Rewatchables Reference

• Bill: The birthday celebration when Max comes over – 'in 5 minutes I've been like, oh, these guys are fucking boys.' Also: the first 15 minutes overall; the montage of bodies to jump into ('could have done 3 more'); Diane Cannon freaking out when Joe becomes Farnsworth; Joe and Betty in the limo; the football practice montage with the servants (Grodin runs into the bush); and the last 10 minutes including the bittersweet Julie Christie scene.
• Van: Joe convincing Max it's him by revealing personal secrets (the sister and the Coca-Cola salesman, the scar on the tongue, the neck in Pittsburgh) – 'the best scene of the movie.' Also loves the boardroom scene – 'he's functionally the most ignorant guy in the room, but actually the smartest guy in the room in human compassion.'
• CR: Training montage and football practice – 'just watching Grodin watch him get sacked.'
• Van: The ending where Max tries to reach Joe/Tom Jarrett – legitimately sad. 'The jubilation you feel when he convinces him is completely disintegrated by the fact that he has to lose that friend again.'

• CR: Professional athletes being closer to normal people – Joe lives alone in a modest house, no entourage, just jogging in jeans. 'Stock brokers got paid more than those guys.'
• Van: Being a quarterback for the Rams didn't mean anything financially. If remade today, the motivation would be monetary, not just wanting to start the Super Bowl.
• Bill: Female hairdos (perms, big body, Farrah Fawcett residue); the gaudy mansion wallpaper; young Dick Enberg; 1977 concussion protocol (Tom Jarrett runs back on the field after being carried off on a stretcher); and the Rams costing $17 million with a book value of $19 million – 'these teams are worth $7 billion now.'

• Bill: Joe Pendleton was supposed to live until 10:17 AM on March 20th, 2000 – 'we just passed it.' He'd be 85 now, probably with CTE and dementia.
• CR: A six-pack of Dyan Cannon – wanting a drink, outfits, eye acting when Grodin covers her mouth, screaming, off-screen body count (Johnny Carson, Armand Assante, Cary Grant), and still cranking out Lakers home games.
• Bill: Vincent Gardenia as a police sergeant. Dave Grusin's score – 'this is almost like Shawshank where it's just fun to hang out with the music.'
• Bill: An overtime Super Bowl – 'this didn't happen until Pats-Falcons.' The movie predicted it 40 years early.
• Van: The popularity of backup quarterbacks. Also: environmental causes as a theme – 'literally one of the first movies I can remember talking about this stuff.'
• CR: California new-age wellness culture – drinking whey shakes and alfalfa sprouts. Craig: 'You should see my TikTok algorithm.'
• Bill: Leo Farnsworth being a fucking asshole rich guy – 'those guys are back.'

• CR: Buck Henry and Warren Beatty walking through the clouds at the beginning of the heaven weigh station scene.
• Van: The tunnel scene – everything goes black, then comes out to light. 'Literally everything goes black, he's gone, but then it's like no, he's still here.'

• Bill: Two Rams quarterbacks die in the span of 30 months – what are the odds?
• CR: Julie Christie's hair and vibe – 'one of the most stunning women ever born, but this haircut was not doing her any favors.'

• Van: Tom Jarrett's stat line – 'completing an astounding 60% of his passes with a whopping 18 touchdowns.' Those would be mediocre Derek Carr numbers now but were presented as incredible in 1978. Gary Danielson was 6th in the league that year with 18 TDs.
• Bill: 'Looks like we got us a rich quarterback' – now every quarterback IS rich. Brock Purdy makes $53 million a year.
• Bill: Julie Christie trying to save Paglesham – 'she's a teacher who just leaves. It's a school year. It's December.' Also: how did the clarinet end up in front of Tom Jarrett's locker?
• CR: Warren Beatty's 1970s character names – 'Joe, John, George, Nicky, Joe, John. Put a little elbow grease into this, Warren.'
• Bill: The catch on the final play – 'I just don't think it was a catch. I don't think he had two feet down.'

Bill: Jack Warden during the murder investigation sting scene – 'starts just screaming for 40 seconds.'

• Van: This is a horror movie. 'A guy being tortured over and over again by God. They killed him, put him in another body, he falls in love, they yank him out, put him in another body, then take his memory. He dies. The dude's dead. You could make an argument it was the devil trying to get his soul the entire time.'
• CR: Joe is 'an all-time bad dude – using other human beings as meat puppets so he can play in one fucking football game.'
• CR: Mr. Jordan basically invented take culture – 'the likelihood of one individual being right increases in direct proportion to the intensity with which others are trying to prove him wrong.' He just invented Jim Rome and the Jungle.
• Bill: Julie Christie was the hottest British lady that ever lived. Elizabeth Hurley in the finals.

• Cary Grant was offered $1 million for Mr. Jordan and turned it down to stay retired. His ex-wife Dyan Cannon pushed for it.
• Diane Keaton was Beatty's first choice for the Betty Logan role. They tested many actresses but Beatty wanted Julie Christie because of their history.
• Three directors were considered: Arthur Penn, Mike Nichols, Peter Bogdanovich. Beatty really wanted to direct it himself.
• Originally supposed to be a Muhammad Ali boxing movie. Ali said no thanks.

• Bill: Dolph Sweet as the Rams coach – also the dad in Gimme a Break.
• CR: John Randolph as the Rams owner – 'the best actor.'
• Van: William Bogert from the boardroom scene – 'the dad on Small Wonder.'

