A Very Salisbury Christmas: Scrooged with Unfiltered Wife

It’s Christmas Eve! It’s the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer and the miracle happens! In this case, the miracle is the epic conclusion of A Very Salisbury Christmas!

Mrs. Junkfood herself stops by to discuss with Brian a true blue holiday classic that hits both of their feels like a toaster to the skull: Scrooged!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's a meaning junk and watching Rabbi sh you gonna
come out and stop me?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
All right, this is Dick Miller.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
If you're listening to junk food cinema, who are these guys? Now?

Speaker 1 (00:46):
More than ever, it is important to remember the true
meaning of Christmas, and which I'm pretty sure is cookies.
Cookies is the true meaning of Christmas as far as
I'm concerned, or possibly the true meaning of Christmas is
junk food cinema and more specifically, a very so's Merry Christmas.

Speaker 4 (01:01):
Fox, Fox, Merry Christmas. You'll shut your eye on kid
for a couple of hours out of the whole year.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
And we are the people that we.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Always hoped we wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Which, yes, boys and girls, we are still in the
middle of and I'm super excited, super excited to be
welcoming back to the show. What's that? There's a knock
on the on the studio set that is supposed to
be my front door. Let's see who it is. Well,
welcome back to the show. It's a hat trick for
missus junk Food. Hello, Unfiltered wife Lauren has returned. Welcome

(01:42):
back to the show, babe, how are you?

Speaker 2 (01:44):
I'm good thank you for having me back, sir.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
The holidays haven't completely melted your brain and run you ragged.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Oh my god, they have. Okay, it's uh, it's always
a lot, but I love it. It's my favorite holiday.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
And we are talking about one of your favorite holiday
movies today.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Not just one of my favorite holiday movies, the the
like number one, my favorite Christmas movie ever.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Wow, So we really have to do this movie justice
because it is your very favorite holiday movie ever.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yes, I'm absolutely obsessed. I can't think of how many
times I've seen it over the.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Years, and at least four times over the last two days,
so I mean.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
This one is in heavy rotation, to be certain. And
that movie, of course, is nineteen eighty eights.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
Scrooged Crank Cross is a man of true vanity whose
specialty is in humanity's finis Christmas.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Thank you call County and then he saw you.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
Now what scares him the pots Christmas musicians that he's
losing disanity awareness. Scrooge to ragg thirty starts Wednesday, November third,
at theaters.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Everywhere, starring the Great Bill Murray, directed by Richard Donner, who,
by the way, the year before this made lethal Weapon,
So he must have been on a real Christmas tip
at the end of the eighties because he went from
lethal Weapon to Scrooge. He made one of the most
violent Christmas movies of all time at that point, and
then one of the most, Like is this really comedic,

(03:26):
very heartfelt reinterpretation of a Christmas Carol? Honestly like that
one two punch, like giving us two great Christmas movies
that are very different from each other. The only other
person I could think of in that category is Bob Clark,
who gave us both Black Christmas and a Christmas Story.
So Dick Donner is in rare company.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
With this nice I did not know that. I love
the movie.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
So do you have you seen Letho Weapon? Have I
showed you Leath the Weapon?

Speaker 3 (03:56):
No?

Speaker 1 (03:57):
You haven't seen Letho wepon. Okay, all right, never mind,
We're not doing this canceling the episode. Were newly the
Weapon instead.

Speaker 5 (04:02):
Mel Gibson Danny Glover Lethal Weapons Later are starts Friday,
March sixth.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
I know about it, like I know it's Mel Gibson,
I know it's Danny Glover, but I don't. Yeah, I've
never I've never seen it. I always get it confused
with Beverly Hills Cop and so then people be like,
have you seen lethal Weapon? I'm like, oh, yeah, well
Axel Foley.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Do you say that to people the one with do
they look at you like, oh.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Okay, I get looks. Sorry, I just need to watch it.
I bet it's great. I love buddy cop movies. I'm
sure i'd enjoy it. I don't know why I've never
seen it.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, it's like one of the buddy cop movies. I know,
I know that's like I like movies about the mafia,
but I've never seen The Godfather. Should I check that
one out?

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well? But you know my favorite buddy cop movie, Blue Streak?

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Okay, yeah, no, you know what, so much stuff making
sense now, I totally get why you haven't seen Lethal
Webs And if Blue Streak is your go to pinnacle
for buddy cop movies, totally understand why you haven't seen
Lethal Weapon. Yep, that's fair, that's totally fair for this shit.
But we're not here to talk about lethal Weapon. It
turns out we're here to talk about Scrooge. Yes, which,

(05:15):
did you know this Bill Murray at the time that
he made Scrooge had not been in a movie since Ghostbusters.
He was living in Paris, he was taking a break
and considering retiring from acting altogether.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
I actually did know that this was kind of his
comeback story. Yeah, so to speak, and he oh, he
did it so well. You're used to just this kind
of smartass like like you know, really kind of like
bland like exterior, just kind of real, sarcastic, kind of

(05:48):
sometimes douchey guy.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
I don't know anything about that. Yes, go on, but he.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Will just Oh my god, I just skipping all the
way to the end. That monologue he gives at the
end of the movie ev every year, it just like
touches my heart. Sure, it's perfect, Like you have all
these like Christmas movies that come about with these big
poignant moments and these big monologues and these change of.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Characters, like when Jamie finally gets a turboman. I know
it's huge and just crying cry the whole time.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
You were rooting for the kid. No, but that that
monologue of his is like etched into my heart strings.
That's all I can say. It's just perfect.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
I want to make it very clear, no one is
rooting for Jamie in jingle all the way like, oh yeah, no,
he's a bread That kid sucks. Yeah, that kid sucks.
But you know, you're right. It's it's a very heartfelt
moment at the end of it.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Which is like seeing that from Bill Murray though.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Which just felt almost definitely completely improvised.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
It is.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
No.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
I actually like looked it up at one point because
he's just going, oh yeah, he's going but he's got
tears in his eyes.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, he's emotional, spark.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
His eyes are sparkling, like it's just like he is
going for it, and I'm just like, I love it.
I absolutely love it. It's so good.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
It is really good. But I mean that is one
of the things that I feel like a lot of
people like Richard Donner and Bill Murray working together is
actually pretty fitting because both of them have proven at
different points in their career to be very difficult to
work with right and just being like very like steadfast,
and how they're like uncorruptible in their vision, which is
something I'm sure you appreciate because I just said their

(07:21):
vision vision yep. But you know, Bill Murray likes to improvise.
He likes to rework scripts that give him a long
runway to do things like that. And Richard Donner does
not like improvisation. He doesn't like not knowing what the
movie's gonna be. He said, directing Bill Murray was like
standing on forty second Street and all the traffic lights
are broken and you're trying to direct traffic.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yeah, no, I get it. He's very off the cuff.
I often like, every time I watch that movie, I
always like wonder was this an improv line? Was this
in improv line? And I bet pretty much everything.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Was there, just.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
His little one liners. Yeah, I feel like that can't
be just written. That's legally right off his brain.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, no, it makes total sense. And there is a
lot of improvisation from Murray from other people. There are
a couple of real life mistakes that are just left
in the movie that work for comedic effect. Yes, but yeah,
this movie has has a lot going for it. And
I think the best place to start here is with
this cast. Oh my God, the cat because we got

(08:23):
Bill Murray. Of course, we have the absolutely phenomenal Karen
black in the Uh did I say Karen Black? Karen Allen,
Karen Allen, Karen Blackson, like Airport seventy seven. Does the
different actors all that one Karen Allen, who's who's absolutely
fantastic in this movie as the sort of romantic lead.
But I gotta tell you, it's the supporting cast of
this movie as a deeper bench than the ninety two

(08:45):
dream Team. It's absolutely insane.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Oh my gosh, I and some of these like actors
I'd never even heard of, but you probably have, but
I hadn't, And I would remember like just being so
impressed with them. I'd go on these like deep dives
to know everything that I could know about them because
I was so obsessed.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
Yeah, well, let's just run down. I'm just gonna run
down a list really ready. Alfree Woodard John Glover, who
plays Bryce Cummings.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Oh my god, he's the guy in Batman, the bad
guy Batman.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
Wait when you say okay, stop, oh sidebar. When you'd
say Batman, you're talking about Batman and Robin. Uh.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
Is that the one where he's like the bad guy
with poison ivy?

