Laker Jim’s Fletch Cast
Laker Jim’s Fletch Cast
Fletch at 40: The Legacy Lives on...
EPISODE 40: We celebrate Fletch's 40th anniversary while exploring its enduring impact on pop culture and the uncertain future of the franchise.
• Jake visits Fletch's apartment building in Santa Monica for his 50th birthday
• We share George Wendt's final message recorded days before his passing
• Greg Mottola confirms Fletch's Fortune film adaptation is dead at Miramax
• Matthew Perry's autobiography reveals Fletch fundamentally shaped his comedy style
• Kino Lorber releases special editions of Fletch and Fletch Lives with commentary mentioning our podcast
• Ace Ventura was originally conceived as "the Fletch of the 90s"
• Fletch appears on movie marquees in Stranger Things, Family Guy, Cocaine Bear, and Pet Shop Boys' "West End Girls" video
• We discover the brilliant connection between Fletch asking for a "record" while in the Records Room
Join us next week for a special episode about the cut hockey scene featuring a surprise guest.
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Four decades after Chevy Chase first donned the Lakers cap as Irwin Fletcher, we're celebrating Fletch's 40th anniversary by exploring its remarkable cultural footprint that continues to expand across generations.
In this episode, we reunite after a long break to share Jake's pilgrimage to Fletch's actual apartment building (still standing at 827 4th Street in Santa Monica) for his 50th birthday. We also unveil a bittersweet surprise: George Wendt's final recorded message, created just days before his passing. The beloved actor who portrayed Fat Sam shares memories of working with Chevy and delivers birthday wishes in his characteristically warm, humorous style.
The news isn't all celebratory, though. Director Greg Mottola confirms that plans for "Fletch's Fortune" starring Jon Hamm have been shelved by Miramax's new leadership despite positive reviews for "Confess, Fletch." We dive into Matthew Perry's autobiography, where he reveals how Fletch fundamentally shaped his comedic approach, declaring after seeing the film: "I'm going to talk that way for the rest of my life."
We explore Fletch's surprising connection to Ace Ventura, originally conceived as "the Fletch of the 90s," and track Fletch's appearances on fictional movie marquees across media from Stranger Thi
FletchCast is Your Ultimate source for everything Fletch: the books, the movies, & the latest news about our favorite journalistic reporter, Irwin M. Fletcher.
... making sure Fletch Lives forever!
Host: James "Laker Jim" Kanowitz (@webguy911)
Co-Host: Jake Parrish (@jakelparrish)
Co-Host: Robert "Big Bob" West
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P.S. Have a nice day.
Fletch & Fletch Lives are Copyright 1985, 1989 Universal Studios and distributed by MCA/Universal Pictures. The Fletch Soundtrack is Copyright MCA Records. Confess, Fletch is Copyright of Miramax with Paramount distribution. All images and sounds are the intellectual property of Universal Studios. They are used only with the intent of public appreciation of a great film and possible publicity for its place among the great comedies of our time. We imply no rights to the characters or intellectual property created by Gregory McDonald, Universal or Miramax and is used for educational purposes only.
This is Chevy Chase and you're listening to Fletchcast an entire podcast devoted to one of the movies I made.
Speaker 2:Broadcasting live and around the world from Cabana One, the only podcast. That's all ball bearings. Your ultimate source for everything, fletch.
Speaker 3:Moon.
Fletch:River. Thank you, Doc you ever serve time.
Speaker 2:Laker Jim and his beat reporters will stop at nothing to make sure Fletch lives forever, forever. They don't shower much.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:This is Fletchcast. They don't shower much. This is fletchcast. Thank you, chavvy, and welcome everybody back to fletchcast. That's right, we're back. For those of you new to the show, I'm your host, laker jim, and, joining us as always, my co-host. Two men the cops are always beating up on Jake and Big Bob Boys. I miss doing this with you guys. Same, we talk on a regular basis, we have a group chat, but I miss talking to the fans. I miss doing this with you and I know they miss us because we hear on a regular basis asking when we're going to put out new episodes.
Jake Parrish:I agree it has been a long time and we've been busy doing other things in our lives. All our lives are really busy. You know, I've been multiplying by masturbation so it's been very, very busy for me. But you know, I'm glad to be back, I'm glad to see your smiling face and at least hear Bob's friendly voice.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Like I said, we have a group chat, but Bob has a lead time of about three to four days before he responds to a text. So by the time he chimes in, we don't even know what the hell we're talking about anymore. So it's great to have Bob's full attention the next hour or so. Bob, your response.
Big Bob West:I've been in prison.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:That makes sense.
Jake Parrish:I mean I told you. I mean mean like if you molested that dead horse there was going to be trouble you could tell.
Big Bob West:You could tell me all you want, but you know when you have a, when you have an addiction, I know.
Jake Parrish:But what did they say? Fuck around and find out, or yeah, there you go I found out a lot you did well.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:I'm all better now it's going to be an exciting year for Fletch because Fletch celebrated its 40th anniversary in May. Yes, that's right, fletch turns 40 this year.
Frank:Unbelievable.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Fletch is not the only one celebrating a milestone birthday, bob. While you were in the tank, jake celebrated his 50th birthday. Wow, jake, happy birthday. Happy 50th, 50. I hope you made it special. Thanks, man. Happy 50th 50th, I hope you made it special.
Jake Parrish:Thanks, man. Happy 50th. Me and the family went out to LA and I've been to Santa Monica before, but I guess it's just been I've been so busy or preoccupied that I never thought to go to some of the Fletch locations, so that was my number one goal going out to Santa Monica was to at least see Fletcher's apartment. Oh yeah, and I did that. How was it? It was awesome.
Fletch:As I pulled up to my palatial imitation apartment building, I observed the familiar red Oldsmobile Buick of Mr Arnold T Pants, esquire attorney for the former Mrs Irwin Fletcher. Time to use the service entrance.
Jake Parrish:It really doesn't look that different. So when I pulled up to it, when I had the address, I knew immediately that it was Fletch's apartment, because it has the staircases on either side that go up to the entrance. And I saw it and I just couldn't believe it. And so I went up the stairs, just like Fletch did, and I took some pictures I didn't have. When I parked nearby, I didn't have any signs to put in the dashboard no clergy, yeah.
Jake Parrish:I know I didn't have that, but I was all right. So I hung out there a little bit in the front, took pictures, but obviously one of the biggest things I wanted to see was behind the apartment building, and you know, the alleyway yeah.
Jake Parrish:See the lanai and see the fire escape and much like the front, the back is still there and it is definitely still recognizable as well. So what I did was I parked, you know, took some pictures and hung out in the front and then literally I just walked around to the back and walked down the alley and it's in a nice neighborhood, it's in santa monica, and I saw the fire escape and it's just right there and you can peek through and still kind of see the garage and stuff. It was amazing and I took pictures back there. So it was really cool to be there and just think about them filming it and definitely a bucket list item checked off and that's an active apartment that's being rented.
Big Bob West:Oh yes, absolutely yeah, and that's an active apartment that's being rented.
