Michael J. Fox, Seth Green, and John Stamos are reported Jean Girard alternatives; Stamos is the one the panel can most readily imagine. — Craig Horlbeck
Tommy Lee Jones could play a blue-collar contractor; Dustin Hoffman offers a Kramer vs. Kramer callback but is judged too odd and insufficiently competitive romantically. — Mina Kimes
Cycling movies receive agreement, ahead of American Flyers; Quicksilver and other films are considered while discussing a possible cycling month.
Used cars and Daniel Stern are rejected, with Stern’s Home Alone, City Slickers and The Wonder Years period preferred.
Irritable Italians and the 1978 Masi Gran Criterium bicycle receive affirmative selections.
Peter Yates is initially rejected for Bullitt, then reconsidered because of this film’s Oscar success and unknown cast; no settled final answer emerges. — Bill Simmons
Hart Bochner is rejected in favor of Die Hard, with his directing of PCU also praised.
Indiana movies divide opinion between this and Hoosiers, with a tentative preference for Hoosiers. — Bill Simmons
Hard-to-find Blu-rays receive an affirmative nomination, illustrated by the expensive out-of-print Twilight Time release.
Villains named Rod receive an affirmative late Apex nomination.
The cast is largely considered untouchable; Sharon Stone and The performer transcribed as DeMorne (identity unresolved) are proposed for Lynette, with continued admiration for Lisa Blount. — Bill Simmons
A later-era Denzel Washington is proposed as an especially strong Foley, explicitly outside the original casting period. — Bill Simmons
Denzel's military filmography is recalled in support of the hypothetical Foley casting; A Soldier's Story and Adolph Caesar's sergeant are praised. — Bill Simmons
Nick Castle reportedly lost Hook to Spielberg, then lost Sleepless to Ephron after creative conflict, eventually directing Dennis the Menace the same year. — Bill Simmons
Internet casting lists are treated skeptically; Roberts turning down Annie is considered credible because she reportedly discussed it herself. — Bill Simmons
Demi Moore is an intriguing hypothetical Annie but is considered too feisty or controlled; Robin Wright likewise lacks Ryan’s daffy quality.
Bullock is considered too early in her career and Roberts too famous, potentially overpowering the film. — Bill Simmons
Ryan’s accessible appeal and relatability are defended as essential to supporting a character who stalks a stranger.
Ryan reportedly pushed for husband Dennis Quaid as Sam, but Ephron rejected the married pairing; the panel doubts Quaid could deliver the radio speech as effectively. — Bill Simmons
The original Jonah was replaced after days; an assertion that Hanks pushed the firing is qualified by his documentary recollection that Ephron fired the child. Ross Malinger's later car-sales work is reported secondhand. — Bill Simmons
The hosts say Pleasence was the third choice and that Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee both turned it down because the pay was too low; Lee, remembered as Dracula, would have been weird casting. — Bill Simmons
Cushing was coming off Star Wars; Star Wars and Halloween back to back would have been iconic. — Bill Simmons
The hosts describe Pleasence as having peaked as a Bond guy and being in The Great Escape, and say he hosted Saturday Night Live in 1981, is considered one of the weirdest hosts, and kept going through the sequels. — Chris Ryan
The hosts say Carpenter wanted Anne Lockhart, daughter of June Lockhart from Lassie, but she was in other stuff, so they went with Jamie Lee, whose mom was in Psycho. — Chris Ryan
The hosts say Dennis Quaid, then dating P. J. Soles, was supposed to be Bob but was doing another movie, and tell a screening story in which Quaid offers to fight a heckler. — Chris Ryan
The project began as Cheech and Chong joining the Army; Columbia preferred Dennis Quaid to Harold Ramis, and Kim Basinger was offered the role ultimately played by the actress the transcript calls P. J. Souls.
This discussion recalls a choice from an earlier episode.
