Dennis the Menace

Dennis the Menace (1993): A Chaotic Trip Down Memory Lane with Amy Lewis! 

“Hey, Mr. Wilson!”  Buckle up for a wild ride back to 1993 with RetroMade as we revisit Dennis the Menace, the mischievous comic strip kid brought to life in this John Hughes-penned comedy! Host Katie is joined by Amy Lewis from the Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast to unpack the chaos, nostalgia, and questionable plot choices of this family flick. From Walter Matthau’s grumpy perfection to the creepy Switchblade Sam, we’re diving into why this movie charmed us as kids but doesn’t quite hold up today. 

Join Katie and Amy as they spin the RetroMade time capsule wheel, diving into 1993’s pop culture gems before tackling Dennis the Menace. We explore the film’s highs (Walter Matthau and Joan Plowright’s heartfelt moments) and lows (Switchblade Sam, anyone?). With laughs, rants, and a deep love for ‘90s nostalgia, we discuss why this PG comedy feels like Home Alone gone wrong and whether it’s worth revisiting. Plus, Amy shares her personal connection to the Dennis legacy and her podcast’s heartfelt origins!

Creators and Guests

Host

Katie Geilenkirchen

Guest

Amy Lewis

What is The Director's Chair Network?

Join Ryan and many featured guests and other hosts as they break down and review a variety of directors and their films!
So far, this podcast has featured films from Edward Zwick, John Hughes, Brian De Palma, and Michael Mann.
Soon, we will feature Edgar Wright, Sam Peckinpah, Paul Verhoeven, and David Fincher!

0:02
[Applause] in this neighborhood this is an
0:08
emergency he's out of school for the summer where people cherish peace and quiet you won't get a moment of peace
0:14
there lives a kid named Dennis hey Mr wilson
0:19
i'm sick i won't f for you George hi Mrs wilson is Mr wilson here doesn't Mr
0:26
wilson get up real real early you should lay you know what I do my dad's asleep
0:32
he doesn't want to be mr wilson mr
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wilson he feels warm you need an aspirin
0:46
[Music]
0:54
now John Hughes brings one of your all-time favorite cartoon characters to life smile
1:03
for a whole new generation to discover don't embarrass me
1:08
you'll love Mr wilson that kid is a menace mrs wilson the Mitchells Margaret
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we could bury you alive i can pound you a steak joey switchblade Sam and a
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menace named Dennis kids are kids
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you have to play by their rules you have to roll with the
1:32
punches you have to expect the unexpected [Music]
1:40
dennis the Menace that's me america's classic kid in a classic American comedy
1:48
directed by Nick Castle a John Hughes [Music]
2:01
production hello hello i'm Katie and this is RetroMade your pop culture
2:07
rewind now today we're going to go back only to 1993 today to revisit Dennis the
Dennis the Menace Overview
2:14
Menace the classic comic strip troublemaker who comes to life with non-stop chaos i have a brand new guest
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that I'm thrilled to introduce you all to Amy Lewis of the Pop Culture
2:28
Retrospective podcast it's a show that I could not relate to more it very much
2:33
speaks to me Amy so welcome to RetroAde please tell us about you and your show
2:39
all right well thank you so much for for having me on your show i really appreciate it you know us podcast women
2:45
with you know radio ready voices really need to stick together and I think that you certainly fall into that category so
2:52
yes so my show is the Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast good job pronouncing that sometimes people have a
2:58
hard time it's a little bit of a a tongue twister at times but um yeah I started a shows about five years ago now
3:05
um which is just crazy so in May it'll be five years and I started the show about a year after my sister
3:12
unfortunately uh passed away very tragically she had a long um unfortunate
3:18
battle with significant mental health issues and so unfortunately that um ultimately you know played out in an
3:26
unfortunate way but taking sort of that grief and trying to take a positive spin
3:31
on it i decided to channel my grief into um kind of reminiscing about my
3:38
childhood and teenage years growing up with my sister because we loved watching movies together listening to music
3:44
together talking about the toys that we had as kids reciting lyrics to Rainbow Brite
3:52
songs together so I thought instead of sort of sitting and feeling horrible
3:57
about all this which I mean of course does happen I decided to just think about times in our lives that were
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really fun and hilarious and our generation is sort of notorious for just really amazing uh pop culture that is
4:12
funny diverse corny cheesy profound and everything in between so yeah so I've
4:18
been on this journey now for almost 5 years and it's been absolutely incredible and I had no idea what I was
4:24
getting myself into when I started this podcast but I'm still doing it and loving it and getting to meet so many
4:30
incredible people and it's just pretty amazing that something so meaningful and positive and special
4:39
and unique has come about because of this unfortunate situation in my life so
4:44
thank you for letting me be on the show oh my gosh you you couldn't have said it
4:51
any better i just want to kind of reiterate that you know well first of all congratulations on 5 years that's
4:57
Thank you yeah i can't believe it yeah and second of all I think you it's the show is really good like the quality of
5:05
your content and you know your sense of humor and little dry a little sarcastic
5:12
and I love it and but and you always honor your sister with the shows it's just a wonderful balance of memories and
5:20
like you said you turning something really unfortunate into something positive so I highly recommend you all
5:26
check out Pop Culture Retrospective with Amy oh well yes thank you so much yeah
5:32
thank you for Yes and before we before we get into the time capsule of 1993 I
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wanted to share with you all a book that was recommended by a listener Jen H
5:43
thank you so much for your recommendation i had to put it on my list at the library and it's here it is
5:49
called You couldn't ignore me if you tried the Brat Pack John Hughes and
5:55
their impact on a generation by Susanna Gora oh nice it is the book now I
6:01
haven't started it yet the back but you know I'm a big fan of The Handy Dandy Library yes and um so I'm going to dive
6:07
into this you guys and so be on the lookout for some tidbits in future episodes nice oh that'll be Yeah that'll
6:14
be a great read i'm not I'm not familiar with that book so I bet that's that's going to be a good one i wasn't either
6:19
and this whole season is about John Hughes so again thank you Jen for your recommendation all right Amy are you
6:25
ready to you know spin this pop culture retroade time capsule wheel yes I am i
6:32
always like to say that it'd be nice if I could remember you know what the Constitution consisted of or you know
6:39
which president was number 10 but I don't remember that kind of stuff but I do remember a lot of unnecessary stuff
6:45
from my childhood and adolescence so we'll see if that proves to be correct useless trivia is my favorite kind of
6:53
trivia all right can you see the wheel Amy i can yes i'm I've I've listened to said wheel on the show and so I'm really
6:59
excited to actually see said wheel in person all right hopefully hopefully we
7:05
get some good ones the first category we come upon is prime time rewind okay
1993 Pop Culture Trivia Wheel
7:12
okay so these are the top five prime time TV
7:19
shows from 1993 okay I have some clues but do you have any guesses
7:25
before I give you any clues let's see i think I would have some guesses yes um
7:34
I'm trying to think 1993 i think she had ended so that would have been you know
7:39
very high up there i'm trying to think 1993 specifically i'm going to say Cosby
7:45
Show nope oh okay i think that probably ended
7:51
just a little bit smidge okay yeah yeah okay yeah seinfeld seinfeld is number
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three okay man why am I drawing a blank
8:04
1993 suburban sarcasm suburban sarcasm
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it's a It's a an auto city it's set in an auto city home improvement home
8:16
improvement okay i was I was was like thinking 1993 cuz I think sometimes there's like these things are on the cusp and it's like was that like 96 or
8:24
91 you know so anyways yep yep let's see roseanne roseanne yep yep yep okay and
8:32
we have one set in Minnesota the Coach coach and the number
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one is not a sitcom okay it's a very
8:45
serious show investigative journalism
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okay 1993 it's got a very iconic opening
9:01
mhm uh this is book I'm trying to think it says CSI but I feel like that started
9:07
after that it's It is uh It's non-fiction okay h I'm trying to think
9:14
it's not Unsolved Mysteries is it you're getting You're getting warmer give up i
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think so because I never watched a lot of like serious stuff or scary stuff and still to this day I'm a bit very skittish so it's 60 minutes i wanted to
9:27
do tick tick tick tick tick tick tick but yeah you kind of forget about that kind of a show when you're when you're
9:33
kind of talking about but that was number one show prime time 60 Minutes man i think that's usually when I was
9:38
like ah time to go to bed yeah same i would that was not my jam in 93 right when Andy Rooney came on and complained
9:44
about something I'm just like I'm done i'm going to bed good night all right the next category is Return to Toon Time
9:53
this animated series which debuted in 1990 1992 but was incredibly popular into 93
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followed a group of mutant superheroes who dealt with both personal challenges and powerful
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enemies all while exploring themes of prejudice and acceptance what was the name of this show
