"A Christmas Story" (1983) vs. "Home Alone" (1990): Part 1

<v Speaker 1>Hey everyone, this is Lee from the UK, big fan
<v Speaker 1>of anything seventies and eighties and an even bigger fan
<v Speaker 1>of the Shory podcast. Brilliant content that's perfectly delivered. Keep
<v Speaker 1>up the amazing work, guys. Thank you.
<v Speaker 2>All right, everybody, it's the podcast that is the only
<v Speaker 2>thing in the world that can drag you away from
<v Speaker 2>the soft glow of electric sex. Gleaming and up and
<v Speaker 2>welcome back to the Shirley You Can't Be Serious podcast.
<v Speaker 2>Shirley fans, I'd like to list you a Merry Christmas.
<v Speaker 2>Merry Christmas, Ded, Verry Christmas. Jason.
<v Speaker 3>Thanks man, I'm so excited we've come to the end
<v Speaker 3>of our second season. We're finishing off with Christmas movies,
<v Speaker 3>but it is the season to be jolly and I'm
<v Speaker 3>just un relishing in all of this Christmas plitz.
<v Speaker 4>I know, man, We've had a great year two. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>I'm excited about Year three. But let's cap year two
<v Speaker 4>with two of the greatest Christmas movies ever made.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, two Christmas movies about young boys like us back
<v Speaker 2>in the eighties and nineties who faced troubles but ended
<v Speaker 2>up having a merry Christmas. Apteral, let's do it so
<v Speaker 2>we're going to talk today about Home Alone yep, nineteen
<v Speaker 2>ninety yes, and A Christmas Story nineteen eighty three.
<v Speaker 4>Right, did you see either of these in the theater?
<v Speaker 2>I know that I saw Home Alone in the theater,
<v Speaker 2>one hundred percent sure. I saw it in the theater,
<v Speaker 2>and I may have seen it a couple times in
<v Speaker 2>the theater. It was one of those things like Crocodile Dundee,
<v Speaker 2>where it was just there and stayed there and was
<v Speaker 2>there and there and there and kept being there. So
<v Speaker 2>I'm pretty sure I saw it at least twice in
<v Speaker 2>the theater. A Christmas Story, I was pretty young when
<v Speaker 2>that one came out. I know that I remember seeing
<v Speaker 2>it on VHS. I know that I remembered seeing it
<v Speaker 2>quite a bit before it became the TNT twenty four
<v Speaker 2>hour Marathon, which I think we're in year twenty four
<v Speaker 2>of that. This year, I think it is ninety seven. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>it's the year twenty four that you're going to get
<v Speaker 2>twenty four hours of A Christmas Story.
<v Speaker 4>They play it twelve times in a row.
<v Speaker 2>And I'll sit there and I'll watch it. I'll watch it.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it's just just on while you're doing your
<v Speaker 2>Christmas stuff. But my gosh, it's wonderful.
<v Speaker 4>And because it's in vignettes, you can pick it up
<v Speaker 4>here and there and drop it.
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely absolutely, so let's talk about that.
<v Speaker 4>So you and I talked on the phone yesterday right.
<v Speaker 2>About how these two movies are so similar to other movies,
<v Speaker 2>and so I said, you know, a Christmas story doesn't
<v Speaker 2>necessarily have like a real plot to it. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>it's got kind of an arc of He's wanting the
<v Speaker 2>bb gun, but it's really just a bunch of vignettes,
<v Speaker 2>which is basically the same thing as a Christmas vacation
<v Speaker 2>national lampoon a Christmas vacation. It is the arc of
<v Speaker 2>he wants a swimming pool, and then a bunch of
<v Speaker 2>vignettes that go along with that family in.
<v Speaker 4>The hat's right.
<v Speaker 2>And then you pointed out that Home alone is really.
<v Speaker 4>It's die hard for kids.
<v Speaker 2>It's die hard for kids. I mean, there are a
<v Speaker 2>few select plot lines in the library that you could
<v Speaker 2>pick from, but these are definitely both dude with a
<v Speaker 2>problem right plot lines. But it goes beyond that, it does.
<v Speaker 2>Do you want to talk about that now? Are you
<v Speaker 2>want to save that for later? No, let's talk about
<v Speaker 2>it now. Okay, so let's talk about the similarities between
<v Speaker 2>Home Alone and Die Hard.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, yeah, so these are the exact same movies, just
<v Speaker 4>flipped ones for adults and ones for kids.
<v Speaker 2>Right, the beats are pretty similar.
<v Speaker 4>The first similarity in these two movies the bad guy
<v Speaker 4>Hans Kruber and Harry the Burglar. They both pretend to
<v Speaker 4>be good guys.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Hans Gruber is a guy who works in the building, right,
<v Speaker 2>that's what he's pretending to be, Bill Clay, and then
<v Speaker 2>Joe Peshy's at the very beginning of the movie pretending
<v Speaker 2>to be a cop.
<v Speaker 4>Oh God, you're not one of them, are you?
<v Speaker 2>Because he's Californian. Check out our Diehard versus Leath the
<v Speaker 2>Weapon podcast from last year, one of our best series
<v Speaker 2>of podcasts. Yeah, I love that one.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, what else you got?
<v Speaker 2>Okay, So close to the end of the movie, both
<v Speaker 2>of those same two guys have a amazing and incredibly
<v Speaker 2>painful looking fall straight back.
<v Speaker 4>That is very true. That is very true.
<v Speaker 2>Hans Rubber falls to his death. Ja, I hope that's
<v Speaker 2>not one of the hostages. And Joe Peshy steps on
<v Speaker 2>the slick steps and does the most painful looking knock
<v Speaker 2>the breath out of you, back splash into the concrest.
<v Speaker 4>Those stumpman did not get paid enough on Home alone. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>here's the other thing. At the very end of the movie,
<v Speaker 4>who comes to the rescue somebody from left field?
<v Speaker 2>Right right, you've got Al who's.
<v Speaker 4>Sergeant Al Powell shows up at just the right time,
<v Speaker 4>pulls his gun to blow away. And also you've got
<v Speaker 4>old man Marley shows up with a snowshell.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, another fantastic hit straight out of Looney Tunes.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, sure enough.
<v Speaker 2>Both movies end with an embrace of somebody who they've
<v Speaker 2>been trying to reunite with for the entire movie. You
<v Speaker 2>have John reuniting with Holly, and then you have Kevin
<v Speaker 2>reuniting with his mom. It's all very beautiful. I'll tell
<v Speaker 2>you this one. And if you look closely at this one,
<v Speaker 2>you're gonna be like, wow, where did John Hughes really
<v Speaker 2>watch it? Dieheart? And the copy beat for beat. So
<v Speaker 2>you remember when John McClain first sees Hans come in
<v Speaker 2>with mister Takagi, right, Mistercai, Yes, where's he hiding, John McClain, Yes,
<v Speaker 2>under the table, under the table, And the first time
<v Speaker 2>we see the bad guys in Home Alone, what does
<v Speaker 2>mcaulay culkin do? What does Kevin do? He runs upstairs
<v Speaker 2>and I and then it is the same perspective, little
<v Speaker 2>crouched down, hidden underneath the bed instead of underneath the table.
<v Speaker 4>Hey, I'll tell you another similarity.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, both movies.
<v Speaker 4>Have guys picking glass out of their feet.
<v Speaker 2>That's right, Yes, that's hilarious.
<v Speaker 4>Although Marv does not say all thanks being equal, he'd
<v Speaker 4>rather be Philadelphia.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, okay. And then, of course, the thing that I
<v Speaker 2>think I pointed out to you before we even like
<v Speaker 2>really started diving into this, You have two fantastic scenes
<v Speaker 2>both movies. Bad guy gets shot in the crotch.
<v Speaker 4>Next time you have a chance to shoot someone, don't hesitate.
<v Speaker 2>Thanks for the advice.
<v Speaker 4>These movies are great. I can't wait to dive into these.
<v Speaker 4>I actually did see both of these in the theater.
