The Karate Kid: Everything You Didn't Know

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Too Much Information is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hello everyone, and welcome to Too Much Information, the show
that brings you the secret histories and little known fascinating
facts and figures behind your favorite TV shows, music.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Movies, and more.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
We are your two machios of Minutia, your pet and
Rita's of pretty Nerdy Stuff. I'm Alex Sigel and I'm.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Jordan round talg Wow the p and pretty Nerdy pat
Neritas very nice, very nice.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Wordplay, and Jordans I spoiled today's topic immediately for attentive listeners.
But we're going to be going long on nineteen eighty.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Four's The Karate Kid.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
A genuine Hollywood classic, a defining movie for multiple generations,
and an underdog story for the ages that taught us
all the important lesson that violence solves everything.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Ha.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
This was just one of my favorite movies as a kid.
I probably watched it like a good dozen times. What
about you?

Speaker 1 (01:03):
I love how much you love this movie, which is
why I'm so thrilled to talk about it today. But
this was never a huge like repeater for me as
a kid. In fact, as a kid, it was probably
the last time I saw it in my head I
think I filed it away as rocky light, which, as
we'll discuss, it's rocky for kids. Yeah, as an apt comparison,
it's funny. One of my pet obsessions as a kid

(01:24):
was Japan. So I think one of the things that,
like in a weird way that you wouldn't expect, soured
me on this movie was that I was disappointed that
it didn't go heavier on the Japanese culture stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, it goes pretty heavy for the time, that's fair,
but I'll discussed. And also they do go to Okinawa
in the second one.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
I definitely never saw the second one, but no, I
mean I was watching like National Geographic VHS's on, like
Japanese culture and things like that, So it was an
unrealistic expectation on my part. Sure, But yeah, I really
it was fun learning more about this because in a
way I feel like I got to know you better,
which is always special to me. And oh yeah, I'm

(02:05):
always fascinated by I guess what I'll loosely term and
I'm sure you'll have a better term for it, like
americanized karate culture. I just think that's such a weird
cultural mashup. Like I always got to kick off how
Elvis grew obsessed with karate from his army days in
the late fifties. Like, I just thought that was such
a weird juxtaposition of this, you know, sorry, relatively unsophisticated

(02:26):
American and ancient Eastern practices like that was just always
interesting to me. But so I assume this is like
the movie that drew you to the martial arts or
were you already interested in martial arts?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
And I can't remember, dude, I earnestly remember, like the
first thing drawing me to martial arts was Power Rangers,
Like that's but there is a chance I saw this
before then, but I definitely saw it many many times
after it. And what you're talking about with karate is
particularly interesting because you know, karate is such a broad
term for a bunch of different disciplines that you know,

(02:58):
have different geographical origins or origins and distinct cultures and
then were kind of mashed together. I mean, even even
in China, like one of the Chinese governments, I think
mid century, I'm not sure about the date, but they
brought in all of these disparate styles. There was like
Northern kung fu and Southern kung fu, and then they

(03:18):
drilled down into like you know, that's where you get
into like drunken boxing or different animal styles or whatever.
And so there's all this different stuff coming from just
the northern and southern thing. And then the Chinese government
at one point had like a state it was like
a state effort of theirs to formalize all of that
desperate stuff into one system that they call wushu. And
that's like that like jet Lie came to America to

(03:41):
perform for Nixon, you know. So wushu is the Chinese
umbrella term for martial arts. There you go. It was
developed in nineteen forty nine because they were trying to
centralize all of these And it's really interesting because if
you've seen enough performers post that era in like mainland China,
you can see some of the different moves that they do,

(04:01):
like repeated in their choreography anyway. But that's you know, China,
as far as karate and Japanese martial arts and different
that stuff. I want to say, the kind of industrialization
of it in America didn't really come with Elvis. I
think it came with Bruce Ly and then the many

(04:22):
different people who followed him like even some of his students,
like Chuck Norris and these guys. But there are so
many different offshoots of karate depending on where the original
woman has developed. It's a whole hornet's nest of these
different styles, and people borrow from one thing and then
they borrow from another, and it's very it's very easily

(04:42):
confused with taekwondo because a lot of the strikes are
the same. But that's Korean. So there's all this there's
a really interesting history of it in America that I
don't have at the tip of my tongue. But I
can't think it was really Elvis. I mean, I'm sure
he had some impact, but I don't think he drove
people to dojo's the same way that Bruce Lee or

(05:04):
in this instance, Ralph Macchio did.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
Well. Tell me a little bit about tell me and
the folks about your own personal history with what I'll
loosely described as the martial arts.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
I forget what you studied, uh, taekwondo? Yeah, as I mean,
I took it based on as I mentioned, power Rangers,
and that was just kind of my sport. You know,
some kids pick soccer, some It was just the thing
that I did for I think eleven years. I think
I finally stopped when I yeah, I think I finally
stopped when I had to get a job, which is

(05:37):
what happens. And I got a second degree black belt,
which is as far as I really cared to take
it again. Like you see these guys who are like
ninth or tenths degrees, and there's literally there's a whole
like rigormarole you have to go through to in every
individualized karate practice, like some of them you have to
establish your own dojo and studio, and some of them

(06:00):
you have to like travel and study. It's just a
whole kettle of fish. So I got a second degree,
which is good enough to earn me an approving nod
from some Korean people when I talk about it, but
and not really enough to you know, I mean, I
left it because I once you get into anything more
combat oriented, you just start attracting like the worst people

(06:24):
in the world, you know. And I have very distinct
memories of like this, you know, like men who were
my age now like really seeming to enjoy like kicking
me as like a fourteen year old kid.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
So a sensation. Many of our listeners can probably relate to.
I'm sorry, I couldn't.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Say I set myself up for that one. That's fair.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
And you're an Eagle Scout too, I mean, good lord,
I can't believe how much you accomplished this team and
you had a job.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
There is a indie band fronted by a Native American
woman who is called Black Belt Eagle Scout, and I
always joke that there's they are stealing valor from me. Yeah, man,
it was really cool. It's great to I mean it definitely,
like I always talk about, like the biggest thing that
instilled it was just like discipline, and that came in

(07:12):
handy when it came time to music, you know, because
I took it really seriously. There was a whole range
of people who were just like complete dilettants or just
like obviously their dad was making them do it, or
they just weren't taking it seriously at all. But I
took it seriously, pretty self directed. And then so when
it came time to like when I finally started taking
base seriously at the age of like sixteen or seventeen,

(07:33):
maybe that was like I just related to like sitting
there drilling scales as much as I did to like
as somebody being like, give me one hundred punches in
horse stance and then fifty push ups. You know, that's
like the thing.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
I mean, I guess the big question is could you
beat the crap out of Ralph Machio in this movie? Oh?

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Easily? I mean first of all, First of all, anyone could, like,
you know, anyone over a hundred pounds would wash him.
I mean it's insane. He looks he's twenty two and
he looks like he's twelve.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
I mean that blew my mind. I thought he was, yeah, twelve, thirteen.
I could not believe it. Yeah, that's insane.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, no, I'd be out of him, and I really
enjoy it. I mean, I'd prefer to fight Johnny because
he's such a dickhead.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
You know.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Anyway, And we're not going to get into the film
sequels other than what we just did. There are three.
I've only seen two, and I think I saw the
next Karate Kids starring Hillary Swank. Oh yeah, but so
they did all that, and then there was there's been
a long now long running rebooted streaming show which I
think debuted on YouTube and has since moved to Netflix

(08:41):
that people tell me is good actually, but I don't care.
So without further ado from how the movie created Clint
Eastwood's lifetime ban on Coca Cola to the real life
Japanese war heroes, mister Miyagi's story sheds light on to
the array of real life martial arts heavies involved in
the film. Here's everything you didn't know about The Karate Kid.

(09:09):
So right off the bat, The Karate Kid is actually
a semi autobiographical embellishment of the life of screenwriter Mark
Robert Kanaan, who had later gone to work with Luke Bessant,
who he has described as his best friend, which is
problematic on the professional and the fifth element. He also
had a hand in creating The Transporter and Taken franchises,

(09:29):
so that dude is sitting pretty. He also has a
vineyard and sonoma that he bought with his first big
Hollywood paycheck. He bought all like a bunch of acres
and has just been like pouring money into this, which
I think is not a profitable vineyard. He was born
in nineteen eighty seven. He grew up in a Bronx
housing project, later attending the University of Pennsylvania, where he
earned his PhD in American Studies and traveled to Afghanistan

(09:52):
as part of his grad studies.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
Does he know that's not America?

Speaker 2 (10:00):
He don't actually know why he went there, but he
did turn it into a script. Oh maybe got produced.
He has a couple of unproduced ones. Anyway. Prior to
earning his PhD, he earned a different sort of credential
after getting jumped by a gang of bullies at you
not the nineteen sixty four World's Fair, he sought out

(10:20):
martial arts pass.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
That's like getting beat up at Epcot. That's like, oh,
it's like outside the it's a small world ride, Like
what is going on?

Speaker 2 (10:27):
There's not going to be any world of tomorrow for you? Nice,
thank you. His first teacher was a former captain of
the Marine Corps. And this guy was the John Increased character.
He was a real like revenge and like no mercy,
and Robert came into his credit as a young man,
was like, I'm not getting much out of this, and

(10:50):
so he sought out another teacher, in this time the
Okinawan Martial Art Goujuriu, which he dedicated himself to for
four hours a day, seven days a week, under a
teacher who's little English, but who had learned directly from
the founder of Okinawan goju ryu, a sense named Chojun Miagi.
So it's pretty obvious how the karate kid came out

(11:10):
out of all of that. And Cayman has a hilarious
story about how he actually earned his black belt in
a different martial art, uichi ryu karate. His teacher was
a guy named Ed McGrath and came in told up
Rocks in twenty twenty one. McGrath took me to a
bar one night in Northport, Long Island, and we went
with my friend Dennis. Dennis was my training mate, and

(11:31):
he insulted some construction worker by hitting on his girlfriend,
and then he just turned to me and said, mister, Kaman,
dispatch this man. The next thing I knew, we were
in a bar fight. We were punching and kicking. Finally
we leave the bar and he took me to the
trunk of his car, had me kneel down on the
parking lot and gave me my black belt. Mister Kamen,

(11:52):
dispatch this man. In just incredible stuff.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
I like to assume that's how that's like, roughly how
you received your black belt.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Well, it's interesting in taekwondo at least or at least
in our studio in central Pennsylvania, which I don't know
how much adhered to the various laws or whatever association
it was credentialed as a part of. But the first
one was when the one like your black belt is
the first one where they just beat the crap out
of you and literally like people throw up, people pass out,
They just like wait, really, it's like an oh yeah,
any else.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, it's like it's at least again.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
And I'm just speaking from my sole experience, but the
first degree black belt test was like the physical one
where they just like, you know again, like drop down
and give me fifty push ups, and then we would
line all the other black belts would line up in
front of us, and we would walk up to them
and they would throw us like over the shoulder throws
or over the back throws, and we would have hip

(12:43):
toss and then we would have to get up and
the next person would do it like five or six
seven times, and then they go drop down and give
me fifty knuckle push ups, and then you got to
break the board and you got to do all this.
So that one that was the intense one physically, and
then the second degree one, at least for us, was
like the technique. And the first thing that they actually
make you do is perform every single cata form, like

(13:05):
you know, pre arranged series of moves. Perform everyone you know,
which is ah god, I mean it's dozens and it
probably takes you but maybe an hour to do every
one of them. And they just like micro analyze your
technique and people can be failed on that for just
like the littlest thing. And then they also beat the

(13:26):
crap out of you, just like it's a lot of sparring.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
Good camp. I didn't realize that.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Yeah, it's a lot of sparring too. I mean, at
least in Naris because the one of the Black Belts
there was a Golden Gloves guy, so he was he
like had advanced so he was like very seriously into
boxing as part of it, and so sparring was a
big component of all that. And yeah, I mean you
wear pads, but like we didn't wear mid section pads man,
So if somebody connects with your solar plexus or gut,
you are going down. That was when I first learned

(13:53):
what a liver shot feels like. Liver shot would just
straight up like it shuts the body down. It's such
a like decise organ strike. You see it in the
UFC and people just like drop.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
Did you experience this firsthand?

