The Director's Chair Network

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[Applause] in this neighborhood this is an
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emergency he's out of school for the summer where people cherish peace and quiet you won't get a moment of peace
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there lives a kid named Dennis hey Mr wilson
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i'm sick i won't f for you George hi Mrs wilson is Mr wilson here doesn't Mr
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wilson get up real real early you should lay you know what I do my dad's asleep
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he doesn't want to be mr wilson mr
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wilson he feels warm you need an aspirin
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[Music]
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now John Hughes brings one of your all-time favorite cartoon characters to life smile
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for a whole new generation to discover don't embarrass me
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you'll love Mr wilson that kid is a menace mrs wilson the Mitchells Margaret
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we could bury you alive i can pound you a steak joey switchblade Sam and a
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menace named Dennis kids are kids
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you have to play by their rules you have to roll with the
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punches you have to expect the unexpected [Music]
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dennis the Menace that's me america's classic kid in a classic American comedy
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directed by Nick Castle a John Hughes [Music]
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production hello hello i'm Katie and this is RetroMade your pop culture
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rewind now today we're going to go back only to 1993 today to revisit Dennis the
Dennis the Menace Overview
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Menace the classic comic strip troublemaker who comes to life with non-stop chaos i have a brand new guest
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that I'm thrilled to introduce you all to Amy Lewis of the Pop Culture
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Retrospective podcast it's a show that I could not relate to more it very much
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speaks to me Amy so welcome to RetroAde please tell us about you and your show
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all right well thank you so much for for having me on your show i really appreciate it you know us podcast women
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with you know radio ready voices really need to stick together and I think that you certainly fall into that category so
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yes so my show is the Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast good job pronouncing that sometimes people have a
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hard time it's a little bit of a a tongue twister at times but um yeah I started a shows about five years ago now
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um which is just crazy so in May it'll be five years and I started the show about a year after my sister
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unfortunately uh passed away very tragically she had a long um unfortunate
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battle with significant mental health issues and so unfortunately that um ultimately you know played out in an
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unfortunate way but taking sort of that grief and trying to take a positive spin
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on it i decided to channel my grief into um kind of reminiscing about my
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childhood and teenage years growing up with my sister because we loved watching movies together listening to music
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together talking about the toys that we had as kids reciting lyrics to Rainbow Brite
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songs together so I thought instead of sort of sitting and feeling horrible
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about all this which I mean of course does happen I decided to just think about times in our lives that were
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really fun and hilarious and our generation is sort of notorious for just really amazing uh pop culture that is
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funny diverse corny cheesy profound and everything in between so yeah so I've
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been on this journey now for almost 5 years and it's been absolutely incredible and I had no idea what I was
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getting myself into when I started this podcast but I'm still doing it and loving it and getting to meet so many
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incredible people and it's just pretty amazing that something so meaningful and positive and special
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and unique has come about because of this unfortunate situation in my life so
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thank you for letting me be on the show oh my gosh you you couldn't have said it
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any better i just want to kind of reiterate that you know well first of all congratulations on 5 years that's
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Thank you yeah i can't believe it yeah and second of all I think you it's the show is really good like the quality of
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your content and you know your sense of humor and little dry a little sarcastic
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and I love it and but and you always honor your sister with the shows it's just a wonderful balance of memories and
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like you said you turning something really unfortunate into something positive so I highly recommend you all
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check out Pop Culture Retrospective with Amy oh well yes thank you so much yeah
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thank you for Yes and before we before we get into the time capsule of 1993 I
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wanted to share with you all a book that was recommended by a listener Jen H
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thank you so much for your recommendation i had to put it on my list at the library and it's here it is
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called You couldn't ignore me if you tried the Brat Pack John Hughes and
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their impact on a generation by Susanna Gora oh nice it is the book now I
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haven't started it yet the back but you know I'm a big fan of The Handy Dandy Library yes and um so I'm going to dive
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into this you guys and so be on the lookout for some tidbits in future episodes nice oh that'll be Yeah that'll
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be a great read i'm not I'm not familiar with that book so I bet that's that's going to be a good one i wasn't either
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and this whole season is about John Hughes so again thank you Jen for your recommendation all right Amy are you
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ready to you know spin this pop culture retroade time capsule wheel yes I am i
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always like to say that it'd be nice if I could remember you know what the Constitution consisted of or you know
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which president was number 10 but I don't remember that kind of stuff but I do remember a lot of unnecessary stuff
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from my childhood and adolescence so we'll see if that proves to be correct useless trivia is my favorite kind of
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trivia all right can you see the wheel Amy i can yes i'm I've I've listened to said wheel on the show and so I'm really
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excited to actually see said wheel in person all right hopefully hopefully we
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get some good ones the first category we come upon is prime time rewind okay
1993 Pop Culture Trivia Wheel
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okay so these are the top five prime time TV
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shows from 1993 okay I have some clues but do you have any guesses
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before I give you any clues let's see i think I would have some guesses yes um
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I'm trying to think 1993 i think she had ended so that would have been you know
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very high up there i'm trying to think 1993 specifically i'm going to say Cosby
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Show nope oh okay i think that probably ended
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just a little bit smidge okay yeah yeah okay yeah seinfeld seinfeld is number
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three okay man why am I drawing a blank
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1993 suburban sarcasm suburban sarcasm
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it's a It's a an auto city it's set in an auto city home improvement home
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improvement okay i was I was was like thinking 1993 cuz I think sometimes there's like these things are on the cusp and it's like was that like 96 or
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91 you know so anyways yep yep let's see roseanne roseanne yep yep yep okay and
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we have one set in Minnesota the Coach coach and the number
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one is not a sitcom okay it's a very
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serious show investigative journalism
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okay 1993 it's got a very iconic opening
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mhm uh this is book I'm trying to think it says CSI but I feel like that started
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after that it's It is uh It's non-fiction okay h I'm trying to think
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it's not Unsolved Mysteries is it you're getting You're getting warmer give up i
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think so because I never watched a lot of like serious stuff or scary stuff and still to this day I'm a bit very skittish so it's 60 minutes i wanted to
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do tick tick tick tick tick tick tick but yeah you kind of forget about that kind of a show when you're when you're