<v Speaker 4>I saw a Christmas Story when I was a fifth grader.
<v Speaker 4>I have vivid memories of seeing it because it was
<v Speaker 4>one of the greatest movie watching experiences I've ever had. Okay, Okay,
<v Speaker 4>now I'm gonna say the same thing for Home Alone,
<v Speaker 4>because both times I saw this I laughed my butt off. Okay, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>I as a fifth grader, though, watching Randy snort mashed
<v Speaker 4>potatoes was like the epitome of humor for me. Right,
<v Speaker 4>Oh my gosh, I was like hyperventilating in the movie theater.
<v Speaker 4>So I have wonderful memories of seeing it as the
<v Speaker 4>movie theater. I think I've said, I think I said
<v Speaker 4>last year The Diehard was my greatest movie watching experience.
<v Speaker 4>And I'd say that, you know, raiders et, but Krista
<v Speaker 4>Stroy was up.
<v Speaker 2>There for for sure, Yeah, for sure.
<v Speaker 4>Amazing. All right, guys, let's take a quick break. We're
<v Speaker 4>going to intro a new podcast out there right now.
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<v Speaker 2>Blindsided then dives deeper, It gets clinical, and it allows
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<v Speaker 2>of mental health challenges people face, why they appear, and
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<v Speaker 2>sports podcast not only for people who follow sports, but
<v Speaker 2>also for those who don't. All right, guys, go check
<v Speaker 2>out Blindside. Okay, let's look back at the history and
<v Speaker 2>see how these two amazing films came to be.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, sounds good, All right, So we'll start with a
<v Speaker 4>Christmas story.
<v Speaker 2>It was the oldest of the two, right, yes, and
<v Speaker 2>you can see opening credit. It is based on the
<v Speaker 2>stories of Gene Shepherd. The book he had was called
<v Speaker 2>in God We Trust all others make cash. But really
<v Speaker 2>it's from some of those stories from that book, but
<v Speaker 2>also a series of stories that he did in a
<v Speaker 2>speaking engagement that he would do from college campus to
<v Speaker 2>college campus. This guy his whole life, he's spent in
<v Speaker 2>radio and TV doing these short stories. He's got an
<v Speaker 2>entrancing voice. You know, he's the best narrator. My gosh, yeah, absolutely.
<v Speaker 2>You know you mentioned those stories that he had published.
<v Speaker 4>You know where they typically were published, No, Playboy magazine. Nice,
<v Speaker 4>it doesn't seem very ready for the articles.
<v Speaker 2>So one particular day in the late sixties, a young
<v Speaker 2>man named Robert Clark Bob Clark, was driving around his car.
<v Speaker 2>He was going about to go on a date, and
<v Speaker 2>he catches a radio show where it's Gene Shepherd telling
<v Speaker 2>this story and he's like, what is this. It's like
<v Speaker 2>a kid sticking his tongue to a lighthole. This is
<v Speaker 2>this is interesting? And so he like's like, I'll circle
<v Speaker 2>the block and hear the rest of the story instead
<v Speaker 2>of picking up his date. So he circles the block
<v Speaker 2>and then again, and then forty five minutes later, the
<v Speaker 2>story is finally over and his girl isn't there waiting
<v Speaker 2>for him and.
<v Speaker 4>That girl can go because he gave us a Christmas story.
<v Speaker 2>So that plan to the seed. Late sixties. Bob Clark
<v Speaker 2>is like, I want to take this story and these
<v Speaker 2>other stories and make him into a movie. And so
<v Speaker 2>he hits up Geene Shepherd, and Geen Shepherd's like, who
<v Speaker 2>are you right, Well, I work in the film industry
<v Speaker 2>in Miami, and he's like, what movies. He's like, I
<v Speaker 2>don't have any movies yet, and so not interested, not interested? Right.
<v Speaker 2>What happens is that Bob Clark keeps pressure in him,
<v Speaker 2>keeps wanting to do these movies, and continues to develop
<v Speaker 2>his career. He ends up going up to Canada, right,
<v Speaker 2>because it's a tax haven at this time, and he's
<v Speaker 2>start making movies in Canada. So in the early seventies
<v Speaker 2>he starts making, as you would expect, horror movies. Right,
<v Speaker 2>everybody starts off with horror movies.
<v Speaker 4>They're cheap and they're.
<v Speaker 2>Easy, right. His first one is called Children Shouldn't Play
<v Speaker 2>with Dead Things. He's got Death Dream, He's got Black Christmas,
<v Speaker 2>and Black Christmas ends up being a pretty big hit.
<v Speaker 2>It's got Margo Kidder in it before she's Superman famous
<v Speaker 2>but it's a slasher flick and this is seventy four,
<v Speaker 2>so it kind of inspires things like Friday the Thirteenth
<v Speaker 2>and Nightmare on Elm Street and he becomes kind of
<v Speaker 2>a big fish in a little pond up there in Canada.
<v Speaker 2>Another one of the movies that he did is this
<v Speaker 2>movie called moon Runners, which is about moonshine Runners. It
<v Speaker 2>ended up being the source material for a TV show
<v Speaker 2>you might have heard of called The Dukes of Hazzards.
<v Speaker 4>Oh my gosh, are you serious?
<v Speaker 5>Yes?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, wow, that's fantastic.
<v Speaker 2>So they he was involved with that. He's obviously you know,
<v Speaker 2>he was a part of that. In two thousand and
<v Speaker 2>five when they re released The Dukes of Hazard the
<v Speaker 2>new version with Jessic Simpson and yeah, oh, he sued him.
<v Speaker 2>He and a bunch of other people suited him and
<v Speaker 2>won the case right before the movie came out. But
<v Speaker 2>it was a was a big deal.
<v Speaker 4>Really.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. And then in nineteen eighty one he ends up
<v Speaker 2>doing this movie that everybody knows from the early eighties.
<v Speaker 2>I did a post on Facebook and I'm like, what's
<v Speaker 2>the first rated R movie that you ever saw? And
<v Speaker 2>this was the number one response. Yeah, yeah, Porky's.
<v Speaker 4>Yep, I've never seen porky'sd Have you seen Porky's.
<v Speaker 2>You've never seen Porky Porkyes, no, yes, I've seen Porky's.
<v Speaker 4>I would like my friend Mark Mingel, I was way
<v Speaker 4>too young in nineteen eighty one to see RAA movies.
<v Speaker 2>Well we had a satellite and my parents, so there
<v Speaker 2>you go. Okay. So at this point he's become pretty
<v Speaker 2>dang famous. I mean, Porky's was huge in nineteen eighty one,
<v Speaker 2>and so he's like, hey, I want to finally do
<v Speaker 2>my Jean Shepherd story of the kid who wants a
<v Speaker 2>red writer be begun movie. And the studios are still like, no,
<v Speaker 2>narration is dead. We don't want to have a narrator story.
<v Speaker 2>So they turned him down. They turned him down, and
<v Speaker 2>finally he gets just a little bit of a budget
<v Speaker 2>and he says, listen, I will forego my standard director's
<v Speaker 2>fee if you'll just put a little bit more of
<v Speaker 2>the movie. And they end up making this movie for
<v Speaker 2>less than five million dollars. It's insane. Three point three
<v Speaker 2>million dollars. Released November eighteenth, nineteen eighty three. Hey, I've
<v Speaker 2>got something on Bob Clark for you. Okay, go ahead.
<v Speaker 4>So Bob Clark, after he did Christmas Story, he went
<v Speaker 4>on to do the fantastic movie called Rhinestone Dolly Barton.
<v Speaker 2>So thats you're still owe bit take.
<v Speaker 4>He also did two from the Hips some other movies
<v Speaker 4>like that. But I will tell you this.
<v Speaker 2>He did From the Hip.
<v Speaker 4>He did From the Hip.
<v Speaker 2>Oh, that's a great one. That's that's David E Kelly's
<v Speaker 2>first script made into a movie. David E Kelly, who
<v Speaker 2>did The Practice, who did La Law, who did Boston Legal?
