SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES

In the very early days of cable, when HBO and HTN and all the early movie channels were only airing a few hours a day, and only aired a few movies, there was one movie I watched literally every time it aired.



SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES. Written by Neil Simon, this was one of my favorite films. I saw it so often that I knew (heck, still know) the script by heart. I would watch the film and do the dialogue along with it.

Yes, I was annoying.

Today, it aired on TV again. It was on a regular broadcast channel, so it was edited. And I still could pick up on every edit. Surprisingly, there were a lot of little scenes that got cut, for time. (And since when is "Hot Damn!" a word that can't be said on TV?)

It was an 80's take on the 30's screwball comedies, filled with rapid fire dialogue, wacky situations, slamming doors, something you would expect to see Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in.



Chevy Chase plays a writer, living in an oceanside cabin in California. Two guys come to his door, kidnap him, and force him to rob a bank. They then dump him at the side of the road, leaving him a wanted man.



Chase's ex-wife is Goldie Hawn. She lives in Brentwood, married to the District Attorney, Charles Grodin. Chase goes to Hawn, to get her to help him. She tries to hide him from her husband. Often under their bed.



Director Jay Sandrich is better known for his TV work. He directed many episodes of SOAP, and includes a couple actors from that in this, Robert Guillaume, and Harold Gould.



The film contains one of the most perfect ten minutes of any film. The climactic dinner party sequence is dialogue and comic timing at its finest. I can't tell you how many times I have seen it (probably over 100) and watching it again today, I was laughing.



"Thank you Chester. Stanley...UUUUUHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"



"Hold it right there, you are under arrest."

"Police are on their way"

"Didn't like the chicken, huh?"

I just love this film. Hawn has never been better. It was the film that made me a Chevy Chase fan. The Marvin Hamlisch score is extremely memorable. Everything about it, for me, is just perfect.

If you've never seen it, be sure to check it out.

RGX: Analyzing an Ad Campaign

There are some ads you just hate. People have hated the Head On ads so much that they have turned that anger into a whole new campaign, "I hate your commercials, but I love your product."

There are other ads you see, that you don't even know what product they are advertising.

And then there are ads that work.

There are ads that get people talking, and watching.

Like this ad, for RGX BODY SPRAY from Right Guard.



I don't normally use body spray, but after seeing this ad, I got out my shopping list and wrote "Must buy RGX Body Spray".

The girl in the ad is an actress by the name of Rachel Specter. I think she will be getting a lot of work for this spot. Reading from her IMDB page, she has appeared in a lot of shows I've seen, like GILMORE GIRLS and HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER. She even has a Wikipedia listing.

I guess RGX knows they have a good thing going. They have started a new strategy. Instead of one thirty second ad like above, they have two fifteen second ads, during the same break.

At the beginning of the break they have this ad:



And then a couple ads later they have this:



So, they get twice the impact in the same amount of time.

Even though it looks like the campaign was just launched last week, they have already become quite popular. It has been posted up in an official version by RGX on Youtube, as well as several other independent posts. Each clip has thousands of views.

FORGOTTEN TV: HOT FUDGE

Ok, help me out here people.

Does anyone out there remember a kid's TV show called HOT FUDGE?

It aired from 1976-1980, created in Detroit. In my area it aired very early morning.

The show was sort of a cross between SESAME STREET and what would later be THE GREAT SPACE COASTER. Humans and puppets singing. Larry Santos (whose voice you would recognize as he sang countless TV jingles) was the human host.

It was a show I remember loving as a kid, yet has completely disappeared. Never shown since the 80's. Never released on VHS. There aren't even any clips of it on YouTube.

In fact, there is hardly anything on the internet about it at all. All I could find was this IMDB listing. And I was able to find this still shot from it.



In the mid 90's, a few soundtrack CDs were released. But, they didn't even include the only song I remember, the theme song (a sort of groovy 70's thing "Hot Fudge! Right on! Whoa!"). Now, those CDs are out of print and selling for over $100! So, there is a market for the shows.

There are a few message boards with people like me, just looking for some sort of confirmation that we didn't all imagine this show. That there wasn't some drug slipped into breakfast cereals in that time period causing kids to hallucinate this show. It was a rather trippy show, so that might make sense.

But, I am just surprised that this show has literally disappeared. It was a fun show, as I remember. I can't believe it hasn't been brought back in some way.

EDIT: Just posted on Youtube, this clip from the show!!!!




EDIT 4-4-09:

The Hot Fudge Show now has its own website!! You can find it here.

They also have a store where they sell CDs and even a DVD of the show!

Here are some more clips from the show.









I believe that is a complete episode.

Top Movie Posters

Premiere has a list of the Top 25 Movie Posters.

You can read it here. (Thanks to Pop Candy for the link).

A couple of my favorites didn't make the list.

There is this one:



THE STUNT MAN

and this one



RED DAWN (The picture doesn't really do it justice).

Who is David Mirkin?

Why is it Sunday afternoon TV always triggers these posts? Whatever the reason, it happened again.

Flipping around last Sunday, I found an episode of THREE’S COMPANY. It was the episode where Jack goes to an art class taught by a new female neighbor. While there, he winds up becoming the nude model for the class, only to find Furley walk in at the last minute. Fun episode, that still holds up.

Watching the show, after realizing what a loss it is that both John Ritter and Don Knotts are no longer with us, I noticed something else about it.

At the end, it said the episode was written by David Mirkin.

David Mirkin? The same David Mirkin? I looked it up, and yes, it is him.

Mirkin I’ve long said has to be one of the funniest writers out there.

Reading about him, I saw he began his career on THREE’S COMPANY, then moved on to THREE’S A CROWD. Then, he wrote and exec produced NEWHART.