Dyan Cannon and Charles Grodin – their side plot is its own movie. 'They're fucking inside the house, living together while she's married.' CR: 'Full pajamas with her.' Van: 'Reminds me of the side relationship in Who's Harry Crumb.'

• Van: Set it in New Orleans instead of LA – 'he's playing for the Saints, add a spiritual voodoo element. Saints going to the Super Bowl would be a big deal.'
• Craig's modern pick for Beatty: Ryan Gosling – 'he's already got the football from Remember the Titans.'

• Only four times in Oscar history have two people been nominated for Best Director: West Side Story, 'Heaven Can Wait', and the Coen Brothers twice (True Grit, 'No Country for Old Men').
• Buck Henry was brought on to co-direct because Beatty didn't want to direct actors in scenes he was in – but Beatty's in almost every scene.
• Biskind book: In the wide shot of Beatty and Christie's final walk together, they were supposed to pretend to talk. Christie was actually saying: 'I can't believe you're still making these fucking dumb movies.'
• The Super Bowl scene was filmed during 14 minutes at halftime of a Chargers-Rams preseason game. Beatty's calling audibles and changing plays – he looks legit.
• Filmed at Filoli Mansion (Woodside, CA) – also the Dynasty opening credits and Michael Douglas's house in The Game. Now a historical museum where weddings start at $75K.

• Warren Beatty: No – CR says Reds (got the Oscar), Bill says 'Shampoo' ('after 'Shampoo' he could do anything he wanted').
• Charles Grodin: Probably 'Midnight Run'.
• Dyan Cannon: Possibly this (Oscar nom), but Van argues the Showtime Lakers era – 'so many people know her from just being a Lakers super fan.'
• Jack Warden: Not this. He had a deep run from mid-70s through 'The Verdict'. 'Like Alex Caruso – my thing's just better because I have Jack Warden.'
• Movies involving heaven: Probably this. Van: 'This is the movie that a lot of those movies are probably mimicking.'
• Overtime Super Bowls: No – shout out to the Falcons fans.

Spielberg, 100 times out of 100.

CR: Older PSH could have played Max.

• Craig's flex: The George Ellerby '2 Weeks with Pay' award for characters who should have been fired. Joe riding his bike on the freeway as a Super Bowl quarterback. Jack Warden not at the stadium on game day. Grodin and Cannon couldn't hide their affair at all. Julie Christie abandoned her teaching ethics after one boardroom meeting. The angels murdered Joe twice.
• Bill: How do you take over someone's body without knowing anything about their life? The first 2 weeks would be 'where's the bathroom? Who are you?'
• CR: We never know what Leo Farnsworth looks like or how old he is.
• Bill: How does Max have time to train fake Leo when he's supposed to be the Rams trainer? And how did Max get to the Super Bowl that fast after the murder investigation?
• Bill: Can you buy the Rams in 4 days? 'The whole league has to vote. The Commissioner has to approve.'
• Bill: Tom Jarrett's just sitting there while the owner takes his reps before the Super Bowl? 'This would have been the hugest story.'

Prestige TV. Bill: 'I could have spent 8 episodes with the whole Farnsworth storyline.' CR: 'Stretch it out for more Grodin and Cannon.'

• CR: Jon Gruden – 'Let me talk to you about this Joe Pendleton out of the Los Angeles Rams organization. Running a concept I like to call Broom X Lightning. Brett Favre was drinking 6 cans of Busch with three Percocets and he did just fine.'
• Bill: Ryan Ruocco shooting Warren Beatty with the long rifle from across the mountain.

Won for Art Direction (Richard Sylbert). Van would have given it to Jack Warden for Supporting Actor, but it was Christopher Walken's year for The Deer Hunter.

• Bill: If heaven was like 'Heaven Can Wait' and hell was like Ghost, would you lock that in? All three: yes.
• What happened the next day to Tom Jarrett? Bill: 'Superstars on ABC that summer, maybe a Three's Company cameo, eventually CTE from the Super Bowl hit.' Van: 'Max was committed the very next day – his brain completely unravels. He's the only one who knows what happened.'
• Van: What would you say to convince someone it's really you in a different body? Bill and CR had the answer (Cabot's diner in Boston). Van told Craig: 'We need more core memories, man.'

• Bill: The Rams windbreaker jackets – 'those are fucking cool. I may or may not have looked on eBay for them.' Also: the clarinet, a ticket stub from the actual preseason game, and Tom Jarrett's Rams jersey.
• CR: Any of the funny Leo Farnsworth hats and outfits from when he first becomes Farnsworth.
• Van: Tom Jarrett's jersey.

Bill (in bad James Mason voice): 'There's a reason for everything. There's always a plan.'

• Bill: 'Shampoo' – 'let's just go mid-70s Beatty, knock it out.'
• CR: 'Fletch' – 'same kind of kicking around rich people LA vibe.'
• Van: Meet Joe Black. Bill: 'That movie sucks.' Van: 'This is a movie that meant a lot to us in the community.'

Warren Beatty (implied). The movie was his vehicle from start to finish – he wrote, produced, directed, and starred.

Craig (first time seeing it): 'I feel bad – I wanted to like this movie more than I did. On paper it looked great: 9 Oscars, 100 million bucks, football. I didn't hate it, I just thought it was kind of dated, a little slow. Comedies from the 70s just naturally feel dated.' Thought it wasn't directed that well but was well-written and well-acted. Noted it was better than 'Death Wish'. His modern Beatty casting: Ryan Gosling, who 'already has the football from Remember the Titans.'