<v Speaker 2>Who did Ali McBeal. Yeah, he's a big, big time
<v Speaker 2>and yeah, nine Perfect Strangers. Yeah, so awesome.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, So I got a little tidbit for you on
<v Speaker 4>Bob Clark.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, okay.
<v Speaker 4>Bob Clark has the distinction of being one of only
<v Speaker 4>two directors to have a movie on both Roger Ebert's
<v Speaker 4>Great Movies List and Most Hated List. Oh okay, Bob
<v Speaker 4>Clarks of course was christ Story is on the Greatest
<v Speaker 4>Movies list?
<v Speaker 2>Right?
<v Speaker 4>You know the other one?
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna go with Baby Geniuses.
<v Speaker 4>Too, Baby Geniuses.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I didn't see that one.
<v Speaker 4>Baby Geniuses, Baby Geniuses two.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know. Okay, it doesn't matter. They're both terrible.
<v Speaker 4>You know who the other director is?
<v Speaker 2>No, Rob Bryaner.
<v Speaker 4>Meathead.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, so Rob Reiner, does it stand by me? Or
<v Speaker 2>is it Princess Bride?
<v Speaker 4>It's it's Princess Briane.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, that's the best one. What's the best one? That's
<v Speaker 2>the worst one?
<v Speaker 4>North with Elijah Wood.
<v Speaker 2>I haven't seen that movie. I haven't neither. Well, all right,
<v Speaker 2>apparently we're not missing it, although you can't. You can't
<v Speaker 2>always know from good taste, because Roger Ebert and Jean
<v Speaker 2>Siskoll both thumbs down on Home Alone. Right, it's crazy,
<v Speaker 2>it is nuts. It is nuts. They're like it's old
<v Speaker 2>tired formula, right, Like they took Diehard and they just
<v Speaker 2>be a kid. Right. They didn't like it. So wrong,
<v Speaker 2>so so wrong. He ends up going to college and
<v Speaker 2>then gets a scholarship to play football and as a quarterback.
<v Speaker 2>He was a scholarship quarterback in college. Really yeah?
<v Speaker 4>Wow.
<v Speaker 2>So Bob Clark finally gets to make his movie. It's
<v Speaker 2>released in nineteen eighty three. It has minimal success, but
<v Speaker 2>ultimately develops a cult following. Well, we know from our
<v Speaker 2>prior episode that a young man was living in an
<v Speaker 2>apartment near the time that a Christmas story came out
<v Speaker 2>that had little mice who would run across his fingers
<v Speaker 2>as he slept in the tenement house that he was in.
<v Speaker 2>This led to him writing a script for a movie
<v Speaker 2>about little critters that invaded a house that he called Grimlins.
<v Speaker 2>That's right, Chris Columbus wrote Grimlins. Right, So Chris Columbus
<v Speaker 2>gets that script in front of Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante
<v Speaker 2>is signed to direct, and Chris Columbus gets to come
<v Speaker 2>out and be a part of the production. You'll remember
<v Speaker 2>from our Grimlins episode that I said he was super
<v Speaker 2>excited about meeting White Accident, not because White Accident had
<v Speaker 2>written all of these wonderful songs because he was a
<v Speaker 2>great actor, but because his mom had written an incredibly
<v Speaker 2>famous Elvis song called Herbrey Hotel.
<v Speaker 6>Yes, well, this is my bed, find a new place
<v Speaker 6>to dwelt in the lone street that hartbreyto and wow.
<v Speaker 2>And so sure enough, a little bit later on, Chris
<v Speaker 2>Columbus gets to direct his own movie, which is what
<v Speaker 2>he wanted to do. He it's looked at as he's
<v Speaker 2>the new John Hughes. He directs this.
<v Speaker 4>Movie called Adventures and Babysitting.
<v Speaker 2>Adventures in Babysitting Elizabeth schu Oh my one of my
<v Speaker 2>childhood crushes, for sure. And then he goes on and
<v Speaker 2>directs another movie which is called Heartbreak Odell. Yes, and
<v Speaker 2>it does. Yeah, it craps the pot it does, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it does.
<v Speaker 4>It does not do well at all. And he thought
<v Speaker 4>his directing career was over.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he thought of oh one and done, you know,
<v Speaker 2>like I had my chance, I got that big hit
<v Speaker 2>and then I lost it with Heartbreak Hotel.
<v Speaker 4>Well, it helps to have powerful friends, because John Hughes
<v Speaker 4>calling and said, I've got a project I want you to.
<v Speaker 2>Direct from me.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, and he's like, oh, fantastic.
<v Speaker 2>What is it. It's a Christmas story about the Griswolds.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, well, otherwise known as Christmas Vacation.
<v Speaker 7>Is that time did.
<v Speaker 4>The bottom that untimely?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? So he reads the script, He's like, oh, this
<v Speaker 2>is great. I'd love to I love Christmas movies. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>I'd love to be a part of this.
<v Speaker 4>So he shows up, starts working, talking to the stars,
<v Speaker 4>and there's one particular person who became so insufferable that
<v Speaker 4>he had to bail out.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Chevy Chase basically treated him like crap. He's like,
<v Speaker 2>you don't know what you're doing. And Chevy We've talked
<v Speaker 2>about Chevy Chase's ability to get along with other human beings.
<v Speaker 2>And christ Columbus didn't know what to do. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>he's like he was disregarding everything. I would say, he
<v Speaker 2>didn't respect me. There was just nothing I could do.
<v Speaker 2>And he so he calls up John Hughes and he
<v Speaker 2>doesn't even have to say the words. John Hughes is like,
<v Speaker 2>you know what, I don't think this is the right
<v Speaker 2>movie for you. I've got another one that you might
<v Speaker 2>be interested in.
<v Speaker 4>It's incredible. So Chris Columbus gets a big break to
<v Speaker 4>do the National Lampoon.
<v Speaker 2>Christmas Vacation movie.
<v Speaker 4>Next thing, he knows he's out, but John Hughes in
<v Speaker 4>the weak Gap. There is one week. One week he
<v Speaker 4>wrote two scripts YEP. One of which was this little
<v Speaker 4>project called Home Alone. Yeah, and he adds it to
<v Speaker 4>Chris Columbus and says, I want you to direct this one.
<v Speaker 2>So this part this blew my mind. The way John
<v Speaker 2>Hughes worked, he would start writing on a Friday night
<v Speaker 2>and he would have a script finished by Sunday.
<v Speaker 4>Morning, Like polished.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, like it's done, and it's not just a script.
<v Speaker 2>It's Breakfast Club, it's sixteen candles, it's science, I mean what.
<v Speaker 2>He would just crank it out in a couple of days,
<v Speaker 2>and it was known like when John Hughes showed up
<v Speaker 2>for the filming part of things, you didn't deviate from
<v Speaker 2>the script because John Hughes was like, the words that
<v Speaker 2>are perfect are the words that I wrote down. So
<v Speaker 2>you don't change those words unless you're John Candy. And
<v Speaker 2>he had so much respect for John Candy. He was like,
<v Speaker 2>just let him, let him riff and it's going to
<v Speaker 2>be gold.
<v Speaker 4>You know. It's interesting because I did hear Columbus say
<v Speaker 4>that when an actor deviated from the script, John Hughes's
<v Speaker 4>ear would perk up and be like, no, we're gonna
<v Speaker 4>do it my way.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, okay. So he had directed John Candy in both Planes,
<v Speaker 2>Trains and Automobiles and in Uncle Buck.
<v Speaker 8>Those are two of John Candy's best roles, absolutely absolutely,
<v Speaker 8>maybe best, yeah, I mean, and he wrote The Great Outdoors,
<v Speaker 8>which is another one of John Candy's.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, crazy, Now that's interesting. He wrote movies, but he
<v Speaker 2>didn't direct them, all right.
<v Speaker 4>He didn't really like the directing part. I think he
<v Speaker 4>liked it, okay, But he's just he was so prolific
<v Speaker 4>as a writer.
