WEBVTT - BONUS EPISODE: Revisionist History : A Very Terminator Christmas 0:00:02.200 --> 0:00:06.000 Christmas is one week away, and how am I celebrating 0:00:06.840 --> 0:00:11.080 with restraint and circumspection. In the glabew family, we do 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:15.960 a mid century modern Christmas. Spare elegant, minimalist, lots of 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:19.880 the baby Jesus in a tasteful Scandinavian leather and rosewood manger. 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:24.959 No Santa, no reindeer, no elves. Not so for my 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:29.200 colleague Ben adaf Halfrey. The Globows impose a dollar limit 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:32.720 on gifts, like price controls in some socialist state that 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:36.240 at half Halfreys spend months thinking of what to get 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:39.520 one another. The globows by a tree at the last moment, 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:41.519 and would be happier if we could just move the 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:45.120 whole operation outside around the Douglas Pine. In the backyard. 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:49.680 Ben's family has a tree, a little model village covered 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:53.320 in snow, and his father's vintage electric train set, plus 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:56.960 a little metal tree with ornaments that's up year round. 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:00.480 So when I told Ben that I had never watched 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:04.559 It's a Wonderful Life, he was stunned. Then he reached 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:06.760 out to me as the good smartan did to the 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:09.319 traveler lying beref by the side of the road. How 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:12.600 could this be? He asked me gently, because, as you 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:15.520 can imagine, within the daf Haffreys, It's a wonderful life 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:20.520 is a sacred text. Then Ben told me another story 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:24.000 about what, in his mind is an even more important 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:28.640 Christmas tale, a story that he regards as the apotheosis 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:33.640 of all Christmas movies, a story not in a film, 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:41.280 but of the making of a film. Welcome to revisionist history. 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:43.880 I'm Malcolm Gladwell. Today in our show, Ben the n 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:47.720 alf Halfrey relays for the very first time in history, 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:52.160 the truly screwy story of the making of the oddest 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:54.920 Christmas film of all time. Trust me, you have never 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.320 heard this story before ever, nor have you ever seen 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:00.680 the movie in question. Unless you do. You remember the 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:04.800 extended dedf Halfway Clan or were recently incarcerated in a 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.600 state that limits prisoner's streaming access to obscure television movies 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:12.160 in the nineteen nineties. But when you listen to what follows, 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:15.119 you're going to ask yourself the same question I ask 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:18.400 myself when Ben first told me this story. 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:19.400 How do I miss this? 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:30.120 Unlike Malcolm, I am a great lover of Christmas movies. 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:33.079 Every year, as soon as Thanksgiving is over, I'm firing 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:35.639 up the Bishop's Wife, Miracle on thirty fourth Street, or 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:39.680 It's a Wonderful Life. And then there's my favorite Christmas movie, 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:44.440 a little less famous, the nineteen forty five romantic comedy 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:48.560 Christmas in Connecticut. I've watched it pretty much every year 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:52.040 since I was little. Barbara Stanwick plays a magazine columnist 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:55.600 who's famous for entertaining on her grand Connecticut farm. She's 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:58.080 known as a great cook. It's the end of World 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:01.040 War Two and her magazine's public sure has an idea 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:04.520 for a great feature. Jill hosts a returning war hero 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:08.840 for Christmas on her farm. There's just one problem. It's 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:12.640 all a lie. She doesn't live in Connecticut. She lives 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:15.000 in a tiny apartment in New York. And she has 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:16.679 no clue how to cook. 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:20.799 My fun? Oh yes, my fun? 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:23.960 Oh my fine? And you want to see you right 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:24.760 away to arrange it. 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:26.079 Arrange it? Are you crazy? 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:27.399 Where am I going to get a farm? I haven't 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:28.079 even got a window. 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:29.120 Boss, That's just it. 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:30.639 We'll have to star him off, you know what, to 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:31.760 stick to the truth. 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:34.360 If he ever finds out we've been making all this up, 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:35.960 you'll fire the both of us. 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:40.920 Chaos ensues. It's a classic screwball comedy and a total delight. 