Gremlins (1984) vs. Ghostbusters (1984): Part 2

<v Speaker 1>And so that's how I found out there was no
<v Speaker 1>Santa Claus.
<v Speaker 2>That is terrible. But can we just do the podcast?
<v Speaker 3>Please?
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Welcome back everybody
<v Speaker 1>to the Surely you Can't Be Serious Podcast. We're here
<v Speaker 1>for part two of our Gremlins Versus Ghostbuster episode in
<v Speaker 1>our series of nineteen eighty four, and we're ready to
<v Speaker 1>jump back into these two movies.
<v Speaker 2>That's fantastic, let's dive in. I want to talk about
<v Speaker 2>a couple of the problems that these two movies pose. Okay, okay,
<v Speaker 2>So let's talk about Gremlins and the rules.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, okay.
<v Speaker 2>So, for those of you are familiar with the movie
<v Speaker 2>of Gremlins, there's three rules that you can't break when
<v Speaker 2>it comes to Grimlins, right right. Number one, they hate
<v Speaker 2>right life.
<v Speaker 1>Right number two, don't.
<v Speaker 2>Get them wet, can't give them any water, don't even
<v Speaker 2>let them drink water. And number three, never ever let
<v Speaker 2>them eat after midnight?
<v Speaker 3>Right okay?
<v Speaker 1>So the darkness thing, the bright light thing actually was
<v Speaker 1>kind of a technical thing, and you have practical special effects.
<v Speaker 1>You have to hide the wires and the pumps and
<v Speaker 1>the guys who are operating the puppetree and stuff like that.
<v Speaker 1>So if you keep things in the dark, it makes
<v Speaker 1>it much easier to hide those things, and it also
<v Speaker 1>creates pretty cool ending to the movie.
<v Speaker 3>It does.
<v Speaker 1>It does.
<v Speaker 2>It's very similar to the end of Bright Night, the
<v Speaker 2>movie that we've already talked about.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah for sure.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, so the bright light thing, we get that, hiding
<v Speaker 2>the effects, hiding the wires, hiding the puppet tree, all
<v Speaker 2>that stuff. Right, Okay, let's talk about water. Can't get
<v Speaker 2>them wet? Yeah, okay, Now, the Magua when they're you know,
<v Speaker 2>wild and on the prairie and Africa or whatever when
<v Speaker 2>it rains. I don't know, there's something. Maybe they're from
<v Speaker 2>outer space.
<v Speaker 1>That was like there was a book that was done
<v Speaker 1>that said that was said they were from outer space.
<v Speaker 1>But I think Joe Dante said, no, that's not canon
<v Speaker 1>or not. No, I don't like that.
<v Speaker 2>They're not tribles, No.
<v Speaker 1>James T. Kirk, they are not tribles.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, so the water thing is a little bit weird.
<v Speaker 2>But if you get them w they multiply right, like
<v Speaker 2>exponentially multiply right.
<v Speaker 1>Somehow they drink they drink beer.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and uh, there's no water in beer.
<v Speaker 1>No, there's a lot of water in beer.
<v Speaker 2>Maybe alcohol counteracts the effects of the water.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I don't know, man, I don't know. It's weird.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the rules are problematic, don't overthink okay. Rule number three, yes,
<v Speaker 2>is the most problematic though, right, Okay, because.
<v Speaker 1>It's always five o'clock, I mean midnight somewhere.
<v Speaker 2>That's right, it is, so what are we doing here
<v Speaker 2>this night?
<v Speaker 1>I mean right, So Zach Gallaghan was one of the
<v Speaker 1>first ones to point out. He's like, well, yeah, but
<v Speaker 1>I mean it's always midnight somewhere, I mean, what does that?
<v Speaker 1>How does that even make sense? And so then in
<v Speaker 1>Grimlins two, they totally used that line and that becomes
<v Speaker 1>a kind of a sticking point. It is kind of
<v Speaker 1>making fun of itself the whole time.
<v Speaker 2>Right, this is what kills me about Gremlins. And first
<v Speaker 2>of all, Grimlins is a fun movie.
<v Speaker 3>I enjoy it all that stuff.
<v Speaker 2>But the dad, first of all, he obtains the magua
<v Speaker 2>and kind of illegal means, right, it's the grandson sells
<v Speaker 2>it from.
<v Speaker 1>Out literally a back alley of a back alley deal.
<v Speaker 2>And they just kind of brushed through the rules and
<v Speaker 2>thankfully hoy Accidon's character takes the rules seriously. Most dads
<v Speaker 2>in America be like, oh crap, I can't.
<v Speaker 3>Even remember what they told me.
<v Speaker 2>Don't feed him water, they can't eat pizza. But he
<v Speaker 2>takes it home, gives it to Billy, and Billy promptly
<v Speaker 2>breaks all three of the rules in like ten minutes.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, like instantly. Somebody bug the clock, you know,
<v Speaker 2>no matter how much they cry, don't feed him after midnight.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, well it sounds like my kids.
<v Speaker 2>And he's like, it's eleven thirty five. It's it's not
<v Speaker 2>technically midnight.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, okay, So here's some interesting things, right right,
<v Speaker 1>this is the first movie that had the Ambulance Entertainment
<v Speaker 1>logo on the on screen appearance. Okay, right, they had
<v Speaker 1>originally you had mentioned this last episode. They planned to
<v Speaker 1>have this release in December because it was a Christmas movie,
<v Speaker 1>right right? Questionable? Is it a Christmas movie? Oh yeah? Okay,
<v Speaker 1>So moved the release up because they didn't have anything
<v Speaker 1>to compete with Ghostbusters or Temple of Doom, and so
<v Speaker 1>it got moved up to June. Now when they filmed
<v Speaker 1>this thing, they filmed it in August in Burbank, California.
