WEBVTT - Christmas in Connecticut 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:15.796 Pushkin. 0:00:18.196 --> 0:00:22.396 Hello, hello Malcolm Glabo Here. Last week my colleague Bendadafh 0:00:22.436 --> 0:00:25.716 Haffrey brought you the story of the contested authorship of 0:00:26.356 --> 0:00:30.316 a Visit from Saint Nicholas, otherwise known as the Twas 0:00:30.356 --> 0:00:34.636 the Night Before Christmas poem. Christmas episodes have become a 0:00:34.636 --> 0:00:36.996 bit of a tradition around here, so I thought i'd 0:00:36.996 --> 0:00:39.876 bring you an additional piece of good cheer this morning, 0:00:40.596 --> 0:00:45.636 our epic episode from last year about Arnold Schwarzenegger directing 0:00:45.676 --> 0:00:49.276 a made for TV Christmas movie that goes wildly. 0:00:48.796 --> 0:00:49.516 Off the rails. 0:00:49.956 --> 0:00:53.436 And if you're thinking to yourself, what this is what 0:00:53.476 --> 0:00:55.196 you brought me for Christmas? A rerun? 0:00:55.476 --> 0:00:56.516 Yes I did. 0:00:56.676 --> 0:00:59.676 And if you keep listening, you'll find that my antipathy 0:00:59.676 --> 0:01:03.396 to Christmas runs very deep. What am I doing right 0:01:03.396 --> 0:01:07.676 now probably sunning myself in Boca and informing my children 0:01:07.916 --> 0:01:10.916 the twelve Days of Christmas is eleven days too many? 0:01:11.676 --> 0:01:16.596 What's Ben doing right now? Asked Norman Rockwell. But first 0:01:17.436 --> 0:01:23.596 listen to this. Christmas is one week away, and how 0:01:23.636 --> 0:01:29.356 am I celebrating with restraint and circumspection. In the Glabew family, 0:01:29.396 --> 0:01:33.396 we do a mid century modern Christmas spare elegant, minimalist 0:01:34.076 --> 0:01:37.396 lots of the baby Jesus in a tasteful Scandinavian leather 0:01:37.436 --> 0:01:42.756 and rosewood manger. No Santa, no reindeer, no elves. Not 0:01:42.956 --> 0:01:47.036 so for my colleague Ben adapfh Halfrey. The Globews impose 0:01:47.076 --> 0:01:49.996 a dollar limit on gifts, like price controls in some 0:01:50.076 --> 0:01:54.316 socialist state that ad half Halfreys spend months thinking of 0:01:54.316 --> 0:01:57.156 what to get one another. The Globows buy a tree 0:01:57.316 --> 0:01:59.276 at the last moment, and would be happier if we 0:01:59.316 --> 0:02:02.836 could just move the whole operation outside around the Douglas Pine. 0:02:02.876 --> 0:02:07.036 In the backyard, Ben's family has a tree, a little 0:02:07.116 --> 0:02:10.676 model village covered in snow, and his father's vintage electric 0:02:10.716 --> 0:02:14.156 train set, plus a little metal tree with ornaments that's 0:02:14.276 --> 0:02:18.036 up year round. So when I told Ben that I 0:02:18.076 --> 0:02:21.756 had never watched It's a Wonderful Life, he was stunned. 0:02:22.316 --> 0:02:24.836 Then he reached out to me as the good smartan 0:02:24.876 --> 0:02:27.036 did to the traveler lying beref by the side of 0:02:27.036 --> 0:02:30.756 the road. How could this be, he asked me gently, because, 0:02:30.876 --> 0:02:33.396 as you can imagine, within the daph Haffreys, It's a 0:02:33.436 --> 0:02:37.596 Wonderful Life is a sacred text. Then Ben told me 0:02:38.116 --> 0:02:41.836 another story about what, in his mind is an even 0:02:41.916 --> 0:02:45.836 more important Christmas tale, a story that he regards as 0:02:45.876 --> 0:02:51.596 the apotheosis of all Christmas movies, a story not in 0:02:51.676 --> 0:02:58.516 a film, but of the making of a film. Welcome 0:02:58.636 --> 0:03:02.036 to revisionist history. I'm Malcolm Gladwell. Today in our show, 0:03:02.076 --> 0:03:04.716 Ben the alf Halfrey relays for the very first time 0:03:04.796 --> 0:03:10.276 in history, the truly screwy story of the of the 0:03:10.316 --> 0:03:13.116 oddest Christmas film of all time. Trust me, you have 0:03:13.236 --> 0:03:16.516 never heard this story before ever, nor have you ever 0:03:16.596 --> 0:03:19.076 seen the movie in question, unless you're a member of 0:03:19.156 --> 0:03:23.196 the extended dedaf Hafrey Clan or were recently incarcerated in 0:03:23.236 --> 0:03:26.876 a state that limits prisoner's streaming access to obscure television 0:03:26.876 --> 0:03:28.116 movies in the nineteen nineties. 