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kind of talking about but that was number one show prime time 60 Minutes man i think that's usually when I was
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like ah time to go to bed yeah same i would that was not my jam in 93 right when Andy Rooney came on and complained
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about something I'm just like I'm done i'm going to bed good night all right the next category is Return to Toon Time
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this animated series which debuted in 1990 1992 but was incredibly popular into 93
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followed a group of mutant superheroes who dealt with both personal challenges and powerful
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enemies all while exploring themes of prejudice and acceptance what was the name of this show
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okay is it is it Teenage Mut Ninja Turtles or is it Mighty Morphin Power Rangers you're close oh it's X-Men the
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animated series oh which I was like super into yeah I was not I've never seen that one yeah interesting i guess I
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guess I didn't pay attention to the whole prejudice thing cuz I was probably a little bit too naive to pick up on any
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funny revisiting things all right let's let's let's do another category here
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big screen time machine so this is box office the top five movies at the box
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office mhm for 93 yep let's see any
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guesses off the top of your head before I start with clues the Yeah I think I might I think I might need clues
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so Prehistoric Creatures Roared jurassic Park very good very good which
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I like to tell a fun story about Jurassic Park that which is not that great of a story but anyways I don't
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know how we ended up agreeing to all go see it in the movie theater but like both me and my mom are like I said
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skittish fearful don't want to watch anything stressful or like people dying or people getting injured but in
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Jurassic Park you know there's dinosaurs constantly coming out trying to attack people and my mom kept like digging her
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fingers into my arm the whole movie and by the end of the movie my arm was like
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completely red and like irritated cuz she was so scared and I was like so scared I wasn't even paying attention
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and she likes to likes to deny that this happened but it did oh my god what like
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she's making your child at this time that's like child abuse i know i know call DHS what's the statute of
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limitations is it 31 years is that too long yeah so it was very scary at the time and those special effects hold up
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pretty well they do i actually really like Jurassic Park i don't remember it being that scary but great movie great
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movie definitely okay that that was the number one so good guess yeah yeah but
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you can keep going clues are good crossdressing got Parental
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mrs doubtfire mrs doubtfire yes let's see
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a young lawyer joins a small but prestigious law firm only to find out
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most of their clients are on the wrong side of the law
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h I'm just going to guess cuz again this like the top movies may have not necessarily been targeted toward my
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demographic was it like the firm the firm yeah okay nice and then in a
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similar vein from a title p title structure perspective wrongfully accused
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of murdering his wife Harrison Ford
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oh yeah title's not coming to me
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the fugitive oh yeah god I feel like I Yes that was like Yeah I remember I
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remember that being extremely popular which would make sense yes yes so we have both The Fugitive and The Firm and
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then the the last one is a Tom Hanks romantic comedy mhm sleepless in Seattle
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very good very good all right i think we have time for one more category
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okay i live for this kind of stuff i know oo stars and Scandals let's see
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here 93 i don't know how's your supermodel knowledge
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uh of this era probably better than anything after so yes okay yeah famous
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supermodel mhm arrested in 93 after a well publicized altercation with a
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member of the press she's known for being kind of a [ __ ] uhhuh naomi
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Campbell very good very good yeah i She like whacked somebody with a purse or
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something like that or I'm trying to remember you have a better memory i don't really recall this one but I very much remember Naomi Campbell in the the
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'9s era supermodels very much yeah which is how do I know that cuz I have no I
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mean no fashion sense i mean period i mean based I think that's pretty obvious
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well if you grew up at that time I mean how could you avoid it right right it's just so interesting that like they these
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Yeah these supermodels sort of infiltrated everything it's like what exposure did I have to any like the
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fashion industry at all magazines any of those like teen magazines well my sister
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did yeah that's probably why yeah that's true that's probably why yeah I I probably have told this story before but
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I mean and and I you know got to find a scapegoat somewhere for all of our
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eating disorders in the '9s right so they I just remember being like 12
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reading these magazines and being like why don't I have a 22 in waist like Mhm
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naomi Campbell or whoever Christy Tarlington right yeah really oh my gosh
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so bad okay similar okay i'll do one more stars and scandals question sure this rapper in 93 faced multiple legal
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challenges including charges related to his involvement in a violent altercation the controversy would follow him for
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years despite his growing fame and then he was later involved in a
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murder trial in 93 a Snoop Dog snoop yep
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yep very good amy you did pretty good I got to say oh thanks yeah I remember
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1993 quite well so it was it was a good year yeah i feel like I like some of the
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80s movies better but I was too young to remember a lot of the trivia so yeah the
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'9s man okay indeed now before we start talking about Dennis the Menace you know
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this season is about John Hughes do you have any particular thoughts about him
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as a writer or director or how you came to start watching his movies if you did
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yeah I was essentially raised I would say on John Hughes movies and I think a lot of that came from both my dad and my
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sister so I know you recently did oh well very recently did an episode on Ferris Spieler's Day Off and that is
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like my dad's all-time favorite movie i grew up just outside of Chicago both my
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parents grew up in the city so we have a lot of emotional ties to the city of Chicago so huge influence on us and grew
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up watching The Breakfast Club pretty and Pink was probably one of my sister's favorite movies of of all time and so
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and Home Alone I mean the list just goes on and on and on and so I definitely was one of those families that fell into the
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you know watch a dozen or so movies like a million times and several of those were John Hughes movies so I'm certainly
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a fan some of them you know certainly hold up better than than others but I
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think in the grand scheme of things I think we've all been sort of impacted in some way shape or form by a John Hughes
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movie if you grew up in the in the 80s or or ' 90s so I'm certainly I would say
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a pretty pretty big fan well I'm very jealous that you grew up just outside of
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Chicago so you have kind of that extra closeness with with his films yeah yep
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definitely and what we'll be talking about later too grew up pretty close to where they filmed the movie very
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familiar with that community so the location connection I have big time with John Hughes movies h love it all right
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well without further ado let's get into the movie Dennis the Menace yes
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[Music] okay it was released June 25th 1993 it's
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rated PG it's got a much lower IMDb rating than the last several John Hughes
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movies we covered with 5.7 I believe which is actually generous um given some of the other like Rotten
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Tomatoes and some of the other critics they were not kind to this movie no no they weren't and I think I I kind of
