Fletch at 40: The Legacy Lives on!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chevy Chase (00:00):
This is Chevy Chase and you're listening to
Fletchcast an entire podcastdevoted to one of the movies I
made.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Broadcasting live and around the world from Cabana
One, the only podcast.
That's all ball bearings.
Your ultimate source foreverything, fletch.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Moon.

Fletch (00:24):
River.
Thank you, Doc you ever servetime.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Laker Jim and his beat reporters will stop at
nothing to make sure Fletchlives forever, forever.
They don't shower much.

Laker Jim - James Kanowitz (00:54):
This is Fletchcast.
They don't shower much.
This is fletchcast.
Thank you, chavvy, and welcomeeverybody back to fletchcast.
That's right, we're back.
For those of you new to theshow, I'm your host, laker jim,
and, joining us as always, myco-host.
Two men the cops are alwaysbeating up on Jake and Big Bob
Boys.
I miss doing this with you guys.
Same, we talk on a regularbasis, we have a group chat, but
I miss talking to the fans.
I miss doing this with you andI know they miss us because we

(01:17):
hear on a regular basis askingwhen we're going to put out new
episodes.

Jake Parrish (01:21):
I agree it has been a long time and we've been
busy doing other things in ourlives.
All our lives are really busy.
You know, I've been multiplyingby masturbation so it's been
very, very busy for me.
But you know, I'm glad to beback, I'm glad to see your
smiling face and at least hearBob's friendly voice.

Like I said, we have a group chat,
but Bob has a lead time of aboutthree to four days before he
responds to a text.
So by the time he chimes in, wedon't even know what the hell
we're talking about anymore.
So it's great to have Bob'sfull attention the next hour or
so.
Bob, your response.

Big Bob West (01:58):
I've been in prison.

That makes sense.

I mean I told you.
I mean mean like if youmolested that dead horse there
was going to be trouble youcould tell.

You could tell me all you want, but you know when
you have a, when you have anaddiction, I know.

But what did they say?
Fuck around and find out, oryeah, there you go I found out a
lot you did well.

I'm all better now it's going to be
an exciting year for Fletchbecause Fletch celebrated its
40th anniversary in May.
Yes, that's right, fletch turns40 this year.

Frank (02:29):
Unbelievable.

Laker Jim - James Kanowi (02:31):
Fletch is not the only one celebrating
a milestone birthday, bob.
While you were in the tank,jake celebrated his 50th
birthday.
Wow, jake, happy birthday.
Happy 50th, 50.
I hope you made it special.
Thanks, man.
Happy 50th 50th, I hope youmade it special.

Thanks, man.
Happy 50th.
Me and the family went out toLA and I've been to Santa Monica
before, but I guess it's justbeen I've been so busy or
preoccupied that I never thoughtto go to some of the Fletch
locations, so that was my numberone goal going out to Santa
Monica was to at least seeFletcher's apartment.

(03:07):
Oh yeah, and I did that.
How was it?
It was awesome.

Fletch (03:13):
As I pulled up to my palatial imitation apartment
building, I observed thefamiliar red Oldsmobile Buick of
Mr Arnold T Pants, esquireattorney for the former Mrs
Irwin Fletcher.
Time to use the serviceentrance.

It really doesn't look that different.
So when I pulled up to it, whenI had the address, I knew
immediately that it was Fletch'sapartment, because it has the
staircases on either side thatgo up to the entrance.
And I saw it and I justcouldn't believe it.
And so I went up the stairs,just like Fletch did, and I took
some pictures I didn't have.
When I parked nearby, I didn'thave any signs to put in the

(03:56):
dashboard no clergy, yeah.
I know I didn't have that, but Iwas all right.
So I hung out there a littlebit in the front, took pictures,
but obviously one of thebiggest things I wanted to see
was behind the apartmentbuilding, and you know, the
alleyway yeah.

(04:17):
See the lanai and see the fireescape and much like the front,
the back is still there and itis definitely still recognizable
as well.
So what I did was I parked, youknow, took some pictures and
hung out in the front and thenliterally I just walked around
to the back and walked down thealley and it's in a nice
neighborhood, it's in santamonica, and I saw the fire

(04:41):
escape and it's just right thereand you can peek through and
still kind of see the garage andstuff.
It was amazing and I tookpictures back there.
So it was really cool to bethere and just think about them
filming it and definitely abucket list item checked off and
that's an active apartmentthat's being rented.

Oh yes, absolutely yeah, and that's an active
apartment that's being rented.

Oh, yes, absolutely yeah.
In fact there was a little oldlady walking a dog up the stairs
on the other side when I wasthere and she said hello to me.
So yeah, absolutely, peoplelive there.
We have got to break in.

Yeah , so anyone that's in the
California area or looking tovisit Fletch's apartment is
located at 827 4th Street inSanta Monica.
I went there about 20 years agoand I couldn't believe that in
20 years it hasn't changed.
And it looks like 20 yearslater it also hasn't changed.
So it's exactly the way itlooked in the film and man, when

(05:41):
you're walking down thatalleyway, I mean you just feel
like you're in the movie.
I actually climbed up and swungfrom the ladder.

See, you did that.
I didn't do that because Ididn't have anything to really
jump on.
No garbage cans.
No, there were no garbage cans.
There was a couple of dumpstersnearby that I thought about
pushing over, but just to bethere.

Does that place have a name to it too?
I feel like there was like aname on the uh.

I mean I'm sure if I went back and looked at my
pictures I could find it let mesee if I could look it up like
the el cortez or something.

I feel like there was some sort of a yeah, el
cortez sounds familiar, it iscalled.

Yes, el cortez.
Apartments, studios and onebedrooms.
No vacancies, wow.

The burning question for me has
always been is Fletch'sapartment inside that building,
Because I always dreamed of howcool it would actually live in
Fletch's apartment.

Yeah, yeah, I would imagine.
Probably not.
I'm sure they shut that in onthe studio, but even if it kind
of looked like or resembledmaybe one of the apartments,
because if you think about it,fletcher's apartment was pretty
small and these say on the signthat they're just studios in one
bedroom.
So yeah, but that's all it wasyeah, and probably way more than
the value of our entire homes.

(06:58):
Being very close to the oceanthere in santa monica, I'm sure
they're super expensive, butjust to see it.

I wonder, if we analyze the shot
as they're coming through thewindow, if we can identify the
buildings in the background asthe buildings next to the left
of the alleyway, then maybe we'dknow for sure.

Imagine John with a little rig for the basketball
still there.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
He draws the foul.
Imagine you go and you look inthe rig for the basketball is
still there.
He draws the foul.

Imagine you go and you look in the window and that
thing is still there.
Yeah, how like just blown awayyou would be.

Like it's in there so good that
everyone who's lived there sincejust has to decorate around it
because they can't get it down,that's great.
Hey, sometimes when you find astud, you've you gotta demo a
wall to get that thing out butagain, it was really cool to see
.

What other sites did you see besides the, besides
the apartment?

I did go around.
I didn't take any pictures nopolaroid.
But I did go around underneaththe pier, underneath the santa
monica pier, and I was close towhere Fat Sam's shack was, but
that was it.

Why don't the three of us just plan
to make a trip out to the WestCoast together?
Bob, you're going to have tojump on a plane and be part of
this, because I'm thinking wehave to make a human totem pole.
Yeah, you're going to have tobe the base of that thing to get
us up on the line and lookingin that window to see once and
for all if it's Fletch'sapartment or not, and hit all

(08:28):
the sites.
We're going to have to be outthere a whole week just doing
Fletch stuff.