0:03:28.956 --> 0:03:29.436 But when you. 0:03:29.436 --> 0:03:32.516 Listen to what follows, you're going to ask yourself the 0:03:32.556 --> 0:03:35.676 same question I ask myself when Ben first told me 0:03:35.756 --> 0:03:36.956 this story? 0:03:37.116 --> 0:03:47.116 How do I miss this? Unlike Malcolm, I am a 0:03:47.116 --> 0:03:50.116 great lover of Christmas movies. Every year, as soon as 0:03:50.116 --> 0:03:53.116 Thanksgiving is over, I'm firing up The Bishop's Wife, Miracle 0:03:53.156 --> 0:03:56.156 on thirty fourth Street, or It's a Wonderful Life. And 0:03:56.196 --> 0:03:59.516 then there's my favorite Christmas movie, A little Less Famous 0:04:00.476 --> 0:04:05.836 the nineteen forty five romantic comedy Christmas in Connecticut. I've 0:04:05.836 --> 0:04:07.916 watched it pretty much every year since I was little. 0:04:08.356 --> 0:04:11.876 Barbara Stan plays a magazine columnist who's famous for entertaining 0:04:11.916 --> 0:04:15.236 on her grand Connecticut farm. She's known as a great cook. 0:04:15.716 --> 0:04:18.276 It's the end of World War Two and her magazine's 0:04:18.276 --> 0:04:21.996 publisher has an idea for a great feature. Jill hosts 0:04:22.036 --> 0:04:25.516 a returning war hero for Christmas on her farm. There's 0:04:25.556 --> 0:04:29.476 just one problem. It's all a lie. She doesn't live 0:04:29.516 --> 0:04:32.796 in Connecticut. She lives in a tiny apartment in New York. 0:04:32.876 --> 0:04:35.196 And she has no clue how to cook. 0:04:36.756 --> 0:04:37.156 My fun? 0:04:38.236 --> 0:04:39.316 Oh yes, my fun? 0:04:40.676 --> 0:04:41.276 Oh my fine? 0:04:41.516 --> 0:04:43.316 And you want to see you right away to arrange it? 0:04:43.516 --> 0:04:43.916 Arrange it? 0:04:43.956 --> 0:04:45.636 Are you crazy? Where am I going to get a farm? 0:04:45.676 --> 0:04:46.876 I haven't even got a window box. 0:04:47.156 --> 0:04:49.076 That's just it. We'll have starl him off, you know what, 0:04:49.156 --> 0:04:51.436 to stick your ears with the truth. If he ever 0:04:51.476 --> 0:04:53.396 finds out we've been making all this up, you'll fire 0:04:53.476 --> 0:04:53.996 the both of us. 0:04:55.396 --> 0:04:59.396 Chaos ensues. It's a classic screwball comedy and a total delight. 0:05:00.156 --> 0:05:01.876 But the thing I really want to tell you about 0:05:01.876 --> 0:05:04.676 in this episode is what happened after I discovered quite 0:05:04.716 --> 0:05:07.836 by accident, that there was a remake of this favorite 0:05:07.916 --> 0:05:12.796 Christmas movie of mine, an action packed, star studed, joke filled, 0:05:13.036 --> 0:05:16.836 really very different version of the original, made for TV 0:05:17.836 --> 0:05:24.316 and directed by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. A kind 0:05:24.316 --> 0:05:26.876 of shocking twist if you ask me, I mean, why 0:05:26.956 --> 0:05:30.716 would the Terminator take on Christmas in Connecticut? So I 0:05:30.756 --> 0:05:33.676 did what any good Christmas fiend would do. I talked 0:05:33.756 --> 0:05:36.716 to a dozen people about something that happened thirty years ago, 0:05:36.836 --> 0:05:39.756 for way too many hours to get the real story, 0:05:40.476 --> 0:05:42.756 and I discovered in the process what I have come 0:05:42.796 --> 0:05:46.436 to regard as the greatest Christmas tale of all time. 0:05:48.516 --> 0:05:50.276 I've told the story many times, I've never told it 0:05:50.316 --> 0:05:53.436 all the record. It's a big story, So if you've 0:05:53.476 --> 0:05:55.196 got the time, I will tell it to you. 0:05:55.796 --> 0:05:59.076 That's Stan Brooks in the early nineteen nineties. He was 0:05:59.116 --> 0:06:01.396 an independent made for TV movie producer. 