Sept. 20, 2024

A Film at 45: The Jerk

"He hates these cans!" Our limited series, "A Film at 45" is back to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the films of 1979. We're dusting off the end of a decade that changed cinema forever, with a fresh look at modern classics and hidden gems that we...

"He hates these cans!"

Our limited series, "A Film at 45" is back to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the films of 1979. We're dusting off the end of a decade that changed cinema forever, with a fresh look at modern classics and hidden gems that we can't stop watching! Jason Colvin of the Surely You Can't Be Serious Podcast joins David and Scott for a hilarious look back on Steve Martin's star-making turn in The Jerk!

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WEBVTT

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to nineteen seventy nine in

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a Film Buys a limited series A film at forty five.

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I'm David Burns.

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And I'm Scott Hoffman, And as usual, we're dusting off

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the end of a decade that changed cinema forever with

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a fresh look at modern classics and hidden gems that

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we can't stop watching. This week, we're cited as an

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optagrab salesman on New phone Book Day because we're talking

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about Steve Martin's The Jerk.

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Hey, loen no, David Johnson, Hey, hey, these cans stay

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away from the cams. What are you going here? What

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are you thinking? I can.

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That's right. I'm not a bum. I'm a jerk. I

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only have two things, my friends and my thirdness. He

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was a poor black sharecropper's son who never dreamed. He

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was adopted a rags to riches to rags story included

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among the one thousand and one Movies You Must See

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Before you Die. Were, of course talking about The Jerk,

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starring Steve Martin and directed by A car Reiner. But

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before we dive into this classic comedy, we would like

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to welcome back our guest that has joined us, and

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of course that is none other than Jason Colvin from

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the Shirley You Can't Be Serious podcast. Jason, welcome back

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to a film at forty five.

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Hey, thanks for having me man. I am so excited

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to be back here with you and Scott talking about

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a movie that I love and thought was hilarious from

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nineteen seventy nine until now. So I'm excited to be here.

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Well, we are definitely excited.

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We're excited to have you. Thanks a good in predicition

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for join us, you bet, you bet well.

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Over the year we have been doing this series, we've

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talked about a lot of serious films, so it's not

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often we get to dive into a comedy. And the

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last time we did this, funny enough, it was foul Play,

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which Jason, you had joined us.

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For another one of my all time favorite movies from

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the seventies, same type of thing, you know. It was

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funny and it was romantic, and it was one that

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I attached myself to, So I'm super popped.

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Let's do this all right. Well, Scott, it's heartbreaking that

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there are a mini author who haven't seen this, So

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how would you describe this film to someone.

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So Navan Johnson isn't really a jerk in the way

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that most people use the word. That makes him sound

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like someone who's just mean for no reason. But God

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bless him, the man's an idiot. After spending most of

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his sheltered life in his country home, he sets off

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to follow his special purpose to the big city, his

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innocence and luck bringing him on a hilarious adventure that

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finds him surviving a hit man at a gas station,

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finding love at the carnival, making an accidental fortune, and

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ultimately losing it all. As the movie poster says, it's

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a rags to riches to rags story that's still regarded

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to this day as one of the best comedies of

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all time. Now, guys, we've talked about some emotionally heavy

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and thought provoking movies in the past two years, but

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the paraphrase Luke Sky will occur if there's a bright

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center of the intellectual cinematic universe, this is the movie

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that it's farthest from. Absolutely, Yeah, it's it's it's a

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very clever comedy, but my goodness, this man's dim.

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Yeah. You know, I don't know if you guys have

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ever read the book save the Cat. Have you guys

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ever heard of that?

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No, it's a Now it's.

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A screenwriting book, and it basically says that there's like

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seven different plot lines of every movie you've ever seen.

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It's one of these seven plot lines. And this one

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falls squarely under the full triumphant a plot line.

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Right.

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You have a guy who's kind of an idiot, and

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the whole world sees him as an idiot, but yet

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somehow that's actually his superpower, right, so he wanders through

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the world as this fool. But it's I mean, it's

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kind of the same lines as like Forrest cup It's

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just like his superpower of being dim and and stupid.

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It's true.

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That's a good point. That's a good point. I was

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just thinking of that parallel. It's very interesting.

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So this was Steve Martin's first film, correct m. Obviously

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he's coming in hot from SNL and just like some

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of his counterparts Bill Murray and John Belushi, Martin felt

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it was time to dip his toe into cinema, and

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just as the others did, this was a huge success

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for Martin. I mean, this was like a four million

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dollar budget film and it came in at like over

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one hundred million dollars. I think that's a success. Would

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you guys agree?