Yeah, yeah, bob, I mean.

They have cars.

They also have drugs, Bob.

Yeah, honestly, like I would actually drive.
I would drive there and just.
Listen, I've been on a planebefore, but I wasn't 6'5" 7,000
pounds.
I used to fly in a coach seat.

Well, if you had Underhill's credit card, you
could probably charge firstclass.

Yeah, but I don't.

Sorry about that.

Jake .
Yes, bob, and I actually have abig surprise for you.
For me, in hindsight, it turnedout to be a pretty amazing
surprise.
Okay, is that?
As many of you know, we lost alegend this past week.
Actually, we lost two legendsJoe Don Baker, chief Carlin,
with a K passed away, and then,about a week later, we lost

(09:21):
George Wendt yes, our belovedfat Sam.

What is it?
The Columbia National Holiday.

Who passed away, leaving behind not
just an incredible body of work,but, by all accounts, a legacy
of kindness and humility as well.
Everything is Joe Euclid,Everything Sam.
Now, what many of you don't know, including Jake, is that just
days before he passed, georgerecorded something special for
us.
Now it's a moment that Bob andI weren't sure what to do with,

(09:50):
but I guess in talking about itwe realized that this is exactly
what George would have wantedand how he would have wanted to
be remembered Making someonelaugh, making someone feel
special and reminding us all notto take life too seriously.
So here it is, folks, georgeWendt's final message.

(10:11):
Jake, this one's for you.

George Wendt - Fat Sam (10:14):
Hello, jake George Wendt here, and I
would like to wish you a veryhappy birthday filled with reds
and free junk Now Laker Jim andBig Bob from Fletchcast.
Happy birthday filled with redsand free junk.
Now, laker Jim and Big Bob fromFletchcast.
They mentioned you're turning50.
That's great.
I'm just a child and we hearyou're a big Fletch fan Me too.

(10:42):
Oh my God, you have good taste.
Oh my God, you have good taste.
Oh yeah, I got to tell you thestory about oh my God.
Chevy liked to rehearse some ofthe scenes.
He'd say that was good.
Let's try it this time.
As if we're a couple of liketoilets next to each other in a

(11:08):
public bathroom.
So, fletch, how you, how youdoing today?
Well, you know, I'm Just as ifwe're taking dumps, really dumps

(11:38):
that aren't cooperating, andthat's what happens when you get
old.
But you're young, you're only50.
The groaning dumps will comelater.
That's funny.
Well listen, happy birthday,kiddo.
All kinds of reds and free junkCheers.

Oh, my God, man, thank you, thank you both, that
was awesome.
This man, thank you, thank youboth, that was awesome.
This was amazing.

Laker Jim - James Ka (12:06):
Definitely awesome, but at the same time a
little bittersweet right.

Well, maybe in some small way it's good.
At least he knew that we hadthe podcast and we thought very
fondly of him and the role thathe played and the memories that
he gave us and will continue togive us, you know, in the years
ahead, and I'm sure not only forus but all the Fletch fans out
there, you know.

Well , there's a reason we featured
Fat Sam in our very firstepisode, episode one, WON in the
segment we called the RecordsRoom, Because we love George
Wendt.
His hair looked great.
It did look good.
He looked good.
He had lost some weight andthis was only two weeks ago and
just, I guess, went to sleep onenight and never woke up.
And if that teaches us anythingabout death, it's that when it

(12:54):
comes, it comes.

That's great.
When it comes, it comes.
I'm actually speechless justbecause of the fact that this
happened so close to when hepassed.
Uh, the gesture alone of youand bob getting this together
for me is unbelievably, uh,wonderful and gratifying and

(13:18):
just amazing.

But just seeing him and hearing him
talk about Fletch and and niceto hear him say like he's a big
fan of Fletch.

That story about him and Chevy, which you know,
chevy, which is something thathe would totally do in a moment.

Without a doubt, that's exactly the kind of thing
that would drive everybody elseon the set insane.

Definitely that would drive everybody else on
the set insane.
Definitely the fact that hecalled me kiddo is is very, very
sweet.
So, um, I can't believe I gotto hear from him before he
passed.
So thank you so much.
It was incredibly sweet of bothof you and um, yeah, he's, he
will be surely missed, I meansorely missed, I should say um,
and surely missed, because of,obviously, what he did with,

(14:04):
with Fletch in the movie and, ofcourse, if you read the book,
totally against what GregoryMcDonald wrote and described him
as.
But he still killed it.
Yeah, in the part, amen, yeah,he certainly made fat Sam his
own, but his other body of workas well.
So well, rest in peace, fat Sam.

Well , special thanks to George Wendt
.
Wherever you are, You're stillmaking us laugh.

My pleasure brother Well happy
birthday.

Happy birthday.
Thanks, man, you'll need tosend that to me.

Yeah , definitely I will, and we'll
post it on our social media soyou can see, you can see George
Wendt act out, him and Chevytaking dumps while they're
rehearsing.
It's worth seeing.
All right.
Well, listen guys, we have alot to get to.
We got a lot of topics todiscuss today, so why don't we
jump into the news?
The Jane Doe Report.

I'm turning the story over to a professional
reporter, over to a professionalreporter.

Yeah , we got some good news and some
bad news.
Unfortunately, we're going tostart with the bad news.
Jake Greg Mottola reached outto us over the break and gave us
a status update on the nextFletch film.

Yeah, it's not good news, At least right now.
Fletch's fortune is dead.
Ah, damn it.
You gotta tag his toe.
Looking at some of the tweetsthat he had sent out, the new
head of miramax, who controlsthe rights to all the books,
shot down.
My sequel project, the fletchcurse, got me.
This is according to matola ontwitter, slash x.

(15:41):
Then there was a questionquestion that was asked and he
goes.
Well, feature comedy is havinga rough time.
I was okay with the idea of itprobably being a streaming movie
, but I was only going to do itmy way and if you think about it
, confess Fletch was basically astreaming movie too.
It was in the theaters very fewtheaters for a short amount of

(16:01):
time.

Yeah , maybe a week in 400 theaters.

Someone responded back that's fucking
heartbreaking.
And Mottola was like yeah, it'sdead, I just have to kill the
Fletch part of my black heart.
And then someone else respondedno, and his response was I was
told, the first one lost money,as if there was any attempt to
make money, and we complainedabout that.
I mean, that's no secret.
There was no publicity done.

(16:28):
We got a trailer roughly amonth before the movie came out,
a week.

A week before.
Yeah, yes, I remember that.