Jake Parrish:Oh, yes, absolutely yeah. In fact there was a little old lady walking a dog up the stairs on the other side when I was there and she said hello to me. So yeah, absolutely, people live there. We have got to break in.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Yeah, so anyone that's in the California area or looking to visit Fletch's apartment is located at 827 4th Street in Santa Monica. I went there about 20 years ago and I couldn't believe that in 20 years it hasn't changed. And it looks like 20 years later it also hasn't changed. So it's exactly the way it looked in the film and man, when you're walking down that alleyway, I mean you just feel like you're in the movie. I actually climbed up and swung from the ladder.
Jake Parrish:See, you did that. I didn't do that because I didn't have anything to really jump on. No garbage cans. No, there were no garbage cans. There was a couple of dumpsters nearby that I thought about pushing over, but just to be there.
Big Bob West:Does that place have a name to it too? I feel like there was like a name on the uh.
Jake Parrish:I mean I'm sure if I went back and looked at my pictures I could find it let me see if I could look it up like the el cortez or something.
Big Bob West:I feel like there was some sort of a yeah, el cortez sounds familiar, it is called.
Jake Parrish:Yes, el cortez. Apartments, studios and one bedrooms. No vacancies, wow.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:The burning question for me has always been is Fletch's apartment inside that building, Because I always dreamed of how cool it would actually live in Fletch's apartment.
Jake Parrish:Yeah, yeah, I would imagine. Probably not. I'm sure they shut that in on the studio, but even if it kind of looked like or resembled maybe one of the apartments, because if you think about it, fletcher's apartment was pretty small and these say on the sign that they're just studios in one bedroom. So yeah, but that's all it was yeah, and probably way more than the value of our entire homes. Being very close to the ocean there in santa monica, I'm sure they're super expensive, but just to see it.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:I wonder, if we analyze the shot as they're coming through the window, if we can identify the buildings in the background as the buildings next to the left of the alleyway, then maybe we'd know for sure.
Big Bob West:Imagine John with a little rig for the basketball still there.
Speaker 2:He draws the foul. Imagine you go and you look in the rig for the basketball is still there. He draws the foul.
Big Bob West:Imagine you go and you look in the window and that thing is still there. Yeah, how like just blown away you would be.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Like it's in there so good that everyone who's lived there since just has to decorate around it because they can't get it down, that's great. Hey, sometimes when you find a stud, you've you gotta demo a wall to get that thing out but again, it was really cool to see.
Big Bob West:What other sites did you see besides the, besides the apartment?
Jake Parrish:I did go around. I didn't take any pictures no polaroid. But I did go around underneath the pier, underneath the santa monica pier, and I was close to where Fat Sam's shack was, but that was it.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Why don't the three of us just plan to make a trip out to the West Coast together? Bob, you're going to have to jump on a plane and be part of this, because I'm thinking we have to make a human totem pole. Yeah, you're going to have to be the base of that thing to get us up on the line and looking in that window to see once and for all if it's Fletch's apartment or not, and hit all the sites. We're going to have to be out there a whole week just doing Fletch stuff.
Jake Parrish:Yeah, yeah, bob, I mean.
Big Bob West:They have cars.
Jake Parrish:They also have drugs, Bob.
Big Bob West:Yeah, honestly, like I would actually drive. I would drive there and just. Listen, I've been on a plane before, but I wasn't 6'5" 7,000 pounds. I used to fly in a coach seat.
Jake Parrish:Well, if you had Underhill's credit card, you could probably charge first class.
Big Bob West:Yeah, but I don't.
Jake Parrish:Sorry about that.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Jake. Yes, bob, and I actually have a big surprise for you. For me, in hindsight, it turned out to be a pretty amazing surprise. Okay, is that? As many of you know, we lost a legend this past week. Actually, we lost two legends Joe Don Baker, chief Carlin, with a K passed away, and then, about a week later, we lost George Wendt yes, our beloved fat Sam.
Chevy Chase:What is it? The Columbia National Holiday.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Who passed away, leaving behind not just an incredible body of work, but, by all accounts, a legacy of kindness and humility as well. Everything is Joe Euclid, Everything Sam.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Now, what many of you don't know, including Jake, is that just days before he passed, george recorded something special for us. Now it's a moment that Bob and I weren't sure what to do with, but I guess in talking about it we realized that this is exactly what George would have wanted and how he would have wanted to be remembered Making someone laugh, making someone feel special and reminding us all not to take life too seriously. So here it is, folks, george Wendt's final message. Jake, this one's for you.
George Wendt - Fat Sam:Hello, jake George Wendt here, and I would like to wish you a very happy birthday filled with reds and free junk Now Laker Jim and Big Bob from Fletchcast. Happy birthday filled with reds and free junk. Now, laker Jim and Big Bob from Fletchcast. They mentioned you're turning 50. That's great. I'm just a child and we hear you're a big Fletch fan Me too. Oh my God, you have good taste. Oh my God, you have good taste. Oh yeah, I got to tell you the story about oh my God.
George Wendt - Fat Sam:Chevy liked to rehearse some of the scenes. He'd say that was good. Let's try it this time. As if we're a couple of like toilets next to each other in a public bathroom. So, fletch, how you, how you doing today? Well, you know, I'm Just as if we're taking dumps, really dumps that aren't cooperating, and that's what happens when you get old. But you're young, you're only 50. The groaning dumps will come later. That's funny. Well listen, happy birthday, kiddo. All kinds of reds and free junk Cheers.
Jake Parrish:Oh, my God, man, thank you, thank you both, that was awesome. This man, thank you, thank you both, that was awesome. This was amazing.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Definitely awesome, but at the same time a little bittersweet right.
Jake Parrish:Well, maybe in some small way it's good. At least he knew that we had the podcast and we thought very fondly of him and the role that he played and the memories that he gave us and will continue to give us, you know, in the years ahead, and I'm sure not only for us but all the Fletch fans out there, you know.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Well, there's a reason we featured Fat Sam in our very first episode, episode one, WON in the segment we called the Records Room, Because we love George Wendt. His hair looked great. It did look good. He looked good. He had lost some weight and this was only two weeks ago and just, I guess, went to sleep one night and never woke up. And if that teaches us anything about death, it's that when it comes, it comes.
Jake Parrish:That's great. When it comes, it comes. I'm actually speechless just because of the fact that this happened so close to when he passed. Uh, the gesture alone of you and bob getting this together for me is unbelievably, uh, wonderful and gratifying and just amazing.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:But just seeing him and hearing him talk about Fletch and and nice to hear him say like he's a big fan of Fletch.
Jake Parrish:That story about him and Chevy, which you know, chevy, which is something that he would totally do in a moment.
Big Bob West:Without a doubt, that's exactly the kind of thing that would drive everybody else on the set insane.
Jake Parrish:Definitely that would drive everybody else on the set insane. Definitely the fact that he called me kiddo is is very, very sweet. So, um, I can't believe I got to hear from him before he passed. So thank you so much. It was incredibly sweet of both of you and um, yeah, he's, he will be surely missed, I mean sorely missed, I should say um, and surely missed, because of, obviously, what he did with, with Fletch in the movie and, of course, if you read the book, totally against what Gregory McDonald wrote and described him as. But he still killed it. Yeah, in the part, amen, yeah, he certainly made fat Sam his own, but his other body of work as well. So well, rest in peace, fat Sam.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Well, special thanks to George Wendt. Wherever you are, You're still making us laugh.
