RIP Harold Ramis :(

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-harold-ramis-dead-20140224,0,2259309.story

goddammit

Holy shit. Rip erratic comic genius.

;_;

RIP

Shocker, RIP Harold

wow, I had no idea he was so sick, with something so serious.

RIP

besides Groundhog Day, The Ice Harvest was a neat little movie, and both his Bedazzled remake and Vacation had their moments.

he'll always be Moe Green to me.

!

oh man RIP

Sad. RIP Egon.

http://th04.deviantart.net/fs70/200H/f/2011/143/e/4/team_egon_spengler_by_flamierocks87-d3h1gnj.jpg

Damn, damn shame.

We've all got our clips of choice I suspect and this is mine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzaQjS1JstY

kinda scary that he died from something that I've had

"Never hit anyone in anger unless you're absolutely sure you can get away with it." --Stripes

RIP Harold Ramis

wow RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR9HuRUUTbs

had just watched Meatballs last weekend

This Tad Friend New Yorker profile from 2004 is well worth reading.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/04/19/040419fa_fact3?currentPage=all

^^^ was just about to post it. tbh I was disappointed he came off sincere.

meatballs is one of my personal favorites, I have seen it so many times, I still watch it when it's on tv

I haven't seen Ice Harvest but I think I'm gonna try to check it out

good convo from 2005 here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5021345
though I wish there was an edit with just Ramis talking, Terry Gross annoys me so much with her long questions

This piece digs into his background and spiritual thought, talking about the Buddhist underpinnings of Groundhog Day in particular, as well as some interesting details -- never knew about him and Michael Shamberg being college/performance buddies.

http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=3379&Itemid=0&limit=1&limitstart=1

I love this aside from the New Yorker piece

Ramis’s line producer, Tom Busch, greeted him with a warning: “The schedule has us starting to shoot on April 5th, which is the first day of Passover.”

“There is no evidence that Exodus happened in the spring,” Ramis replied. “It’s totally arbitrary.”

can totally hear him saying it <3

"The neighborhood is a demilitarized zone."

I had forgotten he was one of the 3 screenwriters of Animal House. I wish American film comedy had broken his way instead of the Hughes/Landis/Reitman way.

Harold Ramis wrote the part of Boon for himself to play, but John Landis felt Ramis was too old. Ramis was so disappointed that he refused to accept a smaller part Landis offered him. (Ramis was 32, Peter Riegert was 29).

lol Chicago: "In Los Angeles, Steven Spielberg walks in and you’re nothing. Here, there’s nobody better than me. There’s a few Bulls around, and the Cusacks, but, basically, I’m it."

He'll always be Moe Green to me. RIP

idk in Chicago I bet tom skilling could walk in anywhere and rule the room.

Maybe if he was giving out free snuggies.

Terry Gross questions are not that long, but man, she takes forever to fucking ask them. "So, like, I was wondering, because I wear sweaters myself and, like, I like to be warm, and there's, like, nothing better than, like, a warm ... sweater. You know? Like, a really warm sweater. One that will get you through the winter without, like, being ... cold? You know? So I guess I was wondering if, like, you know, you ... like sweaters?"

yeah but she starts out talking about sweaters and then ends up asking you to talk about the timber your wardrobe is made of

Print is dead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skxhii6VFdo

that's a moranis moment, but "yes have some" is such a great setup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYCbF0Fat-c#t=5

:(

that's a moranis moment, but "yes have some" is such a great setup.

― socki (s1ocki),

man I lose my shit every time I watch this clip.

haven't listened to Terry Gross in years; the drip ruins too many interviews

Many Shubs and Zuuls knew what it was to roast in the depths of a Sloar that day I can tell you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnRLvwQKng0

nice tribute from hyman roth....

There was this kid I grew up with; he was younger than me. Sorta looked up to me, you know. We did our first work together, worked our way out of the street. Things were good, we made the most of it. During Prohibition, we ran molasses into Canada... made a fortune, your father, too. As much as anyone, I loved him and trusted him. Later on he had an idea to build a city out of a desert stop-over for GI's on the way to the West Coast. That kid's name was Moe Greene, and the city he invented was Las Vegas. This was a great man, a man of vision and guts. And there isn't even a plaque, or a signpost or a statue of him in that town! Someone put a bullet through his eye. No one knows who gave the order. When I heard it, I wasn't angry; I knew Moe, I knew he was head-strong, talking loud, saying stupid things. So when he turned up dead, I let it go. And I said to myself, this is the business we've chosen; I didn't ask who gave the order, because it had nothing to do with business!

RIP

mr veg still loves throwing out the 'print is dead' line whenever anyone mentions books or newspapers to him

I guess it's time to see Ghostbusters for the second time ever. Later this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3v_ogRaTf4

Last year for some weird reason I kept getting invited to watch Ghostbusters with various friends, and I ended up seeing it 3 times in a week, one of which was at the local arthouse movie theater. Everytime I see it, it gets better and better. And Egon was always the coolest, most understated, and funniest Ghostbuster.

"I collect spores, mold, and fungus."

Janine, I'm sure a woman with your qualifications would have no trouble finding a top flight job in the housekeeping or food service industry.

