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The Rewatchables ·

Broadcast News

year 1987decade 80sdirector James L. Brooksgenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Chuck Klostermanhost Chris Ryanhost Sean Fennessey
All 15 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 34:12

The blow-up in Aaron's apartment after Jane leaves the correspondents' dinner, or Jane confronting Tom about the faked tears

Six nominees are rattled off: the first time William Hurt anchors with Jane in his ear and Brooks on the phone, played as a clip of the F-14 dogfight interview; and the balcony scene where Hurt is asked by Aaron to name the cabinet members and stops with 'you're enjoying this, aren't you', also played as a clip.

Hurt teaching Aaron how to anchor, leading to the jacket trick, which one host used when he started doing Countdown on ESPN, thinking of William Hurt every time he sat on the bottom of his jacket; Aaron's television disaster, recalled as the bar of what not to do the first time doing PTI, your whole world ending on live TV; the big fight after the disaster between Jane and Aaron; and Jane confronting Tom about the video trick.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 1:19:41

"wouldn't this be a great world if desperation and security made us more attractive if needy was a turn on"

The list runs through the great world of desperation and security making us more attractive, risking a life for a network that tests faces with focus groups, what you do when real life exceeds your dreams and the answer to keep it to yourself, 'I buried the lead', 'I've never fought for anyone before', 'does anyone win these things', and 'congratulations on history's longest winning streak', which one host calls his favorite of all of them.

The film

Broadcast News (1987)

Directed by James L. Brooks · Drama

133 minutes

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Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

William Hurt Tom Grunick Kimber Shoop as young Tom Grunick

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

31:10

Roger Ebert's review
In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 00:31:10Read transcript
  • Ebert gave the film four out of four stars; the hosts say he nailed it and crushed this one, and admit they forgot to look him up for Reality Bites, which both Cisco (as transcribed) and Ebert mildly disliked.
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34:12

Most Rewatchable Scene

The blow-up in Aaron's apartment after Jane leaves the correspondents' dinner, or Jane confronting Tom about the fake...

The blow-up in Aaron's apartment after Jane leaves the correspondents' dinner, or Jane confronting Tom about the faked tears

In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 00:34:12Read transcript
  • Six nominees are rattled off: the first time William Hurt anchors with Jane in his ear and Brooks on the phone, played as a clip of the F-14 dogfight interview; and the balcony scene where Hurt is asked by Aaron to name the cabinet members and stops with 'you're enjoying this, aren't you', also played as a clip.
  • Hurt teaching Aaron how to anchor, leading to the jacket trick, which one host used when he started doing Countdown on ESPN, thinking of William Hurt every time he sat on the bottom of his jacket; Aaron's television disaster, recalled as the bar of what not to do the first time doing PTI, your whole world ending on live TV; the big fight after the disaster between Jane and Aaron; and Jane confronting Tom about the video trick.
  • Joan Cusack running the tape to the control room, the 'Bobby, Bobby, Bobby' scene, is added after being mistaken for part of the first anchor spot; the airport ending is called an iconic movie ending, and the no-one-wins aspect of the real ending, with the 'you could get fired for things like that' exchange played, is called a really bold choice.
  • The confrontation over the tears is called the most memorable scene and the clip night shows used at the time, even though it does not reflect what the movie is; one host would pick it for the five seconds when Hurt realizes what she is mad about, an authentic look of knowing someone is angry and not believing this is the thing.
  • Told he likes fighting in movies, the guest answers that he does and loves arguments. — Chuck Klosterman
  • The 'Bobby, Bobby, Bobby' scene is told from William Hurt's perspective: nobody stops to explain, it is all 'punch in 1145' and 'we're not going to make it', he thinks 'what have I gotten myself into' and then laughs because this is exactly where he wants to be; Holly Hunter's face acting could be a gif at any second, and the guy saying he does not think she is going to make it is a favorite bit.
  • The other favorite is Jane leaving the correspondents' dinner for Aaron's house and their crazy blow-up: a movie of great yelling, from Jane screaming through the Libya special report while Paul turns and says he did not realize she was this good, to the apartment, called some of the best, most authentic yet sitcom-y yelling ever; two hosts make it their vote, noting it runs about eight minutes, feels like one take, uses the apartment Brooks scouted so the camera could move with the characters, and holds the devil speech and the 'two people' line.
  • The devil monologue is played as a clip, with Craig asked to cue it: Tom, while a very nice guy, is the devil, who will be attractive and helpful, influence a great God fearing nation, never do an evil thing and just bit by little bit lower our standards, flash over substance, and get all the great women.
  • Albert Brooks is called polarizing: one host is in the take-it-or-leave-it camp, another calls him one of his heroes and among the most creative and influential people of the last fifty years, funny, sad, melancholy and angry at all times here, and assumes the drunk reading-and-singing bit at home was not in the script; the scene ends with him realizing her date fell through and saying 'it was good to see you, Jane' as icy as possible; the hosts declare themselves split.
  • Earlier, before the categories, the scene where Hurt tutors Aaron about reading the news is named a favorite by far, because it shows the tips and the narcissism he has trained himself with, illuminating something in his brain he could never write down, and a focused intensity about what reading the news is.
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43:27

What’s Aged the Best?