Speaker 1 (09:34):
Yes? Yes, so for you, the Batman movie is Batman
and Robin.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Oh no, good, Okay, it's Batman Returns.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Okay, fair, totally fair. Also a movie we could have
done for this series.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Oh my god, I know it's Christmas too.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
It's totally It's a great Christmas movie. But no, for
a minute, I was like, is that your go to
Batman movie?

Speaker 2 (09:51):
No?

Speaker 1 (09:52):
But what's interesting about you bringing that up is that
Bill Murray at one point was offered the role of
Batman in that movie because no, no, no, wait, because it
was going to be originally an adaptation of the nineteen
sixties Batman, so he was gonna play like the Adam
West version of Batman. I could, I could see that

(10:12):
particular version. But what's even crazier about that is at
one point, Richard Donner was supposed to direct the eighty
nine Batman.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
That would have been fun.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
So Richard Donner was supposed to direct the Batman. Bill
Murray was supposed to be in the It could have
been a screwged reunion. WHOA.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
That would have been crazy.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
But then Tim Burton Kimil Bordon went no, we're not
doing the sixties. We're gonna We're gonna do something completely different,
and of course it's a It's a legendary, incredible film.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
It love Tim Burton's Batman, which is.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
Why I was like, is Batman and Robbier go to
Batman penal, but it's Batman Returns and that that I'm
totally on board with. I had all of the trading
cards from that movie as a kid. This is a
real thing that I collected. I don't know where they
are now, but I had them. Even in a trapper
keeper that like had Batman. It was a Batman Returns
trapper Keeper. So it was very very on brand. Not
to brag, y'all, not to brag, but yeah, no, Bill

(11:00):
Murray was supposed to be Batman at one point. It's
just that's that's fucking crazy.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
But yes, John Glover's great in this movie. I'm gonna
stop my list for just a second to talk about
how much I love John Glover in this movie. Who
feels like a character from American Psycho.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
Oh yeah, I could see that. He's very like I
was getting like sitcom vibes from him, Like that's like
that guy that's always underhanding people in the office, is
trying to jump ahead, and.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
Yeah he's uppy.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
He's so sleezy, sleezy, sleezy, yuppy. Yeah, but oh he
did he did it so great. It's like like I
just remember like all the times he's trying to brush
like dandriff off Bill Murray's jacket jacket, and he's trying
to do it in like a like oh, I'm helping
you out kind of way, but it's so like something

(11:45):
that would just get in like my head and all
just be like completely undermined and off off kilter for
the rest of the year.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, I mean that's the reason logical. Yeah, that's the
reason he's doing it is just to undermine him the
entire time, and it is pathological. Sometimes I don't even
think he knows he's doing it.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
No, it's like just ingrained.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, but he is every bit the eighties corporate yuppie.
Like I when he breaks out that pocket watch, I
expected like little dribbles of cocaine just to fall out
of it. Like I'm like, this guy is clearly blowing rails.
He is blowing rails between shots, don't worry about it.
But he's also like just very obsessed with like oh
I met him at Spago and then Howard Cosell said this,

(12:21):
and like it's just like very much feels like a
character who would work at shit. I can't remember the firm.
Patrick Pateman works at but he would work in murders
and assassinations for sure. Yeah, so he's great in this obviously.
And then Bobcat Goldwait, bobcat Goldwait as sort of the
put upon Bob Cratchett who goes fucking ballistic, which I'm

(12:42):
gonna say this right now, that's the one thing missing
from Dickens's original story, Bob Cratchit should have went ape
shit and just like murdered Scrooge, like he literally was
like being put in a position where his child was
gonna die because his boss would give him a raise.
Like it's time to eat the rich, Like let's do
less less Charles Dickens and more Jonathan Swift and eat

(13:02):
that old fucker Scrooge. That's all I'm saying, guys, all right,
eat the rich. If you take one thing away from
this Christmas episode of Jug Food Cinema, it's this, eat the.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Rich, Eat the rich.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
But no, he's he's really great in this. But I
have to ask you a question, babe. Does he bump
up against your aversion to weird voices?

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Yes, that's why I have such a tough time with him,
Like I have, I have very strong feelings about really
weird voices like like oh like you were God for you, Like,
oh God, that's like driving nails of a chockboard and
bobcat goalweights in there too, and I'm just like talk normal,
talk normal, talk normal, And then I get Ragye and
I forget that he's doing a good job because he's

(13:40):
so endearing and I want to like him, but then
he goes all crazy with that weird like I don't
know what it is, like just just talk.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
Well, I mean, and I love the pivot he's made
in you know, the last you know, several e twenty
years or so. But he's he's now become a really
interesting and subversive filmmaker. But if you hear him in interviews,
he doesn't he doesn't talk like that. He does so
it's an affectation that he put on all throughout the eighties.
I don't know, but it got him work. I mean,

(14:12):
it's hard to argue with the star of Hot to Trot, Babe,
That's all I'm saying. It's a it's a movie where
he inherits a hoarse voice by John Candy. It's a
fucking weird situation. Uh yeah, it's it's very strange. But
he is. He's really great in this movie. He does
have a little bit more pathos than he did and
in most movies of this time that he would shoot

(14:33):
in between appearances on talk shows where he would like
get arrested for trying to smash or burn down the
set of that talk show. He had a really weird
habit of going like he went on the Tonight Show
and set it on fire, or I think David Letterman
he set Dave's desk on fire and like literally had
to do PSAs about about burning like it was. It

(14:56):
was insanity. What the shit he was pulling off in
this in this particular point in his career, but managed
to turn into great performance in this So wait wait,
waitna go Bob like you, I do that now just
to annoy you.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
We'll return after these messages a U.

Speaker 6 (15:14):
Time message from bobcat goothwait and.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
MTV, here's holiday season. You can do.

Speaker 5 (15:21):
Something about the crass commercialization of Christmas.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
You can be a part of it.

Speaker 6 (15:26):
It's the MTV Scooge for a Day contest. You'll be
the greediest thing known to man. I'm television network presidents.
You'll be rich, You'll be powerful, just like Bill Murray
and his new paramount, It's Scrooge. You'll run an entire
network MTV for your whole day. You'll see what it's
like to pick the videos.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
And coney up next to.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
It's the news Podcat Golfway today received the Nobel Peace
Prize for his work with toddlers Man.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
He's the handsomest man ever to win the pro.