Ghostbusters is cool because even though it's dated, the comedy in it is still really...i guess evergreen is the word I'm looking for but it's such a corny word idk

The thing that dates GB the most is the theme song, which is all-time possibly the best movie theme song ever.

blame Streisand

People forget that he was the head writer at the start of SCTV.

It occurs to me that I haven't actually seen Ghostbusters in about 20 years, so that's tonight's laff-fest sorted.

lol sl0cki, I kept thinking "what? he was in the Godfather??"

^^^

xxp: it's on netflix, as is the Ice Harvest. Caddyshack and Meatballs are on Amazon Prime.

A couple of memories about Harold Ramis movies:

- Back when I was in junior high, my friends and I used to watch Stripes constantly. Almost literally every time it was on HBO. On New Year's Eve 1982, HBO had a phone-in contest for viewers to pick the best movie out of a group of 5, and they would show the winner at midnight. I don't remember all the contenders, but Stripes was one, and On Golden Pond was another. We were sure the stinky grownup movie was going to win (hey, we were in the 7th grade), but when the clock struck midnight, the old-school HBO movie intro bumper finished, and Stripes started up, we were all as excited as we had probably ever been. (As a bonus, shortly thereafter, MTV premiered U2's "New Year's Day" video. Ah, the 80s.)

- My parents divorced at the end of 1983, and just after the first of the year in 1984, my father got sent to his next duty station, at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. I spent the summer of 1984 there with him. My first weekend in Hawaii, we went to the beach. It was the first time I had ever been in the ocean, and I ignored many of my dad's entreaties to be careful of the sun, and ended up with an absolutely scalding sunburn. I was in complete misery, so we were looking for SOMETHING to do where I wouldn't be too uncomfortable. We decided to go to the movies, since it would involve a comfortable seat and air conditioning, and the only new thing opening that weekend was Ghostbuster. By the time it wrapped up, we were in such good moods, I nearly forgot my sunburn.

RIP guy i always confused with ivan reitman, i preferred you fwiw

Except for his Knocked Up cameo, I never saw anything he did after Multiplicity. I just assumed that the Carrey/Sandler/Farrellys wave of comedy left him as discouraged as it did me.

he is v funny in Knocked Up, was so happy to see him in that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR5yhKQo3dc

we ran molasses into Canada
lol.

Also, hadn't seen that Morbius posted the same thing as me.

the only other Stripes bit I really remember beside doo-wah-diddy is Murray's monologue about America as the land of rejects, which Ramis wrote apparently.

Aww damn. RIP

Things that raise your eyebrows on Wikipedia:

Ramis said he hoped to make a film about Emma Goldman (even pitching Disney with the idea of having Bette Midler star) but that none of the movie studios were interested and that it would have been difficult to raise the funding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcyktkVGUBM

roundup of obits and remembrances

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-harold-ramis-1944-2013

The thing that dates GB the most is the theme song, which is all-time possibly the best movie theme song ever.

but "Are You Ready For the Summer" from Meatballs is way up there.

RIP "Sexual Awareness Week"

LA Times:

“The moment I knew I wouldn't be any huge comedy star was when I got on stage with John Belushi for the first time," he said in a 1999 Tribune interview. "When I saw how far he was willing to go to get a laugh or to make a point on stage, the language he would use, how physical he was, throwing himself literally off the stage, taking big falls, strangling other actors, I thought: I'm never going to be this big. How could I ever get enough attention on a stage with guys like this?

"I stopped being the zany. I let John be the zany. I learned that my thing was lobbing in great lines here and there, which would score big and keep me there on the stage."

...Ramis was quiet about his illness, but friends did visit, including brothers and Second City castmates Bill Murray, from whom he'd been estranged for years, and Brian Doyle-Murray, who appeared in seven Ramis movies.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-harold-ramis-dead-20140224,0,2259309.story#ixzz2uH02kQQN

Bill Murray, from whom he'd been estranged for years

kinda a bummer to hear this

yeah, but comedians can be difficult people, i hear.

(I guess that's a Chi Trib full obit, since they have the same owner as the LAT)

I'm glad Ramis and Murray got past their differences enough to sit and visit together toward the end.

I didn't know they hadn't been speaking; anyone know what the source of that was?

always felt like he could be my uncle or something, like my mom he's a jewish kid from the north side of chicago. she's just a few years older than him. he talks like my relatives do.

i still find it weird that the NYT link line is "actor in 'Ghostbusters'." I would think "writer/director of 'Groundhog Day'" would get the same amount of recognition at this point. I've taught that movie; as everyone knows, it's one of the most inventive (and funny, of course) American movies of the 1990s.

sad news.

as much as I love Groundhog Day (and I mean it, I probably watch it every year), Ghostbusters is definitely going to win that popularity contest by far

He and Murray were at odds for years before Groundhog Day, I want to say, and then drifted apart again immediately afterwards.

i should add that he went to the same high school as my mom.

xpost

ok, i guess so.

x-xpost

It's interesting that really none of those classic Ramis comedies would be classic without Bill Murray, but of course they wouldn't be classic Ramis comedies without Ramis, either.