10:14
okay is it is it Teenage Mut Ninja Turtles or is it Mighty Morphin Power Rangers you're close oh it's X-Men the
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animated series oh which I was like super into yeah I was not I've never seen that one yeah interesting i guess I
10:30
guess I didn't pay attention to the whole prejudice thing cuz I was probably a little bit too naive to pick up on any
10:36
funny revisiting things all right let's let's let's do another category here
10:44
big screen time machine so this is box office the top five movies at the box
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office mhm for 93 yep let's see any
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guesses off the top of your head before I start with clues the Yeah I think I might I think I might need clues
11:02
so Prehistoric Creatures Roared jurassic Park very good very good which
11:09
I like to tell a fun story about Jurassic Park that which is not that great of a story but anyways I don't
11:15
know how we ended up agreeing to all go see it in the movie theater but like both me and my mom are like I said
11:21
skittish fearful don't want to watch anything stressful or like people dying or people getting injured but in
11:28
Jurassic Park you know there's dinosaurs constantly coming out trying to attack people and my mom kept like digging her
11:33
fingers into my arm the whole movie and by the end of the movie my arm was like
11:39
completely red and like irritated cuz she was so scared and I was like so scared I wasn't even paying attention
11:45
and she likes to likes to deny that this happened but it did oh my god what like
11:51
she's making your child at this time that's like child abuse i know i know call DHS what's the statute of
11:58
limitations is it 31 years is that too long yeah so it was very scary at the time and those special effects hold up
12:04
pretty well they do i actually really like Jurassic Park i don't remember it being that scary but great movie great
12:10
movie definitely okay that that was the number one so good guess yeah yeah but
12:15
you can keep going clues are good crossdressing got Parental
12:21
mrs doubtfire mrs doubtfire yes let's see
12:27
a young lawyer joins a small but prestigious law firm only to find out
12:32
most of their clients are on the wrong side of the law
12:38
h I'm just going to guess cuz again this like the top movies may have not necessarily been targeted toward my
12:44
demographic was it like the firm the firm yeah okay nice and then in a
12:50
similar vein from a title p title structure perspective wrongfully accused
12:56
of murdering his wife Harrison Ford
13:03
oh yeah title's not coming to me
13:09
the fugitive oh yeah god I feel like I Yes that was like Yeah I remember I
13:15
remember that being extremely popular which would make sense yes yes so we have both The Fugitive and The Firm and
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then the the last one is a Tom Hanks romantic comedy mhm sleepless in Seattle
13:28
very good very good all right i think we have time for one more category
13:33
okay i live for this kind of stuff i know oo stars and Scandals let's see
13:41
here 93 i don't know how's your supermodel knowledge
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uh of this era probably better than anything after so yes okay yeah famous
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supermodel mhm arrested in 93 after a well publicized altercation with a
14:00
member of the press she's known for being kind of a [ __ ] uhhuh naomi
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Campbell very good very good yeah i She like whacked somebody with a purse or
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something like that or I'm trying to remember you have a better memory i don't really recall this one but I very much remember Naomi Campbell in the the
14:18
'9s era supermodels very much yeah which is how do I know that cuz I have no I
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mean no fashion sense i mean period i mean based I think that's pretty obvious
14:30
well if you grew up at that time I mean how could you avoid it right right it's just so interesting that like they these
14:36
Yeah these supermodels sort of infiltrated everything it's like what exposure did I have to any like the
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fashion industry at all magazines any of those like teen magazines well my sister
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did yeah that's probably why yeah that's true that's probably why yeah I I probably have told this story before but
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I mean and and I you know got to find a scapegoat somewhere for all of our
14:59
eating disorders in the '9s right so they I just remember being like 12
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reading these magazines and being like why don't I have a 22 in waist like Mhm
15:10
naomi Campbell or whoever Christy Tarlington right yeah really oh my gosh
15:16
so bad okay similar okay i'll do one more stars and scandals question sure this rapper in 93 faced multiple legal
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challenges including charges related to his involvement in a violent altercation the controversy would follow him for
15:29
years despite his growing fame and then he was later involved in a
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murder trial in 93 a Snoop Dog snoop yep
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yep very good amy you did pretty good I got to say oh thanks yeah I remember
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1993 quite well so it was it was a good year yeah i feel like I like some of the
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80s movies better but I was too young to remember a lot of the trivia so yeah the
15:59
'9s man okay indeed now before we start talking about Dennis the Menace you know
16:05
this season is about John Hughes do you have any particular thoughts about him
16:10
as a writer or director or how you came to start watching his movies if you did
16:16
yeah I was essentially raised I would say on John Hughes movies and I think a lot of that came from both my dad and my
16:23
sister so I know you recently did oh well very recently did an episode on Ferris Spieler's Day Off and that is
16:29
like my dad's all-time favorite movie i grew up just outside of Chicago both my
16:34
parents grew up in the city so we have a lot of emotional ties to the city of Chicago so huge influence on us and grew
16:42
up watching The Breakfast Club pretty and Pink was probably one of my sister's favorite movies of of all time and so
16:49
and Home Alone I mean the list just goes on and on and on and so I definitely was one of those families that fell into the
16:56
you know watch a dozen or so movies like a million times and several of those were John Hughes movies so I'm certainly
17:02
a fan some of them you know certainly hold up better than than others but I
17:08
think in the grand scheme of things I think we've all been sort of impacted in some way shape or form by a John Hughes
17:13
movie if you grew up in the in the 80s or or ' 90s so I'm certainly I would say
17:20
a pretty pretty big fan well I'm very jealous that you grew up just outside of
17:25
Chicago so you have kind of that extra closeness with with his films yeah yep
17:31
definitely and what we'll be talking about later too grew up pretty close to where they filmed the movie very
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familiar with that community so the location connection I have big time with John Hughes movies h love it all right
17:46
well without further ado let's get into the movie Dennis the Menace yes
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[Music] okay it was released June 25th 1993 it's
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rated PG it's got a much lower IMDb rating than the last several John Hughes
18:06
movies we covered with 5.7 I believe which is actually generous um given some of the other like Rotten
18:13
Tomatoes and some of the other critics they were not kind to this movie no no they weren't and I think I I kind of
18:19
know why in some ways yeah why they would be yeah so the director here is
18:25
not John Hughes so John Hughes was a writer here the director is Nick Castle does that ring a bell in any way with
Cast Breakdown & Switchblade Sam Critique
18:33
you Amy i'm trying to remember wasn't he connected with
18:39
like something a little bit like on the darker side or I'm trying to remember what it was yeah Halloween yeah he was
18:44
like the the Mike Myers oh right in Halloween so he worked with John Carpenter quite a bit we talked about
18:51
Nick Castle in the Escape from New York episode because he co-wrote that mhm and
18:56
then I did read though that and we'll get into Warner Brothers association
19:02
with Dennis the Menace but they when they purchased the movie rights to the character of Dennis the Menace they
19:08
offered the role to direct to Tim Burton which would have been a very different movie right yes yeah wow that would have
19:15
been very interesting take yeah definitely so so yeah so Nick Castle
19:22
directed this John Hughes wrote and then Hank Ketchum is also a accredited writer because he was the original 1959 TV show
19:32
writer now are you familiar with the you know what's your history with Dennis the
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Menace like the comic strip the cartoon the original show did you watch any of those oh yes i was a huge huge Dennis
19:48
the Menace fan i was actually looking on my bookshelf the other day i have like old comic book compilation books of his
19:54
of Hank Ketchum's of the original series huge fan i watched the black and white
20:00
TV series on Nick at Night I think it was or I think it would also play during the day i think when I was homesick from
20:06
school sometimes it would be on and I own DVDs of that original show i watched
20:11
the cartoon the the Deak cartoon religiously as a kid recorded a lot of
20:17
those onto blank VHS tapes bought the series when it came out onto VHS and
20:23
then eventually onto DVD which one of the DVDs is still currently stuck in a in our DVD player which I need to remove
20:30