Speaker 5 (16:00):
Give high level orders to groveling toadies Kyles talking of Prototada.
As MTV Scrooge for a Day, You'll win a big
fat commission from MTV holiday advertising and one day's gross
from a major theater showing Scrooge, plus Levi's five O
one jeans TwixT cookie bars and promis off shampoo.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
And at the end of the day.

Speaker 7 (16:19):
Just like Scrooge, you'll be gently persuaded by the ghost
of Christmas to give twenty percent to charity. So send
your name agent address to MTV Scrooge for a Day,
post Office box eight nine to nine Radio City Station.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
New York, New York one oh one oh one.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
That happened to me in that movie too.

Speaker 6 (16:36):
Let's tell that Russian play.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
Seasons and no back to our story.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
Also in this movie, David Johansson. I'm sorry, is it
me or did it just get hot hot hot in here?

Speaker 2 (16:53):
See, I didn't know that was his name. I just
knew him as best.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
Point buster Poindexter always.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
I'm obsessed with that song.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Yeah, yeah, no, that's how that's how you and I
knew him. And then there's a lot of music hipsters
listening to this going, oh, so we've never heard of
the New York Dolls.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
Okay, fine, yeah, probably no.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
I love him in this as the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, like he he has limited screen time and just
eats it up.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
He makes me a out of that scene.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Like, oh, it's so good, and it took me like I.
Like I said, I've been watching this movie since I
was a kid, and each year, as I've gotten older,
I understand more of his jokes. I remember, you actually
had to explain to me about the Niagara Falls joke
because I was just thinking, like, oh, like Bill Marie
and his family, they like must have had a family
vacation and Niagara Falls. It's bringing up fond memories and

(17:44):
You're like, no, babe, it's like they're crying because.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
It's sad, and I'm like, agra fall.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
It's franky Angel, and I'm like, oh, like it took
me okay long to get it.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
Look, I am not one to judge anyone for missing
things in movies. I've missed a lot of thing like
things that should have been obvious to me and went
right over my head several times. But David Joe Hadson
literally motions with his fingers the the uh movement of
water down the face when he says niagar Ful.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
I don't know why I didn't pay attention to that,
or like just didn't notice it, but yeah, I completely
missed that joke untill probably like maybe like ten years ago.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
I'm just realizing that David johanson impression sounds like Jigsaw
from Punisher war Zone, So I'm gonna stop doing it.
But he's he's really funny in this. And this is
a musician turned actor who appeared in a number of
really strange movies. He was in like Mister Nanny with
hul Kogan, and he just like he would just show
up in weird places.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
But I appreciate that I've only seen him in this,
and I like so many parts in that So many
parts in this movie just make me just burst out laughing.
But My number one favorite thing that he does and
this movie is when they're looking at Bill Murray and
he's the dog and he goes, it's a bum Yeah,
Bill Murray's when he's uh, Frisbee the dog.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
When he's when he's on that kids show, it's a
bone you morn.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
And just like and he does it over and over
and it's so great.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
I just love it so smoking a cigar and just
having the most childlike reaction to this what's in the
basket and all the kids are like, it's about it's
about your lucky dog.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
I just can't like even thinking about it. I'm like dying. Man.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
You're right. He basically stuffs the Christmas goose full of
scenery and has a big family meal.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
Someone does it better? Go ahead and tell me who.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Who does what better?

Speaker 2 (19:37):
In the one of the ghosts eats up the scenery.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
Oh well it's Carolkaine.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
Oh my god, she's my favorite. She's my favorite. She's
my favorite. She's my favorite.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
As as the ghost of Christmas Present.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
Unhinge yeah, sadistic.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
Unhinged, sadistic, she is an agent of chaos. Uh yeah, no,
I I love her so much.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
In this perfect ye perfect sometimes you have to just
to get sit at cage.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
Her performance is a brilliant work of furious menace. Like
she's just like so sweet and bubbly and then just
beats the shy.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
I cannot get through that entire scene without just dying.
And on one thing that so, you haven't seen the
New Wicked, but I have. And there are scenes in
Wicked where Ariana Grande goes a little unhinged and she
will throw her wand and you'll hear crashing in the background,

(20:36):
and I'm like laughing so hard because it's just like
what Carol Caine does in Scrooged. Yeah, and even funnier,
Like it's kind of like a cool little tie around.
Is that one of the first things that she says
when he approaches her and she's dancing and the bubbles
are everywhere she goes, Oh, I'm so meddled. That is
something that Glinda the Goodwitch says in The Wizard of Oz.

(21:00):
I am thinking that Ariana Grande might have taken a
little inspiration from the sadistic Carol Caine being the ghost
of Christmas Present and Scrooged, because she's like unhinged, just
like her. Wow, I'm super syrupy sweet. It's something I
just noticed, like when I watched it last night, because
I just seen Wicked.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
Interesting. I never would have put those pieces together. But
it makes sense that Ariana Grande would take inspiration from
this movie because Scrooged as a film is very pop
you ler. Yep, So it makes sense to me a
thousand percent. By the way, Carol Caine, it doesn't just
appear that she's beating the shit out of Bill Murray.
She really beat the shit like when she grabs his lip.

(21:39):
Apparently she damaged him so bad that they had to
stop filming for a few days.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
Yep. I actually read that, Yeah, is crazy.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
Bananna's like she really is like going after which I'm
sure was it Bill Murray's insistence like, no, we have
to really do this.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
I think I read that that he was like, yeah,
you need to go for it. She was like, oh,
this is so out of my wheelhouse. But she did
it and and there you go, and it was perfect.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Babe. I just got your your Christmas present just got
delivered by Amazon. And uh, it's a toaster.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
Where are we going down? Down?

Speaker 1 (22:12):
I thought, which she hits him with that toaster and
says the line like that, Yeah, I lose it every time.
It's just so good. It's like she's hitting him with
a toaster, like it's an easy w match from ninety seven.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
Oh, just every part that she's in, like from when
she covers his ears so he doesn't hear the Christmas
gift that his brother's getting him. Yeah, to like oh
to like when when they're watching like Little Calvin and
they're like, oh, he's so smart. Like then you see
this like really soft, compassionate side, Like you see she
is like genuinely a good person. But I think she's

(22:45):
just pissed at Frank sure us because he's a douche. Yeah,
and so she's like punishing him like you are going
to turn good by the will of my menacing yeah
and that, and then he like start he's starting to
come around. It's like a perfect punishment.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
I love it. I'm gonna, yeah, kick his ass. I'm
just realizing that if you haven't seen this movie, we
haven't even told you what the plot is. Wh's just
that Bill Murray plays a television executive. I get it.
But this version Scrooge is Frank Cross, who is the
the president of a television network IBC.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
You'll love it.

