Welcome back to the Epic Universal Podcast. I'm entertainment writer Jim Hill, and this is the podcast where we cover the latest Universal news, rumors, and history. And as always, I'm joined by Eric Hersey. And how are you today, Eric? Jim, I'm doing fantastic. And I think everybody else is rejoicing because there was big news, big trailer drop. Did you buy any chance? I know you got a lot going on.
Did you get to watch the trailer for Wicked for good? I saw it actually come in last night. And correct me if I'm wrong, didn't we talk about how they were supposed to be showing Wicked for one night? only in theaters, but if you bought the tickets to that, you got to see this on the big screen. Did that actually happen?
Well, that's what it says. Now, granted, I didn't get one of the, I think it was June 4th. So it would have been this Wednesday. I believe that was the date and I haven't seen anything beyond that, but yesterday or last night, right? It came out and it's a two minute and 30. 32nd trailer. Now, Jim, did you see Wicked on Broadway?
I did. Okay. So I've been completely in the dark and I've stayed in the dark. I don't know the spoiler of this. So I have no idea. And Lainey and Lauren were trying to tell me what happens in the movie because obviously you can. tell from the soundtrack and stuff so i was kind of lost and clueless on what actually happens in wicked for good but it looks pretty good i'm intrigued uh there there were some uh surprises uh in that trailer that i saw but um
I wasn't aware that Dorothy was going to be featured. Did you see that? Yeah, and in fact, let's talk for just a minute because this is either the most tightly held secret or one of the more bogus hoaxes. in quite some time. Did you see the image that bubbled up online about who's supposedly playing Dorothy in this thing? No. Tell me.
Taylor Swift. Oh, come on. But it was one of these things where we're looking at it and it's sort of, we live in this world now where it's like, okay, that's AI, right? That's AI. No, I didn't see that, but that will break everything if they didn't make enough money. But I checked this morning and there was that like 3 million views on the official universal YouTube page. So it's going to continue and build.
I'm sure that everybody is going to see this trailer. And by the time this weekend is over, everybody will have it. And I guess there's a new song. Did you hear that there's like a new song? Well, no, that's... Don't get me wrong. Actually, this is a movie version of a long-running Broadway show. That's a smart play because what's interesting is that you can't... be nominated for Best Song. Literally, it's a screen adaptation.
of a uh a broadway musical and you're only using the songs that were written for that in fact that's kind of why whenever you see a uh when disney does a brand new version of one of its classic hand-drawn films like snow White, which, by the way, I guess next week shows up over on Disney+. But they wrote new songs for that because then...
The new song can then be nominated for Academy Awards. So even for Stephen Schwartz to write one new song means that, okay, this can be put in contention and that's yet another category. We can win it. Maybe. Well, that's a smart move.
I wasn't aware and that is good insight on your behalf. But yeah, there's, I guess, two tracks and you get to a little bit. So if you haven't seen it, go watch it. I don't really have much more commentary on it because once again, I'm confused. I don't know who the good guy and the bad guy is in this.
All I know is the original Wizard of Oz. So we will see. And I guess they might get my butt in a theater come November 21st because I'm intrigued. I think that that's a... pretty safe bet all right anyway folks lots of news to cover this week so uh tell you what we and of course we have to continue our harry and henderson feature from last week which we'll get to second half of the show
But before we do that, we have to acknowledge our sponsor. And in this case, it's Unlocked Magic. Now, if you're planning a trip to Universal Lender or Walt Disney World, don't pay full price for tickets. Unlock Magic offers some of the best discounts available. It's backed by the trusted folks at the DVC rental store and the DVC resale market who've already helped guests save over $10 million.
on tickets. And the process is straightforward. You select your date, you choose your ticket type, and you see your savings instantly. Whether you're looking for a single-day pass or a multi-day... Park Hopper, they've got you covered. So before you buy your tickets at full price, check out unlockmagic.com and see how much you can save. So I want to remind folks, we are recording this on Thursday, June 5th, kind of late in the week for us. But this is just out ahead of Father's Day.