<v Speaker 1>Really so Billy's out there in like a sweater and
<v Speaker 1>a winter coat in one hundred degree heat. That's fascinating. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>so all of the snow on the ground is just salt.
<v Speaker 1>It's all Hollywood magic. Wow.
<v Speaker 2>That is cool.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that is cool. Chris Wallace is the one who
<v Speaker 1>did the special effects, which we'll talk about more here
<v Speaker 1>in a bit, but he was the one said let's
<v Speaker 1>do puppets instead of stop animation, like they were going
<v Speaker 1>to do stop animation, right, okay, and so Joe Dante says,
<v Speaker 1>how about instead of that, we use spider monkeys.
<v Speaker 2>Great idea, right, let's do it.
<v Speaker 1>So what happens.
<v Speaker 2>So they put the spider monkey in a Grimlin outfit,
<v Speaker 2>and the monkey panics and is like running around destroying
<v Speaker 2>the set and crapping everywhere.
<v Speaker 1>Right and so and so they like yell at the trainer,
<v Speaker 1>like get it out of here, get it out of here.
<v Speaker 1>Finally get the monkey out of there, and Joe Dante
<v Speaker 1>turns to Chris Wallis and goes, so, puppets.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my gosh, that's so funny. So this is way
<v Speaker 2>before CGI. So each one, this is all practical effects.
<v Speaker 2>So each one of those gremlins costume or Gremlins puppet
<v Speaker 2>slashed things. Yes, is like thirty thousand bucks.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Security had to check people's cars at the end
<v Speaker 1>of shooting every day, make sure that nobody was stealing
<v Speaker 1>one of the cute or ugly little Grimlin guys.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, so you and I talked about this. For me,
<v Speaker 2>this movie was a horror movie, okay. And it's super creepy.
<v Speaker 2>When they make the little cocoon, yeah.
<v Speaker 1>It's very It's like a or invasion of the body Snatchers.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, and they they hatch and they're kind of dark
<v Speaker 2>and you hear them kind of giggling. They're off screen,
<v Speaker 2>and it's scary. Right when they attack the mother in
<v Speaker 2>the kitchen, man, I'm like, whoa, she's really in danger.
<v Speaker 2>These things are dangerous, going crazy. And then the whole
<v Speaker 2>movie makes a right turn into the Muppet Show.
<v Speaker 1>The guys, the Grillins themselves go from just being monsters
<v Speaker 1>to being parodies of people, like they're the worst parts
<v Speaker 1>of people. And Chris Wallace said that was when he
<v Speaker 1>and his crew finally got it that this is a
<v Speaker 1>parody of people. Okay, which is kind of funny because
<v Speaker 1>apparently after they filmed the movie, they got a note
<v Speaker 1>from the studio that said, I think there's too many Grimlins,
<v Speaker 1>and so Spielberg sent a note back and said, maybe
<v Speaker 1>we'll just take them all out and just call it people.
<v Speaker 2>The scene where the Christmas caroling and they've got little
<v Speaker 2>miniature stockings and mini scarfs and then miniature carol books
<v Speaker 2>and then they're breakdancing. Yeah, all that stuff is really
<v Speaker 2>crazy to me.
<v Speaker 1>Let's talk about the special effects. Since we're here anyway,
<v Speaker 1>let's talk about the special effects. Okay, So the creatures
<v Speaker 1>were originally they were based on drawings that Chris Columbus
<v Speaker 1>had done, Okay, because I mentioned before, he and Jo
<v Speaker 1>Hartis wanted to be cartoonists, so he had drawn what
<v Speaker 1>he wanted the creatures to look like. Gizmo ends up
<v Speaker 1>being colored after Steven Spielberg's dog. It was a King
<v Speaker 1>Charles Cavalier spaniel, and so the coloring of Gizmo is
<v Speaker 1>based upon Spielberg's dog. And apparently he was driving Wallace
<v Speaker 1>crazy because he kept changing how he wanted. I wanted
<v Speaker 1>Gizmo to look, you know, like, oh, he's gonna be
<v Speaker 1>all brown. Oh no, no, I wanted to the colors
<v Speaker 1>of my dog. Oh, his ears. He need to have
<v Speaker 1>no hair on them, you know, And so that was
<v Speaker 1>pretty frustrating. But Chris Wallace is the special effects guy
<v Speaker 1>who ends up creating all this. He had worked with
<v Speaker 1>Joe Dante on Pirana. He had also worked on Airplane
<v Speaker 1>with Mike Fanell. And so here's an interesting fact about
<v Speaker 1>Chris Wallace. You ready for this one, yes, get it?
<v Speaker 1>Ready for your mind to be blowd I'm ready. He
<v Speaker 1>was the guy who made the melting heads in Raiders
<v Speaker 1>of the Lost Art Oh nice, Yeah, the Nazi all
<v Speaker 1>of that had exploding stuff with Ronald Lacy, wolf Collar
<v Speaker 1>and Paul Freeman. He was the guy who had done that.
<v Speaker 1>And both he and Richard Edlund, who was doing the
<v Speaker 1>effects for Ghostbusters at this time, had worked on both
<v Speaker 1>Raiders and Return of the Jedi.