Speaker 1 (23:19):
You'll love it. I've got the fake Oh we're gonna
talk about the fake movies and TV shows two thousand
percent so good. But he is, he's very hard to
work for. He's he's kind of a bastard. He's very
much an Ebenezer Scrooge type character, but blended so nicely
with again that corporate eighties yuppie you know, orseeshit like
it's so so good. And he's he's in charge of

(23:42):
putting on this live production of a Christmas Carol, which
they keep calling Charles Dickens Scrooge, which is not what
the book is called now, but that's what they're gonna
do this live. And they're gonna have Mary lou Rettina's
tiny Tim and they're gonna have Jamie Farr, even though,
by the way, I don't think I see Jamie Farr
in the movie, like they show him in the promo
for Scrooge, like the movie within the movie, but I

(24:03):
don't actually ever see him on set. So it's really interesting.
We do see Buddy Hackett as Ebenezer Scrooge, which is
an interesting casting choice no matter if this is a
movie within a movie or made for TV or whatever,
Like it's an interesting piece of casting Buddy Hackett as Scrooge.
Not sure i'd buy it.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
I don't know who Buddy Hackett is.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
That's fine, that's fine. You didn't know where Niagara Falls
was either, It's fine. No, But like, so they're putting
on this production and his old mentor, the guy who
used to run the television they used to run IBC.
His name's Lou, who is dead, visits him one night
in his office.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
Now, Lou is played by John Forsythe, who I'm sure
you know even if you don't know, because John Forsythe
was the original voice of Charlie in Charlie's Angels. So
when they would like hear the voice on the speaker
giving them their yeah, so not only in the TV show.
I didn't know that, not only in the TV show,
but in the movie as well.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
Yeah, yeah, no, I was like his his voice sounds
so familiar, like when he's doing the little thing about
like I was on the Green and Dad, and I'm like, God,
I know that voice, but where and I just I
never never done on me?

Speaker 1 (25:08):
That's cool. He's Charlie. Uh, And I got to say this,
one of the things I love most about this movie
is at a certain points they lean into the horror
element a lot. Yes, and the makeup on john Ford
syite so good. So I'm unsettling and weird and awesome.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
Oh it's amazing and like I just I one of
my favorite scenes just because I actually like really love
like anatomical like Gore, like I like like it. It's
fun to watch.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah, we've talked about your affinity for the fly.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, oh Flyi's awesome. And yeah, when he's clawing at
his arm and like the tendons are snapping, I'm I'm.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
Just like, yes, yeah, so so detailed and specific. He's
he's less a corpse and more straight up mummy. Yeah,
Like the physics are very mummy like on him. Yeah,
and I'm here for it. It looks fantastic. But he
tells him he's gonna be visited by three spirits. Uh.
John Forsyth really interesting guy, like quit acting during World
War Two to go into military service, not unlike Elvis

(26:05):
gave up his successful career for a while to go
into military service. Just just a really really interesting figure.
But he's he's great in this and that makeup is
just fantastic. So the first the first ghost, of course,
is David Johanson, the ghost of Christmas Past, who takes
Frank back to his childhood, which is like he warns him,
like straight up, like when you see your mother, you're

(26:27):
going to cry, and Frank's like, no, I'm not, You're ridiculous,
and sure enough, like he it's it's when his mom
leaves the room and like is like, you know, Merry Christmas,
and he starts crying and then they you know, we
progress forward to the moment he meets Claire played by
Karen Allen, not Karen Black, Carroll Allen. And so it's
again structurally it is a Christmas Carrol totally. This is bell.

(26:49):
This is Belle from a Christmas Carol. This is the
one that got away because he got too focused on
his career and kind of the moment where he becomes
screw huge, like the moment that's the moment in the
book too, where it's like when you make the conscious
decision that money is going to be the driving force
in your life instead of love, you become this hardhearted,

(27:10):
like horrible, like miser Yes, So this is this is
that moment for Frank as well, So we see all
of that, we see the progression, and then we go
we kind of cut back and forth between being visited
by the ghosts and trying to get this production of
Scrooge off the ground, which is always every time he
comes back to set after being with a ghost, more
calamity ensues.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
Oh my gosh, they like PLoP him right in the
middle of a set and he's waking up and something,
and it's just, oh, it's hilarious. And then I think
that's one of the reasons I like Christmas Presents so much,
because Frank is finally seeing like the repercussions of his actions,
like how terribly he treats his secretary. Is it affects
like how she's raising her family and his you know,

(27:53):
distancing away from his brother. He still loves him. Yeah,
it's just like he's like his hero. But he gives
his brother once again, his brother freaking towel out.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
Instead of so mad, instead of a VCR, which at
the time would have cost like fifteen hundred dollars. I
looked it up.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
Yeah, yeah, I'm like, what the hell, that's your brother.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
I mean to be fair, to be fair, be fair,
his brother gives him.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
A picture that he handmad.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
I get it, But there is a little bit of
an inequity there. Giving a guy a fifteen hundred dollars
VCR and he gives you a picture.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
Frank could be richer and he could afford to give them.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
Maybe the freak is richer. He runs a television.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
So see, we don't know what. We don't know what
his brother does.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
What if he's his brother hosts parties uh and uh
and and is related to Bill Murray in real life.
That's what Bill Murray's brothers are in this movie Family Affair.
I really love it.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
It's so good because the his brother that in the movie, James,
is one of his real life brothers. I think it's
like his younger brother, and then John John okay, and
then his older brother Bryan Doyle. He's one of his voice. Yes,
he's his dad who gripes him about not liking his
gift of veal.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
Is ten pounds of veal.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
I'd be so pissed, But Daddy, I wanted to cheot you.
I get you. Frank, I wanted to choot you too.
I don't want veal.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
My favorite part is when Frank tries to explain his
tears by saying, I was touched by a gift a
small child receives. What is in today's market is a
four hundred dollars kind of milk fed veal. It's such
a yuppie response. I love it.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
And you know that like just came right from his brain,
I sing, I don't think he like that? Was not scripted?

Speaker 1 (29:32):
Probably not, Yeah, probably not, although going back to it
being a family fair in the script, this was co
written by Michael o'donahue, who appears in the movie as
the priest in the vision of Frank's funeral. Oh okay, yeah,
Michael o'donahue, this is this guy is a comedy legend.
And you'll have to forgive me for this this slight
indulgement on the sidebar, because Saturday and Night is still

(30:00):
probably my favorite movie of this year. He was He
was one of the original writers and editors at National
Lampoon Magazine, and then from there he got hired by
Lauren Michaels to be the head writer on the very
first season of Saturday Night Live. In fact, the very
first sketch ever shown on Saturday Night Live is John
Belushi and Michael o'donahue. Oh, it's like that weird thing

(30:24):
where Belushi comes in and he's trying to learn English,
so he's just repeating weird phrases that Michael o'donna. You
see it in the movie, You see it in Saturday
Night There we create it. But yeah, I mean, we're
talking about a guy who's like responsible for helping get
Saturday Night Live off the ground after he had already
gotten National Lampoons off the ground, which is also where
Bill Murray came from. Like Bill Murry went from I

(30:45):
Believe the Groundlings to National Lampoon to Saturday Night Live,
and from thence into comedy legend. So I like that's
he's co writing the script along with Bill Murray definitely
took a path like made a pass on this movie.
For sure, we'll return after these messages.