Forgive me for asking Eric, but are you that kind of dad that you graciously accept whatever your children hand you? Or do you drop very subtle hints like, I would really like this, please? No, Jim, I tell them to treat it like any other day. Just let me do my thing. I know they don't need to get me anything. I don't really acknowledge it whatsoever. So, but, but listen, there are elements. If they surprised me with maybe.
some epic tickets and a flight plan, I'd be perfectly happy with that, too, because I'm already itching to go back. Well, I'm kind of in the same category, in fact, but Alice is insistent. You're my dad, I need to get you something for father's day. So we've settled into this pattern where effectively it's like, I don't like you spending real money on me. So I set like this artificial ceiling of like 20 bucks and then I'll find either a used book that.
any need for reference or something like that. This year, I actually went outside of my business model because I found something that actually is Epic Universal podcast related that I thought, ooh, I need that. But it was $20.99. It's the 45th anniversary edition of the Blu-ray of Jaws that came out. Well, again, we were talking on the last show about how December is selling the 50th anniversary.
What's great about this particular edition of the Jaws Blu-ray is, well, first of all, it comes with a booklet that includes actual storyboards from the film. But then it also includes the documentary, The Shark is Still Working, which takes you behind the scenes on the creation of the film. And it's put together by some of the biggest fans of...
that Steven Spielberg film from 75. So, uh, that's, that was literally, I turned to Alison this, I want this specific thing that's at this price point and I need it for work. So I'm, I'm, I, as we're sitting here recording the. show i'm keeping an eyeball on our driveway to see if ups finally delivers the thing so you got something to watch tonight yeah that would probably be the biggest troll job if my kids would get me anything jaws for for my for father's day considering that been my like
That is the one movie I have yet to watch since my childhood. Terrified. But we've talked, and I think in coming weeks, Jim, we are going to talk more about Jaws. That we are. And there might be a possibility that I'm going to sit down and face my fears and watch that dang thing. the first time in 30 some years okay now but but sharks are concerning how about roller coasters how do we feel about roller coasters
I enjoy a roller coaster. I don't necessarily love the heights, but I do like roller coasters. And I don't know if you're teeing me up, but there's a really good news for one of the better coasters I've been on. Did you see that? Well.
It has been part of our touring plan is every time we went to islands, you would have to kind of rope drop Hagrid's there because you're not getting on it unless you're there first thing in the morning. So I've been able to go on Hagrid's three or four times in our journey there. But now. it actually joins the Universal Express path.
You basically can now get it where before you had no choice, right? Yeah, yeah. And I guess what's intriguing about that, Len and I actually recorded a Disney dish earlier this morning where he was sharing that this, of course. making this decision, changing it into an express option, has had an impact on the standby line, right? Oh, single rider, excuse me. Yeah. Well, yeah. Well, I mean, they're still going to use it, right? It's on like occasion.
So it's listed as subject availability, so they're not going to let you do that all the time. I haven't got the pleasure of using a single rider, but that's one of the great hacks of theme park rides, right? If you go single rider, you can kind of, it's almost an express pass itself. So I guess they want people to pay for that express pass, right? No more like front of the line. Well, sadly, this is a business.
More to the point, there's clearly a demand for that attraction. So, you know, why not turn it into a revenue stream? Right. Well, you know where there's not a demand, Jim? Oh, yes! Yes! In fact, I find it so intriguing that... Early this week, we first got news about the official close of Tom Sawyer Island and the steamboat and that sort of thing. And then right on the heels of it, we get this news. Yeah, Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket, which they announced early. And I saw some.
conversations back and forth on X of people getting mad because they were announcing that it would be September that they were actually going to close Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket. But instead, it is now August 18th. So for those who made trips in September thinking that that was going to be their...
farewell tour. I'm sorry, you're gonna have to move that up a bit. And so it's been announced and we knew this was coming. But and they're still not like a announcement of what's taking over. I think there's speculations. But You get some nice t-shirts. There is Farewell Tour 2025 shirts and magnets now available. This is true. This is true. But look, I mean this in the kindest possible way, but given the fact that...
Universal has spent so much money out in Hollywood building that brand new Fast and Furious coaster on the upper lot, goes down to the lower lot. Look, the smart money, especially when it comes to. what they're going to do in Florida, we're revisiting that franchise. I would put down money now that Rip Ride Rocket comes back in a mutated form as Fast and Furious. And if anything, they... The load on load stretches all the way over to where Fast and Furious Supercharge is now. But, hey.
