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Speaker 1: Too Much Information is a production of My Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to Too Much Information, the show

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Speaker 1: that brings you the secret histories and little known fascinating

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Speaker 1: facts behind your favorite movies, music, TV shows, and more.

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Speaker 1: We are your Sultans of So What, the Kings of Crash,

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Speaker 1: the Colossus of Cloud. At least as far as useless

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Speaker 1: trivia as concerned. I am Jordan Run Talk a k a.

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Speaker 1: The Great Jordano, and I'm alex Ago and I did

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Speaker 1: not write a nickname for myself. And today we are

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Speaker 1: recognizing the unofficial end of summer with one of the

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Speaker 1: best summer movies of all time. I'm talking about The

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Speaker 1: sand Lot, a movie about youthful friendship in an idealized

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Speaker 1: version of the early sixties. It's the kind of movie

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Speaker 1: that will make you nostalgic for a childhood you probably

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Speaker 1: never had and probably no one ever had. And that's

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Speaker 1: sort of the main point. As we'll discussed on this

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Speaker 1: episode in interviews, the writer and director of The sand

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Speaker 1: Lot got in the name of David Mickey Evans. Frequently

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Speaker 1: references are possibly apocryphal story of Walt Disney walking a

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Speaker 1: bunch of dignitaries through a newly completed Disneyland in nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty and as they walked down the avenue line the

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Speaker 1: shops and buildings design that looked like turn of the

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Speaker 1: century Middle America. One of these dignitaries said, you know, well,

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Speaker 1: you really nailed it. This is exactly the way it

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Speaker 1: was back then, and Walt said, no, it's the way

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Speaker 1: it should have been. That's sorry. That's very much the

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Speaker 1: sensibility behind this movie, and that's one of the reasons

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Speaker 1: why I think it's so beloved. Yeah, I mean we've

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Speaker 1: talked about how baseball is not my thing. Yes, I

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Speaker 1: definitely watched this movie at like sleepovers and in like

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Speaker 1: middle school when the teacher was hungover and wanted to

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Speaker 1: put on a movie, but I was a little too

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Speaker 1: busy rewatching Jackie Chance Rumble in the Bronx to um

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Speaker 1: pursue this on my own time. That's funny, because I mean,

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Speaker 1: the nineties really had a surplus of kids in sports movies,

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Speaker 1: and I think baseball really reigned supreme in that genre.

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Speaker 1: Like Rookie of the Year, a Little Bigly, Angels in

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Speaker 1: the Outfield, which I hastened to remind you featured an

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Speaker 1: all star cast including Danny Glover, Joseph Gordon, Levitt, Tony Danza,

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Speaker 1: Christopher Lloyd, Adrian Brody, Matthew McConaughey, and Dermott Laroney. Remember

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Speaker 1: that one. But in addition to kids baseball movies, you

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Speaker 1: also have the Mighty Duck series. You had Little Giants,

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Speaker 1: which was a foray into football and a somewhat cult favorite,

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Speaker 1: The Big Green starring the kid who played ham Porter

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Speaker 1: from The sand Lot and the older sister from The

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Speaker 1: Wonder Years, Olivia Tabo. But I'd argue that The sand

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Speaker 1: Lot has all these beat as a fan favorite. And

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Speaker 1: I was talking about this with my stepbrother the other day.

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Speaker 1: He likened it to the Beatles movie A Hard Day's Night,

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Speaker 1: which just proves I can relate anything back to the

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Speaker 1: Beatles in the same way about A Hard Day's Night

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Speaker 1: had this almost supernatural quality of making you want to

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Speaker 1: drop everything and start a band with your friends. The

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Speaker 1: sand Lot made you feel the same way about wanting

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Speaker 1: to drop everything and play a game and pick up

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Speaker 1: baseball with your buds. I mean, did that I know

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Speaker 1: you're not really a baseball guy, did that have any

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Speaker 1: effect on you? Did this movie and you want to

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Speaker 1: go play a game with kids down the street. No,

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Speaker 1: I wanted to pretend martial arts fight kids. Um I

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Speaker 1: was it was Power Rangers Power Rangers, and Jackie changed

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Speaker 1: for me. I don't I don't know. I missed this.

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Speaker 1: I missed this. Maybe we didn't have a baseball diamond

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Speaker 1: near me. I don't know. I just I missed this.

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Speaker 1: Um yeah, not great great American pastime. My asked, well,

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Speaker 1: I think I think it's most interesting to me about

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Speaker 1: The sand Lot is that it manages to avoid the old,

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Speaker 1: tried and true sports movie trope, probably best exemplified for

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Speaker 1: our purposes in The Mighty Ducks, which I miss wrote

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Speaker 1: as the Mighty Dicks initially, which it's like, guess the

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Speaker 1: porn movie versions, you know, the whole trope of a

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Speaker 1: rag tag group of misfits takes on the rich snobs.

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Speaker 1: We get a little bit of that mid movie in

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Speaker 1: The sand Lot where they play the more professional team

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Speaker 1: with you know, the kids in the varsity jackets, but

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Speaker 1: they move off that pretty quickly, which is a bold

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Speaker 1: move because at as sart, Sam is a movie about

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Speaker 1: friendship and belonging and finding your people, you know, and

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Speaker 1: maybe that's why it has the same pool as the

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Speaker 1: Beatles movie. The camparaderie at its core is so strong

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Speaker 1: you want what they have, you want to be part

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Speaker 1: of it. And many of the actors in the movie

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Speaker 1: have gone on to say that they put same law

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Speaker 1: in a category with movies like Stand By Me and

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Speaker 1: The Goonies rather than sports movies. And I tend to agree, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I would. I would second that. Um, you know what

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Speaker 1: I just thought of when you said that was bigger

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Speaker 1: for me was Karate Kid. Oh yeah, okay, I mean,

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Speaker 1: come on, that's a kid's sports movies. Coast Italian guy

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Speaker 1: who gets into martial arts and hates the rich people.

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Speaker 1: That's my origin story, pal. Yeah, I'm an indoor kid

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Speaker 1: with social skills almost as poor as my sports skills.

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Speaker 1: And uh And this podcast is the story of our friendship.

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Speaker 1: The subtext of this entire podcast is discovering things about ourselves,

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Speaker 1: discussing pop culture well speak of painful childhood memories from

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Speaker 1: a truly tragic childhood backstory that inspired this film in

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Speaker 1: the first place, to the precedent setting lawsuits sparked by

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Speaker 1: the character of Squints, to the finer points of the

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Speaker 1: vomit used during the chewing tobacco scene, the six foot

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Speaker 1: tall puppet required to create the beast, and what happened

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Speaker 1: when they let Dennis Leary loose around a group of kids.

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Speaker 1: Here's everything you didn't know about the sand Lot. Well,

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Speaker 1: before we talk about the sand Lot, we have to

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Speaker 1: talk about the Sad Pot. This movie is based on

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Speaker 1: a true story from writer director David Mickey Evans's childhood,

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Speaker 1: but as we said at the top of the episode,

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Speaker 1: it's an idolized version of because his early life was

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Speaker 1: deeply sad. He tells this story in the twenty fifth

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Speaker 1: anniversary documentary Legends Never Die on Fox. Evans his dad

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Speaker 1: left home when he was a little kid. He just

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Speaker 1: went for cigarettes or something and never came back. So

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Speaker 1: his mother put him and his little brother into the

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Speaker 1: family car and drove a cost the country from the

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Speaker 1: east coast of southern California to try to find him.

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Speaker 1: She eventually did find him, but he had moved on

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Speaker 1: with his life, in Evans's words, and didn't want anything

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Speaker 1: to do with his former wife or his kids. So

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Speaker 1: they found themselves starting over in a strange state. And

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Speaker 1: like Scott Small's the main character in the Sanmot, Evans

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Speaker 1: and his brother were the new kids and their mom

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Speaker 1: married a man who was not very nice to Evans,

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Speaker 1: and to hear him tell it, he and his brother

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Speaker 1: got bullied on her own block. We got bullied at school,

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Speaker 1: we got bullied on the way back from school, and

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Speaker 1: when we got home, we got bullied. So tough early life.

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Speaker 1: In an effort to force her two boys to make friends,

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Speaker 1: Evans's mom would throw him and his little brother out

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Speaker 1: of the house to like Scott Small's mom and the Sandlot,

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Speaker 1: go make friends, go get dirty, go get into trouble,

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Speaker 1: and in doing so, she effectively threw her kids to

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Speaker 1: the wolves. And there was one particularly vicious gang who

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Speaker 1: hung out at the end of their block and played baseball,

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Speaker 1: and naturally, Evans and his brother were not invited to

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Speaker 1: play with them. One day, these kids hit a baseball

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Speaker 1: over a brick wall fence. Any of this sound familiar yet,

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Speaker 1: which is basically the entire plot of The Sandlot. Evans's

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Speaker 1: little brother was always hanging around hoping for a chance

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Speaker 1: to play, hoping he'd finally get the invitation, So they

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Speaker 1: talked to him in the hopping the fence and getting

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Speaker 1: the ball back for him, you know, go over and

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Speaker 1: get the ball and bring it back and maybe you

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Speaker 1: can play with us. And this little kid was thrilled.

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Speaker 1: This was his big chance to get on their good

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Speaker 1: side and maybe, just maybe finally make some friends. But

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Speaker 1: when evans little brother hopped the fence, he was confronted

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Speaker 1: with a massive, terrifying, ill treated dog named Hercules, who

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Speaker 1: chased him down and bid him quite badly. And as

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Speaker 1: David Mickey, Evans said, the boys all knew what was

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Speaker 1: going to happen, and they laughed as a little brother

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Speaker 1: as he was walking bleeding back home, and Evans said,

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Speaker 1: I really hated those guys for a long, long time

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Speaker 1: into my adult years. I mean until the baseball party.

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Speaker 1: This is the plot of Kid Southern California. Oh man,

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Speaker 1: I didn't even think of that text, but Evans would

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Speaker 1: get the last laugh. By the early nineties, he was

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Speaker 1: a hotshot screenwriter in Los Angeles and he sold the

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Speaker 1: script for a movie called Radio Flyer for over a

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Speaker 1: million dollars, making one of the highest paid writers around

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Speaker 1: at the time. Do you remember this movie? Nope? I

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Speaker 1: remember Radio the Cuba Gooding Junior movie. No no different movie.

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Speaker 1: Radio Flyer with Elijah Wood, Alec Baldwin, John Heard, and

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Speaker 1: An uncredited Tom Hanks as the narrator. This is yes,

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Speaker 1: we have our our first Hanks connection, and I think

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Speaker 1: are only one in this episode. This is another deep

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Speaker 1: well of childhood sadness, and like The sand Lot, it

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Speaker 1: borrows a lot from Emma's childhood. I remember this movie

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Speaker 1: quite well. It was extremely upsetting. Young mother moves from

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Speaker 1: the East coast to the west with the two young boys.

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Speaker 1: Mary's a man who tunes out to be an abuse

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Speaker 1: of alcoholic who beats her kids behind her back, and

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Speaker 1: the whole movie is spent with these kids scheming how

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Speaker 1: to escape. It's one of the bigger bummer kids movies

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Speaker 1: I've ever seen. Um anyway, Radio Flyer is supposed to

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Speaker 1: be David mickey Evans directorial debut, which makes sense considering

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Speaker 1: it obviously has a lot of personal connections to his childhood,

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Speaker 1: but the studio decided the last minute that he was

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Speaker 1: too inexperienced and they unceremoniously removed him from the film

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Speaker 1: ten days into production. He was bombed, to put it mildly,

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Speaker 1: and the director chair was given to Richard Donner, late

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Speaker 1: of the Goonies, Scrooged and the Lethal Weapon and Superman series.

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Speaker 1: So he had some big hits under his belt, and

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Speaker 1: Donnerd just spent some hard truths to David Mickey Evans

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Speaker 1: wrapped in the guise of encouraging words. I guess everyone

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Speaker 1: gets a second chance in Hollywood, but nobody gets a

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Speaker 1: third chance. So the pressure was on for Evans to

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Speaker 1: make his next film a good one. So he's racking

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Speaker 1: his brain trying to think of a movie idea that

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Speaker 1: would be more suitable for a rookie director, in his words,

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Speaker 1: a small, contained film with a limited number of locations,

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Speaker 1: a limited number of characters, and a simple but clean idea.

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Speaker 1: And he stuck in l A traffic one day and

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Speaker 1: he's bored thinking of the opening scene of La La Land,

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Speaker 1: and he recalls the incident from his childhood with Hercules

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Speaker 1: the dog and his little brother, and the plot just

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Speaker 1: came out one line. A bunch of kids during the

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Speaker 1: summer have to get a baseball back from a mean dog.

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Speaker 1: And unlike Radio Flyer, which was a pretty brutal portrayal

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Speaker 1: of the worst elements of being a kid, being helpless

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Speaker 1: and afraid and abused, this new movie was going to

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Speaker 1: be the opposite. As Evans said, the whole movie is

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Speaker 1: really me rewriting my childhood because I turned all those

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Speaker 1: bullies into heroes. And he made the Lost Ball signed

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Speaker 1: by Babe Ruth and worth three million dollars. As he

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Speaker 1: told the website the score, the sand Lot isn't the

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Speaker 1: way my childhood was. The sand Lot was the way

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Speaker 1: my childhood should have been. After writing the first paragraph

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Speaker 1: of that script, I never had negative thoughts about those

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Speaker 1: bullies from my childhood again. So at least it was

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Speaker 1: cathartic for him, and he took a very active role

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Speaker 1: in putting this very personal story together. In addition to

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Speaker 1: directing and co writing the script, he also served as

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Speaker 1: the film's narrator. That's him. I didn't know that, I man,

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Speaker 1: that is rough. Although if you're gonna get kicked off

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Speaker 1: your movie, you could do worse than Richard Donner. That's

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Speaker 1: a great line. Though you've always got a second chance

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Speaker 1: on ever a third. That's really good. Yeah. The original

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Speaker 1: title of the film was Boys of Summer, but it

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Speaker 1: was changed not to avoid a lawsuit with Don Hemley,

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Speaker 1: which is surprising because Don Henley loves to sue people um,

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Speaker 1: but because an author by the name of Roger Khan

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Speaker 1: had written a book of the same name in Nino

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Speaker 1: about the Brooklyn Dodgers, their fabled team from as Evans

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Speaker 1: told Sports Illustrated, I changed it to the sand lot

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Speaker 1: because Roger Khan threatened to sue me upside down and backwards,

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Speaker 1: and God love him, he was right. That takes a

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Speaker 1: brave man to admit that, he said. The irony is

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Speaker 1: that the sand loot in the film wasn't originally written

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Speaker 1: as a sand lot. It was an elementary school recess yard.