<v Speaker 2>That's awesome. And the end of the movie when Stripe
<v Speaker 2>falls into the fountain and he's getting ready, he's bubbling up,
<v Speaker 2>he's getting ready to start duplicating, and then Gizmo opens
<v Speaker 2>the window, the sunlight pours in and he melts into
<v Speaker 2>that skeleton thing and you get that jump scared at
<v Speaker 2>the end. Oh, that's scary. So there's that pocket in
<v Speaker 2>the middle where it turns into looney tuns, but it's
<v Speaker 2>still you know, there's a good scene at the very end,
<v Speaker 2>and the effects are great.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. So the some of the scenes they just came
<v Speaker 1>up with at the time, Like they had actually gotten
<v Speaker 1>all of the stuff for a department store. When they
<v Speaker 1>go to the department store and Zach Gallaghan sees some
<v Speaker 1>chainsaws over there, he starts talking to the props guy
<v Speaker 1>the special effects guys, and he's like, wouldn't be great
<v Speaker 1>if they like they had a chainsaw and I had
<v Speaker 1>a bat and we were like fighting with it. Now
<v Speaker 1>the scene is in the movie, it's scary. Now here's
<v Speaker 1>a scene that was not in the movie that they filmed. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>the end where Dismo comes and pulls the shade and
<v Speaker 1>the light comes in. They shot it where Billy is
<v Speaker 1>the one that saves the day. Like he it's the
<v Speaker 1>diehard ending where he comes in and does that big jump.
<v Speaker 1>And he had no idea that they changed it until
<v Speaker 1>he watched the movie for the first all and he's
<v Speaker 1>with Dante and he's like, obviously it's shocked. His feelings
<v Speaker 1>are hurt a little bit, and he's like, uh, I
<v Speaker 1>thought I was supposed to be the hero at the
<v Speaker 1>end of this movie, and Joe Dante just goes the
<v Speaker 1>movie is called Grimlins.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, sorry, we wanted to you walk to win it.
<v Speaker 1>Then, Okay, I already quoted it. Let's talk about the
<v Speaker 1>same story.
<v Speaker 3>Okay.
<v Speaker 2>This is probably the most controversial part of the whole movie.
<v Speaker 1>I was young when I saw it, and that was
<v Speaker 1>a shocking scene to me.
<v Speaker 2>I was just like, oh wow, I had forgotten about this.
<v Speaker 2>I had to stop the movie and rewind it, Like,
<v Speaker 2>did she really just say what I thought she said?
<v Speaker 1>Right? Yeah. I was talking to Arlin on this and
<v Speaker 1>I was telling him we're doing Grimlins and he's got
<v Speaker 1>his ten year old in the back and he's like
<v Speaker 1>and he's like and he's like, so you can see
<v Speaker 1>we let our kids watch totally inappropriate movie and we're talking.
<v Speaker 1>All of a sudden, he's like taking it off speakerphone
<v Speaker 1>real quick. Yeah, we haven't let him watched the Santa
<v Speaker 1>Claus speech because he may still believe in Santa Claus.
<v Speaker 1>I was like, oh, I almost said the line, So
<v Speaker 1>I'm really glad you said something.
<v Speaker 2>That speech is crazy Number one because parents were super
<v Speaker 2>pissed that they gave away the Santa Claus secret, right,
<v Speaker 2>and you have this horrible death. Phoebe Kates talks about
<v Speaker 2>how Christmas is a terrible time of year because while
<v Speaker 2>some people are opening presents, of other people are opening
<v Speaker 2>their risks.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, yeah, it's it's the yeah, that whole bit. So,
<v Speaker 1>but here's what's interesting, right, this is a horror comedy
<v Speaker 1>which doesn't go together, right, that doesn't really go together
<v Speaker 1>until they start doing these two movies that we're talking about.
<v Speaker 1>And Joe Dante was really playing off that kind of
<v Speaker 1>you listen to this thing. If you were to read this,
<v Speaker 1>if you were to read this on a piece of paper,
<v Speaker 1>you go, this is ridiculous. What is it about? This
<v Speaker 1>is ridiculous. But then when Phoebe Kates delivers it, it's real.
<v Speaker 1>I mean she sells it as a true event that
<v Speaker 1>happened in her life, and you're like, am I watching
<v Speaker 1>a comedy or a horle movie or what is this?
<v Speaker 1>And that was that confusion, that weirdness of these two
<v Speaker 1>things rubbing against each other that he wanted to capture
<v Speaker 1>that speech. So even though the studio said take it out,
<v Speaker 1>even though Spielberg said take it out, Joe Dante said,
<v Speaker 1>it's staying in the movie.
<v Speaker 2>All right, if you got kids in the car listening,
<v Speaker 2>you might want to fast forward plast this apart just
<v Speaker 2>a little bit, especially if they're in the Christmas Santa
<v Speaker 2>Claus era. But Phoebe Kats talks about how her dad
<v Speaker 2>goes missing, they can't find him. Pretty soon they start
<v Speaker 2>to smell.
<v Speaker 1>Something, notices this smell.
<v Speaker 2>Thetys start to smell something, and they find out later
<v Speaker 2>that her dad was going to do this Santa Claus
<v Speaker 2>thing where he came down the chimney and he got
<v Speaker 2>stuck and he died in their chimney.
<v Speaker 1>What right, it's absurd. That's why it's absurd, right, I mean,
<v Speaker 1>chimneys are not made for people.
<v Speaker 2>We all know this, Oh my gosh, and the studios
<v Speaker 2>like take it out. Joe Dante's like nope, Spielberg's like,
<v Speaker 2>I don't really like this, but if you want to
<v Speaker 2>leave it in, I guess you can leave it in.
<v Speaker 2>So it's in there.
<v Speaker 1>Most one of the most memorable parts of the whole movie, though,
<v Speaker 1>it is, right, yes, yeah, I mean, if we're going
<v Speaker 1>to talk about memorable lines, Ghostbusters have more, but have
<v Speaker 1>the memorable lines in this movie. And so that's how
<v Speaker 1>I found out there's no Santa Claus top of the list.
<v Speaker 2>If I'm a parent in eighty four, I'm upset. Yeah, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>continuing on with special effects, right.
<v Speaker 1>Sure, Billy had to wear wires up his pant legs
<v Speaker 1>when he was holding on to gizmo because it's in
<v Speaker 1>his hands, right, so they've got to be able to
<v Speaker 1>control it while he's holding it, and so these wires
<v Speaker 1>would be running up his pant leg he wouldn't be
<v Speaker 1>able to move around on the set and he'd be
<v Speaker 1>holding it and then they'd switch it out like you'll
<v Speaker 1>notice this as you watch the movie. He'll set it down.