It was ridiculous.
John was very into the newscript, mottola says.
I've been rather depressedabout it, but hard to expect a
good break in the future world.
So that's where we stand rightnow.
I've asked Jason McDonald aboutthe future and hopefully we'll
have some information.
Jason McDonald obviously theson of Gregory McDonald, so we

(16:59):
will maybe have some news thenext time we record.
I know the window of the rightsis short right now.
I would say it's less than ayear that they have to get
another one started and then Iwould assume the rights would
revert back to David List andthe family and then obviously

(17:22):
they can shop it around again ifthey would like to, which I'm
sure they will.
I'm sure they will.
But it's a shame.
I mean it's a shame because Ithought there was a lot of great
things about Confess.
They were really enthusiasticabout it.
You could tell that they reallyloved the character, they loved
the books which, as you guysall know, we were really excited
about that.
They really try to pull fromthe source material a little bit

(17:46):
more compared to Fletch.
So I guess again we're back inthat limbo where we'll just wait
and see.
Maybe someone else will pick itup.
But gosh, it just took so longto get it back into the.
You know, it took forever.
It took like over 30 years toget it back onto the big screen
and it's a.
It took like over 30 years toget it back onto the big screen

(18:07):
and it's a shame because thereviews are really good.
If you go on Rotten Tomatoesand look at the reviews, they
were overwhelmingly positive,not only from an audience
standpoint but from a criticstandpoint.
It's really disheartening and Ithink Fletch's Fortune would
have been a great movie.
I think Fletch's Fortune wouldhave been a great movie.
I think Fletch's Fortune wouldhave been a great second chapter
.
And then, if we only could doone more Fletch and the man who

(18:29):
would have been a perfect capper, because it was just a nice
kind of arc of the character aswell of Fletch, oh well.

Yeah , and I think that's where the
good news bad news lies is.
I think, Listen, Fletch neverdies.
Yeah, that's where the goodnews bad news lies is I think,
listen, Fletch never, dies.
Yeah, as long as there'sHollywood influencers out there
that are our age, we'reinfluenced by Fletch.
They'll always be interest,sure.
Whether another movie ever getsmade, not sure, but hopefully

(18:59):
it lands in the hands ofsomebody that cares about Fletch
yeah, whether it's Miramaxopening their eyes or another
company that is ready to pick upthe ball and run with it.

And hopefully they retain Ham.
I'm not sure how it works out.
If someone else buys the rights, then they would be have.
I would doubt that they wouldactually have ownership of the
script.
I'm sure the script would stillbe in Miramax hands.
They would.
They would still own it.

But Right it would seem almost
impossible for Mottola to beable to write a different script
.

Right, that's a gray area that I don't really
know.
I'm sure Greg would fill us inon that and you know Jon Hamm is
so busy, right, you would thinkthat Strike While the Iron is
Hot.
That guy has been in so manythings.

He's in two shows right now.
The iron is hot.
That guy's in has been in somany things and he's in two
shows right now.
He's in land man.
And then I just saw he's in athing something called like your
friends and neighbors yeah, youwould think that they would
want to do that, so we'll see.

It's unfortunate.
Yeah, it's unfortunate yeah.

So I'm definitely bummed to hear
that we were kind of given alittle heads up by matola, that
the idea was sort of in limbobecause new head of mirror max
was not interested in making newfilms.
That they were, they were goingoff to a different direction.

So yeah, I mean, we knew when the head was going
to be a new head, that was thatthey came on board.
You know, uh, that things weregoing to be iffy at best.
But you know there was initialexcitement because you know he
was paid to at least write thescript, so at least there was
some optimism.
But then everything kind ofshit, the bed so disappointing.

(20:29):
So blame jonathan blickman.
Is he the new head of miramax?
Be sure there is correct.

I still, I still maintain, I think, that you know
the fletch itself.
A fletch would work so welllike a uh, a series.
We've always been pushing forthat.

You make every book a series.

I really do feel like that's the way to go with
this, because there's a lot towork with.

And I do think that I think we'll
see that eventually.
I do have something in my gutjust tells me we're going to see
that eventually.

I just always thought that that would work
best.

I think that would just be a great way to do it,
because then you can reallyflesh out the book.
But then we have to go back tosquare one about like, okay, who
was going to cast it?
Maybe at least, if there'sanything positive to take away
from this is that we remove thehurdle, the stigma, that no one
can replace chevy.

That's a good point.

So it only almost knocks down the door for a third
person right, hey, john, hamplayed him, chevy played him and
now he can play it.
Right, let's go.
Ryan reynolds, he's almost toowell.
I, I mean ham's older than him,so yeah he's somewhere in the
middle of ham and chevy.

Yeah , chevy was like 41, 42, ham was
like 51, 52 and I think ryanreynolds is like late 40s, like
maybe 47, 48, somewhere in there.

But Chevy would probably argue that he could
still play him.
You know he would.
I could still play thatcharacter.
Chevy, you're 80.
No offense.

I mean, you were great.
I wouldn't hate playing a cameoin the movie or the series.

I don't think Chevy's ego would allow for a
cameo, would you agree, jim?
It would be a distraction.
Yeah, it would, more thananything.

And Chepi said that he was right.
You know, you'd look at him andyou'd say, well, that's Fletch,
you know there's Fletch.
That's Fletch.
Yeah, clean break Now.
Drugs on the beach,unfortunately, has been a
running topic today, a big partof the topic that I want to
discuss next.
Matthew Perry, star friends,died tragically of a drug
overdose Somewhere between ourlast recording and this

(22:31):
recording, and a new documentaryis coming out revolving around
the drug ring that supplied himwith the ketamine.
I think they said 27 shots ofketamine in the last two days or
three days of his life CrazyWow, and I was never a big
Matthew Perry fan.
I.
Or three days of his life CrazyWow, and I was never a big
Matthew Perry fan I wasn't aFriends guy.
Same, but I liked him here andthere in Fools, rush In and

(22:53):
movies like that.
I always thought he was funny.

Speaker 3 (22:55):
Alex, this is Chewy Chewy.
Hi Luke Skywalker, how are you?

Had I known he was such a big Fletch
fan, it might have changed myopinion on him.
So a fan sent in.
Let me just get her name SandraMercurelli.
So Sandra clipped a portion ofhis audio book that she knew we
would love.
It's awesome.
I'm going to play it for youand then we'll break it down.

(23:24):
So it's a clip from hisautobiography Friends, lovers
and the Big Terrible Thing, amemoir, matthew Perry.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
In 2004, I flew out to Chris Everett's Tennis
Academy in Florida for a charityevent, the Chris Everett Bank
of America Pro Celebrity TennisClassic.
It was a veritable who's who inHollywood, but I was most
interested in Chevy Chase.
Chevy had long been a hero ofmine.
In fact, his performance in themovie Fletch had changed my

(23:58):
life forever.
One chilly night in LA, my bestbuddy, matt Andre, and I went
to see a preview screening ofFletch and at one point we were
literally rolling in the aisleswith laughter.
Chevy must have had 300 jokesin that movie and he landed each
one perfectly.
Later, as Matt and I sat at thebus stop awaiting our ride home

(24:23):
, I vividly remember turning tohim and very seriously saying
Matt, I'm going to talk that wayfor the rest of my life and I
have.

Now let me just stop it there.
How awesome is that?
You know what I mean, and aslong as actors out there,
directors out there, who aresomewhere in the range of 40 to
55 years old, you have to loveFletch, you have to have been
affected in some way by themovie, you know, and if you kind

(24:58):
of look at his performance inFriends, he does kind of have
that.

That at least how he was written.
You know that very sarcastickind of tone, kind of laid-back,
sarcastic and, um, very dryyeah, I'm not great at the
advice.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
Can I interest you in a sarcastic comment?
Are you similar to chung?
Yes, absolutely, I look a lotlike him that's funny.