The theme of an unkillable media institution starting to die; Aaron as a proxy for the internet and his devil theory;...

The theme of an unkillable media institution starting to die; Aaron as a proxy for the internet and his devil theory; Albert Brooks's heart-clutch on the correspondents' dinner balcony; Nicholson's reaction to the salary line; Joan Cusack's 'except for socially' line; the Holly Hunter character and the too-smart/not-smart dynamic of all three leads; the news as a daily appointment rather than a constant presence; Albert Brooks's lookalike son; the kaleidoscope gift; Lois Childs's arc (as transcribed)

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:43:27Read transcript
  • The theme of an unkillable media institution starting to die has held up, lived through twice since; it is called the central problem of working in media, and it surprises one host that Brooks wanted to write a romance but also to grapple with a problem that still exists; Aaron is read as a proxy for whatever the internet would become ten years later, angry and clever.
  • Aaron's devil theory, the devil as someone we would not recognize who lowers our standards piece by piece, is a solid theory; Brooks's acting when he looks up at Jane waiting on the balcony at the correspondents' dinner and does the mock fall-back and heart clutch; Nicholson stopping and turning when told he could knock a million off his salary; and Joan Cusack's 'except for socially, you're my role model', played as a clip.
  • The Holly Hunter character in general has held up because anyone who has worked in media has met that person, from either sex, the one you want to tell to calm down and have a drink; all three characters hold up through the idea of the guy who is too smart to succeed and the guy who succeeds because he is not that smart, which happens over and over in life.
  • The sudden instability of media institutions is both what aged best and what aged worst; the real change is the centrality of news in life as a daily rather than constant presence: the staff gathered around the television for the Rockwell soldier-coming-home segment recalls a family oriented around the national news, local news then Dan Rather or Peter Jennings at 6:30, even as the movie treats Entertainment Tonight as something ominous; the news was something you waited for, which set the day's agenda, not a constant nattering in your ear. — Chris Ryan
  • The Libya special report, where everyone has to be pulled in from a dinner party, feels quaint now that network news always has someone ready; the hosts compare family news habits, Peter Jennings and ABC for one, Dan Rather for another, and Live at Five with Sue Simmons and Chuck Scarborough in Connecticut, a polished show from which one host learned a lot, better than the Boston versions.
  • Smaller items: how much Albert Brooks's son at the end looks like him; a kaleidoscope as the gift for a kid you no longer know; and Lois Childs (as transcribed), the anchor Hurt has the affair with and the lead woman in Moonraker, whose arc has her hook up with him and turn up in Alaska the next time we see her, after the great conversation asking Jane whether they are together.
  • Asked whether the film captures the 80s popularization of therapy, people articulating what they want in a way unlike the whiskey-soaked, cutthroat world of Network, the answer is that Brooks's humanizing writing makes you forget these are successful, erudite, upper-class people at the height of their industry, for whom Portland is a huge step down from Washington; they communicate in sophisticated ways because they are sophisticated people, which is easy to lose sight of when they seem like basket cases inside the workplace.
  • In eight years at newspapers and magazines, one participant found a large share of the married people in the office were married to each other, because when your identity is tied to your job there are things you can only talk about with people who do what you do; the scene where a third person asks whether anything is happening before asking someone out rings true, though now you are not really supposed to date anyone you work with.
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51:23

What’s Aged the Worst?

Dating inside the office; sending the Alaska anchor away to keep her from Tom; Aaron's dismissal of the date-rape seg...

Dating inside the office; sending the Alaska anchor away to keep her from Tom; Aaron's dismissal of the date-rape segment; Holly Hunter's hair and dress at the correspondents' dinner; her outfit and Tom's fiancée in the epilogue