George Wendt - Fat Sam:My pleasure brother Well happy birthday.
Jake Parrish:Happy birthday. Thanks, man, you'll need to send that to me.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Yeah, definitely I will, and we'll post it on our social media so you can see, you can see George Wendt act out, him and Chevy taking dumps while they're rehearsing. It's worth seeing. All right. Well, listen guys, we have a lot to get to. We got a lot of topics to discuss today, so why don't we jump into the news? The Jane Doe Report.
Chevy Chase:I'm turning the story over to a professional reporter, over to a professional reporter.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Yeah, we got some good news and some bad news. Unfortunately, we're going to start with the bad news. Jake Greg Mottola reached out to us over the break and gave us a status update on the next Fletch film.
Jake Parrish:Yeah, it's not good news, At least right now. Fletch's fortune is dead. Ah, damn it. You gotta tag his toe. Looking at some of the tweets that he had sent out, the new head of miramax, who controls the rights to all the books, shot down. My sequel project, the fletch curse, got me. This is according to matola on twitter, slash x. Then there was a question question that was asked and he goes. Well, feature comedy is having a rough time. I was okay with the idea of it probably being a streaming movie, but I was only going to do it my way and if you think about it, confess Fletch was basically a streaming movie too. It was in the theaters very few theaters for a short amount of time.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Yeah, maybe a week in 400 theaters.
Jake Parrish:Someone responded back that's fucking heartbreaking. And Mottola was like yeah, it's dead, I just have to kill the Fletch part of my black heart. And then someone else responded no, and his response was I was told, the first one lost money, as if there was any attempt to make money, and we complained about that. I mean, that's no secret. There was no publicity done. We got a trailer roughly a month before the movie came out, a week.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:A week before. Yeah, yes, I remember that.
Jake Parrish:It was ridiculous. John was very into the new script, mottola says. I've been rather depressed about it, but hard to expect a good break in the future world. So that's where we stand right now. I've asked Jason McDonald about the future and hopefully we'll have some information. Jason McDonald obviously the son of Gregory McDonald, so we will maybe have some news the next time we record. I know the window of the rights is short right now. I would say it's less than a year that they have to get another one started and then I would assume the rights would revert back to David List and the family and then obviously they can shop it around again if they would like to, which I'm sure they will. I'm sure they will.
Jake Parrish:But it's a shame. I mean it's a shame because I thought there was a lot of great things about Confess. They were really enthusiastic about it. You could tell that they really loved the character, they loved the books which, as you guys all know, we were really excited about that. They really try to pull from the source material a little bit more compared to Fletch. So I guess again we're back in that limbo where we'll just wait and see. Maybe someone else will pick it up.
Jake Parrish:But gosh, it just took so long to get it back into the. You know, it took forever. It took like over 30 years to get it back onto the big screen and it's a. It took like over 30 years to get it back onto the big screen and it's a shame because the reviews are really good. If you go on Rotten Tomatoes and look at the reviews, they were overwhelmingly positive, not only from an audience standpoint but from a critic standpoint. It's really disheartening and I think Fletch's Fortune would have been a great movie. I think Fletch's Fortune would have been a great movie. I think Fletch's Fortune would have been a great second chapter. And then, if we only could do one more Fletch and the man who would have been a perfect capper, because it was just a nice kind of arc of the character as well of Fletch, oh well.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Yeah, and I think that's where the good news bad news lies is. I think, Listen, Fletch never dies. Yeah, that's where the good news bad news lies is I think, listen, Fletch never, dies. Yeah, as long as there's Hollywood influencers out there that are our age, we're influenced by Fletch. They'll always be interest, sure. Whether another movie ever gets made, not sure, but hopefully it lands in the hands of somebody that cares about Fletch yeah, whether it's Miramax opening their eyes or another company that is ready to pick up the ball and run with it.
Jake Parrish:And hopefully they retain Ham. I'm not sure how it works out. If someone else buys the rights, then they would be have. I would doubt that they would actually have ownership of the script. I'm sure the script would still be in Miramax hands. They would. They would still own it.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:But Right it would seem almost impossible for Mottola to be able to write a different script.
Jake Parrish:Right, that's a gray area that I don't really know. I'm sure Greg would fill us in on that and you know Jon Hamm is so busy, right, you would think that Strike While the Iron is Hot. That guy has been in so many things.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:He's in two shows right now. The iron is hot. That guy's in has been in so many things and he's in two shows right now. He's in land man. And then I just saw he's in a thing something called like your friends and neighbors yeah, you would think that they would want to do that, so we'll see.
Jake Parrish:It's unfortunate. Yeah, it's unfortunate yeah.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:So I'm definitely bummed to hear that we were kind of given a little heads up by matola, that the idea was sort of in limbo because new head of mirror max was not interested in making new films. That they were, they were going off to a different direction.
Jake Parrish:So yeah, I mean, we knew when the head was going to be a new head, that was that they came on board. You know, uh, that things were going to be iffy at best. But you know there was initial excitement because you know he was paid to at least write the script, so at least there was some optimism. But then everything kind of shit, the bed so disappointing. So blame jonathan blickman. Is he the new head of miramax? Be sure there is correct.
Big Bob West:I still, I still maintain, I think, that you know the fletch itself. A fletch would work so well like a uh, a series. We've always been pushing for that.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:You make every book a series.
Big Bob West:I really do feel like that's the way to go with this, because there's a lot to work with.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:And I do think that I think we'll see that eventually. I do have something in my gut just tells me we're going to see that eventually.
Big Bob West:I just always thought that that would work best.
Jake Parrish:I think that would just be a great way to do it, because then you can really flesh out the book. But then we have to go back to square one about like, okay, who was going to cast it? Maybe at least, if there's anything positive to take away from this is that we remove the hurdle, the stigma, that no one can replace chevy.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:That's a good point.
Jake Parrish:So it only almost knocks down the door for a third person right, hey, john, ham played him, chevy played him and now he can play it. Right, let's go. Ryan reynolds, he's almost too well. I, I mean ham's older than him, so yeah he's somewhere in the middle of ham and chevy.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Yeah, chevy was like 41, 42, ham was like 51, 52 and I think ryan reynolds is like late 40s, like maybe 47, 48, somewhere in there.
Jake Parrish:But Chevy would probably argue that he could still play him. You know he would. I could still play that character. Chevy, you're 80. No offense.
Big Bob West:I mean, you were great. I wouldn't hate playing a cameo in the movie or the series.
Jake Parrish:I don't think Chevy's ego would allow for a cameo, would you agree, jim? It would be a distraction. Yeah, it would, more than anything.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:And Chepi said that he was right. You know, you'd look at him and you'd say, well, that's Fletch, you know there's Fletch.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:That's Fletch. Yeah, clean break Now. Drugs on the beach, unfortunately, has been a running topic today, a big part of the topic that I want to discuss next. Matthew Perry, star friends, died tragically of a drug overdose Somewhere between our last recording and this recording, and a new documentary is coming out revolving around the drug ring that supplied him with the ketamine. I think they said 27 shots of ketamine in the last two days or three days of his life Crazy Wow, and I was never a big Matthew Perry fan. I. Or three days of his life Crazy Wow, and I was never a big Matthew Perry fan I wasn't a Friends guy.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Same, but I liked him here and there in Fools, rush In and movies like that. I always thought he was funny.
