Night Shift

Prostitution chalkboard pitch

Billy's first scene, tape-recorded ideas, edible paper, office tour, and morgue introduction are proposed. Billy's card-counting story, tuna-mayonnaise idea, Clint Howard encounter, and unauthorized limo use are proposed. The second encounter with the boss's son, his Flintstones viewing, Billy's Atlantic City story, and Chuck's recorded rebuke are proposed. The subway Love Brokers pitch and breakfast with Belinda are proposed. Billy's chalkboard pitch to the women is selected as the leading rewatchable scene. The clothing montage is proposed as a characteristic 1980s sequence. The fraternity party is proposed chiefly for Kevin Costner's uncredited appearance and Clint Howard's freezer encounter. Billy's car, Operation Chuck, the Christmas party, Chuck's confession, Belinda returning to work, and the prison and lawyer-office confrontations are additional choices. The final ranked preference is Billy's car reveal first, the Flintstones-watching boss's son second, and the chalkboard pitch third.

Chuck's Rubik's Cube and solution guide

The illustrated ensemble poster is proposed. The sex-worker-with-a-heart-of-gold setup, Quarterflash theme, Burt Bacharach score, and Shelley Long haircut are proposed. Billy's dashboard Rolodex is proposed. Chuck solving a Rubik's Cube with a guidebook wins.

Chuck under attack, basketball, soundtrack, and comic asides

Chuck's repeated mistreatment by the dog, strangers, girlfriend, delivery man, and schoolgirls effectively sets up his eventual revolt. Mr. Carbone's repeated accusation that Chuck went over his head remains a reusable line. The rain-slicked alley basketball game and a bound man thrown through the hoop are praised. Richard Belzer's villain and the original That's What Friends Are For are praised. Chuck's mother using a séance to berate her dead husband and Billy's barbershop exit are praised. The Van Halen, Rolling Stones, Night Shift, Al Jarreau, Pointer Sisters, Talk Talk, and Burt Bacharach soundtrack is praised. The small asides, including reactions to Charlotte's photo and Lupe's pickle-girl history, are praised. Ron Howard's racially awkward SNL promotion is discussed as a period artifact.

The bound man through the hoop

The bound man thrown through the basketball hoop is selected.

Underwritten Belinda and implausible jobs

Belinda's reason for doing sex work is considered underwritten because the movie supplies no coercion, addiction, or economic explanation. Chuck's choice to leave investment banking for morgue work is also questioned. Charlotte is identified as an unpleasant and disposable character.

Sex-worker stereotype, smoking, Billy’s ideas, and Charlotte

The sex-worker-with-a-heart-of-gold convention is judged dated. Shelley Long's onscreen smoking is judged unconvincing. Billy's failure to notice Chuck and Belinda's relationship for months is questioned. Billy's supposedly original ideas are criticized as weak, already invented, or limited to Love Brokers. Charlotte's obsessive dieting is described as a dated portrayal. Chuck and Charlotte maintaining separate New York apartments while engaged is questioned on cost grounds.

Mr. Carbone; Henry Winkler

Mr. Carbone's furious complaint about being bypassed is proposed. Henry Winkler's threat to make Billy play tennis with God is an alternate.

Love Brokers

Stiffs is proposed as an alternate title. Love Brokers wins as the title that best states the central enterprise.

Modern movies need stronger sex-worker characters

Billy's chalkboard pitch is proposed as an inspiration for Alec Baldwin's sales speech in Glengarry Glen Ross. Vivian Ward, Lana, Ophelia, and Alabama are selected for a Mount Rushmore of film sex-worker characters. The principal take is that modern movies have not produced comparable sex-worker characters in decades. The ensemble of women at Billy's pitch is praised for representing a wide range of personalities.

Grand L. Bush

Joe Spinell and Vincent Schiavelli are ruled too recognizable for eligibility. The Paradise Found desk clerk, later Rick in Bachelor Party, is proposed. Grand L. Bush, later seen in Die Hard, is selected for the opening basketball game.

Mr. Carbone's nephew

Mr. Carbone's nephew wins for his brief Flintstones-watching scenes. Shannen Doherty as the Girl Scout and the opening basketball players are alternates.

No clear individual apex

Michael Keaton is rejected as at apex but his debut is treated as an extraordinary leap and his funniest film performance. Henry Winkler, Shelley Long, Ron Howard, and Barney Rubble are rejected as apex cases. Idea men and early-1980s entrepreneurial New York are considered plausible period apexes. Sex-worker comedies are assigned Risky Business rather than Night Shift. Morticians are assigned Six Feet Under; Jumpin’ Jack Flash is rejected.

Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks is selected decisively, while a hypothetical Tom Cruise performance as Billy Blaze is imagined as strained.

Night Shift 2: Assisted Living

A sequel would reunite Chuck and Billy in a Florida retirement community to arrange companionship for widowed residents. An all-Black remake is mentioned as a less-developed alternate.

Byron Mayo

Byron Mayo wins an imagined morgue scene praising Belinda’s poem and proposing a freezer-drawer encounter.

Michael Keaton

Michael Keaton is selected for the film’s one Oscar.

Billy's satin bomber jacket and tape recorder

Billy's satin jacket and tape recorder are proposed. Michael Keaton reportedly retained the jacket, strengthening it as the memorabilia choice.

No bad ideas in a brainstorm

Do not start a prostitution business in a morgue is proposed, then inverted into a lesson about recognizing opportunities. No bad ideas in a brainstorm is the final lesson.

Michael Keaton

Michael Keaton wins unanimously.