The Rewatchables - ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ With Bill Simmons, Shea Serrano, and Amanda Dobbins

Episode Date: April 20, 2021

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Shea Serrano, and Amanda Dobbins commit a run-by fruiting as they rewatch the 1993 classic ‘Mrs. Doubtfire,’ starring Robin Williams, Sally Field, and Pierce Brosnan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, if you love the rewatchables, we're trying something fun on Spotify. We separated all the action movies into their own playlist. You can find it at Spotify. com slash rewatchables action or just search for rewatchables action on Spotify. Every action movie we've ever done since 2017, it's all there. Plus, if you want to hear the entire archives, everything later than 60 days that we've done on the rewatchables, you can only find it on Spotify. This episode is brought to you by Adobe Firefly, the all-in-one creative studio with AI-powered image and video generation.

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Pick up fees may apply We're also brought to you by The Ringer podcast network as well as the ringer.com. Coming up. It was a run by fruiting. Mrs. Doutfire is next. Housekeeper. I'm you for denier adult fire. Light cleaning must be good with kids.

You can't imagine what it was like being married to Daniel. He sounds like an absolute stadium. Robin Williams. A father's work. He's never done. Mrs. Doubtfire. The first year's a woman. I'm getting hot flashes.

Ready, PG-13. Starts Wednesday, November 24th, of theaters everywhere. All right. Shea Serrano's here, Amanda Dobbins is here. We're going to talk about one of the stealth divorce movies of the last 50 years.

The second most successful movie of 1993, it made $441 million. That's wild. I'm going to start here, Shea. Is this the Robin Williams movie that has endured? for all audiences because he's made some good ones. I'm going to give my Mount Rush more in a second,

but it seems like this one has had the most legs. There's this stuff I was doing some research on it. In 2013, Variety reported that this was the most shown movie on cable television, that it was on cable 66 times in 2013. This is 20 years after the movie came out. For people under 35, I feel like this is the number one Robin Williams movie because this is the one they grew up with. What do you think? You have three kids. At my house, it's one hour photo.

That's the one we all. It's a one hour photo and then insomnia. And then my dreams may come. That's the, that's really. No, this one, this one is, it feels like a big, like a big family movie. I think I would go with Aladdin over this one.

That's got to be where the Serrano house lands in the situation, but this is certainly up there, way, way up there. And it's the movie that I would say this in Good Morning, Vietnam, were the two movies that people just kind of unleashed Robin Williams in a movie. Am I leaving anything else out of me? No, those were the two where they're just like, we're just going to keep the cameras rolling do your stuff. Yeah, in terms of the range of what you get to see him do, I think this is like maybe the

most complete Robin Williams experience because you get to see all the voice work and the impersonations and the, you know, kind of manic childlike energy that animates Aladdin, which was a core childhood text for me as well, Shea. I really relate to that. But you do also get like the emotion and like the energy in the very last scene of Mrs. Doubtfire, which I don't want to, well, I don't know why I don't want to spoil it. We've all seen the movie. This is the rewatchables. But when he's when he's giving the speech on the TV as Mrs. Doubtfire to all the kids, about like you're going to be okay. Like that energy is not that different from Goodwill hunting.

And it's, you know, it's not your fault. And so that it spans everything and it's kind of a bridge from the family movies to Goodwill Hunting, which is my other Touchstone performance, to me makes it like kind of the quintessential Robin Williams performance. Yeah, it's funny. For me, the Mount Rushmore for him, it's Goodwell Hunting, Dead Poets. world according to garb, a movie that I really love and was kind of the first time I had ever seen him, not as Mork.

Because when I was growing up as a kid, he was Mork. He was the guy who starts on a happy days, gets his own show, he becomes a phenomenon. And then I would say tied for fourth would be Good Morning, Vietnam, and Mrs. Delfire. But I think Mrs. Delfire aged completely differently than the Good Morning Vietnam did. Both of them were really successful.

And Good Morning Vietnam, he's nominated for Best Actor, you know, But I think as the years have passed, because of the family element of this, it just kind of kept going and going. But, Shag, listen to this run for Robin Williams. 1987 and 1983. He has four top 10 grossing movies for the year. He has three Oscar nominations. He's in three best picture movies.

He made five of the top 10 grossing movies, which were Good Morning, Vietnam was fourth, dead poets was 10th, hook was sixth, hook was sixth, not not. a great movie, but it was still six for the year. Aladdin was first, and Mrs. Doubtfire was second. The three Oscar movies were Dead Poets Society, Fisher Kings, and Awakening's. And he also, during that stretch did Cadillac Man, Dead Again, and Toys. This is a crazy, crazy, crazy run. And I don't feel like people talk about him as like this might have been the biggest movie star in the world for six years here. Yeah, we don't. You and I have had multiple conversations about.

like Tom Hanks versus Denzel, like who had the better, what it, Robin's name has never come up ever. I did a similar thing when you said, we're going to do this movie. I went and looked and I'm like, why do I remember so many Robin Williams movies? What was going on during this time period? I was a baby during this stretch. But yeah, each of those movies is fucking gigantic, like some of the biggest movies we ever got. And there was just something about Robin Williams. I don't know what it is that made him feel less like a movie star and more just like a guy you wanted to hang out with a bunch. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. A guy you cared about. Yeah, there was something human about him and this movie taps into it, right? Because he's doing all the voices, he's doing all typical Robin Williams stuff. But you also like really feel for this guy that his family is being taken away, which is the same kind of like dead poets.

He taps into that and some other ones. Amanda, he's actually, I would say completely underrated as an actor at this point in time because he was nominated for multiple Oscars and he was a really good actor. 1000%. I think it's a little bit because not all of the movies that you named were kids movies, but some of them are family movies. He is kind of making emotions and acting and situations and movies legible to children or younger people. I definitely am biased in saying that because I was like eight when Mrs. Dalfire came out and consumed all of the Robin Williams movies

as a child. But I do think that there's something about, he plays like kind of an overgrown kid in, in many movies. There is that sort of stuck between kid and adult quality to like his comedy and, and like his place in the world and he like is trying to make sense of things and seems confused all the time, which is like definitely what it's like to be a kid. And also, frankly what it's like to be an adult some of the time. But I don't, I guess we don't take that quote seriously in the same way that we take like Tom Hanks being an astronaut and then, and Forrest Gump and, you know, all of the quote, adult roles that Tom Hanks plays. But it's a real skill. That's a good call. Two things there. Number one, he literally did play an overgrown kid

in the movie Jack. Yeah. Yes. And number two, yeah, I think you're, I think that's true. I'm going to change my answer. I'm going to get with what Amanda said here. It's because he's because he's made some kids in movies. That's why we don't talk about it. Good call, Amanda. Well, there was another thing. There was a weird Robin Williams backlash, because after that run, I mentioned, it starts getting spotty for him, right? He, his misses felt like big misses, right? Like he was in being human. He does Jumanji in the Birdcage, which are both big movies. Then he does Jack, which was widely mocked. People just didn't like it. People were like, fuck this. Now, Robin Williams, you don't get to do this. And there was this weird Robin Williams back

Then he comes back with Goodwill Hunting, but then these are the movies that really hurt him from an IMDB slash career backlash standpoint. 1998, he makes What Dreams May Come and Patch Adams pretty close to each other. And there was this real tangible, fuck this thing with Robin Williams, that starts. And then he does Jacob the Liar, and he's in bicentennial man, and people are like, I'm out. And from that point on, he starts making really weird movies. He does one hour photo, death to Smoochie, and Insomnia in 2002. It's almost like he's trying to rebel against this Robin Williams thing. But I think it starts with those two 1990s movies.

They're bad. Patch Adams is a bad movie. He's not great in it. Shea's looking at me like he might like it. Shea, am I heard of your feelings? Listen, listen. Here's the thing. I was not old enough during the, like, gigantic movie star stretch for Robin Williams.

I came to all of his movies late. Yeah. And I didn't watch Morkin Mindy or whatever. Like I was not around for this. But I came to him late and I just loved him. He looks, let me admit that he looks a little bit like my dad. They're like a very same face. They have these same eyes, those like Robin Williams eyes that when he squints him up,

that just are like, he's telling you you're safe. You're with me and I love you exactly how you are. Like he has that about him. my dad has the same sort of thing. So when he started making those movies, when he did, I thought what dreams may come, I'd never seen a movie like this before. It was like one of the first serious movies I went to go see and I was doing my whole like, oh, I'm smart because I like this movie.