I could be wrong. Well, that makes the most sense. That makes the most sense for sure. Okay. So, all right. And let's see. So this happens August 18th. And doesn't this year's Halloween Horror Night start in late August as well? Yeah, I'm fairly certain. And they're starting to make announcements of, I mean, you sent one over today. And I didn't even put it in the show, but we'll break it here.
that Fallout has been announced to have a house. But the one that I thought was pretty interesting early on is that Five Nights at Freddy's is basically coming to Halloween Horror Nights. That was announced. So, and that's... based off of, what, a 2014 game, and then they had the movie, what, a couple years ago? Yeah, and in fact, I want to say that there's also been a poster released recently for Five Nights at Freddy's 2, so an ongoing franchise.
so to speak. But yeah, this is the window of time when we do start to get our news about what's coming. for Halloween Horror Night. And so looking forward to wandering around the soundstage and having teenagers jump out at me. Yeah. In this case, this is Five Nights at Freddy's had been pretty popular. And I've mentioned on before, I think Miles was the actual bear one year for Halloween. So it's hitting the young generation. So but it seemed to have they had a photo op, I think, the year prior.
and uh there were some other aspects i think there was something like uh behind the screams over in hollywood so it's a popular franchise there's gonna be movies coming out so i think they'll latch on to that and uh continue to you know have some of that synergy and buzz and speaking of movies coming out we are what uh a week a week right yeah from uh how to train your dragon the live action version and
Director Dean Dubois had some interesting things to share about that, right? Yeah, I was just seeing if there was any news going on with upcoming. There's a lot of promotion going. I did actually order the Burger King fries and stuff from last week. We talked and we had that collaboration between Burger King and How to Train Your Dragon. I tried some of their burger.
cheese fries or whatever it was last week but that was interesting but director uh dean he basically said that the reason he kind of one of the reasons why he took this over is he didn't want to see another like soulless remake so i believe how he called it and he wanted to protect that franchise. So I thought it was worth at least noting the fact is that if you liked the animated version, this is going to be having the same director, right? Yeah.
it's going to have that same tone and it's going to be protected because he's basically protecting his baby. And I, I don't know how much I can say here. But there is another movie out in theaters right now that is making a ridiculous amount of money that another director isn't. necessarily as happy as, say, Dean is, all right? And let's just leave that there, shall we? Yeah, you know, we can read that.
Here, but I have a question for you or something to bring up that I want your opinion on and it'll make you forget about that last statement. Over the internet, even our good buddy Buyer Reconstruct even mentioned this. Going into Epic Universe, we pretty much thought there were going to be flying dragons. And we have yet to see any flying dragons.
Right. There has been no dragon scene at the media preview, which you would have thought would have been the case or a grand opening or any other time. Jim, are we getting flying? Do you know of anything about these flying dragons? What? Are we going to ever see those, or is it just tabled, or was it just speculation and buzz? Well, okay. All right.
Remember back in December when there was that drone show that was presented over Lake Eola and there was the drone that fell out of the sky and injured the kid. Yeah. Evidently, the investigation is still ongoing. And in fact, this is why, for example, the drones have not returned to the nighttime show. over at Universal Studios Florida. This is why, and it's worth noting here that the head of entertainment for Disneyland Paris, which does wonderful drone shows,
came over to be the new head of entertainment for Walt Disney World. And the insinuation was, okay, this guy's going to bring first-class drone shows to Florida. But we haven't seen a single attack. Evidently, until we get on the other side of this investigation. And I guess that's the issue, that this happened and they don't necessarily know why.
So out of an abundance of caution, virtually anything related to drones in Florida is now on hold. Well, yeah, that makes sense. I mean, and at the end of the day, you could test it.
obviously because there was nobody in the park or anything like that for that matter so that's why we had that footage and yeah we knew there was such a thing but yeah you're right if they if they can't officially do that because now there are people in the park then that has us all wondering and guessing but that makes a lot of logical sense
Well, the upside of this is that your mother-in-law, Gogo, one of the only people on the planet who's evidently seen these things in action. By the way, supposedly Gogo's birthday just yesterday, so happy belated birthday to Gogo. Jesus.