Speaker 3 (31:03):
Seven o'clock Psycho, ce send us word shot lead this
and only Lee Majors can stop that night the rain
deer shy.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
And no back to our story.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
I mean, I don't even need to tell you who
does the score, because the movie opens with.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Children's choir equals Danny Oafman.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
Must be Christmas because here comes the elf Man.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
All of his scores gets me. If you even start
like anything with like children's choirs, I usually am like
sobbing over. It's just so except Christmas, hold on, hold
on Christmas.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
I get what you're saying, but this is not the
home alone children's choir talking at your heart strings. Danny Elfman.
Children's choir is trying to creep into your nightmares while
you sing.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
It's still it's still like hits me in the heart
and I love and I love it and I think
it's beautiful. Scary, Okay, not scary.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
That's a little that's that's something I'm gonna have to
put on my red flag list. But that's okay. I'm
pot committed. There's nothing I can do about it, but
I will put that on the red flag list.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
It's magic.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
It warms my heartstrings and those little ghost children start
saying I.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
Love it, I love it. It makes me so happy,
like because you usually hear it and then you just
instant instantly know, like Danny Elfman's.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
Yeah, epic elf Man. I wonder if elf Man was
also a character in the Night the Reindeer Died.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
Oh my gosh. And what's so funny is they are
actually like made like the action movie like Santa movies.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
Now, Oh, Violent Knight is essentially The Knight the Reindeer Died, literally,
which is awesome because for years after seeing this movie,
all I wanted in the whole world was The Knight
the Reindeer Died. I'm like, make that a real movie.
God damn it.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
Good, I would have watched it.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
Sure.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
By the way, the gun that Lee Majors is holding
is the same prop that Jesse Ventura used in Predator,
So it's literally the gun from Predator.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Oh how funny.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
Yeah, yeah, that totally tracks. By the way. I don't
know that we've mentioned this yet, but Bill Murray in
the in the attempts to bring Bill Murray out of
pseudo retirement. He was offered a lot of roles, including Big,
and he turned down Big to make this interesting, which
I think is a great move because Big is already
a Really when you watch it now, it's a very

(33:15):
troubling movie because there's literally a point where a child
in a grow man's body has sex with a woman
and we just don't talk about it, but imagine that
that child is inside Bill Murray instead of Tom Hanks.
There's no innocence. There, no like that, that's just full
on creep town.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
It would have been yeah, like Tom Hanks can bring
like that innocent kind of like wholesomeness to it. But
I don't think that would have come across with Bill Murray.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
No, no, it absolutely would not. But yeah, he uh yeah,
it's just because of that retirement. He was offered so
many things and decided to do this. And I think
it speaks a lot to how he's responded to this movie,
because when you think about the fact that Ghostbusters was
like the most successful comedy of all time at that point. Yeah,
and then he goes into retirement thinking he's done gets
he gets pulled and really pours a lot of himself

(34:02):
into this project. Like he's got, you know, an old
friend Michael o'donna who writing it, and then he's punching
it up and doing all these improvisations. He really wants
to make this a great movie. He doesn't get along
with Richard Donner. He said that Richard Donner didn't understand
comedy and the only direction he got from him was louder,
Hey do it again. But louder Pilmer's like, I think
he might be deaf like that was the joke that

(34:22):
he did. So they clearly did not get along, and
Richard Donner had to walk away from The Lost Boys
to make this movie because The Lost Boys was taking
too long, which is why he's stilly credited producer on
The Lost Boys because he went out and found Joel
Schumacher to take his place because he had to move
on to this movie. But yeah, like when you think

(34:43):
about all this, the fact that it's a family affair,
the movie comes out, it's modestly successful. Yeah, Like it
makes sixty million on a thirty two million dollar budget,
which you know is it's better than breaking even, but
it's not like anything. It was the thirteenth highest grossing
movie of nineteen eighty eight, so again, honestly successful. But
I feel like it bummed Bill Murray out that you know,

(35:05):
he went from doing Ghostbusters, which was this mammoth success. Yeah,
pours himself into this. It does modestly well, and I
think that's why he jumps right back in the next
year to Ghostbusters two. Like it's like he he longed for,
like the safety of success that Ghostbusters would bring. Yeah,
even though I because I really do feel like there's
an alternate timeline where if Scrooge made you know, one

(35:25):
hundred and eighty million dollars, he would have said no
to Ghostbusters two. He would have been creatively fulfilled enough
to be like, no, I'm good. But because this movie
didn't make enough money, I feel is the reason he
jumped back into do. I mean, I'm speculating wildly, but well,
and that's.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
I mean maybe, But I just I think he he
was a better actor in this movie than he was
in Ghostbusters too. I think, oh yeah, like the heart
felt like ness that he like in his change and
personality and everything like that is more range. And I
think he showed in Ghostbusters where he was just kind

(36:02):
of like one note.

Speaker 1 (36:03):
That's just like my opinion, sure, but especially in Ghostbusters too,
where he is sleepwalking through that movie oh yeah, which,
by the way, any other actor that would be a
damning criticism. But Bill Murray's sleepwalking is still funnier than
most actors at their best.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
Bill Murray is one of my all time favorite.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
But you can tell when he's not giving it at all,
and in that movie he is not interested at all
it Ghostbusters.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
Yeah, yeah, he's definitely not trying his hard on that one.
But but yeah, he's just so perfect and Screwge. It's
like forever my favorite Bill.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
I think there's a just like a maybe a nugget
of personal investment in this character or semi autobiographical. It's
a semi autobiographical performance, I feel because Bill Murray is
somebody who's had a lot of troubles in his life
and had a period of time where he was really
hard to work with and really difficult on set. You know,

(37:00):
he and Harold Ramis had a falling out, and like,
I feel like, in some ways, playing Scrooge a character
who starts off so indifferent to everyone else, someone who
is so self absorbed that they could give a shit
if other people live or die, and they have to
have everything their way and crave success as they're only

(37:21):
like the only thing that redeems them, right, I feel
like that in a lot of ways was Bill Murray.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
For a while. I could definitely see that, and like,
and you can see like how I don't know it
just maybe it's he seems like touched with the cast
around him, Like he's really like vibing off them and
playing off what they're giving to him. And I can't
even like say that cry.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
But the scene with little Calvin, Yeah, we need to
talk about Calvin.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
Like literally it just and then you see Bill Murray's face,
like when he looks down at him and you see
this change yeah in his face, and it's perfect.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
Why he's so good in this movie. He gets it.
He does.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
And I want to I want to stress that's the
other side of this that I think is so self
aware but also optimistic, is that he plays this character who,
in the early part of the movie is so reprehensible
and possibly speaking to Murray's own, you know, personal issues,
but at the same time, it's a character that is redeemed.
It's a character that does have that one eighty yeah
full so almost in a way, it's like Bill Murray saying, guys,

(38:25):
don't worry, I'm gonna come out the other side of this.
And he did, and now he's one of the most
beloved actors.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
I tell you, Scroogel's a turning point for him. I
think it was a big, big, important movie that if
he hadn't have made it, he may not be the
Bill Murray that we know today.

Speaker 1 (38:40):
Yeah, he wouldn't be the guy that shows up to
just bartend at random dive bars for no reason.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
You know, he's just it's made me a fan forever,
forever and ever.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
Yeah, but Alfrey Woodard plays the maybe talk about the
Bob Cratchett analog in this movie. Grace his Frank Cross's secretary,
and she has a little boy who witnessed his father's
murder and hasn't spoken since. Like a really horribly tragic
story going on here. But he's just so sweet and

(39:09):
so lovable like this this child actor. There is a
lot demanded of him because he has to sell the
audience on this without uttering a single word.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
Yes, just his little eyes and and he can't be
any older than like five years old. Oh, he's so sweet.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
He's really really good and yeah he I love the
the setup, like where we we sow the seed of
He's watching a Christmas care like an old black and
white version on TV, and you see him watch the
ending where tiny Tim says God bless us everyone, and
he just has a little nod yep, And it's so good.
And then later, of course Bill Murray gives this impassioned

(39:46):
speech about how you know Christmas is a miracle because
for a few hours we are the people we always
wanted to be again. I feel like, is him talking
to himself in a really fascinating way. But then Calvin
is so moved by and he comes up and I
told you.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
Every time, So as many times as I have seen
this movie, Yeah, Like I'm literally sitting here crying. I
will always cry at that part. It just oh, it's
just like the good It's the good in people. You
just want the good people.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
He just says, God bless us everyone, and it brings
the fucking house down, house down. It's over down, it's over.
Qup c up, put a little love in your heart
and we're going home, folks.