Let me tell you what's great about it. He did Patch Adams and he has the scene where he hugs the casket after the woman gets murdered. He's the architect of some of the most heartbreaking moments of like my movie life from 17 years old down. You know what I'm saying? I greatly enjoyed both of those movies. They're terrible. They're terrible probably,

but I liked them. But I liked them. So he's basically your Tim Duncan for movies. You like every single Tim Duncan season and every Robin Williams movie. I saw in the theater one hour photo, or Death to Smucci and Insomnia. Like if it's Robin Williams is in it,

I'm going to go. I would never forget, Bill, Amanda, I would never forget being in a theater this is before insomnia came out. This is before, this is like there's no internet. I wouldn't have access to the internet. You didn't see trailers ahead of time. I'm sitting in the movie theater with Laramie.

We're watching whatever trailers are coming up for the movie before the movie comes on. And they're doing the insomnia trailer and it's Robin Williams. And you hear him talking, but they're showing Al Pacino. And you're like, who's his voice? What's going on here? And they're setting up that this is a killer that they're about to show. And then they get to the part when they show him and he's on the boat. And he like, they finally show his face and I lost my fuck.

I was like, oh my God, he's playing. Like, it was an unbelievable moment in my life. I love Robin Williams so much. You know, one of the other reasons there's a backlash to him. Talk shows were way more important in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. And he would go on these talk shows and he would do the manic Robin Williams thing. And it was really funny for a couple years. And then there was this sense like, he's trying too hard.

Like, settled down. You don't have to go for it every time. And I just think he was in our lives a lot, and people took it for granted. And, you know, Sandler had backlash for a different way, for a different reason, because people just felt like he was making these movies that were basically cash grabs going for a younger audience. But the reason I point this out is because when Robin Williams dies, there's this huge outpouring. And it seemed like a lot of guilt that people didn't properly appreciate him when he was here. And I thought it was really interesting. And that happens sometimes when somebody's in your life for a long time, you pick them apart.

And then all of a sudden they're gone and you have this huge reevaluation. And you're like, oh, shit. I should have appreciated that more. I should have handled it better. Did you feel that, Amanda? Of course. And I think one thing that's really specific to Robin Williams' arc and maybe kind of the changing audience perception of him is that a lot of people kind of grew up. And that's what happened to me.

I loved Goodwill Hunting. And Goodwill Hunting is one of those movies of kind of like, oh, I'm an adult movie watcher now. I only go to R-rated movies. Like, don't show me your animated film. And I remember seeing what dreams may come in theaters. And I have to say, I had a different experience. And let's just leave it at that. I don't remember what that movie is about.

They're like in an underworld or something. They're in the afterlife, Amanda. They're in Canada. He has to go down to hell to save his wife who killed herself. Oh, my God. I mean, that's, okay. Anyway, didn't stay with me. And I kind of moved on.

And I was like, well, now I go watch grown-up movies. And I am like kind of too big for Robin Williams or something. And I think that that's ungenerous. And so when he died, I think a lot of people had that moment of like what a talent he was, how much he shaped my childhood and a lot of people's childhoods. And just that we took his talent for granted. Yeah. I grew up with them.

So, you know, I'm older than you guys. but when Morg and Mindy hit, that movie, that TV show was, I think, like a top three or four show in 1979, 1980 range. When you were a top three or four show, that meant 22 million people were watching every week. Like, basically the same audience

that the Super Bowl gets now. So he was such a big star that it became, all right, he's going to be an incredible movie star. I wonder what's going to happen. He made Popeye. with Robert Altman. And it's this legendary, as they're making it, there's all these stories about this is going to be a bus.

Sometimes those movies turn out to do well. That one didn't. And kind of set off this kind of choppy early 80s that he had where he's in World According to Garp, which I love, but didn't do that well. He's in the Survivors. He's at Moscow and the Hudson, which is actually a really good movie.

He plays a Russian, but didn't do that great. Best of Times. Club Paradise. and it's kind of like, ah, is this going to happen? And then Good Morning, Vietnam, and then we have the seven-year run. But to me, he's kind of a unicorn.

I don't feel like anybody's been on his corner before or since. Whatever he did was just different. His ability to be this manic comedian, but then also be able to have like the monologues that he had in Dead Poets and in Goodwill Hunting where, you know, when he's at the park with Will, and he seems like the most sage, damaged person that you would ever want to get advice from in a movie.

And the way he straddled that stuff, when it went wrong, I'm really wrong. But I feel like it went right a lot of times. And I always get bummed out when somebody dies and then people belatedly say all the stuff they should have said when the guy was alive or the girl was alive, right? Where you're just like, oh, man,

it would have been nice if he heard some of this stuff, if he read some of these tributes, you know? Yeah. And it would have been nice also that if kind of comedy could have evolved with him to kind of keep giving him things to do for the last 15 years because the movies to me after Godwell Hunting just aren't as good and like don't serve his strengths and don't give him a chance to kind of innovate. And so if he's kind of stuck doing the same stuff while the world moves past him, it's not the best showcase. But he was so singularly

talented just in terms of like the impressions and the and the voice work and being able to be so many different people, but also, as you said, Bill, kind of like that underlying humanity, there just aren't that many vehicles for that. Well, it would have helped if you worked less, too. I think it's a classic, when you're making three movies a year, you're burning your audience out to some degree. And I think some of the other people that have come along since have been probably smarter with that, where it feels a little more special when they're coming out. But it's an amazing career. We should talk about the stealth divorce thing. So,

Stealth. Well, yeah, it's not stealth, but I don't feel like people, you said when we were texting about it, this is a divorce movie. I don't think people see that. Shea is happily married with three kids. I'm happily married, but my parents were divorced. And Amanda, your parents were divorced, right? Yes, I should also say I'm happily married because I'll get in trouble.

And you're happy married time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I should mention that part. But this, apparently in the research, and one of the, by the way, the real reason we're doing this is because a couple weeks ago, Chris Columbus had this interview where he said how there was an NC-17 cut of Mrs. Delfire, and everybody lost their shit. It became like one of the biggest stories of the week, whether this was true. And he was saying it was true because they filmed so many takes with Robin Williams that there was a lot of like improv stuff

that he jokingly said could have been NC17. Then he clarified it. He was like now, but we definitely could have gone for rated R. And there was such an outpouring of interest just in this interview that I was like, oh, my God, I feel like we have to do this movie. But as we're doing the research and all this stuff, the movie was supposed to be a lot darker. I mean, this was supposed to be a real divorce movie where at the end, there's really unhappy shit going on. And they kind of settled on a little more uplifting family movie.

Amanda, would you have liked the stealth unhappy divorce movie? Or are you happy where we landed? I would argue that this is unhappy enough. I think what I said to you is that this is the millennials Kramer versus Kramer. And as a child whose parents did get divorced a few years later, and I should just say, like, my parents have been great to me and everything worked out fine. But like this movie was the touchstone. This was how like I understood what divorce was and worked through a lot of it, which is alarming on a number of levels.

But this movie does feature a lot of parent fighting. It features a lot of things you're not supposed to do if you're a family divorcing. It definitely, I mean, and that's aside from the actual, like, central premise of the movie, but just in terms of the parents fighting in front of the kids and saying rude things about each other, it's not, like, to quote my favorite, Gwyneth Paltrow, conscious uncoupling, right? It's like not a modern version of how to support kids through divorce. So I think it's pretty real. I don't need it to be any realer.

and it still makes me very emotional at the end every time when I'm told that it's just going to be okay. It's still eight-year-old Amanda hearing. It's just going to be fine. Shea, you're romantic. Did you want them to get back together at the end? I did. I did.

I thought it was going to happen. Even when I re-watched it yesterday for this, I was like, do they get back together? I think they're going to get back together. I was like invested again. Doesn't happen. Which I kind of like that it doesn't happen. But apparently when I say the film was

to be much darker. After she finds out that he's also Mrs. Dalfire, they have another ugly fight downstairs, but the camera doesn't show it.

And this is apparently on YouTube. The camera pans upstairs, and they show the three kids listening to it and crying,

and then they come downstairs, and Lydia and Christopher tell the parents they hate them. They decided to cut that one out. Probably a good idea.

Yeah. But they still, they show the kids, like at the banister listening to the fight, which built, I mean, that one just, that hits me every time. That's a really familiar scenario. The kids are going through a lot. I had that in picking nits is divorce parents arguing like that, knowing the kids could over here, is you have to be pretty blind to my kids are in the house. Like, I just don't, I feel like they're going to go outside or go in the car or something like that, they're not just like, hey,

let's do this in the kitchen where everyone can hear. I mean, I have a lot of questions about the parenting in this movie for the two parents on this podcast once we get to nitpicking. But yeah. Yeah, it will be coming up. But yeah, I'm trying to think divorce in general had this nice run. But now when people make divorce movies, they go like Noah Baumbach style. And it has to be the most like emotionally scarring movie you've ever seen.