<v Speaker 1>When he sets Gizmo down, he sets him down off screen,
<v Speaker 1>and then the camera pans over and gizmos sitting on
<v Speaker 1>the table. Well, that's an entirely different gizmo.
<v Speaker 2>Nice.
<v Speaker 1>Oh and here's another thing. They had to have several
<v Speaker 1>gizmos and the faces would come off, like because the
<v Speaker 1>happy gizmo had a different face than the sad or
<v Speaker 1>the scared gizmo, so they had to peel the face
<v Speaker 1>off of gizmo as the movie went through.
<v Speaker 2>That's that's fantastic, that's amazing. Did you know that gizmo
<v Speaker 2>was the inspiration for the Ferbie.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, I can totally see yeah right, yeah for sure.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, so let's flip back to Ghostbusters. Let's talk about
<v Speaker 2>some of the special effects and the production of Ghostbusters.
<v Speaker 4>I collect spores, molds, and fungus.
<v Speaker 1>Well. As we mentioned before, Richard Edlin was the guy
<v Speaker 1>who had come over from il M had started their
<v Speaker 1>own special effects company called Boss Films. Later would go
<v Speaker 1>on to do Fright Night. But one of the guys
<v Speaker 1>that came along with them from il M was Steve Johnson,
<v Speaker 1>who we talked about in the Night Night episode. Right,
<v Speaker 1>He's the guy who was happy that they had all
<v Speaker 1>the cocaine. He was the guy who caught his tennis
<v Speaker 1>shoes on fire when he melted the big scary bat
<v Speaker 1>at the end. But he was the guy who was
<v Speaker 1>responsible for Slimer, who didn't have the name Slimmer at
<v Speaker 1>the time, but we know who that is, right.
<v Speaker 2>They called an onion head.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, onion head, right, and so he was the guy
<v Speaker 1>who was responsible for making Slider onion head.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, this is one of the things. So watching the
<v Speaker 2>behind the scenes stuff, I never realized when you see
<v Speaker 2>Slimer's back he has butt.
<v Speaker 1>Cheeks, he's got a giant booty. I didn't even know
<v Speaker 1>that I had a bootylicious booty.
<v Speaker 2>I never really get a good look at Slimmer's butt
<v Speaker 2>in the movie. But they did a lot of practical
<v Speaker 2>effects for Ghostbusters as well. I thought this was cool,
<v Speaker 2>the scene with the librarian, where the was it the
<v Speaker 2>Dewey decimal cards open and start flying out. Yeah, there's
<v Speaker 2>guys hiding behind the wall shooting like air, like through
<v Speaker 2>a straw to make the cards fly out. Right, And
<v Speaker 2>the books that are flowed in the library, those are
<v Speaker 2>all done by wires.
<v Speaker 1>What about the stack books?
<v Speaker 2>You're right, no human being stack books like this. But
<v Speaker 2>during production, one of the things that made Ivan Rightman
<v Speaker 2>the most uncomfortable, like the biggest chance of the entire movie,
<v Speaker 2>the state off marshmallow Man. He was not convinced that that.
<v Speaker 1>Would work well.
<v Speaker 2>So when they put it together, I thought this was
<v Speaker 2>so interesting. So but when they had finally put together
<v Speaker 2>kind of the basic outline of the movie, they showed
<v Speaker 2>it to a test audience in March of eighty four,
<v Speaker 2>I hate this.
<v Speaker 1>I like the torture.
<v Speaker 2>That's right, boys, it's doctor Frankman. They showed the scene
<v Speaker 2>when Dana goes to a refrigerator and she opens it
<v Speaker 2>up and there's zeel, right, but that effect wasn't ready yet.
<v Speaker 2>It just had this big blank screen that said special
<v Speaker 2>effect insert and of course Scorny Weaver screams and slams
<v Speaker 2>and door shut. He said. The audience screamed, the can
<v Speaker 2>see there's just a stupid panel up there. But he's like, man,
<v Speaker 2>they're really going for this, and there's the effects aren't
<v Speaker 2>even in yet. But the biggest leap in reality, the
<v Speaker 2>thing that worried him the most was a Staypuff marshmallow Man.
<v Speaker 2>And when they tested it to the audience, when you
<v Speaker 2>see the big Staypuff guy, there's one little effect where
<v Speaker 2>you see his head passing between buildings that was ready,
<v Speaker 2>and so that was in that cut. Everything else was out.
<v Speaker 2>He said. The audience went bananas over that scene. That's awesome,
<v Speaker 2>and he was like, this is the best screening because
<v Speaker 2>it put him at ease and he knew they.
<v Speaker 3>Had a hit.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. So the Staypuff marshmallow Man is a combination between
<v Speaker 1>the michel Entire Guy Yes, the Phillisbury dough Boy Yes,
<v Speaker 1>and some Canadian marshmallow sailor guy that Dan Akhroad grew up.
<v Speaker 2>That's awesome.
<v Speaker 1>I thought this was funny.
<v Speaker 2>When they were filming the earthquake scene out in front
<v Speaker 2>of Dana's apartment building and it's right there by Central Park.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so you had to tear up the street.
<v Speaker 2>They estimated that it it jacked up sixty percent of
<v Speaker 2>traffic in Manhattan.
<v Speaker 1>Since you hit this subject. These movies were released on
<v Speaker 1>the same day. Yes, Ghostbusters did overall better than Grimlins did,
<v Speaker 1>except in New York City because the whole city was
<v Speaker 1>pissed off at Ghostbusters for locking up traffic for months
<v Speaker 1>on and filming all the stuffy listen.
