Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from HowStuffWorks dot com.
Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's
Speaker 2: Charles w Chuck Bryant, and Jerry's over there. So let's
Speaker 2: just call this Stuff you Should Know, shall we.
Speaker 1: Hey, that's a good name for a show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I came up with that.
Speaker 1: You did, You're the inventor, and from that was hatched
Speaker 1: all of the stuff podcasts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I mean how Stuff Works stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I don't know. I think you're not you're
Speaker 1: selling yourself short.
Speaker 2: It's okay.
Speaker 1: So this is another one of our movie centric podcasts
Speaker 1: that people seem to love. We've done all kinds of things,
Speaker 1: from exploitation films to movies that change filmmaking, to how
Speaker 1: films are rated.
Speaker 2: The n p A, n PAA, how TV ratings work. Yeah,
Speaker 2: ten exploitation films, Yeah, that was a good one, and
Speaker 2: some movies that changed filmmaking. That's right, all the stuff
Speaker 2: you just said.
Speaker 1: Yeah, before we get going here, buddy, we need a
Speaker 1: blanket spoiler because we're going to be talking about movies
Speaker 1: that had their endings changed, and so this is your
Speaker 1: fair warning. Most of them are old movies. Most of
Speaker 1: this information is out there, of course, yes, But if
Speaker 1: you're one of those people who gets really upset by
Speaker 1: this kind of thing, you may want to You've been warned.
Speaker 1: You've been warned. And now drum roll, we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about audience testing, which is depending on the filmmaker
Speaker 1: and the film can be a really super awesome, valuable.
Speaker 2: Tool, all right, it can also be like a terrible
Speaker 2: the worst thing that's ever happened to you. Yep, And
Speaker 2: apparently even if you believe in the system, it's a
Speaker 2: terrible experience, says Ron Howard.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's a fame, well not famous for but he
Speaker 1: is on record along with his producing partner Brian Graser
Speaker 1: for who.
Speaker 2: By the way, do you know this about Brian Grazer.
Speaker 1: Best hair and show business?
Speaker 2: Well, clearly, yeah. But he has the habit of taking
Speaker 2: frame pictures of himself over to people's houses and when
Speaker 2: they're not looking, he'd like plants them among their family photo.
Speaker 1: That's pretty awesome, pretty cool. That reminds me. I know,
Speaker 1: you hate George Cloinney's guts, but there's you said that
Speaker 1: there's a famous practical he's a big practical joker and
Speaker 1: he prepared this one over the course of like a year,
Speaker 1: supposedly told like his best friends that he had taken
Speaker 1: up painting. Oh yeah, just kept that going and going,
Speaker 1: and then like gave some of his close friends he's awful,
Speaker 1: awful paintings, right, and you know you're kind of expected
Speaker 1: to hang it up, right, They're like, oh, thanks.
Speaker 2: George, Yeah, that's a pretty good one.
Speaker 1: This is great.
Speaker 2: Oh but he felt so good about himself after.
Speaker 1: That, so glib so. Ron Howard and his producing partner
Speaker 1: Brian Gratzer are on record as saying that they really
Speaker 1: can get a lot out of it, and like what
Speaker 1: they would hate is to put a movie out and
Speaker 1: find out there's something they really easily could have corrected,
Speaker 1: either like confused or upset an audience as a whole.
Speaker 1: But he also said it's terrible to go through. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like even when it's a good experience, it's never a
Speaker 1: good experience.
Speaker 2: And that's somebody who believes in the system. If you
Speaker 2: don't believe in the system and you still have to
Speaker 2: go through it, like Robert Altman did.
Speaker 1: He's not a test audience kind of guy. No, can
Speaker 1: you imagine putting him through that?
Speaker 2: No, that's like letting all of the town's ladies bring
Speaker 2: Boo Radley that the pies for killing Bob Yule. You know,
Speaker 2: you can't put Robert Altman through the audience testing system.
Speaker 2: Who did they? Oh?
Speaker 1: I don't know, a dummy because yeah, he was a
Speaker 1: Maverick filmmaker. My brother and my Emily worked on movies
Speaker 1: with him. It's pretty neat legend. I know, it's good stuff.
Speaker 1: I wish I could tell a couple of the stories.
Speaker 2: But I mean, did you expect to get rich off
Speaker 2: of a Robert Altman movie? No, apparently these people did.
Speaker 1: I wonder what his top grossing movie ever was. Probably
Speaker 1: The Player or Mash I'll bet it was Mash. Yeah,
Speaker 1: movies didn't gross so much back then.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's just it's a perennial classic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2: The Player was great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he's He's made a lot of great
Speaker 1: movies and some kind of stinkers as well. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: but a lot of classics like Ashville. Have you ever
Speaker 1: seen Nashville?
Speaker 2: No? I never saw in Nashville.
Speaker 1: So good?
Speaker 2: So the Player shortcuts? Yeah, I didn't see the uh
Speaker 2: the Lake Woble Gone one with Lindsay Lohan for some reason. What. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they did Pie Home Companion. Yeah, with Lindsay Lohan. That's
Speaker 2: just weird and Meryl Street. Hum, it was like, let's
Speaker 2: getting casting director super drunk. Yeah, they just have a
Speaker 2: point out photos head shots and then that's how we'll
Speaker 2: cast this.
Speaker 1: Uh and then McKay and miss Miller and that's a
Speaker 1: classic as well.
Speaker 2: Never even heard of it more and Beaty liked mash though.
Speaker 2: That was a good one.