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:43.320 But the thing I really want to tell you about 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:46.160 in this episode is what happened after I discovered, quite 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:49.320 by accident, that there was a remake of this favorite 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:54.280 Christmas movie of mine, an action packed, star studed, joke filled, 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:58.320 really very different version of the original, made for TV 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:05.800 and directed by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. A kind 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:08.400 of shocking twist if you ask me, I mean, why 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:12.200 would the Terminator take on Christmas in Connecticut? So I 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:15.200 did what any good Christmas fiend would do. I talked 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:17.960 to a dozen people about something that happened thirty years 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:21.279 ago for way too many hours to get the real story, 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:24.240 and I discovered in the process. But I have come 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.960 to regard as the greatest Christmas tale of all time. 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:31.760 I've told this story many times, I've never told it 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:34.920 all the record. It's a big story, So if you've 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:36.719 got the time, I will tell it to you. 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:40.560 That's Stan Brooks in the early nineteen nineties. He was 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:42.920 an independent made for TV movie producer. 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:46.599 So I'm developing movies and a friend of mine goes 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:49.279 and gets the job at TNC, and I make the 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:50.559 very first movie for him. 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:54.159 TNT launched in nineteen eighty eight, at the start of 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:58.200 the cable television revolution. Then, as now, cable was expensive, 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:01.040 but it was growing. The whole game was trying to 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:03.960 raise awareness to get people to sign up, and with 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:06.400 channels running twenty four to seven, there was a lot 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.200 of space to fill, which led to a boom and 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:12.919 made for TV movies. Stan's first film on TNT was 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:15.479 a big success. So he got another bite at the 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:17.200 apple and he calls. 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:18.320 Me, He goes, what do you want to do next? 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:20.160 So they said, Nami years, would you ever let me 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:22.080 do a remake from the MGM library because that's what 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:25.520 Ted owned, And he said, yes, just pick one. 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:29.760 Christmas movies always do well, and there is one. Stan 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:33.200 loved Christmas in Connecticut, and I. 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:35.840 Know the Barber Stanlet movie, and so I said, well, 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:37.600 this could be a good one. It was right as 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:40.400 Martha Stewart was exploding. I thought, well, what if this 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:42.760 is Martha Stewart. What if she's on TV and has 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:46.240 an empire and it's all fake? And so they loved 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:49.520 that take, and so off we went to the races. 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.440 He got a writer to work up the script in television. 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:55.120 It was It was great because you can get your 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:55.840 stuff made. 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:59.000 This is Janet Brownew, one of the all time great 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:02.200 Bards of TV movie writer on Eloise at the Plaza, 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:04.960 Twelve Dates of Christmas, Days of Our Lives and the 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:08.840 uncredited rewrite of Tim Allens the Santa Claus all Brown. 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:12.039 Now she loved the original Christmas in Connecticut. 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:16.839 I mean it's a charming and in fairst to me, 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:18.880 the original draft was very close. 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:22.200 Janet wrote the draft of the script for Stan's remake. 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:24.760 And we turn it in and they go, this is 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:26.960 this is do me in a Christmas movie. So now 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:31.040 I have and I have a nice little Christmas programmer 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:32.080 and nothing more. 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:36.720 It's the middle of nineteen ninety one in Hollywood. Janet 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:39.680 and Stan's low budget television movie remake isn't really the 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:42.760 sort of thing to get people talking, but they're making progress. 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:45.840 He's got the old school movie star Diane Cannon cast 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:48.280 in the lead as the Martha Stewart character, and an 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:51.599 offer out to a director. And then one day his 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:55.599 phone rings. His assistant says, it's a big Hollywood agent 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:57.200 named Lou Pitt. 