3>I don't know, but I can check in the kitchen.
<v Speaker 1>Do you think Phil is gonna come out and see
<v Speaker 1>his shadow today?
<v Speaker 3>Took Satani Phil.
<v Speaker 1>That's right, Woodchuck chuckers.
<v Speaker 3>It's ground a day.
<v Speaker 1>All right. So in Groundhog Day, as we mentioned before,
<v Speaker 1>Danny Ruben's original script had it starting in the middle, right, yes,
<v Speaker 1>and it ends the same like it ends the same,
<v Speaker 1>and he wakes up and it's a new day. It's
<v Speaker 1>February third, right, but you know, keep in mind this
<v Speaker 1>was the night that she spent the night with him.
<v Speaker 1>And in Danny Rubin's script, the way that it played
<v Speaker 1>out was he wakes up, he realizes it's a new day.
<v Speaker 1>He's ecstatic, he's so excited, and he's talking to her
<v Speaker 1>and she just kind of seems lukewarm and just kind
<v Speaker 1>of right, and it turns out she's stuck in the
<v Speaker 1>time loop on February third.
<v Speaker 3>I think that's genius.
<v Speaker 1>All right, it's absolutely great.
<v Speaker 3>Now.
<v Speaker 1>I understand why you want the Hollywood ending, right, you
<v Speaker 1>want him to walk off into the snow set happily
<v Speaker 1>ever after. But that is a brilliant end. I guess
<v Speaker 1>I just got to say that is freaking brilliant.
<v Speaker 3>Just on a side note, I care less about Rita's
<v Speaker 3>time loop. Yeah, I would have loved to have seen
<v Speaker 3>ned Ryerson get caught in a time loop, right, Yeah, yes,
<v Speaker 3>that would have been hilarious. So okay, So casting on
<v Speaker 3>Groundhog Day, So the main character Phil Phil connors Buck's
<v Speaker 3>Tonny Phil. They gave the part, of course to Bill Murray. Yes,
<v Speaker 3>but they considered a group of Hollywood actors, all of
<v Speaker 3>which I think would have been great. Yeah right, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>we're talking Steve Martin, We're talking Chevy Chase, Kevin Klein.
<v Speaker 3>And then Tom Hanks.
<v Speaker 1>Tom Hanks was their first offer. He turned it down.
<v Speaker 3>Tom Hanks turned it down. Yeah, you know what else.
<v Speaker 3>They offered it to Michael Keat Michael Keaton, and he
<v Speaker 3>also turned it down. He turned it down because he
<v Speaker 3>didn't understand the story, right, and here's.
<v Speaker 1>This is this, this is how you can't you know,
<v Speaker 1>the one of those you can't win for losing things.
<v Speaker 1>He turns down this script. And then when he sees
<v Speaker 1>how well Groundhog Day goes, he's like, oh, here's another opportunity.
<v Speaker 1>Multiplicity got the same leading lady, I got the same director,
<v Speaker 1>I've got several cast.
<v Speaker 3>Kind of thing.
<v Speaker 1>Perfect.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, horse, oh that stinks. That stinks. So okay. So
<v Speaker 3>Bill Murray gets offered the part or you know, Bill
<v Speaker 3>Murray takes a part Harold Ramos Bill Murray. It's a
<v Speaker 3>perfect marriage. Sure, And he's great in this right Oh yeah,
<v Speaker 3>he's you know, the angry phil is spot on, the goofy, feel,
<v Speaker 3>the confused, all that stuff works perfectly.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, this is this is the Bill Murray of the
<v Speaker 1>Bill murray'st right. This is if I had to pick
<v Speaker 1>the Bill Murray trilogy, where he is most Bill Murray,
<v Speaker 1>it is the consecutive Scrooged, what about Bob and groundhog Day.
<v Speaker 1>That is a good right there, because he's basically the
<v Speaker 1>same guy and Scrooged and groundhog Day, but he's still
<v Speaker 1>himself and goofy and obnoxious in a different way. And
<v Speaker 1>what about Bob? We got to do what about Bob?