After that, there was a little show called GET A LIFE. What? You don’t remember GET A LIFE?



The Chris Elliott as a paper boy cult classic? I had forgotten he was involved with that one.

Sadly, GET A LIFE didn’t stay around for too long. According to the IMDB he worked on a sitcom called THE JULIE SHOW. I don’t remember this, but since it starred Julie Brown (who I've always loved), I must have seen it.

After that came what he was best known for, THE SIMPSONS. What more can you say about that? He is also one of the writers for the upcoming movie. He wrote the “Deep Space Homer” episode, as well as acting as a producer and showrunner.



But wait, there’s more.

He directed a couple feature films. A little film entitled ROMY AND MICHELE’S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION, another cult classic that gets funnier on each viewing.

Remember this scene?



How does he not have an Oscar, for that scene alone???

Plus, there are episodes of THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW and the Sigourney Weaver / Jennifer Love Hewitt film HEARTBREAKERS (which I enjoyed, despite it being 20 minutes too long).



So, that is an almost perfect record there.

Glad I tuned in to THREE’S COMPANY to finally realize all this about him.

Larry Bud Melman aka Calvert DeForest

There is a rumor going around today that Larry "Bud" Melman aka Calvert DeForest has passed away. No confirmation, or anything on Google News, but a couple blogs (including EW's) are reporting it as unconfirmed.

While I wait for official news, here is his greatest clip, from 1983, handing out hot towels at Port Authority. I saw this back in 1983 and STILL talk about it, it is so funny.



I will miss him, if it is true.

The End of Premiere

Earlier I stated there wasn't much going on today.

I guess I missed some very sad news.

Just saw this on the IMDB.

Premiere magazine, perhaps best known for its annual list of the entertainment industry's most powerful executives, will cease publication following the April issue, French publisher Hachette Filipacchi announced Monday. Over the past ten years its circulation had dropped 20.1 percent and its ad pages 24.7 percent. The publisher said it intends to continue the Internet version of the magazine.

That is depressing.

I've been reading Premiere since the second issue (I couldn't find the first). It was the first mainstream movie magazine of recent years. Back in the 1980's, before Premiere, there was pretty much nothing. I wasn't much of a sci-fi fan, but I read Starlog since it was the closest to a movie magazine that you could find on the stands (I'm sure there were other specialty film magazines, but they couldn't be found in suburbia in the 80's).

When I first read it, I was hooked. I read it from cover to cover. I remember early on they had little mini movie poster playing card sort of things (they even had one of Godard's KING LEAR). I saved all the issues, and went back and read them quite often.

Over the years, the quality has varied. There was a shake up in the 90's, some of the editors left, others took over. There were a few issues in the 90's where I didn't know if I would stay with it, but for the past few years, it has been at the top of its form. Especially with film critic Glen Kenny, who is one of the best critics out there.

I've had a subscription since the beginning, never lapsed. The last time I got a renewal form, I renewed it for multiple years too. Guess not enough did the same.

So are magazines over? Earlier this year, GIANT magazine changed formats from a great pop culture magazine to a music magazine, making it pretty worthless for me. Film Comment and Cineaste have been on a bit of a decline it seems (or it could just be the films they cover aren't as interesting lately).

Premiere will continue as a website. And Kenny has a terrific blog that is worth checking out. But, it isn't the same.

Oh well. I guess that leaves Entertainment Weekly as the last mainstream entertainment publication?

Remaking THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD?

Over at MTV.com (I'd post a link, but MTV's site is such a nightmare to navigate, with all the video pop ups, that I'll save you the hassle) there is an interview with director David Fincher.

In the interview, he states that he is interested in remaking the 1975 Michael Sarrazin film THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD.

This could be a very interesting project.

The film (which isn't on DVD, but should be) follows Sarrazin, who has all sorts of dreams of places and people that he has never seen before. He eventually starts to believe that he has been reincarnated and the dreams are of his past life.

While watching TV one day, he sees a bridge that he recognizes from his dream. He finds out it is in Massachusetts, so he goes to the state looking for it. When he finds it, he also finds his past life's ex-wife (Margot Kidder) and, in a creepy subplot, falls in love with his daughter (Jennifer O'Neil).

The cool thing about the film is, for me at least, it was filmed here in Springfield Mass and surrounding towns. It is a pretty amazing time capsule of the city in the 70's, before a lot of large buildings were built. I have yet to really watch the film for what it is because I'm always looking at the locations, to see where it was shot. I'm still trying to find where one big house that is in one sequence is located.

It will be interesting to see if Fincher does remake the film, and if it is filmed in Springfield. The book it is based on, by Max Ehrlich, is written specifically about Springfield, so it should be.

There is a line in Walker Percy's THE MOVIEGOER about how you never know a place exists until you see it in a film. This movie proved that to me. Every time I drive over the bridge featured in the film, I think of the film.

Why Was FLUSHED AWAY So Expensive?

From the IMDB:

For DreamWorks Animation, last year's Flushed Away unfortunately lived up to its title, draining away millions of dollars from the company's coffers. The film, a joint production with British animators Aardman Studios, reportedly cost more than $140 million to produce and wound up grossing only $64 million domestically. As a result DreamWorks Animation wrote down $109 million on the film for the fourth quarter and reported a $21.3-million loss. That compared with a $63.2-million profit during the comparable quarter a year ago.

I loved FLUSHED AWAY, even more than the recent Pixar films.

But, how did it end up costing $140 million? I thought one of the main reasons for doing computer animated films, insted of traditional animation, was because it was cheaper. You don't need expensive locations, union regulations, all that. You just hire animators at computers.

It had a great voice cast, but I can't imagine they each got $20 million for voicework.