haven't done it the made for TV movie I was obsessed with i could do a whole podcast episode just about that so when
20:37
I heard that this movie was coming out I was I mean over the moon because if there ever was like a Dennis and dork
20:46
that you know is still alive today that would be me to the point where I think
20:51
even like some of my like the neighborhood kids would like joke and say like it's Dennis Amen and um I was
20:57
just enamored i don't know I can't quite identify why but I loved Dennis Amen i
21:03
mean emphatically as a child and still to this day were you mischievous and pesky like him or No not really that's
21:11
the thing i don't know what it was like I was yeah didn't really get in any trouble i mean did you know things I
21:16
probably shouldn't have but certainly not known as like being the you know kid in the neighborhood that's going to you
21:23
know annoy the crap out of everybody and knock everything over and break a bunch of stuff that certainly wasn't me that
21:29
there was just something about it I I that I just I don't know just thought
21:34
was funny or entertaining or maybe it was a dynamic between Dennis and his next door neighbor i I don't know quite
21:39
what it was and I was also a big tomboy too so I really which I know people don't use that term anymore but you know
21:46
I was a huge tomboy so a lot of the TV shows and movies and stuff that I related to more were like um you know
21:54
little boys that wanted to shoot slingshots like that stuff I wanted to do and ride bikes and skin my knees and
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play in the dirt that was all stuff I wanted to do so I always related a lot more to like little little boy
22:06
characters when I was little kid than little girls like Yeah exactly he he comes cruising down with his I you know
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wagon full of like terrors in my opinion and there's like snakes and stuff yeah
22:18
loved all that i remember catching ladybugs and now I'm like "Oh cuz I'm such an animal person." And I'm like "You shitty little kid why?" And
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lightning bugs why did I catch these creatures and put them in a jar that was of me i know i know i did too or we'd
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step on them and pull it back so you'd see like the glow guts for like two seconds yeah oh my god gross
22:38
yikes well I am kind of embarrassed then to be doing this episode with you Amy because I am so not I'm like the
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opposite i'm I'm coming to this with a vague understanding of you know what
22:54
that it was based on like an old like a comic strip and that there was a te I know I'm aware that it exists but that's
23:01
kind of it so I feel bad covering this with you well that's okay no I think you
23:06
know I I'm flattered i mean what are the chances that like some random person is
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going to be really into that as a woman is going to be really into Dennis the Menace so I mean good point it's it's
23:17
not something that I don't I mean I don't I can't think of one other person in my life that I could shoot the breeze with about Dennis the Menace cuz that
23:24
person does not exist doesn't exist doesn't exist at least in my circle so you're it's okay well thank you for
23:30
making me feel better yeah you're welcome also if if there's any of you out there like me that are less aware so
23:36
Dennis the Menace is everyone's favorite kid from the comics back in the day when his parents need to go out of town on
23:42
business they both just so happen to have work trips the same weekend and they cannot find a babysitter for him he
23:48
has to stay with the neighbors George and Martha Wilson and he drives Mr
23:54
wilson crazy but it's not malicious you know he's just trying to be helpful even to the thief who has arrived in town so
24:01
we'll get to all of that yep trying hard not to roll my eyes about that part but
24:07
continue so Walter Matau is the perfect Mr wilson
24:13
isn't he he is he is brilliant i mean he is fantastic in this movie i mean in
24:20
everything but amazing he He really was good i
24:25
mean I I only know him as playing a grumpy old man in in any movie like he
24:31
plays that perfectly he does yes and I looked up some information about Walter
24:36
Matau today just out of curiosity cuz I've always adored him and my dad is the
24:42
same age as Walter Matau is in this movie and my dad seems about 20 years
24:47
younger than him which is just a very bizarre realization how old is he supposed to be in the movie i don't
24:54
think they ever really said I mean probably like 60s or 70s and he's like
24:59
73 in this movie um in real life okay mhm so I think you know I I think when
25:06
the comic strip would have come out I probably you know things did happen a lot younger so I'm guessing probably in
25:12
the comic books he was supposed to be probably like early 60s or something like that but yeah in real life he was 73 i was like dear god that is the same
25:18
age as my dad this is really weird so oh my gosh this comes up this comes up every literally every movie
25:27
people just looked so much older yes back in the day oh my god yes holy glory
25:34
you know like a like a woman my age back in the day would be like "Well let's put her out to pasture she's done and over
25:40
with." Right it's like either going to play a grandma role or you're done so yeah yeah pretty much wild i know well I
25:47
think Walter Math although you know unfort I could see him having sort of like a partying kind of hard outside of
25:53
things i think he looked like he was 90 for you know a very since he was like 40
25:59
so he is one of those there are a handful of those yeah that we talk about he definitely is
26:05
did were you familiar with the actor who played Dennis Mason Gamble not really not Not prior to No I think he was kind
26:13
of like a a relative unknown um but prior to this film and yeah he was I
26:18
guess selected out of tens of thousands of people kids that auditioned for the
26:24
role which is just I mean unbelievable and I'm not really sure if there was
26:29
anybody else that was like more wellknown that was also up for the role but he he won it and yeah I mean oddly
26:35
enough a lot of times so in some of the trivia that we'll get to later I have a
26:41
lot of casting could have gone a different way but none for Dennis Nobody well known he he certainly was a cute
26:49
kid and I don't even like kids but he was he was very cute not really in
26:54
anything like he did go on to be in Rushmore Gatka and Spy Hard and apparently he's supposed to be a
27:01
5-year-old but he was seven the the actual actor was seven okay so the
27:06
actress who plays Mrs wilson Martha Yes is extremely famous and but her name
27:13
didn't just come to me it's Martha i'm sorry Joan joan Blowight yes do you have
27:19
do you have thoughts about her yeah same with same with me is like yeah she's this super well-known had been acting
27:26
for decades and decades and was married to somebody very famous but I think I only knew of her from this movie i can't
27:34
think of anything else that I remember watching that she was in but I think that she was also well cast i thought
27:40
that she did a great job too i think they really the two of them really made made the movie kind of Mhm quasi
27:48
tolerable to watch so which you know Yeah they did a great job you probably
27:54
do know her from she also starred in 101 Dalmatians from 1996 also a John Hughes
28:00
film and then she was in Flubber in 97 with John another John Hughes film now
28:07
she is a dame or she was a dame yes and also a baroness married to Lawrence
28:14
Olivier yeah i like how did that happen i That's third she was his third wife
28:21
and and his widow so she was married to Tim when he passed away yeah but yeah like stage actress a career that spanned
28:28
like six decades oscar nominated she won two Golden Globes so yeah she's Joan
28:35
Plowight i wouldn't have come up with that on my own but she did look very familiar yeah and she should have won an
28:41
Oscar for her performance of reading that poem writing the poem to Dennis at bedtime it's like I remember watching
28:47
that as a kid getting "Oh my god this is so beautiful." Yeah so beautiful like I
28:52
just want to lay in the fetal position and cry silently to myself and listen to her recite that again because it's so so
28:58
well done you're right and I had kind of forgotten there was a sweet moment when Cuz at first you're
29:05
like "Oh they aren't really going to show their marriage but they they do." She Yeah kind of they talk in bed they
29:13
never had children and so they talk a little bit about that and she's like "It's not that that's bothering me it's
29:19
that I want to talk to you about it." Yeah and I can't right i know there's
29:24
all these profound moments that like in this beautiful like script writing and then the next moment this stupid switchblade Sam crap happens and it's
29:31
like what in the we could have eliminated half an hour of this movie from that ridiculous plot i don't know
29:39
and that but unfortunately fortunately or unfortunately you know the whole switchblade Sam thing is stuff that my
29:45
sister and I would recite to each other for no reason for a really long time especially like the scene where he takes
29:52
the apple from the kid that's crosseyed as my sister just out of nowhere be like what you got there sport uh apple i mean
29:59
it's like what does that I mean that could be a whole episode by itself like why the heck was this person in the
30:06
movie like part one which person the crosseyed kid or switchblade kid well both yeah really and the like with the
30:12
emphasis of the whole crossey thing short for his age and crosseyed i mean
30:17
why so we're you know knocking somebody with a disability which you know I take 93 right taking offense to you i've got
30:24
two you know neurodeiverse children i don't appreciate the you know crossey jokes not that has anything to do with
30:29
that but you know and and then the Switchblade Sam thing seriously come on
30:35
there's never some creepy robber slashstabber slashfilthy whatever in any
30:41
