Would Mel Gibson be a great choice to guest star on Saturday Night Live right now? What television shows has Jack Nicholson done? Who has taken the most parts that were previously turned down? All this and more covered this week in Ask 411 Movies!
We finish our January YouTube theme of fun with Muppets with one of the best. If anything is better than a RickRoll it's a Muppet theme RickRoll starring Beeker. I guess it's not much of a RickRoll if I announce you're getting RickRolled, but you have to admit Beeker looks a lot like Rick Astley.
Comedian Charlie Callas died Thursday in Las Vegas at the age of 83. Callas appeared in such films as The Big Mouth, Silent Movie, History of the World Part I, High Anxiety, Dracula Dead and Love it and Pete's Dragon as the voice of Elliot.
From 2002, Johnny (Mars Callahan) is a pool shark who breaks from his handler Joe (Chazz Palminteri) at the behest of his girlfriend (Alison Eastwood, Clint's daughter). Johnny finds a construction job, but hates it. He's pulled back into the hustling world when Joe and his new charge Brad (Rick Shroeder) take out Jonny's younger brother (Michael Rosenbaum) and he winds up in jail trying to steal the money he owes Joe. Johnny gets backing from a millionaire (Christopher Walken) he met at a party and goes against Brad, winner take all.
Callahan also wrote and directed. He's an accomplished pool player in real life and wound up in a head to head battle one night with co-writer Chris Corso. The two became friends and in swapping pool hall stories decided to write a script. They put it together in two weeks and shopped it around for 10 years. All of the shots made in the film are real, although Bobby LeBlanc doubles some of the time. The trick shot Walken makes in the one scene was done by him and he sunk it on the first try.
Below is my favorite scene with Palminteri trying to prove what a big man he is and Walken giving him the mother of all verbal smackdowns.
Q: Has Jack Nicholson done any other tv ever?
A: Nice online handle.
Aside from appearances on talk shows, awards shows, specials and things like that, Nicholson hasn't done any episodic television since the late sixties. However, when he was starting out he did a lot of TV guest spots and cameos. Series he's appeared on include Matinee Theater, Mr. Lucky, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, Tells of Wells Fargo, Sea Hunt, Bronco, Little Amy, Hawaiian Eye, Dr. Kildare, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Guns of Will Sonnett and The Andy Griffith Show .
Q: If SNL could get anyone to be on their show just for a cameo in the world today for the publicity and ratings, who do you think they would get? I would say the Pope.
A: Some readers also chimed in with other ideas of who the most famous people to ever be on Saturday Night Live were from last week's question. As I said last week, it can be a differencing of opinion.
If you can say the Pope for the person SNL would want most for just the publicity and ratings, I'm going to say Osama Bin Laden.
If we go realistic, I would say someone who is currently embroiled in a lot of scandal. Charlie Sheen and Mel Gibson I'm thinking would draw big ratings and also probably still put on pretty decent episodes as host.
Q: I get the rumors that Burt Reynolds was supposed to be in a lot of these movies, but I seriously have doubts that he was ever in any real consideration for the lion's share of them. Burt doesn't fit most those molds.
What was the last Western TV show? I'm thinking Brisco County Jr, but maybe there was something after that? Just curious, since it used to be such a huge TV genre. I'm sure there's been some Lonesome Dove movies, but any recent regular Western TV shows?
A: Pretty much if you were ever an A-list actor in Hollywood your name was floated for every A-list project that came along. A known name is good for press and good for box office by producer reasoning.
The last regularly airing western series I believe was HBO's Deadwood which aired three season from 2004-2006. You could also consider the current FX series Justified to be a modern day western. Timothy Olyphant stars as a U.S. Marshal reassigned from Miami to his boyhood home of the Kentucky backwoods.
The last western series to air on network television I think was The Magnificent Seven adaptation on CBS. It ran two half seasons as a mid-season replacement in 1998 and 1999. The last successful network western was probably Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman starring Jane Seymour. The series ran six seasons on CBS from 1993-1998.
Q: First actor that comes to mind for turning down roles is George Raft. Guy turned down Maltese Falcon, High Sierra, and Casablanca, all the roles that Bogart took and made him into a huge star. Up until High Sierra, he was just a supporting actor.
A: George Raft might be a good candidate for turning down the most roles picked up by one other actor. He also turned down Double Indemnity that went to Fred MacMurray.
The other actor I can think of that turned down several parts that went to the same guy is John Travolta with Richard Gere. Travolta was rumored to be up for the parts played by Gere in Days of Heaven, An American Gigolo, An Officer and a Gentleman, Pretty Woman and Chicago . Travolta was also up for the lead in Splash , but his agent didn't think he should do it. Two other movies he was up for that went to Tom Hanks were Apollo 13 and Forrest Gump .