<v Speaker 2>Isaac Asimov lived around that area and he came out
<v Speaker 2>and Dan Akro was like a huge fan. He's like
<v Speaker 2>Isaac Asimov, Oh my gosh. And Isaac Asimov was like,
<v Speaker 2>are you the reason why this is all Jack and
<v Speaker 2>was like yes, sir. He's like it's disgusting. Okay, So
<v Speaker 2>you mentioned fright night the librarian, like the scary library,
<v Speaker 2>and you know the scene where he's like okay, read
<v Speaker 2>get her and she's like get her.
<v Speaker 1>That's your old plan.
<v Speaker 2>They had to tone down the original effect because that's
<v Speaker 2>the scary librarian was too scary, and so they took
<v Speaker 2>the scary librarian and it became the vampire from Fright Night.
<v Speaker 3>Later on Yep, we talked about that in a Friday
<v Speaker 3>Night episode.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah cool. So a big part of the special effects
<v Speaker 1>on this thing come from the set design right this movie.
<v Speaker 1>The set designer was John de Kerk. We mentioned last
<v Speaker 1>episode that we were one of the number one film
<v Speaker 1>podcasts Inni Burney, Yes, we're in the charts in other places.
<v Speaker 1>One of the other podcasts in the charts repeatedly is
<v Speaker 1>a podcast called Based on a True Story. Yeah. As
<v Speaker 1>it turns out, Dan Lefeb literally lives down the street
<v Speaker 1>from us. I looked it up and I'm like, oh
<v Speaker 1>my gosh, this guy who's also doing a charting film
<v Speaker 1>podcast is next door neighbors with us, and so we
<v Speaker 1>got to talk to him, and he had interviewed the
<v Speaker 1>guy on Cleopatra because Cleo Patrick's like based on a
<v Speaker 1>true story, right, right, right, And so we were talking
<v Speaker 1>about that. Well. John de Kerr was the set designer
<v Speaker 1>on Cleopatra, the set designer on The King, and I
<v Speaker 1>the set designer on Hello Dolly, all of which she
<v Speaker 1>won an Oscar for and he's the set designer on Ghostbusters. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>And so that scene that you see where she opens
<v Speaker 1>the door and it's that's the only thing that's cool
<v Speaker 1>there is that set design. I mean, it's not like
<v Speaker 1>there's a monster there right right. It's the big doorway
<v Speaker 1>that you ultimately see at the end of the movie. Well,
<v Speaker 1>that's all John Dwyer. They changed the storyline based upon
<v Speaker 1>these mammoth awesome Cleopatra big sets that he was designing.
<v Speaker 1>And of course he's got the big doorway. They added
<v Speaker 1>two stories to that building in New York City to
<v Speaker 1>accommodate for the big doorway into the other dimension. That's incredible.
<v Speaker 1>Great when someone asks you if you're a god, you
<v Speaker 1>see yes.
<v Speaker 2>Okay. So there's a scene I want to talk about
<v Speaker 2>really quick.
<v Speaker 1>Okay.
<v Speaker 2>So there's this weird scene where there's like this woman
<v Speaker 2>apparition that's hovering over Dan Ackroyd.
<v Speaker 1>You know, seeing what I'm talking about.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, yes, yes, exactly, Sorry, yes, okay. So that's in
<v Speaker 2>this sort of montage where they're running around the city
<v Speaker 2>where where they're running around the city and they're they're
<v Speaker 2>capturing ghosts, and you can tell that their business is
<v Speaker 2>really taken off. Well that scene they were supposed to
<v Speaker 2>be taking place at this haunted fort, and so that
<v Speaker 2>was actually this whole big thing. And so that's why
<v Speaker 2>dan Ackroyd's wearing this like Civil War general costumes.
<v Speaker 1>I just thought it was like, I'm in a dream,
<v Speaker 1>so I'm going to be addressed, right, going to be
<v Speaker 1>a sailor in this dream.
<v Speaker 2>So there's a funny story about the woman ghost Okay, okay,
<v Speaker 2>her name is Kimberly Herron. She's a playboy playmate Google search.
<v Speaker 2>So they had to create a foam lay text some
<v Speaker 2>sort of costume for her, and so the special effects
<v Speaker 2>guy had to rub her down with vasilin we too,
<v Speaker 2>oil boys, decrease us up before we do our special effect.
<v Speaker 2>But anyway, he was hesitant when he got to her chest,
<v Speaker 2>and she she just took both of his hands and
<v Speaker 2>put right on our boobs and said, will you just
<v Speaker 2>get on with it?
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So that makes me think. You know the scene
<v Speaker 1>where Dana is being attacked in her chair, Yes, the kitchens,
<v Speaker 1>and you've got the gloved hand coming up out it.
<v Speaker 1>I'm saying, Cliff Hand, he's supposed to.
<v Speaker 2>Be like the master hand, right, But there's a guy.
<v Speaker 1>Whose hand is inside there, who's taking full.
<v Speaker 2>Of the opportunity.
<v Speaker 1>Did somebody say, oh, put it right on her boob?
<v Speaker 2>It really is. I'm like, I mean, he's going for it.
<v Speaker 1>He's not, he is not holding back. Hey.
<v Speaker 2>By the way, Kimberly heron just in case you may
<v Speaker 2>recognize that ghost, she's the girl in Zzi Toop's Legs video. Wow.
<v Speaker 3>Nice another summer ready for for minutes.
<v Speaker 1>Oh that's right, yeah, okay, eliminating awesome.
<v Speaker 2>Okay. Hey, one of the things I forgot to mention
<v Speaker 2>when we were talking about production of Gremlins, so well,
<v Speaker 2>the big scene at the end, all of the Grimlins
<v Speaker 2>go into a movie theater and they're going to watch
<v Speaker 2>snow White. Yeah, okay, it's kind of the big climacting
<v Speaker 2>scene at the end. And one of the reasons why
<v Speaker 2>they're watching snow White is because snow White was released
<v Speaker 2>in nineteen thirty seven, right at Christmas time. Ok So
<v Speaker 2>it's kind of a throwback.