<v Speaker 2>I don't think he had time. I mean from just
<v Speaker 2>to hear this from nineteen eighty four, Here we Go
<v Speaker 2>nineteen eighty four, Sixteen Candles nineteen eighty five, The Breakfast
<v Speaker 2>Club nineteen eighty five, Weird Science nineteen eighty six, Very
<v Speaker 2>Dealer's Day Off nineteen eighty seven, Planes, Trains and Automobiles
<v Speaker 2>nineteen eighty eight, She's having a Baby nineteen eighty nine,
<v Speaker 2>Uncle Buck. I mean, in that short of a time period,
<v Speaker 2>he was cranking him out. I don't think he could
<v Speaker 2>have possibly directed all of the scripts that he was writing,
<v Speaker 2>because he was busy enough directing the ones that he had.
<v Speaker 4>There is not a bad movie in that list right there.
<v Speaker 2>Well, the last one on the list came out in
<v Speaker 2>ninety one, and that's Curly Suit. Well, the nineties were
<v Speaker 2>a different story for John Hughes.
<v Speaker 8>It was.
<v Speaker 2>It was a different story. We can get into that
<v Speaker 2>a little bit, Okay. So Chris Columbus comes on to
<v Speaker 2>direct this movie called Home Alone, right, Yes, And as
<v Speaker 2>with all movies, you have to get a budget for
<v Speaker 2>the movie, and John Hughes calls up the guys at
<v Speaker 2>Warner Brothers and he says, hey, I got this movie.
<v Speaker 2>They're like, okay, tell us about it. And he says, okay,
<v Speaker 2>kid at Home Alone, all right, how much ten million?
<v Speaker 2>If you can make that movie for ten million dollars,
<v Speaker 2>you can do it, right, And that's what they said. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>So they go where else are they going to go
<v Speaker 2>with the John Hughes movies, Chicago, Chicago Suburbs, and they
<v Speaker 2>set up shop. They set up their back lot at
<v Speaker 2>the same high school that they filmed Ferris Peeler's Day
<v Speaker 2>Off and Uncle Buck. It was called the New Trier School.
<v Speaker 2>The school had been shut down, and so they set
<v Speaker 2>up offices, they set up all of the sets and
<v Speaker 2>they got to work.
<v Speaker 4>It's kind of interesting. So the school basically ran out
<v Speaker 4>of students. I guess the neighborhood matured and there weren't
<v Speaker 4>any young kids anymore. And so they could set up
<v Speaker 4>the art department in you know, like the math area,
<v Speaker 4>you know, and the production part in the English area,
<v Speaker 4>and they had it all kind of right there.
<v Speaker 2>And they had a giant gymnasium with rafters that you
<v Speaker 2>could hang lights from it's the perfect place for a
<v Speaker 2>back lot set up. Right now, everybody knows that beautiful
<v Speaker 2>house that they have for Kevin's family, right, there's to
<v Speaker 2>all kinds of memes, like I want to know what
<v Speaker 2>Kevin's dad did for a living to be able to
<v Speaker 2>afford this out because it's gorgeous. Yes, but they only
<v Speaker 2>really did the exterior shots because the house's house. You
<v Speaker 2>can't set up and film and get all your lighting
<v Speaker 2>in a house. And so basically they recreated all of
<v Speaker 2>the important interior shots from house in that gymnasium, except
<v Speaker 2>for when they had to do the flood scenes.
<v Speaker 4>Right, the flood scenes, they had to build the house
<v Speaker 4>again in the like the empty pool and the high
<v Speaker 4>school Olympic sized pool.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean, if you watch the end scene, the
<v Speaker 2>wet bandits have caused flooding and the water's going everywhere,
<v Speaker 2>and they're like, how are we going to do this?
<v Speaker 2>Where's the water going to go? And then they're wandering
<v Speaker 2>around the school and they come into a building and
<v Speaker 2>it's the old pool and they're like, it's perfect.
<v Speaker 4>Let's just pour water into the house and let it
<v Speaker 4>hit the pool.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the pool's got a dream yep. Okay, so we've
<v Speaker 2>wandered into production a little bit here. Why don't we
<v Speaker 2>jump back to a Christmas Story and tak casting.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, so there's some interesting people that were considered for
<v Speaker 4>roles in A Christmas Story.
<v Speaker 8>Right.
<v Speaker 2>They literally had thousands of people try out for the
<v Speaker 2>part of Ralphie Parker, right, Ralph Parker. The very first
<v Speaker 2>one that tried out Peter Billingsley, right, who at the
<v Speaker 2>time was kind of an established actor. He had been
<v Speaker 2>in quite a few commercials, and he was a part
<v Speaker 2>of this TV show called Real People, Right, and so, hey,
<v Speaker 2>here's a kid who's you know, he's got experience, he
<v Speaker 2>knows what he's doing. Seems like the obvious choice. But
<v Speaker 2>then they went ahead and auditioned several thousand other kids.
<v Speaker 4>Anyway, They thought he was too famous to be Ralphie
<v Speaker 4>in this movie, right, which is crazy.
<v Speaker 2>You remember the Hershey Syrup commercials, right, I do, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I do?
<v Speaker 4>Which is kind of crazy that the Oval team played such.
<v Speaker 2>A big car right right inside joke.
<v Speaker 4>When he gets hit in the face of a snowball. Huh.
<v Speaker 4>I just can't picture anybody else but those sad, giant,
<v Speaker 4>pale blue eyes.
<v Speaker 2>Right. Well, the backstory on that one was it took
<v Speaker 2>several takes, and the guys who were throwing the snowballs
<v Speaker 2>had gotten pretty good at it, and so they nailed
<v Speaker 2>him hard. And so that take that he got, the
<v Speaker 2>one where he was literally upset and crying because it hurt.
<v Speaker 2>He's getting I mean, it was the temperatures that they
<v Speaker 2>were foaming in ranged from negative twenty four to negative twenty.
<v Speaker 2>It was cold. And your ball hit by your fifth
<v Speaker 2>or sixth or seventh slush ball in.
<v Speaker 4>The eye, I'd be crying too, you know what he
<v Speaker 4>said when they hit him some of them.
<v Speaker 2>That's a great moment. That's a great moment.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, so listen to this. So Will Wheaton is one
<v Speaker 4>of those guys who auditioned for Ralphie, the guy who
<v Speaker 4>goes on to play Gordy and stand by me. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>and then he does the most amazing narration of Ready.
<v Speaker 2>Player one Ready Player one.
<v Speaker 4>Melinda Dillon got this part because Bob Clark liked her
<v Speaker 4>in Close Encounters.
<v Speaker 2>She was top billing because of that. I mean. Darren
<v Speaker 2>McGavin had been around for a while, but his was
<v Speaker 2>mostly TV stuff, you know, in character parts. He's in
<v Speaker 2>the Natural two and that sort of thing. But she
<v Speaker 2>was Melinda Dillon was the top bill.
<v Speaker 4>Close Encounters was long ways before this. But here's the
<v Speaker 4>name that really blows me away.
<v Speaker 2>Are you ready for this one? Yes?
<v Speaker 4>The Old Man. The person that almost became the Old
<v Speaker 4>Man and wanted the part, Jack Nicholson.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I knew that, and it would have messed everything up.
<v Speaker 2>It really would have.
<v Speaker 4>The Old Man is not the he's not the main character.
<v Speaker 2>He is though, he is so important, but he can't
<v Speaker 2>be the guy who takes over the show. He has
<v Speaker 2>to be the one that is the driving train behind everything.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, if you look at it, it's really a
<v Speaker 2>movie that's as much about him as anybody else. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>Ralphie is watching What's going On with his dad so
<v Speaker 2>much of the time. That part was hugely important, and
<v Speaker 2>Geene Shepherd said there were a lot of famous guys.
<v Speaker 2>I'm sure he was thinking of Jack Nicholson, but Darren
<v Speaker 2>McGavin was the most important pick for that movie because
<v Speaker 2>he could be Dad without being somebody who's too big
<v Speaker 2>and trivy star to be Dad.