Well, so that's like the adult divorce movie. And there is a real difference between divorce movies for kids or featuring kids and how's it going to affect the kid and like, here, kid, here's how you can get through it versus the I went through a divorce as an adult person and now my life is over and I have to learn how to love again, etc. I guess both types of movies are learning how to love again. But the kid one is much gentler. And this to me is kind of the apex of the kid devise of the kid. movie because, I mean, it's very 90s and we have a lot of notes. But in terms of being like, hey, kids, divorce happens, but you're going to be okay. It's, it's pretty good.

I mean, what are the other examples? You've got, like, I mean, do you want? It's Kramer versus Kramer as I guess also, like, it's going to be okay. But that's pretty intense. Yeah, that's pretty intense. I guess, like, there's the Noah Bombach marriage story, which is the adult divorce version. but then Noah Bombach also has squid in the whale, which is brutal. That one is so hard.

There is Chris Columbus directed another movie, Stepmom, a touchpoint for me, but really tough, starring Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts, and that is like a heartbreaking and things are not going to be okay, even though they're going to be okay. And then there's like the new parent trap is pretty good in that sense, but they get together, like back together at the end. So I think Mrs. Doubtfire is like the best 90s example of divorce happens, but you'll survive. I would go irreconcilable differences for the 80s, but there's no sign of that movie. It's not anywhere.

But that is so brutal. No, it's super dark, but it's told through the eyes of the kid. But the kid is suing her parents for like to be a crazy. It's tiny Drew Barrymore being like I'd like to be vetsweet. And then that happens in real life. I mean, reconcilable differences is a wild text. That movie is amazing. There has to be some reason no copies of it exists anywhere.

I mean, I think it's also because that was made by Nancy Myers and Charles Shire. And then their marriage and working relationship, like, it's not totally dissimilar, IRL. And then Nancy Myers makes like 400 divorce movies, which are all great. Heartburn was another one of your favorites. That's a divorce movie, but that's a pure adult divorce movie. They don't really consider the kids. Yeah. I mean, there's like first wives club.

It's complicated. Heartburn. Like, I mean, there are a bunch of like women learning to like find themselves after divorce that I really love. But it's a totally different genre. Shea, you know what the darkest divorce movie ever is? Hit me. I can go on this all day. Godfather, too.

Oh, yeah. That's pretty tough. It's pretty tough. It takes it as far as the divorce movie is going to go. It's really dark. Nobody thinks of it as a divorce movie, but it really is. stepmom was an interesting one because it hits the combination step-parent theme completely, completely underutilized movies.

We never have realistic step-parent movies. We have divorce and we have cancer. They went for the Triple Crown and the younger woman, older woman dynamic thing too. And it's not a good movie. They tried. It's watchable, but it's really not a movie that probably should have been made. It would be my takeaway on that one. Shay,

Yep. Robin Williams did between 15 or 22 takes, Chris Columbus said, for every scene in this movie. Chris Columbus would use two or three cameras at a time just to make sure he caught stuff. And I think that's one of the reasons people don't consider this a divorce movie because of all the improv. This is Robin Williams cooking.

This is him. This is like you on Twitter when there's eight NBA games going on, just doing your thing. Okay. That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to compare me to Robin Williams. Quick Pierce-Brosden conversation? Love to you. Does it have to be quick?

He's Remington Steel from 1980. Actually, let's take a break and we'll do a quick Pierce-Brossden conversation. This episode is brought to by Whole Foods Market. Spring is here, so celebrate it with fresh, juicy, seasonal produce and some very tasty limited-time flavors. New Whole Foods, Market Peach, Apricot, Rose, Italian, soda. Perfect for a picnic or brunch, as is their trending mango, Yuzu chantilly cake. But if you're on the go, new 365 strawberry pretzels make a great sweet snack. That sounds delicious. Get savings

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That's Clinic with a K. Clinic Kids is a registered 501c3 nonprofit. All right, coming back, Pierce Brosden. He's Remington Steele from 82 to 87. and at some point people decide, wow, this is everything we've ever wanted from a James Bond. Let's make this happen. NBC is like, no, we're actually not going to make this happen. He's Remington Steele.

We have him under contract. The James Bond thing will not be happening. So he ends up getting passed over as James Bond, which is a really good movie, What If, because I think he would have been, you know, he was good when he finally got to do in 1995, but there are a couple other ones that I think he would have been better than who they picked. And basically goes into a career drought. Remington Steele gets canceled in 87 and 87 and 92. And it's pretty grim.

And then we have a Brosnan Sanss and Mrs. Dauphire, Amanda. Yes. And you're here for it. Unessential Pierce Brosnan text because it sets up, I mean, Remington Steel obviously set up James Bond, even though Remington Steel is something that, like, I know everything about and have never seen a frame of. I just, like, I know what it is.

I live, like, in the consequences. and I'm grateful for it. I'm just like, I don't know. I guess he was a spy. But so then Mrs. Dauvier brings him back as kind of like the charming, stylish lethario that sets up both James Bond and the Thomas Crown Affair,

my most underrated movie of the 90s. The remake, please, not the original. Yes, thank you, Shea. I would love to, I have as much time as you guys want for that. And then also, in a way, sets up Mamma Mia and Mamma Mia, too, where he is reclaiming the absent dad. It's like role to great effect and also singing. And being very handsome in tropical or sunshine locations,

which is a core Pierce-Brasnan role for me. It's interesting. Usually this part, it's the handsome guy, but he's a huge asshole. Yeah. And they have the scene when he's at the bar and he's talking to the guy. And the guy's like, whoa, man, you're settling down.

She has kids. And in any other movie, Pierce Brosnan's like, yeah, I'll get rid of those little rugrats later. I'm just here for the sex. And then you're like, oh, you're a bad guy. But they don't do that with this. They actually make him a likable guy throughout the movie, which, Shea, is, they kind of swerve us on it. And you end up really liking Pierce Brosnan and hoping it kind of works out with him and Sally Field, which is not where I expected to go as I was rewatching this. Yeah, I feel the same way.

I wish that they would have gotten together. It would have been a great couple. Pierce Brosnan, though, in this movie is just smoking hot. Yeah. Just looks great. Super handsome. Yeah, it looks great. If you're trying to get back with your ex-wife and Pierce Brosden shows up,

you just got to write that off. Like, you're done. You're done. You don't stand a chance. He's in the pool with a kid on the shoulders. They're playing basketball together. He's getting drinks. He looks great in a suit.

You can't compete with Pierce Broson. 1993, Pierce Bros. forget about it. It's a great scene. Sally Field, who I grew up with knowing her as the Smoky and the Bandit girlfriend with Bert Reynolds, not understanding there was a whole TV start and then she became a

huge, huge A-lister thanks to Norma Ray, and just kind of kept she could carry movies, but at a time when they didn't have a lot of great parts for women to carry movies and then kind of settles into this 90s Sally Field Renaissance, where she

She does this. She's Forrest Gump's mom. She's great in that movie and then kind of keeps going. And she's still around all these years later. It's like a 55 year career at this point. I don't feel like people consider her like one of the icons. So I don't know where she lands historically, but she's been in a lot of good stuff. She's one of the actors who, when you say this person's name, a scene immediately pops up in your head.

And I think for most people, you say Sally Field, you think of the funeral scene from Steel Magnolias where she just lets loose. I think that's the class that she belongs in. The actors where you say the name and then everybody thinks of one big scene where you're like, oh, this person is a monster talent. Two Oscars. Three nominations. That makes sense. Goes all the way to Lincoln in 2012. She's Lincoln's wife.

But her first one's Norma, in 1979. I thought she should have been nominated for Forrest Gump. I thought she was amazing as that part. It's so funny when she seduces the headmaster or whatever that guy was. But I don't know. She kind of brought, it was like her, C.C. SpaceX. There were some other ones from that generation. I thought she brought the most of the table.