in this stuff so I could really go off on a tangent but I'm going to restrain myself oh there wasn't that's That is interesting not that I'm aware of but
30:48
that's a good point i almost don't know which direction to go with with So
30:54
Switchblade Sam is played by Christopher Lloyd and I love Christopher Lloyd but it same he's he's a brilliant actor
31:01
brilliant actor he was very similar to Uncle Fester in a lot of ways though there were things he
31:08
did in this that I was like "Oh that's very Uncle Fester." I didn't even think of that that that but you're absolutely
31:13
right yeah yep i think the reason So it's interesting to hear that this did
31:20
get pulled out of nowhere yes and I hadn't seen this movie so I I did see it
31:26
in the theater at a matinea i remember like our small town theater going to the matinea and I remember loving it and
31:31
oddly enough I probably only saw it like that one time you know 30 years ago yeah
31:37
until I rewatched it last night and it's funny because the this the one scene
31:43
that I well I remembered a few but the scene I remember most was the apple
31:49
Uhhuh with that kid what you got there sport that's this for whatever reason
31:55
that was the most memorable thing to me yeah which that's a bad sign i mean that's that is a red flag
32:03
yeah yeah that's what you remember that's I did not recall how gross this
32:08
hobo like stereotypical oldtimey train hopping
32:13
hobo is is what he was basically yes a hobo yes my my dad went as a hobo for
32:18
Halloween as well back back when but yes I I don't understand well I guess one thing I learned was that you know John
32:25
Hughes did Home Alone and I think Christopher Lloyd was offered a role of
32:30
one of the robbers or whatever you know one of the bad guys in the movie and he turned Joe Peshi's role I want to say
32:36
yeah yeah and he turned it down and he always kind of regretted it and he said that to John Hughes so then the minute
32:41
that there was some other you know villain person to play you know John Hughes booked him for that but it's like
32:48
I would have never thought that that would have been incorporated into a
32:54
Dennis and Menace movie i mean it had nothing to do with anything and um Sis
33:00
Eert even threw that right under the bus what did this have to do with anything there's all these beautiful tender
33:05
moments between Dennis and Sin and and Mrs wilson that was such a beautiful
33:11
thing and then there's like this Yeah hobo that fills up on reffried beans or
33:16
whatever and you know what I mean is trying to allegedly stab apples and you know maybe
33:23
stab children i I don't I don't get it and I'm I'm still hanging about hanging
33:28
about the town for three days doing just just being creepy you know just walking around being creepy right you're right
33:34
it didn't have anything to do with anything and now that you say that you're right so John Hughes clearly it
33:40
was like a hamfisted I gotta figure out a way to get Christopher Lloyd in a robber role in
33:46
one of my movies so I'll write that into this right and they could have I mean
33:51
there's so much that more they could have done with him and still included him in the movie but it really just did
33:57
not make sense and just and I can hear that I forgot what that music sounds like every time that his character comes
34:03
onto the screen and I rewatched the movie too and I was already just like "Oh crap." Like here comes this like
34:10
creepy guy who is still really creepy to this day i mean that's how good I mean
34:16
if I saw you know like it's not even about being homeless hobo whatever i
34:21
mean just the presence of every I mean yikes i mean that's the stuff that nightmares are made of his teeth his
34:28
sinister nature yeah it it was it was a bit much I thought too even like for
34:33
this PG movie right and speaking of the music Jerry Goldsmith famous you know
34:39
prolific career spanning over 50 years we did let's see what episode we talked
34:46
about last season where Jerry Goldsmith did the score was Kurt Russell film Executive Decision
34:52
but it sort of seems like I mean he has what movie did he not score it seems like he's scored Yeah so many right and
35:00
it was brilliant i mean the music is like sinister creepy i mean it's fantastic but again that is not that
35:07
does not fit the you know the theme or whatever you want to say to you know
35:12
it's not staying true to the whole Dennis and Menace thing it just yeah it
35:17
just doesn't it doesn't drive and so if that could have been cut out there still would have been like a story there like
35:24
he was not necessary to the you know to the story at all no because then there
35:30
was the it was like well which was the A plot and which was the B plot the flower
35:35
extravaganza with the orchid or and that getting ruined i don't know it does seem
35:41
to be there there was no like
35:48
overarching plot to the movie it just seemed to me anyway just a series
35:54
of hy jinks just kind of shoved together
36:00
a a little bit and and it I remember really liking I remember like being a kid and thinking a ton of it was funny
36:06
but Yes it's all the same it didn't work so much when I rewatched it and the first thing I thought of was like "This
36:13
is just Home Alone but by accident." Mhm yeah pretty much it's literally Home
36:18
Alone but the kid is doing it by accident right basically yes and not as
36:23
good no not even close and it's wild then because I that's the I kept think
36:30
being like "Wow this is literally Home Alone." Mhm and then afterwards I was like reading some of the reviews and
36:37
stuff and so clearly that's a every that's a common criticism I guess mhm i
36:42
I I am I I can't believe that Hank Ketchum was okay with that and I don't really know that much about him
36:48
personally actually do have his like biography that's not in no longer in like publication i found a old old copy
36:55
of it or whatever that I'm going to sit down and read at some point when I have three minutes but I I mean I I don't
37:01
know how I would be like "Are you kidding me don't take my you know this
37:07
this you know comic strip that I put together you know 40 years ago and destroy it with this you know character
37:15
that's going to terrify children when this movie is aimed at children." I I I just Yeah i don't I don't know how that
37:21
was approved right what did you think about the parents so
37:26
played by Leah Thompson is the mom yep we all know Leah Thompson and then
37:31
Robert Stanton plays Henry the dad who is you know he didn't he really was just
37:38
like a Melba toast type um you know or milk toast what's the What's the phrase
37:45
for just eh i don't know a tool do people say that anymore a tool it's
37:52
so 90s it's so 90s i love it but he aside from his look I thought his
37:58
look was spot on with the the comic strip yes but the dad served like zero
38:04
purpose other than that and Leah Thompson's the mom i don't know yeah maybe she could have made Christoph
38:10
Christopher Lloyd the dad or something i mean come on um he actually was considered Yeah yeah maybe I'm getting
38:17
it wrong let me let me double check yeah I feel like they're decent like well-known actors that were considered
38:22
for the role i don't know how this kind of like Carson Daly if you will like
38:27
just we always talked about Carson Dailyaly was a tool when again reference it was Daniel Stern okay was I was
38:34
thinking of Home Alone there was considered for both Switchblades Sam and the dad which is interesting but go on
38:41
sorry I didn't mean to interrupt no that's okay no I think the dad getting into yeah or or like my mom would say
38:46
he's a big zero I'm I'll let her know that she'll I'm sure she'll listen to the show I'm not kidding but I thought I
38:52
mean Leah Thompson son I thought you know she did you know a good enough job as as Alice and you know certainly stood
38:58
out more a lot more than the dad but I think she also had more dialogue and I
39:03
think although this movie is set in the '9s which you kind of feel like is sort
39:08
of as a progressive time it still kind of isn't either because she's still sort of doing the traditional mom stuff and
39:15
getting flak for being a mom by another woman coincidentally which is you know interesting yeah but I thought she did
39:22
major clashing with a woman who has kids versus one who who doesn't have kids but
39:27
she has a life right yeah yeah that's what she says i know that's I totally
39:32
forgot about that also unnecessary you know other story uh other plot line
39:37
that's like not necessary but I thought she did Yeah I thought she did a great you know great job but I think yeah the
39:44
dad could have been you know cast better cuz I think the the whoever played the father in the original series the you
39:51
know the te original live action television series I thought that you know dad was definitely more memorable
39:58
than the dad in this movie so okay interesting okay now I actually did kind
40:04
of get a kick out of the annoying little girl like Margaret Margaret Wade yeah
40:10
played by Amy Sacas sacits sacas that's a hard That's a hard
40:18
name to say amy Sacits wow she was probably I'm sure people really butchered I mean
40:23
made fun of her yeah poor thing she was like just a a mini adult i I kind of got
40:30
a kick out of her just because of all of the adult things she was doing and saying yeah yeah she was pretty fun i
40:37
mean she she looked like kind of like an American doll like with her curls and the the glasses and stuff but yeah I
40:42
think she did a good job of playing sort of like an annoying neighborhood girl you know that wanted the boys to play
40:47
what she wanted to play so I think she was pretty you know pretty convincing in that role so yeah not too bad i don't
40:54
think I I certainly don't remember her from anything else either but I probably wouldn't have recognized her if she was
40:59
in something else too just because of her costumeuming and stuff for for the movie so she didn't I think she did a
41:06
few things but both her and the the kid who played Joey the other friend like the other little boy um Joey mhm he's
41:14
played by Kellen Hathaway and neither of those two really went on to really do much else so
41:22
this is kind of it well I'm sure when people saw this we were like "Oh you were in that movie never mind."