Speaker 2 (14:05):
I didn't like pass out, but I got I remember
getting kicked in that area and being like that is
a whole new experience of pain.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
And then the other one is like the solar.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Plexus, like they you know, if you get hit right
in the solar plexus and you just lose all your breath,
that's a really humbling experience. I don't think they were
allowed to punch us directly in the face, but probably
caught some glancing ones. Wow, I mister Kyman dispatched this man.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
I mean Cayman studied four hours a day, seven days
a week. I mean roughly at your peak. What were
you doing?

Speaker 2 (14:39):
Oh nothing new? Uh probably probably two days, two or
three days a week for one or two hours. Like
I mean, you could do doubles, which is like when
you take a class and then you take a sparring class,
or you take two classes back to back. But uh,
you know, I started to puss out on that once
I started smoking weed.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
So I will keep my questions to your personal experience
to a minimum. But that's mostly extremely fascinated by this.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
It's cool. I mean I think I probably got in
on the last generation or one of them that could
get away with that. Like you know, they would, they
would clip us with kendosticks sometimes. The Golden Gloves guy
was notoriously tough. If he if your like hand would drop,
he would just he would stand in front of you
and just immediately tag your jaw like open handed, or
just pull it just short and be like, keep your

(15:29):
hand up. I remember one guy who was a high
school football coach. We were sparring. It was like towards
the end of the class, and I was just like
really dogging it, just praying for the end, and I
looked I kept looking up at the clock to see
how much time we had left, and he just he
stopped and pulled me in and was like, if I
catch you looking at that clock again, I'm gonna take

(15:49):
your goddamn block off. Wow. He was a sweetheart.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
Let's do a quick sidebar on the Japanese island of
Okinawa and Marshall Chowey, what do you think. Let's do it.
Okinawa is the smallest and least populated of the five
main islands of Japan, but I didn't realize this. It
was an independent country until sixteen oh nine, when Japan
invaded and turned it into a main hub of trade
between China and Japan. Okinawa Island later saw the bloodiest

(16:18):
ground battle of the Pacific Theater in World War Two
in WW two The Big One Suck, a twenty one
day battle in April nineteen forty five that cost the
lives of one hundred and fifteen thousand American and Japanese soldiers.
Feeling pretty bad about the WW two the Big One.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
Right now, Wait, do we get to the battalion?

Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah? Uh, Over one hundred and forty nine Okinawans, which
is over a quarter of the civilian population were either
killed outright or committed suicide during battle, or if they
were civilians. Wasn't the propaganda basically like, you know, the
fate that's coming to you, but by the you know,
United States Forces is is worse than death.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
I mean, I'm sure that the OSS or whomever at
that point was dabbling in psychological warfare, but I don't
know enough about the Pacific Theater specifically to say whether
or not they were also applying it there. But you
know atrocities, Yeah, civilian tolls is horrible. And Okinawan was
not that populated. Man, it took all like a full
quarter of their civili just pushed gone in a couple

(17:24):
of years.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
That's horrifying, grim stuff.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
And then it didn't get better.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
No, after the war. After the war was over, Okinawa
was occupied by American armed forces, and unsurprisingly this did
not turn out well for the locals. There were oil
and fuel spills, a nerve agent leak in nineteen sixty nine,
and aircraft crashes, hit and runs and outright murders, all

(17:50):
of which killed local residents.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
A lot of them went unprosecuted too, because it was like,
you weren't gonna you couldn't bring charges against servicemen station there.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
They were the controlling force.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
Like what are you gonna do?

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Ask a cop? I mean, was it just not enforced
or could you say it was?

Speaker 2 (18:08):
I don't think it was in forced, I mean, or
certainly to the degree the degree to which I've like,
I read that like a notable amount of people were
killed by servicemen or Americans and it was just like, oh,
will was.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
This the island where the the guy who lived in
a cave for like thirty years and didn't know the
war was over. No, I I love that guy's story.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
Whose name is escaping me at the moment, But I
don't think it was Okinawa. I think it's in Karate
Kid two or something where mister Miyagi says something to
the effect of Okinawa was always being messed up by
China or Japan, so we had to develop our own
more system of martial arts.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
Like it's like the Sicily of the East.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
Actually more like the Calabria of the East. Yeah, that's
the one thing they told us when I went there
that they were like, we've been invaded by everybody or
anyone coming from the south.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
Really, So American occupation of Okinawa did not go well.
And the seventies and eighties saw Okinawa's waterways and will
severely polluted by what's pfas.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
Slurro something I don't know.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
With pfas, which you tell me is a bad thing.
I don't know what that is.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
Pfas well, this is why I didn't want to put
it per and polyfloro alkal substance.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Yeah, and that is the toxic chemicals in foam used
during firefighting that was done at US training facilities.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yes, that's bad, it is, sure is and again it
doesn't get better.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
No. Around the same time, Okinawa became a major drug
smuggling stop. Marijuana was smuggled through and grown on the island,
while heroin and LSD, which was also manufactured in Okinawa,
completed a trifecta.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
Poor Okinawa man anyway. Gojuriu, which I'm not promising to
pronounce correctly, I think that's how it's maybe, is developed
out of a combination of what are considered two of
the main techniques of martial arts, which is branched into
hard goju like punches, kicks and other strikes moving on
a linear fashion, and soft do you, which involves less

(20:18):
direct strategies like joint locks and throws. The founder of Gojiriu,
Children Miyagi, actually took the name from a line of
a poem haku kenpo this poetry book. It roughly translates
to the eight Laws of the Fist, which is not
only my next album title, but it describes the eight
principles of the martial arts. The term Gojiriu comes from

(20:40):
a line of poetry in that book that translates roughly
to everything in the universe inhales soft and exhales hard.
So that's cool. I love warrior poetry. Shout out to
warrior poets. In nineteen thirty three, the Japanese officially recognized
gojiriu as an official style, and in nineteen fifty two,

(21:00):
the year before he died, some of Miagi's students formed
an official organization to promote the art anyway Robert Mark, Cayman, Mark,
Robert Kayman, whichever one I don't care. Cayman, by his
own admission, had a golden blessed career. He told all Rocks,
I thought this was the way all screenwriting careers went.
I sold a script. Three weeks after I sold my

(21:22):
first script. I bought my vineyard with the proceeds from that,
and then I was hired to do Taps at twentieth
Century Fox. Six months later they were shooting the movie,
and six months after that they were shooting another movie
called Split Image that I wrote. Caman also became like
a script doctor, in his own word, a script assassin.
He did work on Lethal Weapon three under Siege, which

(21:43):
is Steven Sagall I think, and The Fugitive, but It's
really wild, The Easy On Ramp. This guy had his
first films, Taps stars George C. Scott and Timothy Dutton,
with Tom Cruise, Sean Penn and gian Carlo Esposito in
supporting roles. Split Image, which is also known as Captured,
starred Karen Allen, Peter Fonda, James Woods, and Brian Denihey,

(22:06):
so he was not, you know, cobbling Roger Corman picks together.
He was already like his first two movies were starring
A listers, which good for him.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
I suppose. Mark Caman was mentored in Hollywood by Columbia
executive Frank Price, who introduced him to Jerry Weintraub, who's
a very good guy to know. As we'll talk about
Wan Traub had just optioned a news story about a
nine year old kid who earned a black belt after
being bulluted school win Traub, a three time Emmy winner,

(22:37):
had a pretty crazy career, aside from signing John Denver
as a talent agent when he was a complete unknown.
Denver that is, some people credit wind Traub with inventing
the arena concert. He managed tours for Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra,
the Fourth Seasons Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, led Zeppelin, Three
Dog Knight, and the Carpenters, presumably among others. Having basically

(23:01):
conquered the music world after the Right, he turned his
attention to films and produced Robert Altman's Nashville in nineteen
seventy five, Rip Shelley Duval and Barry Levinson's Diner in
nineteen eighty two, a Baltimore classic. And you found one
source claiming Jerry Wintrob actually met the kid from this
karate news story. Yeah, tell the story.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
I love this, so he I wasn't able to verify
this with multiple sources, but he asked him he met
this kid and asked him like, hey, are you as
good in real fights as you are in tournaments? And
the kids supposedly hit him back with I don't fight.
There's no reason to now it was Zen nine year old?

Speaker 1 (23:42):
Oh well, was he Zen? Or did word get around
that you don't screw with this kid? And so? Was
that what he meant?

Speaker 2 (23:48):
Supposedly the coda to this news story was that he
was no longer bullied.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
Well, yeah, I would assume so. Mark Cambon writes the screenplay,
weaving in not only just this news article, but his
own life story into it. Hilariously, Almost everyone associated with
the film hated this script, which I did not.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
The script in the title, I you know not many
people said they hated the script, but all of their reactions,
but you're gonna read them. Sorry, I don't mean to
step on your line.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
No, no, no. These are quotes from a sports illustrated
history of the Karate Kid rough Machio. I found it
a little corny, maybe a little overly saccharin sweet Clifford Coleman,
first assistant director, I thought it was a piece of
Martin Cove, who played the Cobra Kai sensei. All of
us used to complain about the title, and Pat and Read,

(24:41):
his wife at the time, Yuki said, speaking of the title,
a schmucky quickly put together production a kid show. Maybe
it seems so simplistic.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
Also, DC Comics already had a character called Karate Kid
who is still in the comics to this day, but
they very kindly granted production permission to use the title
and earned the thanks in the credits. Oh and this
is also really weird. There's a guy named Ralph Macchio
who's an artist on four.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
That's really bizarre.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
A lot of weird connections in this one, mostly to
Rocky and also some guy in Brooklyn sued production for
using his business nickname the Karate Kid, and that suit
was tossed out.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
It's kind of weird that this guy GIRs.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
To Ralph Machio's well, no, no.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
No, It's not only that, but like Mark Cayman grew
up as a kid studying karate at a time when
I imagine that wasn't that common, and then he gets
hired to do a script about a kid learning karate.
I mean, I assume that's why he was brought on,
was that they knew he was qualified to do. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
I think he got it through Uh Price, who'd just
been like Frank Price, who just was like, hey, I
know a guy, I know a writer who will take
on this story because apparently it's just something Wintrob used
to do. It's one of his old assistants or coworkers
was like he would just watch the news and if
a story struck him, he would immediately option it, which

(26:00):
hell yeah, Hollywood.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
Jerry Wintrup also executive produced Behind the Candelabra, the Liberachi
biopic in twenty thirteen. Hell yeah, one of the last
things he did, an ignoble end to an otherwise glittering Oh.
He did all the Oceans eleven movies. That's why. Oh. Actually,
the last movie that he worked on that was released

(26:22):
in his lifetime was the Karate Kid remake with Jaden
Smith and Jackie Chan, yet again an ignoble end.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
Ralph Monkeo's the artist or editor for Marvel Comics. His
first work was a year long stint on Master of
Kung Fu Chang Chi. So there you go.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
He also worked on Captain America, The Avengers, Fantastic Four, Daredevil.
Oh he was eleven years on Daredevil. That's cool. All
to be confused with the scrawniest medioiest kid alive. I
can say that I'm Italian. Ralph Monkeyo, the star of film,
not the comic book guy, told Jimmy Fallon on The
Tonight Show in twenty twenty one that John g Abeldson,

(27:05):
the director of the film who also directed Rocky, pitched
the title East meets West in the West, which is
one of the god awfullest, stupidest things I've ever heard
and makes me seriously question how this guy got an
oscar and Macchio said Another one was Moment of Truth,
which is generic but not terrible. So this film was
being worked on in the shadow of the Rocky franchise,

(27:27):
which had just released its third installment, the One with
Mister T in nineteen eighty two. Came and told Sports
Illustrated in their oral history of the film, Sevester Stallone
and I joke about that all the time. He says,
you just ripped off my movie. I've got an Italian kid,
an old man. Yeah, you know what. You're absolutely right.
You had one good idea and I ripped it off.

