The first pick is Bill Murray, a personal choice that may not be objectively defensible, based on his performance and cultural influence.
The second pick is Ted Knight, who had the hardest part while the others played their one character; if his villain is not funny the movie falls apart, and he still gets the biggest laughs.
Bill Murray is acknowledged as the one who got the most out of the movie, including Pebble Beach and 40 years of mileage.
Cases are raised for Ramis, whose first directed movie led to more classics, and for Chevy's iconic Ty Webb, though Chevy forfeits for returning in Caddyshack II.
Caddyshack II is debated: Jackie Mason replacing Rodney is reprehensible, Dangerfield reportedly could not agree to a contract, and Robert Stack is a bright spot.
Ted Knight is restated; a Rewatchables Twitter poll among Knight, Dangerfield, Chase and Murray is proposed.
Craig, called in, says he independently chose Ted Knight, thinking of "well, we're waiting", and is teased for brown-nosing.
The poll will be posted on the Rewatchables Twitter feed.
Michael O'Keefe is at Apex, coming off The Great Santini into the funniest movie of the year; with Tim Hutton he was a young actor to watch before Sean Penn's class eclipsed them.
Dangerfield's Apex is placed in the mid-80s with Back to School, when he became a draw, plus HBO specials breaking Sam Kinnison and Bill Maher; both participants agree.
Ted Knight: career-wise no, since Mary Tyler Moore is his Apex, but retroactively this became his legacy; Too Close for Comfort gets love.
Chevy Chase: no, he got it for Fletch; Bill Murray: no, though his six days of work are pure and golden.
Cocaine is argued as at Apex, before its damage was widely known and while it fueled the film's disjointed creativity; the other participant is uncomfortable placing it on the mountain.
Baby Ruth bars peak with Goonies instead.
Golf is argued for 1980, citing Jack Nicholas winning two majors, Tom Watson the British and a rising star taking the Masters; the Tiger Woods Mike Douglas appearance is checked; the reply is a hesitant "yes, I guess."
Robert Wagner is thrown out for Dr. Beeper, a pick called a heat check, with a joke about the timeline of his marriage to Natalie Wood.
Fifteen years later Dr. Beeper is Rob Lowe, "100%"; Lowe could even be Smales now, known to a new generation from Parks and Rec.
Ted Knight would never be recast; Harvey Corman (as transcribed) could have done the haughty part, Norman Fell would not be big enough, and Ted Danson would probably be Smales 15 years later, though it is a hard part to cast.
"Don't you have homes?"; "The world needs ditch diggers too"; boat christening speech; gas-chamber line; "How about a Fresco"; Billy Baru; "Well, we're waiting"
A special category is introduced for Ted Knight, going chronologically; the disdain of "don't you have homes?" to the poker players kills.
Other Knight moments listed: his reaction to Lacey's joke, "the world needs ditch diggers too", the hamburger exchange with Spalding and the boat christening speech with his shorts too tight.
"I've sentenced boys younger than you to the gas chamber" is read as revealing he is a complete asshole and sociopath.
"How about a Fresco" was a running joke in college; it is barely a joke, but every Knight line delivery is the highest level of comedy.
Cradling Billy Baru is insanity.
"Well, we're waiting" is called one of the biggest Twitter memes, the go-to gif whenever someone teases a scoop.
Per the quoted Ramis and Cindy Morgan recollections, Knight was a traditional script-following actor alienated by the improvising, and he was angry at the improvising around him; that real friction works on screen.
A possibly apocryphal story says Rodney did nothing when Ramis yelled action because he did not know it was his cue.
A 2020 equivalent of Knight is sought, perhaps David Hyde Pierce; he was a favorite character on that show, with good connection with Mary.
The category is hard because the movie is made of so many mini scenes.
Ty golfing with Danny ("You take drugs, Danny?" "Every day." "Good."), the kuder preference test and "Be the ball" are lights out; seeing Chevy Chase on a golf course in 1980 after his SNL run was a treat, and Danny caddying for Ty could run for an hour.
Some scenes, such as the Dalai Lama story, were held for What's Aged the Best, which causes confusion over what to spoil.
At the country club dinner Judge Smales's outfit is compared to a train-set locomotive, a Lego figure and a comic-book yacht captain.
Dangerfield's character rips off insults within about a minute: the steak with jockey marks, somebody stepped on a duck, and "now I know why tigers eat their young."
Ty meeting Lacey shows good chemistry; Spalding drinking half-finished cocktails recalls real teenagers who did that, followed by talk of accidentally drinking something with a cigarette butt in it and Spalding vomiting in the car.
The Baby Ruth pool scene is an all-timer that brought the house down in the theater, with nitpicks saved for later.
Ty and Lacey's date is five minutes of Fletch-style riffing: no listing for Mr. Wonderful, the Vietnam exchange, the uncle who molests collies, the coked-out "born to love you" song and the massage oil; the only nitpick is where the cocaine was.
Chevy crafted a new comic persona, the highest-level asshole you like, with no character interacting in a human way.
The Cinderella story is bunched with the bishop asking Carl to carry his bag and insisting on playing through the storm in the best game of his life.
The Cinderella speech is said to have been invented on the spot after Ramis pitched the rhythm of announcers at the end of a basketball game and told him to act like a six-year-old.
The bishop is Henry Wilcoxon, described as an iconic actor of the 1930s and 40s, a Cecil B. DeMille regular in Mrs. Miniver and The Greatest Show on Earth, in the high-level character-actor zone.
His last line was thought to be "rat farts" as lightning strikes, but he appears once more, drunk at the bar declaring there is no God; Carl walking away and dropping the bag is underrated.
Ty running into Carl ("cannonball") includes the Briar address exchange and "we have a pool and a pond; pond be good for you."
The final pick is the Smales kid picking his nose while the guys bet on it, which has made the speaker laugh from age 10 to 50, especially the double-or-nothing and "he was hungry."
The movie has every type of humor; the attendant who cleans shoes and gets mad at Ted Knight runs the action on the nose-picking bet.
Dangerfield's arrival with Wang is offered too: the hat on the mannequin that Smales is wearing, "worst-looking hat I ever saw", and "Wang, it's a parking lot."
None of the picks involve Danny, Denunzio or Maggie, even though theoretically that is the movie.
After wavering between the nose-picking and Ty running into Carl, the second pick is Carl and Ty together in Carl's place, likened to seeing LeBron and Steph teamed up in an all-star game.
Murray and Chase are said to have had animosity after a famous backstage fight before Chase hosted SNL, possibly why they initially had no scenes together.