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:51:23Read transcript
  • Workplace dating opens the category, with jokes that in twenty years everyone will work in a suit of armor and that the conversation should be preemptively cancelled for HR reasons; the near hook-up followed by Tom saying he will be working with her would be over in 2019 because she is technically his boss, whereas in the movie it makes the romance and love triangle more interesting.
  • With no internet in the 80s you met people at work, at a bar or at a party; a friend from ESPN told Jacoby on Libby's first day that he would marry her, and they did and have two kids; what has changed is not that people meet at work, which will never change, but the sensitivity and intensity around putting things out in the open.
  • The film is called less a love triangle than a mental-abuse love triangle; Hurt asking Holly Hunter whether anything is going on with her, yet never asking Albert Brooks, is noticed; sending the anchor to Alaska to keep her away from Tom would now read as a woman working against another woman and draw an HR suit, even though the Alaskan serial killer is a good story, and it is the one case where Holly Hunter's flaws hurt someone besides herself; one participant had not seen the film since about 1989 and had forgotten Nicholson was in it.
  • Aaron's dismissal of the date-rape segment, asking where the real news is, would not happen now, though it is what fake news meant in 1987 and Haley writes about the scene well; his own soldier-coming-home piece has syrup on it too, so he is just being a dick, and the hosts relish 'he really blew the lid off of Nookie'; the newsroom standard that you cannot show a guy tying his shoes unless he is naturally tying them means anything happening to one person is almost not news in that world.
  • Every iteration of news has a performative aspect: unless you stumble on an event in real time, the people you interview perform their memory and the reporter performs to compel them to speak, and television makes it acute with makeup, editing and music. — Chris Ryan
  • The movie is credited with seeing no wide chasm between what Hurt's and Brooks's characters do; the difference offered is motive, Hurt amplifying a story by putting himself and a signifier of emotion in it while Brooks simply wanting people to know what is important, countered by the view that Brooks is the same, insecure and wanting Nicholson to notice him, the lies we tell ourselves; dissolving the Rockwell picture over the returning soldier is called equally manipulative, because it is Hollywood and on screen.
  • Holly Hunter's hair and dress at the correspondents' dinner made one host's wife audibly gasp and yell at the television, though the short bob in the next scene looks great; her outfit in the epilogue was not great either; Tom's fiancée at the end puzzled one host while another called it a nice touch, since you can only picture a partner with you until you see them with someone else, and the easy layup would have been a 22-year-old weather lady named Victoria; discussion of the scene sent around is deferred.
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1:00:05

Casting What-Ifs

Debra Winger was cast as Jane and dropped out when she became pregnant; Sigourney Weaver, Judy Davis, Elizabeth McGov...

Debra Winger was cast as Jane and dropped out when she became pregnant; Sigourney Weaver, Judy Davis, Elizabeth McGovern, Christine Lottie (as transcribed) and Elizabeth Perkins were also considered

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:00:05Read transcript
  • Also considered for the Holly Hunter part were Sigourney Weaver, Judy Davis, Elizabeth McGovern, whom one host always kind of liked, Christine Lottie (as transcribed) and Elizabeth Perkins; Lottie would have been good.
  • Debra Winger was cast and got pregnant, forcing the production to remove her and scramble for replacements; one host doubts the movie works with Winger because he had too much history with her from too many 80s movies, whereas Holly Hunter was unknown to him, tiny, seemingly crazy and passionate, unlike any actress he had seen; Harrison Ford could be seen in the William Hurt role, and Luke Wilson is floated as a joke.
  • Brooks's search for a female heroine brought him to Debra Winger, who probably wishes she had waited nine months, since she would have been nominated again and the hosts would be talking about the Winger decade after Urban Cowboy, An Officer and a Gentleman and Terms of Endearment; Winger and William Hurt are two sides of the same coin, huge 80s stars a moderately interested 2019 moviegoer would struggle to place.
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1:00:05

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Jack Nicholson

Jack Nicholson

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 01:00:05Read transcript
  • Asked to define the award, the guest says it is who does the most with the least, and does not require the person to be a lunatic. — Chuck Klosterman
  • Lunatics are nonetheless often the winners because of the hosts' taste; the nominees are Jack Nicholson, Joan Cusack, Lois Childs (as transcribed) and the TV music composer guys; the minority pick is Cusack, one host going with her as memorable for how little she is on screen and for the Juergen Klinsmann slide under the filing cabinet.
  • One of the composer guys is Mark Shaman (as transcribed), among the most successful composers in Hollywood, who wrote all the songs in Mary Poppins Returns; the 'Big finish!' clip is played, and the scene is called the most sitcom-y of all time, proof the director made sitcoms.
  • Jack Nicholson is proposed as maybe the greatest Hitchcock performer in American movies, one who can take over films he is not the star of, as in Reds, A Few Good Men, Terms of Endearment and the Joker, and this is probably his smallest part ever, just reading the news and one office visit; one host makes him his vote for the award; it is a lost art Denzel Washington does not practice, though Cruise did it in Tropic Thunder, and Denzel should play Jessup if NBC stages A Few Good Men.
  • Nicholson's whole career has been like that, back to the small memorable role in the Fonda film; a second participant votes for him, making Nicholson the majority choice; sheer charisma carrying four weird scenes in a movie you are not important in is a category only Brando shares; De Niro in The Untouchables does not count because he is the bad guy; Nicholson's best scene is slinking away around the desk during the layoffs with no dialogue, something George Clooney could not do with the same impact, though Damon does it in Interstellar.
  • Late in the segment William Hurt's dad is raised as a Dion Waiters candidate, pretty good for being in Tucson; the host had him coming up later as a 'that guy'.
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1:05:57

Half-Assed Internet Research

Albert Brooks phoned James L. Brooks at 3 a.m. after seeing a CNN reporter sweat, creating the sweating scene; Nichol...