Speaker 2 (40:24):
Oh my gosh. And then you just can't help but
like sing along to the song and it's so good.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
Annie Lennox and I think Jackie Wilson do a really
good cover of it. That is like literally one of
my all time favorite Christmas songs.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
Holy shit, sidebar. Do you know I'm just realizing he
goes and makes Ghostbusters to the next year, right, Yeah,
there's a Jackie Wilson song in that. And how do
they demonstrate that Jackie Wilson makes the slime move. They
put it in a.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
Holy crap it's a secret sequel. It's screwed, it's it's
under the radar. It's way under the radar. But I mean,
you can't hear Jackie Wilson and not have like feelings
about something like he's just so good for the Andy Lennox,
like combining with it was a really cool touch. And

(41:23):
you only hear one tiny part in the movie that
cover song, and it's in the apartment scene with the
ghost of Christmas Present and they're watching Grace's family. You
see this tiny little snippet of it, and then it
plays in the credits like fully, and that's like if
you have not heard that song or listens to it, like,
please do. It's such a great Christmas song. Top of
my Christmas list totally.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
And going back through the cast again, we get to
Robert Mitcham, who is one of my favorite actors. For god,
I love Robert Mitcham. He is a of course Max
Katie in the original Cape Fear, like he's been in
all of these great legendary classic movies. He's also the
narrator of Tombstone is probably what you know him? No, no, what,
wait a minute, have you not seen Tombstone? Who's in

(42:16):
that one again, Kurt Russell, Bill Paxton, everybody's in that movie,
Powers Booth, Fucking Thomas Hayden, Church, Billy Zaye, Billy Zayne, Babe.
The person our child is named after is in that movie.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
He's not the one where Val Kilmer has a disease.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
And Val kilma as you, huckle Berry, that's right, he
is playing.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
I've only okay, I I haven't seen it all the
way through, but I've seen parts of it.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
Wait a minute, are you telling Wait, doc, are you
telling me that you haven't seen one of the greatest
westerns ever made because you don't like the way Valcilmer
talks in that movie?

Speaker 2 (42:47):
No?

Speaker 1 (42:48):
Okay, thank god, because I was worried your reversion to
those the weird voices run so deep that you would
deprive yourself of seeing Tombstone.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
No, no, no, I just I don't think I've ever
seen it all the way through, and I usually get
it confused with Matrick.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
It's also directed by Richard Donner Maverick, there you go.
So I like he's Donner's interesting. Donner's an interesting cat
because he really can't work in pretty much any genre.
I mean, we're talking abou a guy that directed the
original Superman movie with Christopher Reeve and directed Lethal Weapon
and directed those of Maverick and Scrooge. Yeah they're all

(43:21):
very different movies. Okay, cool, but he also directed all
four Lethal Weapons. Like he's like, I'm not handing this
shit off to anybody. I'm doing all four of these movies.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
But yeah, Robert Mitchum in this movie. I love him
as the head of the studio, in this idea that
he has about programming for cats and dogs, and because
Frank is a yuppie kiss ass just has to be like,
I think that's a great idea. Let's get right. But
then that moment where he whispers to Grace and goes
call the police, such an amazing ad lib. And then

(43:54):
turns out I just learned this. If you have the
Roku channel, programming for pets is a thing that actually exists.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
Look at that.

Speaker 1 (44:02):
Wow, this movie really created something. I think it did,
not anything that really changed humanity. But you know there's
pet programming on Roku, So that's crazy.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
I care, I care.

Speaker 1 (44:15):
Such a great line, such a fucking great line. So
many and then there's also like just great character actors
in this like Michael j. Pollard, who's been in a
thousand things from uh, I Come in Peace to Tango
Cash Like, he's just the weird guy you would get
to be the little weird guy in movies. And then
Anne Ramsey of course, who was also in Richard Donner's Goonies.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
Oh yeah, that's oh and Mary Mary Ellen Trainer.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
Mary Ellen Trainer who was in so many Richard Donner,
who's including every lethal weapon.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
Yeah. He he likes his cast.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
He really really does. Loyal, very loyal. We already mentioned.
Of course, Lee Majors has a small part in this.
Wendy Malick from Just Shoot Me shows up as Bill
Murray's brother's girlfriend.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
Yes, very small little part.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
Yeah, who was married, I believe at the time to
uh the other writer on this movie whose name is
Escaping Me not O'donahue, but Mitch Glazer. She was married
to Mitch Glazer at the time. And then okay, I'm sorry,
this is how stacked this cast is. At one point
there is a like a street performance with a lot

(45:21):
of sexy eighties saxophone doing we three Kings. Yes. Yeah.
In that street band that he complains about is Paul Schaeffer,
who is of course the band leader for David Letterman
for years and years and years and years. Okay, and
Miles goddamn Davis is playing the trumpet.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
I thought Miles Davis was in there. I didn't know
about the other guy though.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
Miles Davis has no lines and is just playing the
trumpet in a quick blink and you'll miss it scene
in this movie like a year before he died.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
Wow, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
They got Miles Davis in this movie.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
Oh yeah, he's legend.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
We don't talk enough about it. Got Miles Davis, this
is that's fucking incredible to me. And then even like
really tiny parts like the waiter in that in that
scene where they're having its Preston and the head of
the studio played by Robert excuse me, Robert Mitcham and
Frank Crosser having lunch, the waiter is Socrates from Bill
and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

Speaker 2 (46:12):
Yes, you told me that like a year or two ago.
And then you got irritated because I'd never seen Bill
and Ted. And then we immediately watched Bill and Stone
after Scrooge.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
Well good, because we're immediately watching Tombstone after this recording.
So I give a damn it's now a Christmas movie.
Tombstone is a Christmas movie canonically, because I fucking said so,
I'm not a fan of Westerns. You know this, You'll
you'll be a fan of this one. This, trust me.
Just the cast alone will have you going, Wait a minute,
that's wait a minute, that's yeah, that's that's the whole movie.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
So dusty, God damn it, it's so pretty.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
I'm like seconds away from giving up on this entire podcast,
not this episode, the podcast in general. I'm just I'm
just fucking done.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
We'll return after these messages, and America's best love singer
invites you to share a home style Holidays old fashion
age in Christmas City, ring a lad.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
And now back to our story, by the way, in
that restaurant scene where he has a vision of a
waiter on fire, yeah, and then he throws the water
and turns out it was just a hallucination or something
brought upon by the ghosts, I don't know, he says,
I'm sorry, I thought you were Richard Pryor, which maybe
the darkest joke in the whole movie. Yeah, because if

(47:39):
I remember correctly, that had not happened too long before
this movie came out.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
Yeah, that's totally an ad lib.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
That Richard Pryor was freebasing crack cocaine and set himself
on fire.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
I didn't get that joke as a kid, and then
I actually.