(27:49):
Camen has incredible quotes, He's a real quote machine, and
Stallone must have been especially pissed in this case, since
John d. Ablton earned a Best Director Oscar for Rocky
and then eight years he directed The Karate Kidd. Ralph
Mocky mentioned in his book As Autobiography that there was
serious talk at one point of Rocky meets the Karate
Kid as a matchup that went as far as like meetings, writers, execs.

(28:14):
Sadly or happily, it never came to pass. Expectations for
the film was actually low, had an eight million dollar budget,
and no one was taking it seriously. Bud Smith, the editor,
told Sports Illustrated. We started like it was just a
little movie that no one was going to give it.
About Ron Thomas, who played one of the Cobra Kai bullies, remembered,
my manager told me this movie has no audience. It's

(28:35):
not going anywhere. It was apparently Jerry Weintraub's decision, perhaps
an attempt to bolster such low expectations to hire a
whole bunch of famous Hollywood kids. The Karate Kid features
Chad McQueen, son of the obvious Frankie Avalon junior. John
Travolta's nephew, Tom Fridley is his last name. Ricky Nelson's

(28:55):
daughter was originally cast too before dropping out, and The
Karate Kid made an impact on Clint Eastwood, Let's say,
his then partner, Sandra Locke wrote in her memoir The Good,
the Bad, and.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
The Very Ugly.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
Clinton had agreed to direct Karate Kid for Colombia only
if his son Kyle played the lead, but they refused.
Clint forever banned Coca Cola from his site. A Coca
Cola who had you know owned that they owned? Warner
Brothers or Warner Brothers owned.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
That I think they owned the Warner Brothers.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
The thing, Oh Colombia, not Warner Brothers. My bad. Coca
Cola sold Colombia nineteen eighty nine, but apparently the band
persists to this day. Ralph Macchio, for his part, also
hated the Coca Cola product placement. There's a scene where
he has a can of sprite and at first he
was like, he was just covering up the entire logo,
and they made him. They were like, hey, you got

(29:48):
to reshoot that show the logo. Another bonus tie in
for you, Jordan, I love this. A guy dressed as
the Chicken at the Halloween party. He was memorably going
around smashing eggs on people's head, which like huge dick move.
I would punch him in the face. He was played
by Todd Lukinland, brother of Mike Lookinland, Bobby of The

(30:10):
Brady Bunch.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
I think they also cast Elizabeth Shues's brother Andrew at
one point, so it's just like a real family affair. Also,
Chad McQueen kind of sucks. I don't think anyone on
the set had fond memories of working with him. He
seems like kind of a douchebag. As you meditate on

(30:33):
that We'll be right back with more too much information
after these messages.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
Although the film didn't have much buzz around Hollywood, there
were a few names attached to the karate Kid before
Ralph Macchio Strode as you write his skinny ass in.
I couldn't do better than that, so I took it.
He looks like a skeleton. I know, I can't believe
he was in his twenties. I'm just I found that
out live on the mic. I didn't realize that.

Speaker 2 (31:11):
In the oral history they were like someone was like
he was twenty two, but puberty hadn't kicked in yet.
And then the next quote is puberty still hasn't kicked in. Ah,
he looks amazing for fifty. He's pushing sixty. He might
even be sixty at this point.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah, because puberty still wasn't kicked in. He and child
told that Olive Oil Baby, you can say that, I
guess I can say that, Yeah, a who's who of
eighties talent or I'd for the role of the titular
karate kid John Crier. That would have been awful.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
That would have been would have been a nice redemption
arc from was this before or after when he plays ducky.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
It would have been like the same year or a
year before, Okay, year before.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
I think, because I think, yeah, I don't like his face.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Anymore. Okay, No, a young Nicholas Cage. This would have
been before Peggy Sue got married. That actually would have worked.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
That kind of would have ruled if they had, because
he's so big and gangly. It at least makes more
sense than like Ralph Macchio, who looks like a bundle
of toothpicks put together and painted brown.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
That's the thing, that's the thing that makes it work
is that he's so tiny and fragile that it's like
he did it.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
Like I think Nicholas Cage has the unhinged you know,
behind the eyes thing, like I think he could he
could kill someone.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah, I truly do. And this would have been early
enough in his career that he was probably still taking
direction at this point, so he wouldn't have been able
to go full crazy Cage.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
No, he probably would have like put on a stupid
voice and like, oh you think so, yeah, you about
to talk like you know some obscure fifties cartoon character. Well,
it was it was Peggy Sue got married, where he
insisted on speaking like Pokey the horse from Gumby, and
then his uncle Wort Coppola was like, get out of
my sight.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
I never want to work with you again.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
You're an idiot, You're embarrassing the family. So okay, Nicholas
Cage Young, Robert Downey Jr. Too, just handsome too.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
I can't imagine him being bullied. I mean, Rob Mocky
is handsome too, but he's scrawny. He's scrappy. Yeah, he's scrappy.
Robert Downey Jr. I guess Maraber Downey Jr.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
Had just done less than or would do less than
zero at this point, right, so he was kind of
like that twitchy cocaine. He's like honorary brat pack.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
Right, yeah, oh yeah. He's in The Pickup Artist. I
think what was that movie called The Something Artist. I
don't know, Uh see Thomas Howell, who's in Tlem Heigel.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
Soul Man, the eighties blackface comedy that Lou Reed covered
soul Man on the soundtrack for.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
The eighties Blackface Comedy. We all can agree on the
eighties blackface comedy. Your grandma loves.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
That Joe Biden loves Wait, does he really No?

Speaker 1 (33:55):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
Probably yeah, he created the modern carsoral state, like with
the crime vill I'm sure he got a hoot out
of black face. He probably was in blackface at some
point in life, all right, p Joe Biden. He died
in nineteen ninety four, like I swear Biden. I don't know,
maybe in the past couple of years.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
If you're listening to this and he is dead, let
me explain. Let's explain. How much of this can I keep?
Tom Cruise? You have Tom Cruise? That actually everyone we've
named so far, that's actually one that I because he's
small enough, scrappy enough, and kind of crazy enough that like,

(34:37):
well he.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
Was in The Outsiders, right with ye and this, so
this would have been pretty getting his teeth done so
he still looked like a street rat.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
Yeah yeah, yeah, Okay, so that's good. He's my number
one so far. Eric Stalts the original Marty McFly before
he was replaced by Michael J. Fox. I kind of
have a hard time conjuring up his face in my mind.

Speaker 2 (34:57):
He was in mask, he was in right, Yeah, that's
why you have a hard time. Gondurat Space.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
Amelia Estevez. Okay, okay, I can see that. That's fine
and young Sean Penn.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
Can you imagine giving Sean Penn in the eighties the
tools to be better at hitting women and photographers?

Speaker 1 (35:19):
My god, golf swing.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
Should I tell my Sean Penn story? Yeah, Sean Penn
one of the it's not a short list, but it's
a list of celebrities who called to complain about my
writing at people.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
This was when he would he had gone.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
He revealed that he had gone down to South America
and interviewed El Chapo and like not told anyone, like
the US government or anyone who might have had a
vested interest in knowing where an enormous drug trafficker was located.
And I did, like one of those SEO garbage like
explainers on it, like questions you may have about Sean

(35:56):
Penn's El Chapo situation answered and one of them was
is Sean Penna journalist? And the answer was no. And
he got so mad. His publicist wrote in and was like,
you know, Sean has been on legitimate assignments. He was
there in Katrina when Katrina happened, or in the aftermath
of Katrina.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
And then she gave me this.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
Incredible quote, which was if this story had been done
by Hunter S. Thompson, no one would be blinking an eye.
And I immediately wrote it back and I was like,
can I use that? Can that be your quote? And
she knew she stepped in it comparing him to Hunter S. Thompson,
and she was like, no, please just change it anyway.
But eventually they landed on Ralph Sweet, the comic book guy,

(36:41):
the other guy, the other Ralph.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
I was found early, Ralph Macchio told Jimmy Fallon. I
was cast very early, but it was like one of
those test deals where you're not in yet. I remember
walking by and seeing Charlie Sheen hanging out outside producer
Jerry Wine Troup's bungalow, thinking, what's Charlie doing here? He
doesn't look like an Italian guy from Jersey.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
No, okay, okay, I mean the sines are Hispanic, right, yeah, yeah, no,
I know, but or Latin ax. Pardon me, but there
is a firmly a white guy.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
He would have been, okay, I think in in Karate Kid, right,
it would have a much less likable version of Karate Kid.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
But yeah, yeah, he just has an innate sinister quality.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
Oh yes, even in Platoon.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
I was like, I just remember being like, I feel
like you should be doing the war crimes. Like there's
a darkness in those eyes from day one.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
I mean, I don't think it's innate. I think it's chemical.
I mean, well, yeah, sure, haiga. Why don't you tell
us about Mark Camban, the screenwriter meeting Ralph Machia.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Mark cam and the screenwriter are called meeting Ralph Machio,
the other guy who just come off The Outsiders, which
made three times its budget back and starred half the
hot young actors in Hollywood. He remembered Ralph thusley no musculature,
a skinny, little string bean of a kid. He wasn't
particulal coordinated for martial arts. I showed him some simple
blocking and punching movies and he couldn't do them at all.

(38:04):
I said, that's perfect. We have a kid that knows nothing.
I wanted to win, and Ralph is the paradogmatic wimp.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
Spoken like a true writer. There's a lot of a
lot of a lot of ten dollars words there.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Yeah. The character was initially named Weber, Daniel Weber, so
they took one look at Ralphiel and we're like, we
gotta allive oil this one up a bit boom.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
What's his name of the movie? I'm forgetting now.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
Daniel Russo' excuse Daniel LaRusso from Jersey from Newark, r H.
Kind of looks like he does all these like mooky
Jersey lines At the Viginni, he like talks about a
dog and he's like, the dog reminds me Aunt Sally
or something.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
He's laying it on so thick. Well, this brings us
to mister Miyagi, one of the most beloved characters in
cinema history, at least of the last forty five years.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
Yeah, dudeeah, a modern icon of father figure to all
of us.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
Yes. Producer Jerry win Troup wanted Toshira Mafune, legendary Japanese
director Kira Kuasawa's main leading man in great Samurai films
like Seventh Samurai, Raschamone and Hidden Fortress. He would have
been a great mister Miyagi, but unfortunately he did not
speak English, so that made things a little harder. But

(39:20):
when Noki Yuki pat Marita came up for the role,
he had a very hard road to it. Ralph Machio
recalled the Rolling Stone. They didn't want Pat Marita at first.
Jerry win Troup, who apparently remembered Narita from doing stand
up in the Catskills comedy circuit. That's where Narita's got
his start.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
Do you want to know what he was booked as?

Speaker 1 (39:39):
What was his name? The hip nip. I've heard that. Actually,
you know why? I know that. John Lennon, during his
Dicavit interviews in nineteen seventy one, referenced him. I've heard that. Yeah,
I'm sure he loved that. I get to use a
slur on live television. Sorry, his one is little more nasal.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
I get to use a slur on live television.