Albert Brooks phoned James L. Brooks at 3 a.m. after seeing a CNN reporter sweat, creating the sweating scene; Nicholson went unpaid at his own request; the sweating scene took 24 takes; Switching Channels (1988) flopped as a competitor; Brooks and Hurt ambushed Holly Hunter with an ad-libbed cab-ride alternate ending that was spoiled by a crew member

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:05:57Read transcript
  • Albert Brooks was watching CNN when a reporter he had never seen before or since began sweating badly; he phoned James L. Brooks at three in the morning to say Aaron had to start sweating, which became the sweating scene, with the makeup lady's 'Jesus' a highlight; Jack Nicholson was not paid for his role at his own request.
  • James Brooks made them do 24 takes of that scene, which he does not usually do, because he thought it was the key part of the movie and wanted it perfect; Switching Channels, made in 1988 with Kathleen Turner and Burt Reynolds, was almost a competitor, a critical and box-office failure that started a Kathleen Turner slide.
  • The alternate ending is on YouTube; Brooks told Premiere he was open to who Jane ends up with, and during the cab scene he and William Hurt planned to surprise Holly Hunter by having Hurt jump in and ad-lib for two minutes, trusting she would not break character, but a crew member gave it away by saying 'Bill' just before the roll; Hurt and Hunter later felt the movie should have ended that way, while Brooks himself felt it was not right.
  • Flagged earlier as stepping on internet research: the Holly Hunter character is based on a woman Brooks met in 1984 at the conventions who was dating two men who worked in TV at the same time; he never said who, and the hosts imagine a Deep Throat reveal after they die.
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1:13:24

Apex Mountain

Jim Brooks; William Hurt; Holly Hunter

Jim Brooks; William Hurt; Holly Hunter

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:13:24Read transcript
  • Jim Brooks is a yes: fully established as an A list movie director while already in the TV hall of fame and a year from taking a Simpsons meeting, the point of maximum leverage and juice, with the Simpsons humor already visible in the film; William Hurt is called indisputable on his third consecutive Oscar nomination, with the open question whether that counts for more than winning the Oscar.
  • This movie is allowed multiple apexes, a whole Himalayan range, since it is everyone among the main players; Holly Hunter is definite, because The Piano did not have the same lasting impact and this and Raising Arizona are her two best films, even though Raising Arizona feels closer to now.
  • Joan Cusack is questioned, with Say Anything in 1989 probably her peak and High Fidelity praised, before a hedged 'I guess this'; Bob Prosky is raised but not settled.
  • Earlier, her apex is deferred while noting a nice run ending in The Piano, where she wins the Oscar she did not win for this film.
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1:15:33

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

Bob Prosky (as transcribed)

Bob Prosky (as transcribed)

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:15:33Read transcript
  • William Hurt's dad, whose name nobody knows, is a candidate; it is Prosky time: Bob Prosky, one of the great mammoth actors, best in Thief, who moved from sinister in the late 70s and early 80s, basically Wilford Brimley in The Firm for a decade, to good grandpa here, with two great moments, taking Aaron out to tell him he will be laid off and answering 'I need to be alone' with 'okay, I'll join you', and telling Jane she is not as good as he is but must take the job.
  • An Evil Brimley reading of the layoff speech is done as a joke; the control-room man who loves William Hurt's compliments looks so much like Philip Seymour Hoffman and is identified as Christian Clementson (as transcribed) from Bad Influence with James Spader.
  • Joan Cusack is called undersold: SNL in 85-86, Broadcast News in 87, Married to the Mob and Working Girl in 88, Say Anything in 89, Men Don't Leave and My Blue Heaven in 90, a great five-year run; the award goes to Prosky.
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1:17:29

The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award

Albert Brooks yelling "You go to hell" in the apartment showdown; Paul, the executive played by a newscaster

Albert Brooks yelling "You go to hell" in the apartment showdown; Paul, the executive played by a newscaster

