Rewatchables Reference

• Aaron's apartment fight with Jane – about 8 minutes long and feels like one take. The peaks and valleys, the devil monologue ('What do you think the devil's going to look like?'), and 'I would give anything if you were two people so I could call up the one who's my friend and tell her about the one that I like so much.'
• The first time William Hurt anchors and Holly Hunter is in his ear, with Albert Brooks calling on the phone.
• The Bobby Bobby Bobby scene – Joan Cusack running the tape to the booth, told entirely from William Hurt's point of view as he's thrown into the deep end of live producing.
• Aaron's television disaster – the sweating scene. The bar everyone pointed to of what you don't want to happen on live TV.
• William Hurt and Albert Brooks on the balcony – 'Can you name all the members of the cabinet?' 'Yes, Aaron.' 'OK, all 12.' 'There's only 10.'
• Jane confronting Tom about the video trick with the tears – his face when he realizes what she's mad about.

• The theme of an unkillable media institution starting to die – the central problem of working in media, still completely relevant.
• Aaron's theory that the devil would be attractive, nice, and helpful, and would just bit by little bit lower our standards where they're important.
• The Holly Hunter character – anyone who's worked in media has run across this person. Just calm down and have a drink. You can go home. 'Doesn't work like that.'
• All three characters as archetypes: the guy who's too smart to succeed, the guy who succeeds because he's not that smart, and the woman caught between them.
• The ending – 'no one wins' was bold in 1987 and feels even bolder now.
• Joan Cusack saying 'Except for socially, you're my role model.'
• The Nicholson reaction when someone suggests cutting $1 million from his salary.

• The office romance dynamics – Jane is technically Tom's boss and they almost hook up. In 2019 that's a fireable offense.
• Aaron being dismissive of the date rape segment as 'not real news' – in 2019 that absolutely is news.
• Holly Hunter's hair and dress at the correspondents dinner – Bill's wife audibly gasped.
• Holly Hunter sending Lois Chiles' character to Alaska to keep her away from Tom – a potential HR lawsuit now.
• The opening childhood scenes – very sitcom-y, would definitely get cut if the movie were made today.

• Debra Winger was originally cast as Jane Craig but got pregnant. The hosts don't think this movie works with Winger – too much history, too many 80s movies.
• Also considered for Jane: Sigourney Weaver, Judy Davis, Elizabeth McGovern, Christine Lahti, Elizabeth Perkins.
• You could see Harrison Ford doing the William Hurt role. Or Luke Wilson.

• Jack Nicholson – maybe the greatest heat check performer in the history of American cinema. Between this, Reds, 'A Few Good Men', Terms of Endearment, and the Joker, no one can take over a movie with less screen time. Unpaid, only listed in end credits, just wearing a suit reading news, and every time he's on screen you can't look away.
• Joan Cusack – the running scene, the Jurgen Klinsmann slide under the filing cabinet. Incredibly memorable for how little screen time she has.

• Bob Prosky – one of the great Mamet actors. Sinister in Thief, then became good grandpa. His scenes where he tells Aaron about the layoffs and then Aaron says 'I need to go be alone' and Prosky says 'OK, I'll join you' are wonderful.
• William Hurt's dad – great in a tiny role from Tucson.
• Christian Clemenson as the control room guy who looks like Philip Seymour Hoffman and loves getting compliments from Tom.

• Albert Brooks watching CNN at 3 AM saw a reporter sweating badly on air, called Jim Brooks and said Aaron had to start sweating – that became the key scene.
• Jack Nicholson unpaid for his role at his own request.
• Jim Brooks made them do 24 takes of the sweating scene.
• The alternate ending was almost captured in one take but a crew member said 'Bill' right before they rolled.
• One of the music composer guys in the movie is Marc Shaiman, who went on to write all the songs in Mary Poppins Returns.

• Jim Brooks – fully established as an A-list movie director while already in the TV Hall of Fame. A year away from The Simpsons. This is the perfect inflection point.
• Holly Hunter – this and Raising Arizona in the same year. Even over The Piano (Oscar), this movie had more lasting cultural impact.
• William Hurt – indisputably. The first eight years of his career are almost incomparable.
• Albert Brooks – tentative yes, though his directorial work might edge it.

Tough category for this movie because everyone dials it up but it never feels like overacting. The closest is the Aaron apartment scene where he yells 'Get out of here! You go to hell!' – but that's just authentic losing your shit on somebody.

• The ending – seven years is too long. Four would have been better. And Tom's fiance is a letdown – he should have been married to a 22-year-old smoke-show weather lady.
• Why didn't Holly Hunter smoke? This character was dying to be smoking cigs. Diet Coke and cigarettes in an 87 office – it would have pushed the character to the next level.

• Did Holly Hunter die alone? She says there's a guy at the end, but Bill thinks she made that up.
• What is the best movie of the 1980s? The hosts spiral into a 15-minute debate. Sean makes a strong case for 'Broadcast News'. 'Back to the Future', Raiders, 'Die Hard', and Bull Durham all come up.

Holly Hunter – you can't substitute anyone for her. Her height, her energy, her specific personality. You could see Jeff Bridges playing the William Hurt part at 95%, but nobody else could do what Holly Hunter does. Close second: Albert Brooks, because you also can't replace him. Jim Brooks has a case too for essentially inventing the modern love triangle dramedy.

They already made it – it's called The Newsroom. Same DNA, but the problem was Jeff Daniels was the star instead of the Holly Hunter character. Sean says the show had 'a pebble in its shoe' and never got a full episode right.