<v Speaker 3>So absolutely we didn't even really talk about the fact
<v Speaker 3>that the last episode from season three that we just finished, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>was Scrooge Versus Christmas Vacation. So the part of Rita
<v Speaker 3>goes to Andy McDowell. Yes, did you hear who they
<v Speaker 3>wanted for this part.
<v Speaker 1>This is why I depend upon you. I do not
<v Speaker 1>look at casting because I know that you are going
<v Speaker 1>to tell me these things.
<v Speaker 3>I thought this was fascinating. Okay, So they hired Andy mcdell,
<v Speaker 3>who is sweet and genuine and cute.
<v Speaker 1>Great little southern South Carolina.
<v Speaker 3>She's got that Southern accent and she just is so
<v Speaker 3>sweet and nice that we all love her. And at
<v Speaker 3>times in the movie we don't know really whether Phil
<v Speaker 3>deserves her or not, and we certainly don't want him
<v Speaker 3>just to love her and leave her.
<v Speaker 1>Right as far as save the cat moments go, you
<v Speaker 1>don't have one for Bill Murray's. You don't have one
<v Speaker 1>for Phil in this one, right, he is not lovable
<v Speaker 1>at the beginning. Bill Murray is almost unavoidably likable. But
<v Speaker 1>it's Rita who has the kind of save the cat
<v Speaker 1>moment because when you get introduced to her, she's playing
<v Speaker 1>with the green screen and like looking at her hone
<v Speaker 1>floating head and floating hands because she's got the blue
<v Speaker 1>top on. In that moment, her just being kind of
<v Speaker 1>innocent and silly, you fall in love with her right then,
<v Speaker 1>which is exactly what you need. So here's who they
<v Speaker 1>wanted for that.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, Tory Amos, I heard that. How about that?
<v Speaker 1>I mean they've got a similar look. But I mean,
<v Speaker 1>I has Tory Amos been in anything.
<v Speaker 3>That I know of?
<v Speaker 1>I don't know. She's cute, but yeah.
<v Speaker 3>This girl has to be love a ball.
<v Speaker 1>There's something about Anny McDowell's face that is I mean
<v Speaker 1>it's not it's not the kind of classic Hollywood leading
<v Speaker 1>lady beautiful, but it's her face is amazing. It glows. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it's just she's a very, very attractive lady.
<v Speaker 3>It's I can't really put my finger on it. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>because she's not Hollywood gorgeous, but she.
<v Speaker 1>Just something about her makes my teethirt.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, sugary sweet, Okay. And then you also have Chris
<v Speaker 3>Elliott as the cameraman's Larry.
<v Speaker 1>Tell me what you think about Chris Elliott.
<v Speaker 3>I think he's perfect as the goofball. Can't get a
<v Speaker 3>lady at the Bachelor's auction two minutes.
<v Speaker 1>You know, he is the most Like I just can't
<v Speaker 1>understand his success at all. I couldn't understand it back then,
<v Speaker 1>Like I have never really am in anything that I
<v Speaker 1>thought he was believable or funny or anyone, I mean
<v Speaker 1>the top. The best performance that he has is in
<v Speaker 1>There's Something about Mary and even that, Yeah, even then,
<v Speaker 1>he's just it's not good. It's just I just can't
<v Speaker 1>figure out his fame at all. Their interesting connection there is.
<v Speaker 1>Chris Elliott made his fame on The David Letterman Show.
<v Speaker 1>It's kind of one of those side bit guys, right
<v Speaker 1>and Letterman, very first guest, very first show Bill Murray.
<v Speaker 3>Oh, that's good, good call. There By the way, Chris
<v Speaker 3>Elliott in the ABYSS. You know, I'm a James Cameron guy.
<v Speaker 3>He's in the Abyss and he is a semi serious
<v Speaker 3>character and he's fantastic. Okay, he nails it all right, Okay.