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:17:29Read transcript
  • The award is hard because the movie is so understated: people dial it up but it never feels like overacting, and any Holly Hunter crying scene would only qualify because of the way it has been memefied since. — Chris Ryan
  • One host does not feel there is any overacting in the movie, offering only Brooks's 'you go to hell' as she walks out. — Sean Fennessey
  • The showdown yelling is defended as an accurate reflection of losing your shit without being articulate, then slowing down and getting your lines together, as Aaron paces outside assembling the devil theory; it is compared to Saul Rubenek (as transcribed), and the 'get out of my house now, you go to hell' clip is played.
  • One candidate is Paul, the executive in charge of everything, played by a newscaster rather than a real actor, who does not match Nicholson in their scene; he is nonetheless part of the single funniest line, offering help to a laid-off man who replies that he hopes he will die soon.
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1:18:53

Picking Nits

The seven-year time jump is too long; Jane never smokes; the gazebo ending wraps things too tightly

The seven-year time jump is too long; Jane never smokes; the gazebo ending wraps things too tightly

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:18:53Read transcript
  • With the ending already covered, seven years still feels too long for the epilogue, four would do; Grantland started seven years ago, which felt like forever, though in that era a father could work at one newspaper for 25 years.
  • Why didn't she smoke? The character was dying to smoke, classic Diet Coke and cigarettes, and you could still smoke in the office in 87; getting into the cab with a cigarette and butts everywhere would have pushed it to the next level; Brooks must have been anti-smoking, or maybe Zerinsky (as transcribed) was not a smoker.
  • Flagged earlier for nitpicks: one host hates the ending of one of his favorite movies, weird and rainy, the gazebo and the jackets, Tom staying for one second then leaving, the 'I guess we'll be working together again' tidy wrap; it took seven more years for Tom to get the Nicholson job, which is believable, and Albert Brooks needed a kid old enough, so at least five years had to pass.
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1:19:41

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie

"wouldn't this be a great world if desperation and security made us more attractive if needy was a turn on"; "I can't...

"wouldn't this be a great world if desperation and security made us more attractive if needy was a turn on"; "I can't believe I risked my life for a network that tests my face with focus groups"; "What do you do when your real life exceeds your dreams?" "Keep it to yourself"; "I buried the lead"; "I've never fought for anyone before"; "Does anyone win these things?"; "Congratulations on history's longest winning streak"; "if you ever get restless in Portland, let me know"; "Except for socially, you're my role model"; "you can make it less brutal by knocking a million or so off your salary"

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:19:41Read transcript
  • The list runs through the great world of desperation and security making us more attractive, risking a life for a network that tests faces with focus groups, what you do when real life exceeds your dreams and the answer to keep it to yourself, 'I buried the lead', 'I've never fought for anyone before', 'does anyone win these things', and 'congratulations on history's longest winning streak', which one host calls his favorite of all of them.
  • 'If you ever get restless in Portland, let me know' is a dig that also congratulates; Cusack's 'except for socially, you're my role model' and the line about making it less brutal by knocking a million off your salary, followed by 'bad joke, I'm sorry', round out the list.
  • The Cusack line was first played as a clip during what aged best.
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1:21:09

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

Already made as The Newsroom; Sports Night is the closest show to the film

Already made as The Newsroom; Sports Night is the closest show to the film

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:21:09Read transcript
  • Asked whether it could be a ten-episode Netflix series, the answer is that it has already been made as The Newsroom, a Sorkin show about what if the news were the most important thing in the world; it was heavy-handed, though Broadcast News is heavy-handed too, and Olivia Munn's high-strung producer was hilarious.
  • The Newsroom is called one of the funniest shows of the last ten years, unintentionally, every episode funnier than the last until it got good at the end, which made it worse; Sorkin, on one host's podcast, said he had a pebble in his shoe writing it and never got an episode right, a line his own characters would say; the reason it should not be a show is that Broadcast News is three people in a room while Newsroom had ten with ABC plots, checking in on Alison Pill and Sam Watterson (as transcribed).
  • Death Patel (as transcribed) and Chris Messina get laughs just by being named in a wild cast; one host would still watch it every Sunday for twenty years without claiming it taught him anything about being human, the distinction between enjoying and good; it crammed Holly Hunter's character into nine or eleven minutes of Emily Mortimer, and the mistake was making Jeff Daniels, the William Hurt figure, the star rather than the Hunter figure.
  • The hosts wish more shows were that polarizing, recalling that two of them died on Vinyl Island; Sports Night is the show closest to Broadcast News, more modest with more space; Goodnight Beantown, a Boston show with Bill Bixby and the woman from The Incredible Hulk, did not work.
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1:24:39

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Did Holly Hunter's character die alone? What is the best movie of the 1980s?

Did Holly Hunter's character die alone? What is the best movie of the 1980s?