She's one of those Hollywood actresses who kind of get stuck in the mom roles in the 40s. And so for my generation, I know her as the mom from Mrs. Daffire. I know her as the mom from Boris Crump. That is like a disservice for her and her career. But especially in the 90s, I mean, come on, it still happens today that you kind of get funneled into like, oh, the mom role. And people don't take that as seriously. Shea. She's in a classic that became a lifetime movie, even though it was a movie that released in the theater, the not without my daughter. They go, she did that action, action side of it. I think her daughter. I think her daughter. daughter got kidnapped and brought to the Middle East or somewhere, and she had to get the daughter back. I can't remember. I can't remember the plot. Just remember her trying to find what happened with her daughter. All right. So $25 million budget made $441 million, won the Academy Award for Best Makeup. Did not know this was an Oscar-winning movie. Golden Globes for Robin Williams for Best Actor and also won Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, and based on the 1980. And based on the

1987 novel Alias Madame Doubtfire by Anne Fine, which I did not know. Directed by Chris Columbus, who's coming off Home Alone One and Two in this movie, and it never really gets better for him. Roger Ebert, two and a half stars, said the film

is not as amusing as the premise. There were long stretches when I'd had quite enough of Mrs. Doubtfire. Come on, Raj. He said Tutsi grew out of real wit and insight, and Mrs. Daufire has the values in depth. of a sitcom.

And we should talk about this before we get to the categories. This is kind of the end of a generation of, you know, like Tutsi comes out in 82, the cross-dressing thing, which kind of starts in the 60s and 70s with commit. I probably back to some like it hot in the 50s. And it kind of starts morphing in the 90s to the Eddie Murphy, 90 professor playing seven characters type. This is the last one of just like a man who's also playing a woman that I can remember being big and now 2021, I wonder, do they make this movie? And what is it like? And what's the

2021 version of this? How is it different? I have been thinking about this. And I just, I don't think that you can make it because the, the drag premise as something to laugh at just, it's not what we think of as comedy anymore. I mean, drag has a like kind of increasingly visible place in pop culture. And I think a positive way. like largely to RuPaul's drag race. But like, ha ha, isn't that funny. It's just not what we think of as funny anymore. And that is like as rewatching it as an adult in 2021

was asking myself a lot of questions about kind of this premise and what we're laughing at and why. And it is a very of its time movie in a lot of ways. Not all of them great. And specifically some of the comedy is just outdated. But I think, Bill, you're right, that central premise that started with some, get hot. And like, honestly, I like with Shakespeare, just kind of, it's not how we conceive of

comedy today. It's a, it's a completely different viewing experience today. Like, as an adult who is trying to be a little more aware of the world than it is than it was in the early 90s as a kid. Like, this is a movie that I remembered in my chest before we watch it as being like very sweet and very wholesome. And then you watch it now and there are parts where it's like, like, oh, a lot of this stuff is not okay. It's very clearly. openly transphobic, even if that's not the intention of the writers or the directors. As I was prepping for the podcast, same as I always do, I'm reading a bunch of articles about the movie. And there was one that I came across, and it was called The Pain of Revisiting Mrs. Dauphire.

And it was written in, I think, last year, by a writer named Alex Mel Taylor. It was really smart, really insightful. And they laid out several real-world connections to moments in the movie. Like, for example, you have the part where Robin Williams' son sees him in the restroom. And before the kids know that Mrs. Doubtfire is their dad, their initial reaction is to threaten to call the police and to assault her. And of course, there's this entire history of trans people being attacked or beaten or worse. Or you have the thing about how the year that Mrs. Doubtfire came out is the same year that the Brandon Tina murder happened, which would later famously be the basis for the movie, Boys Don't Cry. Like, there are a bunch of things like that in the article. And

Alex does this really great job of presenting all of its information and then tying it altogether. Ultimately, they end the piece by saying Mrs. Doubtfire conformed to some norms while flaunting others and both that good and that bad deserves to be highlighted. Rather than lament this fact, we should celebrate the film's datedness. We are no longer in the 90s anymore with all the hatred and hurt that came with it and I couldn't be happier. Shout out Alex. That was a really, it's a really great piece to read that one. I really like that.

Yeah, we've dealt with this on the rewatchables a few times. I mean, we did taxi driver, that's a movie that would never happen now. 48 hours, which is the movie, I've seen the most probably of any movie in my life. And Jack Cates is just a racist. And for years and years, I always thought that, you know, that movie was hilarious. And now you watch it in, you know, in the current area, like, all right, maybe, maybe there's some stuff I miss. But yeah, I think, look, I think it would get made. I think they would be a lot more careful. Because ultimately the premise is this guy wants to be closer to his kids and he's going to pretend he's somebody else. I think they would be, they probably take great pains to be like, all right,

how can we pull this premise off while not offending anybody? And that's where we would have landed. Now, there was a musical, but Amanda found something, there was a musical where they were trying to make it, but then the pandemic basically stopped the musical, but they were trying to be more conscious of this stuff. Yeah, I believe it opened, I want to say in Portland, but it was, was scheduled for a Broadway run and, and I don't know what's up with Broadway right now, but it may still be in the works. And, you know, I was reading about the work that they did with Glad in order to try to update some of these things and to steer the source material where they can away from, you know, the harmful tropes and stereotypes as the piece that Shea

bred so wonderfully describes. So I don't know whether it's going to open. I'm curious. I'm curious about it. I do think, you know, there are a lot of, like, bad jokes in this movie, which is the case and, like, a lot of rewatchables from the 80s and 90s. Like, comedy, thankfully, changes and these things don't age. This movie has a lot of other political issues, including, like, the Sally Field character, which we will definitely talk about that. We will talk about the idea of, like, what it means to be, like, a quote, mom or, like, a parent.

So, you know, there are a lot of things that could use updating. This central premise is a tricky one. So, you know, maybe the musical will open and we can see how they updated it. My take on all this stuff is these movies are snapshots of whatever people cared about and thought was okay and thought was funny in the moment, right? And so in 1993, this was a movie that made $441 million

and nobody was having any of these conversations. That doesn't mean it's a good thing. Probably some people were. probably some people. You think? In 93? I'm sure. I'm sure.

Yeah. But I'm sure a trans person watched the movie and was like, hey, hey, hey. You know what I'm saying? Tootsie to me feels like more overt with some of the issues with some of this stuff. Which I don't know if you guys have watched Tootsie in a while. But there's a couple scenes in Tootsie. We're like, wow, that would never happen now. Mrs. Doubtfire, the bathroom scene is probably the one that you watch now.

You go, eh, there's no way that they are doing it that way in 2021. It's not happening. Yeah, that was like recently a whole conversation. Like, oh, this is a thing that's going to happen. You know what I'm saying? Idiotically. Let's go to the categories. We'll pick up the pace here.

Most rewatchable scene. So the job interview where he does all those voices and it's so clearly, we turn the cameras on and we let Robin Williams go and he does the, I do a great impression of a hot talk. and he does all those things. I just enjoy that. I wonder how many hours they probably filmed for that. It had to have been, I don't know, at least two, where he's just like, hey, Robin, go, do your thing.

I enjoy when they do that in movies with them. Oh, by the way, do you have any special skills? Oh, yes. I do. I do voices. What do you mean you do voices? Well, I do voices. Yes!

We've come to this planet looking for intelligent life. Oops, we made a mistake. Happy to be in America. Don't ask for a green card. I want you in the worst way. Well, it's certainly a rough meeting, and it's not going very well for me. I'll tell you that. Hey, boss, give it a change.

She's going to loosen up any moment. Look at me right now, money, penny. I want to undo that bull and get to know you. I'm crazy to make a deal with you. Nancy and I are still looking for the other half of my head. He's idiot. You're doing it. Daniel makes fake calls for the for the May job trying to undermine his way from hiring anybody else but him.

I enjoy that scene too. He's using all different voices. Hello. Don't make me get the holes. Hello. I am Job. Do you speak English? I am Job.

I'm sorry. The position has been filled. I think he's probably the best. I can use any voice in a movie comedian we've had in the last 40 years. Because even the Mrs. Doubtford Fire Voice he creates is so, it's so distinct. It's like the best version ever of some S&L sketch. He's got these little mannerism.

He says deer all the time. He's got the English accent. Like, he just nails it. He's just, this gives you the full Robin Williams boat. Harvey Firestein creating Mrs. Deltz. How fires look? Are we close? Any closer than you'd be mom?

Yeah, he's great. He's great. He's great. He's a nice run here for, I don't know, six, seven years. Mm-hmm. Right? He's in death to Smoochie, too. Also Independence Day, right?