I've interviewed Ramis before, and my lasting impression is that he looked exactly like my Uncle Gary.

re ID with Ghostbusters, like Joe Gillis said, "People don't know anyone writes a picture..."

esp when it's vs acting in a film that's in the top grossers of their lifetime.

harold ramis is to amateurist as lorne michaels is to me

I think Ramis should be given some kind of medal for his patience with Terry Gross in that interview I linked upthread

Oscar in memoriam segment gonna be a bummer

Yeah, usually it's a laff riot.

well kinda topheavy with biggies from all generations

like, in the last month

Will they manage to include the people who died a week before the Oscars?

depends when the mortisline is

http://gothamist.com/2014/02/24/photos_harold_ramis_memorial_at_gho.php

Oscar in memoriam segment gonna be a bummer

― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Monday, February 24, 2014 3:39 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they should score it to the theme from ghostbusters

2004 new yorker article on Ramis
describes the feud:

Offscreen, Ramis and Bill Murray were trapped in a cycle of personal strains. Murray's marriage was breaking up, and he was behaving erratically--the whirling, unpredictable personality that Dan Aykroyd calls "the Murricane." Ramis sent Rubin to New York to work with Murray on the script, because he was tired of taking his star's 2 a.m. calls. Rubin says that when Ramis phoned him to check in, Murray would shake his head and mouth the words "I'm not here." "They were like two brothers who weren't getting along," Rubin says. "And they were pretty far apart on what the movie was about--Bill wanted it to be more philosophical, and Haroldkept reminding him it was a comedy."

"At times, Bill was just really irrationally mean and unavailable; he was constantly late on set," Ramis says. "What I'd want to say to him is just what we tell our children: 'You don't have to throw tantrums to get what you want. Just say what you want.' "

After the film wrapped, Murray stopped speaking to Ramis. Some of the pair's friends believe that Murray resents how large a role Ramis had in creating the Murray persona. Michael Shamberg, a Hollywood producer who has known Ramis since college and who used to let Murray sleep on his couch, says, "Bill owes everything to Harold, and he probably has a thimbleful of gratitude."

Except for brief exchanges at a wake and a bar mitzvah, the two men haven't talked in eleven years. "It's a huge hole in my life," Ramis says, "but there are so many pride issues about reaching out. Bill would give you his kidney if you needed it, but he wouldn't necessarily return your phone calls."

In early March, Ramis prevailed on Brian Doyle-Murray to ask his brother if he would take part in "The Ice Harvest." Brian reported that Bill said no, thanks. When Ramis asked if Bill had said anything more, anything personal, Brian said that his brother hadn't mentioned Ramis at all.

oof

lol @ the Murricane

Michael Shamberg, who worked with New Order a ot.

that firehouse is 3 blocks from my office in fact

xpost -- Different Shamberg:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Shamberg

Not to be confused with the producer and director, Michael H. Shamberg, who has a long history of association with the Manchester band, New Order.

Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day seem likely to last as long as His Girl Friday and Bringing Up Baby. That would put Ramis near the very top of his craft. RIP.

I can’t tell you how many people have told me, “When I go to the movies, I don’t want to think.”

BLVR: Does that offend you as a filmmaker?

HR: It offends me as a human being. Why wouldn’t you want to think? What does that mean? Why not just shoot yourself in the fucking head? Or people’ll say that they don’t want to see any negative emotions. They don’t want to see unpleasantness. I did a comedy with Al Franken about his character Stuart Smalley, which was really about alcoholism and addiction and codependency. It had some painful stuff in it. When we showed it to focus groups, some of them actually said, “If I want to see a dysfunctional family, I’ll stay home.”

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2014/02/harold-ramis-1944-2014.html

Your beloved Siskel and Ebert praised the movie (the only critics if I remember correctly) precisely on those grounds -- and for being rather sweet about it.

I'm not dissing Ghostbusters, which I probably haven't seen in something like 25 years, but kind of feel like a lot of the love it gets is the nostalgia-based kind from 80s kids. Groundhog Day strikes me as a film, based on its reputation, that'll prove more enduring.

Here's the entire interview that's excerpted on Kenny's site, btw:

http://www.believermag.com/issues/200603/?read=interview_ramis

Via Twitter and (former?) ILXor Ben Boyer:

When I was a kid, National Lampoon's Vacation was my favorite movie. I collected all kinds of ephemera, like the original press pack. I thought other Harold Ramis fans might like this biography from it, so I scanned it.

http://imgur.com/a/J2Sux

I'm guessing you guys like Ghostbusters the way I like It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. Neither of them are Bringing Up Baby, or Groundhog Day.

Could be. I just finished rewatching it, and its best parts have already showed up in this thread.

HR: There was a great construct I once heard about the Absurd Child Syndrome. Parents tell us things to protect us, or they educate us from their own misinformation or misconceptions. We tell our kids that policemen are good and God protects us and our country is noble, and at a certain point—for some of us, it comes quite early, at five or six years old—we start to realize that it’s all a facade. So the child says, “Well, geesh, the institutions that I’m supposed to respect are telling me things that don’t appear to be true. Either I’m crazy or they’re crazy.” That creates the Absurd Child. The Absurd Child is one who says, “Well, I think they’re crazy.” So you live in this state of alienation from your culture and your society and your family because you see this rampant bullshit around you.