Speaker 1: It was so Ron Howard calls the process brutal and hideous. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he said, even if it's going well, it's not fun. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Francis Ford Coppola is somewhat responsible, although they have tested
Speaker 1: movies all the way back in the thirties. Yeah, when
Speaker 1: audience has said, you know that somewhere over the Rainbow
Speaker 1: song really slows things down.
Speaker 2: It's a stinker. Get it out of there.
Speaker 1: Thank goodness they didn't listen, because that became one of
Speaker 1: the most iconic singing performances ever in a movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and apparently pointing that out is a really good
Speaker 2: way to talk somebody out of cutting something a test audience, Yeah,
Speaker 2: think about somewhere over the Rainbow. Chief.
Speaker 1: So when Coppola was making Apocalypse Now. He had focus
Speaker 1: groups and.
Speaker 2: Really, yeah, I would not have guessed that.
Speaker 1: Well that movie.
Speaker 2: You've seen The Hearts of Darkness, right, No, the documentary
Speaker 2: about it, Yeah, no, it's really good.
Speaker 1: He had a lot of studio heat coming down on him.
Speaker 2: You know you've got a great movie when the documentary
Speaker 2: about your great movie is a great movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 2: It's really good.
Speaker 1: I think his wife made.
Speaker 2: That, although that's not necessarily true. The best worst movie
Speaker 2: was a great documentary, and Trolls two was not a
Speaker 2: good movie in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 1: I've never heard of best worst movie.
Speaker 2: It's about have you ever heard of Trolls two?
Speaker 1: I've heard of Trolls so, I guess I've heard of Trolls.
Speaker 2: Too, apparently made by totally different filmmakers, completely unconnected story
Speaker 2: wise and everything. This is just Trolls two, gotcha? And
Speaker 2: this documentary caught up with the people from Trolls Too,
Speaker 2: because it became like kind of this cool hipster thing
Speaker 2: to like, look, how terrible this movie is, like the
Speaker 2: Room Sure, and this documentary kind of followed this movement
Speaker 2: and went and found the people who were in this
Speaker 2: movie who had no idea this was going on, and
Speaker 2: then like basically puts him on the road going around
Speaker 2: promoting showings of Trolls Too and just living it up.
Speaker 2: That was great documentary.
Speaker 1: The documentary is good.
Speaker 2: The movie wasn't good, right, Okay, so I ate my
Speaker 2: own words, understood, No you didn't. But I think one
Speaker 2: of your pals from UCB.
Speaker 1: Is in it Controls Too.
Speaker 2: In the best worst movie the documentary.
Speaker 1: Do you know one of the founders, No, not Matt Besser.
Speaker 2: Yes, it might be Matt Besserer. Maybe I don't know
Speaker 2: one of the guys from you. There's like a bunch
Speaker 2: of UCB people in it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but okay, I got you. Besser was one of
Speaker 1: the founding members though, with Amy Poehler and Ian Roberts
Speaker 1: and Matt Walsh.
Speaker 2: Maybe Matt Walsh is the one that was in old school, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: so this is the other Matt. Yeah, I think he
Speaker 2: might be in it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's a good guy.
Speaker 2: He listens to our show, Prove me wrong, Matt, prove
Speaker 2: me wrong.
Speaker 1: Razorbacks, that's for him.
Speaker 2: He's an Arkansas fan or he just really likes Razorbacks. No,
Speaker 2: he's a Arkansas guy, gotcha.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's just a fan.
Speaker 2: Of the big are we had an ad break yet.
Speaker 1: Not yet, not until I finished the story about Coppola.
Speaker 1: He when he was making Apocalypse Now, hired a man
Speaker 1: named Joe Farrell or Farrell to help with marketing, and
Speaker 1: Farrell said, you know what, I see a pretty big
Speaker 1: opportunity here, and so he partnered up with Katherine Catherine
Speaker 1: Para and formed the National Research Group. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't think they're still exclusive, but at the time
Speaker 1: signed all the studios to an exclusive contract to do
Speaker 1: their audience testing. And I think there's still the top
Speaker 1: dog in audience testing, even though I think there are
Speaker 1: other companies that do it.
Speaker 2: Now, this is the company with the extraordinarily secretive name NRG,
Speaker 2: the National Research Group. Yeah, and they also do like
Speaker 2: contract hits I think for the CIA and the NSA.
Speaker 1: No, but they don't have a website that I could find,
Speaker 1: Like I was trying to just get a little information
Speaker 1: about the company.
Speaker 2: But so they're a division of Nielsen.
Speaker 1: Well, which of course they're super secretive.
Speaker 2: We already tell they are. But yeah, so it's crazy
Speaker 2: like this.
Speaker 1: It's like a cabal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, very much. So Randy Quaid was right,
Speaker 2: you might be.
Speaker 1: And they don't just do audience testing. They also, back
Speaker 1: when people had telephones, would do a lot of just
Speaker 1: random calling and saying like market research, like did you
Speaker 1: know this movie was coming out?
Speaker 2: It's called awareness.
Speaker 1: Yeah, awareness campaigns and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: And then they'd split you into four quadrants, right, which
Speaker 2: is the four quadrants that everyone on the planet is
Speaker 2: divided into men under twenty five, men over twenty five,
Speaker 2: women under twenty five, and women over twenty five. That's right,
Speaker 2: and that's it. There's the division of importance. At age
Speaker 2: twenty five, you cross over and get put out to
Speaker 2: pasture basically. All right.
Speaker 1: So that's the longest setup in history.