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Speaker 1: A lot rougher when you have kids sliding around on

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Speaker 1: asphalt sand, right, oh man' getting into that league of

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Speaker 1: their own five five injuries? Oh god. Uh. With the

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Speaker 1: script of the film ready, it was time to begin casting,

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Speaker 1: and this was a long and arduous process where the

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Speaker 1: producers mixed and matched actors and characters, trying to get

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Speaker 1: the right blend for the film. They originally planned on

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Speaker 1: casting kids who around nine or ten years old, closer

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Speaker 1: to the age that Evans was when the origin story

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Speaker 1: of Hercules the Dog occurred. But as the casting progressed,

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Speaker 1: it became apparent that the cast needed to be older. Apparently,

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Speaker 1: the prevalent comment that they gout was, oh my god,

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Speaker 1: they look like babies, and ultimately they bumped the age

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Speaker 1: range of the kids twelve or thirteen, with Evans telling

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Speaker 1: Sports Illustrated dot Com we knew was the right decision

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Speaker 1: instantly because the first kid that the interview was Mike Vitar,

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Speaker 1: who played Benny Rodriguez. While we're talking about Ben of

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Speaker 1: the jet, would you describe him as the most iconic

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Speaker 1: part of this film from the PF flyers, the shoes

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Speaker 1: on down, good looking to it. From the shoes, he's

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Speaker 1: got a good face, He's visited his dreams by Babe Ruth,

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Speaker 1: and ultimately he gets the happiest would you say the

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Speaker 1: happiest ending he goes on a play on the Dodgers. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's played by a Cuban American actor. Mike Vuitar got

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Speaker 1: his big break when he was just twelve years old

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Speaker 1: and the casting managers saw him standing in line at

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Speaker 1: a carnival. Good lord, can you imagine that that's a

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Speaker 1: Bruce Springsteen song? Uh? You know. The adult actor actually

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Speaker 1: looks a lot like the kid version, and that is

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Speaker 1: because they got the kids older brother Pablo to play

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Speaker 1: the adult version of Benny. He's playing on the Dodgers.

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Speaker 1: I guess the pro the actual Dodgers who are in

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Speaker 1: that scene were not actually Dodgers, which is depressing. They're

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Speaker 1: played by cast members from the film crew members like

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Speaker 1: they got like the grip and stuff like that. The

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Speaker 1: best boy. Yeah, I think that's gonna be cool to

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Speaker 1: have like kind of a grunt job in a film,

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Speaker 1: be like, all right, well you got a day planned

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Speaker 1: baseball at Dodgers Stadium, Like that's pretty great. Yeah yeah

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Speaker 1: yeah uh and then you get hit with a fastball

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Speaker 1: from Randy Johnson explodes your head like that bird. Uh.

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Speaker 1: It's the only bit of baseball trivia I know. Um.

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Speaker 1: Mike really found his niche in the nineties kids sports movies.

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Speaker 1: He also started D two The Mighty Ducks and D

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Speaker 1: three also The Mighty Ducks. Um, do you remember the

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Speaker 1: kid's name? Oh? What was the kids in? Um? He

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Speaker 1: was the kid who can state really fast but it

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Speaker 1: can't stop. That's my main memory. I forget his character's name,

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Speaker 1: Emilia the jet estavs uh. Also the kid who played

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Speaker 1: in the sand long plays the picture in the sand Loot.

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Speaker 1: Kenny denez is in m D two. But you didn't

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Speaker 1: come to this podcast to listen to Uh, that's pontificate

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Speaker 1: about different guys whose nick names are Latin and the Jet.

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Speaker 1: You came to listen to Smalls The Smallest Corner A

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Speaker 1: little part of this podcast we like to call The

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Speaker 1: Smallest Corner. The start of the movie undoubtedly is eleven

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Speaker 1: year old kid named Tom Geary, who won the role

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Speaker 1: despite the fact was one of the first auditions he

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Speaker 1: had ever been on. He didn't even get the part. Originally,

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Speaker 1: the roles between him and another kid, and he flew

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Speaker 1: all the way back from l A to the East Coast,

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Speaker 1: ready to give up on acting for good. And then

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Speaker 1: the other kid fell through and they called up Tom

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Speaker 1: to the big leagues. Some nothing happened to the kid

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Speaker 1: who played Yeah Yeah too. He was a last minute replacement.

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Speaker 1: And to Ralph Makio, really nope, making that up the

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Speaker 1: character of Scott just tying everything back to CHRONI kid

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Speaker 1: Um Yeah. Scott Smalls famously not a great baseball player

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Speaker 1: before he's taken uh into a mentorship by Benny the Jet.

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Speaker 1: But the actor Tom Geary was actually pretty good at baseball.

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Speaker 1: In I r L. We talked about in League of

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Speaker 1: their Own how some of the people had to dumb

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Speaker 1: down in the racing scene, right, isn't it? Um Kit

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Speaker 1: who plays kid Lori Petty. Lori Petty had to like

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Speaker 1: run slower, slower than slower than to like miss a

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Speaker 1: ball that's going right for you. Like there's a scene

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Speaker 1: when he gets hit in the face with a ball. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: how do you fake that? Just eat it in the face. Um.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, he had to take lessons on it. You know,

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Speaker 1: he was coached how to look like, how to be bad.

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Speaker 1: He told Time magazine. Uh, I know, my little league

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Speaker 1: coach was pretty upset when he saw the movie. But

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Speaker 1: you know, aside from that, he did bring a lot

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Speaker 1: of himself to the role. He said, I remember moving

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Speaker 1: when I was little, moving around, and it was hard

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Speaker 1: for me to make friends. I think as an actor

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Speaker 1: you always bring a part of yourself into the role.

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Speaker 1: So in order to establish the close bomb between the

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Speaker 1: actors of Benny and Small's David Mickey Evans, the director

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Speaker 1: and writer had the two actors meet and rehearsed together

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Speaker 1: weeks before the rest of the kids showed up to film,

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Speaker 1: and it worked so well that the other actors playing

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Speaker 1: the kids in the film thought that they had been

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Speaker 1: friends for for a long time. It's a good move. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's smart Um. Probably the other nicknamed kid you can

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Speaker 1: really think of in this film after the Jet and

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Speaker 1: Smalls is Squints. How do you pronounce this kid's name?

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Speaker 1: Michael Squints Palladoras Palladorus, played by In the tradition of

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Speaker 1: actors time immemorial, you get a Greek guy to play

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Speaker 1: an Italian guy vice versa played by kid named Chauncey

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Speaker 1: Lea Pardy, which sounds like he belongs in one of

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Speaker 1: our British niche music episodes. But breaks and geeks good

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Speaker 1: for Chauncey. According to the actor played smallest Tom Geary,

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Speaker 1: nothing at all like the guy he played. He said

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Speaker 1: he'd wear the nerdiest clothes and the thick glasses, and

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Speaker 1: as soon as they would call rap, he'd be in

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Speaker 1: humongous jeans down to his knees and a backwards hat

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Speaker 1: and blasting gangster app So that doesn't ruin your image

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Speaker 1: of Squints. I don't know what will para Jinko's, but

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Speaker 1: he was like his character in that, like Squints, he

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Speaker 1: was kind of a in your words, a bit of

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Speaker 1: a horn dog. It was not above manipulating circumstances to

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Speaker 1: get what he wanted. Apparently in exchange for behaving himself

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Speaker 1: on set, this kid, Chauncey Leo Party, demanded a copy

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Speaker 1: of the current issue of Playboy from the d P

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Speaker 1: on the film director of photography, Anthony Richmond. Yeah, he

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Speaker 1: says he bought one on his lunch break for the kid.

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Speaker 1: He said everything was fine after that. Just kid blackmailed

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Speaker 1: the DP on his film for porn. That's a power move. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Leo Party would not confirm or deny this, he told

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Speaker 1: the Score. I've heard that story before. I honestly don't

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Speaker 1: remember what it probably happened. Bribery is the quickest way

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Speaker 1: to get to somebody's heart, right, Good for you, Squint's

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Speaker 1: good lord. Yeah. All these kids are true characters, and

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Speaker 1: they do such a great job of carrying off this

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Speaker 1: movie that I completely forgot that Scott Small's parents are

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Speaker 1: played by two serious heavy hitters, Karen Allen, who will

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Speaker 1: forever be marrying Raven Wood from the Indiana Jones movies

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Speaker 1: In My Heart and Dennis Leary. I completely forgot Dennis

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Speaker 1: Lear was in this. The kid who played Smallest told

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Speaker 1: time I was expecting him to show up on the

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Speaker 1: set with a leather jacket and the cigarette hanging out

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Speaker 1: of his mouth, talking really fast. I remember saying that

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Speaker 1: my mom at the time. He's so different from how

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Speaker 1: I thought he'd be. He and Karen Allen were both

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Speaker 1: great to work with. And Dennis Leary's famously from Massachusetts,

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Speaker 1: a fellow Whister County boy, just like me. And even

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Speaker 1: if you don't give a damn about baseball, if you're

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Speaker 1: from Massachusetts, you're hardwired to hate the Yankees. That's just

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Speaker 1: how it is. And this caused the problem with Dennis.

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Speaker 1: When the prop master handed him a baseball glove for

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Speaker 1: the scene where he tries to bond with his new

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Speaker 1: steps On Smalls by playing catch, and Dennis put the

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Speaker 1: glove on started punching it with his fist to break

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Speaker 1: it in, and then he looked down and horror spread

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Speaker 1: across his face and immediately took the glove off and said,

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Speaker 1: I'm not wearing this. Get me another one. The prop

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Speaker 1: master looked at it and it was a Mickey Mantel

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Speaker 1: signature glove, and Dennis Leary would not wear a glove

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Speaker 1: endorsed by one of the most famous Yankees of all time.

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Speaker 1: I just love that the last member of the Sand

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Speaker 1: loot team to be cast was Hamilton ham Porter, the husky,

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Speaker 1: redheaded wise acre played by Pat Renner. Finding the right

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Speaker 1: blend of wit and warmth proved difficult for producers and

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Speaker 1: they were still looking the day. The rest of the cast.

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Speaker 1: We're getting on a plane in the Salt Lake City

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Speaker 1: to begin filming. According to David Mickey Evans, the director

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Speaker 1: Pat nailed the audition and he told them you're in,

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Speaker 1: and you got a plane to make kids get all

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Speaker 1: the plane. Ham's finest hour in this movie, aside from

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Speaker 1: the gripping explanation of how you make a some more

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Speaker 1: which we'll get to later, was the scene where the

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Speaker 1: sand Lot gang or facing off against the snooty varsity

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Speaker 1: jacketed wearing kids and they're actually too. There's the scene

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Speaker 1: where they first challenge each other and it's like gunfight

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Speaker 1: at the Okay Corral where they you know, the two

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Speaker 1: teams are lined up nose nose and they just trade

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Speaker 1: rapid fire insults. You know, moron, scabb, eater, pus liquors,

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Speaker 1: some really gross ones, culminating with the insult of all insults.

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Speaker 1: You play ball like a girl, yeah, I mean has

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Speaker 1: an age. Well, but par for the course though, especially

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Speaker 1: in the era, and also like, you know, I remember

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Speaker 1: talking like this when I was a kid. Yeah, Evans

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Speaker 1: has been asked about that line because again, he wrote

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Speaker 1: the script in addition to directing it, and he's defended

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Speaker 1: it on the grounds of it being authentic to the period.

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Speaker 1: He told USA Today recently in the context of two

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Speaker 1: thousand eighteen, obviously I would never write that line. It

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Speaker 1: wouldn't resonate, and nobody would understand it and they would

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Speaker 1: find it offensive. You're talking about a movie that took

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Speaker 1: place in nineteen two. So if I was to make

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Speaker 1: The Sale Lot again today, taking place in nineteen sixty two, no,

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't change that line, of course. Not He's not wrong,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. There's also the scene a few minutes

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Speaker 1: later when they're actually playing the game and Hams behind

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Speaker 1: the plate. He's the catcher, remember, and he's taunting the

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Speaker 1: batters like, hurry up, batter, it's gonna be a short game,

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Speaker 1: and I have to get home before lunch. And of course,

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Speaker 1: my personal favorite, if my dog was as ugly as you,

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Speaker 1: I'd shave his butt and make him walk backwardsous. Oh

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Speaker 1: my god, it's incredible. The insults for at least this

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Speaker 1: home plate scene. Possibly both scenes were unscripted and improvised

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Speaker 1: on the day and David Mickey Evans fed the off

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Speaker 1: the cuff insults to Ham as they were shooting the

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Speaker 1: scene and they were just workshopped on the fly between them.

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Speaker 1: And Yeah, let's say that's Ham's finest hour. Hashtag Ham's

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Speaker 1: finest hour tweeted us, using that about this episode. As

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Speaker 1: you meditate on that, We'll be right back with more

427
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:20,440
Speaker 1: too much information after these messages. Everything on the set

428
00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:23,040
Speaker 1: of this movie was man made because even though it's

429
00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:26,800
Speaker 1: set in southern California, San Fernando Valley, it was shot

430
00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:34,960
Speaker 1: in Utah, often called the San Fernando Valley of whatever's

431
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,639
Speaker 1: part of the coast Utah. Um, Yeah, I mean the

432
00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:41,080
Speaker 1: tax break capital of the of this era of film,

433
00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:43,359
Speaker 1: right like it's in the past twenty years, Well, in

434
00:23:43,359 --> 00:23:45,560
Speaker 1: the past twenty years has been Georgia, right Like, everything

435
00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:48,119
Speaker 1: is shot in Georgia today because the I think this

436
00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:51,120
Speaker 1: comes in with like legislatures and whoever like passed these

437
00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:54,679
Speaker 1: really aggressive tax breaks and becomes the place dujor to shoot.