Speaker 1 (47:52):
Had None of us kids got that joke.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
I had to go on a deep dive and figure
out what the heck that meant, and I.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
Was like, oh, oh yeah, yeah, oh wow. The other
thing I'm a really big fan of and I think
this really speaks to Bill Murray of course, but also
like Richard Donner, for as much as he's maybe not
known for comedy, I really do like the amount of
looney tune slapstick that is in this movie. Yeah, like

(48:19):
you know that right after that scene where he throws
the water on the waiter and then he slips as
he's leaving, which apparently was something that really happened, yes,
because the stairs were still wet from the water. But
like we mentioned everything that Carol Caine does, like where
she's just causing disaster and will cause things to happen
off screen that have like crash boom bang tech savery
sound effects, but like David Johanson smokes the cigar and

(48:41):
the smoke comes out of his ears. John Forsyde gets
shot several times by Bill Murray when he's a corpse
and he's drinking a cocktail and it all comes pouring
out of him. That's a fucking wily coyote joke.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
Yeah, oh oh, the frozen guy who's got like icicles coming.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
Yeah, hilarious. What the fuck was I'm talking about the
Looney Tunes comedy and you're like, yeah, that guy that
froze to death red Flag number two, babe, that's two
in one episode. Damn it.

Speaker 2 (49:07):
I thought it looked cool.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
I'm not saying it doesn't look cool. I'm saying it
maybe doesn't fit in the comedy discussion thing.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
Okay, is all okay, Yeah, there's nothing slapstick about freezing
to death on the streets of New York.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
Damn put that on the goddamn poster. There's nothing slapstick
about freezing to death on the streets of New York. Wow.
That may have been a New York Dolls song and
I just haven't heard it yet, but yeah, and then
like the face that Bill Murray makes when he's getting
whacked in the head by the door, you know, when
when he first meets Karen Allen. I mean, let's face it,
Bobcat Goldthwaite literally doing an impression of Elmer Fudd when

(49:43):
he's stalking Bill Murray with that shotgun. At the end
he calls him wabbit. We've gone full loony Tunes by
that point. Yeah, but it works, It absolutely works, and
it but it doesn't what I what I appreciate about
is somehow it doesn't undercut the heart of this movie,
which is mostly then he is the beating heart of
this movie.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
Yeah. Well, and and the and the character arc.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
Yeah, and the character arc is great, and and a
lot of that does come to the service at the
end with that speech where he is just if he's
ad libbing that whole thing, I bet he is is
impassionately ad libbing, which I think if he's adlbing the
whole thing and he gets that emotional about it, I
think it lends credence to my theory that he undertook
this role as a way to work out his own shit,

(50:25):
as a way to really examine where he was as
a person. Yeah, and I don't think he necessarily liked
everything that he saw, And I think that's what you're
seeing in that.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
Speech because it's so real. It's very real. And I
remember actually reading an article where Donner said that, like
any issues he'd had with Murray in that movie, at
that moment that monologue was when he felt like he
was witnessing Murray becoming an actor, and it like touched

(50:55):
him for sure, and he like he kind of like
eased up a bit because he was proving himself.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
Herman's death by the way that you mentioned, I find
deeply upsetting me too.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
I'm just sitting why didn't he just stay with Claire?

Speaker 1 (51:10):
But I liked that Bill Murray goes through that arc.
At first, he does what everyone who is blessed with
being a sarcastic asshole does. He makes a joke and
then he starts like you can just it's just Bill
Murray having a scene with a silent scene partner and
going through almost like the five Stages of grief forg
like his version of five stages. He makes a joke
and then he gets angry and then gets sad, and

(51:32):
then it like it really feels like one of the
turning points.

Speaker 2 (51:35):
Yep, you know, I agree, And because because you wonder, like,
you know, if he hadn't if he hadn't just like
brushed him off like a piece of lint in his life,
like maybe he would if he.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
Hadn't scraped him off.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
Scraped him off, yes, and yeah, You're like, why why
did he have to die? He was so sweet? But
it does warm my heart at the end where you
see him with Carol Kine and they're like sadistic angel
fairies together with their little wings at the end of
the movie. So I'm like, oh, okay, they can keep
each other company and do you know Shakespeare Impressions together.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
Richard Burton is who all the homeless people mistake Bill
Murray for in this movie, which apparently is a callback
to when Bill Murray was on SNL and did a
sketch where he was doing all of Richard Burton's most
famous scenes or something. Okay, the early by the way,
after Saturday and I went back and watched the early
season of SNL. It's a like, Cocaine's a hell of
a drug. I don't know what's going on.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
You tried to show it to me, and I'm like,
this is not funny. Like I just granted it's not
my personal brand of humor. I just didn't get it.
I didn't get it.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
I think there was more of an attempt in the
early days to be subversive than to be funny. Like
I think they were doing a lot of things that
had never been done on TV before and really pushing
the envelope. But I think that got in the way
of doing things that were sort of accessibly humorous.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
Yeah, no, because a lot of the humor you see
on SNL now, like it directly hits you. You're like,
oh my god, that is so something I do. So
look at murder TV shows and that's my way to relax.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
Yeah, you know, and maybe that speaks to you. You know,
everyone's talking about the decline of SNL. Maybe it's because
they cast a wider net. I don't know. I'm just
I'm doing armchair speculation about a show that aired for
the first time nine years before my birth. So I
can only yeah, I can only guess at this point.
By the way, Mary Ellen Trainor is credited as Ted
in this movie, and I'd never been able to figure

(53:31):
out why is that her name? No, I mean, yeah,
that's what IMDBA is saying, that her name in this
movie is Ted.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
Weird.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
She's one of the other executives that I see.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
But I don't know. He never calls her anything.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
No, That's what's so weird about it, Like why if
no one calls her that in the movie, did they
have to credit her that way? I don't know, very
very strange. I also love that, by the way, speaking
of Ebenezer Scrooge. So they were shooting this movie in
the they were finishing it up in the season of
eighty seven, and it was released, of course in eighty eight,

(54:03):
and they were going to have to be shooting on
Christmas Day, and Richard Donners told the studio like, we
need to give these people the day off because it's Christmas.
And the story goes, I don't know if this is apocryphal,
but the story goes that Paramount said no, that they
needed to work on Christmas. So Richard Donner, when they
finished working on Christmas Eve, fired the entire crew and

(54:24):
then hired them back on the twenty sixth. So basically
got around Paramount by fake firing the whole crew, or
really firing them, but just for a day so they
can have the day off and then bring I hope
that means they also got paid for that day. I
don't know. Interesting did not know that, which if that
story's true for me, it's like, I don't think that.

(54:45):
Sometimes you hear about directors being assholes, actors being assholes.
In this case, I think it's just two guys that
were very singular and just like the way that they work,
kept bumping up and like but like you said, like
when he saw that scene at the end, he was
willing to put aside the animosity he felt toward Bill Murray.
And I think it's just you know, two very specifically.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
Yeah, different personalities.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
Yeah, very iconoclastic people, iconoclassting with each other, no iconic
clashing with each other. I don't know. I'm a little
bit the second one. Yeah, the other one, the other one.
So before we wrap up here, did it freak you out?
Because I know this is a year we went to
Memphis for my birthday. Yep, you like had an ignition
of love for Elvis Presley or reignition?