BLVR: But isn’t that blanket rejection of your parents’ values just an inevitable part of growing up?

HR: For most of us, yes. But some people have a fear of rejecting all the security that comes with family, church, and state. They become fundamentalists. In a lot of ways, every child is a miniature fundamentalist. They need to believe in these things. It’s too terrifying otherwise. It takes maturity to embrace all that ambiguity. Once you’re alienated, you’re on your own.

BLVR: It’s not a happy place to be. You have to make up the rules as you go along.

HR: Yeah. “You mean we’re not going to heaven? This is it? I can’t trust my parents or my teachers? The people who govern us are sadistic idiots?”

Thanks for posting that interview, it's really incredible!

nostalgia-based kind from 80s kids

You might be right about that, but I was no kid when Ghostbusters came out. I was ~30 years old. It's a beautifully realized piece of comedy. About the only character in it that comes off weak and poorly imagined is the EPA guy as the nemesis. It has good narrative momentum, a droll wit, lots of farce, a touch of slapstick, and it all works together very smoothly. The sequel was unfortunate because the original was not designed according to a formula and when they tried to reduce it to one, it wasn't just reduced, but shrunken.

There's definitely an element of nostalgia to my Ghostbusters love, but there are swathes of films from that era that don't work any more. It just happens to also be a great film.

Had no idea that Ramis' six-year-old daughter played Daisy Mabel (spawn of Uncle Eddie)!

http://i.imgur.com/eYHZYo8.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/tvQXOTC.jpg

That would be this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9Ud2UJCv4s

which I've never seen, looks dubious, and did not star Murray or Cleese in the end.

Although searching back through ilx, apparently some people have favorable opinions about it. I dunno. I can't get past Robin Williams.

I've seen it. It's not bad, but not worth watching again. Williams turned down the wackiness to a tolerable level, and there's none of the mawkish sentimentality that plagues many of his other movies.

imawkish

lol inadvertent pun

He was so good in what I think was only one season on SCTV (maybe there was a second, I don't know):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFPf6a9viv8

Like Flaherty and Candy, he could be exceptionally slimy on the one hand, and then on the other there was this really sweet and likeable guy on the other.

Two years, performer/head writer

I keep meaning to buy an SCTV box set (my partner is Canadian, has fond memories of the show, and I've never seen it). Is there a good season/would it hold up?

Anything up til Candy leaves is essential.

It's one of the 3 greatest sketch shows of all time and blows away every film mentioned on this thread except Groundhog Day.

you mean not "holding up" compared to...? Planet Apatow? Shouldn't be a problem unless you're "Oh, they're parodying something from 1978, DATED."

SCTV is the greatest and still holds up. huge, huge impact on me as a kid. and still.

didnt know ramis worked for playboy!

Planet Apatow?

Apatow's done three TV series and you're big into one of them!

I am not; it's my one surrender to keeping up with "what's going on." He's also not the auteur.

btw as far as what HR is "best known for" by the masses, there is an "appraisal" in the NY Times today whose blurb leads with "Many movie fans would barely recognize Harold Ramis," so, you know... the real world. A terrible place.

I also wish my 7-year-old niece was an Absurd Child as described above. The Disney princesses aren't helping.

I was a total Absurd Child (still am?). One daughter may be on the cusp, the other less so. Hmm ...

Ghostbusters and Die Hard may be my two favorite monoculture '80s blockbusters, and they both hold up really well for a confluence of reasons. Cast, direction, effects, tone, script, acting ... you know, movie stuff. The former in particular has aged well mostly for being so deadpan despite the anarchy.

From the interview I did with him:

O: In terms of your work as a screenwriter and an actor, you had a great run up until Club Paradise, Armed And Dangerous, and Caddyshack II.

HR: (Laughs and groans.) Club Paradise I wouldn't class with those two. No one went, but it's a much better movie than those. Armed And Dangerous was a project that had died a quiet death, and then was resurrected by Brian Grazer, the producer. And Brian said, "If I can find a director, can I make the movie?" And I said okay. So then he finds a director—and I mean, literally, he just found a guy—and it was not good. I tried to take my name off it. I took my name off in one place. I was both executive producer and screenwriter, and I can't remember which name came off. (He was billed as a screenwriter only. —ed.) But I gave up one credit! With Caddyshack II, the studio begged me. They said, "Hey, we've got a great idea: 'The Shack Is Back!'" And I said (moans), "No, I don't think so." But they said that Rodney (Dangerfield) really wanted to do it, and we could build it around Rodney. Rodney said, "Come on, do it." Then the classic argument came up which says that if you don't do it, someone will, and it will be really bad. So I worked on a script with my partner Peter Torokvei, consulting with Rodney all the time. Then Rodney got into a fight with the studio over his contract and backed out. We had some success with Back To School, which I produced and wrote, and we were working with the same director, Alan Metter. When Rodney pulled out, I pulled out, and then they fired Alan and got someone else (Allan Arkush). I got a call from (co-producer) Jon Peters saying, "Come with us to New York; we're going to see Jackie Mason!" I said, "Ooh, don't do this. Why don't we let it die?" And he said, "No, it'll be great." But I didn't go, and they got other writers to finish it. I tried to take my name off that one, but they said if I took my name off, it would come out in the trades and I would hurt the film.

O: It couldn't have hurt it any more.

HR: No, it was terrible! I went away. I had a big, huge change in my personal life on Club Paradise. I ended my marriage and began a new relationship, which became my new marriage. So I didn't do much in those few years beyond those things and writing Ghostbusters II, which ended that fallow period.

ha ha aw at Ghostbusters 2 being a renaissance

[Apatow isn't the auteur on Freaks & Geeks either!]

do you srsly think I'd still be watching Girls if Adam Driver wasn't in it?

Somehow never saw Ghostbusters 2, but did see Armed and Dangerous and Caddyshack 2, so it's not like I can claim to have been a discerning child.

Kael's long review of Club Paradise is the peak of her late period prose.

From a friend on FB:

I had two callbacks with three scenes with Harold Ramis. I was young enough to think they could be my Big Break. They weren't; he went with the other actress (older, LA, had done nudity before). At the time I blamed myself for being too fat.

He could not have been kinder, more humble, and according to inside sources, he was actually concerned that I would be doing nudity for a first major role and that it would influence the rest of my career in a negative way.

I think very highly of the man.

I have seen shit that'll turn you white!

Look in the Valley of the Leopards!

(For every blockbuster comedy I don't remember that you bust out... although I'm just about out of Ramis SCTV lines. Per Hal roach, they said things funny more than they said funny things.)

I was going to post clemenza's disco clip

You . . . don't remember Ghostbusters? Pretty sure it was brought up int this thread.

It was v.v. popular in 1984 and afterwards btw.

Yeah, I saw it in '84 and remember "He slimed me," the marshmallow man and "You're like a game show host."

“At the heart of director and co-writer Harold Ramis’s peak film achievement, Groundhog Day (1993), there’s an idea that comes straight out of a theater game popularized by improvisation pioneer Viola Spolin, the mother of Compass Players founder Paul Sills. The game predates the birth of The Second City improv and sketch emporium, even. It’s called ‘Rewind.’ Ramis, among hundreds of other Second City alums, knew his way around the format blindfolded.”

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-appreciation-in-groundhog-day-ramis-second-city-roots-reappear-20140224,0,1231182.story

In 2010, HR debates a psychiatrist on Solondz's Happiness:

At the climax of “Happiness,” when a father/pedophile played by Dylan Baker describes the rape of his son’s friend as ‘great,’ there was a smattering of laughter from the crowd. Ramis says during the debate that the laughs came “from how disturbed we all are.” Miller agrees: “Laughter is a defense against something that is so abhorrent.” The debate, however, is less funny when they agree.

Dr. Miller calls attention to the film’s recurring theme of impotency and ponders out loud its possible origin. He suggests perhaps the screenwriter’s own life. Ramis, less concerned with Solondz’s sexual fortitude, searches for cinematic categorization. Like Charlie Kauffman’s “Synecdoche, New York,” Ramis says, “Happiness” taps into our “fascination with abomination.” Miller contrasts the film with “American Beauty,” which he felt “flowed very naturally” in ways “Happiness” did not. Ramis quips back, “Well, as a director, [Sam] Mendes is depressed; Todd [Solondz] is just sick.”

http://newcityfilm.com/2010/04/20/what-is-happiness-harold-ramis-versus-the-psychiatrist/

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/t1/1620550_608164512597370_321898230_n.jpg

no mention of Back to School yet in this thread :(

I never realised until reading (i think) the avclub interview that he did back to school. loved it as a kid, scared to watch it as an adult in case i was wrong. (i loved best defence as a kid, so obv my tastes were suspect)

Well he only did script work on BtS, and the imdB lists eight -- count em, eight! -- story or screenplay guys on it, including Rodney. I recall it being good. Assuming Ramis did the Molly Bloom scene.

I've seen maybe 30 minutes of Caddyshack over the years, and only laughed when Dangerfield is onscreen. (Which is mildly surprising, since I think Jackie Mason was a better comic.)

Back To School is pretty underrated. And yeah, I actually didn't know Ramis co-wrote it until yesterday.

The last time I saw it, as an adult, it mostly held up pretty well.

Never seen Caddyshack, and as long as Chevy Chase is in it, I never will.

didn't see it till i was an adult, and thought it was pretty funny.

Caddyshack's pretty great tbh, though I think Bill Murray's unforgivably broad in it, and the Irish girl's accent is just ludicrous

obama quoted caddyshack in his ramis memorial. challopsy perhaps but i think ted knight owns that movie personally.

Never seen Caddyshack, and as long as Chevy Chase is in it, I never will.

I think my favorite scenes are the ones with Chevy Chase

It's the only thing I've seen where Chevy is remotely tolerable. "I'm a veg, Danny."

(Which is mildly surprising, since I think Jackie Mason was a better comic.)

― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, February 25, 2014 12:06 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

O_O

chevy's awesome in caddyshack

http://q99.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/chevy-chase-caddyshack-quotes-66113.jpg
"thank you very little"

"Well, that was...awful."

Kasurinsky pictured in that RIP infogram above :-(

Oh wait, haha, didn't read.

It's the only thing I've seen where Chevy is remotely tolerable. "I'm a veg, Danny."

― Taking Devil's Tower (by mashed potatoes) (WilliamC), Tuesday, February 25, 2014 12:26 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this.

Fletch and Vacation aren't exactly bad

Chris Rock once said about Will Smith "His career is so hot he could be in a movie with CHEVY CHASE and still make money."

how's life, you posted my IP address

wtf, chevy's been great in lots of things -- he's still by far the best weekend update host imo.

damn. fixed it. sorry. xp

Thanks!

Even tho Chevy has less talent, I'm not sure he made more lousy movies than Dan Aykroyd.

They met in the middle.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d4/Nothing_but_trouble_poster.jpg

Still, Aykroyd has been in a lot more GOOD movies simply by virtue of working nonstop during years when Chase couldn't get cast as himself, probably.

Name three.

Still remember the Spy Magazine cartoon with Dan Aykroyd's desk and his overflowing=with-scripts "Accept" box- Doctor Detroit, The Couch Trip, etc. next to an empty "Reject" box.

me too.

Phil, how long have you known Mr Chase IRL btw?

RIP Moe Green (Ramis said that the name was just a lame pun on "more green", more money, nothing to do with "The Godfather" btw)

good in them or good movies? He's fine in Driving Miss Daisy and The House of Mirth.

lol look who's suddenly uncomfortable with people having opinions about movies and actors.

I've known him exactly as long as you've known Apatow, you fucking bore.

(xposts) Never knew that. Just assumed The Godfather. I've been trying to find a clip of Ramis doing his Dialing for Dollars bit but can't. There's a great one where some caller actually wins the cash, and he starts sweating bullets because there's clearly no money to pay him.

Aykroyd will never drag down a film on his own; at worst, he'll be unobtrusively meh.

Chevy can only completely stink up the joint (except on SNL and, weirdly, Community, where he was brilliant).

Back to School is great, definitely holds up. Caddyshack is great, Murray is maybe the 4th best thing about it behind Ted Knight, Rodney, and Chevy.

no way is Mason better than Dangerfield but comedy is subjective etc

I like the one where Walter Cronkite's hosting and Rick Moranis calls to harass him about the program's being called "$Dialling For Dollar$" xpost

Statement from Bill Murray:
“Harold Ramis and I together did the National Lampoon Show off Broadway, Meatballs, Stripes, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day. He earned his keep on this planet. God bless him.”

Caddyshack is great, Murray is maybe the 4th best thing about it behind Ted Knight, Rodney, and Chevy.

Pulled it off the shelf last night, and YES.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6m5QmQEiCg

"playing himself" has been thrown at every film comedian who has had a consistent persona from film to film (including the greatest, like Groucho Marx and Bob Hope) but it always amuses me that the persona must be "himself." It all boils down to whether you find the material and/or the persona funny. As you were.

That wasn't the context in which I was using "playing himself."

"I shoulda stayed home and played with myself!"

put a quarter in yr ass

i apologize if i misunderstood.

I'm talking about Mason's standup vs Dangerfield's primarily (I think the only film I've seen Jackie in was The Jerk). The more Catskills he got, the harder I laughed.

yeah I get that, I just don't think they're even close. But then I'm the kind of guy who puts Rodney slightly behind Richard Pryor (#1) and Steve Martin (#2) in terms of standup.

see, I don't think he was anywhere near as inventive. (And that's not just an oldtimer thing; I'd say the same about Steven Wright -- they each tell the same basic joke over and over.)

Martin didn't really do it for long enough, at least not that we have recordings of.

he gave up and became terrible but man he was a gamechanger imho (not as much as Pryor but still). I don't disagree that Rodney did one thing, but man that one thing is so classic and deeper than he's usually given credit for. total Pagliacci sad-clown stuff, there is some real pain in that persona he put on.

Never seen Caddyshack, and as long as Chevy Chase is in it, I never will.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, February 25, 2014 12:08 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You're missing out. Ive probably seen it 100 times and i still laugh my ass off. Chase is great in it, but as stated above, Ted Knight is the best.

Yeah, I always think of Caddyshack as a Ted Knight/Rodney Dangerfield vehicle, with Chase and Murray as supporting players. Both very funny, but not the stars of the movie now matter how quotable the latter is.