438
00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:57,679
Speaker 1: And they needed that because this movie was made for nothing.

439
00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:00,800
Speaker 1: Seven million dollars which will get you like what a

440
00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:04,000
Speaker 1: couple of canisters? A film on a Christopher Nolan shoot

441
00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:09,880
Speaker 1: these days good lord and craft services if you're lucky. Um. Yeah,

442
00:24:10,040 --> 00:24:11,760
Speaker 1: they made the send a lot of an empty field

443
00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:17,560
Speaker 1: on someone's private property and then built the backstop dirt grass, trees, fences,

444
00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:21,840
Speaker 1: Mr Myrtle, the Timmins's house, boats, backed yards, and it

445
00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:26,400
Speaker 1: never reverted from being private property. You cannot go there. Uh.

446
00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:29,720
Speaker 1: You try and visit it in Utah, you find no

447
00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:33,600
Speaker 1: trespassing signs posted everywhere, and apparently it has passed into

448
00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:39,320
Speaker 1: local legend. The owner does not want you there. If

449
00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:41,960
Speaker 1: you're a devoted sand Lot fan making a pilgrimage to

450
00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:46,080
Speaker 1: Utah out of luck, don't do it. Uh. And you

451
00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:49,040
Speaker 1: know there were also houses completely surrounding the property, so

452
00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:52,880
Speaker 1: unless you are actively courting the wrath of a Utah

453
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,960
Speaker 1: property owner, you can't see it. Sorry. They even built

454
00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,480
Speaker 1: the trees on this. You know. The treehouse scenes are

455
00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:01,600
Speaker 1: such a big part of this film. Um, that's where

456
00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:04,400
Speaker 1: they make the Erector set pieces to try and get

457
00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:07,320
Speaker 1: one over on the beast, and they needed to actually

458
00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:10,560
Speaker 1: buy that. They wanted to buy an actual oak tree

459
00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:14,040
Speaker 1: for the film. But again, seven mill didn't get you

460
00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:18,320
Speaker 1: a tree. You don't get a tree. It's not the budget.

461
00:25:19,240 --> 00:25:22,720
Speaker 1: So they know these things will go for like hundreds

462
00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:25,080
Speaker 1: of thousands of dollars to buy, like a hundred year

463
00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:28,240
Speaker 1: old oak tree that caused apparently, according to interviews with

464
00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:30,679
Speaker 1: David Mickey Evans, like a hundred grands. Yeah. And so

465
00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:32,439
Speaker 1: one day one of the crew members was on his

466
00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:34,119
Speaker 1: way to the production office. We saw a guy in

467
00:25:34,119 --> 00:25:37,560
Speaker 1: his front yard. Apparently Kiss meant about to cut down

468
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:41,640
Speaker 1: a massive oak tree in his yard. The beautiful century

469
00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:45,320
Speaker 1: old oak tree was starting to, as they do, cause

470
00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:48,120
Speaker 1: problems with the foundations of the house. You know, once

471
00:25:48,160 --> 00:25:49,879
Speaker 1: the roots get in there, you're just looking at all

472
00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:53,080
Speaker 1: kinds of structural problems. You get a you gotta take

473
00:25:53,119 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 1: that guy down. Uh. And they needed to get rid

474
00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:57,800
Speaker 1: of it. So the crew member asked if we could

475
00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:03,040
Speaker 1: have the tree and Salt cities. Uh. Utility companies removed

476
00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:06,320
Speaker 1: power and telephone line so the tree could be hauled

477
00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:13,040
Speaker 1: away in a flatbed. Um cemented to the ground. They've

478
00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:17,720
Speaker 1: hot glue guns not available. Uh, and you know, becomes

479
00:26:17,359 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 1: an indelible part of the film. And Uh, much like

480
00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:26,680
Speaker 1: when they filmed Halloween in Pasadena, even though that movie

481
00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:31,800
Speaker 1: is set in hadn't filled Illinois. They replaced the original

482
00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:36,880
Speaker 1: oak leaves on this tree with wire and satin green leaves,

483
00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:40,960
Speaker 1: although on Halloween they famously did it with actual dead

484
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,720
Speaker 1: leaves that they brought in h and stuffed in garbage

485
00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:49,440
Speaker 1: bags and strew them individually across wherever they were shooting,

486
00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:54,160
Speaker 1: and then went and collected them in between shots. Speaking

487
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:56,560
Speaker 1: of Halloween and my favorite film director of all time,

488
00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:59,960
Speaker 1: John Carpenter, great segue here, I'm gonna go ahead and

489
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:04,120
Speaker 1: declare sand Lot and Halloween occupied the same cinematic universe.

490
00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:08,639
Speaker 1: Go on, devoted fans of the Halloween franchise, and God

491
00:27:08,720 --> 00:27:15,639
Speaker 1: love you, We've suffered a lot the misbegotten later era sequels,

492
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:19,520
Speaker 1: starting with Halloween four The Return of Michael Myers, These

493
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:23,120
Speaker 1: were all shot in Utah, again for tax reasons. Vincent

494
00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:25,800
Speaker 1: drug Store is one of the famous locales in the movie.

495
00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:28,879
Speaker 1: Michael goes there to get his new knife and mask

496
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:32,840
Speaker 1: in four Uh an actual drug store in the town

497
00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:37,520
Speaker 1: of Midvale, Utah, sadly no longer operational, but still standing

498
00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:41,479
Speaker 1: um shows up again in Halloween five. Halloween Dorks, who

499
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:45,960
Speaker 1: remember that is where Rachel takes her adopted sister, Jamie

500
00:27:46,119 --> 00:27:49,240
Speaker 1: played by Danielle Harris, if memory serves correctly, to pick

501
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:51,840
Speaker 1: out a costume. And Michael is also in there. But

502
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:54,640
Speaker 1: the Vincit drug store that you're referring to is where

503
00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:56,920
Speaker 1: the same lot gang goes to buy their new ball

504
00:27:57,080 --> 00:27:59,800
Speaker 1: and it's actually a story as you mentioned, and the

505
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:04,520
Speaker 1: out of Midval utall as of early still standing. You

506
00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:07,400
Speaker 1: can google street view it. We should go there, I'd

507
00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:09,680
Speaker 1: like to. I mean, you can go to the poll

508
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:12,280
Speaker 1: for the Squint's kiss scene. There's a lot of stuff

509
00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:14,840
Speaker 1: that store. You know, Midvale is often called the Paris

510
00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:21,840
Speaker 1: of Utah, and Utah is often called the southern California

511
00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:25,560
Speaker 1: Utah because it was made on such a shoe string.

512
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:28,560
Speaker 1: They shot the entire movie in just forty two days.

513
00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:31,359
Speaker 1: That's just six weeks, around the same time as the

514
00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:35,200
Speaker 1: average American kids summer vacation, which also might explain the

515
00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:37,040
Speaker 1: limits on how long they had the shoot. They've probably

516
00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:38,880
Speaker 1: done a lot of those in between. You know, kids

517
00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:43,200
Speaker 1: school schedules their interior shots for the aforementioned treehouse, specifically

518
00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:46,080
Speaker 1: the scene where Squints is telling the story of the beast.

519
00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:50,000
Speaker 1: You know, for ever that was shot on a sound

520
00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:52,040
Speaker 1: stage in l A, but pretty much everything else was

521
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:55,360
Speaker 1: shot on location in Utah. The only downside of shooting

522
00:28:55,400 --> 00:28:58,800
Speaker 1: during the summer vacation months was that it was extremely hot.

523
00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:01,320
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City was in the midst of a massive

524
00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:03,880
Speaker 1: heatwave of all the production took place, which made things

525
00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:07,520
Speaker 1: difficult on the poor young cast who were running around

526
00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:11,640
Speaker 1: in relatively heavy sixties clothes. One day, the temperature broke

527
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,720
Speaker 1: a hundred and five degrees and the actor playing Smalls

528
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:19,800
Speaker 1: became so overheated that he fainted and fell into a cameraman. Ironically,

529
00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:22,040
Speaker 1: the only day that it wasn't hot as hell was

530
00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:23,840
Speaker 1: the day they had to film the scene with the

531
00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:26,400
Speaker 1: boys go to the pool. In the movie, that's the

532
00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:28,280
Speaker 1: hottest day of the year, and they deemed it too

533
00:29:28,280 --> 00:29:30,920
Speaker 1: hot to play. In real life, it was the coldest

534
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,200
Speaker 1: day of the shoot and the kids were freezing as

535
00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:37,600
Speaker 1: they soaked in fifty six degree water. Good writer director

536
00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,640
Speaker 1: David Mickey Evans points out that in this scene where

537
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:44,080
Speaker 1: Squints is staring at Wendy Peppercorn, who will talk about

538
00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:46,800
Speaker 1: in a moment, his teeth are chattering. You can see

539
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:49,960
Speaker 1: it in the final shot. It's because he's freezing to death.

540
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:53,400
Speaker 1: Evans said he would go on the praise actor Chauncey

541
00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:56,040
Speaker 1: lo Party, who played Squints, for being such a trooper.

542
00:29:57,200 --> 00:29:59,320
Speaker 1: And this brings us to the pool scene, a scene

543
00:29:59,360 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 1: that some to find adorable, others find pervy. I have

544
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:05,880
Speaker 1: to admit I sort of found it messed up even

545
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 1: as a little kid watching this movie. But for those

546
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:10,560
Speaker 1: of you who don't know which if you don't, I

547
00:30:10,560 --> 00:30:12,560
Speaker 1: can't believe you made it this far. In this episode,

548
00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:15,920
Speaker 1: Squints has a crush on the beautiful older lifeguard at

549
00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:19,040
Speaker 1: the town pool, the glamorous Wendy peffer Corn. I thought

550
00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:21,360
Speaker 1: it was Wendy Peppercorn for years, which I kind of

551
00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:24,880
Speaker 1: like better, but Wendy peffer Corn. So he fakes his

552
00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:28,040
Speaker 1: own drowning in order to receive mouth the mouth resussitation

553
00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:31,720
Speaker 1: from her and go in for a kiss. Actor Chauncey

554
00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:34,480
Speaker 1: la Party knew that he had this scene coming for weeks,

555
00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:36,920
Speaker 1: and he's a twelve year old kid. He was very

556
00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:40,720
Speaker 1: anxious about it, a mix of terror and excitement. Every

557
00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:42,880
Speaker 1: day he'd come onto the set and asked the director

558
00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:45,680
Speaker 1: if this was his big day, and director David mckeevans

559
00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:49,440
Speaker 1: says he purposely wouldn't give Jauncy schedule or call sheets.

560
00:30:49,520 --> 00:30:54,120
Speaker 1: He wanted to just have his anxiety intention just escalate. Finally,

561
00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:57,920
Speaker 1: the big day came and Squints was a static in

562
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:00,960
Speaker 1: order to keep the emotions as authentic as possible, which

563
00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:03,560
Speaker 1: wasn't hard considering all the twelve year olds on the

564
00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:07,120
Speaker 1: set had a crush on Wendy. Evans shot everything sequentially

565
00:31:07,120 --> 00:31:09,560
Speaker 1: to help the kids keep everything clear in their head,

566
00:31:09,640 --> 00:31:12,560
Speaker 1: as he said, but they wouldn't film the kiss until

567
00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:16,080
Speaker 1: the director delivered a very important message to the young actor.

568
00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:19,240
Speaker 1: Before the camera started rolling, Evans pulled the actor who

569
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:22,920
Speaker 1: played Squints aside for a very serious discussion. Listen to me,

570
00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:25,600
Speaker 1: he said, you keep your tongue in your mouth. Understand,

571
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:30,280
Speaker 1: given the whole playboy thing, seems like a very necessary warning.

572
00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:33,520
Speaker 1: But Chauncey came through like a champ. David Mickey Evans

573
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:35,920
Speaker 1: later said, he asked how it went. I said, pretty

574
00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:38,480
Speaker 1: darn good man, I'm going to print that one, and

575
00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:40,840
Speaker 1: then Chauncey said, okay, but maybe let's do it one

576
00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:46,920
Speaker 1: more time twelve year olds, and as I said, they

577
00:31:46,920 --> 00:31:49,120
Speaker 1: all predictably fell in love with the actors playing the

578
00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:53,240
Speaker 1: beautiful Lifeguard. Her name was Marley Shelton. Child actors, I guess,

579
00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:56,200
Speaker 1: often developed crushes on their older fellow actors on the set.

580
00:31:56,240 --> 00:31:59,160
Speaker 1: It's kind of an occupational hazard. This famously happened on

581
00:31:59,160 --> 00:32:02,480
Speaker 1: the set of Hearing Hotter, when the actor playing Draco

582
00:32:02,600 --> 00:32:06,760
Speaker 1: Malfoy Tom Fulton, crushed very hard on Helen the Bottom Carter.

583
00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:10,160
Speaker 1: I love that one because he completely bypasses Emma Watson

584
00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:16,640
Speaker 1: goes straight for Helena Bottom Carter. Who among us? But man,

585
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:20,960
Speaker 1: God love him. Oh wait, there's a tribute to one

586
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:23,320
Speaker 1: of your favorite movies, Cool Hand Luke and the Wendy

587
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:26,800
Speaker 1: Pefforcorin scene. Absolutely, can you do a George Cannady impression?

588
00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:29,080
Speaker 1: I I can't. I feel like you can, though I

589
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:31,720
Speaker 1: didn't prepare it. He has such a specific tamper to

590
00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:33,360
Speaker 1: his voice. I don't think I can do it other

591
00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:35,520
Speaker 1: than you know, no man can, No man can eat

592
00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:37,600
Speaker 1: fifty eggs. They should have put that in there. Don't

593
00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:41,080
Speaker 1: make you eats fifties smores. Oh my god, you're right.

594
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:43,719
Speaker 1: It's the same where all the boys are watching Wendy.

595
00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:45,720
Speaker 1: You gotta do it, you gotta do it. She don't

596
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:49,120
Speaker 1: know what she's doing. Yes, she does she knows exactly

597
00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:53,080
Speaker 1: what she's doing. That's not bad. It's a homage to

598
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:56,400
Speaker 1: the scene in the classic nineteen seven Paul Newman movie

599
00:32:56,440 --> 00:32:59,440
Speaker 1: Cool and Luke when Luke and George Kennedy's character drag

600
00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:01,840
Speaker 1: line or while a woman wash her car with their

601
00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:06,160
Speaker 1: fellow convicts on the chain. Gang. Um, it's gotta be intentional.