Yeah, Independence Day as well. Another core childhood text of mine. The icon, Harvey. He got an S&L on, John Levitz, used to do a Harvey impression on SNO. The frosting scene, which might be my pick when the apartment lady comes to check on Robin Williams, whether he's still living here. Oh, I'm sorry to frighten you. Dear, I must look like a Yeti in this get-up. This is my nightly meringue mask, part of my beauty regimen. What it is is basically egg whites,

crem-fresh, powdered sugar, vanilla, and a little touch of alum. There you go, dear. Oh, there you go. You've got your cream and your sugar now. It's a little cappuccino. One drop or two. Would you like another one? Oh, there you go. icing starts melting off, which apparently was not intentional. The heat from the movie set was melting the frosting and making it drip off. That seems really good. That's, that has ties to those, like, the Three's Company episodes where I grew up with where it's like, there's a misunderstanding and this person's trying to navigate these two worlds at the same time and he's pretending these two people or he's in another room using different voices and then they run it back and the

rest are at the end. But that was like basically sitcoms of the same. 70s? It was always this happened. Uh-oh. I have to... But I told this person this was happening and now I'm going to try to pull it off and then at the end everything gets blown up, but that was going on for years and years.

The Sally opens up to Mrs. Doubtfire. I say Sally, Sally Fields' character. The truth is I didn't like who I was when I was with him. I would turn into this horrible person. I didn't want my

kids growing up with a mother like that. When I'm not with Daniel, I'm better. And I'm sure he's better when he's not with me. She does the I'm a better person without him. I used to think Daniel could do anything except be serious. It's such an intense scene. You have this divorced wife basically telling the husband everything that was wrong with their marriage, not realizing it's her husband.

I thought that was really well written. We had Pierce Brousin at the pool and that whole thing. then Dana throwing the fruit at him. And then my pick would be the double duty at the dinner, which is just an absurd scene that really works, where he's going back and forth. He keeps changing in the bathroom. His teeth falls in the wine glass,

which apparently was ad-lib by him. But it was a classic, that's a classic 1970s TV sitcom thing. It goes on longer than I remembered. It's long. It's like 12, 13 minutes. It's ridiculous. I don't know who pays for the dinner. They all just leave.

nobody puts a credit card down or money. And then the last one I had was the family rewatches or the family watches the first Mrs. Delfire show, which is undeniably poignant. So Amanda, did I leave anything out?

Which one would you go with? Well, the making dinner, but specifically the catering food, ordering the catering food and then presenting it as like home-cooked meal has like really stayed with me. I'd like,

as like the peak of luxury as a child when he's like spooning the, you know, I don't even know what the weird like smoked salmon looking thing is on the plate. Number one, the idea that like a five-year-old child would eat that is hilarious. But they look, it looks so elegant. And I was like, oh my gosh, catering. And this is such a good idea how fancy. And then the final speech, which to me, you know, it's like I think it's like wherever there is love. It will be okay as is, I get very emotional.

So I would add those two. And did we do run by fruiting? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So what's your pick? Well, it was a run by fruiting, probably.

I think the pool scene's the single best scene in the movie. No kidding. You? The guy who's never having kids won't have anything to do with kids. You won't even date a woman who's got kids. People change, Ron. I'm pushing 40. I don't want to spend the rest of my life by myself. She's got an awful lot of baggage, though. Three kids. Three terrific kids, and I'm crazy about him, especially that little Natalie. Look at her.

She's a sweet pie. God knows, I need some kind of stable father figure in their life right now. Thanks, Todd. Oh, what about their real father? Yeah, what can I say, Ron? The guy's a loser. I'll see you. Loser. Loser. Loser. Yeah. Oh, sir. I saw it Some angry member of the kitchen staff

Did you not tip them? Oh, the terrorists they ran that way It was a run by fruiting I'll get them, sir, don't worry It swerves you with the Brosden character While also making like him more Which sets up a lot of stuff But just everything about that scene

Him hiding behind the plant It's just really well done. What do you have, Shai? You know what scene I really like that you didn't mention? I really like the opening him in the booth doing the sounds for the cartoons and he's going, the movie starts, and he's already at Max Robin Williams, just singing in a different

language and bouncing back and forth. We see immediately that, like, he's supposed to be a caring dad who has morals when he starts ad-libbing the script, and he quits his job because he doesn't want to do a thing where the bird or whatever smokes a cigarette. I really like that scene. And also, I like the party, especially when you're a kid. I just love a good. party scene at the house and everything is kind of wild.

And there's a like a pony inside or a horse or something. The pony inside the house was aggressive. They're listening to House of Pain. Yeah. 11, 12-year-old Shay was super into that. Two three-year-olds just like jumping on the couch, like clearly in a sugar coma. It's pretty funny. That's a good one.

They just look so out of it, but just keep jumping. Anyway. I had two of those in Woodside, two of those in what stage the best. The party scene, I enjoy how over the top of it is. It's just great early 90s over the top. And the opening credits, same thing. I had also, for What's the Age is the Best, jump around being used non-ironically in a movie.

I think this might have been the last time. I think every time after this, it became ironic. Another What's Age the Best, no sequel. Yeah. I actually liked that they didn't do, they didn't make a sequel for this. Now, there's a lot of research about how they tried to make it basically from 2000 and 2014.

And Robin Williams, which is weird considering some of the movies he picked, was really fanatical about not doing it unless the script made sense. And they just kept trying, they kept doing different rewrites, and just he always said no, and then he passed away.

So I think Mrs. Doubtfire too probably would have been bad. I don't even know how they would have done it. I guess... What's the plot? Well, I think it would have been about maybe Mrs. The real Mrs. Delfire TV show maybe becoming massively successful and maybe him having issues

dealing with stardom, but I just don't know if that's a movie I would have wanted to watch. Nobody wants a show-vis movie. It's about these kids. That's why it didn't happen. The kids would have been older. That would have been weird.

Mary Poppins 2 was also really bad. And so you only need the one magical saving the family movie. I have one more, What's Age the best, but before I do that one, do you two have anything else for what stage the best?

The grim dad apartment. Just like a really classic divorce trope. It's just like Bill's nodding. We've all been there. It's really tough. With a mousetrap in the middle of the floor, just like not even in the corner. It's just, I hope that that's something that has stayed in the 90s,

but we were all there. And happily, the apartment gets remade. My dad had an incredible divorce dad apartment where we had ants. We had to have little ant traps in the side. We had a couch that I got a bloody nose after the Bruins lost that too many men in the ice.

I was crying after we lost this game and the Canadians and actually bled all over the couch, which we didn't get another couch for six months, so my blood was just on the couch. So I always said that if I was a divorced dad apartments. Yeah, it is both a trope, but I also think it's really realistic. Because if the dad's moving out after the divorce,

They're just kind of trying to grab the cheapest department. They're grabbing the cheapest stuff possible, all that stuff. I mean, I like to think that that's another thing that's stayed in the 90s, right? And in the same way that the parents are fighting in front of the kids and the dad doesn't know how to do anything, maybe we've all evolved. But it did bring really true with me. Shout out to my dad. I love you. And your house is great now.

Here's what I had for my pick for what stage is the best. pre-internet San Francisco. Yeah. I love pre-internet anything. Yeah, pre-internet, anything is great, but just old school San Francisco. When San Francisco was just this awesome city that my friends, three, four friends lived there. I used to go there every year after college, go hang out with them.

It was just kind of like Boston on the West Coast and how it's changed over the last 20 years for better and worse. But that leads me to a separate category. Greatest San Francisco movie TV house of all time. I'm so ready. Here are my six nominees for you. Mrs. Delfire. Full House.

Obviously. Pacific Heights. That was a really nice one. I don't know if you remember that one. I'm trying to remember that one. On a corner, three stories. It's really nice. It's on a hill.

The party of Five House. Oh, Bill. Yes. Which I don't want to give this away, but that's going to be my pick. That house was amazing. I don't even know where, I didn't even know that I was in San Francisco. This one's for Shea. That's So Raven.

Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. I thought you were going to throw 40, what is it, 40 days or 40 nights? That Josh Hartner movie? Is that in San Francisco? I think so. I feel like it is.

My last one was Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1978 edition. All right. Donald Sutherland's house is a classic. old school San Francisco house with like there's like a weird backyard and it's like four stories and it's got a lot of shit going on. My pick is the party of five house. But go ahead. What's your one more for you? Yeah. Because I believe the game, the David Fincher movie, is set in San Francisco. Good one. And that house, I'm like, I'm assuming it's in San Francisco. Maybe it's slightly outside. I tried to Google it. Listen, a top five movie kitchen of all time for me. Oh yeah.