Speaker 2: So wait a minute. I want to make sure I
Speaker 2: understand what you're saying, because I made a lot of
Speaker 2: jokes in the middle of all this.
Speaker 1: They were flying.
Speaker 2: But you're saying that NRG, the National Research Group, came
Speaker 2: out of focus groups done for apocalypse.
Speaker 1: Now, Yes, that's the way I understand it.
Speaker 2: Wow, Yeah, I did not know that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but they were already doing focus groups, but this
Speaker 1: company really ran with it, I think in the corner
Speaker 1: of the industry. Yeah, I got you, all right, So
Speaker 1: let's take that promised break and we'll talk more about
Speaker 1: audience testing right after this. All right, back with audience testing.
Speaker 1: There's many different reasons to test your movie. Yeah, sometimes
Speaker 1: if it's a comedy, they will literally do multiple screenings
Speaker 1: just to test little bits and little jokes.
Speaker 2: If that makes sense to me. Yeah, if you're testing
Speaker 2: a comedy, totally makes sense. Because a couple of comedy
Speaker 2: writers that you put into like a room and say,
Speaker 2: write this hilarious movie or take this dog of a
Speaker 2: movie and punch it up with some jokes.
Speaker 1: It's very subjective.
Speaker 2: It might sound fun to you, sure, but then you're
Speaker 2: a movie executive and you had like a three scotch launch,
Speaker 2: so everything seems kind of funny right now, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean? Yeah, sixties right, so I get I
Speaker 2: get that, and then like this joke landed, this joke didn't,
Speaker 2: This joke was too far, and it like went against
Speaker 2: like what the what the character we've developed so far?
Speaker 2: That and that to me makes sense, Yeah, Like I
Speaker 2: see audience testing to that end.
Speaker 1: For sure, you see the value.
Speaker 2: But if it's like should this explosion be seventy percent
Speaker 2: more explosive, well, or should this guy's brain splatter, like
Speaker 2: more or less?
Speaker 1: Well with the violence, you have a point they that
Speaker 1: is something they will also test for it like, are
Speaker 1: you turned off by the amount of violence?
Speaker 2: Could we dial it back a little bit?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: What was the movie that was given an example in
Speaker 2: this article of of something that was found to be
Speaker 2: too violent?
Speaker 1: Good Fellas? Yes, yeah, that was in a mental Thos article, right, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: Goodfellas the audience like he had and that was the
Speaker 1: first movie Scorsese had ever tested.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and yeah, that's another guy I don't see like
Speaker 2: testing stuff. I'm really surprised about Apocalypse Map.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, like I said, it was studio heat, Yeah, I gotcha.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Scorsese, I think like forty or fifty people walked
Speaker 1: out in the first ten minutes because of the violence. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they said that they didn't like that third act
Speaker 1: where you know, just they thought it was too intense, Yeah.
Speaker 2: And apparently very drawn out, way more drawn out than
Speaker 2: it even is now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they thought the ending of Goodfellows is too intense.
Speaker 2: Right, and again very drawn out. So he went to
Speaker 2: a quick cut montage thing, yeah, which actually ended up
Speaker 2: making it better because Henry Hill is like coke to
Speaker 2: the gills at this point. Sure, and like that whole
Speaker 2: thing where like he's looking driving, watching the helicopter that's
Speaker 2: following him. Yeah, and it's like chop, chop, chop. It
Speaker 2: really gets the point across.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. It was very effective. So it worked
Speaker 1: in that case. I think, yes, right, the system works. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know about that. It worked in that case.
Speaker 1: So how these things work is, if you live in
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles area and you go to the mall,
Speaker 1: or if you're even in a movie line, you've probably
Speaker 1: been approached or seeing the people with clipboards, don't run
Speaker 1: away because they are not trying to sell you something.
Speaker 1: They're trying to give you something, which is a free screening,
Speaker 1: that's true, and they'll come and sign you up there.
Speaker 1: I ask if you're interested, Hey, we got a new
Speaker 1: Owen Wilson movie that we're screening in Burbank next Friday night.
Speaker 2: And everybody starts murmuring, oh oh, I love him. He's
Speaker 2: a national treasure. And everybody starts signing up.
Speaker 1: What's with the nose?
Speaker 2: He got a broken when he was younger.
Speaker 1: It looks like more than once. I liked that he
Speaker 1: didn't fix it.
Speaker 2: Though, Yeah, he was a smart alec.
Speaker 1: That thing is just like so crooked, and he's just like, yep,
Speaker 1: this is me.
Speaker 2: He said. He always expected to do something like go
Speaker 2: into advertising or whatever. But if you're a buddy of
Speaker 2: Wes Anderson's from a young age, yeah, going into movies.
Speaker 1: Sorry, I'm a big fan of him and his nose. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you're gonna get approached. Like I said, probably in
Speaker 1: LA but they do test all over the country. Because
Speaker 1: we've talked about will it play in Peoria? Yeah, sometimes
Speaker 1: they want to go to Ohio and see what you know,
Speaker 1: someone outside of the LA area feels about the movie.
Speaker 2: Right. But the reason that your chances are vastly higher
Speaker 2: of being asked to be in a test audience for
Speaker 2: a movie in Los Angeles is because a lot of
Speaker 2: times the people working on the movie who live in
Speaker 2: Los Angeles have to attend these things. Yeah, because not
Speaker 2: only do they want to, they want to get the
Speaker 2: feedback from it, which we'll find out about that. They
Speaker 2: also want to experience it firsthand, sure, so they get
Speaker 2: a real feel for how the audience is responding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And if you're eighteen to thirty four, you're more
Speaker 1: likely to get approached because that's the sweet spot of
Speaker 1: course that you talked about. Yeah, if you're older than that,
Speaker 1: then forget it.