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know why in some ways yeah why they would be yeah so the director here is
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not John Hughes so John Hughes was a writer here the director is Nick Castle does that ring a bell in any way with
Cast Breakdown & Switchblade Sam Critique
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you Amy i'm trying to remember wasn't he connected with
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like something a little bit like on the darker side or I'm trying to remember what it was yeah Halloween yeah he was
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like the the Mike Myers oh right in Halloween so he worked with John Carpenter quite a bit we talked about
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Nick Castle in the Escape from New York episode because he co-wrote that mhm and
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then I did read though that and we'll get into Warner Brothers association
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with Dennis the Menace but they when they purchased the movie rights to the character of Dennis the Menace they
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offered the role to direct to Tim Burton which would have been a very different movie right yes yeah wow that would have
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been very interesting take yeah definitely so so yeah so Nick Castle
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directed this John Hughes wrote and then Hank Ketchum is also a accredited writer because he was the original 1959 TV show
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writer now are you familiar with the you know what's your history with Dennis the
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Menace like the comic strip the cartoon the original show did you watch any of those oh yes i was a huge huge Dennis
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the Menace fan i was actually looking on my bookshelf the other day i have like old comic book compilation books of his
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of Hank Ketchum's of the original series huge fan i watched the black and white
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TV series on Nick at Night I think it was or I think it would also play during the day i think when I was homesick from
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school sometimes it would be on and I own DVDs of that original show i watched
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the cartoon the the Deak cartoon religiously as a kid recorded a lot of
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those onto blank VHS tapes bought the series when it came out onto VHS and
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then eventually onto DVD which one of the DVDs is still currently stuck in a in our DVD player which I need to remove
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haven't done it the made for TV movie I was obsessed with i could do a whole podcast episode just about that so when
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I heard that this movie was coming out I was I mean over the moon because if there ever was like a Dennis and dork
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that you know is still alive today that would be me to the point where I think
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even like some of my like the neighborhood kids would like joke and say like it's Dennis Amen and um I was
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just enamored i don't know I can't quite identify why but I loved Dennis Amen i
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mean emphatically as a child and still to this day were you mischievous and pesky like him or No not really that's
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the thing i don't know what it was like I was yeah didn't really get in any trouble i mean did you know things I
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probably shouldn't have but certainly not known as like being the you know kid in the neighborhood that's going to you
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know annoy the crap out of everybody and knock everything over and break a bunch of stuff that certainly wasn't me that
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there was just something about it I I that I just I don't know just thought
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was funny or entertaining or maybe it was a dynamic between Dennis and his next door neighbor i I don't know quite
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what it was and I was also a big tomboy too so I really which I know people don't use that term anymore but you know
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I was a huge tomboy so a lot of the TV shows and movies and stuff that I related to more were like um you know
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little boys that wanted to shoot slingshots like that stuff I wanted to do and ride bikes and skin my knees and
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play in the dirt that was all stuff I wanted to do so I always related a lot more to like little little boy
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characters when I was little kid than little girls like Yeah exactly he he comes cruising down with his I you know
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wagon full of like terrors in my opinion and there's like snakes and stuff yeah
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loved all that i remember catching ladybugs and now I'm like "Oh cuz I'm such an animal person." And I'm like "You shitty little kid why?" And
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lightning bugs why did I catch these creatures and put them in a jar that was of me i know i know i did too or we'd
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step on them and pull it back so you'd see like the glow guts for like two seconds yeah oh my god gross
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yikes well I am kind of embarrassed then to be doing this episode with you Amy because I am so not I'm like the
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opposite i'm I'm coming to this with a vague understanding of you know what
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that it was based on like an old like a comic strip and that there was a te I know I'm aware that it exists but that's
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kind of it so I feel bad covering this with you well that's okay no I think you
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know I I'm flattered i mean what are the chances that like some random person is
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going to be really into that as a woman is going to be really into Dennis the Menace so I mean good point it's it's
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not something that I don't I mean I don't I can't think of one other person in my life that I could shoot the breeze with about Dennis the Menace cuz that
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person does not exist doesn't exist doesn't exist at least in my circle so you're it's okay well thank you for
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making me feel better yeah you're welcome also if if there's any of you out there like me that are less aware so
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Dennis the Menace is everyone's favorite kid from the comics back in the day when his parents need to go out of town on
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business they both just so happen to have work trips the same weekend and they cannot find a babysitter for him he
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has to stay with the neighbors George and Martha Wilson and he drives Mr
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wilson crazy but it's not malicious you know he's just trying to be helpful even to the thief who has arrived in town so
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we'll get to all of that yep trying hard not to roll my eyes about that part but
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continue so Walter Matau is the perfect Mr wilson
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isn't he he is he is brilliant i mean he is fantastic in this movie i mean in
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everything but amazing he He really was good i
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mean I I only know him as playing a grumpy old man in in any movie like he
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plays that perfectly he does yes and I looked up some information about Walter
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Matau today just out of curiosity cuz I've always adored him and my dad is the
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same age as Walter Matau is in this movie and my dad seems about 20 years
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younger than him which is just a very bizarre realization how old is he supposed to be in the movie i don't
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think they ever really said I mean probably like 60s or 70s and he's like
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73 in this movie um in real life okay mhm so I think you know I I think when
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the comic strip would have come out I probably you know things did happen a lot younger so I'm guessing probably in
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the comic books he was supposed to be probably like early 60s or something like that but yeah in real life he was 73 i was like dear god that is the same
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age as my dad this is really weird so oh my gosh this comes up this comes up every literally every movie
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people just looked so much older yes back in the day oh my god yes holy glory
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you know like a like a woman my age back in the day would be like "Well let's put her out to pasture she's done and over
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with." Right it's like either going to play a grandma role or you're done so yeah yeah pretty much wild i know well I
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think Walter Math although you know unfort I could see him having sort of like a partying kind of hard outside of
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things i think he looked like he was 90 for you know a very since he was like 40
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so he is one of those there are a handful of those yeah that we talk about he definitely is
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did were you familiar with the actor who played Dennis Mason Gamble not really not Not prior to No I think he was kind
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of like a a relative unknown um but prior to this film and yeah he was I
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guess selected out of tens of thousands of people kids that auditioned for the
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role which is just I mean unbelievable and I'm not really sure if there was