602
00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 1: Those lines are identical. It's the same era. There's no

603
00:33:09,040 --> 00:33:11,240
Speaker 1: way it's not. Did you do do you really find them?

604
00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:13,320
Speaker 1: Not going on the record about that? I didn't see

605
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:15,880
Speaker 1: any I didn't find anything about that. No, it's gotta

606
00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:19,320
Speaker 1: be yeah. Uh. Though the same with Wendy Feffercorn and

607
00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:21,960
Speaker 1: the Kiss isn't based on a true story. The character

608
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:25,160
Speaker 1: Wendy Peffercorn herself is actually based on a person from

609
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:28,640
Speaker 1: writer director David Mickey Evans's real life. There was a

610
00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:31,640
Speaker 1: lifeguard named Bunny at the public pool where he hung

611
00:33:31,640 --> 00:33:34,560
Speaker 1: out as a kid, and she was beautiful and always

612
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:37,400
Speaker 1: wore a one piece red bathing suit. And Evans later

613
00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:39,440
Speaker 1: told USA Today, when I was a little kid in

614
00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:42,480
Speaker 1: the San Fernando Valley in southern California in the seventies,

615
00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:44,960
Speaker 1: there were public pools and you could go all day

616
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:48,640
Speaker 1: for fifty cents. At those pools, the lifeguards were perennially

617
00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:52,120
Speaker 1: tan and handsome and beautiful, and they sat up on

618
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:54,920
Speaker 1: those big chairs and they all wore standard issue l

619
00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:57,720
Speaker 1: A County red trunks or one piece suits, and as

620
00:33:57,760 --> 00:34:00,520
Speaker 1: a little eleven, twelve or thirteen year old, you literally

621
00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:02,600
Speaker 1: had to look up at them and they were like,

622
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:05,680
Speaker 1: Goddess is really up on a pedestal? I love that.

623
00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:08,560
Speaker 1: And the actors who played there, Marley Sheldon later had

624
00:34:08,560 --> 00:34:13,360
Speaker 1: an extremely varied acting career, appearing in slashers like Grindhouse

625
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:16,960
Speaker 1: and Since City and also brom coms like Pleasantville and

626
00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:20,680
Speaker 1: Never Been Kissed. She's in Sin City. That's so funny,

627
00:34:20,760 --> 00:34:23,680
Speaker 1: all these San Fernando horn dogs making movies man, uh,

628
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:28,279
Speaker 1: you know Liquorice pizzas about Paul Thomas Anderson having a

629
00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:33,160
Speaker 1: crush on the Him sisters mom, So okay, is the

630
00:34:33,239 --> 00:34:36,720
Speaker 1: story behind that? He's had a crush on his teacher

631
00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:41,000
Speaker 1: and grew up and then somehow met the Heims sisters,

632
00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:44,240
Speaker 1: and then the Hime sisters invited him over to their house,

633
00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:47,840
Speaker 1: and then the Himes mom walked in and it dawned

634
00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:49,920
Speaker 1: on him that, oh my god, you're the teacher that

635
00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:52,120
Speaker 1: I had a crush on and he had no idea

636
00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:58,760
Speaker 1: and then Alana Heim to basically play her mom in Pizzas,

637
00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:01,680
Speaker 1: have that right, I believe. I don't know if that's

638
00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:04,120
Speaker 1: if he like didn't put it together before then, but yeah,

639
00:35:04,160 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 1: I mean certainly the making of the like I mean,

640
00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:11,279
Speaker 1: you know, he also cast his biggest collaborators, uh Son

641
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:16,200
Speaker 1: Son as himself. I realized that was Philip Seymour Hoffman's

642
00:35:16,239 --> 00:35:19,760
Speaker 1: kid until like weeks after seeing that movie. Oh really,

643
00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:23,000
Speaker 1: I thought there's I maybe because I was primed knowing

644
00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:24,600
Speaker 1: that to go into it, but I was like, there's

645
00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:27,560
Speaker 1: certain like mannerisms that he does where I was like, Jesus,

646
00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:32,799
Speaker 1: that is like that's yeah in San Fernando Valley man,

647
00:35:32,840 --> 00:35:34,400
Speaker 1: what is it? What do they put in the water

648
00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:39,239
Speaker 1: over there? But as it turns out, Squints was also

649
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:41,759
Speaker 1: based on a real life person, a classmate of writer

650
00:35:41,880 --> 00:35:45,760
Speaker 1: director David Mickey Evans. The real Squints was named Michael

651
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:51,760
Speaker 1: polydorros as opposed to Michael Pollodorus. Very very slight name difference,

652
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:55,160
Speaker 1: a little too close because the real life Michael Pollodorus

653
00:35:55,360 --> 00:35:57,400
Speaker 1: objected to the way that he was depicted in the

654
00:35:57,440 --> 00:36:00,800
Speaker 1: movie and actually sued twentieth century five Box for invasion

655
00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:04,520
Speaker 1: of privacy and exploitation of his likeness. I guess in

656
00:36:04,560 --> 00:36:06,880
Speaker 1: addition to the similarity of the names, part of the

657
00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:13,360
Speaker 1: case involved the fact that he also wore glasses. However,

658
00:36:13,920 --> 00:36:17,040
Speaker 1: had he won this case, he could have received damages

659
00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:19,480
Speaker 1: and even a share of the film's profits, but the

660
00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:22,319
Speaker 1: case was dismissed two years later after the judge ruled

661
00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:26,680
Speaker 1: that there wasn't enough similarity between Polydoros and the fictional

662
00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:30,719
Speaker 1: character of Squints Polydorus to justify the case. Plussy waited

663
00:36:30,760 --> 00:36:32,759
Speaker 1: like six years after the movie came out, so I

664
00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:34,680
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe they thought it sounded like kind of

665
00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:37,640
Speaker 1: a cash grap This actually proved to be something of

666
00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:40,520
Speaker 1: a landmark case because it set the precedent that movies

667
00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:43,840
Speaker 1: could feature characters that were loosely based on real life people.

668
00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:47,200
Speaker 1: Robert Wyman, who represented the twenty century Fox, said that

669
00:36:47,239 --> 00:36:50,640
Speaker 1: the courts decision quote should give motion picture and television

670
00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:53,640
Speaker 1: companies a great deal of comfort when they inadvertently used

671
00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:56,600
Speaker 1: someone's name or personal character traits and what was clearly

672
00:36:56,640 --> 00:37:00,520
Speaker 1: a fictional piece. I guess the real life Squint appealed

673
00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:03,160
Speaker 1: the case all the way up to the California Supreme Court,

674
00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:06,120
Speaker 1: which is impressive, but they refused to take up his appeal.

675
00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:10,799
Speaker 1: Good lord. Yeah, unlike the sand lot itself, which, as

676
00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:13,719
Speaker 1: we mentioned, this private property, you could actually visit and

677
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:16,280
Speaker 1: swim in the very same pool used in this scene.

678
00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:19,880
Speaker 1: It's the Lauren Far Swimming Pool, located in the town

679
00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:23,440
Speaker 1: of Ogden, Utah, and it's actually a good forty minutes

680
00:37:23,480 --> 00:37:25,120
Speaker 1: from where the rest of the movie was shot in

681
00:37:25,160 --> 00:37:27,040
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City, so I'll bear that in mind if

682
00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:31,919
Speaker 1: you're planning on taking a Sandlot pilgrimage. Plan Accordingly, there's

683
00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:35,040
Speaker 1: a song by the Drifters that comes on every time

684
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:38,239
Speaker 1: the gang encounters Wendy There Goes My Baby, which is

685
00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:41,000
Speaker 1: a cat Stephen's song, right or is that a different

686
00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:43,160
Speaker 1: there Goes my Baby? It's a different There goes my Baby,

687
00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:45,640
Speaker 1: son of a Bitch. And also this magic and this

688
00:37:45,719 --> 00:37:49,600
Speaker 1: Magic that's the classic one, but probably the most memorable

689
00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:52,480
Speaker 1: musical moment in the sand Loot, aside from the Ray

690
00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:54,920
Speaker 1: Charles fireworks scene, is when the boys go to the

691
00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:59,040
Speaker 1: carnival eat a bunch of big chief chewing tobacco a

692
00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:03,200
Speaker 1: k A chawing go on the twist to ride and

693
00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:06,320
Speaker 1: lose their lunch all over the shoes of the fair goers.

694
00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:10,600
Speaker 1: Below to the strains of the classic fifties Sacks instrumental.

695
00:38:10,719 --> 00:38:15,319
Speaker 1: Tequila by the Champs also featured notably in Pee's Big

696
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:20,879
Speaker 1: Adventure in the bar scene Yeah Yeah. Interestingly, they wanted

697
00:38:20,920 --> 00:38:24,640
Speaker 1: to pick Wooly Bully by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs.

698
00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:28,560
Speaker 1: But poor Sam the Sham had fallen on hard times

699
00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:35,080
Speaker 1: and was Shammon Shamon doesn't pay what it used to,

700
00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:38,840
Speaker 1: trying to squeeze him for the licensing rights. Uh. And

701
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:43,120
Speaker 1: again you know the cigar trumping executive was not having it.

702
00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:51,160
Speaker 1: You don't get Sam, you get the drifters. Uh. This

703
00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:55,320
Speaker 1: scene recorded. You know, this scene required very little acting

704
00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:59,200
Speaker 1: from these kids because the chew do you were chew

705
00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:02,320
Speaker 1: chewing tobacco. I can't imagine you were smoked a cigarette

706
00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:05,080
Speaker 1: in your life Jordan's ye, I can't imagine. I grew

707
00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:08,040
Speaker 1: up going to bowling alleys, and so I have a

708
00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:11,440
Speaker 1: like I smell second hand smoke and it like clears

709
00:39:11,520 --> 00:39:15,080
Speaker 1: my head, Like I love the smell of smoke so much.

710
00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:17,920
Speaker 1: So I and I and I'm also a man of

711
00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:22,239
Speaker 1: uh ruled by their passions. Shall we say so. I

712
00:39:22,560 --> 00:39:24,719
Speaker 1: never went near it because I just felt like I

713
00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:26,960
Speaker 1: would probably like it way too much. I've never done

714
00:39:26,960 --> 00:39:29,719
Speaker 1: a single bit of chewing tobacco on my life. I

715
00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:33,160
Speaker 1: can't imagine. The true that they gave these kids was

716
00:39:33,400 --> 00:39:42,200
Speaker 1: licorice and beef jerky huh uh. Chauncey lip Party Party

717
00:39:42,880 --> 00:39:46,560
Speaker 1: hashtag Chauncey squints La Party later told Yahoo Sports it

718
00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:49,440
Speaker 1: was easy to act like you wanted to puke. Uh,

719
00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:51,680
Speaker 1: and then some of these kids ended up swallowing it.

720
00:39:52,040 --> 00:39:57,640
Speaker 1: Oh good lord. Upwards of fifteen takes on the Twister

721
00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:01,480
Speaker 1: to get this scene down. Help Tom Gary, the kid

722
00:40:01,480 --> 00:40:03,799
Speaker 1: who played the smallest total time. At first, it was like, yeah,

723
00:40:03,840 --> 00:40:06,160
Speaker 1: you know, this isn't so bad. But by the fifteen

724
00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:08,960
Speaker 1: go round, it was like this is getting a little

725
00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:15,799
Speaker 1: uh ellipsis. And some of them actually got sick while

726
00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:18,919
Speaker 1: they were filming this, but fake vomit was a little

727
00:40:18,960 --> 00:40:24,319
Speaker 1: more photogenic, so they went with get it back out there,

728
00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:30,600
Speaker 1: put him back on the Twister ride Uh. Folks, if

729
00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:32,640
Speaker 1: you're just tuning in, we have the recurring character of

730
00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:35,960
Speaker 1: the cigar chomping Hollywood executive who looms large and the

731
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:41,080
Speaker 1: too much information podcast Backstory Um the time on a

732
00:40:41,200 --> 00:40:45,000
Speaker 1: tradition of using split pea soup for vomit. You'll remember

733
00:40:45,040 --> 00:40:48,400
Speaker 1: that was famously using The Exorcist. But they added a

734
00:40:48,440 --> 00:40:53,360
Speaker 1: little baked beans, oatmeal and gelatine give it that heft.

735
00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:58,560
Speaker 1: When it adds the shoes, it's got a splatter. Good, Lord,

736
00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:01,759
Speaker 1: that is foul. I just got a little rise in

737
00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:06,719
Speaker 1: my throat at baked beans. Um. Anyway, much like League

738
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:09,040
Speaker 1: of their Own, before shooting would even start, the they

739
00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:11,520
Speaker 1: had to make sure these kids could play ball. And

740
00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:13,840
Speaker 1: you know, the whole thing about sports movie is that

741
00:41:13,880 --> 00:41:17,680
Speaker 1: if the kids with these shoots, you gotta reset everything,

742
00:41:17,840 --> 00:41:20,400
Speaker 1: not just line readings and lighting, but you gotta reset

743
00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:23,840
Speaker 1: the entire choreography of having this entire team running around.

744
00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:26,520
Speaker 1: And then if you're going to cut around those kids,

745
00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:28,360
Speaker 1: you have to do all these inserts of shooting the

746
00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:31,520
Speaker 1: kids in close up or mids and then cutting around

747
00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:34,440
Speaker 1: it and having I don't know, shoot one kid throwing

748
00:41:34,520 --> 00:41:37,080
Speaker 1: and then shoot some other kid, you know, catching it,

749
00:41:37,200 --> 00:41:40,200
Speaker 1: and then yeah, and again. The cigar trumping executive had

750
00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:43,480
Speaker 1: slashed the budget to this to nothing. Craft services were

751
00:41:43,520 --> 00:41:50,240
Speaker 1: literally just you know, beef jerky and liquor, so following

752
00:41:50,239 --> 00:41:53,080
Speaker 1: the audition process, the kids spent two weeks in a

753
00:41:53,080 --> 00:41:56,640
Speaker 1: baseball camp in California where they were taught how to hit,

754
00:41:56,800 --> 00:42:01,280
Speaker 1: catch and throw. Apparently their coach for this, Daniel Zakappa,

755
00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:05,400
Speaker 1: actually played Squint's grandfather in the flashback scene um we

756
00:42:05,440 --> 00:42:09,120
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier Ray Charles scene Ray Charles Beautiful Rendition of America.