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:02.960 Now I understand I'm in the television movie business. These 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:05.839 guys are never calling me, so if they do call me, 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:11.920 it's never good. And and he he gets on the 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:16.160 phone and he says, the other director for your Christmas 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:21.280 in Connecticut movie. And I said, uh, well almost yeah, 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:23.320 we may have an offer out And he said, okay, 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:27.000 Well if he doesn't say yes, I want you to consider 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:30.040 my client. And I go, okay, wait to hear the name, 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:33.080 and I go who He goes Arl Schwarzenegger, and I 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:34.080 burst out laughly. 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:36.520 Oh he was. He was totally shocked. 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:40.000 Lou Pitt, legendary agent Arnold Schwarzenegger. 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:43.680 That's hilarious. No, seriously, is this a joke? 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:45.040 Is this a joke? 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:50.000 He goes, no, seriously, and he goes, I'm Schwartzaker's not 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:51.880 going a Christmas movie for tn T. 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:56.120 To be clear, Arnold had just finished shooting James Cameron's 0:07:56.160 --> 0:08:01.720 epic Terminator too Asta La Vista Baby. Terminator two is 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:04.720 the one where Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a killer cyborg sent 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:07.360 from the future to protect young John Connor from a 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:11.120 different killer cyborg also sent from the future to kill him. 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:14.200 As you can imagine, such a plot necessitates a lot 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:17.400 of elaborate production work. He was movie making on a 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:21.360 scale that was practically unheard of, especially in Los Angeles. 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:24.920 The production actually changed the course of a river to 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:28.480 shoot high speed chases in the extensive clood control channels 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:29.400 of Los Angeles. 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:33.439 Anyways, back to Stan and Lou the Agent. 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:38.320 I go, Lou, why on earth were Arnold Swartz? He says, well, 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:39.040 here's why. 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:43.800 Arnold Schwarzenegger was forty four years old, he had two kids. 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:47.520 Nobody is an action hero forever. Maybe it was time 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:48.800 to explore some alternatives. 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:53.360 And so he was kind of tired after T two 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:56.080 when he said to Blue, I would like to direct 0:08:56.640 --> 0:08:57.240 a movie. 0:08:57.720 --> 0:08:59.960 The directing thing was kind of out of the box, 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:01.640 out a left field, and they. 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:03.600 Said, well, can we'll put together a big feat direct 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:07.040 He goes, no, no, no, I want low risk. If I 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:10.040 do a terrible job, I don't want anyone to be upset. 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:12.240 I don't want a big budget, and I want it 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:14.920 to be family friendly because I don't want anything to 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:18.280 be controversial nothing. I just want something very simple. And 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.840 the only one that fit the bill was Christmas, Connecticut. 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:26.080 So I said, okay, I'll I'll call you if this 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:27.880 guy passes and I ham the phone off force my 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:29.520 hearts jumping out him like I go. 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:33.400 What and and I said, yeah, I'm serious. I read it. 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:36.200 I think he'd like it, So get me an offer. 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:39.320 Stan gets the green light from the executives at TNT. 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:43.320 There's some negotiating and they offer Schwartzenegger one hundred thousand bucks, 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:46.319 and then one night stands phone rings. 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:50.880 I pick it up and I hear Sam Brooks, yes 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:53.560 please hold for homes forts Snagger and now I'm serious. 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:56.760 I can see my heart beating, and he goes hello. 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:02.200 I go, uh, Arnold, you're the guy with this Christmas script? 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:07.160 I said yes. He says it's fantastic. I'd love to direct. 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:08.560 I go okay. 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:10.319 He goes, but I have to shoot in Los Angeles, 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:12.839 knight to do it in these days. And he goes 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:14.840 a nice some notes of the script. I go, okay, 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:16.040 can you be here in an hour? 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:18.679 And I go, uh no. 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:21.959 He goes, can you be on Wednesday? I go, yes, 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:23.359 I could be there on Wednesday. 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:26.160 He goes over for a meeting at Arnold's offices in 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:27.000 Santa Monica. 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:30.760 So now going to see me on Wednesday? And you 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:34.480 walk in and there's this giant lobby and and the 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:38.880 first thing you see is the exoskeleton, the metal thing 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:43.480 with the red eyes from Terminator. So there's no doubt. 