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 01:24:39Read transcript
  • Did Holly Hunter die alone in this movie? She says there's a guy, which one host thinks she made up and others put at two or three dates, since a woman who will not show a man tying his shoes unless he is really tying them would not lie about a relationship; she is successful, beautiful and smart, and the whole institution of marriage is driven by crazy people; leaving the correspondents' dinner is called crazy behavior by one host while the others disagree and say many people are drawn to that energy.
  • One host holds that she is a little too crazy, cannot sign up for the correspondents'-dinner exit, and would have been really mad if his date left the biggest night of the year in DC before they even went in. — Bill Simmons
  • The holdout is told this is a weird run after also disliking Troy from Reality Bites, and answers that he liked Troy as a character but would not have liked him or Holly Hunter's character in reality; he is teased as threatened by her and told to put on his suit of armor.
  • The best movie of the 80s splits into two strands, Die Hard, Aliens, Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. versus Broadcast News, Raging Bull and The Color of Money; this movie exemplifies the best of 80s movies with its zippy Bill Conti score, great performances, pitch-perfect writing, a solid two hours and five minutes and stakes that are high without anyone diving off a skyscraper; one host would answer Bull Durham or Aliens on other days but, forced to pick one, says Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  • Broadcast News is called a better movie than Raiders, but personal taste cannot drive the answer, and media people are as biased toward it as archaeologists would be toward Raiders; the 80s was the video-store decade of watching fifteen movies a hundred times each, Goonies, Ferris Bueller, Aliens, Predator, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard; the decade was weird, with Oscar winners that baffle now, and the first half of Full Metal Jacket is the best movie of the 80s but the second half is not.
  • The framework used for The Social Network is reapplied: how well made, acted and original the film is, what it meant culturally and whether its meaning changed, and how it aged, all of which Broadcast News passes; the 80s are called the weakest film decade of the last thirty years of the century, behind the 70s and the 90s with its independent boom, full of sequels and canonical films like Tootsie and Gandhi that seem bad now, so a top ten of the 80s is hard to fill with anything but personal favorites or films that dated immediately, because producers took over and sanded off the edges.
  • Empire's best of the 80s list is read: Raiders, The Empire Strikes Back, Raging Bull, Blade Runner, Back to the Future, Die Hard, Aliens, E.T., Spinal Tap, Evil Dead and The Shining, all big popular movies; Back to the Future is a good candidate that aged nicely and mattered; When Harry Met Sally is a specifically 80s mass-screen sitcom; Broadcast News was cribbed from every year after, in its love triangle, its distinct characters and its dramedy mix; Do the Right Thing is the most culturally significant film of the decade, left out of the conversation.
  • Hollywood runs a thirty-year cycle of down periods: the 50s studio musicals and melodramas, the 70s boom that producers then monetized, the 80s with Gandhi, Out of Africa and Chariots of Fire winning Best Picture, and now franchises and comic-book movies with The Shape of Water and Green Book winning while Black Panther or Get Out will be remembered; the purpose of the Oscars may be to be wrong in the present tense, since Citizen Kane losing is still meaningful and the right calls, like Gump, are forgotten.
  • The case for Broadcast News as best of the 80s gains support because every imitation since has gone down in flames, including James L. Brooks's own, each piece having to work like Jenga; Airplane is a dark-horse candidate, though 1980 films like The Shining, Raging Bull and Airplane feel like 70s movies, while Fatal Attraction and Die Hard define the 80s movie; decades start late, the 80s in music running 1983 to 1991 and the 80s in film from Fast Times to Reservoir Dogs, which is why The Silence of the Lambs feels less 90s than The Matrix.
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1:35:43

Who Won the Movie?