She's our trooper. She's a big fan of the universal nowadays. Oh, well, good to hear. And speaking of big, when we get back from this break, folks, we're going to continue with our Bigfoot-related Harry and the... henderson series uh but before we do that there's this And we're back. Okay, so just to recap from last week's first installment of the series, where we left off, writer-director William Deere.
had just directed Mummy Daddy for Steven Spielberg's amazing stories. And this effectively was the Halloween episode for the first season. of this new anthology series over at NBC. And it really turned out well, so much so that Steven Spielberg wanted to do something else with William Deere and asked him, well...
What else you got? And this is when William volunteered that, well, I got this. I'm working on this thing where a Bigfoot gets adopted by a suburban family. And Spielberg was like, sold. Oh, before I forget, we got a lovely note from one of our listeners who pointed out that I mentioned that... Amazing Stories had been revived within the past year or so. And I said that it had been on Amazon streaming. And they actually pointed out, no, no, no, Apple Plus TV. So thank you.
much for pointing out my error um okay continuing on now now eric what complicates or complicated Steven Spielberg coming on board Harry and the Henderson is that the general who wanted to be the executive producer, Steven Spielberg, had a somewhat fraught relationship with the gentleman who was actually building the Harry and the Henderson suit, and that was makeup master Rick Baker.
uh and i think we mentioned on last week's shows that rick was the very first gentleman to be honored with the official uh oscar for uh makeup And that was back in 1980. And that was done for, what is that? American Werewolf in London, the John Landis movie. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Okay, so we're talking now 1985. Some five years previous, in 1980, Steven and Rick had been working together on a movie. Have you ever heard of this project, Night Skies? No, no.
Okay. You'll have to explain. Well, what's kind of interesting is it's the movie that eventually mutated into E.T. Now, the story, the actual story of Night Skies, now you've seen Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters, right? I have, yes. Okay, so you know that scene in the original version of the movie where Belinda... Dylan's character. She's the young mother with a three-year-old boy, Barry. That scene where something...
is trying to get into the house through windows, doors, the grates in the floor, and eventually her kid gets abducted by aliens. Now... What's kind of interesting about this, Eric, is it's based on a famous incident from 1955, the Kelly Hopkins incident. And it's this family in Kentucky. that told the story that they lived in a remote cabin and one night they were attacked, or so they say, by aliens that they described as like goblins and who were trying to get into their house.
And they beat them back and by morning they'd taken off. But Spielberg supposedly came across. this story while he was doing research for Close Encounters. And remember, the first version of that movie goes out into the theaters on November of 77. And so Stephen uses a teeny bit of that. for the Melinda Dillon scene. But then he thinks, man, that's a whole movie. I mean, so he hires John Sales, screenwriter John Sales, to put together a script. And what John...
And it's a really interesting idea. He bases his take on the story. There's a John Ford movie called Drums Across the Mohawk. This was done back in 1939. And basically, it's... Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert, it's set in New York State during the Revolutionary War, but these are folks who live in a remote cabin and the Native Americans, the indigenous people. spend the bulk of the film trying to break into the cabin and get them. But it's a really suspenseful film, amazingly well done.
And Spielberg, as soon as he reads that script, he says, oh, yeah, I want to make this movie. So it goes into development. And now, mind you, Stephen... basically says okay i have to go off and shoot raiders but tells rick baker you go right ahead you develop the aliens you develop the animatronics we're going to make this movie So Spielberg's off in Tunisia and London from June to September of 1980, working on Raiders, which then won't go into theaters until June of 1981.
And so Rick's working on the movie and he and Spielberg are communicating. And so this is why, for example, The alien crew that was after the people in the cabin in Kentucky, originally there's 11 of them. And then Spielberg and Baker, that's too many. And so they cut it back. to a crew of five. And Rick is spending money to build, like, for example, we spent $70,000 in 1980 money on a prototype of the lead alien, Scar. But here's the thing that...
While Spielberg is off making Raiders, he has a change of heart. And what's interesting about this is this supposedly happens because he's working at the same time. Did you ever get to see the special edition of Close Encounters? No, I don't think so. I probably just saw the original one. All right. And I'm not going to lie, Eric, you've lived a good life. In fact, if anything, when I saw the special edition of...