Yeah, dry sense of humor, kind of not afraid to
insult the person standing infront of them.
That's I.
I I think that he would havebeen.
I mean, listen, it's time.
Time didn't do good things forhim, but I mean in the 90s, when
he was making a million dollarsan episode doing friends, I I
really think that he could havebeen the next fletch.
I mean there's other peoplethat probably would have been
better, but I think that hecould have been the next Fletch.

(25:45):
I mean there's other peoplethat probably would have been
better, but I think that hewould have certainly been a very
reasonable choice.
If they were going to remakethe movie with Kevin Smith or
whoever it was in the early2000s, he would have been a
great option, especially beingsuch a big fan.
Yeah, yeah, a big part ofplaying Fletch is you have to
understand the character.
I agree with that, you know.

(26:06):
You have to understand the waythe character talks, the way the
character thinks, the way thecharacter behaves, and I think
that he got that, you know.

Well, I think you know, when it comes down to
Fletch, I think it comes down to, you know, just thumbing your
nose at authority and just notgiving a fuck.
I mean like if you can embracethat you've got three fourths of
Fletch down.
Yeah, and Ham did a great job,I agree, I, I, I watched Confess
Fletch about a month ago.
I sat down and watched it again, me too, and and it makes me

(26:37):
mad because we're not gettinganother one, because I think I
enjoyed it, my most recentviewing, the most.
I thought there was just somany perfect scenes, so many
flesh scenes.
And think about it, if we dolook back at the first two
movies in and see that ascontinuity, as part of the,

(27:00):
there's definitely some maturingthere, sure, because you know,
people get older, people matureand um, but there's still some,
you know, glimpses of thesarcasm.
And you know people get older,people mature, and, but there's
still some, you know, glimpsesof the sarcasm and you know, and
Chevy probably could haveplayed that role if he was Pam's
age, I agree.

All right, let's just finish up the
Matthew Perry thing, becausethere's a few more funny Fletch
gems in here.

Speaker 3 (27:23):
Which makes this next story particularly painful for
both Chevy and me possibly morefor Chevy.
Anyway, at the charity ball thenight before the tennis event,
chevy walked up to me and said Ijust want you to know I'm a big
fan.
I said, oh my God, all I do issteal from you, and we went on

(27:44):
to have a mutually complimentaryand quite lovely conversation.
Next day it was time to playtennis Now.
My skills were, by this point,admittedly rusty.
What I did have, though, was anincredibly hard serve.
In fact, they had a speed clockat the tournament, and I
punched in at 111 miles per hour.

(28:07):
The only problem was I was notexactly sure where they were
going.
The game begins.
I am first up to serve.
I have my partner in the adcourt, and on the opposite side
is Chevy, also in the ad court,near the net.
I toss up the ball.
The ad court near the net.

(28:30):
I toss up the ball, bring myracket around my back, hammer
the tennis ball as hard aspossible and watch in horror as,
instead of it spearing acrossthe court to Chevy's partner, it
goes directly straight and it'sheading for Chevy Chase.
If the ball was hit at about100 miles per hour.
This means it was traveling atabout 146.7 feet per second,

(28:51):
quantum physicist Meaning MrChase had 0.412 seconds to get
out of the way.
Mr Chase did not get out of theway.
More precisely, his testiclesdidn't get out of the way.
I have just served somethingclose to a professional speed
serve right into his Chevychases, if you know what I mean.

(29:14):
Here's what happened next.
Chevy made a funny face, justlike the one he makes in Fletch
when a doctor gives him aprostate exam.
That's great.
And then dropped to the ground.
When a doctor gives him aprostate exam, and then dropped
to the ground, it took fourmedics to dash onto the court,
strap him to a gurney and rushhim to the nearest hospital.
If this is what I do to myheroes Michael Keaton and Steve

(29:38):
Martin, better take cover.
And thus concludes the violentsection of this audio book.

That's great.

But seriously, how cool is that?
To dedicate a portion of yourautobiography to Fletch just
tells you how much it meant tohim, and that's what I mean.
After 40 years, we're stillfinding cool stuff like this,
and as long as our generation isaround and our generation is
influential in Hollywood, theinfluence of Fletch on them is

(30:10):
somewhat undeniable.

I really, you know what I wonder.
I was thinking the whole timewhen I was wondering who do you
think was Chevy's partner?
I don't know.
I hope it was Gail.

Well , listen, I have found something
else for you guys, some new oldstuff the Chevy Chase Show.
Now, we've discussed Chevy'slate night Fox talk show in the
past and overall it was adisaster.
But he had some guests thatwere great and Tim Matheson was
one of them, which I did notknow.
Oh, wow.

(30:39):
On it.
They discussed Fletch a ton andTim drops a Fletch tidbit that
blew my mind.
I've never heard it before, sohopefully it'll be all new to
you guys too, and some otherFletch stuff that's definitely
worth discussing today.
So if you guys want me to stopand chime in, just let me know.
But let's get started andlisten to Tim Matheson on the
Chevy Chase Show.

(31:00):
Now the audio is not greatbecause I think it was converted
.

It was transferred from VHS, but let's give it a
listen.
My next guest got a big breakin 1978 as one of the stars of
animal house.
Later I had the opportunity towork with him in pledge.
Please welcome, tim matheson,great to see you.
You know that we were in a bighip cold film.

(31:28):
We're in it together, fletchyeah, you know you died at the
end, not I, you got to do thesequel actually.
That's why it was better to die, I think, really yeah.
Boy, I'm on my way out.
Hey, you know, I know there's astory that you told me a long
time ago about uh, after we shotfletch and and uh, oh, you did

(31:51):
and you didn't know about.

Fletch (31:52):
No, I didn't, I, I didn't know about that that
there's a scene in fletch wherechevy is investigating my
character, alan stanwick andchevy's investigating it.

He's an investigative reporter and
by the way he calls him chevy Iwas just about ready yeah, I was
gonna say he's about to callhim Chevy right to his face
Chevy, Chevy.

I wonder if Chevy's okay with it or he
doesn't hear it.

You know, he did it even when he
came on our show.
So it's just funny to thinkhe's always done it.

Fletch (32:20):
And Chevy's investigating it.
He's an investigative reporterand he's on a computer screen
and is looking for alanstanwix's phone number.
And uh, chevy looked at thenumber that was really on there
and he said you know, that'slike a silly number, five five,
five.
Yeah, it was one of those movienumbers five five, five.
And it was like a nonsense.
He said this is stupid.
Here I'll put in a real number.
And what you put in was yourthen car phone number.

(32:41):
So, and it's in the movie, andit was fine, it was in the movie
.
And it was fine, it was in themovie.
But then what happens?
The movies they all come out onvideocassette, and it was huge
on videocassette.
And by then that car phonenumber had gone on to somebody
else somebody else's car phoneand some poor little old lady is
driving around Los Angelesgetting hundreds of calls from

(33:03):
Fletchies all over the countrywanting to talk to Alan Stanwyck
.
Oh my God, how about?

that little fun fact.
I've never heard that before.
Nope, and in case you werewondering, that takes place.
It shows up on the screen whenFletch is in the records room.
And in case you were wondering,alan Stanwyck's number, aka
Chevy's car phone number at thetime time, was 213-383-1794.

(33:31):
I'm sure the boys will becalling it as soon as we're done
recording oh yeah, of course sopretty cool fun fact.