He was going to play Jim Morrison in The Doors when it was first being worked on, but the film got shelved in the early eighties due to rights issues. He was going to be Sylvester Stallone's partner in Rambo: First Blood Part II , but Stallone didn't think he should have a sidekick. Travolta's big screen debut was delayed when he lost out on the role of Larry in The Last Detail to Randy Quaid. That movie starred Jack Nicholson and he lost out on As Good as it Gets to Nicholson. He was also up to star in American Beauty .
Q: I would of thought Bill Murray would be up there for most movies an actor turned down?
A: Let's take a look at what the imdb says. He was up for Boon in Animal House , John Kimble in Kindergarten Cop , the voice of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story , the voice of Sully in Monsters, Inc. , Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Wily Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the title role in 1989's Batman until Tim Burton came on as director. Murray has said in interviews the role he really regrets turning down is the one played by Steve Carrell in Little Miss Sunshine . imdb also says he was up for Han Solo in Star Wars , but I think someone's blowing smoke on that one.
He reteamed with Sigourney Weaver from Ghostbusters for the off-off-Broadway play The Guys in 2001. Anthony LaPaglia took over his role for the movie. He was also working on a biopic of Michael Larson that didn't get made. Larson was a contestant on Press Your Luck who figured out the timing of the board and used the knowledge to win the most money on a game show up to that point. Preparing for the role was the reason Murray had the beard he did in The Royal Tannenbaums . In a reverse, he got the role of Venkman in Ghostbusters after the passing of his friend John Belushi.
Q: I remember in the early days of Fox there was a show called Oops, where a nuclear bomb was set off by a remote control car. Anyone from this show go onto do anything worthwhile?
A: The show was called Woops! and it answers the question in the comments last week from Guest 9194 about a Fox series dealing with a nuclear apocalypse. The show centered around six people living in a farm house following a nuclear disaster. It lasted 10 episodes. Actors on the show were:
Evan Handler as a schoolteacher. He was the show's narrator by writing in his journal. He's probably best known as Charlotte's husband on Sex in the City and Hank's agent on Californication .
Fred Applegate played a practical joker homeless man. Applegate has narrated many documentaries and originated the roles of Inspector Kemp and the blind hermit in the Broadway musical Young Frankenstein .
Cleavant Derricks was the only black on the show and played a research biologist. Derricks might be best remembered as Rembrandt Brown on the cult series Sliders . He really is a singer and musician in real life along with being an actor. He originated the role of James "Thunder" Early in the stage musical Dreamgirls .
Marita Geraghty played a ditzy hairstylist. She's appeared in several films including No Mercy, Hiding Out, Groundhog Day, Broadcast News, Sleeping with the Enemy and Don Juan DeMarco .
Lane Davies played a former venture capitalist. He's done a lot of stage work, television guest spots, a few movies and a bunch of soap operas.
Meagen Fay played a feminist bookstore worker. Fay was a member of Second City and has done television and movie work.
Q: I remember a tv show from the late eighties that had Don Adams from Get Smart running a grocery store. What was it?
A: Check It Out was a cheaply produced Canadian series that ran on USA Network in the states. It had 66 episodes over three seasons from 1985-1988. Adams was the floor manager of a small franchise grocery store filled with wacky customers and workers. Notables among the cast were Gordon Clapp as a ditzy handyman, who would go onto NYPD Blue , and Tonya Lee Williams as a cashier who spent several seasons on The Young and the Restless .
The opening credits of the first two seasons were on YouTube, but had embedding disabled, so you can check the link .
Q: Warner Brothers web site has several DVDs for sale that you can't get through Amazon, Netflix or Blockbuster-- what gives with that? I first noticed with the Pirates of Darkwater and now have seen several other shows given similar treatment. Is purchasing from the WB the only option for these titles?
A: The Warner Archive Collection began March 23, 2009. Available titles were those never released on DVD that could be ordered directly from the Warner website. Basically, Warner was burning official DV-R copies and sending them out as ordered. The only way you can get them from somewhere other than Warner is if an independent dealer would order several for resale. About 800 titles are currently available.
The reason Warner wants you to think they're doing it is to put out titles that some fans want, but aren't popular enough to warrant regular retail release.
The real reason in my opinion, as with everything, is money. The titles available aren't popular enough for a regular retail release. However, there are fans out there who do want the films, television shows and television movies. So, Warner can make a DVD as needed and send it out for mere pennies. They don't have to put in the extra cash of major production or distribution.
There are a bunch of previews and trailers on YouTube for the archive titles, but the embedding is disabled. Warner doesn't even want you to have the trailers for free.