Holly Hunter

Holly Hunter

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:35:43Read transcript
  • Holly Hunter is named at once, in one of the toughest calls the show has had, because nobody can be substituted for her and the movie is not as good or the same without her; the same is felt about the Albert Brooks part, and he is called the biggest loser within the movie.
  • William Hurt can be removed from contention because Jeff Bridges could have played the part 95 percent as well; Brooks is the biggest loser because he gets neither the woman nor the job and tells her he loves her knowing it will make no difference, unlike Ben Stiller in Reality Bites, who thinks he should get the girl, and the character seems to feel she deserves the good-looking mannequin; he could not be replaced even though many would think they could do that role.
  • A case is made for Jim Brooks winning the movie, since this kind of film, a modern love triangle trying to say something, feels very 40s, a Cary Grant version or expert-level Neil Simon, and nobody had made one since the 70s, when people thought the form was gone.
  • Brooks is an original voice whose influences, Preston Sturges, Sid Caesar, Neil Simon, Woody Allen, 60s sitcoms and Norman Lear, are all visible at once, and Cameron Crowe spent the next fifteen years making his version after Brooks took him under his wing and produced his films; the Brooks case is acknowledged but the vote goes to Holly Hunter, a performance and character unique to her, helped by her height, since only a five-foot-one actress like Kristen Chenoweth (as transcribed) or Linda Hunt could substitute; the closing joke is that the audience is the winner.
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The film, from 1987, is introduced as timeless, almost perfect after 32 years apart from some dated fashion, with the ending saved for last; the guest, back after Reality Bites where it became clear he had never listened to the podcast, says he now knows the format and is prepared to hammer the rubrics.
Approx. transcript time · 00:01:36Read transcript
It is definitely a top-100 screenplay of all time with a case for best movie of the 1980s, worth breaking down, and a trifecta movie with all three leads at the height of their powers.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:35Read transcript
Rocky 3 is offered as a reminder of what else the 1980s produced, and waved off as fine.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:52Read transcript
The tone is the thing: extremely well written, funny at times but not strictly a comedy, with parallels to the three-way relationship in Reality Bites.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:52Read transcript
A movie that seems tied to how media was at one specific time applies to media throughout time, as recently as that week's layoffs; in news and media your work and personal life fuse, the people you work with can be the most important people in your life, and Jane feels constantly plugged into life-or-death stakes.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:27Read transcript
Jane and Gordon Gekko, both from 1987, are argued to be the two most important characters of the 80s, two sides of the alpha-decade coin; Brooks wanted a strong female lead as feminism put women in positions men had held; the hosts wonder whether Jane is the only character based on a real person, finding a little Peter Jennings in Hurt's undereducated, ladies'-man anchor and a Cronkite-like role for Nicholson, who also cuts twenty seconds as editor-in-chief.
Approx. transcript time · 00:05:06Read transcript
The star power stands out, with Nicholson strolling in for a couple of scenes, listed only in the end credits and never used to sell the movie, his second film with Brooks after Terms of Endearment; if Holly Hunter does not work the movie is in trouble, and one host remembers not knowing her at all before this, tiny, seemingly crazy, awesome and passionate.
Approx. transcript time · 00:07:32Read transcript
Holly Hunter's 1987 with Raising Arizona is one of the great years; she has since become an amazing character actor, and Jane reminds the hosts of people in their lives who are a little too into the work; her diminutive size works for her, like Chris Paul in the paint, always looking up at a William Hurt who seems six-five, a parallel to working her way up; everyone laid off is a white guy except Joan Cusack, and the newsroom has basically two women.
Approx. transcript time · 00:09:07Read transcript
William Hurt's career is recited: Altered States, Body Heat and Eyewitness as his first three films, all leads; five Best Picture nominees in a row from The Big Chill to The Accidental Tourist, three Best Actor nominations and the win for Kiss of the Spider Woman, a Brando-like concentrated run; then he turned down Misery and Jurassic Park, the parts got weird, and Nicolas Cage, with Moonstruck and Raising Arizona in 1987, took over the handsome-eccentric lane.
Approx. transcript time · 00:11:00Read transcript
Jeff Bridges is offered as the market correction, with Hurt imagined in The Vanishing and Blown Away, and Kevin Costner's career as tied to his, Field of Dreams in particular; Hurt is notoriously difficult, intellectual, strange and chilly to work with, still active in the Marvel films and great on Damages, but no longer in the leading-man conversation with Costner, Harrison Ford and Michael Douglas; his impotent drug addict Nick in The Big Chill is a favorite, and the Broadcast News part is hard because Tom must be dumb yet cagey smart and read the news convincingly.
Approx. transcript time · 00:13:11Read transcript
Would you lop off the three childhood scenes? Two hosts would, calling them the most 80s part, along with the epilogue; the defense is that they tell the audience the way you are at eight is the way you are forever, that the film is basically a great dramatic sitcom whose prologue sets the tempo, and that without them you would need a scene humiliating Tom to establish that he is attractive and not smart; made today, they would certainly be cut.
Approx. transcript time · 00:16:21Read transcript