Fletch (33:37):
There would have been nice to catch it while it was
chevy's and then give that thinga call so you're
single-handedly responsible forthis lady, you know, and it
charged her phone bill, so Ithink you owe her about five
grand, I gotta tell yousomething interesting about
fledge and I hope you'll comeback when we have more time
together because I want to do awhole sort of a fledge show with
you and stuff, you know, but umyeah, yeah, damn, never saw

(34:02):
that.

I never got that one.
One quick little takeaway fromwhat I love that he called them
Fletchies.
I've actually been First nameto call Fletch fans Fletchies.
I think I like that.
I do too.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
Better than Kluki, that's great, I got a call from
Amherst.

Amherst College and Williams College.
They both have courses inFletch.
I mean, I literally was doing aphoner to an entire classroom
of people asking questions aboutFletch and that's how popular
the movie is.
Isn't that amazing?
I know you do.
I don't know what you're doingnow, but I do know that even for
Fletch you do a lot of researchon how to die.

(34:46):
We're going to get togetheragain and do that Fletch show
and we're going to work togetheragain.

That's pretty wild that those two
colleges had classes in Fletch.

I wonder what the curriculum would be for a Fletch
course.
In God's name.
What are they talking about?
Curriculum that would be for aFletch course, In God's name.
What are they talking about?
Could be something a little bitmore like the philosophy of
Fletch, or how to be more likeFletch.

Or the morality of the story, the
morality of his actions.

Yeah, something like that, or maybe touching on,
like you know the books and youknow going down that road too,
we could teach a course.
I'm sure which college did yousay?

what college you were there emirates or something
everest?
I'm just wondering if they're,if they're acting schools or if
they're real colleges.

Laker Jim - James Kano (35:37):
Emirates college and williams college.
Emirates college and williamscollege.
I'm looking it up emirates towilliams.

Okay emirates college is in Amherst,
Massachusetts.
Is it a film school or?
Well it's a liberal artscollege, private liberal arts
college.

And Williams College is in Williamstown,
Massachusetts, so twoMassachusetts schools I mean.

Gregory McDonald lived in you know, grew up and
lived in Boston.
So I mean like maybe that was ayou know yeah.

Laker Jim - James Kanowit (36:06):
Maybe Greg spoke to the classes as
well.
That'd be interesting to findout.
Yeah, but we should reach outto both colleges and see what
they have on on file for theFletch class.
I'm willing to go back toschool.

Yeah, here's an interesting thing about Williams
college 96% graduation rate butonly an 8% acceptance rate, so
it's pretty expensive.

Good point.
I probably can't get in, but ifthis interview took place in
1993, give the you know.
I guess you're going to have togive the movie a little time to
get popular via rental.
Oh yeah, I'm going to guesswhich ever made it seem to make
it seem like it was you knowrecent, so I would say somewhere
between 90 and 93.

(36:47):
Could be, would be my guess ofwhen these classes took place.

Yeah, that's true.
That's true, this is a longshot, but if any of our
listeners know anybody thattaught those classes, any info
would be great.

Absolutely .
If you were the professor ofthe Fletch class or you took the
Fletch class, or even if youhave time to research anything
information on the class, pleasereach out to us If you're one
of those colleges and would liketo advertise on Fletchcast.
We seem to have yourdemographic pretty much narrowed
down, so reach out to us aswell.
Another thing I wanted tomention before we forget that

(37:22):
while we were away, specialedition versions of Fletch and
Fletch Lives came out on DVD.
They were put out by a companycalled Kino Larber and both
discs are actually jam-packedwith stuff Not a lot of new
stuff, a lot of stuff we've seenon other discs, but they kind
of just jam-packed into one andthat was previously available,

(37:45):
like the featurettes they Put itOn, underhills making of the
John Cocktoast in disguisefeaturette trailers, tv spots
the whole thing is digitally HDremastered in 2K scan, whatever
that means.
But two cool things is Max Ivryand Brian Reisman.
They reached out to us and Maxactually sat down with us for a

(38:09):
couple hours one night andreally picked our brains,
because him and Brian do thecommentary on both DVDs.
I think they do the commentaryon most Kino Larber DVDs, but
they actually mention us a fewtimes, which is really neat, and
even the old Fletch One websitegets a few mentions.
So here's a few cool examplesthat I thought you guys would

(38:32):
like to hear.

Frank (38:35):
Now I talked to the guys from the Fletch cast, which is
the official podcast of allthings Fletch.
If you're a fan of this movie,you should definitely listen to
that podcast.
Now, according to my interviewwith the Fletch cast, scott was
hired to do the score for fletchand worked with michael ritchie
to give him exactly what hewanted.
Now, in an interview withfletch1.net, sanderson briefly

(38:55):
answered some email questionsabout his fletch experience, and
this may have been backliterally in the late 1990s,
because it looks that old on thewebsite and jake parish,
another host, said it is now.
He did an interview with lakerjim's fletch cast in january of
2022 and he set out descriptionsof the books on the website.
I had a message board, becausesocial media didn't exist back
then.
Fletch fans could create theirown name and we would just chat

(39:16):
about fletch.
And that's where I met jakeparish.
Jake was friendly with gregorymcdonald.
Now laker jim's fan site,fletch1.net, was instrumental in
getting a petition going torelease Fletch Lives on DVD, to
which Universal respondeddirectly to the site, and then,
in 2003, the film was releasedon a widescreen bare-bones DVD.
Bare-bones, of course, yes, notlike this one.

Not like this one with our commentary.
This was amazing.

So there we are, officially burned
into a Fletch DVD.
That makes our legacy forever,and so I would pick it up.
If you don't own Fletch on DVDor you want to own it for the
sixth or seventh time, I knowKino Lauber's website sells it,
as well as a few other spots,but Kino Lauber actually runs

(40:02):
sales from time to time, so youcan get it pretty cheap and this
will probably be the best and,more than likely, last version
that we'll get as far as on sometype of physical media.

So my suggestion is, even if you're debating
about getting it, getting itbecause this will probably be
the most in-depth version thatyou will see, because we all
know we've had tons and tons ofdiscussions about how we can't
and they're not available to cutscenes, so we can't even
consider that.
So this is as much as we weregoing to get as far as a real,

(40:40):
true special edition of Fletchand Fletchlives, and we've never
had anything with Fletchlives.
I mean, up to this point, we'veonly had the bare bones version
of Fletch Lives.
I mean it was on Blu-ray but westill didn't have any extras.

Yeah, their original DVD was just pathetic.

Yeah, so to have anything from Fletch Lives is a
bonus.

Yeah , fletch Lives has a making of
featurette with Chevy andMichael Ritchie and Julianne
Phillips.
It's got profiles on the actors, it's got six TV spots, a
trailer, so basically everythingthey could find out there on
Fletcher lives was also packedinto there.
So basically it's a one-stopshop for everything Fletch

(41:22):
that's out there on these twodiscs.
So go pick them up.

And they are available on Amazon as well.

Yes, I bought them.
I've actually bought them anddon't own a DVD player, so I had
to go actually find a DVDplayer.
That's awesome.
Everything I watch is, you know, digital.
Everything is on demand orwhatever.

It's amazing because you know DVDs and VHS,
you know it was replaced bynothing.
Essentially, it was replaced by, you know, digital downloads,
you know, and it just sucksbecause I mean, I worked in a
video store, a DVD sales store,for years when I was in college
and whatnot, and honestly, youknow, not having a shelf in my

(42:05):
house filled with, you know,those little trophies is like
there's a hole.
You know, there's a hole in the, in the fabric of my being.
You know I like having, it'slike having a bookshelf.
You know it really is.
And you know, show off all thethings you love.