0:06:02.436 --> 0:06:05.116 So I'm developing movies and a friend of mine goes 0:06:05.156 --> 0:06:07.756 and gets the job at TNC, and I make the 0:06:07.916 --> 0:06:08.956 very first movie for him. 0:06:09.796 --> 0:06:12.676 TNT launched in nineteen eighty eight, at the start of 0:06:12.716 --> 0:06:16.676 the cable television revolution. Then as now cable was expensive, 0:06:17.116 --> 0:06:19.556 but it was growing. The whole game was trying to 0:06:19.636 --> 0:06:22.436 raise awareness to get people to sign up, and with 0:06:22.596 --> 0:06:24.876 channels running twenty four to seven, there was a lot 0:06:24.956 --> 0:06:27.676 of space to fill, which led to a boom and 0:06:27.796 --> 0:06:31.436 made for TV movies. Stan's first film on TNT was 0:06:31.476 --> 0:06:34.636 a big success. So he got another bite at the Apple. 0:06:35.076 --> 0:06:36.396 And he calls me, He goes, what do you want 0:06:36.396 --> 0:06:38.276 to do next? So they said, like namiears, would you 0:06:38.316 --> 0:06:40.116 ever let me do a remake from the MGM library 0:06:40.116 --> 0:06:43.476 because that's what Ted owned, And he said, yes, just 0:06:43.596 --> 0:06:43.996 pick one. 0:06:45.076 --> 0:06:48.276 Christmas movies always do well, and there was one. Stan 0:06:48.396 --> 0:06:51.636 loved Christmas in Connecticut, and I. 0:06:51.796 --> 0:06:54.356 Know the Barber Stanlet movie, and so I said, well, 0:06:54.396 --> 0:06:56.076 this could be a good one. It was right as 0:06:56.236 --> 0:06:58.836 Martha Stewart was exploding. I thought, well, what if this 0:06:58.996 --> 0:07:01.156 is Martha Stewart. What if she's on TV and it 0:07:01.156 --> 0:07:04.436 has an empire and it's all fake? And so they 0:07:04.556 --> 0:07:07.796 loved that take, and so off we went into the races. 0:07:08.516 --> 0:07:11.916 He got a right to work up the script in television. 0:07:12.116 --> 0:07:13.676 It was It was great because you can get your 0:07:13.676 --> 0:07:14.236 stuff made. 0:07:14.996 --> 0:07:17.516 This is Janet Brownew one of the all time great 0:07:17.556 --> 0:07:20.636 bards of TV movies writer on Eloise at the Plaza, 0:07:20.836 --> 0:07:23.476 Twelve Dates of Christmas, Days of Our Lives, and the 0:07:23.596 --> 0:07:27.516 uncredited rewrite of Tim Allens the Santa Claus all brownew 0:07:28.316 --> 0:07:31.436 She loved the original Christmas in Connecticut. I mean it is. 0:07:31.956 --> 0:07:35.956 It's a charming and in fairest to me, the original 0:07:36.076 --> 0:07:37.356 draft was very close. 0:07:38.036 --> 0:07:40.716 Janet wrote the draft of the script for Stan's remake. 0:07:41.116 --> 0:07:43.636 And we turn it in and they go, this is good. 0:07:43.756 --> 0:07:45.516 This is stupid in a Christmas movie. So now I 0:07:45.636 --> 0:07:49.516 have and I'm I have a nice little Christmas programmer 0:07:49.636 --> 0:07:50.596 and nothing more. 0:07:51.676 --> 0:07:55.196 It's the middle of nineteen ninety one in Hollywood. Janet 0:07:55.276 --> 0:07:58.196 and Stan's low budget television movie remake isn't really the 0:07:58.236 --> 0:08:01.236 sort of thing to get people talking, but they're making progress. 