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:44.880 I mean, the posters are up on the wall, but 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:47.080 there's no doubt. When you walk in and you see 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:51.160 this seven foot thing, you go, oh, crap, I know 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:53.160 where I am. My heart's beating and I go in 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:56.600 and he's in his office, which is massive. It's like 0:10:56.840 --> 0:11:00.400 you know, signs of a football field, and he's on one. 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:02.520 You walk in on this end and he's on the 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:05.000 other ends. You go walk past all the you know, 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:07.800 the props and stuff, and then he's at a big, 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:12.240 huge desk with a big giant chair, and behind him 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:18.440 is a bookshelf but with all of the Mister Universe awards, 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:22.160 not film stuff, it's all his bodybuilding awards. And I 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:24.280 remember we were going through the script and I said, hey, 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:28.600 I want to use the restroom and he pointed to 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:32.040 me by putting up this bicep and pointing it like this, 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:34.280 and his bicep comes cleaning. He goes this doc wo 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:37.520 and I go, is that just to show me your 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:39.840 boy step? And he goes, I have to show you know, 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:43.160 the guns whenever I can, and I realized, okay, so 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:46.040 this guy definitely has a sense of humort by himself. 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:50.640 They sit down, Arnold has notes on the script he 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:51.800 will he wanted. 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:55.840 A more humor and a little more jeopardy, and so 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:58.360 we added in like this like sort of big action 0:11:58.440 --> 0:11:59.440 sequence at the beginning. 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.840 Where he rescues the and all of a sudden, Janet Brownell, 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:05.720 who wrote the original script for the remake, is looking 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:07.160 at a very different movie. 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:13.840 The whole thing took this like one hundred and eighty 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:17.280 degree turn. At that point, it was just like what 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:19.720 is And Stan just did not want to lose him, 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.080 And I'm like, Okay. 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:24.160 I truly don't see this. 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:26.920 But if it gets a film green light, I don't 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:27.400 give a shit. 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:30.200 Arnold wants them to get someone else to come in 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:31.200 and punch up the script. 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:34.640 He wanted more humor, and as it happened, my best 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:36.480 friend in the world had written. 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:41.280 Commando Commando, the nineteen eighty five action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:43.679 which the critic from the La Times referred to as 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:48.760 a quote gory crowd pleaser and a glorified fireworks display. 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:52.120 And Arnold loved them and said, if you think you 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:54.640 get him to do a comedy past. 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:57.800 Jeff Low, the friend who wrote Commando, gets hired to 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:00.240 do the rewrite with his writing partner. 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:01.080 We walk in. 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:07.120 He's sitting on a white couch, maybe it's literally the 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:09.640 length of the biggest limousine you've ever seen in your life, 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:14.080 and he has his feed up on this white porcelain 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:17.319 marble table. He's got a big cigar in his mouth 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:22.240 and scrips all around him, and he doesn't say hello, 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:25.199 He doesn't introduce himself, he doesn't do anything. 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:29.080 He just the first thing out of his mouth is, so, 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:34.040 what of you guys been doing since Commando? Clearly not 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:35.600 going to the gym. 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:38.280 I just have to say, everyone in this episode is 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:40.920 going to do their own Schwartzenegger impression, which is good 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:43.240 because even though we couldn't land an interview with him, 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:46.160 I feel like he's here with us in spirit anyway. 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:49.520 They settle in and start rewriting the film Commando style. 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:52.920 So that's where things kind of went off the rails 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:56.200 for me personally, because it's like, Okay, this is becoming 0:13:56.240 --> 0:14:00.760 a completely different thing. It just Schwartzenegger eye into like 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:03.160 this thing that was bigger than life. 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:06.640 I mean, she just did an amazing job. We didn't 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:12.320 make any real big structural changes. That's all hers, but 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:17.480 a dialogue pass and goes through it and try to 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:20.120 find more Bold's vision. 