Speaker 3:Alex, this is Chewy Chewy. Hi Luke Skywalker, how are you?
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Had I known he was such a big Fletch fan, it might have changed my opinion on him. So a fan sent in. Let me just get her name Sandra Mercurelli. So Sandra clipped a portion of his audio book that she knew we would love. It's awesome. I'm going to play it for you and then we'll break it down. So it's a clip from his autobiography Friends, lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, a memoir, matthew Perry.
Speaker 3:In 2004, I flew out to Chris Everett's Tennis Academy in Florida for a charity event, the Chris Everett Bank of America Pro Celebrity Tennis Classic. It was a veritable who's who in Hollywood, but I was most interested in Chevy Chase. Chevy had long been a hero of mine. In fact, his performance in the movie Fletch had changed my life forever. One chilly night in LA, my best buddy, matt Andre, and I went to see a preview screening of Fletch and at one point we were literally rolling in the aisles with laughter. Chevy must have had 300 jokes in that movie and he landed each one perfectly. Later, as Matt and I sat at the bus stop awaiting our ride home, I vividly remember turning to him and very seriously saying Matt, I'm going to talk that way for the rest of my life and I have.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Now let me just stop it there. How awesome is that? You know what I mean, and as long as actors out there, directors out there, who are somewhere in the range of 40 to 55 years old, you have to love Fletch, you have to have been affected in some way by the movie, you know, and if you kind of look at his performance in Friends, he does kind of have that.
Jake Parrish:That at least how he was written. You know that very sarcastic kind of tone, kind of laid-back, sarcastic and, um, very dry yeah, I'm not great at the advice.
Speaker 3:Can I interest you in a sarcastic comment? Are you similar to chung? Yes, absolutely, I look a lot like him that's funny.
Big Bob West:Yeah, dry sense of humor, kind of not afraid to insult the person standing in front of them. That's I. I I think that he would have been. I mean, listen, it's time. Time didn't do good things for him, but I mean in the 90s, when he was making a million dollars an episode doing friends, I I really think that he could have been the next fletch. I mean there's other people that probably would have been better, but I think that he could have been the next Fletch. I mean there's other people that probably would have been better, but I think that he would have certainly been a very reasonable choice. If they were going to remake the movie with Kevin Smith or whoever it was in the early 2000s, he would have been a great option, especially being such a big fan.
Big Bob West:Yeah, yeah, a big part of playing Fletch is you have to understand the character. I agree with that, you know. You have to understand the way the character talks, the way the character thinks, the way the character behaves, and I think that he got that, you know.
Jake Parrish:Well, I think you know, when it comes down to Fletch, I think it comes down to, you know, just thumbing your nose at authority and just not giving a fuck. I mean like if you can embrace that you've got three fourths of Fletch down. Yeah, and Ham did a great job, I agree, I, I, I watched Confess Fletch about a month ago. I sat down and watched it again, me too, and and it makes me mad because we're not getting another one, because I think I enjoyed it, my most recent viewing, the most. I thought there was just so many perfect scenes, so many flesh scenes. And think about it, if we do look back at the first two movies in and see that as continuity, as part of the, there's definitely some maturing there, sure, because you know, people get older, people mature and um, but there's still some, you know, glimpses of the sarcasm. And you know people get older, people mature, and, but there's still some, you know, glimpses of the sarcasm and you know, and Chevy probably could have played that role if he was Pam's age, I agree.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:All right, let's just finish up the Matthew Perry thing, because there's a few more funny Fletch gems in here.
Speaker 3:Which makes this next story particularly painful for both Chevy and me possibly more for Chevy. Anyway, at the charity ball the night before the tennis event, chevy walked up to me and said I just want you to know I'm a big fan. I said, oh my God, all I do is steal from you, and we went on to have a mutually complimentary and quite lovely conversation. Next day it was time to play tennis Now. My skills were, by this point, admittedly rusty. What I did have, though, was an incredibly hard serve. In fact, they had a speed clock at the tournament, and I punched in at 111 miles per hour. The only problem was I was not exactly sure where they were going.
Speaker 3:The game begins. I am first up to serve. I have my partner in the ad court, and on the opposite side is Chevy, also in the ad court, near the net. I toss up the ball. The ad court near the net. I toss up the ball, bring my racket around my back, hammer the tennis ball as hard as possible and watch in horror as, instead of it spearing across the court to Chevy's partner, it goes directly straight and it's heading for Chevy Chase. If the ball was hit at about 100 miles per hour. This means it was traveling at about 146.7 feet per second, quantum physicist Meaning Mr Chase had 0.412 seconds to get out of the way.
Speaker 3:Mr Chase did not get out of the way. More precisely, his testicles didn't get out of the way. I have just served something close to a professional speed serve right into his Chevy chases, if you know what I mean. Here's what happened next. Chevy made a funny face, just like the one he makes in Fletch when a doctor gives him a prostate exam. That's great. And then dropped to the ground. When a doctor gives him a prostate exam, and then dropped to the ground, it took four medics to dash onto the court, strap him to a gurney and rush him to the nearest hospital. If this is what I do to my heroes Michael Keaton and Steve Martin, better take cover. And thus concludes the violent section of this audio book.
Jake Parrish:That's great.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:But seriously, how cool is that? To dedicate a portion of your autobiography to Fletch just tells you how much it meant to him, and that's what I mean. After 40 years, we're still finding cool stuff like this, and as long as our generation is around and our generation is influential in Hollywood, the influence of Fletch on them is somewhat undeniable.
Big Bob West:I really, you know what I wonder. I was thinking the whole time when I was wondering who do you think was Chevy's partner? I don't know. I hope it was Gail.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Well, listen, I have found something else for you guys, some new old stuff the Chevy Chase Show. Now, we've discussed Chevy's late night Fox talk show in the past and overall it was a disaster. But he had some guests that were great and Tim Matheson was one of them, which I did not know. Oh, wow.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:On it. They discussed Fletch a ton and Tim drops a Fletch tidbit that blew my mind. I've never heard it before, so hopefully it'll be all new to you guys too, and some other Fletch stuff that's definitely worth discussing today. So if you guys want me to stop and chime in, just let me know. But let's get started and listen to Tim Matheson on the Chevy Chase Show. Now the audio is not great because I think it was converted.
Chevy Chase:It was transferred from VHS, but let's give it a listen. My next guest got a big break in 1978 as one of the stars of animal house. Later I had the opportunity to work with him in pledge. Please welcome, tim matheson, great to see you. You know that we were in a big hip cold film. We're in it together, fletch yeah, you know you died at the end, not I, you got to do the sequel actually. That's why it was better to die, I think, really yeah. Boy, I'm on my way out.
Chevy Chase:Hey, you know, I know there's a story that you told me a long time ago about uh, after we shot fletch and and uh, oh, you did and you didn't know about.
Fletch:No, I didn't, I, I didn't know about that that there's a scene in fletch where chevy is investigating my character, alan stanwick and chevy's investigating it.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:He's an investigative reporter and by the way he calls him chevy I was just about ready yeah, I was gonna say he's about to call him Chevy right to his face Chevy, Chevy.
Big Bob West:I wonder if Chevy's okay with it or he doesn't hear it.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:You know, he did it even when he came on our show. So it's just funny to think he's always done it.
Fletch:And Chevy's investigating it. He's an investigative reporter and he's on a computer screen and is looking for alan stanwix's phone number. And uh, chevy looked at the number that was really on there and he said you know, that's like a silly number, five five, five. Yeah, it was one of those movie numbers five five, five. And it was like a nonsense. He said this is stupid. Here I'll put in a real number. And what you put in was your then car phone number. So, and it's in the movie, and it was fine, it was in the movie. And it was fine, it was in the movie. But then what happens? The movies they all come out on videocassette, and it was huge on videocassette. And by then that car phone number had gone on to somebody else somebody else's car phone and some poor little old lady is driving around Los Angeles getting hundreds of calls from Fletchies all over the country wanting to talk to Alan Stanwyck.
Fletch:Oh my God, how about?
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:that little fun fact. I've never heard that before. Nope, and in case you were wondering, that takes place. It shows up on the screen when Fletch is in the records room. And in case you were wondering, alan Stanwyck's number, aka Chevy's car phone number at the time time, was 213-383-1794. I'm sure the boys will be calling it as soon as we're done recording oh yeah, of course so pretty cool fun fact.
Fletch:There would have been nice to catch it while it was chevy's and then give that thing a call so you're single-handedly responsible for this lady, you know, and it charged her phone bill, so I think you owe her about five grand, I gotta tell you something interesting about fledge and I hope you'll come back when we have more time together because I want to do a whole sort of a fledge show with you and stuff, you know, but um yeah, yeah, damn, never saw that.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:I never got that one. One quick little takeaway from what I love that he called them Fletchies. I've actually been First name to call Fletch fans Fletchies. I think I like that. I do too.
Speaker 2:Better than Kluki, that's great, I got a call from Amherst.
Chevy Chase:Amherst College and Williams College. They both have courses in Fletch. I mean, I literally was doing a phoner to an entire classroom of people asking questions about Fletch and that's how popular the movie is. Isn't that amazing? I know you do. I don't know what you're doing now, but I do know that even for Fletch you do a lot of research on how to die. We're going to get together again and do that Fletch show and we're going to work together again.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:That's pretty wild that those two colleges had classes in Fletch.
Jake Parrish:I wonder what the curriculum would be for a Fletch course. In God's name. What are they talking about? Curriculum that would be for a Fletch course, In God's name. What are they talking about? Could be something a little bit more like the philosophy of Fletch, or how to be more like Fletch.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Or the morality of the story, the morality of his actions.
Jake Parrish:Yeah, something like that, or maybe touching on, like you know the books and you know going down that road too, we could teach a course. I'm sure which college did you say?
Big Bob West:what college you were there emirates or something everest? I'm just wondering if they're, if they're acting schools or if they're real colleges.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Emirates college and williams college. Emirates college and williams college. I'm looking it up emirates to williams.
Jake Parrish:Okay emirates college is in Amherst, Massachusetts. Is it a film school or? Well it's a liberal arts college, private liberal arts college.
Big Bob West:And Williams College is in Williamstown, Massachusetts, so two Massachusetts schools I mean.
Jake Parrish:Gregory McDonald lived in you know, grew up and lived in Boston. So I mean like maybe that was a you know yeah.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Maybe Greg spoke to the classes as well. That'd be interesting to find out. Yeah, but we should reach out to both colleges and see what they have on on file for the Fletch class. I'm willing to go back to school.
Big Bob West:Yeah, here's an interesting thing about Williams college 96% graduation rate but only an 8% acceptance rate, so it's pretty expensive.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Good point. I probably can't get in, but if this interview took place in 1993, give the you know. I guess you're going to have to give the movie a little time to get popular via rental. Oh yeah, I'm going to guess which ever made it seem to make it seem like it was you know recent, so I would say somewhere between 90 and 93. Could be, would be my guess of when these classes took place.
Big Bob West:Yeah, that's true. That's true, this is a long shot, but if any of our listeners know anybody that taught those classes, any info would be great.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Absolutely. If you were the professor of the Fletch class or you took the Fletch class, or even if you have time to research anything information on the class, please reach out to us If you're one of those colleges and would like to advertise on Fletchcast. We seem to have your demographic pretty much narrowed down, so reach out to us as well. Another thing I wanted to mention before we forget that while we were away, special edition versions of Fletch and Fletch Lives came out on DVD. They were put out by a company called Kino Larber and both discs are actually jam-packed with stuff Not a lot of new stuff, a lot of stuff we've seen on other discs, but they kind of just jam-packed into one and that was previously available, like the featurettes they Put it On, underhills making of the John Cocktoast in disguise featurette trailers, tv spots the whole thing is digitally HD remastered in 2K scan, whatever that means.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:But two cool things is Max Ivry and Brian Reisman. They reached out to us and Max actually sat down with us for a couple hours one night and really picked our brains, because him and Brian do the commentary on both DVDs. I think they do the commentary on most Kino Larber DVDs, but they actually mention us a few times, which is really neat, and even the old Fletch One website gets a few mentions. So here's a few cool examples that I thought you guys would like to hear.
Frank:Now I talked to the guys from the Fletch cast, which is the official podcast of all things Fletch. If you're a fan of this movie, you should definitely listen to that podcast. Now, according to my interview with the Fletch cast, scott was hired to do the score for fletch and worked with michael ritchie to give him exactly what he wanted. Now, in an interview with fletch1.net, sanderson briefly answered some email questions about his fletch experience, and this may have been back literally in the late 1990s, because it looks that old on the website and jake parish, another host, said it is now.
Frank:He did an interview with laker jim's fletch cast in january of 2022 and he set out descriptions of the books on the website. I had a message board, because social media didn't exist back then. Fletch fans could create their own name and we would just chat about fletch. And that's where I met jake parish. Jake was friendly with gregory mcdonald. Now laker jim's fan site, fletch1.net, was instrumental in getting a petition going to release Fletch Lives on DVD, to which Universal responded directly to the site, and then, in 2003, the film was released on a widescreen bare-bones DVD. Bare-bones, of course, yes, not like this one.
Big Bob West:Not like this one with our commentary. This was amazing.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:So there we are, officially burned into a Fletch DVD. That makes our legacy forever, and so I would pick it up. If you don't own Fletch on DVD or you want to own it for the sixth or seventh time, I know Kino Lauber's website sells it, as well as a few other spots, but Kino Lauber actually runs sales from time to time, so you can get it pretty cheap and this will probably be the best and, more than likely, last version that we'll get as far as on some type of physical media.
Jake Parrish:So my suggestion is, even if you're debating about getting it, getting it because this will probably be the most in-depth version that you will see, because we all know we've had tons and tons of discussions about how we can't and they're not available to cut scenes, so we can't even consider that. So this is as much as we were going to get as far as a real, true special edition of Fletch and Fletchlives, and we've never had anything with Fletchlives. I mean, up to this point, we've only had the bare bones version of Fletch Lives. I mean it was on Blu-ray but we still didn't have any extras.
Big Bob West:Yeah, their original DVD was just pathetic.