0:08:01.836 --> 0:08:04.316 He's got the old school movie star Diane Cannon cast 0:08:04.396 --> 0:08:06.756 in the lead as the Martha Stewart character, and an 0:08:06.796 --> 0:08:10.076 offer out to a director. And then one day his 0:08:10.236 --> 0:08:14.076 phone rings. His assistant says, it's a big Hollywood agent 0:08:14.876 --> 0:08:15.636 named Lou Pitt. 0:08:18.956 --> 0:08:21.476 Now I understand, I'm in the television movie business. These 0:08:21.476 --> 0:08:24.356 guys are never calling me, so if they do call me, 0:08:24.916 --> 0:08:30.436 it's never good. And and he he gets on the 0:08:30.516 --> 0:08:34.636 phone and he says, you're a director for your Christmas 0:08:34.676 --> 0:08:39.796 in Connecticut movie. And I said, uh, well almost yeah, 0:08:39.836 --> 0:08:41.796 we may have an offer out and he said, okay, 0:08:41.876 --> 0:08:44.876 Well if he doesn't say yes, I want you to 0:08:45.116 --> 0:08:48.156 consider my client. And I go okay and wait to 0:08:48.196 --> 0:08:49.876 hear the name, and I go who, and he goes 0:08:49.956 --> 0:08:52.596 Arnld Schwarzenegger and I burst out laughly. 0:08:53.236 --> 0:08:53.756 Oh he was. 0:08:53.916 --> 0:08:54.996 He was totally shocked. 0:08:55.796 --> 0:08:58.516 Lou Pitt, legendary agent Arnald Schwarzenegger. 0:08:59.436 --> 0:09:02.196 That's hilarious. No, seriously, is this a joke? 0:09:02.876 --> 0:09:03.556 Is this a joke? 0:09:04.316 --> 0:09:08.516 He goes, no, seriously, and I goes, I'm Schwartzeker's not 0:09:08.596 --> 0:09:10.356 doing a this movie for T and T. 0:09:11.356 --> 0:09:14.636 To be clear, Arnold had just finished shooting James Cameron's 0:09:14.676 --> 0:09:20.196 epic Terminator two Asta La Vista Baby. Terminator two is 0:09:20.276 --> 0:09:23.196 the one where Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a killer cyborg sent 0:09:23.276 --> 0:09:25.836 from the future to protect young John Conner from a 0:09:25.916 --> 0:09:29.196 different killer cyborg also sent from the future to kill him. 0:09:29.796 --> 0:09:32.716 As you can imagine, such a plot necessitates a lot 0:09:32.756 --> 0:09:35.876 of elaborate production work. He was movie making on a 0:09:35.956 --> 0:09:39.796 scale that was practically unheard of, especially in Los Angeles. 0:09:40.676 --> 0:09:43.396 The production actually changed the course of a river to 0:09:43.476 --> 0:09:46.996 shoot high speed chases in the extensive plood control channels 0:09:47.036 --> 0:09:47.876 of Los Angeles. 0:09:48.636 --> 0:09:51.636 Anyways, back to Stan and Lou the agent. 0:09:52.636 --> 0:09:56.796 I go, Lou, why on earth were Arnold Schwartz He says, well, 0:09:56.876 --> 0:09:57.476 here's why. 0:09:58.556 --> 0:10:02.236 Arnold Schwarzenegger was forty four years old, he had two kids. 0:10:02.876 --> 0:10:05.996 Nobody is an action hero forever. Maybe it was time 0:10:06.076 --> 0:10:07.916 to explore some alternatives. 0:10:08.236 --> 0:10:11.636 And so he it was kind of tired after tea 0:10:11.676 --> 0:10:14.116 two and he said to Blue I would like to 0:10:14.236 --> 0:10:17.996 direct a movie. The directing thing was kind of out 0:10:18.036 --> 0:10:20.436 of the box, at a left field, and they said, well, 0:10:20.516 --> 0:10:22.676 can we'll put together a big feat direct He goes, no, no, no, 0:10:23.356 --> 0:10:26.396 I want low risk. If I do a terrible job, 0:10:26.476 --> 0:10:29.076 I don't want anyone to be upset. I don't want 0:10:29.116 --> 0:10:31.316 a big budget, and I want it to be family 0:10:31.436 --> 0:10:34.596 friendly because I don't want anything to be controversial nothing. 0:10:34.716 --> 0:10:37.636 I just want something very simple. And the only one 0:10:37.716 --> 0:10:41.156 that fit the bill was Christmas, Connecticut. So I said, okay, 0:10:42.236 --> 0:10:45.316 I'll I'll call you if this guy passes and I 0:10:45.356 --> 0:10:47.716 have the phone. Of course, my parts jumping out of mine. 0:10:47.716 --> 0:10:51.276 I go what and and I said, yeah, I'm serious. 0:10:51.356 --> 0:10:51.796 I read it. 0:10:52.076 --> 0:10:54.596 I think he'd like it, so get me an offer. 