<v Speaker 4>Can someone tell me kind of a world we live
<v Speaker 4>in where a man has to fight his fairness and
<v Speaker 4>the neighborhood does.
<v Speaker 2>That's awesome. By the way, all of that profanity was
<v Speaker 2>completely ad lived and he had a lot of trouble
<v Speaker 2>not saying actual profane words because they wanted a PG rating.
<v Speaker 4>So can This happened in both movies, that sort of
<v Speaker 4>cartoon gibberish that they hit yep in a Christmas store.
<v Speaker 4>Doug Joe Peschi has to do the same thing and Homeo.
<v Speaker 2>Joe Pesci was mad about the script. He like, comes,
<v Speaker 2>He's like, I can't do the script and why not?
<v Speaker 2>He goes, because there's no f's in here, And I'm
<v Speaker 2>like what He's like, listen, that's just how I talk, man,
<v Speaker 2>I mean he did. I wouldn't say, you know, hi,
<v Speaker 2>missus Johnson, how you doing. I'd say, hi, missus e
<v Speaker 2>fing Johnson, how's your effing dad? Right?
<v Speaker 4>You told me that. He that's how you read scripts.
<v Speaker 4>If there's missing F words, he reads them anyway.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he puts them in himself, and so I think
<v Speaker 2>what he did with this one is he had to
<v Speaker 2>put them in and then take them back out. So
<v Speaker 2>you see him wentz a few times before a few things.
<v Speaker 2>He's trying not to say.
<v Speaker 4>The boll when he says shoot. He says shoot. It
<v Speaker 4>is the most forced non cuss word you've ever seen.
<v Speaker 2>That's hilarious.
<v Speaker 4>I do think the cartoon profanity, you know, the Looney
<v Speaker 4>Tunes like language that shows up in both of these
<v Speaker 4>movies was super funny to me as a kid, and
<v Speaker 4>it's still endearing as an adult.
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely.
<v Speaker 4>I love that I can watch all of these movies
<v Speaker 4>at any time with my kids.
<v Speaker 2>So one of the other kids that auditioned for the
<v Speaker 2>part was a kid named Scott Schwartz, right, who had
<v Speaker 2>come out with a movie just before this called The
<v Speaker 2>Toy mm hmm with mister Richard pryor mister Jackie Gleeson.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I watched The Toy all the time when
<v Speaker 2>I was a kid. It's Richard Donner directed it. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it's a great movie. I mean I think it was.
<v Speaker 2>It was great back in the eighties when I was
<v Speaker 2>watching it, right, I mean, you remember the painting scene right. Anyway,
<v Speaker 2>So he'd been in hundreds of commercials, he's been in
<v Speaker 2>this movie where he's the main title character, and then
<v Speaker 2>he auditions for this part and it's not really even
<v Speaker 2>an audition, it is it is he goes to meet
<v Speaker 2>Bob Clark and Bob Clark's just talking to him, and
<v Speaker 2>Bob Clark says, you know what I had? I missed
<v Speaker 2>lunch today. You want to go there? I have a
<v Speaker 2>hot dog? And he's like, yeah, I love hot dogs.
<v Speaker 2>You know he's a kid. Of course, that's what he's
<v Speaker 2>going to say, right, So they go downstairs, they have
<v Speaker 2>a hot dog. They go back upstairs and he's like,
<v Speaker 2>you know, Scott has wondered. Wonderful to meet you. I
<v Speaker 2>have a great day. I look forward to talking to
<v Speaker 2>you again soon. And so Scott leaves walks back to
<v Speaker 2>his agent's office with his dad seven minutes away. I
<v Speaker 2>mean there, that's literally like down the street. They walk in,
<v Speaker 2>she's like what'd you do? And they said what do
<v Speaker 2>you mean? And she goes, well you did something right
<v Speaker 2>because you got the part. And he's like, we had
<v Speaker 2>a hot dog. I mean that was it.
<v Speaker 4>Wow.
<v Speaker 2>But when they send him the script, there's no name
<v Speaker 2>on it. He doesn't know that he's playing Flick. He
<v Speaker 2>just gets a script and so he's thinking, well, I've
<v Speaker 2>just done this big movie. And so first thing he
<v Speaker 2>does is he goes and counts all the lines. Of course,
<v Speaker 2>that's what you do when you're a kid, right, And
<v Speaker 2>so he counts all of Ralfie's lines, thinking he's going
<v Speaker 2>to be Ralphie. Well they show up and Bob Clark
<v Speaker 2>is like, all right, uh, Peter, you're gonna be Ralfie. Scott,
<v Speaker 2>you're gonna be flick rd You'll be Schwartz. And so
<v Speaker 2>he's like, ah, so I'm not Ralphie and I'm not
<v Speaker 2>even Schwartz even though my name is Schwartz. Yeah, really
<v Speaker 2>I'm flick Okay, Well all right, and he goes through
<v Speaker 2>and he looks at it. He's like, well, at least
<v Speaker 2>you get to stick my tongue.
<v Speaker 4>With the pole that, you know. Scott Schwartz went on
<v Speaker 4>to have sort of a rough nineties and early two thousands.
<v Speaker 2>It's a colorful career.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, yeah, he was acting.
<v Speaker 2>Here's a guy from Jersey doing what he can to
<v Speaker 2>make the ends meet.
<v Speaker 4>Oh my gosh, he did some of the some of
<v Speaker 4>the doubting.
<v Speaker 2>I haven't seen any of this. No, he's doing much better.
<v Speaker 4>One other things I want to mention Teddy Moore, who
<v Speaker 4>plays Miss Shields.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, she was eight.
<v Speaker 4>Months pregnant when they filmed this. Oh wow, okay, so
<v Speaker 4>in order for her to be miss Shields. They didn't
<v Speaker 4>want to show an unmarried mother in the late thirties
<v Speaker 4>early forties, right, And so what they did is they
<v Speaker 4>just bowled her up and made her chunky.
<v Speaker 2>So she wasn't that heavy.
<v Speaker 4>Not she's not big.
<v Speaker 2>Oh wow, that is that's crazy. Okay, So that's a
<v Speaker 2>Christmas story. Let's move on to casting for Home Alu.
<v Speaker 7>Talking around Christmas tree and Christmas right now.
<v Speaker 2>I know, as we mentioned, John Hughes had directed Uncle
<v Speaker 2>Buck and had this young star in Uncle Buck who's
<v Speaker 2>really kind of a side character, but he really did
<v Speaker 2>some amazing work with John Candy kid named Macaulay Culkin,
<v Speaker 2>and so he thinks, I wonder if I could write
<v Speaker 2>a movie with a nine year old as the main character, right,
<v Speaker 2>And that really is how the script for Home Alone
<v Speaker 2>came to be.
<v Speaker 4>So there's two scenes from Uncle Buck that got us
<v Speaker 4>Home Alone and got us specifically mcaulay Culker. Yeah, okay,
<v Speaker 4>So there's the scene at the beginning with John Candy
<v Speaker 4>when he's quizzing with questions.
<v Speaker 2>Fantastic scene. Where do you live in the city? You
<v Speaker 2>have a house, apartment, rent? What do you do for
<v Speaker 2>a living?
<v Speaker 7>Lots of things. I don't have one. How come I
<v Speaker 7>don't need one? Don't have one? How come it's a
<v Speaker 7>long story?
<v Speaker 2>You have kids?
<v Speaker 7>No, I don't come it's an even longer story.
<v Speaker 2>My dad's brother.
<v Speaker 7>What's your record for consecutive questions asked? I'm your dad's brother.
<v Speaker 2>All right, you have much more hair in your knows
<v Speaker 2>of my dad.
<v Speaker 7>How nice of you to notice I'm a kid.
<v Speaker 2>That's my job.
<v Speaker 4>You got much more hair in your nose than my dad.
<v Speaker 4>How do I see you to notice I'm a kid,
<v Speaker 4>that's my job, right right, laugh out loud moment.