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anybody else that was like more wellknown that was also up for the role but he he won it and yeah I mean oddly
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enough a lot of times so in some of the trivia that we'll get to later I have a
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lot of casting could have gone a different way but none for Dennis Nobody well known he he certainly was a cute
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kid and I don't even like kids but he was he was very cute not really in
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anything like he did go on to be in Rushmore Gatka and Spy Hard and apparently he's supposed to be a
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5-year-old but he was seven the the actual actor was seven okay so the
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actress who plays Mrs wilson Martha Yes is extremely famous and but her name
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didn't just come to me it's Martha i'm sorry Joan joan Blowight yes do you have
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do you have thoughts about her yeah same with same with me is like yeah she's this super well-known had been acting
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for decades and decades and was married to somebody very famous but I think I only knew of her from this movie i can't
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think of anything else that I remember watching that she was in but I think that she was also well cast i thought
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that she did a great job too i think they really the two of them really made made the movie kind of Mhm quasi
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tolerable to watch so which you know Yeah they did a great job you probably
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do know her from she also starred in 101 Dalmatians from 1996 also a John Hughes
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film and then she was in Flubber in 97 with John another John Hughes film now
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she is a dame or she was a dame yes and also a baroness married to Lawrence
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Olivier yeah i like how did that happen i That's third she was his third wife
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and and his widow so she was married to Tim when he passed away yeah but yeah like stage actress a career that spanned
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like six decades oscar nominated she won two Golden Globes so yeah she's Joan
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Plowight i wouldn't have come up with that on my own but she did look very familiar yeah and she should have won an
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Oscar for her performance of reading that poem writing the poem to Dennis at bedtime it's like I remember watching
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that as a kid getting "Oh my god this is so beautiful." Yeah so beautiful like I
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just want to lay in the fetal position and cry silently to myself and listen to her recite that again because it's so so
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well done you're right and I had kind of forgotten there was a sweet moment when Cuz at first you're
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like "Oh they aren't really going to show their marriage but they they do." She Yeah kind of they talk in bed they
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never had children and so they talk a little bit about that and she's like "It's not that that's bothering me it's
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that I want to talk to you about it." Yeah and I can't right i know there's
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all these profound moments that like in this beautiful like script writing and then the next moment this stupid switchblade Sam crap happens and it's
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like what in the we could have eliminated half an hour of this movie from that ridiculous plot i don't know
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and that but unfortunately fortunately or unfortunately you know the whole switchblade Sam thing is stuff that my
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sister and I would recite to each other for no reason for a really long time especially like the scene where he takes
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the apple from the kid that's crosseyed as my sister just out of nowhere be like what you got there sport uh apple i mean
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it's like what does that I mean that could be a whole episode by itself like why the heck was this person in the
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movie like part one which person the crosseyed kid or switchblade kid well both yeah really and the like with the
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emphasis of the whole crossey thing short for his age and crosseyed i mean
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why so we're you know knocking somebody with a disability which you know I take 93 right taking offense to you i've got
30:24
two you know neurodeiverse children i don't appreciate the you know crossey jokes not that has anything to do with
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that but you know and and then the Switchblade Sam thing seriously come on
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there's never some creepy robber slashstabber slashfilthy whatever in any
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in this stuff so I could really go off on a tangent but I'm going to restrain myself oh there wasn't that's That is interesting not that I'm aware of but
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that's a good point i almost don't know which direction to go with with So
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Switchblade Sam is played by Christopher Lloyd and I love Christopher Lloyd but it same he's he's a brilliant actor
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brilliant actor he was very similar to Uncle Fester in a lot of ways though there were things he
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did in this that I was like "Oh that's very Uncle Fester." I didn't even think of that that that but you're absolutely
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right yeah yep i think the reason So it's interesting to hear that this did
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get pulled out of nowhere yes and I hadn't seen this movie so I I did see it
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in the theater at a matinea i remember like our small town theater going to the matinea and I remember loving it and
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oddly enough I probably only saw it like that one time you know 30 years ago yeah
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until I rewatched it last night and it's funny because the this the one scene
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that I well I remembered a few but the scene I remember most was the apple
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Uhhuh with that kid what you got there sport that's this for whatever reason
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that was the most memorable thing to me yeah which that's a bad sign i mean that's that is a red flag
32:03
yeah yeah that's what you remember that's I did not recall how gross this
32:08
hobo like stereotypical oldtimey train hopping
32:13
hobo is is what he was basically yes a hobo yes my my dad went as a hobo for
32:18
Halloween as well back back when but yes I I don't understand well I guess one thing I learned was that you know John
32:25
Hughes did Home Alone and I think Christopher Lloyd was offered a role of
32:30
one of the robbers or whatever you know one of the bad guys in the movie and he turned Joe Peshi's role I want to say
32:36
yeah yeah and he turned it down and he always kind of regretted it and he said that to John Hughes so then the minute
32:41
that there was some other you know villain person to play you know John Hughes booked him for that but it's like
32:48
I would have never thought that that would have been incorporated into a
32:54
Dennis and Menace movie i mean it had nothing to do with anything and um Sis
33:00
Eert even threw that right under the bus what did this have to do with anything there's all these beautiful tender
33:05
moments between Dennis and Sin and and Mrs wilson that was such a beautiful
33:11
thing and then there's like this Yeah hobo that fills up on reffried beans or
33:16
whatever and you know what I mean is trying to allegedly stab apples and you know maybe
33:23
stab children i I don't I don't get it and I'm I'm still hanging about hanging
33:28
about the town for three days doing just just being creepy you know just walking around being creepy right you're right
33:34
it didn't have anything to do with anything and now that you say that you're right so John Hughes clearly it
33:40
was like a hamfisted I gotta figure out a way to get Christopher Lloyd in a robber role in
33:46
one of my movies so I'll write that into this right and they could have I mean
33:51
there's so much that more they could have done with him and still included him in the movie but it really just did
33:57
not make sense and just and I can hear that I forgot what that music sounds like every time that his character comes
34:03
onto the screen and I rewatched the movie too and I was already just like "Oh crap." Like here comes this like
34:10
creepy guy who is still really creepy to this day i mean that's how good I mean
34:16
if I saw you know like it's not even about being homeless hobo whatever i
34:21
mean just the presence of every I mean yikes i mean that's the stuff that nightmares are made of his teeth his
34:28
sinister nature yeah it it was it was a bit much I thought too even like for
34:33
this PG movie right and speaking of the music Jerry Goldsmith famous you know
34:39
prolific career spanning over 50 years we did let's see what episode we talked
34:46
about last season where Jerry Goldsmith did the score was Kurt Russell film Executive Decision
34:52
but it sort of seems like I mean he has what movie did he not score it seems like he's scored Yeah so many right and
35:00
it was brilliant i mean the music is like sinister creepy i mean it's fantastic but again that is not that
35:07
does not fit the you know the theme or whatever you want to say to you know
35:12
it's not staying true to the whole Dennis and Menace thing it just yeah it
35:17
just doesn't it doesn't drive and so if that could have been cut out there still would have been like a story there like
35:24
he was not necessary to the you know to the story at all no because then there
35:30
was the it was like well which was the A plot and which was the B plot the flower
35:35
extravaganza with the orchid or and that getting ruined i don't know it does seem
35:41
to be there there was no like
35:48
overarching plot to the movie it just seemed to me anyway just a series
35:54
of hy jinks just kind of shoved together
36:00
a a little bit and and it I remember really liking I remember like being a kid and thinking a ton of it was funny
36:06
but Yes it's all the same it didn't work so much when I rewatched it and the first thing I thought of was like "This
36:13
is just Home Alone but by accident." Mhm yeah pretty much it's literally Home