0:10:55.436 --> 0:10:57.836 Stan gets the green light from the executives at TNT. 0:10:58.276 --> 0:11:01.756 There's some negotiating and they offer Schwartzenegger one hundred thousand bucks, 0:11:02.596 --> 0:11:04.836 and then one night stands phone rings. 0:11:06.276 --> 0:11:09.316 I pick it up and I hear Sam brooks, yes, 0:11:09.476 --> 0:11:12.316 please hold for orongs Forcenaker and now serious. I can 0:11:12.396 --> 0:11:18.236 see my heart beating, and he goes, hello. I go, Arnold, 0:11:19.116 --> 0:11:22.196 you're the guy with this Christmas script. I said yes. 0:11:22.916 --> 0:11:27.036 He says it's fantastic. I'd love to direct. I go okay. 0:11:27.116 --> 0:11:28.836 He goes, but I have to shoot in Los Angeles 0:11:28.996 --> 0:11:31.356 night to do it in these days. And he goes 0:11:31.356 --> 0:11:33.316 a nice some notes of the script. I go, okay, 0:11:33.516 --> 0:11:35.876 can you be here in an how And I go 0:11:36.676 --> 0:11:40.396 uh no. He goes, can you be on Wednesday? I go, yes, 0:11:40.556 --> 0:11:42.996 I could be there on Wednesday. He goes over for 0:11:43.036 --> 0:11:47.556 a meeting at Arnold's offices in Santa Monica. So now 0:11:47.556 --> 0:11:49.556 I'm going to see me on Wednesday. And you walk 0:11:49.636 --> 0:11:53.476 in and there's this giant lobby and and the first 0:11:53.516 --> 0:11:57.476 thing you see is the exoskeleton, the metal thing with 0:11:57.596 --> 0:12:02.236 the red eyes from terminator. So there's no doubt. I mean, 0:12:02.236 --> 0:12:03.836 the posters are up on the wall, but there's no 0:12:04.036 --> 0:12:06.396 doubt when you walk in and you see this seven 0:12:06.556 --> 0:12:10.116 foot thing, you go, oh, craft, I know where I am. 0:12:10.236 --> 0:12:12.116 My heart's beating and I go in and he's in 0:12:12.196 --> 0:12:16.276 his office, which is massive. It's like you know, signs 0:12:16.316 --> 0:12:19.356 of a football field, and he's on one. You walk 0:12:19.396 --> 0:12:21.596 in on this end and he's on the other ends. 0:12:21.636 --> 0:12:24.756 You walk past all the you know, the props and stuff, 0:12:25.316 --> 0:12:27.236 and then he's at a big, huge desk with a 0:12:27.316 --> 0:12:32.556 big giant chair, and behind him is a bookshelf but 0:12:32.796 --> 0:12:38.116 with all of the Mister Universe awards, not film stuff, 0:12:38.236 --> 0:12:41.516 it's all his bodybuilding awards. And I remember we were 0:12:41.596 --> 0:12:43.036 going through the script and I said, hey, I want 0:12:43.076 --> 0:12:47.516 to use the restroom and he pointed to me by 0:12:47.636 --> 0:12:50.676 putting up this bicep and pointing it like this and 0:12:50.716 --> 0:12:54.556 his biceps cleaning. He goes, this, doc what And I go, 0:12:54.916 --> 0:12:56.476 do was that just to show me your by step? 0:12:56.516 --> 0:12:58.316 And he goes, I have to show them, you know, 0:12:58.596 --> 0:13:01.636 the guns whenever I can. And I realized, okay, so 0:13:01.796 --> 0:13:04.156 this guy definitely has a sense of heurot. 0:13:03.956 --> 0:13:08.156 By himself they sit down. Arnold has notes on the script. 0:13:08.916 --> 0:13:13.756 He wanted more humor and a little more jeopardy, and 0:13:14.236 --> 0:13:16.596 so we added in like this like sort of big 0:13:16.636 --> 0:13:18.916 action sequence at the beginning where he rescues the kid. 0:13:19.516 --> 0:13:21.956 And all of a sudden, Janet Brownell, who wrote the 0:13:21.996 --> 0:13:24.916 original script for the remake, is looking at a very 0:13:24.996 --> 0:13:25.596 different movie. 0:13:27.756 --> 0:13:32.356 The whole thing took this like one hundred and eighty 0:13:32.356 --> 0:13:32.876 degree turn. 0:13:32.956 --> 0:13:36.436 At that point, it was just like what is And 0:13:36.556 --> 0:13:39.996 Stan just did not want to lose him, And I'm like, Okay, 0:13:40.436 --> 0:13:44.556 I truly don't see this, but if it gets a. 0:13:44.556 --> 0:13:45.916 Film green light, I don't give a shit. 0:13:46.996 --> 0:13:48.676 Arnold wants them to get someone else to come in 0:13:48.796 --> 0:13:49.676 and punch up the script. 0:13:50.316 --> 0:13:53.156 He wanted more humor, and as it happened, my best 0:13:53.196 --> 0:13:55.156 friend in the world had written Commando. 0:13:55.836 --> 0:13:59.756 Commando, the nineteen eighty five action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, 0:14:00.076 --> 0:14:01.916 which is the critic from the La Times referred to 0:14:02.036 --> 0:14:06.796 as a quote gory crowd pleaser and a glorified fireworks display. 0:14:08.636 --> 0:14:10.596 And Arnold loved them and said, do you think you 0:14:10.636 --> 0:14:13.156 can get him to do a comedy past. 0:14:13.796 --> 0:14:16.316 Jeff Low, the friend who wrote Commando, gets hired to 0:14:16.356 --> 0:14:17.916 do the rewrite with his writing partner. 0:14:18.956 --> 0:14:19.516 We walk in. 0:14:19.956 --> 0:14:25.596 He's sitting on a white couch maybe it's literally the 0:14:25.796 --> 0:14:28.156 length of the biggest limousine you've ever seen in your life, 0:14:28.836 --> 0:14:32.596 and he has his feed up on this white porcelain 0:14:32.876 --> 0:14:35.836 marble table. He's gott a big cigar in his mouth 0:14:35.916 --> 0:14:40.436 and scripts all around him, and he doesn't say hello, 0:14:41.236 --> 0:14:43.716 He doesn't introduce himself, he doesn't do anything. 0:14:43.916 --> 0:14:47.556 He just the first thing out of his mouth is, so, 0:14:47.796 --> 0:14:51.156 what of you guys been doing since Commando? 0:14:51.916 --> 0:14:53.716 Clearly not going to the gym. 0:14:54.676 --> 0:14:56.796 I just have to say, everyone in this episode is 0:14:56.836 --> 0:14:59.396 going to do their own Schwarzenegger impression, which is good 0:14:59.476 --> 0:15:01.676 because even though we couldn't land an interview with him, 0:15:01.876 --> 0:15:04.636 I feel like he's here with us in spirit. Anyway. 0:15:05.036 --> 0:15:07.996 They settle in and start rewriting the film Commando style. 0:15:09.116 --> 0:15:11.396 So that's where things kind of went off the rails 0:15:11.476 --> 0:15:14.716 for me personally, because it's like, okay, this is becoming 0:15:14.756 --> 0:15:15.996 a completely different thing. 0:15:16.236 --> 0:15:20.556 It just Schwarzenegger eyed into like this thing that was 0:15:20.716 --> 0:15:21.476 bigger than life. 0:15:22.036 --> 0:15:25.116 I mean, she just did an amazing job. We didn't 0:15:25.196 --> 0:15:30.836 make any real big structural changes, that's all perms, but 0:15:31.396 --> 0:15:35.996 a dialogue pass and go through it and try to 0:15:36.076 --> 0:15:38.636 find more Bold's vision. 0:15:39.676 --> 0:15:42.356 They start burning through the script. A big job for 0:15:42.436 --> 0:15:46.236 any director is giving notes on the rewrites. Schwarzenegger was 0:15:46.316 --> 0:15:49.836 calling in help from his director friends, including legendary comedy 0:15:49.916 --> 0:15:54.396 director Ivan Reitman, the guy who did Ghostbusters. Everyone was 0:15:54.476 --> 0:15:56.596 working to realize Arnold's vision. 0:15:57.436 --> 0:16:01.476 Now you have to understand that on Commando he would 0:16:01.516 --> 0:16:02.276 do this all the time. 0:16:02.436 --> 0:16:04.556 He would go, I have a great idea. 0:16:04.676 --> 0:16:05.756 Listen, this is what I want to do. 0:16:06.076 --> 0:16:07.156 When the guy comes at me. 0:16:07.236 --> 0:16:09.836 I want to throw a buzzsaw at him and it 0:16:09.996 --> 0:16:12.076 chops off his arm, and then I'm going to pick 0:16:12.196 --> 0:16:14.676 up his arm and punch me in his face with 0:16:14.836 --> 0:16:15.676 his old arm. 0:16:16.916 --> 0:16:20.076 And we would go, well, we like the bus off art? 0:16:20.596 --> 0:16:23.436 Can we just do the bus off art? So like, 0:16:23.596 --> 0:16:26.396 our job is not to go I think that's not 0:16:26.476 --> 0:16:26.996 gonna work. 0:16:27.316 --> 0:16:28.436 Our job is to make it work. 0:16:28.476 --> 0:16:34.156 And it doesn't help that the next day he would say, Okay, 0:16:34.356 --> 0:16:35.396 we're doing really well. 0:16:35.436 --> 0:16:36.516 We're really getting there. 