<v Speaker 2>And Uncle Bucky.
<v Speaker 4>But then there's a scene where Uncle Buck has to
<v Speaker 4>go chase after the oldest daughter in the family and
<v Speaker 4>he has to leave the kids there at home until
<v Speaker 4>Shenise can come over home alone. He's home alone. Oh,
<v Speaker 4>he's home alone. And there's a funny scene where he's
<v Speaker 4>sitting right by the door and he's talking to her
<v Speaker 4>through the mailshoot. Yeah, it's super cute, and he asked
<v Speaker 4>her to get her license out so he can verify
<v Speaker 4>this her and he actually peeks out the mail shoot
<v Speaker 4>at one point and sees three bad guys. It's like,
<v Speaker 4>it's really cute. That scene gave us home alone. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>it's incredible, it's great. So you're right, mcaulay Culkin was
<v Speaker 4>the one and really only Kevin McAllister, right, John Hughes
<v Speaker 4>wanted him, but they did bring in other people to
<v Speaker 4>look at right, Okay. Well, in fact, the kid who
<v Speaker 4>played the neighbor, the neighbor. Yeah right, what's the gas
<v Speaker 4>mileage on this car icol in France?
<v Speaker 2>Right now?
<v Speaker 4>That kid auditioned for the role of Kevin mcows.
<v Speaker 2>So I saw that kid, and I'm like, I know
<v Speaker 2>that kid from somewhere. It's Overboard. He's one of the
<v Speaker 2>the three sons in Overboard.
<v Speaker 4>Well the kids gets poison ivy, yes, all right, Mitch Murphy,
<v Speaker 4>Jeffrey Wiseman, Okay, now, then Harry and Marv. Right, okay,
<v Speaker 4>big list here. So Marv was like the sidekick to
<v Speaker 4>Joe Peshi's character, right right, Christopher Lloyd was looked at
<v Speaker 4>to be Marv.
<v Speaker 2>I can see that Tim Robbins was considered to be
<v Speaker 2>the role of Marv.
<v Speaker 4>I can also see that you need him tall and
<v Speaker 4>skinny to Joe Pesci's sort.
<v Speaker 2>Of ye short and plump. It's the whole thumb pinky theory.
<v Speaker 4>The thumb pinky theory.
<v Speaker 2>Give credit to my roommate in college, Clay Yoakum for
<v Speaker 2>that one. I was you see how many times you've
<v Speaker 2>got a short, fat guy next to a tall, thin guys? Oh,
<v Speaker 2>thumb pinky theory.
<v Speaker 4>So that role eventually went to a guy named Daniel Roebuck. Roebuck,
<v Speaker 4>not Stern, not Stern. We'll come back to Daniel Roebuck. Okay,
<v Speaker 4>So Harry, he's the main burglar. He's like the lead burglar.
<v Speaker 4>This is Joe Peshi's character, right, okay, So here are
<v Speaker 4>the name as you ready for this?
<v Speaker 2>Yep?
<v Speaker 4>Okay, we are talking about John Lovett's Rowan Atkinson, Bob Hoskins,
<v Speaker 4>Danny de Vito.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, all short and plump.
<v Speaker 4>Robert de Niro?
<v Speaker 2>Am I wrong? Robert de Niro is a little too tall, I.
<v Speaker 4>Think, right, Kevin Pollock, that's right?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, because Chris Columbus loved Raging Bull and so he
<v Speaker 2>wanted Robert de Niro and then was like, now, but
<v Speaker 2>what's joke as she doing?
<v Speaker 7>Right?
<v Speaker 8>Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? Yeah?
<v Speaker 4>Here are the two names that blew me away though, okay,
<v Speaker 4>for the role of Harry Dudley Moore okay, and Phil Collins.
<v Speaker 2>Honestly, I can see both of those. I could see
<v Speaker 2>it with the little British accent and the silliness. And
<v Speaker 2>you know, Phil Collins was a buster, I guess, so
<v Speaker 2>who knows?
<v Speaker 8>Maybe?
<v Speaker 4>Okay, all right, we want to talk about the McAllister's
<v Speaker 4>real quick sure, all right. Kate McAllister, the casting director,
<v Speaker 4>had been involved with Beetlejuice. So she loved Katherinehara, right,
<v Speaker 4>and she knew she was super funny, yes.
<v Speaker 2>And so she was kind of a shoe in ye.
<v Speaker 4>But the one name that they considered Christy.
<v Speaker 2>Ally mm okay two pretty back in nineteen ninety eight.
<v Speaker 4>She's kind of a babe.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, not mom material at that point, I think,
<v Speaker 2>could you see Christy Allie cobad maybe? Okay? Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>So then the next role to Phil is Peter McAllister.
<v Speaker 4>That's the dad.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>That role went to John Hurt, which you mentioned Black
<v Speaker 4>Christmas a few minutes ago, starring Margot Kidder, also the
<v Speaker 4>star of Superman one, two, three, four. Margot Kidder and
<v Speaker 4>John Hurd were married in the seventies. Oh yeah, that's right,
<v Speaker 4>for a glorious six days. Okay, all right, he figured
<v Speaker 4>out she was nutso and less than a week. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>so anyway, I thought that was fine. Okay, so that
<v Speaker 4>role considered for the people. I mean, you've got big
<v Speaker 4>names like Michael Douglas, Kevin Costner, Martin Sheen, Dana, Charles
<v Speaker 4>Groden who ended up playing the old Man in the
<v Speaker 4>sequel to A Christmas Story, Judge Revolt, Tom Scarrett. I mean,
<v Speaker 4>these names, Steve Martin.
<v Speaker 2>But here's the problem. As we mentioned before, this movie
<v Speaker 2>had to get made for ten million dollars. We couldn't
<v Speaker 2>have a movie that had these guys in it. They
<v Speaker 2>were too expensive. And at this point, Joe Peschi was
<v Speaker 2>not that expensive, and Daniel Roebuck Daniel Roebuck. But the
<v Speaker 2>chemistry between Daniel Roebuck and Joe Peschi was not good.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, so here's the deal with that. Yeah, they Joe
<v Speaker 4>Peshi went to the producers. He's like, I don't think
<v Speaker 4>chemistry is there with this guy. They had shot one scene,
<v Speaker 4>they hadn't really worked together, right, Daniel Roebuck is still
<v Speaker 4>bitter about this whole process. Oh yeah, and who wouldn't be, right,
<v Speaker 4>I mean, it's one of the biggest hits of the decade.
<v Speaker 2>And Daniel Stern had quit he quits.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, we need to talk about that, okay.
<v Speaker 2>Yo.
<v Speaker 4>Daniel Stern was hired for six weeks with the work,
<v Speaker 4>and then they came back to and they said, well
<v Speaker 4>it's going to be eight weeks.
<v Speaker 1>Huh.
<v Speaker 4>He's like, okay, no problem. So do I get paid
<v Speaker 4>for eight weeks or just still six weeks? And they're like, no,
<v Speaker 4>just six weeks. He's like, well that's bull crap. I'm
<v Speaker 4>not working for eight weeks on six weeks worth of pay, right, So.
<v Speaker 2>He quit, He quit, he bailed. You almost didn't have
<v Speaker 2>Daniel Stern in this movie.
<v Speaker 4>Every time I see Daniel Stern, I see an iron
<v Speaker 4>imprint on his face, you know.
<v Speaker 2>But fortunately he wised up.
<v Speaker 4>So when they let go of Daniel Roebuck, they called
<v Speaker 4>Daniel Stern and Dianiel Starns like, ah, man, yeah, no problem,
<v Speaker 4>let's let's do this.
<v Speaker 2>Right.
<v Speaker 4>Just a couple more tidbits for you. The role of
<v Speaker 4>Uncle Frank, the jerk uncle. Right, yeah, look what you did,
<v Speaker 4>you little jerk. So something interesting was I found out
<v Speaker 4>he was originally written to be the master villain behind
<v Speaker 4>this whole home invasion plot. The original script had him
<v Speaker 4>as the guy that was bringing these burglars in and
<v Speaker 4>setting the whole thing in motion. Wow, so we hate
<v Speaker 4>him anyway. Yeah, so that role was written for Kelsey Grammer,
<v Speaker 4>really Kelsey Grammer.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, that's interesting, Okay.