It's really up there with the Nancy Myers. It's. Probably my favorite part of the game, actually. But I would put it on the list. And then I have to echo full house, which just really taught me about San Francisco. So I did a lot of research on this because I wanted to make sure I didn't miss a house. And including there were articles about like the 10 most famous houses in San Francisco, stuff like that, Mrs. Doubtfires on every list. It became a tourist attraction.

They say the address of the movie and it's the actual address. And when Robin Williams died, a bunch of people went down there. they put flowers outside the house, stuff like that. The one I didn't know wasn't a TV or movie house, but Robin Williams actually owned a house in San Francisco that became an iconic San Francisco house.

And that house is on all of these lists for landmarks. He loves San Francisco. He ended up staying there, but he had this really famous San Francisco house. So Robin Williams is in there twice, basically. This is Dau Fire in that house. San Francisco is beautiful. I have a pick that beats both

of y'all's pick. Because if the thing is we get to live in this house or own this house and just has to be in San Francisco, I want from the movie The Rock, I want Alcatraz, I want the prison. Give me the whole thing. That's where I want to live. Send me there. Send me there. Give me that. Let me own that. That's a great choice. I'm really, I'm really jealous of that choice by you. What stage the worst? We mentioned some stuff already. A quick zag on this. an offshoot of what's aged the worst beyond what we already mentioned was just I feel like the internet ruined

movies that had plots where people wore lots of makeup or disguises to deceive whoever because they're just kind of absurd premises like it's absurd that the kids and the wife wouldn't figure out that this was Mrs. Doubtfire

it's absurd that somebody would spend the amount of time it would take to just put on all this makeup and pretend to be somebody else a day. When I was a kid, Tom Hanks TV show, Boosom Buddies, where they were renting a house that was in an all-female apartment building to save money, but they had to dress up as women every day, which conceivably would cost way more expensive than just renting a better apartment.

But this was, there was just not a lot of thought put in this stuff. And I feel like once the Internet started, it was so easy to pick apart these premises. People started shying away from, like, the dumbest ones possible. But in 1993, you could just make a movie like this and nobody would be like, well, wait a second. Why wouldn't he just talk his wife into watching the kids from three to seven? Why is he going through this whole rigumeral?

Just like tell her, I'll watch the kids from three to seven and then we don't have a movie. Right. Well, he tries to do that and she says no. That's like how it starts when they're at the apartment. It's unclear why she says no. Because she just doesn't like him. Because she's proven himself unreliable by this point.

Like, there's a history of it. She's like a one-dimensional, hateful character. But once again, we'll get to that. Well, we're getting to it now because that's our next one stage the worst. Yeah. The early 90s working mom characters who get lines from their husband like, you spend too much time with those corporate clones. Yeah. Also, like, how corporate is interior decorating even in 1993 in San Francisco?

And I see that with a lot of respect for interior design. and it seems like she has some really great ideas. But like what are we doing here? Yeah. It's, um, it is not a flattering portrayal of the woman in this relationship of, and, and what it means to like be a mom and be responsible for your children. I mean, she's the killjoy. She's like, you have to do your homework.

And it's, you know, everything. The kids are so obviously wanting to be with the fun dad, which in the one hand, sure, you want to be with the person who's fun. I mean, I remember being a kid, but there is like no real empathy for the mom character at all. It's just her fault that all of this is happening. Well, she's basically the villain of the movie. Yeah. Because Pierce Brosnan is not the villain movie. There's only one villain. It's her. She's working too hard. She doesn't seem to understand she's got a cool husband. She won't let the kid spend time with the husband. And she's just kind of, a killjoy.

Yeah. And there is also, yeah. Tough part for Sally Field. There wasn't a lot she could have done with this one. But, you know, like she's in the pool with Pierce Brosner. You're like, oh, this is cool. Seems like she really loves the kids. And then at the end, she kind of comes around. But yeah, this was definitely a trope back in day.

Another, what's age to worst? She, this movie's over two hours long. Yes, it is. It's like two hours and eight minutes. Why did that happen? Why is this movie an hour 40? This is one of the few times where you say a movie's too long and I agree with you. Usually I'm like, now we could have used 45 more minutes.

This one we could cut it down to 90 minutes. This is a strong, strong 90 minute contender. He doesn't become Mrs. Doubtfire until the 37 minute mark. Yeah, that's wild. There's 36 minutes of content before we see him as Mrs. Doubtfire. Another would stage the worst. The dude looks like a lady montage. I totally forgot about that song.

That song is really tough down. This song itself has not aged. I went and read the lyrics on the internet and I was like, oh my God. That song was like a monster hit. Yeah, that wouldn't have fun. That and Pat on SNL. Cigarette smoking inside a studio was just a way. It always is jarring when you just see multiple people just lighting up in some closed space.

Yeah, the flip side of that, I would say like the anti-smoking, like PSA that the Robin Williams character inserts into the parent. in the first scene is like a wear and that's aged well. Fair. How about a teenage girl with a YouTube poster? Has that aged the worst? That's up there with the, what is it in Taken? When they're going to follow? Oh, my dad.

That makes me feel. What a run for YouTube being like, holy shit. Any other what's age the worst that we haven't mentioned yet? This score is pretty much you're on a Disney ride the whole time. Yeah. And I'm supposed to do, like I understand. And it's supposed to be a family movie and you're like supposed to feel comfortable. You're supposed to feel comfortable even when the kids,

the parents are fighting. But like, yeah, that's pretty 90s. You know what's dumb is y'all are talking about the smoking thing. And initially my, my brain is like, if you see people smoking in the thing, like that doesn't make you want to smoke. And then I remember when I watched like four episodes of Madman. And I said, I think I'm going to start smoking right now. Yeah, Spoken sounds great.

Miami Vice is another, the Miami Vice TV shows another way. You're like, man, smokehood seems so cool. We're going to take a quick break than do the rest of the categories. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zepbound terseptitide may be able to help. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off.

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Eye drops and work all day to prevent the release of histamines that cause itchy allergy eyes. And the winner by knockout is Hatterday. Padiday. Bring it on. All right, casting what ifs? I only found two, but these are two doozies. So Tim Allen was offered the roles of Mrs. Delfire and Daniel. And then the role of Pierce Brosnan.

Absolutely not. Rejected everything. That's 0 for 2 right there. That's bad. Tim Allen was red hot at the time. I mean, he was probably the biggest TV star in the world. Yeah, but listen, another reason that you could have made this movie today is that you don't have Robin Williams. And there is something to his particular ability.

Like so much of his comedy is in doing all of the voices and being other people. And so you're kind of willing to go on a ride with what's a pretty tricky premise because it's him. But if it's like Tim Allen, they're just like, no, absolutely not. do. Yeah. And I don't even... Yeah. I don't even know what to say

about him as Pierce Brosnan. No, thank you. No, thank you. I don't know. What do you think is a worst casting for him? Him as Mrs. Doubtfire, Daniel, or him in the Pierce Brosnan role?

In the Pierce Brosnan role. I think, like, you can't have the movie with him as Mrs. Doutfire. You can't have the movie without any one. Oh my God. No.

The other one's a good one too. So Mara Wilson ends up being the little girl and she had, she did a whole bunch of child actor movies and was actually in a documentary that we did at Ringer Films, ShowBiscuits. The person who lost the role to her,

Blake Lively. Really? You weren't going to beat Mara. Yeah. She's too good. Mara is electric in this movie. Truly. Where his goddamn kids, too,

when she gives that line, line reading of the decade. Best That Guy, aka the Joey Pants Award. There's a bunch of them. moment here that are just super that guys. But I wanted to mention the annoyed next door neighbor who a lot of her scenes got cut out was Polly Holliday, who used to play Flo and Alice and ends up being in a lot of these movies. And I think she's a that guy slash gal because you see her face,

you know who it is. But do you know how I'm talking about the neighbor at the beginning and complains about the party? Yeah, the one who calls. Yeah. Vincent Hanna, give me all you got a word for overacting. I got to say, I didn't feel like there was over, was there like a huge overactor or a huge overactor? See Amanda's making a face. What was it? I think it has to go to Sally Field.

Really? I'm really, I'm sad to say it. And as we discussed, she doesn't have good material to work with. In fact, she has terrible material to work with. But she's really leaning into the, I'm a frustrated working mom aspects, especially in the beginning.

Like, she is yelling. and as a connoisseur of parents fighting in movies, it's a lot. I'll sign off on that, Che. Is Robin Williams eligible for this role, for this, like, category? Interesting. Does he overact in a scene, though?

I just feel like he's being Robin Williams. Like, how do you even discern the scene? I think that's the one, like, the one argument. Craig and I were talking about this before, before y'all jumped on about replacing him with other people. And I don't, we couldn't come up with one. person. He has this

inherent vulnerability. He's just able to pump any moment full of emotion with words of course but also with like a look or a sound. He like can make his eyes water on command which is outrageous. He's got a rubbery face

which always helped too. He's too good. He's too good. The Dion Waders Award comes down to Pierce Brosnan the horny bus driver. the horny bus driver. Robert Proske. Robert Prosky having just a great run in the rewatchables lately.

And then Mara Wilson. I had Mara Wilson. I think it was the best kid out of the three. What do you got, Shea? Yeah, definitely. She's my pick. I'm a big, big fan. Can we talk about Matthew Lawrence for a second?

I'm not going to nominate him, but I just like, is this the, you mentioned the other kids. Boy Meets World Matthew. Yeah. And brother of Joey Lawrence. And Tiger Beat Staple in the 90s was my favorite of the Lawrence's. Thank you, Matthew.

Oh, look at you. Well, I was younger, you know, so he was like my age group. If you want to take anybody from home improvement and drop them into this movie, instead of Tim Allen, give me Jonathan Taylor Thomas in this role. I'll take that. I don't know. I did like JTT. I liked JTT too.

I had all the magazines. She's tied to Lawrence. Yeah, I'm tied to the, Matthew Lawrence. recasting couch who would you have put I think we all agree we love Sally Field this movie was probably a waste of her talents

who should have been in the Sally Field part in the 90s you have to go somebody who's in the 35 to 42 range somebody who has some cachet from the 80s

it's like it's basically the Terry Guard Mr. Mom kind of where the casting works But I don't know if you needed the kind of star power that she had for the role. So maybe it's somebody that wasn't even like a major star. Yeah, I'm trying to think through 80s sitcom.

So here is the one I had. How about Kathleen Turner? That's not bad. I mean, love Kathleen Turner. Again, it's one of those things where it's like I'd like Kathleen Turner to have more to do. Like whoever you drop into this. It's like, I don't wish this role on anyone that I like. So we'll give it to somebody who wasn't a big star.

We'll give it to some random person who needed the job. Have fast internet research. The exact address is 2640 Steiner Street. If you ever want to go to San Francisco and look at this house. There's a lot of stories on the internet about Williams just walking through San Francisco as Mrs. Doubtfire and went in a sex shop at one point, bought sex toys, and just like to see what he can get away with. There's 30 minutes of deleted scenes with the aforementioned. nosy neighbor, which they cut.

The prosthetic mask was used as was actually a prop. When they did the real makeup, it was eight separate pieces they would put it on his face. It would take like four or five hours. Robin Williams' real childhood nanny. That's who he drew into. She was a British lady. They actually found her. Her name was Lolly.

And she was a little bit like Mrs. Delfire. So that happened. Shea, how many times did Mrs. Delfire say the word deer in this movie? She let that thing go 29 times. Amanda? 38. 101. What?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, there you go. Some weird real life stuff. Sally Field going through a divorce at the time she was filming the movie. Robin Williams divorced his wife to marry the nanny after this movie. He married his nanny. Yeah, got those two things.

Lisa Jacob played the oldest daughter. She took five months off from her Toronto school to film the movie and got expelled. That was worth it. What? Yeah. Robin Williams wrote a letter to the school asking them to unexpell her. They did not, but they framed the letter. That's wild.

So up yours, Toronto School. Apex Mountain. Robin Williams, you could make a case here that the answer. is yes. You're crazy. He's coming off this big six-year run. He's, as I listed, he's got five top ten movies in six years. Aladdin was number one. This is number two in 93. I don't know if he was ever a bigger star than he was in 1993. I mean, this movie made so much money at the box office. You mentioned it up top bill, but it's remarkable, especially for a comedy. I mean, especially now, given that it's not recognizable IP.

I suppose it was based on a book. It was Jurassic Park and then this movie and it was everywhere. And I guess he wins the Oscar for Goodwill Hunting, right? So that's probably the last conceivable Apex Mountain, but this is maybe where it's like he's had a tremendous amount of success and he still has options available to him. Shea, this movie, the only one that made more domestically was Jurassic Park.

It made more money than the fugitive, the firm, sleepless in Seattle, the Pelican brief, Schindler's List, Cliffhanger, Groundhog Day. I loved the 90s. The 90s were so good. Just a great movie year. 93 is a really, really great movie year. It's got indecent proposal. It's got like campy stuff, grumpy old men, cool runnings, Dave, Tombstone, Rookie of the Year.

Just goes on and on. Last action here. Shay, are you pro last action here or against? I'm pro-la-I-I-Lat. It came 20 years too early, but it's great to watch. That's it. Oh, Apex Mountain. Sally Field, no.

Pierce-Brosden, no. An addendum. Pierce-Brasnin's chest hair. Yes. Apex Mountain, yes. Pierce-Brasden and bathing suit, yes. Chris Columbus. Well, what do you have for a-tell-

Tell him, Amanda. Well, I was just trying to think through, he definitely wears a bathing suit at some point in the Bond movies, but I was trying to think of him in a bathing suit in Thomas Crown Affair. They definitely go on an island vacation as well as parasailing, but I can't remember if we see him in a bathing suit. So I'm just going to keep replaying those scenes in my head while you guys keep podcasting. Just go ahead.

I think in that scene he's wearing like some white knit pants, like linen pants, but no shirt. But he's shirtless, right? Yeah, no shirt. Yeah. Same for Renee Russo, good for her. Amanda, who are you going to do the Thomas Crown Affair we watchables with? Like, whoever will do it with Shea? Oh, Shay?

Oh, there you go. All right. I love this movie. I'll let you guys have that one. Okay, thank you. I mean, it's so exhilarated. 20 minutes on whether, why they fold the painting and whether you actually fold the painting in a suitcase in real life. Let's solve that mystery.

I watched a man crash a $100,000 boat just to see a splash, Amanda. Chris Columbus, I'm going to say yes. Home Alone 1, Home Alone 2, and then Mrs. Dalfire makes $4. $441 million. He couldn't have been hotter at any point in his career than at this specific point. Right. The three in a row at that point, he gets to make whatever he wants. He actually tails off a little bit, but probably because he made so much money from those three movies.

Old school San Francisco houses, I'm going to say yes because we're on a run of Pacific Heights. I think Full House is out at this point. It is. Yeah. And then we also have this movie, so I'm going to say yes. And then divorce comedies. it kind of has to be yes, right? I think so.

It certainly was the main reference point for me in the 90s. Okay. Picky Nits mentioned no parents would want to have and I want a divorce fight in the kitchen when the kids could overhear. You always go in the car somewhere. So I just think it's a picking knit that she just should have let the dad be the babysitter

from three to seven, at least giving them one more chance before she hired the maid. It's a nitpick. at least let him one more time try to be the babysitter. How did Daniel not know what the name of his maid was going to be when he called for the job, when she asked him for the maid, and then he looks at the newspaper and he sees the Mrs. diet? You don't have any sort of plan at that point.

My name is Evelyn. Like, you can't come up with anything. Well, we've learned that he's not particularly organized. That's basically, like, the only thing that we know about his character, Daniel doesn't plan ahead. Daniel doesn't think about the consequences. So I don't know. But I would agree with you. I would go in with a more concrete strategy.

Maybe one name? I'm with you. This is crucial. Would Pierce Brosnan's character as represented in this movie ever be like this divorced mom with the three kids and the weird relationship with the father, I found my soulmate? Well, we're meant to believe that they dated in college and that she dumped him, which is one of my nitpicks,

which is where Sally Field dumped Pierce Brosman, I would like to follow up there. But maybe if they have a prior relationship, you know, he's trying to settle down. He's like putting away like the bachelor lifestyle. He's going back to, you know, his like core feelings. Like maybe. I don't know.

That's probably what happened. He had probably at some point had a conversation over an expensive brown drink in a glass where he's like, I can't find any woman who will only love me for me because I'm super rich and handsome now. Who was the one woman who loved me before this? Oh, Sally, let me go back to say.

It's probably something like that, is my guess. Quick nitpick. Her hair and her clothes in this movie are atrocious. I don't know if this, was this a 1993 thing? Or was this a we need to make her less likable thing? this is an early 90s like working woman that weird bob

that kind of looks like you got off a motorcycle you know but it's pretty in line with all like the Nora F Ron kind of the yuppie Nancy Myers I'm thinking a lot of baby boom

in this particular context of it's a very specific reference point of how working women so it's tail end of that fair yeah yeah okay

uh Shay could this movie be remade as a 10 episode Netflix show I don't think so I had one of the nitpick before we go to kids watching Dick Van Dyke. We always watch Dick Van Dyke.