757
00:42:09,200 --> 00:42:12,680
Speaker 1: The Beautiful plays during the night game on the fourth

758
00:42:12,680 --> 00:42:17,240
Speaker 1: of July. Fireworks are going up and this scene features

759
00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:20,839
Speaker 1: one complex shot. Manning the jet hits a ball into

760
00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:23,600
Speaker 1: the outfield where it rolls right in front of the

761
00:42:23,640 --> 00:42:26,680
Speaker 1: camera lens, which was lying in the foreground of the shot.

762
00:42:27,760 --> 00:42:30,319
Speaker 1: These days, they would just do that in c G I,

763
00:42:30,840 --> 00:42:33,000
Speaker 1: but back in the nineties they had to literally set

764
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:36,040
Speaker 1: up the camera and hit the ball to exactly the

765
00:42:36,120 --> 00:42:39,319
Speaker 1: same shot, which they some have managed doing the very

766
00:42:39,360 --> 00:42:42,440
Speaker 1: first take in the Annals of the Great First Take

767
00:42:42,880 --> 00:42:45,640
Speaker 1: Sports Shots. I mentioned this in an earlier episode. I

768
00:42:45,680 --> 00:42:48,680
Speaker 1: don't remember if you cut it or not, okay. In

769
00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:54,920
Speaker 1: Alien Resurrection, the Misbegotten fourth entry in the Alien franchise,

770
00:42:55,040 --> 00:42:59,440
Speaker 1: directed by Amalie director Jean Pierre, Jane Sigourney, Weaver does

771
00:42:59,480 --> 00:43:03,480
Speaker 1: a hind the back um half court shot and nailed

772
00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:05,959
Speaker 1: it on the first take, and it ruined the take

773
00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:11,560
Speaker 1: because everyone lost their and I believe though the insert

774
00:43:11,640 --> 00:43:14,320
Speaker 1: that they use of Ron Pearlman is his genuine reaction

775
00:43:14,400 --> 00:43:18,520
Speaker 1: that anyway. Sorry, So it's this an alien resurrection and

776
00:43:18,560 --> 00:43:22,680
Speaker 1: the greatest first steak sports shots of all time. Uh,

777
00:43:22,760 --> 00:43:26,000
Speaker 1: they actually used a pitching machine, though they cheated, son

778
00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:29,120
Speaker 1: of a bitch. I should have read that beforehand. That

779
00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:32,600
Speaker 1: allows you to adjust the trajectory of a ball, I guess,

780
00:43:32,640 --> 00:43:35,399
Speaker 1: like the classic tennis ball serving machine that you see

781
00:43:35,440 --> 00:43:38,640
Speaker 1: in UM A bunch of movies. But as David Mickey

782
00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:41,480
Speaker 1: Evans observed, the odds of us launching a baseball two

783
00:43:41,560 --> 00:43:43,960
Speaker 1: hundred and some odd feet and having it land and

784
00:43:44,080 --> 00:43:47,000
Speaker 1: roll right up into a camera lens are what ten

785
00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:50,200
Speaker 1: million to one? But the first take it was perfect.

786
00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:54,880
Speaker 1: That was really weird. And then buddy, Uh, this s'more scene,

787
00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:57,839
Speaker 1: on the other hand, pitched at the the opposite end

788
00:43:57,880 --> 00:44:01,799
Speaker 1: of the efficiency spectra him. You know this scene, in

789
00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:04,160
Speaker 1: which is probably the most immortal line of this film,

790
00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:07,879
Speaker 1: You're killing me small, yes, yes, yes, before explaining what

791
00:44:08,120 --> 00:44:11,799
Speaker 1: s'mores is and how to make one. Seems like an

792
00:44:11,840 --> 00:44:13,480
Speaker 1: easy scene, but it was actually one of the most

793
00:44:13,520 --> 00:44:16,640
Speaker 1: difficult scenes to shoot because the kids couldn't stop laughing,

794
00:44:16,840 --> 00:44:19,960
Speaker 1: much like this podcast uh Tom Geary said it took

795
00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:23,200
Speaker 1: about twelve takes because once one of them started laughing,

796
00:44:23,280 --> 00:44:25,840
Speaker 1: the other ones just couldn't stop breaking. And if you

797
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:27,959
Speaker 1: look closely en after in that scene, you can see

798
00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:33,080
Speaker 1: Mike guitar in the background, um yep, Benny. You can

799
00:44:33,080 --> 00:44:34,799
Speaker 1: see this look in his eyes. It's like, please just

800
00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:38,480
Speaker 1: cut away so I can burst, I can burst into laughter.

801
00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:41,799
Speaker 1: It's like a doctor's strange love. When Peter Sellers is

802
00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:45,160
Speaker 1: doing his whole like Nazi salute thing with his arm

803
00:44:45,200 --> 00:44:48,440
Speaker 1: and one is trying to strangle his own throat, the

804
00:44:48,480 --> 00:44:52,960
Speaker 1: actor playing the Russian ambassador, diplomat or whoever it was

805
00:44:53,040 --> 00:44:56,360
Speaker 1: behind him is in the final take of the movie.

806
00:44:56,680 --> 00:45:00,160
Speaker 1: You could see he's like visibly laughing, and the thro

807
00:45:00,160 --> 00:45:01,880
Speaker 1: who played him and said like he can't watch the

808
00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:05,319
Speaker 1: movie because it's just you don't totally notice it. But

809
00:45:05,360 --> 00:45:07,560
Speaker 1: when you actually know that that's what's going down, you

810
00:45:07,560 --> 00:45:10,799
Speaker 1: watched the movie, now it's absurd, Like this guy is

811
00:45:10,880 --> 00:45:14,760
Speaker 1: clearly breaking character and just laughing at Peter Sellers going crazy.

812
00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:17,640
Speaker 1: But Stanley Kubrick would let Sellers go. I was gonna say,

813
00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:22,040
Speaker 1: I'm surprised Kubrick let that stand. Well, he loved those

814
00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:24,080
Speaker 1: like I mean, just all the energy of the first

815
00:45:24,120 --> 00:45:26,680
Speaker 1: takes with Peter Sellers was what he went for. And

816
00:45:26,719 --> 00:45:29,320
Speaker 1: then the more because Peter Sellers could never repeat anything,

817
00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:32,400
Speaker 1: that was his whole deal. So Kubrick would have like

818
00:45:32,560 --> 00:45:35,680
Speaker 1: five cameras set up to get coverage of everything Sellers

819
00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:38,359
Speaker 1: was doing at all times, so that he only had

820
00:45:38,360 --> 00:45:41,200
Speaker 1: to do one two takes at most. And yeah, they

821
00:45:41,239 --> 00:45:46,080
Speaker 1: just went with it. We're going to take a quick break,

822
00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:48,799
Speaker 1: but we'll be right back with more, too much information

823
00:45:48,840 --> 00:46:04,880
Speaker 1: and just a moment wow. Well, as you can imagine,

824
00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:06,440
Speaker 1: the set of the sand Lot was a lot of

825
00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:09,000
Speaker 1: fun for a group of tween boys on summer vacation.

826
00:46:09,520 --> 00:46:12,040
Speaker 1: As the actor who played Smalls later said, it was

827
00:46:12,040 --> 00:46:14,799
Speaker 1: pretty much just playing baseball, swimming, or going to a

828
00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:17,319
Speaker 1: carnival for an eleven year old. You really couldn't ask

829
00:46:17,320 --> 00:46:19,080
Speaker 1: for a better movie to be in. It was like

830
00:46:19,160 --> 00:46:22,520
Speaker 1: summer camp, and director David Mickey Evans tried to foster

831
00:46:22,680 --> 00:46:25,040
Speaker 1: this sense that they weren't even making a movie. He

832
00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:28,200
Speaker 1: later explained his m O saying they were just heading

833
00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:31,160
Speaker 1: out playing baseball and oh there are cameras here. I

834
00:46:31,200 --> 00:46:33,560
Speaker 1: tried to keep it loose and fun, like, pretend this

835
00:46:33,680 --> 00:46:36,799
Speaker 1: is baseball summer camp. Man, don't act, be yourselves and

836
00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:39,239
Speaker 1: I'll take care of everything. And that's how we did it.

837
00:46:40,040 --> 00:46:44,600
Speaker 1: He likened it as like chasing squirrels and herding cats,

838
00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:47,319
Speaker 1: which a bunch of eleven twelve year old boys, I

839
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:50,879
Speaker 1: am sure, but being twelve year old boys, they got

840
00:46:50,960 --> 00:46:54,360
Speaker 1: up to a certain amount of mischief. The Playboy story

841
00:46:54,400 --> 00:46:56,440
Speaker 1: with Squints sort of sets the tone for this one.

842
00:46:56,719 --> 00:47:00,880
Speaker 1: During the anniversary cast reunion on ESPN, Murdy York, the

843
00:47:00,960 --> 00:47:03,520
Speaker 1: kid who plays Yeah Yeah, recall that Tom Garry, the

844
00:47:03,520 --> 00:47:06,640
Speaker 1: actor played smalls older brother, offered to sneak them into

845
00:47:06,640 --> 00:47:10,600
Speaker 1: a showing of the R rated Basic Instincts starring Sharon Stone.

846
00:47:11,440 --> 00:47:16,160
Speaker 1: The viewing was quite memorable for the young actors. Victor

847
00:47:16,360 --> 00:47:20,120
Speaker 1: de Mattia, who played Timmy, described it as quote, a

848
00:47:20,200 --> 00:47:23,160
Speaker 1: big moment for a twelve year old movie. Would have

849
00:47:23,160 --> 00:47:26,600
Speaker 1: blown my damn mind if I saw. It's just been

850
00:47:26,640 --> 00:47:31,480
Speaker 1: like catatonic, like staring like Vincent Dinofrio and full Metal Jacket,

851
00:47:31,560 --> 00:47:35,560
Speaker 1: just staring into middle distance glazed look in my eye

852
00:47:36,200 --> 00:47:39,160
Speaker 1: to bring it back to the Kuber reference. Yes, yes, yes, yes,

853
00:47:39,400 --> 00:47:42,359
Speaker 1: and a third couber another Doctor Stranger. We're bringing it back.

854
00:47:42,640 --> 00:47:45,920
Speaker 1: That's a that's a Kuber reference within a Kubrick reference.

855
00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:50,360
Speaker 1: That is right. James Earl Jones, who plays Mr Myrtle

856
00:47:50,400 --> 00:47:54,480
Speaker 1: and sand Lott, was in Doctor Strange. Wow, you're absolutely right, Uh,

857
00:47:54,640 --> 00:47:57,120
Speaker 1: James Earl Jones, What can you say about the man?

858
00:47:57,719 --> 00:48:00,759
Speaker 1: The kids on the set were blown way at the

859
00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:05,239
Speaker 1: opportunity to hang out with Darth Vavors, the voice of

860
00:48:05,320 --> 00:48:08,560
Speaker 1: Darth Vader. Did you know that James Earl Jones overcame

861
00:48:08,600 --> 00:48:12,200
Speaker 1: an incredibly difficult stammer and he basically refused to speak

862
00:48:12,239 --> 00:48:15,120
Speaker 1: for years as a kid. He's like one of the

863
00:48:15,120 --> 00:48:18,240
Speaker 1: most beloved voices of our time. Him and Morgan Freeman. Incredible.

864
00:48:18,239 --> 00:48:21,799
Speaker 1: I didn't know that until researching us. Anyway, he was

865
00:48:21,840 --> 00:48:25,000
Speaker 1: on set to play Mr Myrtle, the owner of the Beast,

866
00:48:25,239 --> 00:48:28,239
Speaker 1: a ka Hercules and a former pro ball player who

867
00:48:28,320 --> 00:48:32,320
Speaker 1: knew Babe Ruth, the kid who played Tommy repeat Timmins,

868
00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:34,719
Speaker 1: a guy the name of Shane O. Bazynski. I think

869
00:48:34,719 --> 00:48:37,520
Speaker 1: I got that right, told the Sports Daily. We all

870
00:48:37,600 --> 00:48:40,120
Speaker 1: knew who he was, so there was that anticipation of

871
00:48:40,200 --> 00:48:42,759
Speaker 1: meeting Darth Vader. I believe he was only on the

872
00:48:42,800 --> 00:48:44,800
Speaker 1: set for a day, so we all had a moment

873
00:48:44,800 --> 00:48:47,440
Speaker 1: where we got to meet him during lunch hour before shooting.

874
00:48:47,680 --> 00:48:50,600
Speaker 1: And shockingly, James Earl Jones was a last minute edition

875
00:48:50,640 --> 00:48:52,920
Speaker 1: of the cast. In fact, there were two weeks into

876
00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:55,640
Speaker 1: shooting and they still didn't have an actor to play Mr. Myrtle,

877
00:48:55,760 --> 00:48:58,040
Speaker 1: which I guess they're shooting schedule, you know, meant that

878
00:48:58,080 --> 00:49:01,360
Speaker 1: it wasn't a problem, but seems like that kind of close.

879
00:49:02,560 --> 00:49:04,759
Speaker 1: Who else would have been in the Running Man? Yeah,

880
00:49:04,800 --> 00:49:07,120
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, the only reason that they

881
00:49:07,200 --> 00:49:09,520
Speaker 1: landed on James Earl Jones was at the assistant director

882
00:49:09,640 --> 00:49:10,960
Speaker 1: of The sand Lot, a guy by the name of

883
00:49:11,040 --> 00:49:14,560
Speaker 1: Bill Elvin suggested him because he'd worked with him on

884
00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:18,840
Speaker 1: another iconic baseball movie, nine Field of Dreams, along with

885
00:49:18,880 --> 00:49:20,839
Speaker 1: a guy who plays Babe Ruth in The sand Lot

886
00:49:21,120 --> 00:49:24,120
Speaker 1: La Fleur, marking the second time he would play a

887
00:49:24,120 --> 00:49:28,640
Speaker 1: long dead ball player that appears in a dream sequence.