Speaker 1 (39:59):
That Paul Jerry ryn Job said that the studio said,
no way, No, Arnold from Happy Days not gonna happen.
But he was unhappy Tom. But I don't think that
was al. I'm getting Alan Arnold confused.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
That's right, he was Arnold in Happy Days.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
Yes. First assistant director Clifford Coleman told Sports Illustrated for
their Illustrated history on Karate Kid, nobody wanted Pat Marita.
He had a horrible background. He was the type of
stand up comic who got up on stage loaded, dirty
and foul. He was not Pat Marita. The sense I
forgot that that was his background. Narita's then wife Yuki

(40:36):
told Sports Illustrated, our family had gone through quite a
bit around that time. We'd lost a home in a
mud slide. This is like biblical. My mother died, my
youngest daughter was ill. Pat wasn't working that successfully as
a comic. Culturally, Asian Americans were considered very relevant back then.
It was tokenism at the time. They all had to
grapple with the same jobs in Hollywood. Narita's daughter Ali added,

(40:59):
my dad come from playing these ching Chong chinaman roles.
That's a quote her words, her words, thank you. That
gets tiring and demeaning and draining. Here was a character,
mister Miyagi, who had a past history, and there was
this wonderful relationship between him and Daniel Lusso. Narita, ah

(41:20):
had a pretty rough life even before all this show
business traviles.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
Yeah, imagine this life and being like, I know, I'll
go into show business.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
He was a son at immigrant farm workers in California,
and he was diagnosed with spinal tuberculosis at age two,
and his legs were paralyzed. As a result, Mister Miyagi,
the quintessential martial arts instructor, couldn't use his legs for
nine years. He would later tell People Magazine. I was
in a cast from my shoulders to my knees until

(41:52):
he was what eleven years old. Yeah, he underwent experimental
surgery in nineteen forty two and regained the ability to walk.
But fans of history will know that in December nineteen
forty one, something very bad happened, the Pearl Harbor attack.
So as soon as he regained his ability to walk,
he was marched right to in Arizona internment camp for

(42:14):
Japanese Americans during World War Two, one of our more
recent atrocities. Yeah. Well we in the grand skill scale
history since then.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
Well, that's true, that's true.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
Yeah. LaRita worked at his parents restaurant after the war
and after his father's death in a hit and run accident.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
Jesus, he was hit walking home from the movies where
he would go to relax after work.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
Oh man okay. Narita kept the restaurant going for another
three or four years with his mother. After marrying and
having his first child, Narita became a data processor in
the early sixties with the Department of Motor Vehicles and
other state agencies, graduating to a grave yard shift at
Aerojet General. Eventually he was the department head at another

(43:05):
aerospace firm, Lockheed, handling the liaison between the engineers and
the programmers who were mapping out lunar eclipses for the
Polaris and Titan missile projects. This is like approaching Forrest
Gump territory in terms of like all these historical moments.
He's it. Wow. Then he began to burn out on work,
understandably so, and in a crazy bit of a who's

(43:27):
who you know? Networking, how's your father? Et cetera.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
He's watching you flail away with that at that was
a real joy for me.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
He met Lenny Bruce's mom, the legendary groundbreaking comedian and
First Amendment crusader Lenny Bruce. His mom talent agent, Sally Mahr,
who encouraged him to try stand up comedy. And let
me tell you, when Lenny Bruce's mom encourages you to
go in the stand up comedy, that's what you do.
As Narita told the La Times in nineteen eighty, I

(44:00):
was twenty eight, maybe twenty nine one hundred and ninety
pounds Japanese butterball. I don't know that expression. With no
college degree of that kid, oh oh, with no college
degree in competition with PhDs, and therefore with a very
limited future in the company. I was unhappy and my
hair was falling out. I said, okay, what do you

(44:23):
really want to do? Doctor and priest are out. I
couldn't sing, I couldn't dance. All I could do was talk.
It's like me.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
He has some bangers, man, I mean. Norita used his
comedy to upend a lot of the racism that he faced.
By way of an example, he would come out and
his first line would be, geez, these legs are so
bright they make my eyes squint.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
Oh wow, wow, this is.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
My favorite Pat Narita story. He performed for the twenty
fifth reunion of the Survivors of Pearl Harbor and opened
by telling him he was sorry for messing up their heartburn,
going on to say, I'm really a talent, but I
had an eye. Job's amazing. He worked his way up

(45:08):
to Happy Days after some guest spots on Rowan and Martin,
Laughin Mash and Sandford and Son and around the same
time as Happy Days, he was in two different police
procedurals that I don't remember or know anything about, one
called Mister T and Tina and another one called O'Hara,
which are I believe notable for being some of the
first network television shows or TV shows period to starve

(45:31):
Asian Americans, but otherwise have been completely disappeared from history.
As far as I'm concerned, I assume mister T is not.
It's not the different mister T. Yeah, different mister T
like Ralph Machia. You know it's the other guy.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
Please, Mister T is my father. Work doesn't work there,
I said it anyway.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
When it came to The Karate Kid, Pat Nriita auditioned
five times unsuccessfully, and it was on the fifth time
that he grew beard, adopted his uncle's Japanese accent, and
landed the role. His last wife, Evelyn, explained, when Jerry
Wine Trub saw it, he said, that's what I want,
a damn actor, not realizing it was Pat and already
even contributed to the film's wardrobe in two specific ways.

(46:15):
Ralph Machio told The Huffington Post in twenty fourteen that
his character's blue and white headband was not a detail
mentioned in the script. It was just something that pat
Nrita had, so he took it. He took it out
to wipe his face during a take or after a
take and put it on Ralph's head and they were like, Okay,
that's going to be a bit in this now. And
also he designed the Bonzai tree art that was something

(46:39):
his wife, That was something in Yagi's wife made, and
that later gets sewn onto the back of Daniel's GHI
for the tournament. So really just killing it. This is
absolutely nuts. I didn't pick up on this as a kid, obviously,
but I really enjoyed researching it. His quote unquote drunk

(47:00):
scene in which Miagi recalls his military past and his
wife and son's death in an internment camp. Uh literally
reduced the cast and crew to tears when they filmed it,
and the studio wanted to cut it and came in
and Avelson had depressed them and be like, do not
lose this scene. Are you out of your damn mind?

Speaker 1 (47:17):
Of course they wanted to lose it. It was sad and
slowing down. Of course, their studio.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Heads were like, eh, my god, but it's so moving.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
Oh no, I agree, but I mean, of course, like
that makes it and it's such a great portrayal.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
I mean, you know, it's such a great portrayal of
drunk mood swings. How when he when Daniel comes over,
he's celebrating and like making him drink and yelling bonds
eye and then like three minutes later he's quietly crying.
Pat Nrida lost his Oscar to hang s Nure for
his role in The Killing Fields, which is about the

(47:48):
Cambodian pulpot fiasco. Let's call it the kerfuffle. That guy
was murdered in nineteen ninety six. He was shot to death,
and yeah, he was shot to death La and what
they think it was attempted to be passed off as
a botched robbery, but they think he was literally a
hit put on him from the Cambodian government for doing

(48:11):
this role in this movie, and that they got some
people in La, Cambodians in La to shoot him.

Speaker 1 (48:17):
Anyway, now, I want to look up a list of
Oscar winners who were murdered. That's a good listical it
is I stumble on something else. Oscar winners you didn't
know are murderers, Okay, you have my attention.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
This Miaggi Seine has been highlighted as one of the
first times that Hollywood ever addressed one of many of
America's shames. They previously mentioned internment camps of World War II,
though they were basically our version of concentration camps minus
the intentional murders. Although over eighteen hundred people died from
medical problems while in the internment camps due to a
lack of supplies and proper care, with one in ten

(48:56):
from tuberculosis, So that whole bit about his wife and
son dying from complications at childbirth is very plausible and
a total real thing that could happen. But the scene
is also a really important moment of recognition for the
four hundred and forty second Infantry Regiment and the one
hundredth Infantry Battalion who were part of that. Initially, men

(49:19):
of Japanese descent were forbidden from enlisting in the army,
but the US quickly reversed course on that for obvious reasons,
and those groups were mostly made up of men from
Hawaii as well as Japanese Americans from the continental United States.
They fought mostly in the European theater, and the forty
second and one hundredth remain the most decorated units in

(49:41):
the history of the US Army.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
That is wild.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
Shouldn't that be like a trivia effect that's on more
people's tongues. Like you think about, like what was the
most you probably think it's something in World War Two
or maybe Vietnam. No, it was a bunch of people
who we had previously put in prison for being who
they were, and then we took advantage of them and
them into the European theater. These combined units earned in
under two years.

Speaker 3 (50:05):
Over four thousand Purple Hearts, four thousand Bronze Stars, seven
Presidential Unit citations, five and one month, and twenty one
Medals of Honor, the highest honor you can receive for
serving in the military.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
The Purple Hearts. The four thousand Purple Herts really bummed
me out because that's for basically getting.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
That's what you just get for being wounded.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
Yeah, that's sad, I mean, it's all sad.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
Known as the Go for Broke Regiment for their attitude
towards combat before to forty second produced a number of
notable figures, including s Neo Fujita who's a graphic designer
who designed the Godfather font and also the Today's Show
logo that's been in place since nineteen seventy. Daniel Inoue,
who served as Senator from Hawaii for fifty years until

(50:52):
his death in twenty twelve. Chikashi Halo Herosi, the first
Japanese American to represent the United States in any international
swimming competition, and the team he was on set a
world record in Germany in nineteen thirty eight aka The
Jesse Owens Won When we Were dealing with the Nazis.
Also Shinkichi Tajiri, an actor who won the Palm d'Or
at cann in nineteen fifty five, among many other politicians, actors,

(51:15):
and assorted other luminaries. There's a great episode of Community
where the two characters are cast in a theatrical adaptation
of The Karate Kid, and the director Jason manzukis he
says The Karate Kid is about Katsuki Miagi, an immigrant
who fought against his own people in World War Two
while his wife lost a child in an internment camp.

(51:37):
Morito was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance.
Ralph Machio showed up.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
For all of this, Pat Narrita secured the princely sum
of thirty thousand dollars, which, okay, let's see, justin for inflation,
that's still not a lot. Just for inflation, that is
ninety one thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
Okay, Probably Burgess Meredith was probably making more by being
rock trainer and rocket at this point.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
But at least Pat and Narita continue to ride the
mister Miagi wave for a while, and in the late
nineties he landed one of his most high profile later roles,
voicing the Emperor in Mulan's one and two. Sadly, sadly
you like Hawaii. You like Hawaii? Just as the tone there.
Once I saw it, I was reading, that's a pro.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
Move right there, You're professional, sir.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
Sadly, Pat and Uria struggled this entire life with the bottle.
I can't now, I can't do because I still I
could be a psychastic Okay, hang on. Sadly, Pat and
Urita struggled this entire life with the bottle and ultimately
died of complications related to alcoholism in twenty twelve.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
Yeah, it was sad. Most people really genuinely just talk
about him being like a drunk his whole life, and
that's one of the reasons why they didn't want him
in the movie, because he was known for being like
a faced blue comic all the time.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
Now, let's move on to Daniel's mom, played by Randy Heller,
who's known to me relevant to my interests as the
first woman to play Rizzo in Greece on Broadway. That's
very cool. She'd risen the prominence playing Alice in the
nineteen seventies TV series Soap, which is the I think
provided Billy Crystal with his breakout role if I recall

(53:23):
the soap opera Parity with a not very original name.
On the show, she played one of the first lesbian
characters on television, So that's very cool. She would go
on the play a secretary in Madmen. Huh.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
She's Don Draper and Donald Price's secretary. She's little into like.
I think her arc is that she has weird sex.
She's like an old woman who has horny sex.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
Oh she's Miss Blankenship. Yeah, oh wow, Oh she's hilarious. Okay.
Miss Blankenship was like the old lady. Yeah, it was
the old lady secretary who died on the job. And
then they like eulogize her, and one of them was like,
she was born in a barn. She died on the
you know, fortieth floor of the Time Life building. She
was an astronaut, I think, goes Bert Cooper. Wow, I'll

(54:14):
be damn. I never made that connection. That's cool. She's
also in Rocky, yet another Rocky connection for the Karate kids.
She's the voice who yells out, can you do it
for me?