36:18
Alone but the kid is doing it by accident right basically yes and not as
36:23
good no not even close and it's wild then because I that's the I kept think
36:30
being like "Wow this is literally Home Alone." Mhm and then afterwards I was like reading some of the reviews and
36:37
stuff and so clearly that's a every that's a common criticism I guess mhm i
36:42
I I am I I can't believe that Hank Ketchum was okay with that and I don't really know that much about him
36:48
personally actually do have his like biography that's not in no longer in like publication i found a old old copy
36:55
of it or whatever that I'm going to sit down and read at some point when I have three minutes but I I mean I I don't
37:01
know how I would be like "Are you kidding me don't take my you know this
37:07
this you know comic strip that I put together you know 40 years ago and destroy it with this you know character
37:15
that's going to terrify children when this movie is aimed at children." I I I just Yeah i don't I don't know how that
37:21
was approved right what did you think about the parents so
37:26
played by Leah Thompson is the mom yep we all know Leah Thompson and then
37:31
Robert Stanton plays Henry the dad who is you know he didn't he really was just
37:38
like a Melba toast type um you know or milk toast what's the What's the phrase
37:45
for just eh i don't know a tool do people say that anymore a tool it's
37:52
so 90s it's so 90s i love it but he aside from his look I thought his
37:58
look was spot on with the the comic strip yes but the dad served like zero
38:04
purpose other than that and Leah Thompson's the mom i don't know yeah maybe she could have made Christoph
38:10
Christopher Lloyd the dad or something i mean come on um he actually was considered Yeah yeah maybe I'm getting
38:17
it wrong let me let me double check yeah I feel like they're decent like well-known actors that were considered
38:22
for the role i don't know how this kind of like Carson Daly if you will like
38:27
just we always talked about Carson Dailyaly was a tool when again reference it was Daniel Stern okay was I was
38:34
thinking of Home Alone there was considered for both Switchblades Sam and the dad which is interesting but go on
38:41
sorry I didn't mean to interrupt no that's okay no I think the dad getting into yeah or or like my mom would say
38:46
he's a big zero I'm I'll let her know that she'll I'm sure she'll listen to the show I'm not kidding but I thought I
38:52
mean Leah Thompson son I thought you know she did you know a good enough job as as Alice and you know certainly stood
38:58
out more a lot more than the dad but I think she also had more dialogue and I
39:03
think although this movie is set in the '9s which you kind of feel like is sort
39:08
of as a progressive time it still kind of isn't either because she's still sort of doing the traditional mom stuff and
39:15
getting flak for being a mom by another woman coincidentally which is you know interesting yeah but I thought she did
39:22
major clashing with a woman who has kids versus one who who doesn't have kids but
39:27
she has a life right yeah yeah that's what she says i know that's I totally
39:32
forgot about that also unnecessary you know other story uh other plot line
39:37
that's like not necessary but I thought she did Yeah I thought she did a great you know great job but I think yeah the
39:44
dad could have been you know cast better cuz I think the the whoever played the father in the original series the you
39:51
know the te original live action television series I thought that you know dad was definitely more memorable
39:58
than the dad in this movie so okay interesting okay now I actually did kind
40:04
of get a kick out of the annoying little girl like Margaret Margaret Wade yeah
40:10
played by Amy Sacas sacits sacas that's a hard That's a hard
40:18
name to say amy Sacits wow she was probably I'm sure people really butchered I mean
40:23
made fun of her yeah poor thing she was like just a a mini adult i I kind of got
40:30
a kick out of her just because of all of the adult things she was doing and saying yeah yeah she was pretty fun i
40:37
mean she she looked like kind of like an American doll like with her curls and the the glasses and stuff but yeah I
40:42
think she did a good job of playing sort of like an annoying neighborhood girl you know that wanted the boys to play
40:47
what she wanted to play so I think she was pretty you know pretty convincing in that role so yeah not too bad i don't
40:54
think I I certainly don't remember her from anything else either but I probably wouldn't have recognized her if she was
40:59
in something else too just because of her costumeuming and stuff for for the movie so she didn't I think she did a
41:06
few things but both her and the the kid who played Joey the other friend like the other little boy um Joey mhm he's
41:14
played by Kellen Hathaway and neither of those two really went on to really do much else so
41:22
this is kind of it well I'm sure when people saw this we were like "Oh you were in that movie never mind."
41:28
I thought Joey was really cute i thought he was like a cute little kid and I thought she did a good job as an
41:34
annoying annoying kid the chief of police is pretty well known though paul Winfield yeah he's definitely one of
41:40
those people like I know I've seen him in something yeah he was in Cliffhanger Mars Attacks The Terminator
41:48
and I've never seen this but I hear it's pretty good star Trek The Wrath of Khan oh yeah i've never never got into Star
41:55
Trek but Yeah me neither yeah yeah I mean they got we certainly got some big names for the movie and
42:02
again I'm just I guess I was surprised that Walter Matau especially would agree
42:07
based on the whole Switchblade Sam thing cuz I feel like he would have been not to assume or stereotype but I feel like
42:14
he would probably would have been familiar with the comic strip just solely based on age and so I'm just
42:19
surprised that he's like you know oh yeah sure like he gets like kidnapped
42:24
and swallows a key that's that's that sounds great sign me up
42:30
sign me up oh he's going to fall onto like a couch that like fell in the river great i'll be in that movie that sounds
42:36
wonderful i don't know if Well actually he kind of had a resurgence in the Well here Grumpy
42:43
Old Men come out like he kind of had a right around then i think it was right around then
42:49
9192 something like that so maybe he was just kind of riding the wave with it the
42:54
last two people that I wanted to talk about on the cast uh Natasha Leon I love
43:00
her so much she plays the babysitter Paulie and I don't know I I I just dig her every You
43:08
guys all know who she is she's been in like tons and tons of stuff she's been em nominated for an Emmy five times very
43:16
famously in Orange is the New Black Russian Doll Poker Face and then Oh she
43:22
was also like back in the day in PeeWee's Playhouse i think her name was Opal in that wow and then the movie
43:30
Slums of Beverly Hills and American Pie those are some those are all big hitters so you know Natasha Leon redheaded known
43:39
for her hair yes like that's a that's a look that she has yep and then her boyfriend very stereotypical in the
43:46
movies the babysitter invites her boyfriend over to make out and the boyfriend is none other than
43:53
uh Buzz from Home Alone which I can't think of i don't know his real name unfortunately which is sad but Yeah yeah
43:58
i don't Yeah I didn't write yeah but yeah it's Buzz from Home Alone yeah which I feel like his character was more
44:05
en is his brief appearance in the movie was significantly more enjoyable than
44:12
the other like subplot line characters cuz he was really funny and I feel Yeah
44:17
and I feel like to this day and and this movie was not something that I watched religiously as a kid because I you know
44:23
I kind of liked it i think just because it was Dennis a menace but still to this day I like find myself like when my kids
44:29
were little in the tub I felt like saying sabid sabid you know I will never be big e nug
44:36
you know he can't read which again is probably not that you know probably people like cancel this now but at the
44:43
time I thought it was hilarious and yeah last night when I was watching it I was like why is the boyfriend basically
44:50
doing the babysitting where's Paulie he was in there reading the book while Dennis was taking his bath mhm he was in
44:57
there reading the book to him it's like what where's Polly what's she doing she's the babysitter that's true that's
45:03
true who knows i mean she's willing to like make out with the lights out i mean
45:08
who knows what else maybe she's hitting up with you know going hitting up the bars or something with Switchblade and
45:15
um you know loose morals that one yeah yeah yep indeed it's questionable
45:21
well speaking of questionable this poor kid Mason Gamble
45:27
got a Rousey nomination for his his role in this which I don't think they do for
45:32
kids anymore i don't Right yeah i don't I doubt it which is which is good
45:37
because I and I've always kind of felt this way anyways but I had an episode on
45:43
of my show recently where I got to interview two individuals that put together a film about kind of what can
45:51
happen to child actors you know as they get older and you know I feel like it's
45:57
something that I'm kind of like sensitive to for some reason i I don't really know why cuz I like was always really sad about like Dana Plato and
46:03
like where her life kind of went after different strokes and you know Gary Coleman people were so awful to him you
46:09
know and so I'm glad I hope that they did away with that i mean it's certainly not a great movie and probably you know
46:17
not maybe his favorite piece of work that he ever did but I think yeah giving a you know seven-year-old kid to say "Oh
46:24
guess what like your movie sucked." Not even that the movie sucked that his his performance you know which I didn't
46:31
think that's interesting but we you know I I go off on the Razies it's it they do
46:37
lowhanging fruit like they really do yeah so right um
46:42
and there was also a stinker bad movie award for this movie a nom nom i didn't win for worst resurrection of a TV show
46:50
which concur probably yeah again just cuz it's if it was its own thing if it was
46:56
just called if the movie was just called like Bob the Kid Next Door you know
47:01
that'd be one thing but it's tied to this you know beloved comic strip you
47:07
know i think that that's where the criticism you know where people sort of drew the line is that it's tied to this
47:14
beloved thing but yeah I'm glad you know Razies that's just yeah not cool you
47:20
bring up a good point though tying it to Dennis the Menace is probably I'm just
47:27
guessing here what got Butts and Seats it made a It was a success at the box
47:33
office it was made for $35 million and made $17 million worldwide so again
47:40
things that make money aren't always quality and vice versa right right yeah and people and and they're playing and
47:46
playing on the nostalgia you know like we talk I I always get worked up when there's like reboots and you know that's
47:52
so dumb and you know can't they think of anything else but I wasn't thinking about thinking that actually you know
47:58
and in 1993 when I was begging to go probably see this movie 50,000 times but
48:04
same thing i mean it's like rebooting something that was decades old already you know when you stray too far then
48:10
that's you know then that's where the real fans start coming out and throw Yeah throw Rotten Tomatoes at the screen
48:16