888
00:49:29,360 --> 00:49:32,360
Speaker 1: And it's hilarious to me that James Earl Jones is

889
00:49:32,360 --> 00:49:34,680
Speaker 1: in two of the most beloved baseball movies of all time,

890
00:49:35,000 --> 00:49:37,440
Speaker 1: held the dreams in the sand lot, and he doesn't

891
00:49:37,440 --> 00:49:40,879
Speaker 1: really much care for baseball, much like you. He told

892
00:49:40,920 --> 00:49:44,360
Speaker 1: the website Michigan Live recently. I was not into baseball.

893
00:49:44,640 --> 00:49:46,960
Speaker 1: The only Major League baseball game I ever took my

894
00:49:47,000 --> 00:49:49,919
Speaker 1: son too was out at Anaheim. It was a nice day,

895
00:49:49,960 --> 00:49:54,080
Speaker 1: and that's what was important, this lukewarm description of going

896
00:49:54,080 --> 00:49:58,000
Speaker 1: to a baseball game. I sat there, baseball slow enough,

897
00:49:58,040 --> 00:50:00,440
Speaker 1: and when the flock of birds came over, look up

898
00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:03,319
Speaker 1: at them and just enjoy the day. Oh man, I

899
00:50:03,320 --> 00:50:04,880
Speaker 1: had no idea I had this much in common with

900
00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:07,279
Speaker 1: James Earl Jones. You just go to baseball games and

901
00:50:07,320 --> 00:50:11,160
Speaker 1: look at a flock of birds, find overhead. So this

902
00:50:11,520 --> 00:50:14,640
Speaker 1: was not really his thing. Um, so I guess despite

903
00:50:14,680 --> 00:50:17,839
Speaker 1: being a messo messo on baseball, he agreed to take

904
00:50:17,840 --> 00:50:20,279
Speaker 1: the gig and David Mickey Evans has said that the

905
00:50:20,360 --> 00:50:23,400
Speaker 1: character of Mr. Myrtle was written with no ethnicity in mind,

906
00:50:23,800 --> 00:50:26,319
Speaker 1: but it was James Earl Jones himself who suggested that

907
00:50:26,360 --> 00:50:29,640
Speaker 1: he have a backstory as a former Negro Leagues ballplayer,

908
00:50:30,080 --> 00:50:32,400
Speaker 1: and the hat that the picture Kenny Janunez wears in

909
00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:35,400
Speaker 1: the movie bears the logo of the Kansas City Monarchs,

910
00:50:35,440 --> 00:50:38,960
Speaker 1: and they were a Negro League team active from nineteen

911
00:50:39,040 --> 00:50:43,600
Speaker 1: twenty to nineteen sixty. Mr Myrtle James Earl Jones famously

912
00:50:43,600 --> 00:50:46,799
Speaker 1: the owner of the dog known as the Beast, which

913
00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:48,480
Speaker 1: we later find out at the end of the movie.

914
00:50:48,520 --> 00:50:51,160
Speaker 1: Its real name is Hercules, which is like the real

915
00:50:51,239 --> 00:50:54,279
Speaker 1: dog name of the real dog that bit Director David

916
00:50:54,320 --> 00:50:57,719
Speaker 1: mckeevans little brother Hercules for anyone who didn't grow up

917
00:50:57,719 --> 00:51:06,040
Speaker 1: watching Kevin sorbo uh large large man, a large man

918
00:51:06,200 --> 00:51:10,840
Speaker 1: in Greek mythology, the strength of several men, fitting because

919
00:51:10,920 --> 00:51:13,840
Speaker 1: the dog that portrayed Hercules was not real. It was

920
00:51:13,880 --> 00:51:17,359
Speaker 1: a large puppet, so big that had towered over the

921
00:51:17,520 --> 00:51:21,839
Speaker 1: child actors, and it was built by animatronics designer Rick Lazzarini,

922
00:51:21,880 --> 00:51:25,320
Speaker 1: who designed costumes for Spaceballs. I bet he did Pizza

923
00:51:25,320 --> 00:51:30,240
Speaker 1: the Hut right, so um. One of the only scenes

924
00:51:30,280 --> 00:51:33,960
Speaker 1: in which Hercules was a real dog, or actually two dogs,

925
00:51:34,000 --> 00:51:37,880
Speaker 1: two English mass stiffs, which are these enormous, terrifying bulldog

926
00:51:38,000 --> 00:51:41,000
Speaker 1: like dogs. I mean it's like a bulldog and a

927
00:51:41,120 --> 00:51:45,080
Speaker 1: st Bernard, particularly in his way like two pounds um.

928
00:51:45,120 --> 00:51:47,759
Speaker 1: And it's when he hugs Smalls after he's freed from

929
00:51:47,760 --> 00:51:50,680
Speaker 1: the fence. Um that falls on him. When they were

930
00:51:50,719 --> 00:51:54,160
Speaker 1: recovering the Babe Ruth ball and you know, Hercules slobbers

931
00:51:54,160 --> 00:51:56,239
Speaker 1: all over Smalls, but getting the dog to kiss on

932
00:51:56,280 --> 00:52:00,440
Speaker 1: demand was difficult, so they got around this by putting

933
00:52:00,480 --> 00:52:04,600
Speaker 1: what Geary described as a whole jar of Gerber baby

934
00:52:04,640 --> 00:52:07,919
Speaker 1: food on the side of my face. Quote that dog

935
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:12,520
Speaker 1: had a field day on my face. Uh. They use

936
00:52:12,560 --> 00:52:14,279
Speaker 1: a real dog for some of the shots and the

937
00:52:14,360 --> 00:52:17,080
Speaker 1: chase scene where Benny and his pair of Pia flyers

938
00:52:17,120 --> 00:52:19,440
Speaker 1: sprints through the town with the beast and Hercules in

939
00:52:19,560 --> 00:52:23,160
Speaker 1: hot pursuit. Evans said this scene took a week to

940
00:52:23,320 --> 00:52:27,920
Speaker 1: shoot for all the reasons that you would expect. Um

941
00:52:28,800 --> 00:52:31,799
Speaker 1: classic W. C. Fields quote comes to mind here. Never

942
00:52:31,880 --> 00:52:35,319
Speaker 1: worked with children or animals. And the scene, you know,

943
00:52:35,320 --> 00:52:38,480
Speaker 1: they chased them through a lot of I guess salt

944
00:52:38,520 --> 00:52:41,879
Speaker 1: Like now was it Saltlake City? Yeah, they chasing through

945
00:52:42,040 --> 00:52:45,480
Speaker 1: the beautiful downtown of Salt Lake City, famously known as

946
00:52:45,520 --> 00:52:52,120
Speaker 1: the Paris of Utah. Uh. The English Mastiffs, as a

947
00:52:52,160 --> 00:52:55,279
Speaker 1: two hundred pound dog would in Utah summer like to

948
00:52:55,320 --> 00:52:59,319
Speaker 1: sit around nice cool places and take up space in

949
00:52:59,560 --> 00:53:05,920
Speaker 1: snow or Um according to Evans, which yeah, degrees, they

950
00:53:05,960 --> 00:53:08,200
Speaker 1: probably didn't want to do a lot of running. It's

951
00:53:08,239 --> 00:53:10,600
Speaker 1: funny to think that this chase scene was actually harder

952
00:53:10,640 --> 00:53:14,080
Speaker 1: than shooting a fake game in a Major League Baseball stadium,

953
00:53:14,120 --> 00:53:17,200
Speaker 1: but it was. In the flashforward ending of the movie,

954
00:53:17,239 --> 00:53:19,160
Speaker 1: we see that Benny has grown up to become a

955
00:53:19,160 --> 00:53:23,800
Speaker 1: professional baseball player for the Dodgers, and Smalls becomes a sportscaster.

956
00:53:24,320 --> 00:53:26,960
Speaker 1: The filmmakers wanted to film the scene at Dodgers Stadium,

957
00:53:27,000 --> 00:53:28,600
Speaker 1: but there was a problem when they couldn't get the

958
00:53:28,680 --> 00:53:33,120
Speaker 1: request approved. But thankfully, cinematographer Anthony Richmond, the guy who

959
00:53:33,120 --> 00:53:36,799
Speaker 1: I believe purchased the Playboy for squints uh, was apparently

960
00:53:36,840 --> 00:53:40,279
Speaker 1: friends with the team manager, Tommy Losorda, who pulled some

961
00:53:40,320 --> 00:53:42,719
Speaker 1: strings and ultimately managed to secure a date for the

962
00:53:42,719 --> 00:53:46,719
Speaker 1: production crew to film the sequence. And when Benny the

963
00:53:46,800 --> 00:53:49,360
Speaker 1: Jet is shown all grown up and playing for the Dodgers,

964
00:53:49,680 --> 00:53:52,960
Speaker 1: he's wearing number three, the same number the Babe Ruth

965
00:53:53,200 --> 00:53:55,360
Speaker 1: who appeared to him in a dream sequence in the movie,

966
00:53:55,840 --> 00:53:57,759
Speaker 1: or when he played for the Yankees. I thought that

967
00:53:57,840 --> 00:54:01,759
Speaker 1: was nice and now for this episode, it belongs in

968
00:54:01,800 --> 00:54:04,879
Speaker 1: the museum segment in the final scene of the movie,

969
00:54:04,920 --> 00:54:07,480
Speaker 1: you'll notice that the adult Scott Smalls is wearing the

970
00:54:07,560 --> 00:54:10,279
Speaker 1: distinctive baseball cap he wore as a child at the

971
00:54:10,280 --> 00:54:12,680
Speaker 1: start of the movie, the ugly one with the trout

972
00:54:12,800 --> 00:54:14,840
Speaker 1: on it that Benny the Jet told him to burn

973
00:54:14,920 --> 00:54:18,040
Speaker 1: because it was so hideous. Apparently he didn't take his advice,

974
00:54:18,080 --> 00:54:19,760
Speaker 1: because he wears it at the end of the movie

975
00:54:19,800 --> 00:54:23,120
Speaker 1: when the adult Benny steals home at Dodger Stadium and

976
00:54:23,200 --> 00:54:26,160
Speaker 1: he's working as a sports announcer. The sheer randomness of

977
00:54:26,200 --> 00:54:28,440
Speaker 1: that hat and his ugly fish logo has made it

978
00:54:28,600 --> 00:54:31,280
Speaker 1: kind of a crucial part of the film's lore among fans,

979
00:54:31,800 --> 00:54:35,799
Speaker 1: and also with Tom Geary, who played child Smalls. He

980
00:54:35,880 --> 00:54:38,760
Speaker 1: says that he desperately wanted to keep that hat, telling

981
00:54:38,800 --> 00:54:42,200
Speaker 1: Time Magazine in two thousand thirteen, I love that big, gass,

982
00:54:42,320 --> 00:54:44,920
Speaker 1: ugly trout hat. It was a gross hat. I was

983
00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:47,160
Speaker 1: looking for it a while back, and my parents called

984
00:54:47,239 --> 00:54:49,439
Speaker 1: up Fox because I couldn't take it with me when

985
00:54:49,440 --> 00:54:52,160
Speaker 1: we finished shooting because the sports announcer needed to wear it,

986
00:54:52,200 --> 00:54:54,759
Speaker 1: the guy who played the adults version of Smalls. But

987
00:54:54,840 --> 00:54:56,920
Speaker 1: they called up and I guess it had been misplaced

988
00:54:56,960 --> 00:54:59,400
Speaker 1: at the war Jobe place at Fox. So if anyone

989
00:54:59,440 --> 00:55:02,440
Speaker 1: finds that, tell them the email me. I'll pay top

990
00:55:02,480 --> 00:55:06,200
Speaker 1: dollar for it. Well some money at least this was

991
00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:09,600
Speaker 1: and I don't believe there's been an update so far.

992
00:55:10,120 --> 00:55:12,719
Speaker 1: Small as big as ugly trout hat was among the

993
00:55:12,760 --> 00:55:18,080
Speaker 1: material that was lost during the radios fired. I would

994
00:55:18,120 --> 00:55:20,759
Speaker 1: do a quick sandbar and p flyers sidebar and PI

995
00:55:20,840 --> 00:55:25,080
Speaker 1: flyers if I can. Um. PIA Flyers invented in part

996
00:55:25,120 --> 00:55:31,880
Speaker 1: with BF good Rich of the tire good Riches. Do

997
00:55:31,960 --> 00:55:37,279
Speaker 1: you know what PF stands for? No posture foundation? No way,

998
00:55:37,719 --> 00:55:39,840
Speaker 1: that's so not cool. I would have thought it was

999
00:55:40,000 --> 00:55:47,560
Speaker 1: be like pushing fast. Um. So obviously anyone with eyes

1000
00:55:47,760 --> 00:55:50,959
Speaker 1: can tell that these look like Chuck Taylor's right. So

1001
00:55:51,160 --> 00:55:54,920
Speaker 1: these were designed in ve Did they predate Chuck Taylors

1002
00:55:55,120 --> 00:56:00,560
Speaker 1: or Converse? Rather, they the hydrocks of the Converse oreos. Yes,

1003
00:56:00,600 --> 00:56:04,479
Speaker 1: actually they are because in nineteen seventy Converse bought out

1004
00:56:04,680 --> 00:56:09,840
Speaker 1: p F Flyers and this led to a monopoly in

1005
00:56:09,880 --> 00:56:12,719
Speaker 1: the shoe market, and in nineteen seventy five they were

1006
00:56:12,760 --> 00:56:17,279
Speaker 1: split by an antitrust lawsuit. Yeah, and uh, let's see

1007
00:56:17,280 --> 00:56:21,320
Speaker 1: what else we have, uh, Bob cuz if your beloved

1008
00:56:21,360 --> 00:56:25,160
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics. Uh the first athlete to be endorsed by

1009
00:56:25,320 --> 00:56:30,879
Speaker 1: a shoe brand, Flyers yea. By the sixties they had

1010
00:56:30,960 --> 00:56:36,000
Speaker 1: one fifth of the canvas sneaker shoe market in the US. So, yeah,

1011
00:56:36,000 --> 00:56:38,040
Speaker 1: it's funny to me they're growing up with Chuck Taylor's

1012
00:56:38,080 --> 00:56:41,160
Speaker 1: being like the hot, cool canvas shoe being like, what

1013
00:56:41,200 --> 00:56:43,400
Speaker 1: the hell are p of Flyers? But they came first

1014
00:56:43,760 --> 00:56:46,359
Speaker 1: and then Converse bottom, and then they got broken up

1015
00:56:46,360 --> 00:56:52,240
Speaker 1: by an anti trust lawsuit. I love that. In addition

1016
00:56:52,280 --> 00:56:54,719
Speaker 1: to falling out of contact with the ugly ass trout hat,

1017
00:56:55,000 --> 00:56:58,040
Speaker 1: he also fell out of contact with the Sandlock castmates.