Jake's still holding on.
You still buy DVDs.

I do.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have acouple I still have.
I have a couple of bins thatthat I've kept, like some of the
DVDs that I really really like,or I know that are a little bit
more rare and I will still.
If I really like a film, I willpick up the DVD, well, more the
Blu-ray version, and I do havea Blu-ray player.

(42:44):
In fact, vacation has not beenavailable on any streaming
service for months and monthsand months.
So recently I put in Vacationand watched it because I wanted
to watch it again and I didn'thave access to it.
And I don't buy digital movies,I still buy physical movies

(43:04):
because but again, I'mdefinitely a little bit more
choosy these days we have a lotof places around town that sells
used Blu-rays and DVDs.
So if I want one, I'll justpick one up there because you
can.
People seem to be dumping themnow.
Nobody wants them.
So if you want something,chances are if you go to one of

(43:26):
these stores you can probablypick it up, and pick it up cheap
too.

Well , no reason to grab these
secondhand, because the brandnew Blu-ray is available on
Amazon for Fletch and FletchLives for about $12.
So you can pick both those upand it won't hurt your pockets
too much.
Hopefully we can get Max andBrian on the show sometime in
the future.
Talk about what goes intoputting a DVD like this together

(43:49):
.
I'd love to talk to those guysagain.
All right, we're going to takea quick, quick break.
We'll be back in a minute.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
Hey there folks.
This is Bud from BulletAviation and you're listening to
three guys who don't do a wholelot of singing with the
tabernacle fire, if you catch mydrift, laker Jim Jake and Big
Bob.

Take it away, boys.

I was listening to a podcast
called Buzzing the Tower andthey spotlight 80s and 90s
movies and it's a great podcastIf you're looking for an 80s and
90s movie podcast.
Buzzing the Tower the two hosts, mo and Max.
They were doing Ace Ventura andthey brought up a little tidbit

(44:44):
that I'd never heard before andthey kind of glossed over it.
They just kind of shot it outthere and I was like whoa, let
me look a little deeper intothis.
So I was able to find a lot ofinformation, more than I thought
I would find.
Guys, take a listen to this,okay.
So Ace Ventura you guys fans ofthe movie?

(45:04):
Of course, yes.

I'm a Dawkins fan.
I'm not much of a Jim Carreyfan, except for man on the Moon,
so listen to this.

Morgan Creek had the rights to the
script for three years but couldnever come up with a way to get
it shot and completed.
Still, they thought of theproject as the Fletch of the 90s
Wow, fletch of the 90s.
Tom Shadick, a strugglingwriter director at the time, saw
potential in the idea and tookhome every draft of the script.
Morgan Creek had.
He realized early, if it wasgoing to be the new Fletch it

(45:36):
needed a stronger antagonistthan what Bernstein had written.
The character went throughseveral iterations before
filming began.
Tom Shadick likened the earlyideas to a Fletch type detective
.
Early in the film's developmentthe studio wanted Rick Moranis
for a Fletch-like part andreached out to him about it.

(45:58):
Cary, who has a co-writingcredit along with Shadick,
helped shape the character tofit him after he came aboard.
Shadick also explains much ofCarrie's improv on the set
helped create the over-the-topsense about Ace.
Now on the DVD commentary, thewriter-director said that Jim

(46:20):
Carrey's early delivery was veryflat, like Chevy Chase's Fletch
Tone.
Oh, wow, chase wanted Carrey'svoice in the movie to be more
like the comedian version ofhimself and really like the way
he turned that switch on when hewould come out and speak to the
audience.
So pretty crazy how Fletch wasa big part of the early stages

(46:44):
of Ace Ventura.

It's a perfect example of the main character
just being so cool.
And again, so much of that isbecause of the way Chevy brought
it to light.

Yeah , and Ace is definitely somebody
that's not playing by the rules.
Yeah, he's playing by his ownset of rules and that's very
Fletch-like, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
How would you like me to make your life a living hell
?

Fletch (47:08):
Well, I'm not really ready for a relationship, lois,
but thank you for asking.

Ace definitely uses disguises and character
voices and things like thatundercover this house is clear
hi, I'm looking for ray finkeland a clean pair of shorts.

Now, guys, can you see a Rick
Moranis as a Fletch-likecharacter?

No, yeah, I was just thinking about that Because
you remember they kind of did aversion with John Candy, who's
Harry Crumb, back in the 80s, afew years after Fletch, and very
much yeah.

Oh, we love Harry Crumb.
I feel like it's an underratedcandy movie.

I like it too.
There's a lot of funny shit inthat movie.

Also 89,.
Same as Fletch, lives in a lotof disguises.

Yeah, and it's very disguised, like so I guess.
But we all know, true, a trueFletch movie or a Fletch
character, those type of, I mean, it's just those type of
individuals don't really sayfletch, you know right crumb is
more the doofus detective thatsolves the mystery, you know I

(48:29):
think, I think, when I think offletch, like I think, uh, axel
foley and beverly hills, cop 2,and yeah, who's harry crumb is a
decent attempt and everything.

But I mean, rick moran has always played such a a
family.
He's the kind of actor.
He's the kind of actor that youknow very wholesome to.
I will be like that yeah, verywholesome how many assholes we
got on this ship.

Anyhow, yo I knew it, I'm surrounded by
assholes.
Keep firing assholes.

The one exception.

That's great.
And while Fletch is a PG ratedmovie, you know, like I don't
know if it's a family movie somuch, especially in the eighties
, but the eighties values youknow and if you read the books,
there's nothing wholesome aboutFletch.
Yeah, yeah.

So there's nothing wholesome about Fletch.
If you read the books and intothe movies you know to some
degree as well.
But you know.

Rick Moranis as Ace Ventura would have been very
drastically different.
It wouldn't have been asobviously you know, it wouldn't
have been so over the top withthe way Jim Carrey played it.
It would have been much more ofa of kind of I'm trying to
think of a good way to do a goodexample or a good you know way
to describe it that that issimilar.

You know, I don't think there's a
comparable Rick Moranis role.
Uh, to be honest, I think andlisten, and you can't picture
him doing the Ace Ventura JimCarrey version.
No, no, no, no, no, no he wouldhave been more of a
quick-witted Fletch version.

He wouldn't have done all the crazy.

But I think he's always been second
fiddle.
Sorry to interrupt, bob, but Ifeel like he's always been
second fiddle and he plays thatrole perfectly.

I keep thinking about Little Giant and the way
he played the character there.

Yeah , but even though he gets tough
at the end he's still secondfiddle to Ed O'Neill, I think.

Yeah, still a second fiddle to ed o'neill, I
think.
Yeah, I'm curious if the earlyversions of this 90s flesh
script.
Always had the pet aspect, orwas that always there, or did
they feel like that's somethingthat they needed to bring in?

I don't know that I'm not sure of,
but it's funny that he saidthat the script needed a
stronger antagonist.
And who did they tap?

Randall Tex Cobb, that's true yeah, I have a
package for you.

Fletch (50:44):
Sounds broken?
Most likely, sir.
I'll bet it was something nice,though.
Bend over Alrighty then.

Okay , so it didn't go down exactly
like that, but it could have.
It definitely could have.

It's funny, but in the end there really wasn't a
huge antagonist though in AceVentura I mean like yeah, Sean
Young's.