Speaker 2 (54:27):
You're a hey rock You're a bum.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
And the first thing is when he's doing the sad
walk to his apartment. Yeah, like passes by all the cliches,
like a doo wop group singing around a trash can.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
Yeah, uh, this is very cute. She got back in
touch with Ralph Macchio around the time with the twenty
ten remake, and the pair kept in contact, and Rochio,
I love this is gonna make me cry adorably still
calls her mom. Very so.

Speaker 2 (54:55):
He is, like, by wide reports, one of the nicest
men alive. So nothing untoorn about Ralph Machio, the movie guy,
not the comics guy. The film's younger antagonist, Johnny, was
played by William Billy Zabka. In his feature film debut,
Zapka really made a meal out of being a blonde
apple in the nineteen eighties. He took on similar roles

(55:16):
back to back after Karate Kid with just one of
the guys and Back to School, Crispin Glover was supposedly
given the role originally named Donald Rice. Imagine being beaten
up by a guy named Donald. I wouldn't take that seriously.

Speaker 1 (55:30):
Well, the country did hell hell good stuff nice.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
But Zapka had auditioned for Karate Kid's casting director for
previous film, and she didn't forget him. Zaka told The
av Club in twenty ten, it was the first script
I ever read where I thought, well, this is kind
of easy. I don't even have to act this alarming,
But then he cleared, Yeah, then a minute, not that
I'm a jerk, but I just get the guy. I
went to the interview, pulled up in my dad's nineteen

(55:59):
seventy run Volvo station wagon with Deaf Leopard playing in
the car. I walked into the room and there was
a whole world of blonde haired, blue eyed Johnny's, and
everybody seemed to be in character. When he got done
with his audition, he lurked around the corner and came
up to Ralph Macchio when he saw him coming out,
and he was like, hey, how'd to go? And Ralph said,
you know, everybody was really good, but I told him

(56:19):
you scared it out of me. Zabka talked about his
actual audition in depth with Collider. It his first scene
that was ultimately cut from the film, but he said,
my line was what's your mouth?

Speaker 1 (56:29):
Hole?

Speaker 2 (56:30):
So that was my scene and I walked up. I
grabbed John Abelson, the director, and said, watch your mouth, asshole.
I had a headband onto my audition. I don't know
why that's a salient detail, but okay. I exited the
room in this dramatic fashion and then came back in,
took my headband off and sat down in front of
John and said, I'm sorry, that was Johnny.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
That wasn't Billy. Every time every time I say something
dickish to you, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
She was like, that was DJ Dick. So then Abelson
is like, how old are you? You're a little bit
bigger than our karate kid, because Zapka had wrestled in
high school, and Samka hits him back with, yeah, well,
Bruce Lee was smaller than Karribe Abdul Jabbar, but he
beat him in Game of Death and john Gie Evilson says, yeah,
that is true.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
He's younger, but he's younger than Machio too, like two years. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
Yeah, got his hair in this movie is incredible. The
film's fight coordinator was a guy named Pat Johnson. He
plays the mustachioed referee in the tournament at the end,
and he ran these guys through the ringer to get
them into shape for the movie. Zapka told the av Club,
I was training four hours a day, five days a
week from month of just rehearsals and then throughout the
two months shoot, so I had three months of training.

(57:47):
Every single day I got worked. I walked home like spaghetti.
My legs were falling out, my back was killing me.
Pat Johnson is also is a real deal and apparently
a real hard ass. He has a ninth degree black
belt in tang sudu ark and tangsu Dou and appeared
in and choreographed films like the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
Teenage Mutant, Ninja, Turtles, and also the nineteen ninety five

(58:07):
Mortal Combat which has a very dear place in my
heart and He.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
Just died last year at the age of eighty four.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
Johnson trained Machio and the Cobra Kai guys separately. Chad
McQueen described him as a hard ass mother. Zabka elaborated,
if I was doing something sloppy, Pat would grab me
and twist my leg. If I ever turned my back
on him, he'd sweep me to the ground and say,
never turn your back on anyone, a scene that is
replicated directly in the film.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
That sounds like something that would have been done to
you when you were like working on your black belts. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
Maybe. Meanwhile, Pat Johnson said of Machio and Zapka they
would moan and bitch. They developed a relationship because they
had that in common. So Zapka and the rest of
the Cobra Kai guys were deliberately kept separate from Ralph
Macchio and all housed together to reinforce the creepy Airyan
chemistry that they had and that is not a joke.
Most of them had to dye their hair blonde. John

(58:58):
Kreaese actor Martin told them for the entrance scene in
the tournament, He said, I want you to march out
like your Hitler youth going through a parade. So if
you're ever wondering why the Copra Chai guys are creepy
and arian, don't worry. That was intended. The Copra boys,
as I'm now calling them, trained not only in martial arts,

(59:19):
but also soccer from a guy who knew Peley apparently,
and dirt bike riding, so they got to do all
this cool stuff together and hang out. But they were
kept totally separate from Ralph Machio. So they came in
and their chemistry was immediately locked in as like gang
against spaghetti. Ron Thomas, who's the guy who plays Bobby? Who?
I can't keep them straight, but I think Bobby's the

(59:41):
guy who receives the command sweep the legs.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
Johnny, there's Bobby.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
No, no, yeah, there's Johnny, Bobby and Tommy. Never mind cut.
They did do a very good job of differentiating one
of them. They should have used just in their real names, Chad.
It would have been great. Ron Thomas, the guy who
plays Bobby, was a degree back belt in jiu jitsu
when it happened, and he told Sports Illustrated. My agent
told me not to say anything about my experience that

(01:00:06):
they were only hiring actors and they were going to
train you anyway, so shut up. Six weeks into training,
Pat Johnson comes up to me and goes, you know something,
don't you? And I had to spill the beans. Imagine
that terrifying, ripped like mustachioed man coming up and saying,
you know something, don't you? I would confess to the
Kennedy assassination.

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
Lynnberg, baby kidnapping, anything, Yeah, anything, I'm son of Sam.
We're going to take a quick break, but we'll be
right back with more too much information in just a
moment getting away from the Hitler Youth. This was Elizabeth

(01:00:54):
shoes first film. She'd done a Burger King commercial just prior,
and she has a sadly typical Hollywood story about shooting
the film's beach scene on the first day of filming,
which took place on Halloween nineteen eighty three, which is
both a hilarious day, very inauspicious day to start filming,
and it's also a bad day to film a beach

(01:01:14):
scene because it's late in the year and everyone was freezing.
She told Sports Illustrated. When we first started filming, I
was given a trainer, Jake Steinfeld of Body by Jake
Fame and asked to stay in shape. Once the beach
scene was shot, I went back to eating whatever I
wanted watch the movie. I slowly gained weight throughout the
rest of it. Speaking of that, able to explain the

(01:01:37):
matchup between Shoe and Machio as quote Strawberry Shortcake and Canoli,
I like you telling you the guys a quote Michelle Yeah,
slightly racist or reductive at least yeah. Also, Billy Zapka
explained that any country club scene, Elizabeth Shoe nailed him
in the face, take after take with Pat Johnson the

(01:01:58):
fight choreographer, egging her on.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
To put more into it each time, give him one more.

Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
Hit him like he knows something. Martin Cove, who played
the Cobra Kai sense John Creese had it relatively easy
as far as training was concerned. He basically shadowed Pat
Johnson as he trained the others and modeled his character
after Johnson himself. Other actors supposedly floated for the character
of John Creese, where Kurt Russell whoa, Jeff Bridges, Okay

(01:02:28):
Harvey Kaitel, Leonard Nimoy whoa, and Christopher Walkin, all of
which would rule.

Speaker 2 (01:02:34):
Yeah, I would go with all of them except maybe
Nimoy and Walkin. I think Walkin would have he still
had he would be like quietly sinister, but like those
like Kurt Russell, Jeff Bridges, Harvey Kitel, that's like I'm
scared of Harvey Kaytel, even though he's like five to one.
I think the other two might have been a little
goody goody at that time for their image to take

(01:02:54):
on like a villain role. But well, Kurt Russell had
been doing around this time, Big Trouble China.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
Oh yeah, okay, yeah yeah. Also Steven Siga auditions director
John I can never say his name director John Evanson
was not impressed with his performance. He's famously known as
the worst guest on Saturday Night Live history if I
recall Sigal Yeah, oh my god, I think both he
was a nightmare to actually like work with and do

(01:03:22):
stuff with.

Speaker 2 (01:03:23):
And he's just like a legendary tool. Yeah, he's just
one of the one of the worst people to be
elevated to celebrity. Yeah, I mean, have you watched his
blues guitar playing. No, Oh, he's put out multiple I
think maybe one is called Meditations from the Crystal Cave.
So he's put out at least one album of blues rock,

(01:03:44):
maybe multiples to this point. But he's a pretty guitar player,
and God bless those men in his band who like
go around supporting him for these tours, which I guess
now are probably in Russia.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
I didn't know any of that. Wow, that's really strange.

Speaker 2 (01:03:58):
Hmm, yeah, you should watch it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:00):
It's no, that's okay. Yeah. But the actor who eventually
did get the part of John Crease, Martin Cove, would
later tell Sports Illustrated, I got the attitude for my
character from Pat Pat Johnson, the fight choreographer. I used
his is that word?

Speaker 2 (01:04:18):
Oh keii?

Speaker 1 (01:04:20):
What's that?

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
It's like the yell you do when you strike?

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
Oh oh? I use his Kia's yeah you did a
good job. I didn't know that was a term. I
thought that was like people just yelling, Oh, you're supposed
to do. I didn't know that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
Yeah, every time you every time you strike, it's like
forces the breath out. It's a whole thing.

Speaker 1 (01:04:38):
My version of it was a little Howard Dean, wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
Ah, It's embarrassing when you're a little kid and they
like I'm making you do that. In front of everyone.
Your voice hasn't changed, or when you hit puberty and
your voice changes, it starts cracking all the.

Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
Time, like yeah, that must tone the intimidation factor down.
It's it's like substantially the puppies growling like yeah, exactly, yeah.
I would never be able to do that. I couldn't
even do the mak arena like family weddings. So I
was a kid like I could never yell yah ah.
Martin Cove continued, I used the way that Pat Johnson

(01:05:13):
stood with his hands and his belt. I became the
Darth Vader of the karate world. The character of John
Creese is established as a Vietnam Vet by some posters
hanging on the wall of the dojo. Martin Cove, who
seems like a real character you note, shared that he
came into Cobra Kai with an unbelievably dark backstory for
his character that he made up himself.

Speaker 2 (01:05:35):
So they brought back a lot of guys, well, they
brought back a lot of guys for Cobra Kai, apparently
well the TV show movie and started, yeah, and started
fleshing them, like giving them.

Speaker 1 (01:05:44):
Backstories and flashbacks and all this.

Speaker 2 (01:05:47):
John j Abelson said something like, all right, see you
talk to Martin Cove. Huh, that guy can talk. But
please regale us with the story that Martin Cove made
up for John Creese.