1018
00:56:58,080 --> 00:57:00,560
Speaker 1: Like summer camp friends, they lost touch with one another.

1019
00:57:00,840 --> 00:57:03,120
Speaker 1: Smalls later said, I was the only guy from the

1020
00:57:03,160 --> 00:57:06,480
Speaker 1: East Coast except for Shane who played Tommy Timmins, who

1021
00:57:06,600 --> 00:57:08,880
Speaker 1: was from Florida. So I never really kept in touch.

1022
00:57:09,360 --> 00:57:11,680
Speaker 1: For a few years we do Christmas cards, but yeah,

1023
00:57:11,680 --> 00:57:13,600
Speaker 1: I never really kept in touch, which is a shame.

1024
00:57:14,600 --> 00:57:17,240
Speaker 1: And this is less a fascinating fact and more of

1025
00:57:17,240 --> 00:57:20,880
Speaker 1: an uncanny coincidence. But when the narrator explains what became

1026
00:57:20,920 --> 00:57:22,680
Speaker 1: of all the kids from that summer at the end

1027
00:57:22,680 --> 00:57:25,280
Speaker 1: of the movie, it makes a comment that Bertram Weeks

1028
00:57:25,360 --> 00:57:28,160
Speaker 1: quote got really into the sixties and has never heard

1029
00:57:28,160 --> 00:57:31,960
Speaker 1: from again. Grant Guilt, who played Bertram Weeks, was later

1030
00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:36,400
Speaker 1: cast in the TV miniseries The Sixties, which was his

1031
00:57:36,520 --> 00:57:40,640
Speaker 1: last credited role as an actor. That's why I loved

1032
00:57:40,760 --> 00:57:44,000
Speaker 1: that mini series. I taped it and used to watch

1033
00:57:44,040 --> 00:57:46,680
Speaker 1: it all the time. Julia Stiles is in it, Jeremy

1034
00:57:46,720 --> 00:57:50,360
Speaker 1: Systems in it, Jerry O'Connell's and it's got a crazy cast. Um.

1035
00:57:50,400 --> 00:57:53,760
Speaker 1: Speaking of things that were actually a success, the sand

1036
00:57:53,800 --> 00:57:58,640
Speaker 1: Lot made over thirty four million of that budget of

1037
00:57:58,720 --> 00:58:02,160
Speaker 1: just seven million. A ciguard shomping executive surely excited about that,

1038
00:58:02,920 --> 00:58:09,920
Speaker 1: went on to make estimated seventy six million. Holy, almost

1039
00:58:09,960 --> 00:58:13,720
Speaker 1: eleven times it's budget and home release. That is wild.

1040
00:58:14,520 --> 00:58:17,440
Speaker 1: But you know, going back into the reviews, not a

1041
00:58:17,520 --> 00:58:21,920
Speaker 1: unanimous decision. Roger Ebert gave it three stars, comparing it

1042
00:58:21,960 --> 00:58:27,880
Speaker 1: to a Christmas Story, incisively saying both movies are about

1043
00:58:27,960 --> 00:58:31,280
Speaker 1: gawky young adolescence trapped in a world they never made

1044
00:58:31,760 --> 00:58:33,920
Speaker 1: and doing their best to fit in while beset with

1045
00:58:33,960 --> 00:58:38,200
Speaker 1: the most amazing vicissitudes. Great job there, Roger. Did you

1046
00:58:38,240 --> 00:58:40,680
Speaker 1: know that the guy who wrote, the Christmas Story is

1047
00:58:40,760 --> 00:58:45,400
Speaker 1: on a Charles Mingus record. What no funny enough? Oh

1048
00:58:45,480 --> 00:58:48,760
Speaker 1: my god? Bringing it back in Jerry McGuire, when she's

1049
00:58:48,800 --> 00:58:51,680
Speaker 1: listening to She's he goes into her apartment, He's like,

1050
00:58:51,720 --> 00:58:53,760
Speaker 1: what are you listening to? It's a Charles Mingus song

1051
00:58:53,800 --> 00:58:57,440
Speaker 1: called Haitian Fight Song. That song is on a record

1052
00:58:57,480 --> 00:59:01,160
Speaker 1: called The Clown. The song The Clown features spoken word

1053
00:59:01,240 --> 00:59:06,720
Speaker 1: narration by Jean Smart, Jean Shepherd, Jean Shepherd, Yeah, wow, yeah,

1054
00:59:07,040 --> 00:59:10,760
Speaker 1: how about that? Uh? Janet Maslin Long of The New

1055
00:59:10,800 --> 00:59:14,440
Speaker 1: York Times said Evans wrote and directed the Sandlot quote

1056
00:59:14,480 --> 00:59:18,320
Speaker 1: as if it were stunningly momentous, even though nothing about

1057
00:59:18,400 --> 00:59:22,040
Speaker 1: his modest coming of age comedy demands anything like this

1058
00:59:22,200 --> 00:59:26,280
Speaker 1: awe struck approach. You mentioned that math Janet Maslin was

1059
00:59:26,320 --> 00:59:30,760
Speaker 1: once married to Bruce Springsteen's manager John Landau. Yes, indeed,

1060
00:59:31,000 --> 00:59:34,000
Speaker 1: this movie almost feels like a Bruce Springsteen song that

1061
00:59:34,280 --> 00:59:39,600
Speaker 1: absolutely does take on this period of one's life. Also,

1062
00:59:39,680 --> 00:59:43,360
Speaker 1: all those damn names here telling me that like on Greetings,

1063
00:59:43,400 --> 00:59:49,600
Speaker 1: f Raspberry Park, Bruce Springsteen didn't write about Tommy Tommy, Yeah,

1064
00:59:49,760 --> 00:59:54,160
Speaker 1: Benny the Jet, Rodriguez, Henny DeNunez. Those are absolutely. Bruce

1065
00:59:54,160 --> 00:59:57,320
Speaker 1: Springsteen asked character names. I don't think she's married to

1066
00:59:57,360 --> 00:59:59,760
Speaker 1: John Landau anymore, so maybe that's why she added the

1067
00:59:59,760 --> 01:00:05,720
Speaker 1: movie Bad Memories. I don't know. Yeah. Uh. We won't

1068
01:00:05,760 --> 01:00:08,880
Speaker 1: talk about the sequels, as was the way with many

1069
01:00:08,920 --> 01:00:11,560
Speaker 1: things that made any degree of money in the nineties.

1070
01:00:11,800 --> 01:00:15,040
Speaker 1: The sand Lot spawned two direct to video sequels, first

1071
01:00:15,080 --> 01:00:18,000
Speaker 1: of which was predictably titled The sand Lot Too in

1072
01:00:18,040 --> 01:00:22,680
Speaker 1: two thousands five. I would have thought it was earlier. Uh.

1073
01:00:22,720 --> 01:00:25,760
Speaker 1: That plot centered around a rival girls team who want

1074
01:00:25,760 --> 01:00:28,840
Speaker 1: to share the sand Lot. Uh, and it went back

1075
01:00:28,840 --> 01:00:30,800
Speaker 1: to the well for the idea of a terrifying dog

1076
01:00:30,840 --> 01:00:33,640
Speaker 1: who lives beyond the wall that separates the sand Lot

1077
01:00:33,640 --> 01:00:36,400
Speaker 1: from Mr Myrtle's house. Although they called the dog the

1078
01:00:36,560 --> 01:00:39,320
Speaker 1: Great Fear. I think the movie was set in a

1079
01:00:39,440 --> 01:00:43,480
Speaker 1: late sixties, so that's more of a a sixties style name.

1080
01:00:44,240 --> 01:00:50,200
Speaker 1: It's a considerably more Cormick McCarthy name. Ah. Not a

1081
01:00:50,200 --> 01:00:53,120
Speaker 1: single member of the original cast appear in the film. Uh.

1082
01:00:53,160 --> 01:00:56,160
Speaker 1: Tom Geary played small so he was never even contacted

1083
01:00:56,160 --> 01:00:58,920
Speaker 1: about signing on for these, But in the second sequel

1084
01:00:58,960 --> 01:01:02,560
Speaker 1: two thousand seven, cops made a third The sand Lot

1085
01:01:02,600 --> 01:01:08,480
Speaker 1: Trilogy concludes in two thousand seven, the sand Lot Colan

1086
01:01:08,720 --> 01:01:12,600
Speaker 1: heading Home. One member of the original film made an

1087
01:01:12,600 --> 01:01:18,560
Speaker 1: appearance Squints, led by a friend of the podcast, Chauncey Leopardy. Apparently,

1088
01:01:18,600 --> 01:01:21,320
Speaker 1: the plot of this star is Luke Perry as a

1089
01:01:21,320 --> 01:01:24,400
Speaker 1: man who gets transported from two thousand five back to

1090
01:01:24,600 --> 01:01:28,960
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six to relieve his childhood fourteen years after

1091
01:01:28,960 --> 01:01:31,120
Speaker 1: the original movie. They made a movie about a time

1092
01:01:31,120 --> 01:01:35,400
Speaker 1: traveling Luke Perry. Isn't that your whole thing about traveling

1093
01:01:35,400 --> 01:01:39,400
Speaker 1: back in time? Yeah? Very much so. Yeah, good lord.

1094
01:01:40,000 --> 01:01:43,280
Speaker 1: In speaking of misbegotten sequels, it was announced that a

1095
01:01:43,320 --> 01:01:47,200
Speaker 1: prequel sand Lot was in the works at twentieth Century Fox,

1096
01:01:47,760 --> 01:01:50,120
Speaker 1: co written by the original films writer and director David

1097
01:01:50,160 --> 01:01:55,000
Speaker 1: Mickey Evans alongside Austin Reynolds. Who the hell's Austin Reynolds

1098
01:01:55,120 --> 01:02:01,360
Speaker 1: don't know? Yeah, I don't know. Evans is also said

1099
01:02:01,400 --> 01:02:03,720
Speaker 1: to be directing a Disney Plus TV series that will

1100
01:02:03,760 --> 01:02:07,280
Speaker 1: be set in the nineteen eighties Jesus and be seeing

1101
01:02:07,280 --> 01:02:11,720
Speaker 1: the original cast returning his adults. As for the prequel film,

1102
01:02:11,840 --> 01:02:14,600
Speaker 1: as we mentioned, it was announced in still has no

1103
01:02:14,680 --> 01:02:19,880
Speaker 1: title or cast, so folks place your bets. Oh God,

1104
01:02:19,920 --> 01:02:21,960
Speaker 1: it's gonna be in the eighties. They're all gonna have like,

1105
01:02:22,560 --> 01:02:27,040
Speaker 1: oh God, I don't even want to No, now, moving on, Jordan,

1106
01:02:27,160 --> 01:02:30,800
Speaker 1: take us home. So no, no, it gets worse. As

1107
01:02:30,800 --> 01:02:34,200
Speaker 1: if the possibility it will conceived remakes and prequels aren't

1108
01:02:34,200 --> 01:02:37,280
Speaker 1: bad enough, I have worse news for sand Lot fans.

1109
01:02:37,560 --> 01:02:39,200
Speaker 1: If you want your memories of this film and the

1110
01:02:39,280 --> 01:02:42,680
Speaker 1: characters remained pure and unsolid, I suggest you stopped listening

1111
01:02:42,760 --> 01:02:45,280
Speaker 1: right now. We'll catch you next time. The rest of

1112
01:02:45,320 --> 01:02:49,440
Speaker 1: you proceed at your own peril. I got bad news

1113
01:02:49,520 --> 01:02:53,520
Speaker 1: about some members of the cast and some misfortunes that

1114
01:02:53,560 --> 01:02:57,320
Speaker 1: befel them, mostly self created. In years to come. We

1115
01:02:57,360 --> 01:03:00,560
Speaker 1: will start with Tom Geary, who played Smalls. He had

1116
01:03:00,600 --> 01:03:03,040
Speaker 1: a fairly active career as a child star. He played

1117
01:03:03,120 --> 01:03:06,560
Speaker 1: Matthew Turner in the Last Sie movie in the year

1118
01:03:06,560 --> 01:03:09,080
Speaker 1: after The Sandlock came out. In later years, he had

1119
01:03:09,120 --> 01:03:12,760
Speaker 1: bit parts in non kid friendly movies like U five seven,

1120
01:03:12,840 --> 01:03:17,120
Speaker 1: One Black Hawk Down, Mr. Griver, and The Revenant. In

1121
01:03:17,120 --> 01:03:18,960
Speaker 1: an interview we did a few years back, he talked

1122
01:03:19,000 --> 01:03:22,200
Speaker 1: about working in a hospital as a patient transporter between

1123
01:03:22,200 --> 01:03:25,200
Speaker 1: acting gigs to support his three kids. And it's in

1124
01:03:25,240 --> 01:03:26,720
Speaker 1: the town where he grew up. So a lot of

1125
01:03:26,720 --> 01:03:29,520
Speaker 1: people know him and they affectionately refer to him as Smalls,

1126
01:03:29,560 --> 01:03:32,000
Speaker 1: which I think is adorable. Said, I've come to kind

1127
01:03:32,040 --> 01:03:34,120
Speaker 1: of embrace it. If you can't beat him, join him,

1128
01:03:34,120 --> 01:03:39,680
Speaker 1: you know. So that's cute. But then he was arrested

1129
01:03:39,720 --> 01:03:46,080
Speaker 1: for headbutting a cop. That's a Springsteen song, Yeah, yeah,

1130
01:03:46,120 --> 01:03:49,440
Speaker 1: that's that's all or an m Night Shamalan twist. But

1131
01:03:50,720 --> 01:03:52,600
Speaker 1: it went down as he was preparing to bore a

1132
01:03:52,720 --> 01:03:56,840
Speaker 1: United Airlines flight out of Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport when

1133
01:03:56,840 --> 01:03:59,520
Speaker 1: he was deemed quote too drunk to fly. According to

1134
01:03:59,560 --> 01:04:03,320
Speaker 1: t MZ, the police were called in to take him

1135
01:04:03,360 --> 01:04:05,840
Speaker 1: in the custody, but he didn't want to go quietly.