41:28
I thought Joey was really cute i thought he was like a cute little kid and I thought she did a good job as an
41:34
annoying annoying kid the chief of police is pretty well known though paul Winfield yeah he's definitely one of
41:40
those people like I know I've seen him in something yeah he was in Cliffhanger Mars Attacks The Terminator
41:48
and I've never seen this but I hear it's pretty good star Trek The Wrath of Khan oh yeah i've never never got into Star
41:55
Trek but Yeah me neither yeah yeah I mean they got we certainly got some big names for the movie and
42:02
again I'm just I guess I was surprised that Walter Matau especially would agree
42:07
based on the whole Switchblade Sam thing cuz I feel like he would have been not to assume or stereotype but I feel like
42:14
he would probably would have been familiar with the comic strip just solely based on age and so I'm just
42:19
surprised that he's like you know oh yeah sure like he gets like kidnapped
42:24
and swallows a key that's that's that sounds great sign me up
42:30
sign me up oh he's going to fall onto like a couch that like fell in the river great i'll be in that movie that sounds
42:36
wonderful i don't know if Well actually he kind of had a resurgence in the Well here Grumpy
42:43
Old Men come out like he kind of had a right around then i think it was right around then
42:49
9192 something like that so maybe he was just kind of riding the wave with it the
42:54
last two people that I wanted to talk about on the cast uh Natasha Leon I love
43:00
her so much she plays the babysitter Paulie and I don't know I I I just dig her every You
43:08
guys all know who she is she's been in like tons and tons of stuff she's been em nominated for an Emmy five times very
43:16
famously in Orange is the New Black Russian Doll Poker Face and then Oh she
43:22
was also like back in the day in PeeWee's Playhouse i think her name was Opal in that wow and then the movie
43:30
Slums of Beverly Hills and American Pie those are some those are all big hitters so you know Natasha Leon redheaded known
43:39
for her hair yes like that's a that's a look that she has yep and then her boyfriend very stereotypical in the
43:46
movies the babysitter invites her boyfriend over to make out and the boyfriend is none other than
43:53
uh Buzz from Home Alone which I can't think of i don't know his real name unfortunately which is sad but Yeah yeah
43:58
i don't Yeah I didn't write yeah but yeah it's Buzz from Home Alone yeah which I feel like his character was more
44:05
en is his brief appearance in the movie was significantly more enjoyable than
44:12
the other like subplot line characters cuz he was really funny and I feel Yeah
44:17
and I feel like to this day and and this movie was not something that I watched religiously as a kid because I you know
44:23
I kind of liked it i think just because it was Dennis a menace but still to this day I like find myself like when my kids
44:29
were little in the tub I felt like saying sabid sabid you know I will never be big e nug
44:36
you know he can't read which again is probably not that you know probably people like cancel this now but at the
44:43
time I thought it was hilarious and yeah last night when I was watching it I was like why is the boyfriend basically
44:50
doing the babysitting where's Paulie he was in there reading the book while Dennis was taking his bath mhm he was in
44:57
there reading the book to him it's like what where's Polly what's she doing she's the babysitter that's true that's
45:03
true who knows i mean she's willing to like make out with the lights out i mean
45:08
who knows what else maybe she's hitting up with you know going hitting up the bars or something with Switchblade and
45:15
um you know loose morals that one yeah yeah yep indeed it's questionable
45:21
well speaking of questionable this poor kid Mason Gamble
45:27
got a Rousey nomination for his his role in this which I don't think they do for
45:32
kids anymore i don't Right yeah i don't I doubt it which is which is good
45:37
because I and I've always kind of felt this way anyways but I had an episode on
45:43
of my show recently where I got to interview two individuals that put together a film about kind of what can
45:51
happen to child actors you know as they get older and you know I feel like it's
45:57
something that I'm kind of like sensitive to for some reason i I don't really know why cuz I like was always really sad about like Dana Plato and
46:03
like where her life kind of went after different strokes and you know Gary Coleman people were so awful to him you
46:09
know and so I'm glad I hope that they did away with that i mean it's certainly not a great movie and probably you know
46:17
not maybe his favorite piece of work that he ever did but I think yeah giving a you know seven-year-old kid to say "Oh
46:24
guess what like your movie sucked." Not even that the movie sucked that his his performance you know which I didn't
46:31
think that's interesting but we you know I I go off on the Razies it's it they do
46:37
lowhanging fruit like they really do yeah so right um
46:42
and there was also a stinker bad movie award for this movie a nom nom i didn't win for worst resurrection of a TV show
46:50
which concur probably yeah again just cuz it's if it was its own thing if it was
46:56
just called if the movie was just called like Bob the Kid Next Door you know
47:01
that'd be one thing but it's tied to this you know beloved comic strip you
47:07
know i think that that's where the criticism you know where people sort of drew the line is that it's tied to this
47:14
beloved thing but yeah I'm glad you know Razies that's just yeah not cool you
47:20
bring up a good point though tying it to Dennis the Menace is probably I'm just
47:27
guessing here what got Butts and Seats it made a It was a success at the box
47:33
office it was made for $35 million and made $17 million worldwide so again
47:40
things that make money aren't always quality and vice versa right right yeah and people and and they're playing and
47:46
playing on the nostalgia you know like we talk I I always get worked up when there's like reboots and you know that's
47:52
so dumb and you know can't they think of anything else but I wasn't thinking about thinking that actually you know
47:58
and in 1993 when I was begging to go probably see this movie 50,000 times but
48:04
same thing i mean it's like rebooting something that was decades old already you know when you stray too far then
48:10
that's you know then that's where the real fans start coming out and throw Yeah throw Rotten Tomatoes at the screen
48:16
and get upset so y but so I take it that you loved it as a
48:22
kid what's your history with this movie i think again I think I was because I was already regardless it had nothing to
48:28
do with this movie i was a huge fan of Dennis and Menace several years before this movie even came out so I was like
48:33
already liked it hadn't even seen it i think I even had the movie poster of it hanging in my room before it even came
48:40
out so I think at the time you know rosecolored glasses thought it
48:45
was amazing loved it you know really liked Dennis the character liked Walter Matau so absolutely loved it but now as
48:53
an adult I you know unfortunately I don't think it holds up pretty well it doesn't hold up very well and I think
48:58
it's not really something I would want to watch with my um kids either especially my my older son I think would
49:04
be absolutely terrified um of Switch Light Sam and would probably never want to watch it so I
49:12
think that I think that character alone would be would make both of my kids actually pretty nervous because it's it
49:20
feels like a like a weird not horror movie but just like a weird creepy creep factor that
49:28
you know oh yeah let's watch that movie with the guy with the rotten teeth and the oily hair i don't you know they're
49:33
not going to say that so I don't No so and you have little kids
49:39
though right yeah they're they're eight and 10 and you my my my my 10-year-old is has a lot of a lot of challenges and
49:46
you know things that make him uncomfortable and um you know and so I think this would be
49:53
which is sad because I there's so many things that you know when you become a parent or you be become an auntie or you become a you know your best friend has a
50:00
has a baby and you're involved in their life there's certain stuff you kind of want to show them and Dennis Amen was like a huge part of my life but this is
50:07
like abs I think I've shown them the cartoon the D cartoon but I I don't I have no
50:12
desire sadly to sit down and watch this with them um maybe if I fast forwarded through those parts but other than that
50:18
I mean not really so which is that's not how it should they should have thought about that you know in advance you know
50:25
good point you know are people going to watch us with their kids in 30 years no so yeah it's not a Yeah i mean in
50:34
addition to the you know all of that I mean I don't know we're not supposed to really pick it apart but I Yeah as an
50:42
adult like watching this I'm like we see like kind of the opening of this very
50:48
you know what what's the word perfect little Norman Rockwell small town yeah definitely and and you
50:55
know so clearly it's a very safe place to live and we see everybody including the neighborhood cats and of course Mr
51:02