and get upset so y but so I take it that you loved it as a
48:22
kid what's your history with this movie i think again I think I was because I was already regardless it had nothing to
48:28
do with this movie i was a huge fan of Dennis and Menace several years before this movie even came out so I was like
48:33
already liked it hadn't even seen it i think I even had the movie poster of it hanging in my room before it even came
48:40
out so I think at the time you know rosecolored glasses thought it
48:45
was amazing loved it you know really liked Dennis the character liked Walter Matau so absolutely loved it but now as
48:53
an adult I you know unfortunately I don't think it holds up pretty well it doesn't hold up very well and I think
48:58
it's not really something I would want to watch with my um kids either especially my my older son I think would
49:04
be absolutely terrified um of Switch Light Sam and would probably never want to watch it so I
49:12
think that I think that character alone would be would make both of my kids actually pretty nervous because it's it
49:20
feels like a like a weird not horror movie but just like a weird creepy creep factor that
49:28
you know oh yeah let's watch that movie with the guy with the rotten teeth and the oily hair i don't you know they're
49:33
not going to say that so I don't No so and you have little kids
49:39
though right yeah they're they're eight and 10 and you my my my my 10-year-old is has a lot of a lot of challenges and
49:46
you know things that make him uncomfortable and um you know and so I think this would be
49:53
which is sad because I there's so many things that you know when you become a parent or you be become an auntie or you become a you know your best friend has a
50:00
has a baby and you're involved in their life there's certain stuff you kind of want to show them and Dennis Amen was like a huge part of my life but this is
50:07
like abs I think I've shown them the cartoon the D cartoon but I I don't I have no
50:12
desire sadly to sit down and watch this with them um maybe if I fast forwarded through those parts but other than that
50:18
I mean not really so which is that's not how it should they should have thought about that you know in advance you know
50:25
good point you know are people going to watch us with their kids in 30 years no so yeah it's not a Yeah i mean in
50:34
addition to the you know all of that I mean I don't know we're not supposed to really pick it apart but I Yeah as an
50:42
adult like watching this I'm like we see like kind of the opening of this very
50:48
you know what what's the word perfect little Norman Rockwell small town yeah definitely and and you
50:55
know so clearly it's a very safe place to live and we see everybody including the neighborhood cats and of course Mr
51:02
wilson is like "Oh crap they can hear Dennis coming he's pedaling on his bike
51:07
with his with this wagon full of weird stuff and they're like "Oh we got to get out of the way of the chaos." And Mr
51:13
wilson goes and pretends to sleep but why doesn't he lock the door
51:19
if he knows he'll just come in right and that was like a really unnecessarily long opening scene too like
51:27
it just again something like just doesn't make sense it's like why would you think oh we should have them like
51:32
give him an aspirin even though he's sleeping but he should like shoot it in it's
51:38
like can we just I I mean I'm not a writer you know I'm not a television or movie writer not a screenwriter I write
51:46
and runons however I mean really I have you know they
51:52
probably had way more knowledge of the whole Dennis Amen backstory i mean they've got freaking Hank Ketchum right
51:57
there that's what you you know like that's what you open with really really good point i do remember
52:06
getting a kick out of when I was a kid so I mean I me as an adult I'm not the
52:11
audience i mean it's it needs to be you know passible enough for like adults to watch with their kids I guess but
52:16
I remember thinking all of these gags and like this the slapstick stuff was hilarious yeah but
52:24
watching it last night I guess I was just sort of like this is not funny i don't know did you find any of them any
52:31
of the you know chaos slapstick moments yeah you know I was funny i've um never
52:38
been like necessarily like a huge slapstick comedy person and I love I mean I love comedy that's you know my
52:44
favorite genre but I you know anything that I feel like there's always has to be like the something happening to a
52:51
man's groin area which I just don't find funny um like oldest trick in the book
52:56
so like that whole thing where he like does the splits like completely unnecessary and like very uncomfortable
53:02
actually to to watch and uh didn't need to see Walter Matthau in a in a compromising position like that but no I
53:09
didn't find I mean and again there's I feel like there's so much stuff that could have happened like so many more dynamics
53:15
that could have been more more entertaining i mean I guess kind of like the the whole scene with the garden
53:22
lanterns falling on his face and then like Dennis pulling off one and talking to him i mean that was kind of funny and
53:27
cute and that's true you know that was kind of like like an old man and a little kid kind of thing that made sense
53:32
but the other stuff it's like shooting an aspirin into somebody's mouth as a slingshot that's just dumb i don't know like not very
53:40
creative i don't know and it's like and and why would like some kids sneak up into a bedroom of a neighbor's house
53:45
it's like yeah movies are all like unrealist it's unrealistic but it's not relatable like oh yeah I was I snuck up
53:52
you know I went up to my neighbor's bedroom last night too this is great i can relate to this kid no you didn't you
53:57
know it's just weird i I don't know oh it's one of those things too where I think it's written by somebody that's
54:04
like not Dennis's age obviously but it's that somebody that's like so far removed from being a seven-year-old kid that
54:11
it's like really obvious you know so that's a good way of putting it yeah i mean I I at first like I had to
54:20
for the first probably 20 minutes of the movie I was like is this set in the 50s
54:26
or is this current day yes like there we go back and forth there are a lot of things that are very old timey yes but
54:33
then clearly it's set in current day because of the cars and they have a microwave and the phones and stuff like that but right like the old timey blocks
54:41
the mom like when we first meet Alice her hair and her dress is uber 1950s but
54:48
then the next scene she has like a normal hair like for the night you know it's right um like the Wilson's clothing
54:56
very oldtimey just the whole train hopping weirdo like the very stereotypical
55:03
nature of that and maybe that was meant to call back to the original Oh I I don't know i couldn't really quite tell
55:11
and just even Dennis like this this kid is just out playing outside all day every day you know with his overalls and
55:18
no shirt and no one is supervising him right i mean if that didn't leave a
55:25
really bad farmer's tan then I don't know what would and I would I refuse to let my children have
55:31
a overalls tan like that cuz that's just unacceptable how's that gonna what's
55:37
that going to look like when he goes swimming i mean that's going to look terrible you know what I mean good point he
55:43
wasn't putting on sunscreen if he wasn't gone all day there's no way he did say
55:48
something i did take note of that for a 5-year-old to say something about "Oh when he's being when he was sort of like
55:54
taken hostage so to speak by Christopher Lloyd he's like "Oh we got to swing by my house i got to pick up this and this
56:00
and I got to get my sunscreen." And I thought "What 5-year-old knows about putting sunscreen on?" Yeah good for him
56:07
okay well maybe maybe there was no farmers after all but also what what 5-year-olds
56:13
are just out and about adventuring in the forest with all day every day yeah
56:19
5-year-olds mhm i mean nobody's ever watching these kids ever
56:24
no nope i mean no wonder he's always doing something you know he's got no no
56:31
boundaries no rules whatever he doesn't you want to run away with a hobo that sounds great go you do you you do you
56:40
the parents were major pushovers i mean from a parent like I'm not a parent but I'm watching this like come on yeah mhm
56:50
oh yeah you know but sometimes you just you know you're so exhausted that you know it's just whatever
56:59
things just things just happen because you're just haven't slept in years and your decision-m skills are like whatever
57:06
they used to be go hang out with a hobo yeah you know right yeah exactly you
57:11
know I'm so tired of you and your attitude and cleaning up after you you know what go find a nice hobo go find a
57:18
nice Go join a nice hobo family you hate this family so much you go join a hobo family okay yes that was right yeah yeah
57:26
mhm oh you think Oh you think it's You think it's bad here you go live with a hobo and have beans that are opened with
57:33
a pocketk knife switchblade with a switch with a switchblade okay i will
57:38
say there was one part of this movie that I genuinely got a kick out of
57:43
because because I'm easy and basic i guess the the phone hanging up montage
57:48
yes that was partially because it just showcased all of the different types of
57:54
phones that were a thing in 1993 yes yep
58:00
duck phone mhm clear phone with the colorful insides yes car phone i forgot
58:07
that of those ever existing in the first place yes that cost like $5,000 for a 30
58:13
secondond phone call yeah yep and then several different versions of that like fancy ornate with the gold
58:22
like rich person princess I think it's called a princess phone is that what it's called yeah i don't know why I
58:28
don't know why I know that again not helpful information for getting into college useless information and then
58:34
there was like a yellow retro phone and the I liked the red phone that the the Mitchells had in the house so I really
58:42
did kind of like Nobody wants to babysit Dennis cuz he's such a terror and we just we solve the '90s phones mhm
58:48
twilight yeah well and I think it also is like really satisfying to slam a phone you know so that's that's a lost
58:55
art too so there's a lot of elements to why that was such a great great scene and a great song too um that just made
59:01
it fun too so yeah definitely a great you know uh and a good moment for like the the parents characters and which
59:07
again they could have done more stuff with that too so
59:13
yeah it's interesting movie one other qu again there's a lot of questions that I
59:18
you know again I'm in my 40s watching this movie last night after 30 years and
59:24
I'm like okay I don't know anything about dentures but Mr wilson has dentures but there's gold teeth in them
Final Thoughts on Nostalgia & Flaws
59:32
is that a thing why would there be gold teeth in dentures that I have no idea
59:38
unless he had like his real originally had his teeth like a tooth replaced with a gold tooth and then wanted it salvaged
59:46
and put into his dentures i don't know anybody know anything about are there any dentists out there that
59:52
can fill me in on what the story is with gold teeth in dentures why that would be
59:58
a thing mhm yeah no idea but I mean there's a
1:00:03
lot of unknowns and you know why did he have chicklets locked in a safe
1:00:10
that you know Yeah he had to run home and or was it in a safe or like a secret like a bank or like a piggy bank or some
1:00:16
kind of like like special box or something it's like Yeah it was a special box like that's out of like