<v Speaker 3>You also have Brian Doyle Murray as Buster Green. He's
<v Speaker 3>like the guy who handles the you know, the the
<v Speaker 3>groundhog on the day.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, he's the guy in the knots on the and
<v Speaker 1>we are pretty confident he's also the guy on the radio.
<v Speaker 3>We Yeah, I definitely agree with you. I think he's
<v Speaker 3>one of the guys on the radio.
<v Speaker 1>And this one, I mean that one I kind of got.
<v Speaker 1>But this one you said just before we started recording,
<v Speaker 1>and I think you're right. I haven't checked it out
<v Speaker 1>or anything, and I don't even know if it's available
<v Speaker 1>out there. But tell me who you think the second guy.
<v Speaker 3>I think the other guy is Steven Tobolaski Ned Ned
<v Speaker 3>Ned the Head Needa knows Ned nang Ryerson.
<v Speaker 2>Phil Hey, Phil, Phil, Bill Connors, Phil Connorson. I thought
<v Speaker 2>that was you.
<v Speaker 3>How you doing?
<v Speaker 1>Thanks for watching?
<v Speaker 2>Hey?
<v Speaker 1>Hey?
<v Speaker 2>Now don't you tell me you don't remember me because
<v Speaker 2>I share his heck fire? Remember you not a chance,
<v Speaker 2>ned Ryerson needle knows ned ned the head, Come up, buddy,
<v Speaker 2>case Western High. Mad Ryerson, I did the whistling belly
<v Speaker 2>button trick at the high school talent show. Bing mad
<v Speaker 2>Ryerson got the shingles real bad senior year, almost didn't graduate.
<v Speaker 2>Bing a again.
<v Speaker 3>Mad Ryerson.
<v Speaker 2>I dated your sister Mary Patt a couple of times
<v Speaker 2>till you told me not to anymore.
<v Speaker 1>Well, ned Ryerson, Bang bang.
<v Speaker 3>Stephen Tobolaski steals the show with Bill Murray in the
<v Speaker 3>same scene.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, this movie would not be the same movie
<v Speaker 1>without ned Ryerson's part, right, Steven Toblaski. He gets this part,
<v Speaker 1>and you told me tell me the story about how
<v Speaker 1>he gets how he gets hired.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, so he's in this movie. He's shooting this movie
<v Speaker 3>in Paris, California. Okay, Paris, California, Right, Yeah, and he
<v Speaker 3>it's one of those weird deals. He said. This never happens,
<v Speaker 3>but he is put like in the quality in with
<v Speaker 3>another actor, and it's like they're bunk mates, like summer camp.
<v Speaker 3>Like they're sleeping in the same room. You know, there's
<v Speaker 3>your bed, here's my bed, he said. At night, they
<v Speaker 3>would just kind of lay there with the lights out
<v Speaker 3>and just kind of talk, just like you do in
<v Speaker 3>summer camp.
<v Speaker 1>Right.
<v Speaker 3>So he became friends with this guy named Kurt Fuller
<v Speaker 3>who's in this movie called Calendar Girl, and it's kind
<v Speaker 3>of the movie he shot before Groundhog Day. Okay, so
<v Speaker 3>one day he had a day off and he went down.
<v Speaker 3>He had been contacted by Harold Ramis to audition for
<v Speaker 3>the part of Ned Ryerson. Right, So he goes down
<v Speaker 3>to the audition and he tells him, Hey, okay, brace yourself.
<v Speaker 3>I'm gonna go all in on this, right.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. His quote, his quote was you may have to
<v Speaker 1>scrape me off the walls with a spatula.
<v Speaker 3>He said. He even like examined Harold Ramis's zipper.
<v Speaker 1>Right, Well, that's what you told me, you Like, he
<v Speaker 1>adjusted his zippers during the.
<v Speaker 3>Bit, right, got to zipper all the way up there. Hey,
<v Speaker 3>you know what you need more live insurance? Right. So
<v Speaker 3>he did this fantastic audition, right yeah, And so he
<v Speaker 3>goes back the next night. Of course, he goes back
<v Speaker 3>to the Quality Inn and he's with his buddy Kurt Fuller,
<v Speaker 3>and they're sitting there and this is after the audition,
<v Speaker 3>and Kurt Fuller says, so, do you have anything coming up?