Close Encounters. I mean, the whole gimmick of the ad campaign is you finally get to go inside the ship and see what's in there. And it's like, wow, it's a mall. Listen, when special editions, I had to go through the Star Wars ones. I don't think I've ever watched another. special edition i've stayed away all right learn my lesson you have good instincts but but here's the thing that that spielberg is working on the special edition
of Close Encounters. Again, that goes into theaters August of 1980 when he's working on writers. And he begins to worry that, wow, this night sky thing. what if people see this as my follow-up, my sequel to Close Encounters, which, remember, is basically a hopeful film. I mean, you know, the notion of aliens travel across the universe and are here to be nice, as opposed to...
to try to get inside of a cabin and attack a family. And so, again, he's beginning to think, maybe I don't... want to make a story like this that'll make people view close encounters as something dark he decides i want to make a hopeful movie um and by the way this isn't
To say that Steven Spielberg is afraid to make scary movies. And remember, this is the guy who executive produced Poltergeist, which, by the way, came out the exact same summer as E.T., all right? So how many parents made that mistake? Oh, we took the kids to see that. The nice Steven Spielberg movie. Let's go see Poltergeist 2. I bet that will be fun as well. But Spielberg now decides that I want to do something with heart.
And by the way, the way that Night Sky originally ended, Eric, is that, again, there's a crew of five aliens and there's one alien called Buddy. who actually befriends the family's autistic son. And if anything, he helps subvert. It's like, I got to protect these people from the members of my crew. And what ends up happening is he goes to reboard. the ship at the end of the film and scar literally forces him off the ship and maroons him on earth
All right. And in fact, in the John Sayles screenplay, the final image of the film is Buddy. And again, he's a tiny little gremlin-like shaped. Alien. And the very last image of this film is Buddy looking up in fright because you can see the silhouette of a hawk that's flying in, about to grab him and eat him. All right. But Spielberg's thinking, no, wait a minute. That's how that movie, how Night Skies is supposed to end. But what if that's how the movie began?
What if, and instead of him actually being marooned on Earth, what if he's left behind by accident? accident, this alien called Buddy. And then what happens to him? Maybe there's a little boy who lives in the suburbs who adopts him and helps him communicate with his crew and makes it possible for him to go home. And what's interesting about the set of Raiders is that...
Harrison Ford's then-wife, Melissa Matheson, is on set. And Spielberg is telling her about, geez, I don't know if I want to make this Night Sky movie and I want to make something hopeful. And she and Spielberg begins talking out the script to E.T. that she then goes off and writes. Oh, really? Yeah. So here's the thing. Spielberg is now set. I don't think I want to do night skies, which means I actually have to tell Rick Baker, who, by the way, has been designing and building aliens.
four months now and and by the way he spent seventy thousand dollars just building the animatronic version of scar he's now seven hundred thousand dollars into development Oh, shoot. On something that's not going to happen. That's not going to happen. So there's a phone call. It gets ugly. This is actually why Rick Baker does not.
do the animatronics for E.T. That's actually Carlo Rimbaldi. He's the guy who winds up doing the E.T. animatronic that we know from that film. Now, mind you, it's not a... bad year for rick baker because again 1980 is the very same year he wins his his you know the very first academy award for makeup but at the same time he's gone a long way down this road to make you know work on this movie that everybody says has a great script In fact, by the way, it's worth noting right now.
Right now, Steven Spielberg is shooting a brand new event film for Universal. In fact, it will come out next year, pretty much on the same weekend that Jurassic World Rebirth comes. All we know about this movie is that it is Spielberg returning to UFOs. And evidently, the word out is that it is another. upbeat film much like the usual Close Encounters but there's a lot of us who in fact I've got a copy
of Night Skies here at the house, Eric. It's a wonderful film. It's a great script. So they did make it. So it did end up being made? No, no. In fact, that's the thing. Oh, you have the script. You have the script. I have the script. I'm thinking you had like an actual vision. Like DVD? Okay, got it. No. And in fact, there are so many great scenes in the script. Like, for example, remember the autistic son. All right. And effectively, what Buddy, the alien, does is he contacts the space police.