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
Yes, apparently crees it's all a platoon buddy get blown
up by a child suicide bomber, and after witnessing this atroscity,
he vowed to quote show no mercy.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
Ever again, what a thing to prepare as, I mean
an actor prepares. Yeah, yes, I'm told.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
A popular rumor is that the character of John Crease
was originally written for Chuck Norris, but director John Avilson
has disputed ever offer ignores the role, and Chuck Norris
himself supposedly said at one point that he turned down
the role because he thought it would give Karate a
negative image. Martin Koch, meanwhile, who did get the role,

(01:06:38):
locked it down by taking his anger out on the
director in his audition. John Avilson saw my picture and
said we don't want him. He recalled in a thirtieth
anniversary event for the film in twenty fourteen. I got
another shot, and they liked me and sent me the script.
He was promised a week to read the script, but
then he got a call the next morning, calling him
in for an audition. I looked at it, he said,

(01:07:01):
I looked at the script. I was really pissed off,
and I used all that venom. The scene was Mercy
is for the Week and pacing up and down the dojo.
Bottom line was, I berated John Avilson. I toltally. It
was such as all that just beat him up verbally,
and he loved it. I got the part. He's genuinely frightening.
He's a great villain. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
Also from that event, Billy Zabka claims that after the movie,
a real San Fernando Valley karate gang, which is an
amazing thing for me to learn about and read out
loud one to beat him up. I choose to believe
it's true. And also, Martin Cove revealed that he and
Pat Narita used to see each other twice a year

(01:07:41):
after the movie came out, which is super cute. Cove
also shared that John Everlson told him not to smile
and that the only person who ever confronted him about
his villainous role in person was a five year old
who walked up to him and said, you hurt Ralph
and punched him in the stomach. He's a big Thor fan.

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
You really you love you love the fact that there
are two Rolp Macchio's.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
Ralph Macchio is is such a specific name though, like
two of them. Yeah, wouldn't you start going myray if
you like you were in comics and then all of
a sudden, like your name became famous beyond reason for
a few years, Like, wouldn't you just start.

Speaker 1 (01:08:21):
I don't know anyway, No, it's the office space rule.
It's like Michael, It's like, no, why should I change
some one who sucks? Although Ralp Macchio doesn't suck, so
maybe he was like cool, Yeah, it's a badge of honor.

Speaker 2 (01:08:33):
Also, Martin Cove mentioned in one of these interviews that
his son owns a vape shop. So if you're into that,
I guess you can order a vape juice called Sweep
the Leg from Bonzi Vapors. After securing permission from California's
then governor, George Duke Duke Median Duke Median, No, I.

Speaker 1 (01:08:54):
Don't never heard that name.

Speaker 2 (01:08:56):
Sounds Dutch Armenian.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
Anyway, this guy gave him the okay to shoot at
Leo Correo Beach, Malibu. Normally productions are not allowed to
be filmed on California beaches, but I guess this guy knew.
Jerry Wintrub Daniel and Alley's Date was filmed in Norwalk,
which is a town about an hour change from the valley,
most notable this century for a nineteen fifty eight mid

(01:09:23):
air collision between two military planes that killed forty seven
servicemen and one civilian. Daniel and mister Biangi's apartment building
was the South Seas, which, in production manager Susan Eakans words,
was a crap hole, the absolute biggest dive apartment in Risida.
It is still there.

Speaker 1 (01:09:40):
I believe Crapple is so much more evocative and offensive. Crapple.
It's amaz I've never heard that in my life. Wow.
The school scenes were filmed that Charles Evans Junior High
School in Long Beach, and as far as your research showed,

(01:10:00):
there are only two other films that use that same location,
A Nightmare on Elm Street two and La Mark Harmon
starring Summer School. Crease's Dojo was in North Hollywood and
is now House of Intuition, which, per their website, sells
quote spiritual gifts and goods to live a more magical life.

(01:10:21):
We used to make this country. I'm choosing to read
that as a sex shop.

Speaker 2 (01:10:24):
No, I mean yeah, but they know they sell candles
and crystals.

Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
So clearly you haven't listened to Rick James is super
freaking a while. Mister Maggie's house, meanwhile, was in Kenoka
Park and had been demolished sadly by the time they
filmed this third installment of The Karate Kid, so it
was duly reconstructed on the Warner Brothers Ranch backlot in Burbank.
The lake scene was filmed in Chatsworth Nature Preserve, which

(01:10:48):
had previously appeared on the big screen, dating all the
way back to the Silent era, most notably in Cecil B.
De Mill's The Ten Commandments, Howard Hughes's Hell's Angels and
the Roy Rogers Western and Susannah Pass.

Speaker 2 (01:11:02):
It's a lo And I started bantering about this phrase
because we've been watching a lot of stuff from the nineties,
like Independence Day in the Rock recently, and it is
just amazing. She was like, I get it. I get
why you talk about, like why bygone errors of filmmaking
are this good, you know, particularly in those two where
it's just like these just it is the most dick
swinging Michael Bay, Jerry Bruckheimer, Roland Emerick, just these huge

(01:11:28):
shot and it was still shot on film, So it's
just like everything. But so what we've been saying is
every frame of painting and in that sunset there's like
a sunset scene where they're training on the lake and
she just they zoom out and she just whispered every
frame of painting. Man, there's a level of artistry in those,

(01:11:48):
and just by virtue of the fact that they're shot
on film, they look so much better than this endless
gray slop that we're just served.

Speaker 1 (01:11:55):
Did you see the Twister sequel?

Speaker 2 (01:11:57):
Fun? I mean understood the first one though. The first
Twister is a genuine like masterpiece. I really regret not
watching that for our podcast because we watched it. A
buddy of my watched it recently and like, oh rules,
it's one of these things that people a phrase that
I saw on Twitter it is a five star three
star film.

Speaker 1 (01:12:17):
Incredible. Wow, Yes, yes, wow. What are some other great
five star three star films?

Speaker 2 (01:12:24):
I mean, I mean everything is China, Yeah, everything, I Like.
Con Air isn't perfect, but it's It's got a there's
a lot to love there, even like romantic comedies. Man
like just like, oh, this has grain and texture to it,
and people with union jobs like crafted these this wardrobe
and makeup. It was done like by real people. It

(01:12:47):
wasn't just digitally slapped on by a bunch of dehydrated
Koreans after the fact.

Speaker 1 (01:12:51):
Aren't in a union, tweeted us at hashtag dehydrated Koreans.

Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
I think a lot of a lot of a lot
of companies outsourced their animation labor to Korea.

Speaker 1 (01:13:01):
I'm not being raised, I know, I know. Yeah. Is
that whorse? South Park does their animation though, Yeah, and Family,
the Simpsons.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
I think the Simpsons were the first. I think it
was a lot of Fox programs that started doing that.

Speaker 1 (01:13:12):
I'm my guy.

Speaker 2 (01:13:12):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:13:13):
The climactic tournament sequence was shot in a week at
what was then the Matador Gymnasium, known familiarly as the Matadome,
a twenty five hundred seat indoor stadium on the campus
of California State University's Northridge campus. As far as your
research has turned up, it hasn't been used in any
other films, but it was renamed the premiere America Credit

(01:13:35):
Union Arena. Jesus rolls right off the tongue.

Speaker 2 (01:13:39):
I know, right, it already had a great nickname. They
just whoof that name change.

Speaker 1 (01:13:45):
Occurred in twenty twenty two, and it's Wikipedia page contains
four separate quotes about how much it sucked pre renovation
in twenty fourteen, with oh, here you take this, then.

Speaker 2 (01:13:58):
It's just like it was. It was in this cool paper,
like how much of this stadium was a crap hole
and like hurting their recruitment chances on one player. A
player on their team at the time told the student paper,
I just wish we didn't have a dirty gym and
crappy rims.

Speaker 1 (01:14:17):
Amazing. Machio and Zapka trained for their fight scene for
the entire duration of the film's shoot, so I think
they also did in Princess Bride too. When they guess
any movie with fight scenes, you tend to lead that
to the end, I guess and give players some time.
They came and they performed it in one chunk in
front of the audience that was there for the real tournament.

Speaker 2 (01:14:39):
Oh yeah, kind of buried the lead on that. They
basically staged an actual real karate tournament. To get people
to show up and a crowd that they could film
and other competitors that they could film.

Speaker 1 (01:14:49):
Good Move. Yeah. We had the producer Bill Gerber on
the Paul and Katak Show that I produce and he's
it was nominated for an oscar for the Bradley Cooper
Lady Gaga Stars born. He was talking about how they
filmed on location at Corchella between weekends there just because

(01:15:13):
like all the stuff was already up and there was like,
you know, ex's around and stuff. I like that. I
like when they use it. There was a movie What's
what's the movie that filmed at the DNC in sixty eight,
like Ultimate Cool or something. I have no idea. Oh,
it's medium cool. I was close, Okay. There was a
movie by Haskell Wexler, the director was filmed at the

(01:15:36):
nineteen sixty eight Democratic National Convention in Chicago where the
riots famously happened. And it was like a narrative movie
that just was like shot on location cinema verite style,
like almost like a documentary with just like history unfolding
in the background of you know, these riots in Chicago.
I find that very interesting. I always like when they

(01:15:58):
when they kind of when you know history as a character,
you know a good one. Yeah. Anyway, back to the
climactic fight scene that was done at the Matadome, the
crap hole known as the matat Dome. I just love it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
Was this student paper. There's like coaches being like, I
can't recruit promising candidates when I take them to this gym.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
Now I want to like google it, but I guess
I'll just watch the scene in the Karate Kid. It's
not a bad looking gym. I don't really get it. Yeah,
and then maybe they cleaned it up. So producers arranged
an actual karate competition to get people to show up
for them to film, and Billy Zapka recalled feeling like
a fraud in front of the real martial artists that
they had assembled. He said, I'm walking in and they're like,

(01:16:40):
who's that kid. I'm like the actor who's done this
for three months, and I hope I don't kick Ralph.

Speaker 2 (01:16:49):
The iconic fly catching scene man who catch fly with
chopstick accomplish anything well, accomplished in fact, with the help
of a fly wrangler who first attempted to place the
flies in a refrigerator down but they warmed up too
quickly while shooting in California to be catchable. The next
thing that they attempted was a pipe frame with a
piece of wire hanging from it that had a dead

(01:17:10):
fly on it, with the fly wrangler just out of frame,
just kind of jimmying it to make it moved. And
then when that failed, Executive producer R. J. Lewis explained,
I got a six foot pole and some thin black thread.
The script supervisor was wearing a black fuzzy sweater. I
took a piece of fuzz off it and the prop
guy tied it to the end of the thread. You
didn't have a lot of CGI thirty five years ago.

Speaker 1 (01:17:32):
That's amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:17:33):
The Halloween party where Cobra Kai kids dressed in those
skeleton costumes. They were skin tight and Chad McQueen stuffed
a rolled sock into it on his He said something
his dad would tell him to do.

Speaker 1 (01:17:45):
But his dad had died like four years earlier, which
means that his dad had was.

Speaker 2 (01:17:49):
Giving him that advice as like a teenager.

Speaker 1 (01:17:52):
Yeah, whenever we wore something tight, which I mean, Steve McQueen,
it sounds like advice he would give you, so sure
it does.

Speaker 2 (01:17:58):
Yeah, So the Cobra Kai kids catch up with Daniel
and they beat there out of him. It was one
of the first stunt and or fight sequences film. The
kids had to repeatedly sprint the one hundred and fifty
foot distance between the two fences, the first one they
scale and the second one they pull Danny down from.
Anticipating the number of takes it would require production. Had
oxygenen takes Andy for them, they would chase him one

(01:18:21):
hundred and fifty yards, let him attempt to scale a fence,
and then just be told to do it over again,
while huffing oxygen in between takes. That rules. Imagine the
high you would get from that. I'm making movies. I'm
huffing oxygen. You're like Dennis Hopper and Blue Velvetta's right there.