<v Speaker 4>All right, cool, kind of interesting. And then the only
<v Speaker 4>other thing I want to mention is Kevin's cousin Fuller,
<v Speaker 4>the one he's worried about wedding the bed. That's his
<v Speaker 4>actual brother, Karen Culkin, right, who played Ralphie in the
<v Speaker 4>sequel to Christmas Story.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, what was that called a Summer Story? Yeah? Right,
<v Speaker 2>they had a few. Yeah, they had a few sequels,
<v Speaker 2>and they even had a Christmas Story two.
<v Speaker 4>I wanted to watch this before we came in here.
<v Speaker 2>I put it on you. I texted you, and you
<v Speaker 2>challenged me. This movie exists. You watch every crappy movie
<v Speaker 2>that is somehow related to a movie you watched under
<v Speaker 2>the Cherry Moon. I watched it on the Cherry Moon.
<v Speaker 4>I could barely make it through the trailer of Christmas
<v Speaker 4>Story Part two.
<v Speaker 2>Right, it is one of the worst rated movies I've
<v Speaker 2>ever seen. Like it's like a one point five or
<v Speaker 2>four or something on IMDb. They don't get that bad.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, you can't rate it as zero.
<v Speaker 4>That means everybody one.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you had one guy out there who put two?
<v Speaker 2>And do you know who plays the dad in that movie? Who?
<v Speaker 2>Daniel Stern?
<v Speaker 4>WHOA.
<v Speaker 2>So there you go. There's our crossover, there's our bridge.
<v Speaker 4>That is awesome. One more quick thing. Yes, Alan Rickman
<v Speaker 4>was considered for the role of Harry Wow Alan Rickman,
<v Speaker 4>who played of course, Hans Hans Kruber in die Hard,
<v Speaker 4>who also starred McCaulay Culkin's aunt Bonnie Badelia, who played
<v Speaker 4>Holly freaking Gennaro.
<v Speaker 2>There you go, all ties together. Okay, let's move into production. Okay.
<v Speaker 2>So these masterful movies are Seeing Gold followed by Seeing Gold.
<v Speaker 2>I mean they just don't really. There are no throwaway parts.
<v Speaker 2>You don't walk away unless it's you know, you know
<v Speaker 2>you're gonna catch it again in the next two hours
<v Speaker 2>because it's Christmas Day and it's on TNT. But it
<v Speaker 2>is solid gold from beginning to end on both of
<v Speaker 2>these movies, right, without question, one of the most memorable
<v Speaker 2>scenes in a Christmas story is sticking the tongue to
<v Speaker 2>the pole. I just will God, Dario right, it is okay.
<v Speaker 2>So the way that they worked that out. The special
<v Speaker 2>effects way that they worked it out. Remember this is
<v Speaker 2>a low budget movie. They hooked up a vacuum cleaner.
<v Speaker 2>They hooked up a vacuum into a pole right and
<v Speaker 2>painted it. And you see he always comes in from
<v Speaker 2>the side, and there's a little tiny hole that they
<v Speaker 2>had in this pole, and so the vacuum would start
<v Speaker 2>and the suction would pull that tongue, so he could
<v Speaker 2>actually pull away and his tongue would stay stuck. Well,
<v Speaker 2>this is the first time they've ever tried something like this.
<v Speaker 2>So the first time that they did it, it literally
<v Speaker 2>sucked his face onto the pole. Now you put his
<v Speaker 2>tongue on it, it sucked his.
<v Speaker 4>Whole mouth and turned off turn off.
<v Speaker 2>And so they reduced the power a little bit, got
<v Speaker 2>it to where just his tongue would stick on there.
<v Speaker 2>And then they filmed it. And it took twelve and
<v Speaker 2>a half hours to film that scene. What they were
<v Speaker 2>filming in the cold, I mean, I told you negative
<v Speaker 2>twenty four to negative twenty is where we were. You
<v Speaker 2>can see the kid's breath. Yes, they were wearing period clothing,
<v Speaker 2>so there was no lining in the gloves. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>they had little electric socks and electric warmers that they
<v Speaker 2>stuck on them, but these kids were freezing their butts off,
<v Speaker 2>and he had to shoot for twelve and a half hours.
<v Speaker 2>Then they take the film and they underdevelop it and
<v Speaker 2>he has to call him back and say, Scott, we
<v Speaker 2>gotta shoot that scene again, and he's like, so got
<v Speaker 2>good news, you get to film some more and bad
<v Speaker 2>news it's and so they really improved, and the second
<v Speaker 2>time they shot it, they got it done in eleven
<v Speaker 2>and a half hours. Oh my gosh. And at one point,
<v Speaker 2>no kidding, they broke for lunch and as a joke,
<v Speaker 2>all of the other actors left and he was still
<v Speaker 2>stuck to the hole and he's.
<v Speaker 4>Like, wait, guys waiting there, Just leave you guys, come back,
<v Speaker 4>don't hear me. I've always wondered how that worked, because
<v Speaker 4>it's clear as day that his tongue is stuck to that.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, you know, but you're right.
<v Speaker 4>You never see it straight on.
<v Speaker 2>It's always to the side, right, arms are flailing. Okay.
<v Speaker 4>That that scene is so funny when the teachers like
<v Speaker 4>where's Flick and they're like, flick, Flick who and then
<v Speaker 4>she comes back and gives them the guilt trip.
<v Speaker 2>Adults always a same that stuff. But kids know it's
<v Speaker 2>always better not to keep.
<v Speaker 4>I'm sure the guilt you feel it's far worse than
<v Speaker 4>any punishment.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>I love that. That scene so funny. Let's talk about
<v Speaker 4>Scott Fargas for a second.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, Okay, yeah.
<v Speaker 4>It's not Scott.
<v Speaker 2>I thought it was Scott for the longest time. I
<v Speaker 2>also thought it was Scott. But it's Scott with a U. Yes, yes, Farcas,
<v Speaker 2>so help me. Yellow eyes.
<v Speaker 4>I love that that line. He does not have yellow eyes.
<v Speaker 2>No, but people are sure that he does. People will
<v Speaker 2>meet him on the street and they're like, I remember
<v Speaker 2>your yellow eyes. He's like, right, I remember it.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, then what a great bully though, you know, Oh
<v Speaker 4>fantastic when he's got he's got that laugh and they
<v Speaker 4>like freeze on their traction.
<v Speaker 2>I gotta I gotta say that moment is the top
<v Speaker 2>moment in the whole movie for me, because it is, like,
<v Speaker 2>it's so emotionally packed. Ralphie has just gotten his C
<v Speaker 2>plus on the theme that he thought he was gonna
<v Speaker 2>get an A plus plus plus plus plus. Even with
<v Speaker 2>his bribe of the big basket of fruit, he still gets.
<v Speaker 4>A C plus C plus plus yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Shoot, So he's absolutely devastated walking home alone, doesn't even
<v Speaker 2>bother to walk home with his friends, and gets that
<v Speaker 2>snowball in the face. And he's the only kid that
<v Speaker 2>we don't actually see bullied, Like they get Schwartz, they
<v Speaker 2>get Flick, but you don't see this. But it's that moment.
<v Speaker 2>The tears are true and real and the rage is real,
<v Speaker 2>and you see him give it back to a bully
<v Speaker 2>and I mean, like heartstrings, I'm like, give it him
<v Speaker 2>back and then rape. And then when you think that the.
<v Speaker 4>Dad is going to destroy him, Dad's gonna kill ralph
<v Speaker 4>Daddy will not kill Ralphie.
<v Speaker 2>And the mom so subtly Ralphie got in a fight today.