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Oh my gosh, what an incredible first time out. Although

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he was in the Muppet movie that's right, he was,

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you know, in nineteen seventy nine as well, So I

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don't know what came out first, but but for him

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as a starring vehicle, gosh, to just crush it out

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of the park his first time out, incredible.

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Yeah, I mean, well, he already had a lot of

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he was published in and books, He already had a

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bunch of successful albums. He already had a lot of

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success on things like Saturday Night Live. So I mean

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it's it's it's interesting that he's at the top of

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his game at the beginning of his career.

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It's a great place to start, I'll tell you that.

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I mean, any one of us would I hope for that, right?

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Yeah? Yeah, yeah, for sure.

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Yeah. Well, this film opens up pretty much where it ends.

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For the most part, we get Navin telling us his story,

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so the movie's you kind of like a flashback. We

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learned he was born a poor black child and clearly

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has zero rhythm.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, that came from his stand up Have you are

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you guys familiar with that line from his.

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Stand up, No, I'm not so.

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Apparently he used that line I was born a poor

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black child in his stand up. Hmm, So that's all

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I know. That's that's it.

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So that's where this film basically came from them with

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his stand up. Okay, yep. And sometimes that's all it

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takes is that one line to create something like this.

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And sure enough, you know, we got a really good

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comedy from Steve Martin and Carl Reiner, that's for sure.

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So let's talk about this movie a little bit. Guys.

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We know obviously Steve Martin, we know his history. You know,

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he's already very successful. Scott has said so many good

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parts in this film. I swear I think I read

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somewhere that it said that they wrote this for like

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every like every page of the script had some kind

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of breakout comedy. I believe I read that somewhere and

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it's true. I mean, it's as soon as you stop laughing,

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it's not long before you start laughing again.

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Yeah. I had read that they they intentionally focused on

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making the screenplay have at least one big laugh or page,

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which is no small feet and thinking about the people

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behind this. Obviously you've got Steve Martin, You've got Carl Reiner,

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both you know, comic geniuses, you know obviously at different

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stages in their career, and you know, a team up

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that they would go on to repeat several times successfully.

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All of me, Men with two brains, man with two brains,

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and dead men don't wear a plaid. But when you

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talk about like their their writing process, one of my

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favorite backstories is the fact that he that Carl Rener

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and Steve Martin drove into work in their Honda. I

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think it was pretty much every day and just wrote

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new gags on the drive, And that to me sounds

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like a great backstory movie that they could shoot about

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the making of this movie. Like I'm sure that the

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being a fly on the wall on the inside of

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that car would be hilarious.

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Absolutely it would. It's it's funny. You can always tell

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in a movie when the cast and the director and

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the crew and everybody's having a lot of fun. And

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you can clearly see that in this movie and it

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comes off on screen. You have chemistry with everybody, the

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entire cast. You can tell the director knows what he's

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doing and he gets along with his cast. You know,

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you got some directors out there who are not very

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actor friendly, and you can tell Carl Reiner is one

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that who really goes out of his way to make

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sure he pleases his cast. I mean, he's in the

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movie for crying out loud, which you know we can

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get to a little bit later, but yeah, I mean,

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and the jokes come off really well in my opinion. Yeah,

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some of it is really dated. You know that we

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see a little bit later in the film, but you know,

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it's still really really hysterical film. And one of my

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favorite scenes and I'm just gonna go ahead and give

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it away the gas station scene. Oh my god. You

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know when you got innimable wash who's trying to snipe

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him and uh, you know, Steve Martin Navin is just

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walking around at first, and then oil cans are popping

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and he thinks someone's wrong with the oil can. Then

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he thinks he's the guy after the cans. Oh my god,

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it was so so good.

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Die gas pupper.

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He hates everywhere.

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You know, Scott, you were talking about how he and

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Carl Reiner would would ride together to the set every day,

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and the reason why they were doing that is because

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of the gas shortage of nineteen seventy nine. Yeah, and

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so like, it's funny how the US is short gas

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and so that actually contributes to people's creativity. They actually

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spend time together and we get a better movie because

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of the gas shortage.

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Yeah.

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Funny how that works sometimes, isn't it.

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I had forgotten that was happening. It was the Iranian Revolution, right,

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was causing all kinds of gas chaos. And that made

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me kind of think about that scene a little differently

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because he's he's shooting all these oil cans and you

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would think, like, you can't waste that, like there's a

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book giant shortage.

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Yeah. Absolutely, So talk about some of your favorite scenes, guys.

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So when you mentioned the gas station, it's interesting I

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almost ask like which one, because there's so many great ones.

