Half-Assed Internet Research
Stage adaptation; financial success; casting changes; production anecdotes; locations; advertising; deleted kiss; dance heat
In the discussion (26)
Approx. transcript time · 00:22:25Read transcript
- Sandy was made Australian after Newton-John’s attempted American accent did not work; the decision is praised as sensible casting adaptation.
- Jacobs and Casey’s 1971 musical went off-Broadway the following year; Carr reportedly bought the rights for$200,000 after waiting for them to lapse and brought them to Stigwood.
- Grease is described as the highest-grossing musical at release, with a$6 million budget and$366 million gross excluding later ancillary revenue.
- The soundtrack is said to be 1978’s second-biggest album and still among the twenty biggest, with Hopelessly Devoted to You earning the film’s song Oscar nomination.
- Travolta reportedly demanded Greased Lightnin’, which belonged to Kenickie in the stage musical, leaving Conaway upset.
- Conaway’s back injury during filming is linked in the discussion to his later drug addiction.
- A 2016 Vanity Fair account is cited about Conaway’s relationships with extras and activity in his trailer.
- Channing is said to have received actual hickeys from Conaway for realism.
- A relationship with the performer playing Patty Simcox is also recalled.
- Carr’s original treatment reportedly made Danny a busboy and gas-station attendant with a number called Gas Pump Jockey.
- Paul Lynde was proposed as principal, including a Carmen Miranda costume scene.
- Mark Fidrych was proposed as the school baseball hero.
- Donny Osmond was proposed as Teen Angel.
- The Beach Boys were proposed to perform Greased Lightnin’.
- Sandy’s Australian identity is contrasted with the stage musical’s Polish-American Chicago character, creating adaptation-related plot questions.
- Newton-John reportedly accepted a lower fee in exchange for equal star billing.
- Kleiser reportedly moved the setting from Chicago to Philadelphia and objected when the Gibb theme song was imposed.
- Newton-John was reportedly sewn into her leather trousers after the zipper broke.
- Spanx founder Sarah Blakely is said to have bought the trousers at auction.
- A deleted Rizzo–Kenickie argument before the diner scene is described by a crew member as grittier, with a Scorsese comparison treated skeptically.
- The opening beach is identified as Leo Carrillo State Beach and the school scenes as Venice High School.
- The drive-in scenes were at the now-closed Burbank Pickwick Drive-In, and the carnival was at John Marshall High School.
- Coca-Cola signs reportedly had to be blurred because Pepsi sponsored the film.
- A removed closing kiss survives only in black and white, preventing the director’s hoped-for restoration.
- Conaway reportedly became tongue-tied around Newton-John and later married her sister Rona.
- The dance contest was reportedly filmed in extreme summer heat without air conditioning.