1:00:22
that's what you put in there was like chicklets really mhm but yeah I don't I
1:00:27
don't know why yeah gold teeth i mean maybe it's just you know they were worth something and they didn't want to
1:00:33
throw them out or you know I don't know that's a that's interesting the things that come to mind when I'm watching a
1:00:39
movie nowadays mhm there's probably some kind of symbolism though I'm sure to it cuz you know John Hughes always threw
1:00:45
little you know things in a movie i bet there's some some reason for it there has to be because that's too bizarre
1:00:52
you're right and speaking of which so John Hughes is is famous for kind of reusing actors and there's you know Ben
1:00:59
Stein who was in Ferris Peeler's Day Off that we just covered i didn't notice him but I saw that he was on the cast list
1:01:05
he like was one of their Was it the mom's boss like he was in the workplace
1:01:12
must have been a very brief moment because I missed it yeah same moment no
1:01:17
that's interesting yeah who know yeah that's that is a mystery yeah and then similarly he's
1:01:25
kind of known for having either scenes while the credits are rolling or postredit scenes there wasn't any postredit scene but there was the main
1:01:32
work lady got her comeuppance by Dennis mhm while the credits were rolling yes
1:01:37
which was another thing I totally totally forgot about yeah that was a weird a weird a weird ending after all
1:01:45
that which again it was wasn't it which again is like not you know Dennis's whole thing is not about like revenge or
1:01:51
you know intentionally you know messing with somebody you know I I just again it goes against the the whole thing you
1:01:57
know yeah it's like he acts it's like he he's I mean I'm sure he would be diagnosed with something not like he
1:02:03
just can't help himself he he he's nothing ill intend right he's not ill intentioned but a he just he just causes
1:02:11
chaos everywhere he goes yep se severe ADHD or something like that yeah very impulsive Mhm mhm yep now did you
1:02:19
babysit when you were you know a teen or a pre-teen i did a little bit i wouldn't
1:02:24
say that that was my favorite job to do that was more of like my my sister was really into into babysitting and would
1:02:32
buy Babysitters Club books with her babysitting money um yeah i love that
1:02:38
yeah I did i mean I did kind of here and there a little bit but I was not big into I was not Yeah that was I was kind
1:02:44
of like not cut out for babysitting and watching this made it totally reminded me why I always I hated
1:02:52
babysitting um like I was Walter Mata like I think since birth I have been a
1:02:59
grumpy old man and I'm annoyed by the innocent mhm but annoying nature of
1:03:08
children yeah that you know what and I that think that's good to know that honestly like if that's not your thing
1:03:13
and Yeah so I did not have children yeah so I did yeah totally i get it yeah
1:03:19
totally makes sense yeah i I was not cut out for babysitting or you know I remember there was like one house that
1:03:25
my sister and another friend of mine like always kind of ended up sort of randomly babysitting at and their house
1:03:31
was a mess and it like drove us insane and like all you wanted to do when you
1:03:37
were there was just like clean the crap out of the house because it was so messy and it's like how does this family live
1:03:42
like this so it's like you get an insight into people's lives that you don't need when you babysit so great
1:03:48
point really good point the only thing I liked about it was like the parents would sometimes order us pizza for
1:03:55
dinner yeah like that was the bonus for me but yeah same my sisters i have two
1:04:00
older sisters and they were both super into babysitting and they never understood why I didn't like it and now
1:04:07
that they know me and as adult they're like "Yeah I get it." Yeah kids are not your your jam no and I think at that age
1:04:14
too to like to have the forethought or whatever to be like "Okay I'm going to plan these activities." I wouldn't I
1:04:19
didn't think like that you know i that's just not how my brain worked as a you know and I think and you know our age
1:04:26
too like our generation you know we were babysitting at 10 11 12 years old which
1:04:31
I would be horri horrified to have a 10 10year-old or a 12-year-old no way
1:04:37
babysit and you know on God's green earth would I have a 12-year-old come over here to babysit my not going to
1:04:43
happen but yeah I just did not have the that skill set to think oh we're going to need okay 3 hours so we're going to
1:04:49
need like dinner and we're I did not think like that just what do I do you know nope not not for me
1:04:55
mhm well neither is neither was Mr wilson because on the rainy day when
1:05:00
when Dennis has to stay inside he can't go outside and wreak havoc on the forest or whatnot he just he doesn't know how
1:05:09
to deal with that like he cannot cons contain his boredom and he's basically like any kid will you play I can't
1:05:15
remember will you He wants to play some game or I can't remember what he asked say cops and robbers or something like
1:05:20
that something and Mr rollson's like "No I'm an adult i'm finicking here with my
1:05:26
my coin collection." Yeah well here's my question that because I think this is one of those
1:05:31
moments where I didn't know what he meant until like way later when you saw
1:05:36
this movie and he and Mr wilson kept saying "I need the GD blah blah blah blah blah." Did you know what he meant i
1:05:43
thought I was like "Is that I know it." I think I remember watching as kid I'm like "He keeps saying GD does he mean is that like a brand do they own a bunch of
1:05:49
things and the brand is GD what does that mean and then I then I think I
1:05:54
watched it again as I don't know when maybe 10 years ago i'm like "Oh my god he means godamn
1:06:01
which I did did not pick up on." Good point i probably didn't either but I did
1:06:06
note it cuz he does it a like last night when I watched it i did note it because it's PG movie and also he's you know
1:06:13
that type of a man probably doesn't swear right so yeah the
1:06:18
O where are the G i was like GD is that the brand name of Is there a company called GD and they make garden lanterns
1:06:24
okay guess how naive I was which is I guess good but
1:06:29
so I don't think this will surprise you given what we all what we just talked
1:06:35
about with Hank Ketchum's original story john Hughes did you see that he never
1:06:42
watched a single episode of the show no he drew his inspiration only from the
1:06:48
comic strip he never saw the TV show i need to leave um that is Wow well
1:06:56
makes sense though right yeah I guess yeah that's true i guess I would just wanted I mean again and what do I know
1:07:03
i'm just like you know what I mean i don't know anything about the the the movie biz but I would have thought that he'd um and so iconic you know and of
1:07:11
course I'm biased but you know is a huge fan but how would you not want to watch that it's not like it's like torture to
1:07:17
watch it or something i mean it's uh out of all things from that era I mean it's a pretty you know tolerable funny show
1:07:24
to watch i mean so that's that's surprising but he's kind of interested he's kind of a quirky sort of person
1:07:31
though so I guess on the one hand I could kind of see it too yeah and the more I'm kind of getting to know him
1:07:37
through this season I think he can in in some ways be difficult to work
1:07:43
with there was another director I think that they had on board that they ended up replacing before Nick Castella came
1:07:50
on board because of creative differences with John Hughes i mean that could mean a number of different things but yeah he
1:07:57
only drew inspiration from the actual comic strip and not the show which
1:08:03
again how did that translate into this POS you know
1:08:09
what I mean yeah he was I mean I I guess I'm you know all of the just little you
1:08:16
know he's like a bull in a china shop and is annoying his neighbor but then
1:08:21
the Switchblade Sam thing is the out of left field bit whoever like whoever really took the
1:08:30
lead on Switchblade Sam needs to I don't know be punished
1:08:35
and I don't know what that looks like but that was a big mistake well not to
1:08:40
be morbid but I think that did happen cuz John Hughes died and I'm pretty sure he was the one that was like I'm going
1:08:46
to write him in because he originally you know like we talked about he wanted to be in Home Alone
1:08:52
that's true that's what caused he thought he thought was reflecting on his career and then thought about oh praying
1:09:00
and 16 candles and switch blade salmon and that's just when he that's when the heart attack happened it Yeah indeed
1:09:07
yeah sorry too sorry too too soon too soon it's too soon too sorry not sorry
1:09:12
no I I've got I have grief myself i deal with grief through having a dark sense of humor i apologize not trying to
1:09:18
offend anybody that's how I cope no no no nobody I don't think the listeners of of Retro are easily offended people okay
1:09:25
so Warner Brothers I talked about or I brought up earlier and I wanted to come back to it because I read this was their
1:09:32
first film warner Brothers Family Entertainment's inaugural film first of five films that the that particular
1:09:39
division released in 93 the family edition h ouch free
1:09:45
Willie Secret Garden The Nutcracker and Batman: Mask of the Fantasm
1:09:52
i do not remember that at all yeah I don't either and then and then Dennis the Menace so that was those were the
1:09:57
five movies that the Family Entertainment portion of Warner Brothers
1:10:02
and it was also the first film where they introduced the version where the logo is with Bugs Bunny leaning against
1:10:09
the W yes my goodness yeah I remember this i I
1:10:15
I think I saw The Secret Garden in theaters and probably saw Free Willie also in the theater and also tried to
1:10:24
recreate the scene where the whale jumps over the kid with a pool toy but that's for another time but were you the were
1:10:32
who were you in this recreation the whale
1:10:37
no I Wow no I'm kidding no I think I was one of No I know i know i'm kidding i'm
1:10:42
kidding no I was one of the people I think who was like chucking the the inflatable whale toy over the girl who
1:10:48
had her hand out like up to it and thinking of Michael Jackson song so um
1:10:54
That's right yeah but I mean that's Yeah i mean on the te on the like tears of all the you know those five movies I
1:11:00
mean this it's pretty low and this is from the
1:11:06
true dieh hard you know Dennis that's a I'm interest that I mean I guess it's very interesting for me to hear that
1:11:11
from you but I guess because you hold it so dear and this fell so short then yeah
1:11:17
I can see why you have feelings you know it's like when the not that I don't know anything about Star Wars but
1:11:23
you know when those like the Phantom Menace I think people got really mad about those cuz they weren't like the
1:11:29
original movies or something you know this is on the same level as that yeah yeah i I I'm glad that there's another
1:11:37
non-S Star Wars person because I sometimes I feel like I'm like the only person on the planet so I I think for me
1:11:45
it's it's like it has to do with I'm trying to remember who I was talking to about this but um the whole like fantasy
1:11:51
movie thing I just can't I cannot follow it's like you don't understand the movie
1:11:56
they have to go through the fifth door and get the book and put it on the on the number on the shelf that's by the
