1990s MOVIE TRIVIA…
AS IF!
The decade that gave us the phrase “talk to the hand” also gave us quite an array of memorable films. Here are some hella-cool facts about some of our favorites.
Ghost (1990)
Producers suggested to director Jerry Zucker that he cast Patrick Swayze in the role of Sam, the ghost who watches over his former wife (Demi Moore). Zucker said no. Why? He’d seen some of Swayze’s other movies, like Dirty Dancing and Road House, and hated them. But producers let Swayze audition anyway, and his performance was so heartfelt that it made Zucker cry. Despite barely getting the part, Swayze refused to do the movie if Zucker didn’t cast Whoopi Goldberg as Oda Mae Brown. They wanted someone else, but she and Swayze were a package deal. She got the part…and won an Oscar for it.
The Addams Family (1991)
A lot of old TV shows were adapted into movies in the 1990s, such as The Flintstones, Maverick, and The Beverly Hillbillies. The trend started with a big-screen version of the Addams Family TV show. It came about when Twentieth Century Fox executive Scott Rudin happened to hear a friend’s kid singing the show’s famous theme song during a car ride, prompting a singalong. The next day, Rudin proposed the idea of an Addams Family film to his colleagues. Good idea: it turned out to be one of the top-grossing movies of the year.
Wayne’s World (1992)
The film takes place in the Chicago suburbs, but co-writer Mike Myers inserted a lot of his native Canada into the movie. For example, Wayne, Garth, and their metalhead friends hang out at Stan Mikita’s Donuts. Mikita was a local legend for the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, but the donut shop is an Americanized parody of a Canadian institution: Tim Hortons, a north-of-the-border chain co-founded by hockey star Tim Horton.
Martha Stewart dated Anthony Hopkins…until his work as Hannibal Lecter scared her.
One of the Chris Farley/David Spade buddy comedy’s most famous moments is “Fat Guy in a Little Coat,” wherein the large Tommy (Farley) dances around in Richard’s (Spade’s) blazer, which is much too small for him, while singing “Fat guy in a little coat.” It wasn’t in the script. It’s a bit that Farley used to do to annoy Spade—with his jeans jacket—when they were cast members on Saturday Night Live.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
This prison drama that always seems to be on TV is based on the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. When the film went into production with that title, director Frank Darabont received dozens of headshots from actresses clamoring to play Rita Hayworth. Only problem: Hayworth isn’t in the story; she “appears” in the film, but only as an image on a poster. The title was shortened, partly to end the confusion, but also because producers feared the full title was too long to fit on movie theater marquees. That irked co-star Morgan Freeman, who felt that they’d cut the title in half…and kept the wrong half. “Don’t choose Shawshank Redemption,” he complained to Darabont, “when you’ve got Rita Hayworth!” Freeman thought the hard-to-say “Shawshank” would turn moviegoers off. He was wrong.
Clueless (1995)
The film that introduced the phrase “As if!” into 1990s culture is an adaptation of the 1815 Jane Austen novel Emma. It follows the same plot of an overly confident rich socialite trying to navigate through her teen years. Austen’s goal with her main character, Emma, was to create “a heroine whom no one but myself will much like,” which is a good description of Cher, the role that made Alicia Silverstone a star.
Toy Story (1995)
The movie’s protagonist was originally going to be an antique drummer toy named Tinny (who made his debut in director John Lasseter’s 1988 short film Tin Toy). Plot: Tinny gets left behind at a rest area, befriends a ventriloquist dummy, and the two try to find their way home. But the producers thought a drummer toy would be too old-fashioned for modern audiences, so the character was recast as an astronaut, first named Lunar Larry, and later renamed Buzz Lightyear. The ventriloquist dummy was deemed too creepy and ended up as a cowboy ragdoll named Sheriff Woody Pride.
Iceland has never won a medal in the Winter Olympics.