Q: I recently watched a two-part episode of the 80s cartoon "Bravestarr" titled "Sherlock Holmes in the 23rd Century." Watching it, they were clearly hoping to launch a new spinoff cartoon from it (Bravestarr was pretty much a guest star in his own toon, Sherlock gave the cliche "I Think I'll stick around for awhile" speech, etc.) However, this didn't happen, probably because Filmation went out of business. So, I have a two-part question:
1.) Has similar situations like the example above happened before? Where the studio showed something meant to be a spinoff/pilot of something but for some reason or other didn't happen? I'm not talking about obviously failed spinoffs like "Joey" if that helps you.
2.) About a dozen years after Bravestarr ended, a cartoon with a VERY similar title and premise called "Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century" aired. It was pretty much the same thing except for a few tweaks. Was it inspired/ripped-off/whatver from the two-part Bravestarr episode?
A: According to Wikipedia, the concepts are similar, but apparently unrelated. Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century was the brainchild of Sandy Ross, a Scottish television producer, who came up with it while skiing in Aspen. The series was co-produced by Scottish television and DiC. The series won an Emmy in 2001 for special class animated program. The series mixed old-school 2D animation with 3-D CGI effects. Many episodes were based on Arthur Conan Doyle stories.
In New-London of the 22nd century, Beth Lestrade, ancestor of Det. Lestrade of the Holmes stories, finds a clone of Professor Moriarty. To combat him, Lestrade extracts Holmes' body from the basement of New Scotland Yard and has him brought back to life and youth through cellular regeneration. Beth has inherited Dr. Watson's journals and has her computer assistant read them, basically turning it into a surrogate Watson.
Michael L in the comments last week mentioned Halle Berry as Jinx in Die Another Day was supposed to get a spinoff movie. However, I think you were specifically asking about TV spinoffs. There have been many TV movies produced with series implications that didn't get made. There have also been potential spinoffs starring regular minor characters that never came about. When a series is used to help spinoff another show, especially if the idea has no strong connection to the original series, it's called a backdoor pilot.
Probably the series that had the most backdoor pilots that weren't realized was The Cosby Show . One episode showed the Huxtables volunteering at a recreation center ran by Tony Orlando. The recreation center idea would later be revisited as a possible spinoff for the Theo character. There is also an episode where Cliff is the doctor for new middle age parents played by real life husband and wife John Ritter and Amy Yasbeck. Ritter played a high school basketball coach. The idea was to do a sort of reverse Cosby Show with a lower middle class white couple trying to raise their first child a little later in life than the average couple. There was also an episode where Sammy Davis Jr., a good friend of Cosby's, appeared on the show. In his episode, he's reunited with his granddaughter who is about to give birth. It's also revealed he can't read. The idea of the show would have had Davis going to night school learning how to read while taking care of his great-grandchild during the day while his granddaughter is working.
An episode of The Brady Bunch starring Ken Berry and Brooke Bundy as the Bradys friends the Kellys was meant to be a spinoff. The couple adopted a white child from a local orphanage and wound up taking his Asian and black friend too. The show would have dealt with the couple raising a multiracial family.
An episode of Emergency was intended to spinoff a series about a group of veterinarians who specialized in emergency medical treatment of animals. Mark Harmon and Gary Crosby were in the cast.
A spinoff from The Nanny would have centered around the salon Fran Drescher's character and her mother went to, called the Chatterbox.
Jerry Seinfeld said once in an interview that NBC wanted him to work on a spinoff series for the Jackie Chiles character from Seinfeld . The Johnnie Cochran-esque lawyer character appeared a few times on the series.
An episode of Star Trek had the Enterprise traveling back to the 1960's meeting a character named Gary Seven. Seven (Robert Lansing) was kidnapped by aliens and turned into a super human with the mission of helping earth to survive bad decisions and promote the evolution of humans.
The last two episodes of Green Acres were meant as backdoor pilots for two series that never came about. "Hawaiian Honeymoon" had the Douglas' staying at a hotel ran by a man and his daughter, played by Don Porter and Pamela Franklin. "The Ex-Secretary" starred Elaine Joyce as Oliver's former secretary when he was still a New York lawyer.
Q: Did you give up on Assassination of Jesse James?
A: Yes.
Ok, ok, I've got an extra day off of work this week. Hopefully I can get to it. I have The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus to watch now too.
As a bonus this week enjoy a fight from the movie Marlowe pitting James Garner against Bruce Lee on the roof of a building. If there's anything more badass than Bruce Lee vs. Chuck Norris, it's this.
Don't die.
"I'm not sure I wanna be hanging out with a guy who noticed a crease in my pants."
Post Comment (10) | Email Leonard Hayhurst | View Leonard Hayhurst's 411 Profile
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment