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??"

^^^

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.