wilson is like "Oh crap they can hear Dennis coming he's pedaling on his bike
51:07
with his with this wagon full of weird stuff and they're like "Oh we got to get out of the way of the chaos." And Mr
51:13
wilson goes and pretends to sleep but why doesn't he lock the door
51:19
if he knows he'll just come in right and that was like a really unnecessarily long opening scene too like
51:27
it just again something like just doesn't make sense it's like why would you think oh we should have them like
51:32
give him an aspirin even though he's sleeping but he should like shoot it in it's
51:38
like can we just I I mean I'm not a writer you know I'm not a television or movie writer not a screenwriter I write
51:46
and runons however I mean really I have you know they
51:52
probably had way more knowledge of the whole Dennis Amen backstory i mean they've got freaking Hank Ketchum right
51:57
there that's what you you know like that's what you open with really really good point i do remember
52:06
getting a kick out of when I was a kid so I mean I me as an adult I'm not the
52:11
audience i mean it's it needs to be you know passible enough for like adults to watch with their kids I guess but
52:16
I remember thinking all of these gags and like this the slapstick stuff was hilarious yeah but
52:24
watching it last night I guess I was just sort of like this is not funny i don't know did you find any of them any
52:31
of the you know chaos slapstick moments yeah you know I was funny i've um never
52:38
been like necessarily like a huge slapstick comedy person and I love I mean I love comedy that's you know my
52:44
favorite genre but I you know anything that I feel like there's always has to be like the something happening to a
52:51
man's groin area which I just don't find funny um like oldest trick in the book
52:56
so like that whole thing where he like does the splits like completely unnecessary and like very uncomfortable
53:02
actually to to watch and uh didn't need to see Walter Matthau in a in a compromising position like that but no I
53:09
didn't find I mean and again there's I feel like there's so much stuff that could have happened like so many more dynamics
53:15
that could have been more more entertaining i mean I guess kind of like the the whole scene with the garden
53:22
lanterns falling on his face and then like Dennis pulling off one and talking to him i mean that was kind of funny and
53:27
cute and that's true you know that was kind of like like an old man and a little kid kind of thing that made sense
53:32
but the other stuff it's like shooting an aspirin into somebody's mouth as a slingshot that's just dumb i don't know like not very
53:40
creative i don't know and it's like and and why would like some kids sneak up into a bedroom of a neighbor's house
53:45
it's like yeah movies are all like unrealist it's unrealistic but it's not relatable like oh yeah I was I snuck up
53:52
you know I went up to my neighbor's bedroom last night too this is great i can relate to this kid no you didn't you
53:57
know it's just weird i I don't know oh it's one of those things too where I think it's written by somebody that's
54:04
like not Dennis's age obviously but it's that somebody that's like so far removed from being a seven-year-old kid that
54:11
it's like really obvious you know so that's a good way of putting it yeah i mean I I at first like I had to
54:20
for the first probably 20 minutes of the movie I was like is this set in the 50s
54:26
or is this current day yes like there we go back and forth there are a lot of things that are very old timey yes but
54:33
then clearly it's set in current day because of the cars and they have a microwave and the phones and stuff like that but right like the old timey blocks
54:41
the mom like when we first meet Alice her hair and her dress is uber 1950s but
54:48
then the next scene she has like a normal hair like for the night you know it's right um like the Wilson's clothing
54:56
very oldtimey just the whole train hopping weirdo like the very stereotypical
55:03
nature of that and maybe that was meant to call back to the original Oh I I don't know i couldn't really quite tell
55:11
and just even Dennis like this this kid is just out playing outside all day every day you know with his overalls and
55:18
no shirt and no one is supervising him right i mean if that didn't leave a
55:25
really bad farmer's tan then I don't know what would and I would I refuse to let my children have
55:31
a overalls tan like that cuz that's just unacceptable how's that gonna what's
55:37
that going to look like when he goes swimming i mean that's going to look terrible you know what I mean good point he
55:43
wasn't putting on sunscreen if he wasn't gone all day there's no way he did say
55:48
something i did take note of that for a 5-year-old to say something about "Oh when he's being when he was sort of like
55:54
taken hostage so to speak by Christopher Lloyd he's like "Oh we got to swing by my house i got to pick up this and this
56:00
and I got to get my sunscreen." And I thought "What 5-year-old knows about putting sunscreen on?" Yeah good for him
56:07
okay well maybe maybe there was no farmers after all but also what what 5-year-olds
56:13
are just out and about adventuring in the forest with all day every day yeah
56:19
5-year-olds mhm i mean nobody's ever watching these kids ever
56:24
no nope i mean no wonder he's always doing something you know he's got no no
56:31
boundaries no rules whatever he doesn't you want to run away with a hobo that sounds great go you do you you do you
56:40
the parents were major pushovers i mean from a parent like I'm not a parent but I'm watching this like come on yeah mhm
56:50
oh yeah you know but sometimes you just you know you're so exhausted that you know it's just whatever
56:59
things just things just happen because you're just haven't slept in years and your decision-m skills are like whatever
57:06
they used to be go hang out with a hobo yeah you know right yeah exactly you
57:11
know I'm so tired of you and your attitude and cleaning up after you you know what go find a nice hobo go find a
57:18
nice Go join a nice hobo family you hate this family so much you go join a hobo family okay yes that was right yeah yeah
57:26
mhm oh you think Oh you think it's You think it's bad here you go live with a hobo and have beans that are opened with
57:33
a pocketk knife switchblade with a switch with a switchblade okay i will
57:38
say there was one part of this movie that I genuinely got a kick out of
57:43
because because I'm easy and basic i guess the the phone hanging up montage
57:48
yes that was partially because it just showcased all of the different types of
57:54
phones that were a thing in 1993 yes yep
58:00
duck phone mhm clear phone with the colorful insides yes car phone i forgot
58:07
that of those ever existing in the first place yes that cost like $5,000 for a 30
58:13
secondond phone call yeah yep and then several different versions of that like fancy ornate with the gold
58:22
like rich person princess I think it's called a princess phone is that what it's called yeah i don't know why I
58:28
don't know why I know that again not helpful information for getting into college useless information and then
58:34
there was like a yellow retro phone and the I liked the red phone that the the Mitchells had in the house so I really
58:42
did kind of like Nobody wants to babysit Dennis cuz he's such a terror and we just we solve the '90s phones mhm
58:48
twilight yeah well and I think it also is like really satisfying to slam a phone you know so that's that's a lost
58:55
art too so there's a lot of elements to why that was such a great great scene and a great song too um that just made
59:01
it fun too so yeah definitely a great you know uh and a good moment for like the the parents characters and which
59:07
again they could have done more stuff with that too so
59:13
yeah it's interesting movie one other qu again there's a lot of questions that I
59:18
you know again I'm in my 40s watching this movie last night after 30 years and
59:24
I'm like okay I don't know anything about dentures but Mr wilson has dentures but there's gold teeth in them
Final Thoughts on Nostalgia & Flaws
59:32
is that a thing why would there be gold teeth in dentures that I have no idea
59:38
unless he had like his real originally had his teeth like a tooth replaced with a gold tooth and then wanted it salvaged
59:46
and put into his dentures i don't know anybody know anything about are there any dentists out there that
59:52
can fill me in on what the story is with gold teeth in dentures why that would be
59:58
a thing mhm yeah no idea but I mean there's a
1:00:03
lot of unknowns and you know why did he have chicklets locked in a safe
1:00:10
that you know Yeah he had to run home and or was it in a safe or like a secret like a bank or like a piggy bank or some
1:00:16
kind of like like special box or something it's like Yeah it was a special box like that's out of like
1:00:22
that's what you put in there was like chicklets really mhm but yeah I don't I
1:00:27
don't know why yeah gold teeth i mean maybe it's just you know they were worth something and they didn't want to
1:00:33
throw them out or you know I don't know that's a that's interesting the things that come to mind when I'm watching a
1:00:39
movie nowadays mhm there's probably some kind of symbolism though I'm sure to it cuz you know John Hughes always threw
1:00:45
