Rewatchables Reference

• Bill: Opening credits with Carly Simon / Statue of Liberty / Twin Towers / ferry – 'feels like it's cheesy then it's not.' Kevin Spacey limo scene (cocaine, porn, harassment – new award: 'craziest foreshadowing of real-life event'). Tess in Sigourney's office. The luau wedding party. Jack visiting Catherine with Tess hiding ('Three's Company – can Big Jack come out to play?'). Boardroom showdown, elevator showdown, meeting the new assistant.
• Amanda (winner): Tess meets Harrison Ford at the bar – 'I have a head for business and a bod for sin.' He doesn't say his name. 'You're the first woman I've seen at one of these things that dresses like a woman.' Jack changing his shirt in the office while ladies cheer through the window.
• Bill: The party fight – 'Who the fuck died and made you Grace Kelly?' / 'I am that steak, you can't just order me.' Great screenwriting.

• Amanda: The word 'sleazoid' – 'we don't use anymore.' Also the 80s yuppie workplace culture and the fact that there's no Google, so you can make up whatever you want.
• Bill: The greed-is-good era as a zero-sum game. The elaborate-lie-to-avoid-getting-caught genre that dominated 70s/80s TV.

• Amanda: The Kevin Spacey foreshadowing – doing cocaine, showing porn, sexually harassing Tess in a limo. 'Wow, they knew.'
• Bill: Jack's Tequila Gold order – 'in the 80s, tequila was like doing cocaine. Now it's everyone's go-to.'
• Bill: Harrison Ford's clothes – solid colors, great ties, wearable today. Costume designer Anne Roth was a legend.
• Bill: 'The Melanie Griffith hot mess stealth smart baby voice archetype – I'm always in.' Also: trying to guess which scenes she filmed right after being out till 4:30 AM.
• Bill: 'Working Girl' became an NBC series with Sandra Bullock. Also: 'Never burn bridges – today's junior prick, tomorrow's senior partner.'
• Amanda: The officer-and-a-gentleman 'Way to go' homage. Carly Simon's score throughout.

• Amanda (winner): The last shot – Tess in her new office, camera pulls back to show she's one of thousands of windows. 'It's famous. It's a whole idea about the movie.'
• Amanda: The ferry shot with the fog machine, and the sped-up helicopter shot over the water into the night skyline.

• Amanda (winner): 'Lady in Red' by Chris de Burgh – 'they milk it with a long intro. You're just like, are they really doing Lady in Red the whole time?'
• Fun fact: Nichols first cut the opening to The Eagles' 'Witchy Woman.' Carly Simon was horrified and upped her game. Amanda: 'Witchy Woman would absolutely ruin the movie.'

• Amanda: 'I don't think there is one.' Maybe Doreen DiMucci – 'her fake crying when caught with Baldwin is not believable.'
• Bill: The premise is '9.6 out of 10 on the no-fucking-way scale' – nobody notices Tess impersonating a deal-maker for weeks. Amanda: 'And so is 'Die Hard'.' Bill: 'They pulled it off and it works. Most movies we love are absurd.'

• Bill: Remote work would ruin this movie – 'you'd still do your job in 2025 with a broken leg.'
• Bill: Everyone's hair except Harrison Ford's. How women were treated in the workplace. Alec Baldwin's styling ('looks like a Pittsburgh Penguin').
• Amanda: Hard copies as plot devices (dictaphone, day planner) – 'you're doing this on your phone now. None of this happens.' Sleeping together before closing the deal ('girl boss wise, not what we'd do').

Kevin Spacey – 'all-time dial up.'

• Amanda: This should have won Best Picture over 'Rain Man'.
• Bill: The Pointer Sisters' 'I'm So Excited' is the most important pop culture song of all time – in 'National Lampoon's Vacation', 'Beverly Hills Cop', a crucial 'Miami Vice' episode, the NBA 'It's Fantastic' commercial, 'Working Girl', and culminates in the Saved by the Bell caffeine pills. 'A 10-year run across major movies, TV, and the NBA.'
• Joanna's flex: The exact moment the movie goes up a notch – '36 minutes 4 seconds in, when Harrison Ford aims his lopsided smile at Melanie Griffith's legs.'
• Amanda's flex: Nobody in this movie is good at their job except Tess. Jack hasn't had an idea in 10 years. Catherine immediately goes on vacation after transferring.

• Originally Jim Bridges directing Demi Moore. Bill: '80s Demi Moore brings the same baggage' (Jules from 'St. Elmo's Fire').
• Molly Ringwald (too young), Madonna, Shelley Long (Scott Rudin pushed for her from Cheers), Whoopi Goldberg, Goldie Hawn (too old), Meg Ryan ('couldn't pull off the accent'), Cher ('too famous, too much Cher').
• Lorraine Bracco thought she nailed the audition (per her memoir).
• The Geena Davis parallel: both tested for 'Working Girl' and Accidental Tourist. 'Working Girl will make you a star' vs. 'Accidental Tourist could win an Oscar.'

• Bill: The guy from 'Beverly Hills Cop' III / 'Philadelphia' ('I don't even know his name'). Caroline Aaron (Doctor Fieldstone from 'Sleepless in Seattle', Mrs. Maisel mom). Robert Easton as the Metro owner with Colonel Sanders hair.
• Amanda: Nora Dunn – 'really good at that specific kind of part.'