So there is this great moment in the movie where the family finally answers the front door and hanging in the sky directly over their house is basically the mothership. from et and there is this giant hulking alien in their front door that is holding their autistic son by the back of the neck But he's using the autistic child who's never spoken in this entire film.
as the communication device and basically saying we are so sorry this happened and we are getting these people off of your planet and we'll get this taken care of but it's a to watch the family in tears because this is a boy they've always wanted to have talk and here he is talking but he's he's being the effect of walkie-talkie for the space policeman um i mean
So many great ideas in this thing. Jim, what I did is I was like, of course, I'm curious to see what these creatures would look like. You can, if you just type in Rick Baker, Night Skies prototype, they're very unique. And yeah, they're kind of scary. And the weird thing is, there's a couple people that did side-by-sides. If you take the forehead off of this thing, it looks incredibly like E.T. It does. It does. I bet there's... All right.
I'm sure Rick Baker and I'm not, I don't know the end of this story, but I'm sure Steven and Rick aren't, aren't. on each other's Christmas card list? Well, no. You have to remember that, and we'll get to the specifics in a moment, that we do get Harry and the Hendersons, and Rick Baker does do the makeup for this thing. Though it's worth noting that I'm not the only one who's really enthusiastic about the script. In fact, Night Skies was supposed to be made.
at Columbia Pictures. And as we mentioned on last week's show, when the head of Columbia got the script for E.T., and it's like, oh, I thought we were getting a scary movie. What's with this crappy, wimpy Disney thing? We're not making this. They turned it down. They took it to Universal. Universal made AT. It made almost a billion dollars.
But anyway, in a moment, we'll get to Rick Baker going from working on an alien movie that doesn't get made to a Sasquatch suit for a film that does get made. But first, this. And we're back. Okay. We were talking briefly about Rick Baker being the first gentleman to get the official. Academy Award for makeup back in, again, 1980 for American Werewolf in London. But it's worth noting that prior to that, there were two other gentlemen who got honorary.
Academy Awards for Work and Makeup. There was Harry Tuttle, who did the makeup for The Seven Faces of Dr. Lau. I want to say that was 1964. By the way, George Powell's last movie. Then in 1968, John Chambers was also awarded an honorary Oscar for his work on the very first Planet of the Apes movie. Now, again, you've heard the name John Landis a couple times in today's show. As we mentioned, director of American Wolf in London, but you might know him better from his...
comedies for Universal, Animal House and Blues Brothers. But very, very early on in John's career, he appeared in and directed a film called Schlock. which was shot in 1971, released in 73. And John in this movie basically wears an ape suit, which, by the way, was designed by Rick Baker. And we were talking about Sasquatches, and for a lot of folks, Bigfoot came on their radar because Roger Patterson.
A gentleman came forward with footage that had been supposedly shot in a dry creek bed in Northern California, which showed a clearly female. Bigfoot striding through the forest. And I think on last week's show, Eric, you were mentioning you had seen this footage, right? Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, I was obsessed with this kind of stuff when I was, I love Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster, everything. So I've read many of those library books.
and watched all the pictures so yeah this is the infamous photo here yeah now but again this footage was shot in 1967 and the very next year 1968 is when Planet of the Apes came out. And what's interesting is 25 years ago, so we're talking 99, 2000. John Landis starts sharing stories about how the Bigfoot in the Roger Pattison footage isn't real. It's actually a suit that John Chambers...
And Landis, what's interesting is that Landis, back in the 60s, actually worked on the 20th century lot. I want to say he was a delivery boy, so he actually had access. to Chambers' makeup studio right there on the lot. He knew a lot of the guys. uh who work there and to hear john talk this was a fairly well known within the makeup community that that bigfoot
Suit. I mean, it's a suit. It's not real. Now, mind you, Chambers is still alive at this time. I want to say he's staying at the Hollywood rest home. And when quizzed at a birthday celebration. Chambers flat out denied. No, no, no. I had nothing to do with that. Though it is worth noting that Rick Baker... in a May 1991 interview with Cinefix magazine, when talking about when he first came to Hollywood, there were only two guys in the makeup.
industry that were doing the sorts of things that Rick wanted to do. And that was John Chambers and Dick Smith. Dick Smith, you might know from doing things like Dustin Hoffman's makeup. Little big man, very big into, he was based in New York, though. Okay.