0:16:36.676 --> 0:16:38.556 It's really coming to where I wanted to be. 0:16:38.796 --> 0:16:40.836 So I gave it to Steve it and Stephen talked 0:16:40.876 --> 0:16:42.036 to me last night and. 0:16:42.116 --> 0:16:44.196 He says, I have to really be careful that and 0:16:44.396 --> 0:16:45.716 this is what I want you to do. 0:16:46.516 --> 0:16:50.316 And again I'm like, is Steven the guy at the 0:16:50.596 --> 0:16:53.196 Jim is Stephen? Who is Steve It? 0:16:53.596 --> 0:16:56.156 And then suddenly as you go, you know, as he 0:16:56.316 --> 0:16:58.996 starts to sort of talk more, you go, he's talking 0:16:59.036 --> 0:17:00.276 about Steven Spielberg. 0:17:01.316 --> 0:17:03.556 This is beginning to look like a train nobody would 0:17:03.556 --> 0:17:05.996 step in front of. Back at T and T, the 0:17:06.076 --> 0:17:08.276 executives had a dim sense of what was going on. 0:17:09.236 --> 0:17:11.516 It's not has done now. 0:17:12.356 --> 0:17:15.636 Lori Posmantier, one of the TNT executives. 0:17:15.756 --> 0:17:19.436 Whether you're famous or not, as a director, that doesn't happen. 0:17:19.556 --> 0:17:22.116 To let somebody go and change things as much as 0:17:22.156 --> 0:17:22.756 we're change. 0:17:23.916 --> 0:17:26.676 Meanwhile, they've cast the rest of the film. Joining Diane 0:17:26.756 --> 0:17:30.236 Cannon would be Hollywood screwball legend Tony Curtis, probably best 0:17:30.316 --> 0:17:33.076 known for playing opposite Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot. 0:17:33.396 --> 0:17:36.956 Along with him would be ex country music star Chris Christofferson. 0:17:37.596 --> 0:17:40.436 Here's TNT's senior vice president of production at the time, 0:17:40.796 --> 0:17:41.516 Nick Lombardo. 0:17:42.156 --> 0:17:44.036 Even when they cast it, I thought, well, that is 0:17:44.116 --> 0:17:46.436 the weirdest cast I ever heard of. I mean, the 0:17:46.596 --> 0:17:49.436 idea that these people fit together made no sense at all. 0:17:49.556 --> 0:17:52.516 I mean, Diane Cannon and Chriskustbinson in the same frame. 0:17:52.796 --> 0:17:55.636 It makes the star is born when he's holding Barbara 0:17:55.636 --> 0:17:57.076 Streissad look organic. 0:17:58.556 --> 0:18:00.876 So armed with one of the all time weirdest, most 0:18:01.036 --> 0:18:04.396 stacked casts in the history of film, a comparatively small 0:18:04.436 --> 0:18:07.436 budget of three million dollars, a slot on an upstart 0:18:07.516 --> 0:18:10.156 cable network, and a script based on a nineteen forty 0:18:10.196 --> 0:18:12.316 screwball comedy that's been punched up by two of the 0:18:12.356 --> 0:18:16.556 writers behind a big eighties blockbuster. An Austrian former bodybuilder, 0:18:16.876 --> 0:18:19.996 fresh off his repeat performance as a time traveling cyborg, 0:18:20.356 --> 0:18:22.756 prepared to direct his first Christmas film. 0:18:23.436 --> 0:18:26.156 You don't as a TV movie producer ever get near 0:18:26.476 --> 0:18:29.116 anything this hot. You just don't. 0:18:29.756 --> 0:18:32.316 I mean, we're we're all a little nervous about the 0:18:32.396 --> 0:18:35.236 whole thing, you know, because it's like you're playing with 0:18:35.356 --> 0:18:38.956 matches and you know, oh yeah, that's that Arnold direct this. 0:18:39.356 --> 0:18:39.516 You know. 0:18:39.716 --> 0:18:43.076 It's like, for us three million dollars was a lot 0:18:43.156 --> 0:18:43.636 of money. 