Speaker 2: No one cares about you.
Speaker 1: No one cares about you.
Speaker 2: Give up all of your dreams and work and yep,
Speaker 2: smoke a pipe, be quiet.
Speaker 1: That's right. If you are an assistant editor or in
Speaker 1: any part of the editing crew, it's going to be
Speaker 1: a bit of a hellish experience because you're going to
Speaker 1: be scrambling trying to timp in music and temp in
Speaker 1: special effects, like some really hackneyed version of special effects,
Speaker 1: just so they know, like in the scene it's going
Speaker 1: to be a spaceship.
Speaker 2: And then the editors like, well, I can just cut
Speaker 2: to this stock quick time footage of a spaceship landing
Speaker 2: and get the point across, Like sure.
Speaker 1: So they're going to be scrambling trying to put together
Speaker 1: as much of a finished project as they can, and
Speaker 1: most of the times they will also be at the theater.
Speaker 1: They're going to queue it up and watch it just
Speaker 1: to make sure it's ready to roll. Yeah, before the
Speaker 1: audience sees it, you're gonna have a moderator. Have you
Speaker 1: ever been to a test screen?
Speaker 2: No of you?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Cool?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's neat what I don't remember.
Speaker 2: Wow, it must not have been very good movie.
Speaker 1: That was a long time ago. Yeah, that was it.
Speaker 1: I love that movie. It wasn't. I did watch that
Speaker 1: the other night though, in full.
Speaker 2: That's that was. That was one of the songs that
Speaker 2: I sang at piano karaoke, A couple of dollars songs.
Speaker 2: Sang that you mean and I sang I was in
Speaker 2: the stream.
Speaker 1: Oh well that she did the Kenny Rogers part and
Speaker 1: you did the Dolly part.
Speaker 2: We switched it up a little. Yeah, very hard song
Speaker 2: to sing, by the way, and that movie holds up.
Speaker 1: Man, it's still very funny.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the great Dabney Coleman, great Lily Commlin, the great
Speaker 2: Dolly Parton, great Jane Fonda, the great Jane Fonda.
Speaker 1: So good, and you know, the three of them, like
Speaker 1: it was just a great shoot. There were best buds,
Speaker 1: and they remained friends all these years later.
Speaker 2: You can tell.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of neat. Uh all right, So where
Speaker 1: was I? Oh, Yeah, someone's gonna introduce the movie and
Speaker 1: they're gonna get you all excited and like everyone's glad
Speaker 1: to be here. So you know when Wilson's new movie.
Speaker 2: Right, everybody reach under your seat for some pre red vines.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, might get little free something you never know,
Speaker 1: And they're going to explain, like, what you're about to
Speaker 1: see is gonna be a little rough in parts and
Speaker 1: the effects aren't complete, so just don't take that into account. Right.
Speaker 2: They're not looking for like, well, maybe you should color
Speaker 2: correct it a little more before you release it. They're
Speaker 2: aware of that.
Speaker 1: I think you're supposed to take the green screen out
Speaker 1: of the shot.
Speaker 2: Right. What they're looking for is pacing. They want to
Speaker 2: know you as like an audience members, keeping up with
Speaker 2: the movie and how it's how it is going, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're gonna well, you're gonna watch the movie just
Speaker 1: as cleanly as possible, and then you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: fill out comment cards. And they're pretty standard, but they
Speaker 1: can tailor it for the movie. Like if, like let's
Speaker 1: say you think there's a problem with one of the characters,
Speaker 1: they might specifically say, like, what'd you think about the
Speaker 1: Luke Wilson character?
Speaker 2: Too much?
Speaker 1: Too little?
Speaker 2: He's no Owen Wilson.
Speaker 1: They might ask your favorite parts, your least favorite parts? Yeah,
Speaker 1: how did it flow? Did anything stand out to you?
Speaker 2: Like could you follow it the whole time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did it make sense? That's a good.
Speaker 2: One, right, What did you think of the jokes?
Speaker 1: Yeah? What do you think of the jokes? They drill down,
Speaker 1: They try and get as specific as they.
Speaker 2: Can, and these are just the comment cards.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Supposedly, if you're in the demographic that they're shooting for
Speaker 2: in release and you're at this thing, as you're trying
Speaker 2: to leave, they might come up to you and be like, hey, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: this is just kind of the schlubby audience. You want
Speaker 2: to be part of a real focus group, come with us,
Speaker 2: And then you follow the stranger to a second location.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you follow them to a van with a
Speaker 1: little round window in the back.
Speaker 2: That's been covered over with a black plastic bag?
Speaker 1: Yeah, they got dark it did. So the big thing
Speaker 1: they're looking for, though, the money question is would you
Speaker 1: recommend this movie to a friend. That's the one thing
Speaker 1: they want to know, and that is where you're going
Speaker 1: to get your overall score that they really are going
Speaker 1: to hone in.
Speaker 2: On, right, And they want to know that so bad
Speaker 2: that if they don't say I definitely would, Yeah, they
Speaker 2: don't even count that. Yeah you can say like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: maybe probably nope. So a movie. A movie gets a
Speaker 2: score at the end, and it's based apparently exclusively on
Speaker 2: whether or not you said you would definitely recommend the
Speaker 2: movie to a friend.
Speaker 1: Yeah, out of one hundred people, they will score.