Speaker 1 (01:18:38):
It's like I know something.

Speaker 2 (01:18:40):
During the actual fight, Ralph Machio took a real kick
to the face from Zapka, who's hilariously in character recollection
was he leaned into it?

Speaker 1 (01:18:48):
It wasn't my fault. Produces then brought in stunt doubles
to finish the fight, which brings us to Fumio de Mura,
another real life many degree black belt, and one of
mark came in the screen writer's real life inspirations for
Mister Miagi. He was Pat Narita stunt double in all
three Karate Kid movies and was a very interesting guy.

(01:19:08):
The son of a silk traysman. He came to America
in the nineteen sixties with nothing but three hundred dollars,
a suitcase and a dream. He knew no English, but
he established a teaching practice successful enough to break through
to Hollywood. Steven Sagall, Chuck Norris, and Dolph Lundgren have
all names checked him, but his most famous student is
obviously Bruce Lee, who learned his nunchuck technique from one

(01:19:30):
of Tomorrow's books and then sought him out in person
for individual lessons.

Speaker 2 (01:19:35):
You were so good at nunchucks that Bruce Lee traveled
to your home personally after reading your book and was like,
teach me nunchucks and he did.

Speaker 1 (01:19:44):
That's pretty cool. Is he still alive? No? I can
only see him being Oh he died like last April.
I wasn't actually wasn't even that old. He was eighty four.
Demurrow may have been a little too enthusiastic in the
first fight scene, though Rob Garrison an actor who played
the Cobra Kai guy Tommy got his nose broken by

(01:20:04):
the Master, later saying, everyone remembers Ralph getting hurt, No
one remembers me getting hurt.

Speaker 2 (01:20:10):
He kneed him in the face, like, fully broke this
kid's nose, and because they weren't allowed to show real blood,
the take was scotched. So he's like, he got a
little too enthusiastic and need me in the face, right
in the nose, and I was just laying on the
ground bleeding.

Speaker 1 (01:20:29):
I mean, okay, I understand like real blood not being
you know something, you probably but if it happens anyway,
you think so, that's actually that's actually a great tip.

Speaker 2 (01:20:41):
The only self defense technique that I can actually impart
on anyone is if you are ever threatened or you
think something's going to happen, punch that person in the nose.
Don't punch them in the chin. The chin is very hard.
The forehead is also. You can ring somebody's bell, but
that's also very hard. Chances are you're gonna hurt your fist.
Punch them in the nose.

Speaker 1 (01:20:58):
Let's ring on somebody's bell.

Speaker 2 (01:20:59):
Oh, when you get hit like in the right here,
like right between the eyes and the forehead, and you
just like go away for a little while. You can
see it happen in fights when guys are just like
they it's just like like shaking away the imaginary burn birds.
But you punch someone in the nose because it's a
soft target a and it's gonna their whole nasal system,

(01:21:21):
it's gonna like they're gonna start crying. It will immediately
start bleeding. So that is Heigel's real life self defense technique.
One that is not binding legal advice either. I'm sorry,
I can't help you if you get your washed in
a bar fight because you heard me say something stupid.

Speaker 1 (01:21:39):
It's like this. This is not actually legal advice. This
is not actual medical advice. All right, So the guy
who played Tommy actually gets kicked by.

Speaker 2 (01:21:47):
An old or a middle aged Japanese man, Yeah, and he.

Speaker 1 (01:21:51):
Goes down his nose starts bleeding. Everyone remembers Ralph Machio
getting hurt, but nobody remembers me getting hurt. What about me?
We're not Tommy. But as you know, the most important
thing is that the guy who kicked him, Pumio Demorro
and Pat and Narta became friends during the shoot and
stayed that way.

Speaker 2 (01:22:11):
I like that that's really the lesson to take out
of this.

Speaker 1 (01:22:14):
Yeah, and so, as we mentioned earlier, they staged an
actual karate tournament to garner the necessary participants and onlookers
with a tracking shot through the facility using more than
five hundred extras and thirty six takes.

Speaker 2 (01:22:27):
It's really wild to me that they just did this
and they like, I think it was. I think it
all came down to Pat Johnson, who had enough ties
in the community.

Speaker 1 (01:22:36):
Oh yeah, but.

Speaker 2 (01:22:37):
He's just wild that they were like, we're gonna Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:22:39):
I don't know, it's cool.

Speaker 2 (01:22:40):
I think it's hilarious.

Speaker 1 (01:22:41):
Yeah. Director John Avilson hid something like nine cameras in
the bleachers to get covered shots by rowing off for
Pat Johnson told the competitors, and he was also the
referee as well, don't stop to watch what we're filming.
You're gonna win prizes, you're gonna win trophies, and you're
gonna be able to say you were in the Karate Kid.

Speaker 2 (01:23:00):
It's a good sale. The afore mentioned Rob Thomas, who
played Bobby and had not Tommy. He took a real
forearm shot from Machio splitting his lip during the filming,
which is as good as segue as any into the
crane kick, the absolutely bullshit secret move that has gone
down in cinema history that is obviously not Pat Narita

(01:23:24):
performing it on the beach. When you know Danny daniel
Son first witnesses it as a technique. It's a guy
named Daryl Vidal in a bald cap and padding. Now
he also shows up in the tournament. He's the non
Cobra Kai kid who advances into the semifinals. Confusingly, that
character's name is also Daryl Vidal. The only reason this

(01:23:46):
is pertinent is because they reserve they've made reference to
Daryl Vidal in the in the Cobra Kai thing, So
Daryl vidall plays himself but not really, and has also
continued in the Karate Kid Cobra Kai continuity, but maybe
not really. As for the origin of the crane kick,
which is what you're all really here for, came and

(01:24:07):
said I made it up. It was just something I
thought up on the spot. How cool would be if
you saw mister Miyagi in a log doing this impossible
thing and then saying of the actual practical use of
the technique. You have no balance, your hands aren't in
a defensive position. It's just cinematic. It is also a
disqualifying move in a legitimate tournament, where full contact to
the head is considered a no no and a wildly

(01:24:30):
impractical one. Vidaal added that if confronted by the move,
I would just bum rush you and knock you on
your ass. But like wax On, wax Off, it's become
one of the films defining contributions to the cultural lexicon.
Avilson said he knew the movie was destined to become
a hit when he saw guys in suits attempting the
crane kick immediately after coming out of a screening. Right

(01:24:51):
there on the sidewalk. One of the guys recalled what
seeing in the theater, He's like when Dano does the
crane kick to Johnny's this guy in the front seat
jumped up in his seat and threw his fist in
the air. So that's how you know you have a winner. Also,
mister Miyagi's secret rub hands really fast to cure all
manner of injuries. Some people have posited that it is

(01:25:15):
a version of raiki energy healing found in the nineteen twenties.
While others have pointed out that it could be related
to acupuncture cupping, it's probably also hort I think. I
don't think Cayman was asked about that directly, but seems
like absolute horse.

Speaker 1 (01:25:30):
That was the first mention of Wax Saw and Wax
Office episode. Yeah, well, there'll be another one later. Good.

Speaker 2 (01:25:35):
Speaking of the tournament, now we have to talk about
the incredible banger You're the Best, which soundtracks the tournament,
and also that Stan Marsh episode of South Park where
where he gets really into fighting like strangers. I think
they speed it up so it's even more annoying. But
that's gonna have to keep it down.

Speaker 1 (01:25:53):
It kind of sucks.

Speaker 2 (01:25:55):
Oh, it's so good.

Speaker 1 (01:25:57):
I love it, but it also put another.

Speaker 2 (01:26:00):
Kind of sucks. Yeah, in another truer way. It kind
of sucks, but it's so good. The singer Joe Bean
Esposito I am not making that up, actually had nothing
to do with this song. It was written by composer
Bill Conti, the Rocky theme guy who did the rest
of the music to the film, and the lyrics were
written by Ali Willis, who is a real deal songwriter.

(01:26:23):
Among her co writs are September and Boogie Wonderland by
Earth Wind and Fire. What Have I Done to deserve This?
By Pet Shop Boys featuring Dusty Springfield and the Friends theme.

Speaker 1 (01:26:36):
Wow. So Ali willis she doesn't need to do anything
ever again.

Speaker 2 (01:26:40):
She's dead but well okay for multiple reasons. Yeah. She
also won two Grammys for her involvement in Beverly Hills
cop and Purple Color soundtracks. This is all very funny
because for years Joe Esposito was hounded for the lyric
history repeats Itself in the song, which is obviously wrong

(01:27:00):
for the film as nothing is repeating itself. He actually
called into the Adam Carolla Show in two thousand and
eight when they're ripping on him for it, responding to
years of criticism by explaining that the lyric was in
place because You're the Best was written for Rocky three
before being turned down in favor of I of the Tiger,

(01:27:21):
at which point You're the Best was also turned down
for Flash Dance. John Aviltson heard it and picked it
up for Karate Kid, and, in one final indignation for
being Esposito, producers actd that the song be re recorded
with a different singer Avilson put his foot down and
Joe Sposito saying his way into the history books. Even

(01:27:45):
more hilariously, the same thing happened when Peter Sitera's Glory
of Love was rejected for the Rocky four soundtrack and
shunted down to Karate Kid two, where it became.

Speaker 1 (01:27:56):
An enormous hit. Beneath the karate Kid karate Kid two,
Karate Harder.

Speaker 2 (01:28:03):
I get it escaped from the planet of karate Yeah,
I think would be good.

Speaker 1 (01:28:07):
Yeah, that's good. Karate Kid two, the big one.

Speaker 2 (01:28:13):
Back in the habit, that's good.

Speaker 1 (01:28:14):
Yeah, it never gets old. The other big banger on
the Karate Kids soundtrack is, of course, Bananarama's Cruel Summer.
Bananaama my first celebrity interview, I believe in twenty Yeah
they were, Yeah, they were okay. Was that the hard
rock cafe in Times Square? Nice? Which is I mean,
it is kind of where you'd expect to find Bananama.

(01:28:36):
They were on display.

Speaker 2 (01:28:37):
I was gonna say, I'm mounted on the walls.

Speaker 1 (01:28:41):
The song Cruel Summer he about out in the UK
since July. Since July twenty July, the song Cruel Summer
had been out in the UK since July nineteen eighty
three and was a big hit in the country, but
it didn't break internationally until it was included in Karate Kid,

(01:29:04):
which came out in June nineteen eighty four. Weirdly, they
didn't allow a song to appear on the soundtrack, but
it became their first top ten hit in the United
States anyway, reaching number nine on the Billboard Charts. Heigel's
favorite bit of trivia about this song is that it
was shot in Brooklyn.

Speaker 2 (01:29:21):
Basically underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. Oh the video for it, Yes, yes, yes, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:29:26):
They worked for lunch at a local tavern and while
shooting the Breeze with some local DOC workers, they were
offered cocaine by one of them.

Speaker 2 (01:29:33):
It's just funny. They were hanging out at a bar,
presumably probably a dive. Yeah, just in the middle of
the day they met a bunch of young women from
overseas and were like, here, do a bump banana.

Speaker 1 (01:29:45):
RAMDA member Jabon Fayhei remarked in the I Want My
MTV Oral History book, when you watch that video, we
look really tired and miserable in the scenes that were
shot before lunch and then the after lunch shots were
all euphoric and manic.