<v Speaker 3>For old Christmas movie.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, right now, Billy and Phoebe Kate's trapped them all
<v Speaker 2>in the movie theater and they blow it up, right okay,
<v Speaker 2>And it's the big scene at the end Stripe is
<v Speaker 2>across the street getting candy. He's got a sweet tooth
<v Speaker 2>or whatever.
<v Speaker 1>He didn't want to have to pay the movie prices.
<v Speaker 1>That's right, he sneaking in his US.
<v Speaker 2>I know this is funny though. So Phoebe Kates asked
<v Speaker 2>the explosive guy. She's like, you know, how big is
<v Speaker 2>this explosion going to be? And he said, well, we
<v Speaker 2>we've packed it pretty good.
<v Speaker 3>Uh huh, And she's like, what the hell does that mean?
<v Speaker 2>She said it was deafening. The heat was so intense
<v Speaker 2>I thought I singed my eyebrows. It blew the doors
<v Speaker 2>off the feat and as you see in the film,
<v Speaker 2>it shattered windows on a building at Universal a mile away.
<v Speaker 1>Wow, we pecked it pretty good. We've packed it pretty good.
<v Speaker 1>You should see their first movie, Caddy Check. As long
<v Speaker 1>as we're throwing in extra bits on Grimlin's I'm going
<v Speaker 1>to say this. Do you remember at the beginning the
<v Speaker 1>first scene with what accident is he's in Chinatown. There's
<v Speaker 1>a car, like an old timey car that's got like
<v Speaker 1>its hood up and it's broken down kind of car.
<v Speaker 3>It is nice time.
<v Speaker 1>To talk about soundtracks.
<v Speaker 5>We have to talk about the soundtrack in this movie.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so let's go back to Grimlins. Okay, all right,
<v Speaker 1>So soundtrack for Grimlins we have mister Jerry Goldsmith. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>so throw back to our Superman episode. Jerry Goldsmith was
<v Speaker 1>like Jerry Goldsmith is to Richard Donner as John Williams
<v Speaker 1>is to Steven Spielberg, right right. And so Jerry Goldsmith
<v Speaker 1>had done the soundtrack to the All Money. He's done
<v Speaker 1>a ton, I mean, just the the list of movies
<v Speaker 1>is gigantic, but he's the one who did the soundtrack
<v Speaker 1>for Grimlins.
<v Speaker 2>Okay.
<v Speaker 1>Of the two soundtracks, as far as like thematic music
<v Speaker 1>is concerned, score score is concerned, I gotta say that
<v Speaker 1>Grimlins is the more effective, more memorable.
<v Speaker 2>It's got that d d N. It's like an Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it's catchy and yet scary and kind of a nightmare thing.
<v Speaker 1>And you absolutely it's it's got it's got elements of
<v Speaker 1>Psycho and it's elements of Jaws in it and still
<v Speaker 1>manages to tie in the kind of newer sounding synthesizer music.
<v Speaker 1>And yeah, great, great. He also had done Poldergeist, The
<v Speaker 1>Secreted Nim, First Blood, Twilight Zone, Mister Mom and then
<v Speaker 1>that leads him all the way up to Grimlin's. That's
<v Speaker 1>just before he does a few episodes of night Writer.
<v Speaker 2>And by the way, nice, whoa nice? Okay, So who
<v Speaker 2>does the score for Ghostbusters.
<v Speaker 1>Score for Ghostbusters is our old friend, mister Elmer Bernstein. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>so Elmer Bernstein has this, He has this fascination at
<v Speaker 1>this time with these old nineteenth century instruments called the
<v Speaker 1>otis Martino. And that is that weird. It sounds kind
<v Speaker 1>of like, you know, when somebody plays the crystal like
<v Speaker 1>the glasses, the wine glasses. Okay, they remember at the beginning,
<v Speaker 1>the very beginning of the movie that, yeah, yeah, that's
<v Speaker 1>all it's it's this instrument which has that almost like
<v Speaker 1>a synthesize of your sound, but it's from the eighteen
<v Speaker 1>hundreds and it's but it's played on a keyboard. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>It's kind of like there amid nice sylintonta nice.
<v Speaker 2>I think that the theme for the Ghostbusters is very good, right,
<v Speaker 2>it's memorable, right, and it's playful and kind of goofy
<v Speaker 2>and fun.
<v Speaker 1>Now, on the subject of soundtracks, though, we can't just
<v Speaker 1>talk about the score. We have to talk that's strange.
<v Speaker 1>Who are you gonna call? Well, maybe you call Huey
<v Speaker 1>Lewis and ask permission next time.
<v Speaker 2>We've kind of talked about this in our Huey Lewis episode.
<v Speaker 2>But they wanted Huey Lewis to do some of the
<v Speaker 2>songs for the soundtrack.
<v Speaker 1>I don't want to write a sound called Chris.
<v Speaker 2>He's like, nope, I'm out right right. Uh So they
<v Speaker 2>end up with Ray Parker Jr. And they say, hey,
<v Speaker 2>can you come up with something? He says, okay, I'll
<v Speaker 2>get to work on it. He said the music came
<v Speaker 2>pretty quick. He's like, but lyrically he could not fit Ghostbusters.
<v Speaker 1>Into the song right.
<v Speaker 3>And he's up late one night.
<v Speaker 2>He's stress and he's spreading and he's like, they need it.
<v Speaker 2>We're on this tight deadline, you know.
<v Speaker 3>June eighth.
<v Speaker 2>This comment, oh my gosh. And and he says, is
<v Speaker 2>up late and it was like a like a bug commercial,
<v Speaker 2>like a bug exterminy and they're like, you know, if
<v Speaker 2>you have bugs, you need to give us a call,
<v Speaker 2>give us a call this number right here.