All right. So anyway, Rick Baker goes on to say, I was a big Chambers fan. I love Planet of the Apes and a lot of his things. But everyone out in Hollywood at that time was following the Chambers way of doing makeups and movies. And after meeting Dick's...
and seeing how he worked. I felt that that was a better way. And if you want to read between the lines here, folks, Rick Baker steered clear of... of chambers going forward now To get to the actual movie of Harry and the Hendersons, well, again, Eric, you've talked about how you watch that movie over and over again when you were a kid, you know, watch the VHS. Let's be honest here, a lot of what makes that performance of the Bigfoot is the guy in the suit, Kevin Peter Hall.
uh has wonderful vivid big eyes that yeah very human looking uh also wonderful physical performance i mean he gets again it's kind of ironic he clearly studied the Roger Patterson footage because Bigfoot moves like the one from that film. But what I love about this is that... Kevin had actually made his Hollywood debut that very same year in yet another Rick Baker outfit. And that was the Predator. He was the title character. Oh, wow. Yeah.
Little different roles there. There we go. There we go. But did a great job in all of them. But anyway, Harry and the Hendersons. winds up getting nominated for Best Visual Effects. But Rick Baker initially learns that his makeup work will not be eligible for nomination because... Well, evidently, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences received this anonymous letter that said, well, the bulk of the Bigfoot's performance in Harry and the Hendersons, that's...
That's mechanical effects. It's animatronics. You know, you don't want to give that guy the makeup award. And so Baker, learning about this, asked for a meeting, face-to-face meeting with the award nominating committee. at the Academy. And which, by the way, this meeting is presided over by Emmy Award winner, Edward Asner, you know, the voice of Carl Fredrickson from Pixar's Up.
And so Rick goes into the room with his reel to show how the stuff is done, but he also brings enough of the stuff with him to present directly to the board. And what's great about this is it's, it's Asner himself who hands down the verdict. He just looks at this and is like, this is makeup. This isn't mechanical. I mean, yeah, there's some mechanical components. You know, in fact, what's so funny is that they wanted to get across the idea that Bigfoot was huge.
And one of the ways they cheat to make Bigfoot or Kevin, you know, who's seven feet tall, you know, they wanted him eight. All of the mechanical devices that move Harry's brows or make his mouth move or that sort of thing. It's all in the cranium space above. The head is artificially larger because all of the mechanics are up there. But anyway, Edward Asner delivered the verdict.
It's makeup, not mechanical effects. And as a direct result, it's eligible for the award. And this turns out to be Rick Baker's second Academy Award for best makeup. By the way, Harry and the Hendersons arrived in theaters 38 years ago today. Just a reminder, we're recording the show on June 5th, 2025. All right. Let's be honest here. Eric didn't do ET size business, but did well enough.
For a TV spinoff, did you ever get to see the Harrison and the Henderson syndicated series? No, but when I was talking to Lauren about this, she never saw the movie but only watched the TV show. So she didn't know there was a movie and just watched it. It's a very weird world. Okay, because what's kind of intriguing about the TV show is evidently in the first five minutes of the TV show, the world discovers that there are Big Feet, and that's the premise. Harry can now go out.
into the world and go to the supermarket and go to the ice cream stand because it's like, oh, it's Harry. But this show was produced by Universal Television in association with Spielberg's own production company, Amblin. Only ran for two seasons in syndication from January of 91 through... uh, June of 93. Uh, but then, uh, there was, uh, a Harry walk around character in the parks, uh, which.
uh by the way whenever anybody put on the the the outfit evidently the the big feet included uh four inches of heels so you were made even taller And, but it's a full suit of, and every hair in the thing had been hand sewn into it. So it was brutally hot to wear. Absolutely.
And this was in Hollywood, right? Yeah. Okay. I was going to say, in Florida, could you imagine the smell? I don't even want to think about it. But the interesting thing is that Harry... had sort of a standing cameo in one of the uh shows that they they would do on the lower lot they had
uh what they called the the special effects show and you know they showed you how for example the six million dollar man would lift up a volkswagen bus But inevitably, the show would always end with the team member distracting the audience volunteer. as Harry walked out on stage and came up behind them and then startled them. But they then had a lovely photo opportunity of being hugged by the Sasquatch. But I would imagine...
That was so much easier to do inside of an air-conditioned theater than wander around the park. Beyond that, just to circle back to the film itself, I think we talked a little bit about the end of this film on last week's show, which I flat out love. Now, mind you, you can only see it once.
That bit where Harry returns to the forest and you only realize as you're watching the shot that you thought he's returning alone to the forest. It's like, no. Four and five of his Bigfoot brothers are hiding there in plain sight and join him as he marches into the forest.