0:18:44.476 --> 0:18:46.436 I don't know, I don't know. Whatever it was like, 0:18:46.556 --> 0:18:47.236 Oh yeah. 0:18:47.436 --> 0:18:50.196 He wanted to prove that he could be a director. 0:18:51.156 --> 0:18:53.756 And everyone was about to find out whether or not 0:18:53.996 --> 0:19:06.236 he could Christmas and Connecticut. The remake began filming about 0:19:06.276 --> 0:19:10.556 two months before Christmas in Los Angeles. Because Arnold Schwartzenegger 0:19:10.636 --> 0:19:13.036 had never before directed a future film, though what the 0:19:13.076 --> 0:19:15.476 record show he had directed an episode of the TV 0:19:15.556 --> 0:19:18.716 show Tales from the Crypt, the production arranged for things 0:19:18.756 --> 0:19:20.596 to film more or less in the order they happen 0:19:20.676 --> 0:19:22.596 in the film. There's a lot less to keep track 0:19:22.676 --> 0:19:26.436 of continuity wise that way, but this also posed a problem. 0:19:27.156 --> 0:19:29.236 One of the anxieties of adapting a great work of 0:19:29.356 --> 0:19:31.236 art is figuring out how to make it your own. 0:19:31.916 --> 0:19:34.596 The nineteen ninety two made for TV remake of Christmas 0:19:34.636 --> 0:19:38.036 in Connecticut does this immediately by introducing its male lead, 0:19:38.276 --> 0:19:41.796 a park ranger named Jefferson Jones, mid workout routine in 0:19:41.876 --> 0:19:45.156 his mountain cabin. If you're looking for signs that this 0:19:45.316 --> 0:19:48.116 is not your grandmother's Christmas in Connecticut, the site of 0:19:48.196 --> 0:19:51.476 Chris Christofferson as Jefferson Jones sweating after busting out some 0:19:51.596 --> 0:19:53.996 chin ups on a beam in his cabin is your 0:19:54.036 --> 0:19:57.756 first warning. A man on the television offers some brisk 0:19:57.836 --> 0:19:59.516 exposition while he cools down. 0:20:00.356 --> 0:20:03.316 In the last hour, experts predict this should have been 0:20:03.356 --> 0:20:05.676 the biggest storm to hit the Rockies in the last decade. 0:20:06.236 --> 0:20:08.676 More than four feet of snow has anticipated to blanket 0:20:08.716 --> 0:20:10.196 the area the next forty eight hours. 0:20:10.276 --> 0:20:13.996 The phone rings. Another ranger is calling to tell Jones 0:20:14.076 --> 0:20:16.716 a kid has gotten lost in the blizzard. He has 0:20:16.796 --> 0:20:19.596 to go out and find him. This is the fabled 0:20:19.636 --> 0:20:23.356 action sequence Schwarzenegger had requested. They shot the blizzard on 0:20:23.436 --> 0:20:26.596 a sound stage. It's the moment Jefferson Jones becomes a hero, 0:20:27.036 --> 0:20:28.796 which is why he gets invited to be a guest 0:20:28.836 --> 0:20:31.996 of Elizabeth Blainez for a Christmas special in Connecticut. It's 0:20:31.996 --> 0:20:34.236 got to look epic. It's got to have that Arnold 0:20:34.236 --> 0:20:40.236 Schwarzenegger feeling. Unfortunately terminator, this is not Here's Jim Wilberger, 0:20:40.476 --> 0:20:41.396 director of production. 0:20:42.076 --> 0:20:46.036 Yeah, there's a scene where Christofferson, you know, suddenly has 0:20:46.116 --> 0:20:48.076 rescued the kid and you see him roll down this 0:20:48.916 --> 0:20:53.916 little hill of snow which was shot on stage and 0:20:54.876 --> 0:20:58.276 trying to make more of more of it because there 0:20:58.356 --> 0:21:01.556 wasn't that much set for that little hill, and you know, 0:21:01.636 --> 0:21:04.276 and then suddenly you see all the people rush in 0:21:04.436 --> 0:21:07.676 to rescue you know, I mean, this was just not 0:21:07.836 --> 0:21:13.396 good blocking, and that's just an experience. 0:21:14.676 --> 0:21:17.636 Schwarzenegger wanted Jeopardy, but this kind of looks like a 0:21:17.676 --> 0:21:21.356 snowball fight gone awry. Jones stumbles over a very small 0:21:21.476 --> 0:21:23.596