A garbled passage concerns someone turning down Ice T's part; Michael Wright is named and would have killed the part, reuniting later for Sugar Hill.
Vibica A. Fox (transcribed form) auditioned for Selina and Keisha but did a 90210 episode that year instead; she would have been great as Keisha, as Set It Off showed.
The Vanessa Williams married to Rick Fox would have been a great girlfriend for Nino.
Allen Payne was a replacement: Orange Juice Jones was cast as G Money, filmed scenes and was fired, per research; his "Walking in the Rain" is called very 80s.
Tupac Shakur auditioned for G Money but was judged too young-looking to have grown up with Snipes.
Tupac could be both aggressive and vulnerable, as Birdie in Above the Rim; it would have been interesting, though Allen Payne was perfect.
A case that Tupac should have been cast, rewritten as the best friend's younger brother, and would have been better.
Heat check is tricky because nearly every character gets about a scene and a half; Robin Harris is a 'bay leaf' outside the plot, always with Frankie Faison and Paul Benjamin.
John Savage's scene in a Larry Bird jersey, stepping on Buggin' Out's new Jordans, is offered as the pick and as a potential rewatchable scene.
Savage's story that Larry Bird gave him the jersey through his sister is called apocryphal: per the hosts, Lee debunked it to Savage's face, saying he bought the shirt and gave it to costume designer Ruth Carter.
Challenged on picking a white guy, the picker is not scared: Savage's one memorable scene is a heat check moment.
Fight the Power appears in the film over 20 times and was written for it after Lee asked Chuck D for an anthem.
Other rundown items: the clash between generations and races, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee as the mayor and Mother Sister, and Spike Lee as a movie star.
Lee is not a good actor here but does not need to be; he gives a charismatic center, is not dead on screen, and this was essentially the last time he put himself at the center of one of his films.
Also listed: Danny Aiello's nominated powerhouse performance, Robin Harris as Sweet Dick Willie, Dickerson's color in the red wall and the rooms, Mr. Softee, and direct address to camera later borrowed by Wes Anderson.
Two things one host believes Tarantino took from the film: the 'shoot me in a dream' line that reappears in Reservoir Dogs, and the Sicilians-and-Moors idea from True Romance echoing Mookie and Pino's talk; Lee has never said this.
Asked what has aged best, the answer is the film's timelessness, perhaps the movie itself.
Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, who per one host never got fuller film careers for racism-related reasons, get a salty love letter here; asked whether they are the vote, the answer is the film instead.
Public Enemy is the other pick: the song never gets tiring, has perfect samples, and Chuck D's muscular, off-kilter voice cannot be mimicked, according to a participant who wrote rap criticism for almost 10 years.
The harmony with Flavor Flav is praised, while noting the history his image invokes and that he later complicated it as a reality star; the result is called 'your winner. Fight the Power.'