Like, no, you don't. You're 14 years old or whatever. You watch Ninja Turtles. Hey, hey, excuse me. Respect for Nick at Night. Yeah, of course. That's how I saw him work in Mindy because it was on Nick at Night.

What? I think Dick Van Dyke was too old. I agree or Shea. You're not going more than like 15, 20 years back in 1993. I mean, I watched Green Acres. I watched Mr. Ed. I don't know what to say. We didn't have that much TV back then.

Like, I wasn't a lot of playing video games. So I just watched the Dick Van Dyke And egg show. That's wild. Wasn't expecting this argument. Okay. Shea, could this have been a 10-episode Netflix show? No.

No. This should not even have been a two-hour-and-eight-minute movie. Like, wait, we... No, don't give me 10 episodes. Amanda? Yeah, I just think the central premise just can't be updated. Like, I don't know how you make it work. And it's very much of 1993.

Agree. Probably in answerable questions. I really only have one. Did she ever like Daniel? Like, what was their foundation of their relationship? It seems like all the things that are likable about him, she just hates. So is that a hatred that grew over a 10-year span because he couldn't hold the job? And she just thought, she basically thinks he's a loser.

That's the takeaway, right? Yeah. We're catching them at the very end of their relationship. This has been going on for years, I imagine. And the whole point of being in a relationship with someone is like, okay, I'm going to take care of my stuff. You take care of your stuff and together we're a very good team. And if the other person is not taking care of their stuff and you can't count on this person, what are we doing? Why are we here?

Like that's where we find Sally Field. He has probably by this point let her down an uncountable number of times. So she's just like, all right, you got to get out of here because you're being too much of a hassle at this point. Because she seems surprised when she goes to his apartment and it's clean. Yeah. So basically the thing we're supposed to read into that is this guy was a disaster. He couldn't hold a job. But yet the whole movie is constructed for us to root for him over her.

It's weird. It's like a Jedi mind trick. Right. I think that we're meant to understand that he does get his life together. and, you know, he learns about the value of homework and kind of discipline and schedules and all of these things and, like, you know, cleaning and not having a gross dad apartment. Parenting. Parenting.

Yeah. Cleaning. So I guess you're supposed to root for him on that transformation. I think they probably were made sense as a couple in like their 20s. And then, you know, couples got very little too young. Yeah. And it's just like, it's very. different, I guess, parenting kids versus being like together without kids in your 20s.

That's my best explanation. Yeah, he's probably a great time when you don't have to worry about picking up a kid from school. 23 years old. Yeah, he's at the bar doing voices. He's buying drinks. Any other answerable questions? So does she wind up with Pierce Brosnan? So it's almost like you, it feels like they filmed like four endings to this movie, right?

and just kind of settled on the one that would leave people asking the least amount of questions. But in a way, they asked the most, I have the more questions. Right. Why would she have broken up with Pierce Brosden? He was like a great stepdad who really loved her. Seems like they should have stayed together. Did he break up with her after the almost choking on a shrimp incident? That's what I think.

He was almost murdered. Right. Like Mrs. Doubtfire tried to murder him with the pepper. That would be good at answer to a question. Was that a murder? Should Mrs. Delfare have gone to jail? That was an attempted murder right there. Yeah.

Also, could you just waltz into a kitchen like that and fuck with the entrees? I mean, there was a lot about like the kitchen organization system where it seemed like they had like a different cook for like each table. And I was like, I don't really think that's how kitchens work. I'm not a chef though. A lot of, a lot of things to unpack there. There's another what stage or worse when he leaves the bag next to the toilet when he has to change. back and forth, which now the restaurant gets cleared out in two minutes because there's some weird bag next to the toilet, right? That's it. We have no dinner scene. What piece of memorabilia

would you want from this movie? I'm going with the house. Wow. I think that counts as memorabilia. The fucking house is amazing. I don't even know what the second choice would be. I guess maybe the mask. I would like membership to the pool club. Like the Pierce-Prosdin, like the club where they go, I would just like a membership. I'd like access every day. I would like the drinks at the bar. Like, that's what I want. I should have researched where that pool club was, because that seemed like the nicest pool club on the planet. It seemed like you're in like the Barbados. It is the Claremont Club and Spa. I believe it is north of Berkeley, according to my half- internet research. Yes. And they renovated, but the photo, you can at least still see the layout.

It is similar now, according to the pictures I looked at on the internet five minutes before this podcast. Interesting. Who won the movie? If you're taking the house, then let me get that pony. Let me grab that pony. I'm out of the door. I'll give you the pony. Who on the movie? I think we would all say Robin Williams. Yeah. Yeah. It's got to be him. So you're Robin Williams' rankings. Where does this rank shake? Oh, this is not super high. Robin Williams' performances. This is not super high for me. I liked him. I liked him in Goodwill hunting the most, I think. Again, the movie Jack, to me, oh, God, he's so good. This is a great take from you. Listen, when he asks Jennifer Lopez to go to the dance with him, and she turns him down, he's like, hey, listen, I know I'm 10, but I look 40, and I can't go to the dance with a 10-year-old girl.

Will you go with me? And she's explaining to him, no. And then he basically starts crying and runs away. And then he has a heart attack and falls down the stairs in the movie theater. I was a wreck. I was a wreck. That's got to be way up on my list. Was that a Scorsese movie?

I think it was. I think Jack was the Scorsese movie. Fantasy. You don't hear a fantasy talking about that with the series. Written by Stephen Saldberg, directed by Martin Scorsese. How is that possible? Jack? Yeah. What are you? I'm looking at the Wikimede.

I'm just making, I'm making shit up. This is not true. It's actually a Francis Ford Coppola movie. Oh, Francis Ford Coppola. That's what it is. I knew it was making jokes. And it turns out it's real. It's got pedigree.

It's up on my list. Don't make fun of me for it. I got Coppola and Scorsese confused. Yeah, it really was a Francis Ford Coppola movie. Mm-hmm. Yikes. You probably got to have Jumanja on this somewhere. Great title.

You're crazy. You're saying a lot of wrong things today, Bill. I'm saying great, great title. Jack. Oh, I thought you said bad title. No, Jack's a terrible title. What are you talking about? When is that ever worked for you?

Just take a name of a character and make that into these. Forrest Gump, John Wick. It's one of the only times it's worked. Oh, my God. Jack? How do people know who Jack is? We're literally doing a rewatchable about a movie named after the main character. right now, Bill.

Yeah, but that's a fun name. Mrs. Doubtfire. Jack is just a name. It's like, name the movie Tom. Bob. It is really hard to Google. Not that they were thinking about that in 1996. Pre-internet, baby.

It's not great SEO. Well, I'm glad we did this. And I still can't believe that this movie made $441 million in 1993, which is like what? Like one and a half billion dollars now? Easily. Is it three times as much now? It's Avengers Endgame and then Mrs. Doubtfire.

They're in the same conversation. I can't believe they didn't do a sequel. All right. So you can see Shea and Amanda in a couple weeks doing the Thomas Crown Affair. Congratulations. Yes. Wow. We did it.

She did it. Can't wait. She gets to do blood in, blood out too. What a summer this is going to be for you, Shea. I'm so excited. Shea, Amanda, great to see you. Oh, I forgot to, Craig. Can you come in for one second?

Yeah. What was your 20-something take? on this movie, which did you grow up with this movie or was this? Yeah, okay. 100%. This was a very popular movie for me in my household. I was trying to think of like the biggest childhood. Like, you know, I was born in 94 so a year after this movie, but Home Alone's got to be one, right? It was home alone, sandlot, Mrs. Doubtfire, and like, I don't know what else would be on the Mount Rushmore, but those four were huge. This is like, when I think of Robin Williams, it's Missed Outfire, not even close. I think for family movies

that this was on the short list of, movies that came out 1990 after. Yeah. If you're under 35 that were just on the most times. Mm-hmm. You throw the DVD on, throw the tape VCR thing. Yeah, your parents put it on. You're nine years old.

It's easy. Yeah, I love it. You guys didn't mention, I just, Mrs. Doubtfire just ribbing Pierce Brosnan the entire movie and just going after him. Him and the restaurant talking about all this stuff about. Oh, about the stuff in the bedroom that Sally Field has? It's like a piece. It breaks up.

It's like a prison movie. Yeah, that was good. All right, cool. Shea, Amanda, Craig. Thank you. We'll see you next week.