What's her name?

Sean Young's character.

The female character Einhorn.

Einhorn, yeah, yeah.

One thing that the Ace franchise did
do that was very Fletch-likewas its sequel.

Yeah, because he was in Africa.
It was like a totally fish outof water.

Laker Jim - James Kanowit (51:25):
Which many deem as the Ace 2, the
Fletch Lives of the 90s.

Yeah, don't you speak bad about Fletch Lives.

No, don't get me wrong.
Lots of laughs, good laughs inboth.
But yeah he ain't wrong For me,just a little bit of too wild a
swing compared to the first one.

It's dead.

To each their own.
Bob, you got a quick Fletch PopCulture and then I'll get us
out of here.

I sure do.
Just give me one second.
I seem to have lost my notes.
Hit the music Laker Jim here wego Fletch.

Speaker 3 (52:03):
Here we go.

Let me ask you guys a question what does the
80s music video for the songWest End Girls, family Guy,
stranger Things and the movieCocaine Bear all have in common?

I believe they all take place at a
housing development outside ofCairo.

I don't get it, I'm just trying not to laugh at
your talk.
Too bad, I don't know Actuallythey all display Fletch or
Fletch lives on a 1980s moviemarquee.

(52:44):
Wow, can you believe that?
That is crazy?
That is crazy.
I'm sure that there's otherexamples and I'm sure that
somebody will point some out,but I wanted to just grab an
example of different types ofmedia.
You know, in this case we havea movie, we have a music video,
we have a live action streamingshow and a network animated

(53:07):
television.
Four very different types ofentertainment and yet somehow,
someway, all referencing Fletch.

All right, give us a breakdown of
where people can find the FletchMarquis in each of those
examples.

We're going to call this Fletch on the Marquis,
okay.

All right.

First thing I want to do, I want to take you back
to the year 1985, the band PetShop Boys and their number one
hit well.
Number one for them West EndGirls.
Yes, I remember that song.
Give me a little.
Pet Shop Number one hit well,number one for them, west End
Girls.
Yes, I remember that song.

Give me a little pet shot.
That song creeped me out alittle bit.
The video did too.

Yeah, it was part of the whole Europop thing going
on at the time In West End townthe dead end world, the East
End boys and West End girls.

But what you will notice is about maybe a third of
the way, maybe three quartersof the way through the video.
I don't know.
I don't think any of us couldfollow this video's story going
on.
But you do see one of the bandmembers, the lead singer,
walking around the city and hestops in front of a movie
marquee and lo and behold,Fletch.

Yeah , so you could see this at two
minutes and 56 seconds into thevideo.
And what's cool about this isyou actually see the Fletch logo
on the marquee, which I'venever seen before.
Correct, isn't that sointeresting too.
It's red.
It's on the screen for quite awhile.

So cool.
You got a lady eating an icecream cone in front of the
actual Fletch letters and itsays Chevy Chase.
And then in the smallest littlefont in Fletch but yeah, it
does have the Fletch letteringand everything the Fletch font
which is.
Did we ever figure out what thename of that font is, or is
that something that they created?

It's a custom font .

Definitely never see movie logos on the
marquee like that.
That's something I I've neverseen before with fletch, usually
you just have the uh the black,the black plastic letter.

Yes, yeah, the slide-in lettering.
Let's, let's give that, let'sgive that, uh, that fletch font
the name.
Let's call it fletch betica.
Okay, I like that, but you knowthat doesn't stop there with
the movie marquees.
Guys, I'm such a time and timeagain I've, I, I've gotten away
with it.
But I've mentioned, you know,in Fletch Pop Culture, using
another Family Guy reference.
But I do want to take you toFamily Guy, season 18, more

(55:26):
recent Episode 6.
There is an episode called Loisand Peter's Wedding, where they
go back to 1989 in this case.
Look, jim, I believe you have aclip of this as well.

Let's play that clip, okay, it was
1989, the golden age ofHollywood, the year of Trope,
beverly Hills.

Fletch Lives Gleam in the Cube and a hilarious new
addition to the Harry and theHendersons franchise.

And right there, you see, you know, not only
Fletch but Fletch lives ismentioned.
And you know, I reallyappreciated this as well,
because I don't think fletchlives ever gets enough, enough
of its due, so to speak right.

Laker Jim - James Kanow (56:05):
Doesn't it pop up in another family guy
too?

yeah, I mentioned it before, but you know I tell
that seth mcfarland is a hugefletch fan because there was a
previous episode as well, on aon an outside movie marquee
again, where the marquee readtomorrow dyslexic film society
presents chevy chase in felchf-e-l, which is just such a
great joke.
Oh my god, that's greatfletches mention.

(56:30):
And a fourth one as well, morerecently in the movie cocaine
bear.
Yes, you could catch cocaine,cocaine bear on peacock on peac.
And if you don't want to watchthe whole movie, if you're a
little squeamish, you only haveto watch 10 minutes of it.
Right?
Yeah, son of Grammy Awardwinning actor Ice Cube, o'shea
Jackson is wearing a bullshotbaseball jersey to team the

(56:53):
bullshots.
I'm assuming that that's somesort of reference to Caddyshack
as well.
Hey, sab sabu, can you make abull shot?
Make a shoe smell?
Very funny.
Uh, walking through a mall.
You could see him going to meetray leota to discuss, uh, their
drug smuggling business.
Another fletch, uh, anotherthing that's on on point to uh
reference fletch, but again he'swalking past the movie theater.

(57:16):
What's on the marquee?

and the lower third Fletch Of all
the times, and I just looked itup for continuity, that Cocaine
Bear does take place in the year1985.

Yeah, 1985.
Yeah, it does, yeah, and it'sabout ten minutes in the movie,
about nine and a half minutes inthe movie.
A bear did cocaine.
But you know it's the big one,for me at least, and I'm sure
for a lot of people.
I agree with you, consideringhow many people have been into
this series over the last fiveor six years.
Let me take you guys to Hawkins, illinois.

(57:48):
A lot of you know where I'mgoing with this.

Speaker 3 (57:51):
Season three, episode eight Stranger Things.

Now, the first thing I'm going to mention is,
of course, again Clutch on theMarquee, with a lot of other
movies as well, and that marqueewas in the mall right.

Yeah, it was in the mall.
That was in the mall.

So much of that season revolves around the mall
itself.
Beautiful remake, yeah.

Now did that mall not hit all the
right buttons for nostalgia forus it really did Well, the whole
series.
Now did that mall not hit allthe right buttons for nostalgia
for us Really did.

Yeah, it was Well the whole series.
Especially because there's somany references to pop culture.
I mean the whole series.
But yeah, that mall is justlike that's my childhood, that
is our childhood, it's right inthere.

The stores, the Orange Julius, these
guys, they're a bear for detail, that's for sure.

Yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah, yeah.
And honestly, just thebeautiful neon cinema signs that
they have in all marquees, thatreally takes me back so much.
Yeah, that's to me that's likethe more high marks of a really
quality movie here, one whereyou stick to the to the floor
pretty nicely, but, um, but yeah, again, you know, seeing it on
the marquee, and I want to saythis as well kudos to the makers

(58:56):
of stranger things, because I'msure we've spoken about this
before, but the entire seasonthree of Stranger Things was
highly Fletch influenced.
We have spoken about thisbefore, but a lot of season
three was influenced by Fletch.