Speaker 2: That so yeah, or out of however many people. But
Speaker 2: for example, out of one hundred, yeah, if sixty people
Speaker 2: say that, yeah, I guess I would recommend it to
Speaker 2: a friend, and forty people say that they definitely would,
Speaker 2: that movie got to score forty terrible, not even like
Speaker 2: a like you can't even take into account that yeah.
Speaker 2: Probably you have to say you definitely would recommend it
Speaker 2: to a friend to get a point for that movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And they said in this article, I'm sure there's
Speaker 1: a huge caveats on a sliding scale, but uh, anything
Speaker 1: over eighty they think they're in pretty decent shape. I
Speaker 1: would guess eighty percent a low the average, they said.
Speaker 2: A lot, a lot less than eighties lately, he asked me,
Speaker 2: except of course for Mad Max x Makina. That was
Speaker 2: a pretty great movie. So good, they ask in this article.
Speaker 1: That makes you wonder, like when you when a train
Speaker 1: wreck of a movie comes out, like what happened? Did
Speaker 1: they focus scrop it, Did they test screen it? Did
Speaker 1: they ignore it?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Like what what? How does that thing get released? Is
Speaker 1: the question?
Speaker 2: Or are you asking me? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean no, I'm just throwing it out there.
Speaker 2: I'm not the one who's been the one of these
Speaker 2: tests creating. No, it does make you wonder though, like
Speaker 2: they probably didn't they didn't screen it, or the the
Speaker 2: people who had edit rights didn't care to listen. But this,
Speaker 2: this article keeps picking on glitter, which seems mean because
Speaker 2: there's a lot of stinkers out there. Apparently Human sevent
Speaker 2: pede three has the I think it came out recently.
Speaker 1: Is this the one in prison? I don't know. I
Speaker 1: think it's the first, like hundreds of people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it has the lowest Metacritics score of all time.
Speaker 1: Really you saw the first one?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Have you seen it? No, dude, it's definitely worth seeing.
Speaker 2: Really Yeah.
Speaker 1: I just think I get it just by seeing the trailer.
Speaker 2: You would No, No, I mean there's no real surprises
Speaker 2: beyond what you've seen in the trailer. But it's not
Speaker 2: even appreciating it in an ironic way, even taking it
Speaker 2: on its own terms. You're kind of like it's worth
Speaker 2: seeing at least once like can't be disturbing or yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: but not like not like hostile can't be disturbing. Have
Speaker 2: you seen Hostile?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I didn't think that was very campy.
Speaker 2: It was just straight up disturbing. This one already disturbing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the guy was definitely going for an already bent despite
Speaker 2: the premise of the movie. All right, but yeah, there's
Speaker 2: some disturbing stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm curious to see if that guy has anything left
Speaker 1: in his bag of tricks. Because you can only go
Speaker 1: mouth the butt for so long.
Speaker 2: What's what's can't be disturbing? Give me an example of
Speaker 2: that thing?
Speaker 1: Oh, I think like like a reanimator type of thing.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, okay, I see, yeah, hostels not can't be
Speaker 2: dis reanimator definitely is.
Speaker 1: Can we talk about Tom Cruise for a minute and
Speaker 1: how obnoxious this move was.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess he really believed in the way the
Speaker 2: editing process was already going.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he crashed his own test screening of Mission Impossible
Speaker 1: three allegedly and ran in there and lo.
Speaker 2: Was like, Hey, everybody, I'm Tom Cruise.
Speaker 1: Let's high five each other.
Speaker 2: Enjoy the movie, give me a couch to jump on.
Speaker 1: I mean can you believe that that totally negates the
Speaker 1: purpose of an audience screening because everyone there. I'm sure
Speaker 1: there were a few people who are like, oh, I
Speaker 1: hatred got too weird though, but the rest of people
Speaker 1: are like, oh my god, Tom Cruise just came into
Speaker 1: the very test screening. Yeah, like, they probably din't feel
Speaker 1: good about writing negative comments, right, you know.
Speaker 2: He white over here. He might want to hang out
Speaker 2: with me after this, and I want to be able
Speaker 2: to tell him that I gave him high marks.
Speaker 1: I can't believe he did that. I can't believe he
Speaker 1: did that.
Speaker 2: Actually, yeah, I can too. So by the way, Also,
Speaker 2: there's a really interesting long form article in La Weekly
Speaker 2: from about a year ago called how YouTube and Internet
Speaker 2: journalism destroyed Tom Cruise our last real movie star. And
Speaker 2: it's it's not an apologist's view, but it definitely defends
Speaker 2: him against a lot of it's just read it.
Speaker 1: I'm still a fan of his acting in most cases,
Speaker 1: Like that Edge of Tomorrow movie was terrific.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I haven't seen it yet and I've heard nothing
Speaker 2: but good things about it. Yeah, it was really good.
Speaker 1: But no, I can still watch his movies and separate
Speaker 1: that from the wacko in real life.
Speaker 2: This is yes, this is defending his acting as well,
Speaker 2: but it's defending as that public perception of him as
Speaker 2: being a whack go Yeah, and he basically like really
Speaker 2: kind of pulls apart like all the layers and you're like,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, Like it really goes to town stressing that
Speaker 2: he never jumped up and down on the couch, right.
Speaker 1: He just jumped up on the couch.