<v Speaker 2>What oh I saw that the bears and points it out,
<v Speaker 2>gives him the light touch things for different between me
<v Speaker 2>and mom after that.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, great scene.
<v Speaker 2>I love it.
<v Speaker 4>I want to point out something else to Okay, let's
<v Speaker 4>give it up for our man Flick, who sacrifices himself
<v Speaker 4>for the best betterment of the of the group. Right,
<v Speaker 4>they're like, you come here, and he's like uncle, uncle, Uncle, uncle,
<v Speaker 4>He's already saying, right, and poor Randy's laying there like
<v Speaker 4>a slug you know, they go grab him and get
<v Speaker 4>up and they.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, Flynn comes.
<v Speaker 4>To the rescue of everybody else. I was going to
<v Speaker 4>mention one other thing about the tongue, the tongue poll thing.
<v Speaker 4>So because of this scene, a bunch of kids tried
<v Speaker 4>this and learns a hard way that this really works. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>your tongue will stick. Yeah to railroad ties, to light
<v Speaker 4>polls too. If it's cold enough, you're dug sticking.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>Don't try this at home, kid.
<v Speaker 2>You didn't learn it from a Christmas story. You should
<v Speaker 2>have learned it from dumb.
<v Speaker 4>And dumber somebody called the fire department dummer.
<v Speaker 2>Oh look Snow, this movie, as much as it is
<v Speaker 2>little vignettes that are strung together by the idea that
<v Speaker 2>this needs to You know that he has to get
<v Speaker 2>this red rider b begun. You've got a little orphan
<v Speaker 2>Annie and the dakoder pen drink be sure and drink
<v Speaker 2>your oval tine. And you've got the lamp, and you've
<v Speaker 2>got the changing of the tire.
<v Speaker 4>Oh fuck, I didn't say fudge.
<v Speaker 2>All of these brilliant little vignettes that lead along. But
<v Speaker 2>it's all really about his relationship with his dad and
<v Speaker 2>his dad who seems to not care unless the kids
<v Speaker 2>are annoying him, you know, and is always frustrated and angry.
<v Speaker 2>And then in the end he's the one who surprises
<v Speaker 2>him and mom by getting in the red Rider. He's
<v Speaker 2>been listening the whole time.
<v Speaker 4>He's the only one that he didn't ask right. He
<v Speaker 4>never asked his dad right.
<v Speaker 2>He yesked Sanna, he asked his teacher, he asked his
<v Speaker 2>mom right. He even snuck the advertisement inside the Life
<v Speaker 2>magazine to catch you unaware. Dad comes through.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, love it. Okay, d We've got a surely showcase
<v Speaker 4>this week from one of my best buddies from high school.
<v Speaker 4>His name's Chris Bauer. We used to call him Bomber
<v Speaker 4>all the time. He got me in trouble all the
<v Speaker 4>time in Sunday School. He's one of those guys that
<v Speaker 4>could make me laugh. I mean, I just cracked me
<v Speaker 4>up all the time.
<v Speaker 2>Is this a guy that like hit you in the
<v Speaker 2>head with the cassette tape?
<v Speaker 4>Yes, yes, same guy. Yes, Okay, in the middle of
<v Speaker 4>New Mexico, I'm in asleep and he whacked me in
<v Speaker 4>the forehead with the ACDC back in black tape. Yes,
<v Speaker 4>there you go.
<v Speaker 2>Worth of pain.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, that's right, that's right. Well, here's what he had
<v Speaker 4>to say. He's weighing in on Young Guns, Young Guns
<v Speaker 4>two and Tombstone, the episode we did here in September October.
<v Speaker 5>Hey guys, it's Chris Bauer, or as Jason refers to me,
<v Speaker 5>as Bomber. I'm here to give my final judgment on
<v Speaker 5>the Tombstone, Young Guns, Young Guns two podcasts. I'm judging
<v Speaker 5>these movies on three criteria or abilities, rewatchability, quotability, and
<v Speaker 5>overall entertainability, which includes two important subabilities, recommendability and pausibility.
<v Speaker 5>On rewatchability, this is a dead heat between Tombstone and
<v Speaker 5>Young Guns. Either of these comes on and I'm busy
<v Speaker 5>for the next hour forty seven minutes to two hours
<v Speaker 5>and ten minutes yep. For Young Guns two, I'm surfing
<v Speaker 5>my way through the channel guide and coming back to
<v Speaker 5>it if I don't find anything else. Next quotability. All
<v Speaker 5>three are filled with great one liners and phrases, but
<v Speaker 5>I had to narrow this down to those I regularly
<v Speaker 5>drop on my wife and kids. While Junior, you beck
<v Speaker 5>that queen again and I'll blow you straight up. That
<v Speaker 5>Wildcat's aresh is poetic. Hall of fame material. It doesn't
<v Speaker 5>mesh well in everyday scenarios like We've come to a
<v Speaker 5>place where an Indian is lost, and when an Indian
<v Speaker 5>is lost, he turns to the spirit world does which
<v Speaker 5>I have used on many occasions, such as walking into
<v Speaker 5>Costco or listening to my daughter tell me what happened
<v Speaker 5>at school that day. So for this ability, the Belted
<v Speaker 5>Earl has spoken, and I'm giving it to Young Guns,
<v Speaker 5>with Tombstone and Young Guns Too coming in a very
<v Speaker 5>close second. And third, finally, entertainability. Like I said earlier,
<v Speaker 5>this one includes two other very important abilities, recommendability and pausibility.
<v Speaker 5>All three on their own are what I consider entertaining,
<v Speaker 5>and recommendability is high for all of them. As for pausibility,
<v Speaker 5>I could leave Young Guns Too at any point and
<v Speaker 5>go do whatever errand or chores required of me at
<v Speaker 5>that time and be okay. With Tombstone, I would probably
<v Speaker 5>have to wait until the Wyatt and Josie horse chase
<v Speaker 5>scene or any of the Wyatt and Mattie scenes to
<v Speaker 5>pause and tend to my obligations. But Young Guns, it's
<v Speaker 5>only one hundred and forty seven minutes, and when whatever
<v Speaker 5>is required of me rears its ugly head. I'm probably
<v Speaker 5>twenty to sixty minutes into the movie already anyway, so
<v Speaker 5>he can wait until I watch Murphy reap the Whirlwind
<v Speaker 5>and hear Doc say the epitaph read only one word, pals.
<v Speaker 5>So with all that being said, my final judgment goes
<v Speaker 5>Young Guns number one, followed almost instantly by Tombstone in second,
<v Speaker 5>and Young Guns number two being the red ass Mexican
<v Speaker 5>greaser who does it with his horse. Thanks guys for
<v Speaker 5>putting on a great podcast which I look forward to
<v Speaker 5>every week, and buenos tardes amigos.
<v Speaker 2>All right, that was hilarious. That was awesome. I absolutely
<v Speaker 2>love that tape. I obviously I disagree and I put
<v Speaker 2>Tombstone one, but I cannot fault him for his logic.
<v Speaker 2>Those love scenes are a big, ugly eyesore in the
<v Speaker 2>middle of an otherwise perfect movie.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah. I think he and I saw Young Uns two
<v Speaker 4>in the theater together, and nice I think we were
<v Speaker 4>actually kind of singing Blaze of Glory during the closing credits.
<v Speaker 2>So awesome.
<v Speaker 4>Chris, Thanks so much, man. Always good to hear from you, and.
<v Speaker 2>Stay out of trouble. Okay, thanks Chris.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, so that's gonna do it for part one of
<v Speaker 4>our Home Alone versus a Christmas Story episode. And I
<v Speaker 4>think we're actually going to drop our second or part
<v Speaker 4>two of this not a full week away.
<v Speaker 2>No, we're gonna We're gonna try to get it up
<v Speaker 2>here in a couple of days so that we get
<v Speaker 2>it in before Christmas. You guys, be sure and hit
<v Speaker 2>subscribe or follow if you haven't already, so that you
<v Speaker 2>catch that second part of this episode and Merry Christmas,
<v Speaker 2>very Christmas.