little you know things in a movie i bet there's some some reason for it there has to be because that's too bizarre
1:00:52
you're right and speaking of which so John Hughes is is famous for kind of reusing actors and there's you know Ben
1:00:59
Stein who was in Ferris Peeler's Day Off that we just covered i didn't notice him but I saw that he was on the cast list
1:01:05
he like was one of their Was it the mom's boss like he was in the workplace
1:01:12
must have been a very brief moment because I missed it yeah same moment no
1:01:17
that's interesting yeah who know yeah that's that is a mystery yeah and then similarly he's
1:01:25
kind of known for having either scenes while the credits are rolling or postredit scenes there wasn't any postredit scene but there was the main
1:01:32
work lady got her comeuppance by Dennis mhm while the credits were rolling yes
1:01:37
which was another thing I totally totally forgot about yeah that was a weird a weird a weird ending after all
1:01:45
that which again it was wasn't it which again is like not you know Dennis's whole thing is not about like revenge or
1:01:51
you know intentionally you know messing with somebody you know I I just again it goes against the the whole thing you
1:01:57
know yeah it's like he acts it's like he he's I mean I'm sure he would be diagnosed with something not like he
1:02:03
just can't help himself he he he's nothing ill intend right he's not ill intentioned but a he just he just causes
1:02:11
chaos everywhere he goes yep se severe ADHD or something like that yeah very impulsive Mhm mhm yep now did you
1:02:19
babysit when you were you know a teen or a pre-teen i did a little bit i wouldn't
1:02:24
say that that was my favorite job to do that was more of like my my sister was really into into babysitting and would
1:02:32
buy Babysitters Club books with her babysitting money um yeah i love that
1:02:38
yeah I did i mean I did kind of here and there a little bit but I was not big into I was not Yeah that was I was kind
1:02:44
of like not cut out for babysitting and watching this made it totally reminded me why I always I hated
1:02:52
babysitting um like I was Walter Mata like I think since birth I have been a
1:02:59
grumpy old man and I'm annoyed by the innocent mhm but annoying nature of
1:03:08
children yeah that you know what and I that think that's good to know that honestly like if that's not your thing
1:03:13
and Yeah so I did not have children yeah so I did yeah totally i get it yeah
1:03:19
totally makes sense yeah i I was not cut out for babysitting or you know I remember there was like one house that
1:03:25
my sister and another friend of mine like always kind of ended up sort of randomly babysitting at and their house
1:03:31
was a mess and it like drove us insane and like all you wanted to do when you
1:03:37
were there was just like clean the crap out of the house because it was so messy and it's like how does this family live
1:03:42
like this so it's like you get an insight into people's lives that you don't need when you babysit so great
1:03:48
point really good point the only thing I liked about it was like the parents would sometimes order us pizza for
1:03:55
dinner yeah like that was the bonus for me but yeah same my sisters i have two
1:04:00
older sisters and they were both super into babysitting and they never understood why I didn't like it and now
1:04:07
that they know me and as adult they're like "Yeah I get it." Yeah kids are not your your jam no and I think at that age
1:04:14
too to like to have the forethought or whatever to be like "Okay I'm going to plan these activities." I wouldn't I
1:04:19
didn't think like that you know i that's just not how my brain worked as a you know and I think and you know our age
1:04:26
too like our generation you know we were babysitting at 10 11 12 years old which
1:04:31
I would be horri horrified to have a 10 10year-old or a 12-year-old no way
1:04:37
babysit and you know on God's green earth would I have a 12-year-old come over here to babysit my not going to
1:04:43
happen but yeah I just did not have the that skill set to think oh we're going to need okay 3 hours so we're going to
1:04:49
need like dinner and we're I did not think like that just what do I do you know nope not not for me
1:04:55
mhm well neither is neither was Mr wilson because on the rainy day when
1:05:00
when Dennis has to stay inside he can't go outside and wreak havoc on the forest or whatnot he just he doesn't know how
1:05:09
to deal with that like he cannot cons contain his boredom and he's basically like any kid will you play I can't
1:05:15
remember will you He wants to play some game or I can't remember what he asked say cops and robbers or something like
1:05:20
that something and Mr rollson's like "No I'm an adult i'm finicking here with my
1:05:26
my coin collection." Yeah well here's my question that because I think this is one of those
1:05:31
moments where I didn't know what he meant until like way later when you saw
1:05:36
this movie and he and Mr wilson kept saying "I need the GD blah blah blah blah blah." Did you know what he meant i
1:05:43
thought I was like "Is that I know it." I think I remember watching as kid I'm like "He keeps saying GD does he mean is that like a brand do they own a bunch of
1:05:49
things and the brand is GD what does that mean and then I then I think I
1:05:54
watched it again as I don't know when maybe 10 years ago i'm like "Oh my god he means godamn
1:06:01
which I did did not pick up on." Good point i probably didn't either but I did
1:06:06
note it cuz he does it a like last night when I watched it i did note it because it's PG movie and also he's you know
1:06:13
that type of a man probably doesn't swear right so yeah the
1:06:18
O where are the G i was like GD is that the brand name of Is there a company called GD and they make garden lanterns
1:06:24
okay guess how naive I was which is I guess good but
1:06:29
so I don't think this will surprise you given what we all what we just talked
1:06:35
about with Hank Ketchum's original story john Hughes did you see that he never
1:06:42
watched a single episode of the show no he drew his inspiration only from the
1:06:48
comic strip he never saw the TV show i need to leave um that is Wow well
1:06:56
makes sense though right yeah I guess yeah that's true i guess I would just wanted I mean again and what do I know
1:07:03
i'm just like you know what I mean i don't know anything about the the the movie biz but I would have thought that he'd um and so iconic you know and of
1:07:11
course I'm biased but you know is a huge fan but how would you not want to watch that it's not like it's like torture to
1:07:17
watch it or something i mean it's uh out of all things from that era I mean it's a pretty you know tolerable funny show
1:07:24
to watch i mean so that's that's surprising but he's kind of interested he's kind of a quirky sort of person
1:07:31
though so I guess on the one hand I could kind of see it too yeah and the more I'm kind of getting to know him
1:07:37
through this season I think he can in in some ways be difficult to work
1:07:43
with there was another director I think that they had on board that they ended up replacing before Nick Castella came
1:07:50
on board because of creative differences with John Hughes i mean that could mean a number of different things but yeah he
1:07:57
only drew inspiration from the actual comic strip and not the show which
1:08:03
again how did that translate into this POS you know
1:08:09
what I mean yeah he was I mean I I guess I'm you know all of the just little you
1:08:16
know he's like a bull in a china shop and is annoying his neighbor but then
1:08:21
the Switchblade Sam thing is the out of left field bit whoever like whoever really took the
1:08:30
lead on Switchblade Sam needs to I don't know be punished
1:08:35
and I don't know what that looks like but that was a big mistake well not to
1:08:40
be morbid but I think that did happen cuz John Hughes died and I'm pretty sure he was the one that was like I'm going
1:08:46
to write him in because he originally you know like we talked about he wanted to be in Home Alone
1:08:52
that's true that's what caused he thought he thought was reflecting on his career and then thought about oh praying
1:09:00
and 16 candles and switch blade salmon and that's just when he that's when the heart attack happened it Yeah indeed
1:09:07
yeah sorry too sorry too too soon too soon it's too soon too sorry not sorry
1:09:12
no I I've got I have grief myself i deal with grief through having a dark sense of humor i apologize not trying to
1:09:18
offend anybody that's how I cope no no no nobody I don't think the listeners of of Retro are easily offended people okay
1:09:25
so Warner Brothers I talked about or I brought up earlier and I wanted to come back to it because I read this was their
1:09:32
first film warner Brothers Family Entertainment's inaugural film first of five films that the that particular
1:09:39
division released in 93 the family edition h ouch free
1:09:45
Willie Secret Garden The Nutcracker and Batman: Mask of the Fantasm
1:09:52
i do not remember that at all yeah I don't either and then and then Dennis the Menace so that was those were the
1:09:57
five movies that the Family Entertainment portion of Warner Brothers
1:10:02
and it was also the first film where they introduced the version where the logo is with Bugs Bunny leaning against
1:10:09
the W yes my goodness yeah I remember this i I