1:12:04
goblet and it's like I don't want to hear any more i don't want to see that
1:12:10
movie i don't want to read that book that sounds terrible i do not like fantasy stuff at all it makes me makes
1:12:16
my it makes my blood boil that's how much I can't stand it harry Potter Lord of the Rings no thank you no my son at
1:12:24
all no my youngest son is obsessed with Harry Potter which is wonderful i can't stand those movies at all and I'm sure
1:12:33
you know people are gonna screaming at us throw their iPhone like out in the oncoming traffic because they're so
1:12:39
angry but I can't follow that stuff at all no I'm not interested oh but you
1:12:44
didn't you didn't read the the fourth book where the where the owl comes and then it drops the notes i know that
1:12:51
sounds really horrible but did you like watch that movie that was really funny or did you you know it's like I either
1:12:58
want to learn something or laugh and if that doesn't happen then I'm out i'm with you i think we have very similar
1:13:04
taste and I and that's why I think I your show resonates with me so much well thank you likewise
1:13:10
you like the facts you do the you know you do the trivia and they're like yeah stick to the facts people not oh look at
1:13:15
the they got to the second level of the map it's like no no thank I think that's
1:13:20
why I didn't The one Kurt Russell movie that I did not like from last season Stargate was weird i haven't even seen
1:13:27
it you wouldn't you would hate it i did not like it at all i was like why you how can you screw up Kurt Russell plus
1:13:33
Egypt add some fantasy weirdness to it that's how Yep the only like fantasy movie I feel
1:13:40
like I can tolerate is Labyrinth you know there are exceptions to all of
1:13:45
my I I feel like I'm like such I really am a grumpy old man because there's so many things that I dislike i don't
1:13:51
really like musicals but there are exceptions to that same i also love Labyrinth but yeah it's an exception to
1:13:58
the rule yes yeah no I agree and I we went I remember going to the movie theater to see the first the whole like
1:14:04
Mockingbird Mocking Jay what is that series the I'm trying to think what the first book is looking at my bookshelf
1:14:11
right now but can't read it from here the Hunger Games I want to say yes thank you the Hunger Games i never read the
1:14:16
books heard the concept sound that I said that sounds terrible but somehow was convinced to go see the movie in the
1:14:24
first 5 minutes I knew that I was going to hate that movie and I did and I sat there for like however long that movie
1:14:30
was which was way too long anything over a minute was too long long yeah yeah
1:14:36
anything over a minute for that movie was too long for me and I like was stewing in my chair the whole time it's
1:14:41
like I do not want I have no interest in how this is these people are classified
1:14:47
and no nope doesn't do it for me i don't get it it makes me very it makes me very
1:14:54
angry it's wild how you know everybody has such different tastes in in movies
1:14:59
and how they you know there's so many different ven ven diagrams that
1:15:05
some weird crossovers in some cases yes um but so Dennis Mennez casting wise I
1:15:12
Leslie Nielsen I saw was originally offered the role for Mr wilson yeah very
1:15:17
glad that it's Walter Matau yeah he doesn't and Leslie Nielson's you know great and everything but he doesn't have
1:15:23
the same I think like genius comedy I think
1:15:29
presence that like a Walter Matau does he's just kind of just slapstick I feel like period which is which is great
1:15:36
which is fine but Walter Matau is like a good combination of of the subtlety that
1:15:41
it's like subtlety that's it that's what it is yeah like that scene the scene
1:15:46
where he wins the garden whatever thing and he's like really affectionate like
1:15:52
smiling next to his wife and then when he turns around and stands up in front of everybody his demeanor changes um
1:15:58
immediately to be more serious is like so spot-on and is just so just so well executed that yeah thank
1:16:06
god Walter Matau was was cast in as M agreed agreed some other like big
1:16:11
hitters were considered too mickey Rooney Mel Brooks Tim Conway Edner all
1:16:17
like all all kind of from that same Yes book you know
1:16:23
tim Curry was considered for Switchblade Sam after he was in Home Alone 2 Lost in
1:16:28
New York another John Hughes movie yeah and to go let's go back to Switchblade Sam for a second
1:16:35
but again the name too it's like that is just a horrible name couldn't it have
1:16:41
just been like hobo number one like why did he have to be called Switchblade Sam okay that just sounds instead in the
1:16:47
movie is it exactly yeah exactly that sounds like the name of a horror movie is called Switchblade they should just
1:16:53
make a movie separate called Switchblade Sam where that character just I mean
1:17:01
goes you know goes nuts and you know agreed you know agreed well so do you
1:17:09
think it would have been better with another you know either a Tim Curry Tim Curry or like Danny DeVito Michael
1:17:16
Keaton Bill Murray Jack Nicholson Michael Richards Daniel Stern William Defoe those were all considered do you
1:17:22
think it would have worked better with any of those or I think it would have been I don't think anybody could have
1:17:28
salvaged that because it just didn't make sense and I think that's a testament to how how brilliant of an
1:17:34
actor Christopher Lloyd is like so good you know but it just didn't have
1:17:39
a place in this movie so I I don't know like maybe yeah you're right it didn't like I despite my being like oh that's a
1:17:47
little too Uncle Festery in some cases but but yeah I I thought he did a good job it was just like what what's
1:17:53
happening here yeah I did see that a number of people for Alice basically all
1:17:58
like all of the blonde popular women of the time Melanie Griffith Madonna
1:18:04
Michelle Feifer Kelly Preston Sharon Stone all of them considered i'm not a huge
1:18:11
Leah Thompson person like I don't dislike her but she's not I don't love her right so I could have taken any of
1:18:17
those other Kelly Preston probably would have been good yeah yep yeah honestly
1:18:23
Sharon Stone has that little Maybe that that could have been interesting yeah she Yeah she could have that that would
1:18:30
have been very interesting if she was Alice yeah mhm but I think I could see
1:18:35
where Leah Thompson feels a little bit more kind of like that the girl next door kind of thing you know um but
1:18:42
Madonna really I mean Yeah sharon Stone and Madonna seem similar mhm and then
1:18:48
Melanie Griffith and Kelly Preston and Leah Thompson seem kind of similar yeah interesting tim Allen Jerry
1:18:56
Seinfeld Ed O'Neal and Rick Morannis were considered for Henry
1:19:02
henry was a It was such a nothing role all very
1:19:08
famous people for such a nothing role such a big zero role yeah zero a big
1:19:13
He's a big zero my mama will never say you know would never say anything like disrespectful or like an
1:19:20
expletative or anything about anybody it's always very like appropriate and like kindly done so instead of saying
1:19:27
you know he's a big blah blah blah blah exploitative exploit of show he's a big zero so yeah
1:19:33
big zero role but Rick Morannis I could have seen i mean he would have probably at least done something with that to
1:19:38
make it more interesting just cuz he's like good at being kind of a nerdy
1:19:44
character and and and Henry is kind of a nerdy sort of person so I think he would have been at least made it more
1:19:51
interesting I think good point the other i thought the dad looked the part but
1:19:58
that's probably the one that got it yeah pretty much which is Well I will say
1:20:04
re-watching this last night Dennis the Menace was very a very different
1:20:10
experience to my original matinea viewing experience in 1993 but I am
1:20:16
still glad that I did revisit it and Amy thank you for revisiting it with me yes
1:20:22
uh to reminisce both Dennis Benis and 1993 little little gem of our childhood
1:20:29
memories yes um do you have closing thoughts about the movie and then don't forget to tell us where we can find you
1:20:36
and and I don't know a little preview of what you've got upcoming sure yeah so let's see i think in conclusion I am you
1:20:43
know I think it's been made very clear that I'm you know not a not a huge fan of this movie and I think the reason why
1:20:49
if I wasn't such a huge Dennis Amen fan I probably would not be nearly as
1:20:56
critical as I as I would be i probably would have just been like "Oh yeah you know it's a kids movie from the '9s
1:21:02
whatever you know it's got some funny moments or whatever." But I think because I have that deep dorky
1:21:07
longstanding connection with Dennis and Menace I think it's hard for me to sort of speak you know super highly of this
1:21:14
movie so is it worth watching as an adult i mean I guess if there's nothing
1:21:21
else to watch I'm sure just you know focusing on Walter Matau will will serve you well um and so where you can find me
1:21:29
the best place to go probably is my website popculture retrospective.com find all of my past
1:21:36
episodes blog posts um links to my Instagram account Twitter X whatever you
1:21:43
call it um things like that i also have a YouTube channel that I try to get episodes posted on to and little clips
1:21:48
of stuff here and there and then shows that I'm currently working on i am working on a show about my show's very
1:21:55
oftentimes is very heavily like researchbased which is why it's kind of on a um sort of undetermined release
1:22:03
cycle i try to get out a couple episodes a month as time time allows i'm working on an episode about Shell Silverstein uh
1:22:10
which has been really interesting and also working on a retro tech part two episode we're going to be talking about
1:22:16
some of the kids electronics that came out in in the '8s like the Speak and Spell and things like that and kind of
1:22:22
the backstory behind Yeah what's the backstory behind the Speak and Spell how did that come about you know always like
1:22:27
to kind of teach listeners about pop culture and stuff and then I'm also going to be having an author on my show
1:22:34
coming up he's written a book that was set in 1995 which is really interesting and a fun read so yeah there's always
1:22:41
always something in the works on my show that's focused on the 80s and 90s and early 2000s in memory of my sister and
1:22:49
yeah popculture retrospective.com i will have Amy's information in the show notes for you
1:22:55
listeners yeah you have a lot of your episodes are varied so there's there really is kind of a little for everyone
1:23:01
whether it's music or movies or TV shows i especially loved the Today's Special
1:23:07
episode oh nice oh god that's that's dipping back into the archives but that's when I feel like I found my
1:23:12
groove was around that episode is when I kind of like felt a little bit more comfortable yeah really liked it well so
1:23:19
you guys if you liked this episode of RetroAde please let me know you can email me at
1:23:25
retroadepodcast@gmail.com if you are new to the show you can also find RetroAde
1:23:31
podcast on the director's chair network so head over there there's a lot of other podcasts about different directors
1:23:37
like Ed Zwick Brian de Palma let's see Michael Man and if you are joining
1:23:43
RetroAde from the director's chair podcast welcome i hope you enjoy and until next time be kind rewind
1:23:53
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