Fletch (59:10):
It's no secret that Stranger Things showrunners, the
Duffer Brothers, are inspiredby classic 80s movies.
But while season three willsurely continue to offer homages
to films like terminator,aliens and the goonies, david
harbour, who plays chief hopperon the hit show, tells variety
that the 1985 comedy fletch wasthe inspiration for the upcoming

(59:30):
season.

The duffers are so specific each year with the
movies, and fletch is one moviewe get to play around and have
some fun with this season, whichyou wouldn't expect from
stranger things you're so you'rehelping us like all these kids
they're 25 year old you'reushering them into like the 80s
and helping them figure out thevibes of what we were doing with
like lace, gloves, etc.

(59:52):
Yeah, yeah, madonna, back tothe Future.
Fletch yes, 80s Good yeah, youknow somebody undercover doing
detective work and we saw thatso much that season with the
characters Steve trying toinfiltrate this Russian crime
ring that's going on inside themall itself.

(01:00:13):
They did take a lot ofinspiration from Fletch itself
and it really speaks to the factthat you know you see this
movie so commonly used on moviemarquees to describe the 80s.
But I think the truth is isthat people just love fletch so
much that they want to alwaysinclude it somehow some way in
whatever tv show or moviethey're making.

(01:00:34):
And I think you guys wouldagree yeah, I would agree with
that and I I was just againlooking this up for continuity.

Laker Jim - James Kano (01:00:41):
Stranger Things Season 3 takes place
over the span of a week,culminating July 4th, so
relevant time for the movie tobe in theaters.

Jake Parrish (01:00:47):
Sure.
I mean the movie came out inMay of that year.

Laker Jim - James Kanowitz (01:00:52):
The earliest movie in terms of
release date is Fletch, a comedyabout an investigative reporter
that goes undercover a lot.
Not only is this reference towhat Nancy Wheeler does when
investigating the rats, but itcould also conceivably still be
in multiplexes because it cameout, like you said, may 31st.
So that checks out, without adoubt.

(01:01:12):
I would love to have somebodyfrom Stranger Things on with us
to sort of like really breakdown the influence of Fletch.
Fletch, I mean, when you thinkabout it, it's the ultimate ode
to a favorite movie.
Yep, it's really cool that flexshows up so many times on the
marquees in the background andit's amazing.
Listen.
We just mentioned this wholesegment's called fletch pop

(01:01:34):
culture.
Jake just said about howingrained fletch is into pop
culture.
Those little pops, those littlepop figures, funko Pops that
are pop culture figures theFunko Pops the.
Funko Pops.
That everybody.
How is there not a Fletch FunkoPop?
There are billions of FunkoPops, but there's not a Fletch
Funko Pop.
So there's something seriouslywrong there, so Funko.

(01:01:59):
There's something seriouslywrong there, so funko.
There's.
There's some wires that aren'tconnecting.
That should be.

Big Bob West (01:02:01):
Fletch needs a funko pop, I mean and not just
fletch, not just fletch, we needfletch, we need fat sam, we
need larry, we need all hisidentities right okay, I see I
need like I need like a, like a,like eight, like a whole series
of pop series here you knowlike and you know it's just like
yeah alan the chief, I toldmyself I'd never buy funko pops.

But I mean, if that happened then I
might have to start doing it.
But oh, I would have great popculture thank you so much.

And also, you know one more thing too.
You know, and it's not too muchto ask, maybe fletch lives
funko pops too, but you knowwhat.
Thank you.
Thank you for the time, and youknow you guys have been so good
.
I want to buy you guys, sincewe're here at the movies, buy
you guys some Juju fruits andsome popcorn.
That's great.

Well , that's pop culture for this
week, and that about wraps it up.

But before we go, I have one more thing I want to
squeeze in.
I have an embarrassing fact tome for about a month now and I
gotta be honest, I'm dying toknow what the hell this is.

See, I don't know, I don't think I know.

I've been so scared to admit this
because you may take away myFletch card and rightfully so
after I say it, okay, or maybeyou guys can relate and admit
ignorance to this fact as well.

Are you gonna talk about how you took a shit that
looked like Chevy or somethingCock?

No, not that you would have got a
picture of that in the groupchat by now, but I've seen
Fletch more than I've seen anyother movie.
I've probably seen Fletch maybe500 times in my life.
Does that sound right?

I'm willing to bet you've seen it.
Hang on, let me stop you rightthere.
I'm willing to bet you've seenit.
If you watch a movie threetimes a year, yeah, hold on, let
me hit my couch Since, like youknow the 80s you've probably
seen it over 100 times.
Let's put it that way I'd bewilling to bet that you've
probably seen it about 200 times.
I've probably seen it more thanthat, you think so yeah.

Well , if we've been watching it
since VHS in the late 80s, let'scall it even 90.
Let's call it 1990 for a niceround number.

Then that's 35 years, 36 years, yeah.

Well , if I'm saying 500 and I've
been watching it for 35 years,then I would have to watch it
around 14 times a year, whichmight be pushing it.
I mean especially recently.
But you have to consider toothat there were some years in my
teens where I watched it acouple of times a week, you know
.
So maybe, maybe I watched it,you know, a hundred times in a

(01:04:38):
year, you know like possibly fora few years.

So all right, let's I.
I think you're close to 500.
I think that you're over 400.

I don't even know how to say.
Let me just get this out, I'mfilibustering.
Yeah, let's just say I'vewatched it between 300 and 500
times.
Fire away, go my point.
After a ridiculous number ofwatchings, something just
occurred to me that was clear asday.
After Fletch passes out andwakes up, he asks the nurse

(01:05:08):
where he is and she tells him.
After finding out he's in therecords room, she asks if she
can get him anything and he asksfor a record when am I?

Fletch (01:05:19):
You're in the records room.

Chevy Chase (01:05:21):
The records room.

Fletch (01:05:21):
Oh, I'm fine if she can get him anything, and he asks
for a record.
Where am I?
You're in the records room.
The records room?

Oh, I'm fine, can I get you something?
Yeah, do you have the Beatles'White Album?
Right, I get you.
I know what you're saying,right?

Guys , I'm ashamed to admit I never
put that together, did you guys?
You can say yes.

I'm not going lie, I never occurred to me either I
never really thought about iteither, that's true yeah, you're
lying, are you?

are you guys being serious right now
?

I just thought it was another random weird thing.
Chevy said, you know, rightsame.

He asked where am I?

like it's apropos that he would ask
for a record in the records roomwow, if you guys are being
serious, then that means thereare other people out there that
never connected those dots aswell, those obvious dots.
Not so bad.
You're not alone and you're notjust saying that to make me
feel better.
You swear on Fred Dorfman'slife.

Yeah, no, honestly .

I really have never put it together either.

I'm serious, I'm manning up.

Agree, same, same here, I can admit it.
Yeah, I never really thoughtabout it Because, like yeah,
because honestly he says so muchweird shit.

Well , that about wraps up this
episode of Fletchcast.
Thank God I feel a littlebetter, but if you're out there
and you had that revelation aswell with us, let us know.
And next week we have a reallyspecial episode about the cut
hockey scene with a specialguest and a lot of information.
So you're not going to want tomiss that for Jake or Bob.

(01:06:49):
I'm Laker, jim, we're going togo catch the last 10 minutes of
dynasty.
See you later, guysno-transcript.

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