Speaker 2: Exactly, But they go to great lengths to point out
Speaker 2: that that is not the same thing as just off
Speaker 2: handedly saying, oh, yeah, he jumped up and down on
Speaker 2: that couch like he was crazy. Yeah. No, he jumped
Speaker 2: up on the couch once and then stepped down or
Speaker 2: something like that. So it's a really great article, really
Speaker 2: interesting because he's just been like kid for so long now. Yea,
Speaker 2: it's really it's almost surprising to see somebody step up,
Speaker 2: not as like a crusader on behalf of Time cruise,
Speaker 2: but just more to be like, everybody put your knives away.
Speaker 1: Well, I think the knives are out, not just because like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's a scientologist and people think that's weird. It's like
Speaker 1: when you dig down into scientology and find out the
Speaker 1: things that he abides by like the slave labor to
Speaker 1: decorate his cars and to wash his truck. And you
Speaker 1: know that makes you kind of I'm not a good person,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I see what you mean.
Speaker 1: Like that's beyond like, oh, that's just a strange religion.
Speaker 1: That's like people are being paid fifteen cents an hour
Speaker 1: to take care of me.
Speaker 2: Oh, if they're being paid, that's not slavery.
Speaker 1: That's true. That's a good point.
Speaker 2: What was the what's the name of the Was it
Speaker 2: an HBO documentary?
Speaker 1: Going clear?
Speaker 2: Going clear?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Based on the book Going Clear.
Speaker 2: I saw the guy who wrote the book come speak.
Speaker 2: Oh really, that guy likes something that I don't remember
Speaker 2: his name, but like, I mean, how whatever you think
Speaker 2: of his book or his journalism, that guy had brass ones.
Speaker 2: Oh really, he's the one who did it. He's the
Speaker 2: one who went after scientology when no one else would
Speaker 2: touch it. Oh yeah, he's the guy who did And
Speaker 2: apparently five million lawyers read that book before it was
Speaker 2: ever published.
Speaker 1: I think HBO supposedly had like one hundred attorneys when
Speaker 1: they went to adapt it as a documentary.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is after it had already been vetted
Speaker 2: by all of the lawyer in the book publishing world. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the great book. All right, let's take another break here,
Speaker 1: and when we come back, we'll talk about some of
Speaker 1: the more famous examples of movies that have been changed
Speaker 1: due to audience screenings.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be so good, so chuck. There's there's some
Speaker 2: legendary changes to movies that have been made over the years.
Speaker 2: Like we mentioned the Wizard of Oz. Good that was
Speaker 2: not a change actually, but like a test audience suggested
Speaker 2: it be taken out somewhere over the rainbow apparently. Also
Speaker 2: very famously, James Bond's movie Licensed to Kill Yeah, was
Speaker 2: originally called License Revoked. Yeah, And even after all the
Speaker 2: promotion material posters have been made, they changed the name
Speaker 2: because American test audiences were like, I don't understand what
Speaker 2: the title means, like his driver's license was revoked. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and they were serious.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was so weird. I mean it sounds like
Speaker 1: a like a Queen Latifa comedy license, you know, like
Speaker 1: where she's a bus school sassy school bus forever.
Speaker 2: And the like the K and the R backwards or
Speaker 2: something like that. And the poster.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, she's a sassy, pretty Woman. The movie, the
Speaker 1: Sacraine feel good movie from Richard Gere and Julia.
Speaker 2: Roberts apparently not started out as Sacra.
Speaker 1: No, this is hysterical to me. It was originally titled
Speaker 1: three thousand, based on the amount of money it costs
Speaker 1: to hire a hooker for a week. Sure that would
Speaker 1: like made no sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, apparently they changed the name, not because of the test,
Speaker 2: is because the execs were like, sounds too science fiction
Speaker 2: y and they were right.
Speaker 1: They were right, Pretty Woman, it's a much better title
Speaker 1: for that for that movie.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: And then apparently it was had a lot darker edge
Speaker 1: when it was in script form, and it ended with
Speaker 1: Richard Gears's character kicking Julia Robert's character out of his
Speaker 1: car and driving away. That's how it ended. Not very
Speaker 1: rom commy.
Speaker 2: No, no, well it wasn't.
Speaker 1: A rom com It was Gary Marshall. But see what
Speaker 1: I want to know is.
Speaker 2: Gary Marshall, he's a rom COMMI director.
Speaker 1: No, that's what I'm saying. He made that, like what
Speaker 1: I want to It seems to me like all that
Speaker 1: would have changed with Gary Marshall, not like in test screenings.
Speaker 2: Yes, I think that's what happened. And then what the
Speaker 2: test audience. The hand they played was that they're like,
Speaker 2: you need to change that ending. Okay, got they need
Speaker 2: to get together.
Speaker 1: Right, Fatal Attraction famously changed. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So the ending of Fatal Attraction apparently has Glenn Cose
Speaker 2: Glenn Close, who's Michael Douglas's former one night stand turned stalker,
Speaker 2: killing herself flitting her own throat. Yeah, pretty good with
Speaker 2: a knife with Michael Douglas's fingerprints on it. And then
Speaker 2: Michael Douglas is arrested for her murder.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like it's supposed to, they don't show trials
Speaker 1: and things, but it ends with him going to prison.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's a great ending. Glenn Close loved it.
Speaker 2: She was very sad when audiences were like, Nope, we
Speaker 2: hate this character so much, like she has to be
Speaker 2: killed off. She can't kill herself, somebody has to kill her. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and just for good measure, make it the wife.
Speaker 1: Well that makes sense because I think people people weren't
Speaker 1: rooting for Michael Douglas in that movie either because he
Speaker 1: was such a jerk right toyed with this woman left her,
Speaker 1: had this great wife at home and kid. So people
Speaker 1: I think they said, you know what would go over
Speaker 1: the top is if the only sympathetic character in this movie,
Speaker 1: which is Ann Archer, is the one who does it
Speaker 1: right and that was effective, I'll give it to him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but apparently Glenn closes like the original ending was
Speaker 2: way better.