<v Speaker 1>What are a hundred bug killers or whatever? And he's like,
<v Speaker 1>that's it. Who are you gonna call? Ghostbusters?
<v Speaker 2>Fantastic?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And then you get this great video with all
<v Speaker 1>like these TV stars.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my gosh, I mean, let's I mean, think about
<v Speaker 2>the list of people that are in video. Yeah, the
<v Speaker 2>video and the song Ghostbusters were nearly as big as
<v Speaker 2>the movie was the summer of eighty four.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, absolutely.
<v Speaker 2>So you have cameos of Chevy Chase, Irene Kia, John Candy,
<v Speaker 2>Melissa Gilbert, Jeffrey Tambore, George wint Al, Franken, Danny DeVito,
<v Speaker 2>Norman Carly Simon, Peter Falk, Terry Garr. Not to mention,
<v Speaker 2>you have Bill Murray, dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie
<v Speaker 2>Hudson and Ernie Hudson along with Ray Parker Jr.
<v Speaker 1>Singing Ghostbusters louder I can't hear you. Okay, so let's
<v Speaker 1>talk about what happens with these movies after they come out. Okay, Well,
<v Speaker 1>they're both gigantic successes, massive hits, massive hits. They create
<v Speaker 1>the careers of multiple people. Joe Dante after this movie
<v Speaker 1>goes on to do Explorers, which is the film debut
<v Speaker 1>of River Phoenix, and Ethan Hawk does Innerspace. We're gonna have.
<v Speaker 2>To do this.
<v Speaker 1>It keeps coming up, I know, right, And then he
<v Speaker 1>does Grimlins to the New Match.
<v Speaker 2>All right, let's talk about sequels, Okay, which is the
<v Speaker 2>worst sequel, Ghostbusters two or Grimlins two.
<v Speaker 1>I actually liked Ghostbusters two sequel. It wasn't as good
<v Speaker 1>as Ghostbusters by any means, but I kind of like it.
<v Speaker 1>But it's also been about fifteen years since I've seen it.
<v Speaker 1>I feel like if I went and watched it again,
<v Speaker 1>I would not like it as much. But bad guy
<v Speaker 1>in Ghostbusters two, like the guy in the painting, was
<v Speaker 1>one of the terrorists on Diehard. Yeah, and then his
<v Speaker 1>little Tody helper guy is one of the main guys
<v Speaker 1>on alimcbeale who was also in Dragon's Layer.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, that guy's pretty funny.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. The Ghostbusters two Yeah, I can't think of his
<v Speaker 1>name off the top of my head, but he's.
<v Speaker 2>Lama all the coverage with goof the best part about
<v Speaker 2>Ghostbusters two is I need to put Oscar down.
<v Speaker 1>And then Bill Marie is like, or Peter Rinkman is like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>I can I do it please? You're short, you're fat,
<v Speaker 1>and your mama addresses you're funny.
<v Speaker 2>I agree with you. I think ghost Wisters two is
<v Speaker 2>the more enjoyable sequel of these two movies.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, there is a great key and peel sketch that
<v Speaker 1>you can check out on YouTube on the brainstorming meeting
<v Speaker 1>for Grimlins two. That is really really funny. I don't
<v Speaker 1>want to. I don't know a butcher, but yeah, just
<v Speaker 1>go check that out. Okay, but you get you get
<v Speaker 1>a movie that's making fun of itself. But I've read
<v Speaker 1>I haven't heard the man say it, but I've read
<v Speaker 1>that Joe Dante actually prefers Grimlins two to Grimlins one.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know how this is possible.
<v Speaker 2>I heard him say that he doesn't understand at all
<v Speaker 2>why Gremlins one works. He's like, why do people like it?
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, h It's weird. So they are both
<v Speaker 2>huge successes that made tons of money. They are huge
<v Speaker 2>hits in nineteen eighty four. They become icons that last
<v Speaker 2>for decades. I mean, you you see stuff still today?
<v Speaker 2>You was it?
<v Speaker 1>Sprite seven is Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew, that's it. Mountain
<v Speaker 1>Dew commercial has Billy and Gizmo in it. They're still
<v Speaker 1>talking about I mean, I say, they like Chris Columbus,
<v Speaker 1>Joe Dante. They're talking about Grimlins three. But they've been
<v Speaker 1>talking about it for seven or eight years now. One
<v Speaker 1>thing that they are all confident and steadfast on though,
<v Speaker 1>is practical Grimlins like not going to do CGI unless
<v Speaker 1>absolutely necessary, which is great. We know that that works
<v Speaker 1>from Mandalorian right. Give us the practical.
<v Speaker 2>Puppet absolutely one hundred percent.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, forget the stupid cg SO.
<v Speaker 1>On the subject of Ghostbuster sequels, though, we get the
<v Speaker 1>women Ghostbusters of the twenty seventeen Yeah. Even my daughter,
<v Speaker 1>my daughter who loves girl movies, is like, when I said, hey,
<v Speaker 1>you want to watch Ghostbuster, she goes the boy win
<v Speaker 1>or the girl winner. The boy when she's like, oh, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I'll watch that one with you. I don't like the
<v Speaker 1>girl when I was like, okay, it wasn't like the
<v Speaker 1>worst movie ever, but it wasn't great. I'm still waiting
<v Speaker 1>to see Ivan Rightman's sons new Ghostbusters movie. I can't
<v Speaker 1>wait till that comes out.
<v Speaker 3>Was that due in twenty twenty one.
<v Speaker 1>It was due in twenty twenty and they've pushed it
<v Speaker 1>because of COVID so. Ghostbusters Afterlife was supposed to come
<v Speaker 1>out last year. It's due out now in November of
<v Speaker 1>this year. November eleventh is when it's supposed to come out.