<v Speaker 3>Stephen Toblaski's like every actor hates to hear, yes, I do, right,
<v Speaker 3>like I got stuff coming because it's always hard to
<v Speaker 3>get stuff. And so he's just laying there. He's like, no, no,
<v Speaker 3>nothing coming, right, and so he says, what about you,
<v Speaker 3>and so Kurt Fuller says, yeah, I've got this part
<v Speaker 3>that was written just for me. It's in the Harold
<v Speaker 3>Raimis movie called groundhog Day, and I'm playing Ned Ryerson.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>So he's sitting there and he's like, oh my gosh,
<v Speaker 3>he's like dying. He's like, because why did they call
<v Speaker 3>me if you've already been hired? And he's like, so
<v Speaker 3>I didn't say anything. I couldn't tell him the truth, right,
<v Speaker 3>And besides he didn't know if he got the part.
<v Speaker 3>So like a couple days later, he realizes, I got
<v Speaker 3>this part. I got the part of Ned Ryerson. I
<v Speaker 3>stole it from this guy from his bunkmate, from his
<v Speaker 3>bunk mate. And of course they call Kurt Fuller and
<v Speaker 3>say you're out, and he said, well, who got it?
<v Speaker 3>And he says Stephen Doblawski and he's furious with him.
<v Speaker 3>His bunk mate. What are the odds?
<v Speaker 1>Right?
<v Speaker 3>So here's the deal. At the premiere, Steven Tobolowski goes
<v Speaker 3>in the movie Andy mcdowas his date because she doesn't
<v Speaker 3>want a million guys to hit on her, so she
<v Speaker 3>hangs out with him. Okay, and he protects her or whatever. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>Kurt Fuller comes down right to him, like directly walks
<v Speaker 3>up to him. He's like, I'm sitting next to you
<v Speaker 3>and we're gonna watch this together. Stephen told lusk Is like, crap,
<v Speaker 3>I hope I'm good, you know, like, I hope this
<v Speaker 3>is really good. And so they watch it. He doesn't
<v Speaker 3>say anything. When they walk out, the guy says, I'm
<v Speaker 3>still mad and you stole that. He goes, but at
<v Speaker 3>least she did a good job.
<v Speaker 1>That is great, And he's Steve Toblawski has probably played
<v Speaker 1>that same type of guy as just that you know,
<v Speaker 1>that side character in so many different things. If we
<v Speaker 1>have any Glee fans out there, there's an episode that
<v Speaker 1>has Josh Grobin in it. Okay, and Stephen Toblawski plays
<v Speaker 1>this like he's a member of a barbershop quartet kind
<v Speaker 1>of deal. And he is also like an obsessive fan
<v Speaker 1>of Josh Grobin. And so my kids routinely when they
<v Speaker 1>don't like something that is being said, they'll say this,
<v Speaker 1>And this is a quote from Stephen Tobolasky's Glee episode.
<v Speaker 1>He's talking about Josh Grobin is going to be there,
<v Speaker 1>and one of the other Barbershop Quartet guys is like,
<v Speaker 1>who's Josh Grob? And he's like, who's Josh Grob? And
<v Speaker 1>kill yourself? Oh yes, great, Yeah, So that's that's a
<v Speaker 1>routine line from here. And and Arlen Bullard are my
<v Speaker 1>dear friend and one of our listeners. Every time that
<v Speaker 1>this movie comes up, well, we we're like, all right,
<v Speaker 1>all right, all right, right, right right.
<v Speaker 3>I enjoy him in the movie Sneakers. Have you ever
<v Speaker 3>seen Sneakers.
<v Speaker 1>In the theater back in the nineties.
<v Speaker 3>Oh, my gosh. So it's a great movie. Robert Redford,
<v Speaker 3>Dan Akroyd River, Phoenix, Sidney Potier. It's a lot of fun.