Speaker 1: She washed her hands of it. Did you ever see
Speaker 1: Scott Pilgrim Versus the World? No, it's a good flick,
Speaker 1: the original, and that one had him had his character.
Speaker 2: Ending up with his.
Speaker 1: Love interest knives Chow played by Ellen Wong instead of
Speaker 1: his dream girl Ramona Flowers, and the test audiences didn't
Speaker 1: like that and said, basically, this guy spent the whole
Speaker 1: movie annoyed by this girlfriend and pining for this other
Speaker 1: girl and defeating her evil ex boyfriends. He can't just
Speaker 1: not end up with her at the end. It's very
Speaker 1: anti climactic. So they said, all right, we'll change it.
Speaker 1: And that's what it was in the graphic novel too,
Speaker 1: so I know why they changed it to begin with.
Speaker 2: Who knows, So they went back to the original ending. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that it was of the material is adaptive.
Speaker 1: From that's right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty in pink. Yeah, this one's pretty famous too.
Speaker 2: I'd heard this many many years ago that originally they
Speaker 2: had Molly Ringwald ending up with John Cryer with Ducky
Speaker 2: rather than Blaine Andrew McCarthy, which, by the way, I
Speaker 2: saw Weekend at Bernie's again recently. It's a No, it's
Speaker 2: not that bad. Really. Yeah, it's very thin. Well it's
Speaker 2: one it's one joke. Yeah, but the.
Speaker 1: Boy they take it in so many directions.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty funny, and it's amazing how young Jonathan
Speaker 2: Silverman and Andrew McCarthy look, I mean young.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the guy who played Bernie, who, like I
Speaker 1: don't think ever did anything else. No, I never saw
Speaker 1: him to anything else.
Speaker 2: He threw out the ball at like a Los Angeles
Speaker 2: Dodgers game or San Francisco Giants.
Speaker 1: Gamers nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, no, like last season. Really, I don't remember
Speaker 2: the reason why, but it was like he's been working
Speaker 2: out that character for a long time.
Speaker 1: You know, it would have been genius if they would
Speaker 1: have had Silverman and McCarthy out there like grabbing his
Speaker 1: arm and throwing the ball for him as if he
Speaker 1: were dead.
Speaker 2: It would have been great.
Speaker 1: That would have been pretty good. I think they call
Speaker 1: that meta these days, Yeah, they do, or metas already
Speaker 1: out it's like, so two years ago, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: twenty eight days later you saw that one, right, Yep,
Speaker 1: that one ends with Jim's Cilia Murphy's character dying in
Speaker 1: the original ending, and his people were going to rescue him,
Speaker 1: just like going back out to fight the zombies again.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: They are like, no, that stinks.
Speaker 2: I love this guy. Yeah, so they he recovers. Yeah,
Speaker 2: didn't end in like a field or a meadow.
Speaker 1: Or they're in the field and I think they see
Speaker 1: a plane.
Speaker 2: I'm sure. Danny bow is like, oh, you want a
Speaker 2: happy ending, Yeah, give you you're happy, stupid ending. Here's
Speaker 2: your stupid ending. Chi kuna, you stupid audience.
Speaker 1: I like the ending, though I don't.
Speaker 2: I like both.
Speaker 1: I don't mind a happy ending when it's done well.
Speaker 1: But I also like dark endings. Yeah, you know one
Speaker 1: of the It doesn't have to be one or the other.
Speaker 2: What about the opposite dark beginnings in un dark beginnings
Speaker 2: like with Sunset Boulevard.
Speaker 1: All right, go ahead and break it down. I don't
Speaker 1: know that one.
Speaker 2: Oh have you ever seen Sunset Boulevard. No, that's on
Speaker 2: my list as a classic movie for a reason. It's
Speaker 2: a truly great movie. But apparently at the beginning of it.
Speaker 2: Originally they had Bill Holden's Corpse, the character he plays
Speaker 2: corpse talking to other corpses in the morgue, explaining how
Speaker 2: he got there. Oh wow, and audiences were like, is
Speaker 2: this a comedy? Like what is going on here? Apparently
Speaker 2: a lot of people walked out and Billy Wilder, the
Speaker 2: director was there, yea, and some lady told him to
Speaker 2: his face that it was a steaming pile and maybe
Speaker 2: didn't know it was him or something like that. But
Speaker 2: the the legend goes that she told them to his
Speaker 2: face like this is terrible and so steaming pile. He
Speaker 2: reshot the beginning to where it's Bill Holden's corpse, but
Speaker 2: it's a voiceover and he's not talking to other corpses
Speaker 2: in the morgue.
Speaker 1: But it's not a comedy, right, it's not at all.
Speaker 1: Maybe because it was Billy Wilder, people had an expectation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I mean there's some parts that you wonder like,
Speaker 2: did he mean that to be like kind of funny,
Speaker 2: like in a really dark way.
Speaker 1: Maybe?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's quite possible. But great, I need to see that.
Speaker 1: I love Billy Wilder.
Speaker 2: You should watch it like tonight, doesn't matter the mood
Speaker 2: you're in. It doesn't matter what you got going on.
Speaker 2: Just you could watch Sunset Boulevard and be like, this
Speaker 2: is a great movie.