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:23.880 They start burning through the script. A big job for 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:27.720 any director is giving notes on the rewrites. Schwarzenegger was 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:31.360 calling in help from his director friends, including legendary comedy 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:35.880 director Ivan Reitman, the guy who did Ghostbusters. Everyone was 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:38.080 working to realize Arnold's vision. 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:42.960 Now you have to understand that on Commando he would 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:43.800 do this all the time. 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:46.360 He would go, I have a great idea this and 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:47.320 this is what I want to do. 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:49.840 When the guy comes at me, I want to throw. 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:52.480 A buzzsaw at him and it chops off his arm, 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:54.280 and then I'm going to pick up his arm and 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:58.880 punch me in his face with his old arm. And 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:01.560 we would go, well, we like the bus off part. 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:04.960 Can we just do the bus off art? So like, 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:07.920 our job is not to go I think that's not 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:10.040 gonna work. Our job is to make it work. And 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:14.480 it doesn't help that the next day he would say. 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:18.000 Okay, we're doing really well, We're really getting there. 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:20.440 It's really coming to where I wanted to be, so 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:21.480 I gave it to Steve It. 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:24.000 And Stephen talked to me last night and he said, 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:26.160 I have to really be careful that and this is 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:29.920 what I want you to do. And again I'm like, 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:33.240 is Stephen the guy at the jim is Stephen? 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:34.680 Who is Steve It? 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:37.680 And then suddenly as you go, you know, as he 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:40.480 starts to sort of talk more, you go, he's talking 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:41.760 about Steven Spielberg. 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:45.040 This is beginning to look like a train nobody would 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:48.320 step in front of. Back at TNT, the executives had 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:49.760 a dim sense of what was going on. 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:53.000 It's not it's not has done now. 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:57.640 Lorie Postman Tier one of the TNT executives. 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:00.160 Whether you're famous or not, as a director agent, that 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.200 doesn't happen. To let somebody go and change things as 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:04.280 much as we're change. 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:08.160 Meanwhile, they've cast the rest of the film. Joining Diane 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:11.760 Cannon would be Hollywood screwball legend Tony Curtis, probably best 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:14.680 known for playing opposite Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot. 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:18.440 Along with him would be ex country music star Chris Kristofferson. 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:21.960 Here's TNT's senior vice president of production at the time, 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:23.040 Nick Lombardo. 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:25.560 Even when they cast it, I thought, well, that is 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:27.960 the weirdest cast I ever heard of. I mean, the 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:31.000 idea that these people fit together made no sense at all. 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:34.000 I mean, Diane Cannon and Chriskus Dobinson in the same frame. 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:37.120 It makes a star is born when he's holding Barbara 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:38.560 Streisad look organic. 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:42.480 So armed with one of the all time weirdest, most 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:45.920 stacked casts in the history of film, a comparatively small 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:48.960 budget of three million dollars, a slot on an upstart 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.640 cable network, and a script based on a nineteen forty 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:53.840 screwball comedy that's been punched up by two of the 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:58.080 writers behind a big eighties blockbuster. An Austrian former bodybuilder, 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:01.440 fresh off his repeat performance as a time traveling cyborg, 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:04.600 prepared to direct his first Christmas film. 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:07.640 You don't, as a TV movie producer ever get near 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:11.000 anything this hot. You just don't. 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:13.840 I mean, we're we're all a little nervous about the 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:16.720 whole thing, you know, because it's like you're playing with 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:20.440 matches and you know, oh, yeah, that's that Arnold directed this. 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:21.080 You know. 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:24.600 It's like, for us three million dollars was a lot 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:25.159 of money. 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:27.560 I don't know, I don't know whatever. 