Columbia preferred Dennis Quaid for Ramis’s role, and participation was made conditional on Ramis remaining in the cast. — Bill Simmons
Kim Basinger was offered the role ultimately played by the actress identified in the transcript as P. J. Souls; the offer fell through because Basinger’s agent requested what the panel calls a crazy amount of money. — Bill Simmons
The panel thinks Basinger’s star power and appearance would have overwhelmed the ensemble. — Brian Koppelman
Julia Roberts is rumored to have passed; one of the writers is quoted saying lots of big actresses passed, which a host believes he told BuzzFeed UK in 2015. A host thinks it is described as one of her most regrettable decisions, but the hosts doubt she was ever seriously considered. — Juliet Litman
The hosts say the Vanity Fair article reports Demi Moore was wanted, which would have been her first rom-com; she would have made it more serious and anxious. — Juliet Litman
The Washington Post oral history is cited for Davis passing, funny because she and Pullman were married in A League of Their Own; when the director signed on, Harrison Ford and Davis were attached and both backed out. — Amanda Dobbins
Harrison Ford would have been great, if more of a jerk and less believable as the spare brother. — Juliet Litman
The hosts cite the Washington Post as saying Dennis Quaid was rumored for Jack; a host speculates he and Meg Ryan shared representation. — Juliet Litman
Patrick Swayze, also mentioned for Jack, is a no: too much charisma for a reticent role, leading into a tangent about Dirty Dancing and Ghost. — Amanda Dobbins
Matthew McConaughey was reportedly a top choice for Jack until his Texas accent got in the way; a host calls it a hard yes and invents a Texas-family fix, noting the grandmother's British accent goes unexplained. — Amanda Dobbins
The hosts report Pierce Brosnan was rumored for Peter; his accent hardly matters since Peter is asleep, and Peter Gallagher plays a yuppie better than almost anyone. — Juliet Litman
James Spater (as transcribed) was mentioned somewhere on the list, probably for Jack, but a host thinks he should have been Peter. — Amanda Dobbins
The Jack role could have worked with several actors, which is a testament to the writing; Jack is probably the best-written character even if Bullock sells hers best. — Juliet Litman
The story came from George Nolfe's (as transcribed) spec script Honor Among Thieves, once set for John Wu (as transcribed), rewritten for the Ocean's characters, like the Simon Says script that became a diehard movie. — Chris Ryan
Peter Fonda filmed a scene as Linus's father that was cut; Bob Einstein (Super Dave Osborne, Marty Funkhouser) took the role in Ocean's 13. — Chris Ryan
Soderbergh is assumed to be a Curb fan, though it does not appear in his culture diary.
Movies referenced include The Sixth Sense, the Dennis Quaid film In Good Company and Miller's Crossing, with Johnson Turo (as transcribed) begging for his life. — Chris Ryan
The segment is announced as 'New category. The Joe Pantoliano Award' and named for Joe Pantoliano, which is why it is recorded under the existing Joey Pants that-guy family.
The award is for a then-that-guy who became a that guy or never did: Joe Pantoliano was Guido the Killer Pimp and the guy from the Cruisers movie for five years, then Running Scared, The Matrix and The Sopranos made him Joey Pants; the two nominees are Scott Glenn and Harris Ulan (as transcribed).
Harris Ulan (as transcribed) is a flat-out that guy: a hundred movies, almost always evil, usually the lieutenant or someone in the DA's or mayor's office, an amazing theater actor; the two performances burned in are the judge in Ghostbusters 2 and Mel Burstead (as transcribed) in Scarface, a role he has essentially played for 35 years, including a version of it here.
Scott Glenn's recognition of Hoyt as a strong safety from North Hollywood High is recited, and his one-shot character in the Apocalypse Now director's cut, painted and surrounded by Montagnard Indians at Brando's compound, is imagined coming back to the States to become an L.A. drug dealer who scouts high school defensive backs.
Why does Roger wear a black tank top tucked into jeans with a green bathrobe, drinking scotch at 10 in the morning, with a photographic memory for a player from 10 or 15 years earlier, before YouTube mixtapes, like the invention of Pro Football Focus; weird little flourishes like this elevate the movie.
Roger is understood as an ex-cop turned dealer, and there is a brand of cop really into local athletics who goes to high school games for no reason and asks about the quarterback, a provincial type who probably has a Letterman jacket from 1957.
The script had been banging around since the mid-90s and is based on the Rampart scandal, drawing on the Raphael Perez (as transcribed) case of cops stealing and selling drugs, with Alonzo modeled on Perez down to the beard and look.
Wesley Morris's 'there can only be one' market-correction game: Tommy Lee Jones market-corrected Scott Glenn; Glenn was the rival who sleeps with Debra Winger in Urban Cowboy, a weird film that has not aged well, while Jones was in The Executioner's Song with Rosanna Arquette, and they ran parallel through the 80s until The Fugitive and Under Siege made Jones a top-tier star and left Glenn to play Roger.
Glenn belongs to the early-80s generation of The Right Stuff, Silverado and Terms of Endearment whose careers were derailed by the mid-to-late-80s action boom; he took second-in-command roles in The Hunt for Red October, Silence of the Lambs as Jack Crawford, The Player, Backdraft and Absolute Power, grouped with Kline, Costner and Dennis Quaid.
Personal Best, Robert Towns's (as transcribed) directorial debut, is a weird film that has aged badly and incredibly well at once, with Glenn's character crazy and the two-athletes-falling-for-one-another premise interesting; it will never be on the show.
One voice thinks it has to go to Scott Glenn; another argues for Harris Ulan (as transcribed) because Glenn was already Scott Glenn, Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff, a known quantity 20 years earlier; Roger is called his best part, three great scenes, though the other would take Personal Best and The Right Stuff over it, and no single pick is settled.
Roger's football recall is riffed on: the game against Crenshaw, picking off two passes, going nickel in the third quarter, the safety blitz, all offered with scotch and a bathrobe.
Earlier, during the heat check, a nomination for Harris Ewan (as transcribed) was held for this new category.
