Half-Assed Internet Research
Failed 1990 NBC series; Blonde Goddess tape; Wiest and Steenburgen friendship; Florida location; Plimpton wig and mohawk; Helen Shaw’s final film; cast murder game; Martin’s late fatherhood
In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:35:39Read transcript
- Brought forward from internet research: NBC ordered a Parenthood series from a rough cut, per Bill Carter in The New York Times, and the 1990 show was canceled after twelve episodes.
- The 1990 series cast David Arquette and a young DiCaprio in the Garry role, part of a late-1980s wave of failed movie-based shows such as Ferris Bueller, Working Girl, Uncle Buck and Dirty Dancing.
- The later Parenthood series is considered good by those who watched early seasons; Friday Night Lights is an outlier because it reworked the premise.
- The Ferris Bueller TV show’s joke about a poster of Matthew Broderick playing him is recalled as hacky.
- The adult tape Helen finds was reportedly Blonde Goddess, a 1982 film whose opening parodied Indiana Jones.
- Dianne Wiest and Mary Steenburgen were reportedly best friends who worked as waitresses together at the Magic Pan before being cast as sisters-in-law; both won Oscars.
- The film is set in St. Louis but was shot in Florida, with palm trees and a Publix visible.
- Martha Plimpton dated River Phoenix for nearly five years and began the shoot bald from a prior role, wearing a wig until Ron Howard had her shave her head into a mohawk.
- Helen Shaw, who played the grandmother, made her final film here and died in 1997 at age 100.
- During filming the cast became obsessed with a Mafia-like murder game played through eye contact, including during the dinner scene.
- Steve Martin did not become a parent until age 67 in 2012 despite starring in two iconic parent movies of his generation.