Speaker 2 (01:29:59):
Filming round to under two months, but there were a
lot of scenes that actually ended up on the cutting
room floor. The original ending of the film was supposed
to end in the parking lot outside of the tournament,
where Chrise was gonna come out and like go after Daniel,
and then mister Miyagi comes in. It's actually quite a
moving scene, and I know it by heart because I

(01:30:20):
had the movie novelization of the Karate Kid too before
I saw it, so I read that quite a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:30:27):
So John cries comes out.

Speaker 2 (01:30:28):
I think he's choking out. Actually, Daniel saw in, and
then mister Marky comes out and obviously like defeats him,
and then he's like poised to deliver the coup de gras.
He's got Chris on the ropes. He's like holding his
head up and he's like poised he's gonna smash his
face in, and he starts parroting his own lines back
at him. He's like, no mercy, no weaknesses, and everyone's like,

(01:30:51):
oh my god. And then he just goes down and
thumbs Chris's nose. Great stuff, really great stuff, And it
in fact opens Karate Kid Part two. Avilson decided to
end it on the freeze frame of mister Maggi's face
right after the tournament, which I always thought was a
kind of an abrupt ending. But you know, they had

(01:31:11):
a great opener for number two.

Speaker 1 (01:31:13):
Then when you say thumbed his nose, do you mean
like he does the like old Italian grandpa, I got
your nose bit.

Speaker 2 (01:31:20):
I think he like flicks it or something like he
like goes and pulls the strike or something and then
just like flicks his nose.

Speaker 1 (01:31:27):
Other deleted scenes from The First Karate Kid include Daniel's
mom explaining that they moved to la for a job
with Rocket Computers, but the company went bankrupt, which explains
why she's waiting tables a terrifyingly preciant.

Speaker 2 (01:31:41):
It's wild man like he explains. It seems like a
huge continuity here actually because he explains, my mom got
a job out here rocket Computers, building the future or
something like that. Like he drops that really early in
the movie, and then the next one of the next
times we see, I mean, she's actually in this a lot.
I kind of forgot, But when they're eating lunch, she's
talking about trying to get into a manager training program

(01:32:02):
and being like I could never get these benefits and
working in computers, and it's just not completely unremarked upon.
So it feels like a bit of a miss there.
But you know, it was the eighties.

Speaker 1 (01:32:11):
I think I almost thought that like he was just
like lying to like make it seem like his mom
was like real you.

Speaker 2 (01:32:18):
Know, Oh yeah, that's kind of nice.

Speaker 1 (01:32:21):
Yeah, I don't know. This is my screenwriter Bran trying
to make sense of it.

Speaker 2 (01:32:25):
Oh sure, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:32:26):
Yeah. Two other confrontations between Johnny and Daniel will also cut.
One where a blueberry pie prank goes awry.

Speaker 2 (01:32:34):
They like sneak he like sneaks a blueberry pie under
one of them does it to the other one and
then the other one does it back or something, and
it turns into like a food fight or some cafeteria.
But I think they were like, we already had the
spaghetti shot at the country club, so we're not doing Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:32:52):
It's Andy Griffith's style prank.

Speaker 2 (01:32:55):
Yeah, still want to ant bees pies?

Speaker 1 (01:32:59):
Yeah, And then there was another confrontation in which Daniel
presses Johnny about Creasee, saying you ever think he might
be wrong, to which Johnny replies, tell him, Heigel, wash
your mouth.

Speaker 2 (01:33:12):
I was the line he delivered in his audition. Sorry,
I really bungled that one.

Speaker 1 (01:33:16):
Incidentally, not only did Machio get to take home the
trophy he wins at the end of the tournament and
a couple of his trademark headbands, but he also got
to take home the nineteen forty eight Ford Super Deluxe
Club that mister Miyagi gifts him in the film, which
he reportedly has to this day. I love I love
when actors get gifted like crucial props from their movies.

Speaker 2 (01:33:40):
I mean, I can't believe they gave him that car.
I was like, Yeah, it's like an old town car
style touring style is beautiful.

Speaker 1 (01:33:48):
That's like an expensive car.

Speaker 2 (01:33:51):
Yeah, what's that? What's is there one on barn Finds
or bring a trailer?

Speaker 1 (01:33:56):
I think I see one for like, let's see forty
k on Car Gurus. Yeah, damn, that was a beautiful
Damn I think in I think that's Biff's car in
Back to the Future he's in a forty eight Ford,
because I remember Doc Brown says where he's in a
forty eight Ford, we're in a Delareo. It'll crush us

(01:34:17):
like we're made a tenfoil. That was my Christopher. Christopher
Lloyd wasn't very good. Crush us like we're made of tenfoil.
You do an incredible Christopher Lloyd.

Speaker 2 (01:34:27):
It's all from just being scared of him in as
Judge Doom.

Speaker 1 (01:34:32):
And Dennis la Menace. Oh yeah, yeah, he's got like
the switch blade.

Speaker 2 (01:34:37):
Oh my god, Yeah, he was terrifying that. Yeah. Karate
Kid was basically an immediate hit, as the test screenings predicted.
It opened a five million and finished fourth in nineteen
eighty four as the top grossing films behind an incredibly
stacked I mean highest grossing was Ghostbusters. Indiana Jones and
the Temple of Doom was next, and then Gremlins. So

(01:34:59):
the fact that this thing like moved the needle at
all is remarkable. It took in one hundred million domestic
and sold it estimated twenty seven million tickets in the
US and Canada, and surprisingly for something with this much
juice with the hoi polloi, it was a big hit
with critics Roger Ebert and Janet Maslin both liked it.

(01:35:19):
The film was also responsible for a huge influx of
interested persons into the martial arts, particularly karate, which had
been on the wane after the kung fu exploitation craze
of the seventies. Side Down. Pat Johnson said he got
like two calls from people after working on the movie
who were like, attendance has doubled at my dojo. As
Chad McQueen inimitably put it, that movie probably saved a

(01:35:39):
lot of ass whoopings.

Speaker 1 (01:35:41):
There were two.

Speaker 2 (01:35:41):
Sequels with Machio and Norita before they moved on to
the next Karate Kid, starring Academy Award winner Future. At
that point, Hilary Swank. Much of the cast reunited for
a two thousand and seven music video for a band
called No More Kings, who I remembered nothing about, but
they had a song called Sweep. The leg icted Billy
Zabka to see if he would make a cameo in it,

(01:36:02):
and he told them that he would do it under
the condition he could direct and they would spend the
money to reunite the cast, which is cute. The only
thing I'll mentioned about that piece of remake with Jaden
Smith and Jackie chan now is set in China. Inexplicably
is that William Zabka got a chance to meet Will
after the fact. He told USA Today it was fun

(01:36:25):
because I was backstage at the after party. Will introduced
us to Jaden and he said, I just want you
to know we weren't doing anything disrespectful. It's an homage
to the Karate Kid. I said, I get it, man,
I'm actually doing the same thing with the Fresh Prince
of bel Air.

Speaker 1 (01:36:38):
Does he work on the Fresh Prince of bel Air?

Speaker 2 (01:36:41):
Will Smith?

Speaker 1 (01:36:42):
Wait? No, I remember reading this and being confused by it. No,
he razinem because they've remade his movie and he was
joking about remaking their series. Oh, I thought it was
like when they were remaking the series for real, I
guess later. No, Yeah, that's confusing. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:36:57):
Sorry, Perhaps we should make that the series was rebooted
for real and Billy's Apko was not involved to the
best of my knowledge. Maybe he has an EP credit somewhere. Machio, again,
famously one of the nicest guys in Hollywood, was incredibly
diplomatic about the remake. He told The Guardian it enhanced
the legacy of the original, while also pointing out there's
no such thing as karate in China, so it should

(01:37:19):
have been called the Kung Fu Kid, and apparently apparently
Jackie Chan has resumed his role as mister Hahn.

Speaker 1 (01:37:29):
In that movie.

Speaker 2 (01:37:30):
I wonder if that was Jackie's condition, that if he
was going to be in it, they had to they
had to pour it at to China or something they
just did out of respect for No, because Nourito was
still alive at that point or two or twenty twelve
pre are you dying?

Speaker 1 (01:37:44):
He dried in twenty twelve.

Speaker 2 (01:37:46):
Yeah, so he would have been alive at that point,
so I doubt they would do it out of respect
for him. But Jackie Chan is one of the biggest
like Chinese political apparatus shills, so I wonder if he
was like, you have to move it in China. It
has to be able to glory of Chinese martial arts anyway.
So Jackie Chan has resumed this role in Another Karate Kid,

(01:38:06):
alongside Ralph Machio, again the actor and not the comic
book artist. Apparently that's coming out in December, which okay man.
As we mentioned earlier, many of the original casts have
resumed their roles for the streaming series Cobra Kai, which
I believe is actually like Johnny the character's redemption arc
that they keep bringing back all these ancillary characters like

(01:38:28):
they afore mentioned Daryl Vidal. There's also a Karate Kid
musical which debuted in Saint Louis in twenty twenty two
and is apparently headed for Broadway. Mark Cayman was actually
involved in that, which I kind of respect that this
hard ass, grizzled old Hollywood guy was like, no, a musical,
I'll do it.

Speaker 1 (01:38:45):
I had a bad year in my vineyard, so yeah, yeah, right.

Speaker 2 (01:38:50):
Lastly, there's a popular theory given space on How I
Met Your Mother that pausits Daniel as the antagonist of
the film and that he is the aggressor in these scenes.
You know, he aggressively moves in on Johnny's ex girl
and starts throwing. He throws the first punch in that scene.
Maybe I don't know. It's all obviously very tungue in cheek,

(01:39:10):
but it reached enough critical mass that Jimmy Fallon asked
him about it when he was on the Tonight Show.

Speaker 1 (01:39:17):
And so in the original YouTube.

Speaker 2 (01:39:18):
Video that I think where I went viral and prompted
all of this, they do hilariously refer to mister Miyagi
as a quote local busybody, karate master and child batterer. Hilarious. Ultimately,
I hope you folks have enjoyed this. There is one
last piece of ephemera that I can recommend. John g

(01:39:40):
Avilson's YouTube channel has uploaded the entirety of a karate
kid rehearsal in chunks to YouTube to his YouTube channel.
I think I already said that that's fine. He has
these hilarious all caps boomerass explanations of what's going on
in the video in the description of it, such as
and again in all caps, that's Jimmy Crave our cameraman

(01:40:03):
being knocked down when Ralph does a karate kick to
the door of the apartment complex at the beginning of
our story. That's part one, So they're all up there
if you want to watch it. It's pretty great stuff ultimately, folks.
Final thought, I want to leave the last word on
karate Kid to the man who created the entire thing,

(01:40:25):
Robert Mark Kaman, who once said, I swear to God,
if I hear wax on wax off one more time,
I will strangle the next person who says.

Speaker 1 (01:40:33):
It, which I don't think is a legal karate move.

Speaker 2 (01:40:36):
No no, there's no submissions. All points based, folks, this
has been too much information. I'm Alex Hagel and.

Speaker 1 (01:40:44):
I'm Jordan Runtug. We'll catch you next time. Too Much
Information was a production of iHeartRadio. The show's executive producers.

Speaker 2 (01:40:56):
Are Noel Brown and Jordan Runtag.

Speaker 1 (01:40:58):
The show's supervising producer is Michael Older June.

Speaker 2 (01:41:01):
The show was researched, written, and hosted by Jordan Rundgg
and Alex Heigel.

Speaker 1 (01:41:05):
With original music by Seth Applebaum and the Ghost Funk Orchestra.
If you like what you heard, please subscribe and leave
us a review. For more podcasts and iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Host

Jordan Runtagh

Popular Podcasts

United States of Kennedy

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Karate Kid: Everything You Didn't Know