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I think Jackie Mason is one of my favorite characters

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in this movie. He's such a I mean, I would

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say lovable, but he's a He's a great character. I

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love hearing him deliver the lines, and especially after they

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drive away with the church and he's like, I'm not

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all that honestly, I mean, you got rid of the

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church next door. That's not a bad thing, and and

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even that, like when he's when he's dealing with the

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guys that stole the credit card and he hitches up

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that rope to the to the other end of the

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church and he's like, yeah, you can't miss him. I

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don't have a license plate number, but it's a blue

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Chevy towing a church, so you can't miss it towing

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a church. That's probably them, Jason, What about you?

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Well, I my favorite scene is the is the m

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Emmett Walsh taking shots at trying to snipe him and

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take out the He hates these cans more cans, you know.

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That's my favorite scene. But I remember when I was younger,

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the scene that really really cracked me up was the

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the cat juggler scene. Oh yeah, where he's like that's disgusting,

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and it's that actor, of course, is Steve Martin. He's

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the one doing the cat juggling. So I thought that

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was hilarious as well. I also love when when Vernon

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Atte Peters is throwing knife she's learning to be a

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knife thrower. She's like, uh, do you have a balloon?

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He's like what, Oh, yes, I do. I have a

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balloon in my pocket.

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Balloon yeah, So apparently the dog that was on set

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for this, I guess Steve Martin threw something at the

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dog and it got scared of him. So there's quite

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a few scenes obviously that they share together. A dog

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kind of like you know, backs away from him or

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shies away, and like, I guess Steve Martin felt extremely

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bad about that happening, because obviously they had a lot

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of scenes together, and of course we're talking about the

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dog named Shithead. But but yeah, I mean the dog

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had a pretty good part, and the fact that they

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that that happened, I know, Steve broke Steve Martin's heart

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for that. So I was like, I couldn't imagine how

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to work with an animal and accidentally something like that happens,

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which makes the animal shy to you, you know.

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Uh huh.

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Yeah. Well, I mean one odd thing about that is

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this is actually my first time watching The Jerk when

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it wasn't on television. So when he called the dog shithead,

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I was like, wait, his dog, his name's stupid. That's

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the way it was on TV.

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That's right, that's right, yeah, right.

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Exactly. And then there was an extra scene with the charities,

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so after the cat juggling. Then he gets somebody who

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gives him a sob story about needing to replace the

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leather seats in his jet or something like that. And

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I was like, I'm watching it on Amazon preman, I'm like,

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where's that scene. That's one of my favorite things.

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And it's not there. No, you know what else? You

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know what else other than that Gaylor and sartainne scene

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that got deleted, which Gailor Sartaine is a Tulsa hero,

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which is my hometown, right. He and Gary Busey had

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a little TV show in Tulsa. He's one of the

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guys to make it big. But there was a scene

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with Bill Murray as a cameo where he played a

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flamboyantly gay home director home decorator, and they thought better

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of it at the time, thinking I don't know how

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this is going to play, and so they cut it out.

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But there is a there is a scene out there

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in the wild where Bill Murray is in the movie

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The Jerk.

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So has that ever been released?

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I couldn't find it. I think they buried it, like

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it's not on YouTube or anything.

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What a shame, I mean, come up with there's a

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Bill Murray performance out there that nobody has seen except

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for obviously the people who made this movie. That's very depressing.

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Although maybe we should see that scene the judge it

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to see whether it's grove better buried. Maybe maybe I

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remember seeing there was a quote from Bill Murray where

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he talked about the movie and he said, this movie

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is a dog and there's something missing. I don't know

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what it is. I can't say, but man, this movie

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just won't work. And it's because he wasn't in it.

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Of course, good old Bill Murray. You know, there's another

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thing that happened at the gas station of that, I

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thought it was absoutely hysterical, the glee, the joy that

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even had when he found out his name was in

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the film.

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Book somebody, things are gonna start happening to me now,

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Oh when.

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They do, of course, but no, I thought that was

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absolutely hysterical on his joy in that. And then he

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learns his special purpose.

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Yep, another thing that wasn't quite in the syndicated television.

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I was like, oh, wow, that's where they went.

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Yeah, that's where they went.

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Kind of job he's gonna get okay, all right, Well,

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good for him.

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But I still I still quote this movie all the time, Like,

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you know, when he's he's the biker chick. You know,

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he's at her place and he's like, where where's your

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Where do you put this? And she just throws it

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over there. He's like, Oh, that's where that goes. When

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my kids come in they drop their backpack and their shoes,

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I'm like, oh, that's where that goes.

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I think about this. I think about this movie every

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time I go to a carnival or an amusement park

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and I see the way guess her and he goes

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to that whole thing of like even when anything on

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this wall right in this three inches right here between

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the symbol and the chicklets.

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So I've got a question, because I've never seen this

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movie televised, what do they do about the kid's shirt

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that says bullshit? That's a good question because they had

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to obviously, do they, you know, blur it out? Because

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I've never seen this televised.