1136
01:04:06,560 --> 01:04:10,400
Speaker 1: He reportedly became quote belligerent and verbally abusive towards the

1137
01:04:10,440 --> 01:04:14,400
Speaker 1: responding officer. According to eight show Biz, Gary tried to

1138
01:04:14,480 --> 01:04:18,280
Speaker 1: kick the officer in the face before ultimately headbutting him.

1139
01:04:18,320 --> 01:04:20,840
Speaker 1: He was subsequently arrested and booked on a charge of

1140
01:04:20,920 --> 01:04:24,440
Speaker 1: felony assault of a police officer. He was later released

1141
01:04:24,440 --> 01:04:27,520
Speaker 1: on his own reconnaissance after posting a five thousand dollar bond,

1142
01:04:28,200 --> 01:04:31,640
Speaker 1: and he was quote notably absent weeks later. When the

1143
01:04:31,640 --> 01:04:35,600
Speaker 1: other Santla alums reunited to celebrate the film's twentie anniversary.

1144
01:04:35,640 --> 01:04:37,880
Speaker 1: Bum or timing, maybe he was going out on on

1145
01:04:37,920 --> 01:04:43,960
Speaker 1: a press tour forward or something. Even worst news concerning

1146
01:04:44,120 --> 01:04:48,440
Speaker 1: Benny the Jet Rodriguez, the actor who played him, Mike Guitar,

1147
01:04:48,600 --> 01:04:52,280
Speaker 1: took a job as an l A firefighter. However, he

1148
01:04:52,360 --> 01:04:56,160
Speaker 1: was placed on six months unpaid suspension in early seventy

1149
01:04:56,240 --> 01:05:00,080
Speaker 1: and after facing felony assault charges for his involved and

1150
01:05:00,320 --> 01:05:02,840
Speaker 1: the beating of a grad student. It went down on

1151
01:05:02,920 --> 01:05:07,600
Speaker 1: Halloween when Mike and several other firefighters confronted twenty two

1152
01:05:07,680 --> 01:05:10,960
Speaker 1: year old Samuel Chang, who was handing out candy in

1153
01:05:11,000 --> 01:05:14,320
Speaker 1: their neighborhood to trick a treaters. Chang claimed that kids

1154
01:05:14,360 --> 01:05:16,920
Speaker 1: couldn't come to his parents house in a gated community,

1155
01:05:17,200 --> 01:05:19,480
Speaker 1: so he walked down the street, handing out candy as

1156
01:05:19,520 --> 01:05:23,200
Speaker 1: he went, dressed in a mismatched Halloween costume that included

1157
01:05:23,240 --> 01:05:26,000
Speaker 1: a Dracula mask and a white Mickey Mouse glove. Okay,

1158
01:05:26,000 --> 01:05:29,120
Speaker 1: that's kind of scary. The off duty fireman approached him

1159
01:05:29,120 --> 01:05:32,240
Speaker 1: and asked to know why he was there. They also asked,

1160
01:05:32,320 --> 01:05:34,680
Speaker 1: for some reason, if the candy was laced with drugs.

1161
01:05:35,040 --> 01:05:37,640
Speaker 1: I don't know why they would suspect that. Chang took

1162
01:05:37,640 --> 01:05:40,400
Speaker 1: out his phone and made videos showing the lead fireman

1163
01:05:40,560 --> 01:05:44,800
Speaker 1: dressed in a he man costume with bulging fake muscles,

1164
01:05:44,840 --> 01:05:48,240
Speaker 1: repeatedly asking Chang why he was on quote their block.

1165
01:05:48,920 --> 01:05:51,400
Speaker 1: Chang told the police that he smelled alcohol on all

1166
01:05:51,480 --> 01:05:54,600
Speaker 1: the men's breath. The fireman all later claimed that Chang

1167
01:05:54,680 --> 01:05:57,320
Speaker 1: was harassing kids and he had his pants zipper part

1168
01:05:57,320 --> 01:06:01,320
Speaker 1: way down. Chang denies it. Whatever the the situation ended

1169
01:06:01,360 --> 01:06:03,600
Speaker 1: with the fireman chasing him and pinning him to the

1170
01:06:03,640 --> 01:06:08,040
Speaker 1: ground in a chokehold until he fell unconscious, beaten so

1171
01:06:08,160 --> 01:06:11,600
Speaker 1: badly that his pulse stopped, and the same firefighters who

1172
01:06:11,640 --> 01:06:15,040
Speaker 1: attacked him had to revive them with CPR. That is

1173
01:06:15,120 --> 01:06:19,000
Speaker 1: a short story worthy of William Falder. Yes, the guy

1174
01:06:19,040 --> 01:06:23,320
Speaker 1: would remain hospitalized for weeks, suffering a hemorrhage, kidney failure,

1175
01:06:23,440 --> 01:06:27,840
Speaker 1: severe head trauma, and other injuries. Mike Guitar and others

1176
01:06:27,880 --> 01:06:31,280
Speaker 1: were charged with felony assault, and he pled no contest

1177
01:06:31,360 --> 01:06:34,160
Speaker 1: to a reduced charge of Mr meanor battery and was

1178
01:06:34,200 --> 01:06:38,320
Speaker 1: suspended without pay for six months, but then he returned

1179
01:06:38,320 --> 01:06:47,440
Speaker 1: to full duty. Good lord, onto uh you could have stopped.

1180
01:06:47,520 --> 01:06:51,400
Speaker 1: I should have just stopped recording this and let you

1181
01:06:51,440 --> 01:06:53,720
Speaker 1: just punch yourself out on the ropes for the rest

1182
01:06:53,760 --> 01:06:57,480
Speaker 1: of the episode. Actor Marty Yorke, who played Yeah Yeah,

1183
01:06:57,760 --> 01:07:00,680
Speaker 1: also appeared on Boy Meets World, Saved by the Bell,

1184
01:07:00,800 --> 01:07:09,200
Speaker 1: The College Years, Wings, Wings, and more. People love that show.

1185
01:07:09,440 --> 01:07:12,880
Speaker 1: I love Wings, I love Becker. Do you remember Becker?

1186
01:07:13,360 --> 01:07:18,320
Speaker 1: Oh my god, post Chairs, working out, you know, non

1187
01:07:18,400 --> 01:07:21,600
Speaker 1: dancing news, Yeah ye as. IMDb page went cold for

1188
01:07:21,720 --> 01:07:24,120
Speaker 1: over a decade until two ten, when he showed up

1189
01:07:24,120 --> 01:07:30,000
Speaker 1: in a short film called The Trainer, possibly because um

1190
01:07:30,040 --> 01:07:33,240
Speaker 1: in the intervening period of video surfaced online of an

1191
01:07:33,480 --> 01:07:37,840
Speaker 1: expletive laden video in which York drunkenly harasses an interviewer,

1192
01:07:38,520 --> 01:07:43,720
Speaker 1: threatening to beat him up because he's from Brooklyn. Him he,

1193
01:07:43,800 --> 01:07:47,360
Speaker 1: himself is from Brooklyn. Anyone from Brooklyn has the capability

1194
01:07:47,360 --> 01:07:52,600
Speaker 1: of doing that. No, he's not wrong, repeated benson Hurst,

1195
01:07:53,480 --> 01:07:59,840
Speaker 1: repeatedly lifting up his shirt and yelling, yachtzi, you go

1196
01:08:00,000 --> 01:08:04,560
Speaker 1: to see this, Cliff, It's like bootleg the situation. It's

1197
01:08:04,560 --> 01:08:08,120
Speaker 1: not nice. He was also arrested for domestic violence in

1198
01:08:08,120 --> 01:08:13,880
Speaker 1: two thousand nins so oh boy, nice. Yeah, here we go,

1199
01:08:14,440 --> 01:08:19,639
Speaker 1: keep keep rolling Ham your beloved Ham. Thankfully he had

1200
01:08:19,680 --> 01:08:23,639
Speaker 1: a slightly happier ending. Ah. He played basically the same

1201
01:08:23,720 --> 01:08:27,360
Speaker 1: character in The Big Green with the kid who played Squints.

1202
01:08:27,880 --> 01:08:31,120
Speaker 1: Patrick Renna has gone on to have a steady acting career,

1203
01:08:31,160 --> 01:08:34,840
Speaker 1: appearing mostly on television. He's been in shows like Home Improvement,

1204
01:08:34,880 --> 01:08:39,280
Speaker 1: Boy Meets World, e Er, and The X Files. Off screen,

1205
01:08:39,600 --> 01:08:43,400
Speaker 1: he is very active in scientology, which, for reasons of

1206
01:08:43,640 --> 01:08:47,760
Speaker 1: personal safety and legal we will not comment further on.

1207
01:08:48,400 --> 01:08:52,000
Speaker 1: He helped find the church's Loose Fillies mission a new home,

1208
01:08:53,400 --> 01:08:57,000
Speaker 1: saying the building would quote help the individual change conditions

1209
01:08:57,240 --> 01:09:02,200
Speaker 1: and live a better life. So there's that. Um. Boy

1210
01:09:02,280 --> 01:09:05,599
Speaker 1: Means World, funnily enough, basically a post send Lot grad

1211
01:09:05,760 --> 01:09:10,920
Speaker 1: program welcoming veterans like Patrick Ham Renna, Chauncey Squintsley Party,

1212
01:09:11,120 --> 01:09:15,479
Speaker 1: Marty Yea York, Brandon Kenny, Janjoonz Adams, and Grant Bertram

1213
01:09:15,479 --> 01:09:18,080
Speaker 1: Weeks Gulp, as well as the late Art La Fleur,

1214
01:09:18,800 --> 01:09:23,679
Speaker 1: who remember played the the late Babe Ruth the Great

1215
01:09:23,680 --> 01:09:27,040
Speaker 1: Bambino in the dream sequence. So if you're feeling nostalgic

1216
01:09:27,280 --> 01:09:31,000
Speaker 1: about the sand Lot, simply watched the entirety of Boy

1217
01:09:31,080 --> 01:09:34,439
Speaker 1: Means World. Yes, Yes, We are not going to dwell

1218
01:09:34,479 --> 01:09:37,120
Speaker 1: on the bad like the sand Lot. We're not going

1219
01:09:37,160 --> 01:09:39,640
Speaker 1: to focus on the world as it is, but the

1220
01:09:39,640 --> 01:09:43,120
Speaker 1: world this should be. Let's beloved film is a high

1221
01:09:43,120 --> 01:09:44,960
Speaker 1: point in the lives of all who worked on it.

1222
01:09:45,320 --> 01:09:47,600
Speaker 1: In numerous interviews, pretty much all of the cast have

1223
01:09:47,680 --> 01:09:50,080
Speaker 1: described the production as the best summer of their lives,

1224
01:09:50,280 --> 01:09:52,920
Speaker 1: and it continues to touch people to this day. Nearly

1225
01:09:52,960 --> 01:09:58,360
Speaker 1: thirty years later, for the twentie anniversary, fans rebuilt the

1226
01:09:58,439 --> 01:10:01,840
Speaker 1: sand Lot in the private owned field in Utah, and

1227
01:10:01,880 --> 01:10:04,320
Speaker 1: many of the actors made a pilgrimage to the site

1228
01:10:04,360 --> 01:10:08,320
Speaker 1: for a special anniversary screening on the exact field where

1229
01:10:08,360 --> 01:10:12,120
Speaker 1: they filmed it. I think that's so cool. David Mickey Evans,

1230
01:10:12,160 --> 01:10:14,800
Speaker 1: the man who drew in his traumatic childhood to create

1231
01:10:14,880 --> 01:10:18,320
Speaker 1: this cherished movie, was moved to tears by the outpouring

1232
01:10:18,320 --> 01:10:21,240
Speaker 1: of support from the community, the outpouring of sport he

1233
01:10:21,520 --> 01:10:24,479
Speaker 1: didn't have as a kid. He said the film The

1234
01:10:24,520 --> 01:10:27,040
Speaker 1: sand Lott was made with the same amount of love

1235
01:10:27,120 --> 01:10:30,280
Speaker 1: that the people have for it, before adding it was

1236
01:10:30,320 --> 01:10:34,240
Speaker 1: the greatest summer of our lives, and I think that

1237
01:10:34,400 --> 01:10:37,280
Speaker 1: is the perfect way to say farewell to this summer.

1238
01:10:38,439 --> 01:10:40,120
Speaker 1: I hope it was a good one for all of you.

1239
01:10:40,280 --> 01:10:42,840
Speaker 1: With many more ahead of you, you are in fact

1240
01:10:42,880 --> 01:10:48,880
Speaker 1: not killing me. Uh folks, thank you for listening. This

1241
01:10:48,920 --> 01:10:51,760
Speaker 1: has been too much Information time. Alex Hegel and I'm

1242
01:10:51,840 --> 01:10:59,280
Speaker 1: Jordan run Talk. We'll catch you next time. Too Much

1243
01:10:59,320 --> 01:11:02,080
Speaker 1: Information was a production of I Heart Radio. The show's

1244
01:11:02,080 --> 01:11:05,120
Speaker 1: executive producers are Noel Brown and Jordan run Talk. The

1245
01:11:05,160 --> 01:11:08,759
Speaker 1: supervising producer is Mike John's. The show was researched, written

1246
01:11:08,760 --> 01:11:11,479
Speaker 1: and hosted by Jordan run Talk and Alex Heigel, with

1247
01:11:11,560 --> 01:11:14,519
Speaker 1: original music by Seth Applebaum and the Ghost Funk Orchestra.

1248
01:11:15,040 --> 01:11:17,040
Speaker 1: If you like what you heard, please subscribe and leave

1249
01:11:17,120 --> 01:11:19,639
Speaker 1: us a review. For more podcasts and I heart Radio,

1250
01:11:19,800 --> 01:11:22,799
Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever

1251
01:11:22,840 --> 01:11:24,120
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.