Joan Cusack – only 12 minutes but 'she's in the zone.' Amanda: 'A classic Dion Waiters.' Olympia Dukakis – one scene and great.

Bill: A young Marisa Tomei or Mira Sorvino as Doreen DiMucci.

• Griffith repeatedly made passes at Alec Baldwin during filming; he said no thanks (2017 interview).
• Costume designer Anne Roth 'cheated' with the party dress – 'no way Sigourney could wear it, it's way too short on her.'
• There's a Bob's Burgers episode about 'Working Girl' and 'Die Hard'.
• The lobby of 7 World Trade Center appears multiple times.
• Nichols first cut the opening to Eagles' 'Witchy Woman' before Carly Simon upped her game.

• Melanie Griffith: Yes. Pacific Heights is close but this is the peak.
• Sigourney Weaver: 'Somewhere from Aliens to here.' Nominated in two Oscar categories simultaneously. 'Probably the most bankable actress in 1988.'
• Harrison Ford: No, Raiders era. Mike Nichols: No, The Graduate.
• Carly Simon: Bill says no (You're So Vain in the 70s). Amanda disagrees.
• The Staten Island Ferry: '100%, never got better.' Colin Jost and Pete Davidson bought one.
• Bony asses as a disparaging term. Shoulder pads. 80s hair (non-extreme version – 'Mad Max and Whitesnake are more extreme').
• Female struggling in the workplace movies: Devil Wears Prada is the best, but this is up there with 'Broadcast News' and Baby Boom.

Split! Bill: Spielberg. Amanda and Joanna: Scorsese ('in 'Wall Street' Manhattan – it would be wonderful').

Bill: The Spacey part. Amanda: Oliver Platt's part – 'this is his 'Scent of a Woman' vibe.'

• Bill: Nobody wondered why Tess was in her boss's office so much? 'By Wednesday, people are talking.'
• Bill: Sigourney's broken leg recovery – bedridden for three weeks then just a cane. 'One or the other.'
• Bill: Catherine would be suing everybody. 'My secretary pretended to be me for four months!'
• Craig: Why did Catherine go on the ski trip alone after her boyfriend bailed? She was expecting a proposal.
• Amanda: Tess wears all white to the wedding – rude. The 'I love you' within four days – way too fast.
• Bill: Alec Baldwin cheating three days after Tess moves out. And then proposing at the party.
• Craig: Jack Trainer is creepy early on – doesn't say his name, whispers a double shot to the bartender, takes her dress off. 'Coming on a little hot.'

• Amanda: What do the lyrics of 'Let the River Run' mean? Bill: 'Written at 5:30 AM on cocaine.'
• Joanna: How did Jack's relationship with Catherine ever progress beyond hooking up a couple times?
• Bill: Does Harrison Ford ever actually have sex in movies? 'Presumed Innocent – that's it.'
• Bill: 'Are we sure Tess isn't the villain? She stole her boss's boyfriend and job.' Amanda: 'Hard disagree. The boyfriend was leaving. Catherine was stealing her idea and lying.' Craig: 'In Bill's defense, Tess has worked for Catherine for 48 hours.'
• Bill: Dim sum dumplings at an office party – no. Craig: 'A pot sticker you could get away with. Pigs in a blanket – undefeated.'

• Joanna: The Sigourney Warhols. The $6,000 dress ($16K adjusted).
• Amanda: The Bunny from the office. The gorilla from the wedding.
• Bill: The tall Harrison Ford luau glasses with the straws.

• Bill: 'You don't get anywhere in this world by waiting for what you want to come to you. You make it happen. Even if you have to steal someone's identity and their man.'
• Amanda: 'Check the milligrams.' (On mixing Valium with tequila.)

Untouchable. (Even though the NBC series failed.)

• Amanda (winner): Baby Boom – 'it's not as seen, and Diane Keaton starts a baby food empire with Sam Shepard as the Vermont country vet.' Also a triple feature with 'Broadcast News'.
• Bill: 'Working Girl' with 'Pretty Woman' back-to-back (1988/1990) – 'a double Cinderella, watching 'Pretty Woman' steal things.'
• Joanna: Witness (double hot Harrison Ford) or Devil Wears Prada.
• Amanda: Morning Glory (Rachel McAdams's 'Working Girl').

• Amanda: Joan Cusack for Supporting Actress – 'this is what a supporting actress Oscar should be. $6,000 and it's not even leather!' Bill: Melanie Griffith for Best Actress.
• Carly Simon actually won for Best Original Song.

Melanie Griffith (unanimous). Ebert: 'This is Melanie Griffith's movie, in the same way The Graduate belonged to Dustin Hoffman. She was not an obvious casting choice, but she's the right one.'

Craig: 'This movie single-handedly saved Liz's relationship with the Rewatchables. 'Death Wish' was a dark time. When this ended she said: best movie ever made.' He loves that 80s/90s rom-coms are edgier with deeper characters. 'Harrison Ford's character being a little bit questionable at times – I just like that.' His pseudo-hot take: 'Jack Trainer is a little creepy in the beginning – the double shot whisper, not saying his name, taking the dress off. This guy's coming on a little hot.' Also: 'This is hairdo Apex Mountain – the LeBron and Bosh big three of 80s hairdos.'