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:30.199 It was like, Oh yeah, he wanted to prove that 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:31.800 he could be a director. 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:35.320 And everyone was about to find out whether or not 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:47.720 he could. Christmas and Connecticut, the remake began filming about 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:52.040 two months before Christmas in Los Angeles. Because Arnold Schwartzenegger 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:54.520 had never before directed a future film, though what the 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.000 record show he had directed an episode of the TV 0:17:57.040 --> 0:18:00.359 show Tales from the Crypt, the production arranged for to 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:02.199 film more or less in the order they happen in 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:04.239 the film. There's a lot less to keep track of 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:08.000 continuity wise that way, but this also posed a problem. 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:10.720 One of the anxieties of adapting a great work of 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:12.720 art is figuring out how to make it your own. 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.080 The nineteen ninety two made for TV remake of Christmas 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.560 in Connecticut does this immediately by introducing its male lead, 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:23.320 a park ranger named Jefferson Jones, mid workout routine in 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:26.679 his mountain cabin. If you're looking for signs that this 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:29.600 is not your grandmother's Christmas in Connecticut, the site of 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:33.000 Chris Christofferson as Jefferson Jones, sweating after busting out some 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:35.479 chin ups on a beam in his cabin is your 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:39.200 first morning, a man on the television offers some brisk 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:43.720 exposition while he cools down. In the last hour, experts 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:45.800 predict this shouldn't be the biggest storm to hit the 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:47.360 Rockies in the last decade. 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:50.200 More than four feet of snow is anticipated to blanket 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:51.720 the area in the next forty eight hours. 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.520 The phone rings. Another ranger is calling to tell Jones 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:58.240 a kid has gotten lost in the blizzard. He has 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:01.080 to go out and find him. This is the fabled 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:04.840 action sequence Schwarzenegger had requested. They shot the blizzard on 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:08.120 a sound stage. It's the moment Jefferson Jones becomes a hero, 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:10.280 which is why he gets invited to be a guest 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:13.440 of Elizabeth Blaine's for a Christmas special in Connecticut. It's 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:15.720 got to look epic. It's got to have that Arnold 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:21.760 Schwarzenegger feeling. Unfortunately terminator, this is not. Here's Jim Wilberger, 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:22.920 director of production. 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:27.360 You know there's a scene where Christofferson, you know, suddenly 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:29.480 has rescued the kid and you see him rolled down 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:34.720 this little hill of snow which was shot on stage 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:39.640 and trying to make more of more of it because 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:42.760 there wasn't that much set for that little hill, and 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:45.280 you know, and then suddenly you see all the people 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.720 rush in to rescue you know. I mean, this was 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:54.879 just not good blocking, and that's just an experience. 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:59.119 Schwarzenegger wanted Jeopardy, but this kind of looks like a 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:03.160 snowball fight gone. Jones stumbles over a very small hill 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:05.680 holding a child that looks like it might be a mannequin. 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:09.520 He's groaning and yelling, but his lips aren't moving, so 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:13.080 tough start. Luckily, though, a lot of the film is 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:16.879 set inside Elizabeth Blaine's fake Connecticut house where she's shooting 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:20.560 a Christmas special in celebration of Jones. The bulk production 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:23.080 happened there, so the whole crew set up at a 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:26.800 house in South Pasadena for the real work. This introduced 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:30.480 Arnold to the second problem of directing actor ego management, 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:32.240 and the issue of his trailer. 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:36.800 Arnold's trailer was like a house on wheels. 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:38.359 It was literally like you'd look at it from the 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:40.879 outside and you'd say, wow, that's got all kinds of 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:42.880 popouts and the roof went off and everything. 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:44.760 But when you got inside, it was literally like you 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:48.520 had just walked into like the Greystone Mansion, you. 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:52.359 Know, it's probably almost three times as wide as a 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:55.480 normal trailer, and that it was the length that became 0:20:55.560 --> 0:21:02.080 the issue. Diane comes in and she says, why is 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:05.080