Always loved this bit, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r95a3p8Os-w

I never quite understood how Rodney caught fire with the youth circa '78-80, which led to his movie stardom -- he'd been doing that act on oldster TV shows and clubs since he got back in the biz in the early '60s. New management?

been meaning to getting around to reading his autobio cuz I'm curious about those details as well. I would think his club had something to do with it, that must've engendered a fair amount of loyalty and (lol) respect from the standup community, but why that translated into larger success at that particular point in time I dunno. America was just ready for a lovable loser I guess. He was an old dude who did drugs and seemed as crazy/loony as the SNL guys (kinda like Steve Martin).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLGxWPtgodo&feature=kp

I remember he did a "meta" cameo on SNL in spring '79, in a Three Mile Island sketch, where Jimmy Carter (Aykroyd) had gone into the reactor and grew to colossal size. Rodney came on to say "He's BIG, I tell ya! He could make love to the Lincoln Tunnel!" I thought he was getting big laughs cuz, ha, here's a 'dad' comic you wouldn't expect to see on SNL.

I saw him in Bloomingdales around '85, in shorts and a polo shirt, carrying an electric fan he'd apparently just bought for the club. Unforgettable.

y'know, I never really understood what the joke was supposed to be with Father Guido. was he supposed to be "hip" because he smoked a cigarette? (insert hip priest joke)

I'm no Chevy Chase fan. I can't stand hearing those "It's in the hole!" or Dalai Lama references repeated by frat boys. And most of the time, the only version available to watch is the edited version.

But that said, don't miss out on Caddyshack, Goat. It's great, and Ted & Rodney make it legendary.

Last time my dad and I went out to the course, he hit a pretty sweet drive and strutted up the fairway with the club over his shoulder, going "It all began at a 5,000-watt station in Fresno..." I have no idea if he was being meta or had finally gone senile...

I'm pretty sure Don Novello was doing Father Guido for the Smothers Brothers show when he wrote for them. I think it was just early '70s stoner humor only, y'know, funny. A groovy priest.

so like Cheech and Chong, not actually funny ("ya had to be there! and be high!")

This LP has some nice bits on it ("Five-Minute University")

http://www.cheapkissrecords.com/wp-content/uploads/105578-275x275.jpg

as usual, San Francisco is to blame.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Novello#Career

He worked on SCTV in the NBC years, after Ramis was gone.

Even as a ten year old I found this funny. "Here's a little hint, most of the Popes have red faces."

http://vimeo.com/59509411

You've convinced me, pplains.

I'm not dissing Ghostbusters, which I probably haven't seen in something like 25 years, but kind of feel like a lot of the love it gets is the nostalgia-based kind from 80s kids. Groundhog Day strikes me as a film, based on its reputation, that'll prove more enduring.

? Inside Lewellyn Sinclair (cryptosicko), Monday, February 24, 2014 7:54 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

groundhog day is the superior film but ghostbusters is a really well-done comedy. great script, great set of actors bring the characters to life. it even has a pretty good climax, which is where most studio comedies fall down. my students love it, and they were born years after it was made.

i'd say reitman is a sloppier filmmaker than ramis. but he is skilled and efficient, at least. (shall we call him "landis-like"?)

but: no shame in being an strong comedy which doesn't happen to be a masterpiece.

btw i wrote one of those "rewind" type sketches for my high school's comedy revue back in you-don't-even-want-to-know. it got the biggest laughs of the show, but I always felt bad since it wasn't very original.

back to school is a big deal around these parts, as i'm sitting less than a mile from where all the exteriors were shot.

whoops, fixed:

I'm not dissing Ghostbusters, which I probably haven't seen in something like 25 years, but kind of feel like a lot of the love it gets is the nostalgia-based kind from 80s kids. Groundhog Day strikes me as a film, based on its reputation, that'll prove more enduring.

? Inside Lewellyn Sinclair (cryptosicko), Monday, February 24, 2014 7:54 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

groundhog day is the superior film but ghostbusters is a really well-done comedy. great script, great set of actors bring the characters to life. it even has a pretty good climax, which is where most studio comedies fall down. my students love it, and they were born years after it was made.

i'd say reitman is a sloppier filmmaker than ramis. but he is skilled and efficient, at least. (shall we call him "landis-like"?)

but: no shame in being an strong comedy which doesn't happen to be a masterpiece.

btw i wrote one of those "rewind" type sketches for my high school's comedy revue back in you-don't-even-want-to-know. it got the biggest laughs of the show, but I always felt bad since it wasn't very original.

back to school is a big deal around these parts, as i'm sitting less than a mile from where all the exteriors were shot.

Sorry about the annoying intro, but here is the Switchman Muley sketch from SCTV with Harold Ramis as Muley from The Grapes of Wrath starring in a children's show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31XK5wZanCg

He played Cusack's father (!) in High Fidelity but the scenes were cut.

I love how avuncular he looked in recent years. He could have had a solid second career just playing good-guy dads.

the Ramis of indie

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mazgw53MRz1qd418mo1_500.png

underrated aero

Hang on, I think I've got something in my eye...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BheBQGUCcAA7JXs.jpg:large

Everyone always forgets Winston...

this is the one that I saw shared the most via facebook

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1/1622741_10151902609815759_733376280_n.jpg

They're sad because they're condemning his soul to an eternity of imprisonment in a grubby fire station basement.

lacking "no Ghostbusters 3" celebration

From the An oral history:

REITMAN: For the Dana character, I started doing auditions and meetings with young actresses, and I remember meeting Julia Roberts. I thought, “Wow, what a lovely person.”
Sigourney Weaver walked into my office. She had done Alien and The Year of Living Dangerously, really heavy stuff. She said, “I can be funny. I did comedy when I was at Yale Drama School.” And I’m not believing her at all.