Speaker 2 (55:26):
I guess, Oh, I'd never I only like knew of him,
but like you know, his songs and whatnot, but I
didn't know anything about his life. Yeah, I knew he
was married to the girl from Naked Gun. That was
That's literally how I had it in my head like
he's married to the girl from Naked Gun.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
Sure, And.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
And then I don't know something about like Graceland and
his like life story and the museums and just being
immersed in all that. Yeah, I had like this hardcore
like I am kind of obsessed with Elvis Presley, Like
I don't listen to anything else right now now it's
Elvis Christmas.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
But yeah, post, So what was it like for you
on this viewing? Hearing that on Frank Cross's gift list
for Christmas is Colonel Tom Parker?

Speaker 2 (56:11):
It tripped me out?

Speaker 1 (56:14):
What the fuck?

Speaker 2 (56:15):
I told you that last night? So I was like,
you know, I've watched this movie a million times, like
a million times, and you know, now I'm an Elvis fan,
and so now I know all about like the backstory
and Colonel Tom Parker is his manager and he's a douchebag,
and and and Grace is reading off the Christmas list
and she goes Colonel Tom Parker and I'm like what,

(56:39):
I'm like, what I was like, First of all, it
makes sense that he would know such a douchebag, douchebags
of a feather flock together. Of course, eight Colonel Tom
Parker he ruined Ells.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
He really didn't apparently is a very big fan of
Frank Cross ruining IBC. There you go with with movies
like The Day the Reindeer Died and Father Loves Beaver
the television series, which is seems like a joke out
of the movie Stay tuned, but I'll leave that one alone.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
Yeah, It's just funny that as many times as I've
seen this movie, it's like the I keep finding little
things like throughout my life, like oh, that would have
been tied to Elvis, and that would have been like
I think I've been meant, I've meant. I think I've
been meaning to be an Elvis fan my whole life.
I just didn't know until so yeah, now I'm obsessed.

(57:26):
Fair enough, Bring me all the Elvis things. Tell me,
tell me everything about Elvis, Like we're slowly getting through
the movies and all the records and the books, and
my fantastic mother in law gave me all this great
stuff to borrow because Elvis has been in your family.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
Like, oh, yeah, I've been to Graceland a Baker's dozen
times in my life because.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
Your grandma and your mom and your aunt, like just yeah,
I'm into it.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
Yeah, my mom was really disappointed that my brother was
born on January seventh, I know, because one day later
he would have he would have had Elvis's birthdayd Rad
also weirdly had Elvis trading cards. As a kid, I
was very into weird trading cards and I made those.
As I look over at my Last Action Hero complete
set of trading cards, no big deal. Not to brack again.

(58:11):
But you're also obsessed with Scrooge, which I think is
a noble, noble pursuit. This is one of the best
Christmas movies ever made in my humble opinion, and I
love that we watch it every year. I watched that.
I watched that. I love that no matter how many
times we watch it, the God bless us, everyone gets
to us every Like literally, I came home from a
Christmas party last night, you know the lift drop drops

(58:32):
me off. I was like three sheets to the wind
and you were watching it and still still I was like,
oh God, here it comes. Like I lost it. I
absolutely fucking lost it.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
Every time, and even since I was a kid. So
that's literally like me crying during this movie every single
year of my life because I watch it every year,
every single year, and it's it's just such a perfect
Christmas movie and it just completely like summarizes the reason
for the season.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
Niagara Falls, Laura en Angel.

Speaker 8 (59:04):
If you believe in this spirit thing you the miracle
will happen, and then you'll want it to happen again tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (59:09):
You won't be one of these fastest.

Speaker 7 (59:11):
It says Christmas is once a year and it's a fraud.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
It's not.

Speaker 8 (59:14):
It can happen every day. You just gotta want that feeling.
And if you like it and you want it, you'll
get greedy for it. You'll want every day of your
life and it can happen to you.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
So that brings us to the junk food pairing, and
this was an easy one for me. I'm gonna make
a cocktail right now and it's going to be uh
Stoley vodka and tab. If I can still find someone
that sells tab We're making a tab in vodka and
not just any vodka, but Russian vodka poisoned by shirt obol.

Speaker 2 (59:43):
And make sure you have like an ice mold. It's
a golf ball.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
Oh yeah, the big fucking high ball. Well it comes, yeah, no,
But like I love the idea of them making like
a high ball because of those like big circular highball
ice cubes that you get it, like the fancy bars. Yeah,
but it's got the little divots on it, like so
it looks like a golf I love that idea.

Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
Well, my chunk food bearing is obviously baked Alaska.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
No, you wouldn't want that, so it's a dessert item. No, No,
that gentleman had the meat loaf. It's not very cool.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
Oh my god, that whole dinner scene is just so great.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
The part where he's hearing Bryce Cummings say the same
speech over and over again, and then he snaps and
just goes haha, and then and.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
Then and then everyone's looking at him like what the hell?
And then and then he's like still nodding like yeah,
you heard me die, like every time, Like Bilburray is
so great in that movie.

Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
Are you him? Are you him?

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
Are you he?

Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
That's what we need to start saying to Drake when
he's like I'm him, I'm him, You're like your he?
He just never explain why we're doing that. Oh, this
has been so much fun, Babe. Thank you for being
not only part of a very Salisbury Christmas, but one
of the most important reasons for there being a Salisbury
Christmas and our official Christmas episode.

Speaker 2 (01:01:02):
Yes I love it, and yeah Christmas is my holiday.
Thank you for having me on. I put you through
a lot at Christmas time, so I just want to
give a shout out.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
So many PJ sets.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
Thank you for wearing the ridiculous pjs I pick out
for you every year and smiling and sitting on Santa's
lap and lugging out all of our decor and helping
me steak all million inflatables.

Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
And I had to buy this is a real story.

Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
You're fantastic because I'm Christmas without you.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
You're very sweet. But I literally, because I'm now forty
and falling apart, I had to buy this big foam
workman's pad for my knees because I spend so much
time hammering in the steaks on the inflatables and the
tensil decorations in the yard that I literally had to
get something to take the pressure off my knees. I'm dying.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
We're at that age, I know, like we get the
kids to do like the lower half of the tree,
We're like, we can't, we can't stoop that far. Anymore,
saying set up to Nativity.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
It's too low, it's under the tree. I'm like, I
if I go down there to that, I ain't getting
back up. Oh I know, that's it for me. That's absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
We still have to wrap Christmas presence, Oh god. And
I'm like, our table's not super big for the dining
room area, so we usually do it on the floor.
Oh my god, that's so hard to do now.

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
It feels like it feels like all the stores that
used to do gift wrapping are now shuddering, and it's
it feels like a personal attack, that's all I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
Yeah, that's I'd pay someone. I'd pay someone to come
to our house and.

Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
Rap Christmas presence for me. Yes, a thousand percent in fact,
So that's gonna do it for a very Salisbury Christmas.
If you want more junk food cinema, we have over
five hundo episodes on your favorite podcatcher. You can also
follow us on social media all your favorite platforms. And
if you really like the show, I mean you really
like the show, I mean you like it as much

(01:02:48):
as Frank Cross loves Vodka and tab you can go
to Patreon dot com slash junk food cinema and support
us keep the lights on, but don't support us too much.
We don't want to turn into you know, misers and
TV executives and all that. But uh yeah, help us
make the miracle happen and.

Speaker 5 (01:03:05):
Will be a bed, Sam, will be a beds Oh you.

Speaker 3 (01:03:17):
You this way.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
I have a merry Christmas, everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
Did I forget something?

Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
Big man

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
Blasses everyone