Speaker 1: Okay, Heathers, did you see Heathers? The regular ending? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry the yeah. The ending they went with was
Speaker 1: Christian Slater's character wants to blow up the school gymnasium
Speaker 1: during a basketball game, and Veronica what's her faces? One
Speaker 1: on a Writer's character shoots him dead, stops it and
Speaker 1: ends up bonding with the outcast girl. Yes, and the
Speaker 1: original ending and the script I don't think this was
Speaker 1: an I don't think it was shot. But she kills
Speaker 1: Christian Slater's character, straps the bomb to herself and blows
Speaker 1: up the school, and everyone has prom in heaven and
Speaker 1: like everybody gets along. The nerds and the geeks are
Speaker 1: all like living in harmony. Huh yeah, not bad. You're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I could see that. Blade Runner perhaps the most famous
Speaker 1: changed ending of all time.
Speaker 2: I had not heard that.
Speaker 1: Yes, you know, the original ending of Blade Runner was
Speaker 1: very dark, and that's the one that ended up in
Speaker 1: the director's cut, Ridley Scott's Director's cut.
Speaker 2: What was that in me?
Speaker 1: Basically that Harrison Ford is going to die, well that
Speaker 1: Rachel Ward is going to die because replicants have expiration dates,
Speaker 1: and is Harrison Ford a replicant or not? And I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure the director's cut leaves it ambiguous, even though
Speaker 1: I think Ridley Scott came out years later and said, yeah,
Speaker 1: he is a replicant.
Speaker 2: So in the in the audience tested version, he turns
Speaker 2: to the camera and says directly the audience, Nope, not
Speaker 2: a replicant.
Speaker 1: Not quite end, but they all that terrible voiceover narration
Speaker 1: was added, you know, in the non director's cut, and
Speaker 1: they had the happy ending with infamous blue Sky shot
Speaker 1: the Only Blue Sky, and the whole movie was then
Speaker 1: like driving down the road at the end and explaining
Speaker 1: the voiceover that, well, not all replicants have an expiration date.
Speaker 1: You're special, so you don't have one, so we can
Speaker 1: just live together in harmony. And that.
Speaker 2: Grave probably so.
Speaker 1: But that shot of the Only Blue Sky, it wasn't
Speaker 1: even from that movie. It was pulled from outtakes of
Speaker 1: the shining, the beginning car scene and the shining when
Speaker 1: they're driving up the road. So yeah, Blade Runner really
Speaker 1: screwed that one up, and really Scott, of course was.
Speaker 1: He was not so happy about that.
Speaker 2: I can imagine this masterpiece. And then somebody tax on
Speaker 2: outtakes from the movie. Yeah, weird bad. You got anything else? Nope, okay,
Speaker 2: I don't either. We could probably do this for a
Speaker 2: while though, because there's plenty of other movies that were
Speaker 2: changed thanks to audiences. But if you are ever in
Speaker 2: a line at a movie theater and somebody trustworthy seeming
Speaker 2: comes up to you and I A see you, if
Speaker 2: you want to be in a test audience, give it
Speaker 2: a shot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and big thanks to Mental Floss for all. A
Speaker 1: lot of that list stuff came from one of their articles.
Speaker 2: Yeah that's right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's all I got.
Speaker 2: And if you want to know more about audience testing,
Speaker 2: type those words in the search bart howstuff works dot com.
Speaker 2: And since I said that, it's time for listener mail.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this oceans are cool if I pay attention. Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: love the show. I used to listen every day when
Speaker 1: I rode the trains from Brooklyn and to Manhattan to work,
Speaker 1: But recently I started to work in Brooklyn close enough
Speaker 1: for me to buy too, so I don't write trains anymore.
Speaker 1: They're pros and cons for that. On one hand, I
Speaker 1: save over one hundred and ten dollars a month in
Speaker 1: MetroCard fees, don't have to wait for trains, which adds
Speaker 1: another twenty minutes to the Google Map travel times. On
Speaker 1: the downside, when it rains, it's tough the bike to work,
Speaker 1: although I am learning to love that. And the other
Speaker 1: con is that I don't have time to listen to
Speaker 1: you guys as much. Since it's very detailed. I'm paying
Speaker 1: attention is key if I want to enjoy the show
Speaker 1: and I need to keep my thoughts on the road.
Speaker 1: My commute is also down to fifteen minutes, which doesn't
Speaker 1: help much either. I need to reconcile this fellas. This morning,
Speaker 1: I tried to listen to The Ocean's episode while doing
Speaker 1: some work on my computer. Was it long before I
Speaker 1: knew I'd missed something critical. At some point, riptides were
Speaker 1: defined and laddered up to equatorial wins, a connection I
Speaker 1: recall from taking oceanography in high school. But I did
Speaker 1: not understand when I wasn't paying attention this morning. When
Speaker 1: I used to listen on the train, the show had
Speaker 1: my undivided attention. Now I'm trying to find a new
Speaker 1: time to listen. Maybe I'll save up shows and binge
Speaker 1: them on a nice long bike ride. And that is
Speaker 1: from Andrew negrosche nigrsh di gros Negros something like that. Interesting,
Speaker 1: I've never heard that name.
Speaker 2: Well, thanks a lot, Andrew. We appreciate you getting in
Speaker 2: touch with this. We hope you figure this out. This
Speaker 2: sounds like a terrible conundrum. Maybe just get a new.
Speaker 1: Job that requires Yeah, yeah, go work in Vermont.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go, a problem solved. If you have
Speaker 2: a problem that you want Chuck and I to solve
Speaker 2: for you, like we just did for Andrew, you can
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