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I'm just curious it's possible they chopped it all together.

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Because so on the one hand, I'll admit I don't

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remember ever seeing this cover to cover. I just remember

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seeing it several times in syndication and catching a lot

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of the key moments. But when I saw the train

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scene in this watching it felt like the first time

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that I had seen it. So maybe it was cut

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for I don't know, co movie, her shoals or something

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like that.

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Yeah, there could be. I know, Burnett Peters, who plays

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Marie on this I believe heard and Steve Martin were

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in a real relationship. Were they not when they made

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this film? Is that correct?

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They were? That's true?

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Yep, yeah, And you definitely can see that in the

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movie too, that you know, their chemistry is perfect here

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and you really care for Marie, you know, there's I

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felt it was a little fast of her just wanting

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to leave him at first, remember when he was in

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the bathtub and she turned around and just you know,

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leaves and then he has to go after her. But

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I thought all of her scenes were spot on. I

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loved her and I wanted more of her, so when

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he basically and what I like about this too movie

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is that even though it's a comedy and there's a

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lot of stillness going on, it still has a pretty

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good message here. You know, money can change a person,

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and you see that here and he goes off the

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deep end. I mean, he was a really good guy,

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very nice guy, and everybody loved him because he had

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that charm, you know, and then money corrupted him, made

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him evil, and you know, he almost lost Marie too

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because of all of this. Luckily, she was a very

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strong woman and you know, wanted to stick with him.

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But you know, I really loved her character, and I

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love the chemistry between her and Steve Martin.

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Yeah, I love it. I think you're right. You can't

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tell that they're a real life couple. There's actual genuine

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intimacy almost when especially when they're playing that song he's

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kind of playing the ukulele or whatever they're singing. That's

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a sweet moment, and they have real chemistry. I've got

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something for you. I did a little deep dive. I

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hope you'll permit me, just a little bit of a

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deep Okay. So I found it fascinating that they were

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dating at the time they made this movie. And I knew,

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of course, because I'm a fan of the movie All

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of Me, that he and Victoria Tennant were dating at

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the time they made All of Me, which is another

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super funny movie from the eighties, right, And so I

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just looked up Steve Martin's dating history. It is a

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star studded, very interesting dating history. Okay, I'm just gonna

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drop some of these names. Okay, these are people actually

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verified dated Steve Martin at one point. How serious or

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whatever that's that's on a scale. But listen to this

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this Okay, we know he dated and Hash for nearly

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three years. He dated Victoria Tennant, she was in All

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of Me with him. He dated Mary Tyler Moore. He

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dated Bernadette Peters. He dated Karen Carpenter in the seventies. Wow,

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he dated Maureen McCormick, Marcia from the Brady Bunch.

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Yeah, oh interesting. He dated Linda Ronstack, Oh my gosh.

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So and then it's rumored that he and Kristin Davis

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from Sex and the City were an item as well.

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So he kind of worked his way around the h

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the red carpet a little bit.

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So Steve.

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Wow, that's a that's a big range.

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My god, yeah, that is. That's all over the place.

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But hey, my friend, the one that stretched me is

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the oddist is Marcia? Like Marcia? Really? I mean, not

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hold on a second. Now, at that time I would

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have dated Marcia, but it seems like that be an

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age difference.

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00:20:03.079 --> 00:20:06.599
There. Yeah, I mean how old was she when they dated?

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It was nineteen seventy six, so how old she was

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in nineteen seventy young?

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00:20:11.599 --> 00:20:15.039
Yeah, okay, all right, well all right, I mean young

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young Marcia and Marsha and Marshall. But yes, that's quite

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a list of females that he had dated. But hey,

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I mean he's a very popular guy and very good

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at what he did. And usually when you're successful, you

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know what that can bring along. You're going to run

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into other successful people, and if you're working with them,

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obviously you're on that scene and it's going to be

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easier to date somebody like that. So I guess I

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can see that.

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But I mean, like, like you started saying, Brendatt Peters,

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I think is a gem in this one. She's adorable.

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She's captivating to watch, I think, and I'm glad that

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we got some of her music musical abilities. It's coming

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00:20:55.480 --> 00:20:58.640

Jason Colvin

Co-Host of the Surely You Can't Be Serious Podcast

Jason Colvin is the Co-Host of the wildly popular Surely You Can't Be Serious Podcast. As one of the "Top. Men." regarding knowledge on pop culture, movies, and music of the 1980s, he is always a welcome guest. He has been a featured guest on multiple episodes of our limited "1986" series! Raiders of the Lost Ark, Aliens, and Hot Dog: The Movie are listed among his favorite films!