The film hews closely to the three leads' perspective and never goes anywhere they do not, essentially people in a room deciding how to report something, even for the jungle, the bus station and the Libya special report; a film made now would send someone to the air base in Sicily, but Brooks wanted the dialogue; he said in an interview the Albert Brooks apartment was the most important scene and scouted forever for a place where the camera could follow the characters from kitchen nook to living room.
Approx. transcript time · 00:19:02Read transcript
Jim Brooks's IMDb is called the most staggering: writing for every relevant 60s show, creating The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, Lou Grant and Taxi, writing Starting Over, Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News and As Good as It Gets, producing Big, Say Anything, The War of the Roses, Jerry Maguire and Bottle Rocket, then The Simpsons; he is also a Clippers fan.
Approx. transcript time · 00:20:33Read transcript
Brooks interviewed Susan Zerinsky (as transcribed), the model for Holly Hunter's character who now runs CBS News, and so many people that everyone thought the movie was about them; his success bought him years of research between films, four years apart; the Gaddafi plot was a timing risk after the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing, with a war in 1987 not unthinkable; Albert Brooks's balanced Gaddafi read is noted; Brooks wanted a story heard from three or four people before using it; Haley's Ringer piece on the making of the film is recommended, including Leslie Stahl telling Zerinsky she was an idiot for brushing Brooks off at a convention.
Approx. transcript time · 00:21:31Read transcript
Brooks cared about what would happen to news, which was apparently a topic then; Network ten years earlier carried the anxiety that comes to pass here, whether news can make money and truth versus show business, with the layoff scene the heart of it; Brooks the news junkie had also pulled Lou Grant out of a sitcom into an hour-long drama, imagined as a Joey Tribbiani HBO spinoff.
Approx. transcript time · 00:24:46Read transcript
Holly Hunter's run ends with the Oscar for The Piano, not this; the film was shut out at the 1988 Oscars, where The Last Emperor took Picture and Director, a Bertolucci make-good twenty years after The Conformist; 1987 also had Moonstruck, Wall Street, The Untouchables, The Princess Bride, Raising Arizona and Full Metal Jacket; Cher over Hunter is a toss-up, Connery over Albert Brooks splits the room, and Brooks's Drive snub in 2011 is read as a failed make-good for this year.
Approx. transcript time · 00:26:20Read transcript
Broadcast News got seven nominations, including editing and Michael Ballhouse's (as transcribed) cinematography, but Brooks was not nominated for director, read as a whiff of 'you're a TV guy', with Moonstruck nominated for screenplay over them; Michael Douglas over Hurt is accepted as an iconic character; Fatal Attraction, nominated that year, is proposed as a rewatchable that encapsulated the fear of a partner going insane and started the 'from hell' movies, making this the anchor from hell; Brooks's quote that feminism was happening and he went looking for a heroine; a $15 million budget made $67 million with 98 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Approx. transcript time · 00:28:14Read transcript
Watching now, the film deals with the concept of fake news, which has existed forever under other names: then it meant soft personal stories or manipulated information rather than lies, as when Albert Brooks dismisses the date-rape piece as a personal experience, not a social problem; a film cannot aim to apply to media over time, yet this one was accidentally prescient.
Approx. transcript time · 00:31:25Read transcript
A Nicholson tangent asks whether he is running out the clock rather than inviting a career retrospective, since any New Yorker piece would have to approach problematic parts of his past, including the Polanski incident at his house; he is 81, purposefully retired nine years ago, and his last movie was Brooks's How Do You Know, which is really bad; one host would love to know what he has been offered in the last ten years.
Approx. transcript time · 01:04:13Read transcript
The alternate cab-ride ending, in which Hurt jumps in, makes a huge pitch and they make out, is described for listeners; the guest, who had never seen it until that day and whose view of the acting is later credited to him by name, would never have cut it, because the acting is amazing and Tom's line that he can learn what he does not know while nobody can teach him what he does know is an insightful characterization; it is a better ending, but chopping up a movie this good feels uncomfortable, and some prefer that Jane ends up with her job, which is more realistic.
Approx. transcript time · 01:07:04Read transcript
Both endings could have been used, the cab moment then the years-later reveal that they went separate ways, though neither would have tested well; the real ending is called an all-time downer, with one host stopping the movie when she is in the cab; a Michael Clayton or Graduate ending of her alone in the cab is floated, and giving up on directions to the driver is a good moment that the alternate ending would lose; a joke ending has her adopting a cat and buying cigarettes; the film arguably has two good endings, neither classically satisfying, and the unfinished alternate scene has such intensity you believe they could not quit each other.
Approx. transcript time · 01:09:14Read transcript
Asked, one host confirms he did stay with the person he dated in his early twenties, though they did not meet at a network news job.
Approx. transcript time · 01:10:52Read transcript
A hypothetical ending is proposed in which Albert Brooks tells Holly Hunter to go back and watch the tape, she is upset and then decides she does not care and would rather be with Tom than keep that sense of credibility; the objection is that criticism now reads individual character decisions as the creators' endorsement, as with Lady Gaga's intentionally bad SNL song in A Star Is Born, so it would be read nihilistically as 'she gave up' or 'he broke her'.
Approx. transcript time · 01:12:19Read transcript
The sign-off: the movie is on all the streaming services, the host will attach a clip of the deleted scene as a reply to the episode tweet, and the three others are thanked by name; next week's film, The Natural, was announced during the mid-roll.
Approx. transcript time · 01:39:06Read transcript