<v Speaker 3>It's kind of the early computer hacker movie.
<v Speaker 1>Right. Well.
<v Speaker 3>Stephen Tobolaski's character is the guy they're trying to steal
<v Speaker 3>the password for to get in. He uses his voice
<v Speaker 3>as a passport, and they're trying to get him to
<v Speaker 3>say the word passport. Anyway, he's really good in Sneakers
<v Speaker 3>as well.
<v Speaker 1>Now, obviously, like you said, you got Brian Dolmurray in there. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>there are some parts that you may not recognize the
<v Speaker 1>actor or you didn't recognize him back then, but now
<v Speaker 1>on the rewatch you'll go, oh my gosh. And one
<v Speaker 1>of those is mister Michael Shannon as young high school Fred.
<v Speaker 3>That's so that blew my mind.
<v Speaker 1>Right, And if and if you don't remember the scene,
<v Speaker 1>I'll give you the line, which I'm pretty sure he
<v Speaker 1>tapped into that same acting vibe when he said.
<v Speaker 3>I will find him, I will find him. The guy
<v Speaker 3>who plays General Zod and Man of Steel is a
<v Speaker 3>team goober in this.
<v Speaker 1>Movie, absolutely goober over acting over the top. But mister
<v Speaker 1>Michael Shannon, yeah, you've got You've got several guys who
<v Speaker 1>you know from movies, like the guy from the Burbs
<v Speaker 1>is one of the drum guys that he hangs out with.
<v Speaker 3>That's true. He's also in die Hard. This guy shuts
<v Speaker 3>down the power grid and die Hard Yeah Central, Yeah, Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>this is Wald down at Knakotomy.
<v Speaker 1>Say listen, would it be possible for you to turn
<v Speaker 1>off Grid two twelve. Are you maybe I should call it? Yeah? Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>but they a lot of these guys go on and
<v Speaker 1>we'll jump into casting now for multiplicity. Yeah, they're in
<v Speaker 1>multiplicity as well. Right, for multiplicity, you've got Brian Doyle
<v Speaker 1>Murray again. Yeah, he's the boat captain, right is and
<v Speaker 1>his is it girlfriend or daughter? I can't even tell
<v Speaker 1>what she's supposed to be, but that's a young Julie Bowen.
<v Speaker 1>She was a girlfriend, happy to get more free, modern family,
<v Speaker 1>all of that stuff. Yes, beautiful lady, and so she
<v Speaker 1>just so cute back then. But then you've also got
<v Speaker 1>the lady who's the waitress in Groundhog Day. Is the
<v Speaker 1>lady when he comes to take the pictures, comes to
<v Speaker 1>take the ballerina pictures. She's the receptionist. She's like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>we did you not get the call? We rescheduled that
<v Speaker 1>too next week and he's like, no, you're taking the
<v Speaker 1>pictures today. She's like, no, we're taking him next week.
<v Speaker 1>He's like, no, you're taking them. Find a photographer, right, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>So same actors there, So you got a lot of crossover,
<v Speaker 1>and then you have some crossover from Ghostbusters too.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, so you've got the actor Harris Eulen, and he
<v Speaker 3>plays doctor Leeds in Multiplicity.
<v Speaker 1>Right.
<v Speaker 3>He plays the judge at the beginning Ghostbusters too, who's
<v Speaker 3>like banging the galvel, gonna sentence the Ghostbusters to like
<v Speaker 3>twenty years hard labor. Yeah, and then of course the
<v Speaker 3>ghost pop out.
<v Speaker 1>Right.
<v Speaker 3>He also is on an episode of Fraser. I always
<v Speaker 3>remember him from this. He was a mob boss on Fraser.
<v Speaker 3>Oh okay, somebody should do a podcast on Fraser.
<v Speaker 1>I don't think that's a good idea.
<v Speaker 3>Also, you've got Richard Masser. He's like Doug's boss in Multiplicity.