<v Speaker 1>It's directed by Jason Rightman, who is Ivan Rightman's son.
<v Speaker 1>He was also the kid in Ghostbusters two that tells
<v Speaker 1>Ray my dad says Ghostbusters are full of crap. So
<v Speaker 1>that's a nice little cameo. It's got the kid Finn
<v Speaker 1>wolf Hard who's in Stranger Things, who's been doing He's
<v Speaker 1>very popular right now. I like Stranger Things. I thought
<v Speaker 1>he did a good job in that one. But it
<v Speaker 1>also has all of our key players, Sigourney Weaver, Bill Murray,
<v Speaker 1>Dana k royd Ernie Hudson all are in the movie.
<v Speaker 3>And Annie Pott's Oh nice Ghostbusters.
<v Speaker 2>What do you want Hey, I'll tell you what though,
<v Speaker 2>we didn't even mention that Harold Ramis passed way sadly.
<v Speaker 1>And twenty fourteen.
<v Speaker 3>I think I believe that's right.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And we didn't even talk about this, like. He
<v Speaker 1>and Bill Murray went on to do several movies together,
<v Speaker 1>and then something happened in the making of groundhog Day
<v Speaker 1>that led to them not being friends anymore, and I
<v Speaker 1>don't know what it was, And obviously they ended up
<v Speaker 1>with a fantastic movie. Groundhog Day is one of my
<v Speaker 1>favorite movies of all time.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's funny.
<v Speaker 1>But apparently when Harold Ramis was didn't have much time left,
<v Speaker 1>his daughter gave Bill a call and Bill came and
<v Speaker 1>they sat together with hours mended, cried together, laughed together,
<v Speaker 1>and so it's really fortunate that they had that they
<v Speaker 1>had the opportunity to do that. Yep, yep, yep.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, it's time for final judgment.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, where are you?
<v Speaker 2>Ghostbusters Gremlins to the Biggest of nineteen eighty four? What
<v Speaker 2>do you got?
<v Speaker 1>Okay? So I watched Ghostbusters in the theater. I grew
<v Speaker 1>up drawing mooglely, you know, the ghost with the slash
<v Speaker 1>through it. I drew it all the time. I've probably
<v Speaker 1>watched it at least twenty times. It's iconic. The lines
<v Speaker 1>are amazing. I mean, there's so many mineral lines. And
<v Speaker 1>Grimlins is good, But like Joe Dante, when I watch it,
<v Speaker 1>I'm not really sure how it was the success that
<v Speaker 1>it was other than Steven Spielberg's name appears on the
<v Speaker 1>script and you have some fun with these little monsters.
<v Speaker 1>But the effects in Grimlins are they don't hold up
<v Speaker 1>to me. Like watching it now, I'm like, eh, I
<v Speaker 1>like the practical effects better than the CGI, but I mean,
<v Speaker 1>you can almost see the wires and a lot of
<v Speaker 1>this stuff, and so I've got to go Ghostbusters like
<v Speaker 1>as a pretty much landslide on this one. Grimlins is fun.
<v Speaker 1>It was cool to watch it with the kid, But
<v Speaker 1>Ghostbusters every day, all day, no question.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, all right, all right, sounds good. Well, so I
<v Speaker 2>think I told you for me. Grimlin starts off as
<v Speaker 2>a horror movie, and it's super captivating. I'm super creeped out.
<v Speaker 2>And oh my gosh, they ate and they sabotaged the
<v Speaker 2>clock and so oh they ate after midnight and now
<v Speaker 2>they make these weird, greasy, disgusting cocoons and what's gonna
<v Speaker 2>come out of them? And then when they emerge, they're
<v Speaker 2>running around. I can hear them, but I can't see them,
<v Speaker 2>and it goes from a horror movie and then takes
<v Speaker 2>this right turn into what to me seems like the
<v Speaker 2>Muppet Show, right, and you have gremlins with miniature guns
<v Speaker 2>and they're break dancing and they're doing all these silly things.
<v Speaker 2>And then at the end you have the super satisfying
<v Speaker 2>they've captured them all they blow them up. I remember
<v Speaker 2>in the movie Theater when stripe jumped into the pool.
<v Speaker 2>I was like, oh, no, oh, what are they gonna do?
<v Speaker 1>Best special effect of the whole movie, by the way,
<v Speaker 1>just the music and we're talking about dry ice in
<v Speaker 1>a swimming pool and some lights, right, some Christmas lights,
<v Speaker 1>But that scene is intense. Best special effect in the movie. Yes.
<v Speaker 2>So as a whole the movie I thought was very enjoyable.
<v Speaker 2>There's a middle part where I thought, man, this is
<v Speaker 2>really stupid, and so I like Gremlins, I thought it
<v Speaker 2>was very enjoyable.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, now flip.
<v Speaker 2>Over the Ghostbusters. Ghostbusters literally is one of the greatest
<v Speaker 2>comedies of all time, and it may be one of
<v Speaker 2>the best movies in the nineteen eighties. I mean, it's
<v Speaker 2>in the it's in the discussion of the most enjoyable
<v Speaker 2>comedic fun movies in the nineteen eighties. So for me,
<v Speaker 2>it's Ghostbusters by a landslide. And that's not taking anything
<v Speaker 2>away from Gremlins. It's just I mean, Ghostbusters is this iconic,
<v Speaker 2>unbelievably funny movie, and for me, it's just all Ghostbusters.
<v Speaker 1>Yep. Well, once again we keep laying on the same page. Man,
<v Speaker 1>what's happening to us? I don't know.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>We'll have to see what happens next week when we
<v Speaker 2>dive into Footloose and Purple Rain.
<v Speaker 1>So you've got the podcast on, look at your phone,
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<v Speaker 1>Tell me good now yet A nine time