Jake Parrish:Yeah, so to have anything from Fletch Lives is a bonus.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Yeah, fletch Lives has a making of featurette with Chevy and Michael Ritchie and Julianne Phillips. It's got profiles on the actors, it's got six TV spots, a trailer, so basically everything they could find out there on Fletcher lives was also packed into there. So basically it's a one-stop shop for everything Fletch that's out there on these two discs. So go pick them up.
Jake Parrish:And they are available on Amazon as well.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Yes, I bought them. I've actually bought them and don't own a DVD player, so I had to go actually find a DVD player. That's awesome. Everything I watch is, you know, digital. Everything is on demand or whatever.
Big Bob West:It's amazing because you know DVDs and VHS, you know it was replaced by nothing. Essentially, it was replaced by, you know, digital downloads, you know, and it just sucks because I mean, I worked in a video store, a DVD sales store, for years when I was in college and whatnot, and honestly, you know, not having a shelf in my house filled with, you know, those little trophies is like there's a hole. You know, there's a hole in the, in the fabric of my being. You know I like having, it's like having a bookshelf. You know it really is. And you know, show off all the things you love.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Jake's still holding on. You still buy DVDs.
Jake Parrish:I do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have a couple I still have. I have a couple of bins that that I've kept, like some of the DVDs that I really really like, or I know that are a little bit more rare and I will still. If I really like a film, I will pick up the DVD, well, more the Blu-ray version, and I do have a Blu-ray player. In fact, vacation has not been available on any streaming service for months and months and months. So recently I put in Vacation and watched it because I wanted to watch it again and I didn't have access to it. And I don't buy digital movies, I still buy physical movies because but again, I'm definitely a little bit more choosy these days we have a lot of places around town that sells used Blu-rays and DVDs. So if I want one, I'll just pick one up there because you can. People seem to be dumping them now. Nobody wants them. So if you want something, chances are if you go to one of these stores you can probably pick it up, and pick it up cheap too.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Well, no reason to grab these secondhand, because the brand new Blu-ray is available on Amazon for Fletch and Fletch Lives for about $12. So you can pick both those up and it won't hurt your pockets too much. Hopefully we can get Max and Brian on the show sometime in the future. Talk about what goes into putting a DVD like this together. I'd love to talk to those guys again. All right, we're going to take a quick, quick break. We'll be back in a minute.
Speaker 2:Hey there folks. This is Bud from Bullet Aviation and you're listening to three guys who don't do a whole lot of singing with the tabernacle fire, if you catch my drift, laker Jim Jake and Big Bob.
George Wendt - Fat Sam:Take it away, boys.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:I was listening to a podcast called Buzzing the Tower and they spotlight 80s and 90s movies and it's a great podcast If you're looking for an 80s and 90s movie podcast. Buzzing the Tower the two hosts, mo and Max. They were doing Ace Ventura and they brought up a little tidbit that I'd never heard before and they kind of glossed over it. They just kind of shot it out there and I was like whoa, let me look a little deeper into this. So I was able to find a lot of information, more than I thought I would find. Guys, take a listen to this, okay. So Ace Ventura you guys fans of the movie? Of course, yes.
Big Bob West:I'm a Dawkins fan. I'm not much of a Jim Carrey fan, except for man on the Moon, so listen to this.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Morgan Creek had the rights to the script for three years but could never come up with a way to get it shot and completed. Still, they thought of the project as the Fletch of the 90s Wow, fletch of the 90s. Tom Shadick, a struggling writer director at the time, saw potential in the idea and took home every draft of the script. Morgan Creek had. He realized early, if it was going to be the new Fletch it needed a stronger antagonist than what Bernstein had written. The character went through several iterations before filming began. Tom Shadick likened the early ideas to a Fletch type detective.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Early in the film's development the studio wanted Rick Moranis for a Fletch-like part and reached out to him about it. Cary, who has a co-writing credit along with Shadick, helped shape the character to fit him after he came aboard. Shadick also explains much of Carrie's improv on the set helped create the over-the-top sense about Ace. Now on the DVD commentary, the writer-director said that Jim Carrey's early delivery was very flat, like Chevy Chase's Fletch Tone. Oh, wow, chase wanted Carrey's voice in the movie to be more like the comedian version of himself and really like the way he turned that switch on when he would come out and speak to the audience. So pretty crazy how Fletch was a big part of the early stages of Ace Ventura.
Big Bob West:It's a perfect example of the main character just being so cool. And again, so much of that is because of the way Chevy brought it to light.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Yeah, and Ace is definitely somebody that's not playing by the rules. Yeah, he's playing by his own set of rules and that's very Fletch-like, absolutely.
Speaker 3:How would you like me to make your life a living hell?
Fletch:Well, I'm not really ready for a relationship, lois, but thank you for asking.
Jake Parrish:Ace definitely uses disguises and character voices and things like that undercover this house is clear hi, I'm looking for ray finkel and a clean pair of shorts.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Now, guys, can you see a Rick Moranis as a Fletch-like character?
Jake Parrish:No, yeah, I was just thinking about that Because you remember they kind of did a version with John Candy, who's Harry Crumb, back in the 80s, a few years after Fletch, and very much yeah.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Oh, we love Harry Crumb. I feel like it's an underrated candy movie.
Jake Parrish:I like it too. There's a lot of funny shit in that movie.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Also 89,. Same as Fletch, lives in a lot of disguises.
Jake Parrish:Yeah, and it's very disguised, like so I guess. But we all know, true, a true Fletch movie or a Fletch character, those type of, I mean, it's just those type of individuals don't really say fletch, you know right crumb is more the doofus detective that solves the mystery, you know I think, I think, when I think of fletch, like I think, uh, axel foley and beverly hills, cop 2, and yeah, who's harry crumb is a decent attempt and everything.
Big Bob West:But I mean, rick moran has always played such a a family. He's the kind of actor. He's the kind of actor that you know very wholesome to. I will be like that yeah, very wholesome how many assholes we got on this ship.
George Wendt - Fat Sam:Anyhow, yo I knew it, I'm surrounded by assholes. Keep firing assholes.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:The one exception.
Big Bob West:That's great. And while Fletch is a PG rated movie, you know, like I don't know if it's a family movie so much, especially in the eighties, but the eighties values you know and if you read the books, there's nothing wholesome about Fletch. Yeah, yeah.
Jake Parrish:So there's nothing wholesome about Fletch. If you read the books and into the movies you know to some degree as well. But you know.
Big Bob West:Rick Moranis as Ace Ventura would have been very drastically different. It wouldn't have been as obviously you know, it wouldn't have been so over the top with the way Jim Carrey played it. It would have been much more of a of kind of I'm trying to think of a good way to do a good example or a good you know way to describe it that that is similar.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:You know, I don't think there's a comparable Rick Moranis role. Uh, to be honest, I think and listen, and you can't picture him doing the Ace Ventura Jim Carrey version. No, no, no, no, no, no he would have been more of a quick-witted Fletch version.
Big Bob West:He wouldn't have done all the crazy.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:But I think he's always been second fiddle. Sorry to interrupt, bob, but I feel like he's always been second fiddle and he plays that role perfectly.
Big Bob West:I keep thinking about Little Giant and the way he played the character there.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Yeah, but even though he gets tough at the end he's still second fiddle to Ed O'Neill, I think.
Jake Parrish:Yeah, still a second fiddle to ed o'neill, I think. Yeah, I'm curious if the early versions of this 90s flesh script. Always had the pet aspect, or was that always there, or did they feel like that's something that they needed to bring in?