SIGOURNEY WEAVER: I had to blow my own horn because I hadn’t really done a film comedy, but I had done many onstage.

REITMAN: [While doing the terror dog scene] she gets on my couch and starts panting like a dog. And I’m laughing because here’s this six-two, really beautiful, sexy woman, jumping around, doing this very funny stuff.

WEAVER: I wanted to show him that I was totally open to howling, screaming, and slobbering. I remember thinking afterwards that I may have frightened him a bit because I did tear into his cushions.

I can totally imagine hearing Aykroyd say this: People in the paranormal field loved it. It gave focus to their work.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgflhd4CVd1qadm8ko1_400.png

damn. all gone.

just finished reading the oral history-style Belushi: A Biography the other night. there's lots of Ramis in there.

on Groundhog Day & Last Year at Marienbad:

http://whitecitycinema.com/2014/03/02/last-thoughts-on-harold-ramis-and-alain-resnais/

that was lovely

thomas frank, raining on the funeral parade

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/02/baby_boomer_humors_big_lie_ghostbusters_and_caddyshack_really_liberated_reagan_and_wall_street/

oh, Animal House and Ghostbusters seemed v much like NatLamp boys-will-be-boys hippie-reactionary stuff to me. "Can we dance wif your dates?" etc.

yeah, tbh it's not totally off base

"Can we dance wif your dates?" etc.

This scene is so completely fucked up (also the "primitive cultures" cutaway), and I rarely see it brought up in discussions of Animal House. Surprised Frank's piece didn't mention it.

Casual racism was pretty "acceptable" in the '70s; I heard in-class teacher remarks in the 1970s (in New Jersey) that would be jaw-dropping if not actionable today.

in the NPR interview Ramis said that actually happened to him

I believe him, but the staging and angle of the humor is creepy at best.

HR: I try to work from both ends. I look for the meaning in what’s funny, and I look for what’s funny about things that are meaningful to me. I’m working on a big idea comedy now, which I haven’t started writing, but I’ve made the deal. It’s about our assumptions about society and how we got to this point. It examines the origins of culture, going back to hunter-gatherers and the first cities on the planet. Which, ironically, is where we’re fighting our war right now. We’re still fighting on the same ground. I want this movie to be about the power of the church and the state. But you won’t see that on the poster. The details of it are funny to me. Most comedy scripts fail in the mechanical playing-out of the setup. They’ll pay lip service to a moral lesson or a psychological progression. The main character will learn something, but it’s usually something simplistic. He’ll learn that he loves his wife, or that family is a good thing, or that sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe. Those are minor lessons, and they don’t really work for me. I’d rather do comedies that strike at some bigger ideas.

lol at him describing what presumably became "year one" like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZPZwWwmWkA

xpost There's also the out of nowhere racial animosity at the end of "Stripes," when they're practicing and John Candy picks a fight with the black guys. I still have no idea what the hell that's about.

Like, it's not funny, it's not set up, it's just suddenly ... there.

Ramis is trying to get everyone to march in time. "C'mon, rhythm! Hut, 2, 3, 4. Black guys, help the white guys..."

Memory's a faulty thing--always a good idea to look at clips first before you show them to your grade 6 class.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iINyyfDf_xE

There's also the out of nowhere racial animosity at the end of "Stripes," when they're practicing and John Candy picks a fight with the black guys. I still have no idea what the hell that's about.

Not the first time John Candy has been involved in something like that - he played a virulently racist character in Spielberg's 1941, too! Weird.

xpost It's what comes after that. Here's what random internet guy I just googled noted:

I never really understood this part. It's the night before their graduation and Ramis is leading them through the drills in an uninspired fashion. He's trying to get them in rhythm and jokingly says, "Black guys, help the white guys." One of the black guys whispers, "What did he say?" and then John Candy gets all up in his face like he wants to fight.

I get that they're all frustrated, tired, and at the end of their ropes, so it's the right time for Murray's character to come in with the inspiring Old Yeller/we're mutants speech. But why would Candy suddenly want to fist fight the black guy because of that comment? Were there long-simmering racial tensions in the unit? Was Candy just a racist? It doesn't make any sense within the context of the film.

I don't remember the scene, but things like that are often the vestiges of other cut sequences.

Sure. But it implies some racial animosity which otherwise doesn't crop up in the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7sNpXJ6ci0

I watched the Stripes "extended cut" last week, and there aren't any additional scenes with Candy (or at least none that point to him being a racist).

The deleted scenes, though, hoo boy...best left deleted.

Racial tensions and animosities were pretty widespread in the 1970s, fwiw.

This was 1981 or whatever, we were well beyond that.

especially in the military

Stripes ran out of gas towards the end. the first half is hilarious, but right around the graduation and the trip to Czechoslovakia it got pretty bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFDaQSU41U0#t=3m22s

oops i fucked it up. they talk about 'stripes' around 3:22-3:48.