Rewatchables Reference

• The 1977 car ride – grape spitting, reading the last page of a book first, the pie/chef salad ordering at the diner.
• The 1982 airplane scene – taking someone to the airport, the white man's overbite, 'somewhere between 30 seconds and all night is your problem'.
• Carrie Fisher's first scene leading into Bruno Kirby at the baseball game – perfectly establishes both friend groups in minutes.
• The museum/pecan pie scene – 'I'd be proud to partake of your pecan pie'.
• The double date and its aftermath – setting your friend up with the person you actually like.
• Surrey with the Fringe on Top at Sharper Image.
• The Wagon Wheel coffee table – 'Six years later, you find yourself singing Surrey with the Fringe on Top in front of Ira'.
• The phone call after they sleep together – 61 takes, three phones, three locations.
• Harry's final speech – 'When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible'.

• Nora Ephron's screenplay – a crisp 96 minutes with not a wasted moment, like a filet mignon.
• No villain in the movie – all tension comes from the two people and their relationship, unlike modern rom-coms.
• The 'just friends who get together' concept that launched 30 years of rom-coms.
• Harry Connick Jr. soundtrack – classic, timeless, never feels dated like pop soundtracks do.
• The movie barely feels dated despite being 30+ years old (besides phones).
• Sally's ordering habits – influential for 30 years of people doing it at restaurants.
• Harry's joke about the Knicks not winning since 1973 – seemed long in 1989, add another 30+ years.
• The frank, direct way the movie talks about sex – not gross, not offensive, still applicable.
• 'He's never going to leave her' – great relationship advice 20 years before He's Just Not That Into You.
• Old movie references (Casablanca) teaching a generation to rewatch and argue about movies.
• New York in October – the foliage, the wide shots, beautiful.
• The 'I Spy a Family' scene – real, quiet, well-written, with room to breathe.

• The fake orgasm scene – shock value is gone, it's too long now, everyone knows it's Rob Reiner's mom.
• Meg Ryan's crying scene when Joe gets engaged – over-the-top, inconsistent with her character.
• The aerobics class – everyone has way too many clothes on, very 1989.
• Casablanca references – 13-year-olds today have no idea what it is.
• Sharper Image being prominently featured.
• 'Ted Kennedy was shot' – nobody would know that reference now.
• The total fetishization of coupledom – no empowerment of being single, no diversity in the couples.
• Harry's college hairpiece/wig – he looks 40, unconscionable.
• Jesse's wedding speech was kind of mean – 'If either of us had found either of you remotely attractive, we wouldn't be here right now'.

• Albert Brooks turned down Harry – thought the movie was too reminiscent of Woody Allen (and too similar to his 'Broadcast News' role).
• Rob Reiner's first choice for Sally was Susan Dey.
• Elizabeth Perkins and Elizabeth McGovern were considered for Sally.
• Molly Ringwald had a scheduling conflict for Sally.
• Meg Ryan gave up Steel Magnolias to play Sally – opening the door for Julia Roberts.

Carrie Fisher – probably five scenes total and she's perfect in every single one. 'Pretty big tits. Your basic nightmare.'

• Ephron wanted to call it 'How They Met'; they started a crew contest for the title (nobody won); nominees included 'Just Friends,' 'Blue Moon,' 'It Had to Be You'.
• Crystal stayed in a separate hotel to get into lonely Harry's mindset.
• The old married couples were real people, not actors.
• Gerald Ford's son Jack played Joe.
• Originally ended with them staying friends – Reiner met his future wife Michelle during filming and decided on the happy ending.
• The final Harry/Sally interview was completely improvised – they filmed 10 minutes of it.
• Carrie Fisher knew Reiner because she was best friends with Penny Marshall.
• Crystal and Reiner met when they played best friends on All in the Family.
• The fake orgasm scene was a three-person collaboration: Crystal said they needed something for Sally, Ephron suggested faking orgasms, Meg Ryan said 'why don't I do it in a restaurant?'
• Harry had to run about half a mile at the end – from Washington Square Park to the Puck Building on Lafayette Street, about a 6-minute run.

• Billy Crystal – no, 'City Slickers' next year and the Oscar hosting gigs were higher.
• Meg Ryan – no, she ruled the '90s but had a lot of bad movies mixed in.
• Rob Reiner – no, Misery and 'A Few Good Men' still coming, plus Castle Rock/Seinfeld.
• New York as a pop culture location – maybe, though the '70s have a case too.

Bruno Kirby – played young Clemenza in 'The Godfather Part II' but 30 years later, people just know him as Billy Crystal's friend in this.

Meg Ryan's crying scene when she finds out Joe is engaged – 'really floppy,' over-the-top, should have done more takes.

• Harry in college looks way too old – worse wig than any of Meg Ryan's hairstyles.
• Sally drops Harry off at a park (Washington Square) with all his stuff – where is he going?
• New York to Chicago does not take 18 hours.
• We never see Harry or Sally working at their jobs – Sally's a reporter? Harry's a political consultant? What does that mean?
• Why did Harry break up with Emily? She made pies, had her own business, great-looking.
• Why was Harry so freaked out after sex with Sally? He knew what it would do to her.
• Marie and Jess have two separate phone lines, one on each side of the bed.
• No Harry best man speech – the easiest 90 seconds ever for Billy Crystal.
• Joe says 'I love you' after one month of dating; Harry dates an anthropologist in three weeks.
• Sally using the same tongs between items at the bodega salad bar – Miss Hospital Corners would never.

• Is this movie better if they don't end up together at the end?
• Did Seinfeld happen without this movie? (Same summer Brandon Tartikoff greenlit the Seinfeld pilot).
• Was Harry Burns Jewish?

• Billy Crystal – gets the final speech, sells every scene, makes you like an asshole the whole time (hardest thing to do in a movie).
• Strong case for Nora Ephron – created the rom-com structure that dominated for 30 years.