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:I don't know that I'm not sure of, but it's funny that he said that the script needed a stronger antagonist. And who did they tap?
Jake Parrish:Randall Tex Cobb, that's true yeah, I have a package for you.
Fletch:Sounds broken? Most likely, sir. I'll bet it was something nice, though. Bend over Alrighty then.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Okay, so it didn't go down exactly like that, but it could have. It definitely could have.
Jake Parrish:It's funny, but in the end there really wasn't a huge antagonist though in Ace Ventura I mean like yeah, Sean Young's.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:What's her name?
Jake Parrish:Sean Young's character.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:The female character Einhorn.
Jake Parrish:Einhorn, yeah, yeah.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:One thing that the Ace franchise did do that was very Fletch-like was its sequel.
Jake Parrish:Yeah, because he was in Africa. It was like a totally fish out of water.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Which many deem as the Ace 2, the Fletch Lives of the 90s.
Big Bob West:Yeah, don't you speak bad about Fletch Lives.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:No, don't get me wrong. Lots of laughs, good laughs in both. But yeah he ain't wrong For me, just a little bit of too wild a swing compared to the first one.
George Wendt - Fat Sam:It's dead.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:To each their own. Bob, you got a quick Fletch Pop Culture and then I'll get us out of here.
Big Bob West:I sure do. Just give me one second. I seem to have lost my notes. Hit the music Laker Jim here we go Fletch.
Speaker 3:Here we go.
Big Bob West:Let me ask you guys a question what does the 80s music video for the song West End Girls, family Guy, stranger Things and the movie Cocaine Bear all have in common?
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:I believe they all take place at a housing development outside of Cairo.
Big Bob West:I don't get it, I'm just trying not to laugh at your talk.
Big Bob West:Too bad, I don't know Actually they all display Fletch or Fletch lives on a 1980s movie marquee. Wow, can you believe that? That is crazy? That is crazy. I'm sure that there's other examples and I'm sure that somebody will point some out, but I wanted to just grab an example of different types of media. You know, in this case we have a movie, we have a music video, we have a live action streaming show and a network animated television. Four very different types of entertainment and yet somehow, someway, all referencing Fletch.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:All right, give us a breakdown of where people can find the Fletch Marquis in each of those examples.
Big Bob West:We're going to call this Fletch on the Marquis, okay.
Jake Parrish:All right.
Big Bob West:First thing I want to do, I want to take you back to the year 1985, the band Pet Shop Boys and their number one hit well. Number one for them West End Girls. Yes, I remember that song. Give me a little. Pet Shop Number one hit well, number one for them, west End Girls. Yes, I remember that song.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Give me a little pet shot. That song creeped me out a little bit. The video did too.
Chevy Chase:Yeah, it was part of the whole Europop thing going on at the time In West End town the dead end world, the East End boys and West End girls.
Big Bob West:But what you will notice is about maybe a third of the way, maybe three quarters of the way through the video. I don't know. I don't think any of us could follow this video's story going on. But you do see one of the band members, the lead singer, walking around the city and he stops in front of a movie marquee and lo and behold, Fletch.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Yeah, so you could see this at two minutes and 56 seconds into the video. And what's cool about this is you actually see the Fletch logo on the marquee, which I've never seen before. Correct, isn't that so interesting too. It's red. It's on the screen for quite a while.
Big Bob West:So cool. You got a lady eating an ice cream cone in front of the actual Fletch letters and it says Chevy Chase. And then in the smallest little font in Fletch but yeah, it does have the Fletch lettering and everything the Fletch font which is. Did we ever figure out what the name of that font is, or is that something that they created?
Jake Parrish:It's a custom font.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Definitely never see movie logos on the marquee like that. That's something I I've never seen before with fletch, usually you just have the uh the black, the black plastic letter.
Big Bob West:Yes, yeah, the slide-in lettering. Let's, let's give that, let's give that, uh, that fletch font the name. Let's call it fletch betica. Okay, I like that, but you know that doesn't stop there with the movie marquees. Guys, I'm such a time and time again I've, I, I've gotten away with it. But I've mentioned, you know, in Fletch Pop Culture, using another Family Guy reference. But I do want to take you to Family Guy, season 18, more recent Episode 6. There is an episode called Lois and Peter's Wedding, where they go back to 1989 in this case. Look, jim, I believe you have a clip of this as well.
George Wendt - Fat Sam:Let's play that clip, okay, it was 1989, the golden age of Hollywood, the year of Trope, beverly Hills.
Chevy Chase:Fletch Lives Gleam in the Cube and a hilarious new addition to the Harry and the Hendersons franchise.
Big Bob West:And right there, you see, you know, not only Fletch but Fletch lives is mentioned. And you know, I really appreciated this as well, because I don't think fletch lives ever gets enough, enough of its due, so to speak right.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Doesn't it pop up in another family guy too?
Big Bob West:yeah, I mentioned it before, but you know I tell that seth mcfarland is a huge fletch fan because there was a previous episode as well, on a on an outside movie marquee again, where the marquee read tomorrow dyslexic film society presents chevy chase in felch f-e-l, which is just such a great joke. Oh my god, that's great fletches mention. And a fourth one as well, more recently in the movie cocaine bear. Yes, you could catch cocaine, cocaine bear on peacock on peac. And if you don't want to watch the whole movie, if you're a little squeamish, you only have to watch 10 minutes of it. Right?
Big Bob West:Yeah, son of Grammy Award winning actor Ice Cube, o'shea Jackson is wearing a bullshot baseball jersey to team the bullshots. I'm assuming that that's some sort of reference to Caddyshack as well. Hey, sab sabu, can you make a bull shot? Make a shoe smell? Very funny. Uh, walking through a mall. You could see him going to meet ray leota to discuss, uh, their drug smuggling business. Another fletch, uh, another thing that's on on point to uh reference fletch, but again he's walking past the movie theater. What's on the marquee?
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:and the lower third Fletch Of all the times, and I just looked it up for continuity, that Cocaine Bear does take place in the year 1985.
Big Bob West:Yeah, 1985. Yeah, it does, yeah, and it's about ten minutes in the movie, about nine and a half minutes in the movie. A bear did cocaine. But you know it's the big one, for me at least, and I'm sure for a lot of people. I agree with you, considering how many people have been into this series over the last five or six years. Let me take you guys to Hawkins, illinois. A lot of you know where I'm going with this.
Speaker 3:Season three, episode eight Stranger Things.
Big Bob West:Now, the first thing I'm going to mention is, of course, again Clutch on the Marquee, with a lot of other movies as well, and that marquee was in the mall right.
Jake Parrish:Yeah, it was in the mall. That was in the mall.
Big Bob West:So much of that season revolves around the mall itself. Beautiful remake, yeah.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Now did that mall not hit all the right buttons for nostalgia for us it really did Well, the whole series. Now did that mall not hit all the right buttons for nostalgia for us Really did.
Jake Parrish:Yeah, it was Well the whole series. Especially because there's so many references to pop culture. I mean the whole series. But yeah, that mall is just like that's my childhood, that is our childhood, it's right in there.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:The stores, the Orange Julius, these guys, they're a bear for detail, that's for sure.
