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Michael Eisner

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Ordinary People The Rewatchables
Ordinary People

Half-Assed Internet Research

Paramount greenlight; refilmed Sutherland scene; banned-books ranking

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 01:35:44Read transcript
  • Paramount's Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg did not like the project, but Barry Diller did, so it was made; this is compared with doubts at The Ringer about launching The Watch. — Bill Simmons
  • Redford's version: Sutherland's big late scene felt too much, they reviewed it together, and Sutherland agreed to reshoot it. — Bill Simmons
  • Sutherland's version: he felt humiliated watching dailies, told them he had overdone it, and Redford called three months later to redo it, standing in for Mary Tyler Moore. — Bill Simmons
  • One host chooses to believe Sutherland because Redford is an unreliable narrator. — Bill Simmons
  • Sutherland is likely self-regarding too, so the truth may never be known. — Sean Fennessey
  • The book ranked 52nd among the most challenged books in schools and libraries, per the figure read on air, just ahead of American Psycho; it is likened to 13 Reasons Why for its depiction of suicidal ideation and depression. — Bill Simmons
Beverly Hills Cop The Rewatchables
Beverly Hills Cop

Half-Assed Internet Research

Michael Eisner and Don Simpson argued over who originated the idea until Simpson died; Gilbert Hill was a real Detroit detective; the theme reached number three on the Billboard chart; a 2013 CBS pilot with Brandon T. Jackson as Axel's son failed; Eddie improvised much of an Oscar-nominated screenplay

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:06:04Read transcript
  • The origin is claimed by Michael Eisner, who on a podcast with the host told the story of a 1975 speeding ticket from a cop who seemed a bit of a dick gave him the germ of a movie about a Hollywood police officer; Don Simpson, who worked for him, had a 1977 idea about an East LA cop transferred to Beverly Hills but could not get a screenplay done; Eisner's lesson that being pulled over in a beater meant he needed a Mercedes-Benz is called the most privileged thing ever heard.
  • Nobody planned on a black cop, so it is a high-level irony that a what-if-Stallone, pride of Italian Americans, vehicle became salient commentary neither Eisner nor Simpson intended; Simpson had just made Flashdance, and the two argued about the origin until Simpson died.
  • Gilbert Hill, the Detroit police lieutenant, was an actual Detroit detective who appeared in only three movies; 48 Hours is suggested as the first instance of giving the lone black character in a movie the most powerful job with 30 seconds of screen time, a pattern that kept happening.
  • The theme to Beverly Hills Cop reached number three on the Billboard chart, with Neutron Dance, The Heat Is On, Stir It Up and New Attitude also in the film; in 2013 The Shield creator Shawn Ryan tried a Beverly Hills Cop TV show, a CBS pilot with Brandon T. Jackson as Axel Foley's son that did not work.
  • Writer Daniel Petrie and director Martin Brest carried pieces of different screenplays; according to Petrie, Eddie would take a line, expand it and put it in a comic persona invented for the moment, and according to Brest, whenever they got in a jam he asked Eddie for something and it knocked him to the floor; the movie was nominated for best screenplay though Eddie improvised about two thirds of it.
48 Hrs. The Rewatchables
48 Hrs.

Casting What-Ifs

Clint Eastwood and Richard Pryor nearly made it in the late seventies; Jeff Bridges turned down Jack Cates; Gregory Hines was the first choice for Reggie; Sylvester Stallone and Burt Reynolds reportedly turned down Jack Cates; the studio nearly fired Eddie Murphy days into the shoot

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:25:55Read transcript
  • In the late seventies the film almost happened with Clint Eastwood and Richard Pryor until Eastwood did Escape from Alcatraz instead; that version would surely be far less racist and would become a Richard Pryor movie in the Brewster's Millions or Stir Crazy mold, probably sillier, and Pryor was coming apart on sets then, setting himself on fire in what the hosts date as 1982.
  • Jeff Bridges turned down Jack Cates because he did not want another cop movie; nobody could be better than Nolte, though a method Bridges putting on twenty pounds and going dark might have been pretty good, and Nolte is still permanently Jack Cates in a way an Ed Harris version would not have been.
  • Gregory Hines was the first choice for Reggie and dropped out to do Cotton Club, prompting a Running Scared tangent: a total 48 Hours ripoff in which Hines is really funny, and whose Florida Keys stretch with Michael McDonald is the movie one host wanted the whole time; Hines would have been pretty good, obviously not Eddie Murphy good.
  • Sly Stallone and Burt Reynolds allegedly both turned down Jack Cates, the kind of claim attached to every movie of the era; Reynolds could have taken the part to a bad place and might have ruined the movie, though Longest Yard-era Reynolds was good in tight roles like this.
  • Earlier, the studio nearly fired Eddie three or four days into the shoot because they did not think he was funny enough, with Michael Eisner running Paramount; called a good what-if that would have been a bad decision.
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