Did you have a particularly favorite scene on the film when you were a kid, Eric? Well, Jim, the funny thing is, after we recorded last week, I told everyone we're going to watch Harry and the Hendersons. It's free on something called Tubi. Roku TV, you can find it nowhere else. But we ended up watching a ton of it and it brought back a lot of memories. I mean, ultimately, though, there's lots of broken things in the house, you know, like where he tries to jump on.
They teach him how to sit. Lots of good hilarity there, but overall good. But yeah, the end scene's great. I mean, from an emotional attachment perspective. Yeah, yeah. Now, a couple things before we close up here. I mean, William Deere, right from the get-go. wanted John Lithgow to be the actor that would go up against Bigfoot. And to be honest, one of the reasons is that John Lithgow is a big guy. He's six foot four inches tall. So the notion is...
That if you put an eight foot tall Bigfoot next to him, that telegraphs the audience. This is real. This is a big deal. And now, mind you, Lithgow. rejected the first version of the screenplay, actually had it rewritten because it was like, this is a little too much sitting down or breaking things. Can we try to put a little more heart in and that sort of thing? And I have to admit, given that the Bigfoot hiding in plain sight...
ending of Harry and Henderson is supposedly the 12th ending written for the film. I'd love to read the other 11. But beyond that, what's especially interesting about Harry... and the Hendersons is it has a just flat out wonderful score by Bruce Broughton. And the score of Harry and the Henderson lives on. In fact, you've... If you've been to movie theater and been watching a trailer and it's like, why is the score familiar? And it's like, well, that's Harry and the Hendersons again.
Or if you're watching a television commercial that's giving you the feels and it's like, why is this doing this? And it's like, well, that's the Harry and the Hendersons music. It was honestly the most effective part of the film.
So it's since been licensed in all sorts of different directions. But anyway, what did Miles and Hunter and Laney think of this thing? Hunter? Well, Laney was in one of her moods, so she went upstairs immediately. She's like, I'm not watching this old movie. Hunter, on the other hand, not like.
lasted all of us because we i ended up falling asleep because you know i'm old now okay but hunter hunter is like he told me the next he's like i love that movie it was great so an 18 year old approved it uh so you know but we're old souls we like that and it's funny
that it's like i just thought it was a throwaway movie i had lots of old vhs tapes like i remember i had that mac and me which i think is what an et ripoff and like so i just assumed it wasn't like a big budget movie or anybody associated with
it was like it was just a made for tv and then watching it back you're like oh no there's steven spielberg's name and stuff so it was nice to kind of walk back and you kind of made this a lot more uh harry and the hendersons is a bigger deal than i thought it was Yeah, no, it's a fascinating film from an interesting time in Spielberg's career. But at the same time, I just want to say this, if somebody at Amblin wants to dig out...
That script for Night Sky, there's a great movie there. Somebody could make a really great movie if they dusted that thing off. And more to the point, I mean, think about it. They could put it on Peacock. Right. Doesn't have to be released theatrically. And more to the point, I bet if somebody reaches out to Rick Baker, hey, you want to finally get you those aliens out there somewhere? All right. Anyway, I guess that now then brings us to the end of this week's edition.
of the Epic Universal podcast. So, Eric, as always, we love to get suggestions from Epic Universal listeners about topics that they want. us to talk about or suggestions for features. So if they want to get a hold of you, how do they do that? Yeah, you can reach me on pretty much all the social media platforms at Eric Hersey. But Jim, they can also message you. Where can they find you at?
Well, you can find me on X and Instagram as Jim Hill Media. And then over on Facebook is Jim Hill Media News. Okay, that is going to do it for this week, folks. In advance, I want to wish all of the fathers out there a happy Father's Day. Here's hoping you get your own 45th anniversary edition of the Blu-ray of John. And stick around now and listen up because we're going to tell you what's coming up this month on the Jim Hill Media Podcast Network.
Thanks for listening to today's episode. And if you like what you heard, head on over to Apple Podcasts and give us a review. This really helps get the word out about our shows. We also have some other shows on the network that you might like. Each week, we drop a brand new Disney dish with Luntestad. For animation and movie news, please listen to Fine Tuning with Drew Taylor. By the way, you can also check out Drew's... I want that.
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