Big Bob West:Yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah, yeah. And honestly, just the beautiful neon cinema signs that they have in all marquees, that really takes me back so much. Yeah, that's to me that's like the more high marks of a really quality movie here, one where you stick to the to the floor pretty nicely, but, um, but yeah, again, you know, seeing it on the marquee, and I want to say this as well kudos to the makers of stranger things, because I'm sure we've spoken about this before, but the entire season three of Stranger Things was highly Fletch influenced. We have spoken about this before, but a lot of season three was influenced by Fletch.
Fletch:It's no secret that Stranger Things showrunners, the Duffer Brothers, are inspired by classic 80s movies. But while season three will surely continue to offer homages to films like terminator, aliens and the goonies, david harbour, who plays chief hopper on the hit show, tells variety that the 1985 comedy fletch was the inspiration for the upcoming season.
Big Bob West:The duffers are so specific each year with the movies, and fletch is one movie we get to play around and have some fun with this season, which you wouldn't expect from stranger things you're so you're helping us like all these kids they're 25 year old you're ushering them into like the 80s and helping them figure out the vibes of what we were doing with like lace, gloves, etc. Yeah, yeah, madonna, back to the Future.
Big Bob West:Fletch yes, 80s Good yeah, you know somebody undercover doing detective work and we saw that so much that season with the characters Steve trying to infiltrate this Russian crime ring that's going on inside the mall itself. They did take a lot of inspiration from Fletch itself and it really speaks to the fact that you know you see this movie so commonly used on movie marquees to describe the 80s. But I think the truth is is that people just love fletch so much that they want to always include it somehow some way in whatever tv show or movie they're making. And I think you guys would agree yeah, I would agree with that and I I was just again looking this up for continuity.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Stranger Things Season 3 takes place over the span of a week, culminating July 4th, so relevant time for the movie to be in theaters.
Jake Parrish:Sure. I mean the movie came out in May of that year.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:The earliest movie in terms of release date is Fletch, a comedy about an investigative reporter that goes undercover a lot. Not only is this reference to what Nancy Wheeler does when investigating the rats, but it could also conceivably still be in multiplexes because it came out, like you said, may 31st. So that checks out, without a doubt. I would love to have somebody from Stranger Things on with us to sort of like really break down the influence of Fletch. Fletch, I mean, when you think about it, it's the ultimate ode to a favorite movie. Yep, it's really cool that flex shows up so many times on the marquees in the background and it's amazing. Listen. We just mentioned this whole segment's called fletch pop culture. Jake just said about how ingrained fletch is into pop culture. Those little pops, those little pop figures, funko Pops that are pop culture figures the Funko Pops the.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Funko Pops. That everybody. How is there not a Fletch Funko Pop? There are billions of Funko Pops, but there's not a Fletch Funko Pop. So there's something seriously wrong there, so Funko. There's something seriously wrong there, so funko. There's. There's some wires that aren't connecting. That should be.
Big Bob West:Fletch needs a funko pop, I mean and not just fletch, not just fletch, we need fletch, we need fat sam, we need larry, we need all his identities right okay, I see I need like I need like a, like a, like eight, like a whole series of pop series here you know like and you know it's just like yeah alan the chief, I told myself I'd never buy funko pops.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:But I mean, if that happened then I might have to start doing it. But oh, I would have great pop culture thank you so much.
Big Bob West:And also, you know one more thing too. You know, and it's not too much to ask, maybe fletch lives funko pops too, but you know what. Thank you. Thank you for the time, and you know you guys have been so good. I want to buy you guys, since we're here at the movies, buy you guys some Juju fruits and some popcorn. That's great.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Well, that's pop culture for this week, and that about wraps it up.
Big Bob West:But before we go, I have one more thing I want to squeeze in. I have an embarrassing fact to me for about a month now and I gotta be honest, I'm dying to know what the hell this is.
Jake Parrish:See, I don't know, I don't think I know.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:I've been so scared to admit this because you may take away my Fletch card and rightfully so after I say it, okay, or maybe you guys can relate and admit ignorance to this fact as well.
Big Bob West:Are you gonna talk about how you took a shit that looked like Chevy or something Cock?
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:No, not that you would have got a picture of that in the group chat by now, but I've seen Fletch more than I've seen any other movie. I've probably seen Fletch maybe 500 times in my life. Does that sound right?
Big Bob West:I'm willing to bet you've seen it. Hang on, let me stop you right there. I'm willing to bet you've seen it. If you watch a movie three times a year, yeah, hold on, let me hit my couch Since, like you know the 80s you've probably seen it over 100 times. Let's put it that way I'd be willing to bet that you've probably seen it about 200 times. I've probably seen it more than that, you think so yeah.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Well, if we've been watching it since VHS in the late 80s, let's call it even 90. Let's call it 1990 for a nice round number.
Jake Parrish:Then that's 35 years, 36 years, yeah.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Well, if I'm saying 500 and I've been watching it for 35 years, then I would have to watch it around 14 times a year, which might be pushing it. I mean especially recently. But you have to consider too that there were some years in my teens where I watched it a couple of times a week, you know. So maybe, maybe I watched it, you know, a hundred times in a year, you know like possibly for a few years.
Big Bob West:So all right, let's I. I think you're close to 500. I think that you're over 400.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:I don't even know how to say. Let me just get this out, I'm filibustering. Yeah, let's just say I've watched it between 300 and 500 times. Fire away, go my point. After a ridiculous number of watchings, something just occurred to me that was clear as day. After Fletch passes out and wakes up, he asks the nurse where he is and she tells him. After finding out he's in the records room, she asks if she can get him anything and he asks for a record when am I?
Fletch:You're in the records room.
Chevy Chase:The records room.
Fletch:Oh, I'm fine if she can get him anything, and he asks for a record. Where am I? You're in the records room. The records room?
Jake Parrish:Oh, I'm fine, can I get you something? Yeah, do you have the Beatles' White Album? Right, I get you. I know what you're saying, right?
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Guys, I'm ashamed to admit I never put that together, did you guys? You can say yes.
Big Bob West:I'm not going lie, I never occurred to me either I never really thought about it either, that's true yeah, you're lying, are you?
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:are you guys being serious right now?
Big Bob West:I just thought it was another random weird thing. Chevy said, you know, right same.
Jake Parrish:He asked where am I?
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:like it's apropos that he would ask for a record in the records room wow, if you guys are being serious, then that means there are other people out there that never connected those dots as well, those obvious dots. Not so bad. You're not alone and you're not just saying that to make me feel better. You swear on Fred Dorfman's life.
Big Bob West:Yeah, no, honestly.
Jake Parrish:I really have never put it together either.
Big Bob West:I'm serious, I'm manning up.
Jake Parrish:Agree, same, same here, I can admit it. Yeah, I never really thought about it Because, like yeah, because honestly he says so much weird shit.
Laker Jim - James Kanowitz:Well, that about wraps up this episode of Fletchcast. Thank God I feel a little better, but if you're out there and you had that revelation as well with us, let us know. And next week we have a really special episode about the cut hockey scene with a special guest and a lot of information. So you're not going to want to miss that for Jake or Bob. I'm Laker, jim, we're going to go catch the last 10 minutes of dynasty. See you later, guys no-transcript.