<v Speaker 1>Oh right, right, right, yes, the guy from the Thing.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, yeah, the guy who handles the dogs and the Thing.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Of course he gets shot by Kurt Russell like twenty
<v Speaker 3>minutes into the movie.
<v Speaker 1>But I guess he wasn't an alien. I guess that
<v Speaker 1>makes you guilty of Mark.
<v Speaker 3>That's right, Yeah, that's right. I mean he's totally wasted
<v Speaker 3>in Multiplicity. Right.
<v Speaker 1>And then of course you've still got Anny McDowell, same
<v Speaker 1>female lead in this one. And you've got Glenn Shaddicks.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yes, I know you're looking confused right now. You
<v Speaker 1>remember Beetlejuice O fat sort of effeminatee guy who's like
<v Speaker 1>the real estate guy or whatever, art dealer, whatever he is.
<v Speaker 1>He's the building inspector in Multiplicity.
<v Speaker 3>That's right.
<v Speaker 1>Both, of course, with Michael Keaton and them, you also
<v Speaker 1>have Eugene freaking Levy Vick Vick, the guy who is
<v Speaker 1>habitually late and habitually like. His very first scene is
<v Speaker 1>what you don't like the job? Oh, I think you're
<v Speaker 1>doing a great job. It's the wrong driveway. Right. So
<v Speaker 1>the name of his company is Dependable Concrete. He's not
<v Speaker 1>dependable at all. And then dependable is spelled d E
<v Speaker 1>p E N d I b l E. He spells
<v Speaker 1>the word wrong in his company name on his truck. Gosh,
<v Speaker 1>you gotta have you if you're if you're hurting for
<v Speaker 1>comedy a little bit, you gotta throw Eugene Levy in there,
<v Speaker 1>and you're gonna be in good ship.
<v Speaker 3>They waste him as well.
<v Speaker 1>Could have been could have been more useful, for.
<v Speaker 3>Sure, by the way. You also kind of I don't
<v Speaker 3>know the guy's name, Yeah, but he plays Q in
<v Speaker 3>Star Trek Next Generation.
<v Speaker 1>Oh right, right, as the kind of like his partner. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>and he puts him in the when he goes into
<v Speaker 1>the porty potty. He has the forklift come and take
<v Speaker 1>it away.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that's right.
<v Speaker 1>I know somebody who actually did that to somebody, not
<v Speaker 1>to use the forklift, but like locked a guy in
<v Speaker 1>the porta potty and then turned it over.
<v Speaker 3>Not cool.
<v Speaker 1>No, he had it coming though, same as Q. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>then funny And then if we can't forget and Cusack,
<v Speaker 1>the lesser known Cusack symbol sibling, not Joan, not John. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>there is a There is a third Cusack sibling and
<v Speaker 1>her name is Ann.
<v Speaker 3>Who does she play?
<v Speaker 1>She's like the love interest for number two, right, he's
<v Speaker 1>he's in the the Girl the rest, Yes, yeah, who
<v Speaker 1>catch with? Who he flirts with and all that other stuff.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, So I watched it behind the scenes making a
<v Speaker 3>thing where she was narrating. Yeah, and I'm looking at
<v Speaker 3>Arghana that looks like Joan Cusack, but that's not Joan Cusack.
<v Speaker 1>That's exactly you were right on both counts.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, who the heck is and Csack?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's right.
<v Speaker 3>By the way, the restaurant scene where number two and
<v Speaker 3>number one see each other and with different girls hilarious. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I left my butt off in the movie theater at
<v Speaker 3>that scene, then they get switched. Great comedy, fun times.
<v Speaker 1>Good good. Okay, So that does it for casting. Guys.
<v Speaker 1>Come back next week and we're going to talk about
<v Speaker 1>production reception, all of those wonderful things. Thank you so
<v Speaker 1>much for tuning in. Be sure and hit that follow button.
<v Speaker 1>Be sure and hit that subscribe button so you catch
<v Speaker 1>all of the fascinating stories next week.
<v Speaker 3>That's right. Thank you for joining us on Grand Day.