1:10:15
I think I saw The Secret Garden in theaters and probably saw Free Willie also in the theater and also tried to
1:10:24
recreate the scene where the whale jumps over the kid with a pool toy but that's for another time but were you the were
1:10:32
who were you in this recreation the whale
1:10:37
no I Wow no I'm kidding no I think I was one of No I know i know i'm kidding i'm
1:10:42
kidding no I was one of the people I think who was like chucking the the inflatable whale toy over the girl who
1:10:48
had her hand out like up to it and thinking of Michael Jackson song so um
1:10:54
That's right yeah but I mean that's Yeah i mean on the te on the like tears of all the you know those five movies I
1:11:00
mean this it's pretty low and this is from the
1:11:06
true dieh hard you know Dennis that's a I'm interest that I mean I guess it's very interesting for me to hear that
1:11:11
from you but I guess because you hold it so dear and this fell so short then yeah
1:11:17
I can see why you have feelings you know it's like when the not that I don't know anything about Star Wars but
1:11:23
you know when those like the Phantom Menace I think people got really mad about those cuz they weren't like the
1:11:29
original movies or something you know this is on the same level as that yeah yeah i I I'm glad that there's another
1:11:37
non-S Star Wars person because I sometimes I feel like I'm like the only person on the planet so I I think for me
1:11:45
it's it's like it has to do with I'm trying to remember who I was talking to about this but um the whole like fantasy
1:11:51
movie thing I just can't I cannot follow it's like you don't understand the movie
1:11:56
they have to go through the fifth door and get the book and put it on the on the number on the shelf that's by the
1:12:04
goblet and it's like I don't want to hear any more i don't want to see that
1:12:10
movie i don't want to read that book that sounds terrible i do not like fantasy stuff at all it makes me makes
1:12:16
my it makes my blood boil that's how much I can't stand it harry Potter Lord of the Rings no thank you no my son at
1:12:24
all no my youngest son is obsessed with Harry Potter which is wonderful i can't stand those movies at all and I'm sure
1:12:33
you know people are gonna screaming at us throw their iPhone like out in the oncoming traffic because they're so
1:12:39
angry but I can't follow that stuff at all no I'm not interested oh but you
1:12:44
didn't you didn't read the the fourth book where the where the owl comes and then it drops the notes i know that
1:12:51
sounds really horrible but did you like watch that movie that was really funny or did you you know it's like I either
1:12:58
want to learn something or laugh and if that doesn't happen then I'm out i'm with you i think we have very similar
1:13:04
taste and I and that's why I think I your show resonates with me so much well thank you likewise
1:13:10
you like the facts you do the you know you do the trivia and they're like yeah stick to the facts people not oh look at
1:13:15
the they got to the second level of the map it's like no no thank I think that's
1:13:20
why I didn't The one Kurt Russell movie that I did not like from last season Stargate was weird i haven't even seen
1:13:27
it you wouldn't you would hate it i did not like it at all i was like why you how can you screw up Kurt Russell plus
1:13:33
Egypt add some fantasy weirdness to it that's how Yep the only like fantasy movie I feel
1:13:40
like I can tolerate is Labyrinth you know there are exceptions to all of
1:13:45
my I I feel like I'm like such I really am a grumpy old man because there's so many things that I dislike i don't
1:13:51
really like musicals but there are exceptions to that same i also love Labyrinth but yeah it's an exception to
1:13:58
the rule yes yeah no I agree and I we went I remember going to the movie theater to see the first the whole like
1:14:04
Mockingbird Mocking Jay what is that series the I'm trying to think what the first book is looking at my bookshelf
1:14:11
right now but can't read it from here the Hunger Games I want to say yes thank you the Hunger Games i never read the
1:14:16
books heard the concept sound that I said that sounds terrible but somehow was convinced to go see the movie in the
1:14:24
first 5 minutes I knew that I was going to hate that movie and I did and I sat there for like however long that movie
1:14:30
was which was way too long anything over a minute was too long long yeah yeah
1:14:36
anything over a minute for that movie was too long for me and I like was stewing in my chair the whole time it's
1:14:41
like I do not want I have no interest in how this is these people are classified
1:14:47
and no nope doesn't do it for me i don't get it it makes me very it makes me very
1:14:54
angry it's wild how you know everybody has such different tastes in in movies
1:14:59
and how they you know there's so many different ven ven diagrams that
1:15:05
some weird crossovers in some cases yes um but so Dennis Mennez casting wise I
1:15:12
Leslie Nielsen I saw was originally offered the role for Mr wilson yeah very
1:15:17
glad that it's Walter Matau yeah he doesn't and Leslie Nielson's you know great and everything but he doesn't have
1:15:23
the same I think like genius comedy I think
1:15:29
presence that like a Walter Matau does he's just kind of just slapstick I feel like period which is which is great
1:15:36
which is fine but Walter Matau is like a good combination of of the subtlety that
1:15:41
it's like subtlety that's it that's what it is yeah like that scene the scene
1:15:46
where he wins the garden whatever thing and he's like really affectionate like
1:15:52
smiling next to his wife and then when he turns around and stands up in front of everybody his demeanor changes um
1:15:58
immediately to be more serious is like so spot-on and is just so just so well executed that yeah thank
1:16:06
god Walter Matau was was cast in as M agreed agreed some other like big
1:16:11
hitters were considered too mickey Rooney Mel Brooks Tim Conway Edner all
1:16:17
like all all kind of from that same Yes book you know
1:16:23
tim Curry was considered for Switchblade Sam after he was in Home Alone 2 Lost in
1:16:28
New York another John Hughes movie yeah and to go let's go back to Switchblade Sam for a second
1:16:35
but again the name too it's like that is just a horrible name couldn't it have
1:16:41
just been like hobo number one like why did he have to be called Switchblade Sam okay that just sounds instead in the
1:16:47
movie is it exactly yeah exactly that sounds like the name of a horror movie is called Switchblade they should just
1:16:53
make a movie separate called Switchblade Sam where that character just I mean
1:17:01
goes you know goes nuts and you know agreed you know agreed well so do you
1:17:09
think it would have been better with another you know either a Tim Curry Tim Curry or like Danny DeVito Michael
1:17:16
Keaton Bill Murray Jack Nicholson Michael Richards Daniel Stern William Defoe those were all considered do you
1:17:22
think it would have worked better with any of those or I think it would have been I don't think anybody could have
1:17:28
salvaged that because it just didn't make sense and I think that's a testament to how how brilliant of an
1:17:34
actor Christopher Lloyd is like so good you know but it just didn't have
1:17:39
a place in this movie so I I don't know like maybe yeah you're right it didn't like I despite my being like oh that's a
1:17:47
little too Uncle Festery in some cases but but yeah I I thought he did a good job it was just like what what's
1:17:53
happening here yeah I did see that a number of people for Alice basically all
1:17:58
like all of the blonde popular women of the time Melanie Griffith Madonna
1:18:04
Michelle Feifer Kelly Preston Sharon Stone all of them considered i'm not a huge
1:18:11
Leah Thompson person like I don't dislike her but she's not I don't love her right so I could have taken any of
1:18:17
those other Kelly Preston probably would have been good yeah yep yeah honestly
1:18:23
Sharon Stone has that little Maybe that that could have been interesting yeah she Yeah she could have that that would
1:18:30
have been very interesting if she was Alice yeah mhm but I think I could see
1:18:35
where Leah Thompson feels a little bit more kind of like that the girl next door kind of thing you know um but
1:18:42
Madonna really I mean Yeah sharon Stone and Madonna seem similar mhm and then
1:18:48
Melanie Griffith and Kelly Preston and Leah Thompson seem kind of similar yeah interesting tim Allen Jerry
1:18:56
Seinfeld Ed O'Neal and Rick Morannis were considered for Henry
1:19:02
henry was a It was such a nothing role all very
1:19:08
famous people for such a nothing role such a big zero role yeah zero a big
1:19:13
He's a big zero my mama will never say you know would never say anything like disrespectful or like an
1:19:20
expletative or anything about anybody it's always very like appropriate and like kindly done so instead of saying
1:19:27
you know he's a big blah blah blah blah exploitative exploit of show he's a big zero so yeah
1:19:33
big zero role but Rick Morannis I could have seen i mean he would have probably at least done something with that to
1:19:38
make it more interesting just cuz he's like good at being kind of a nerdy
1:19:44
character and and and Henry is kind of a nerdy sort of person so I think he would have been at least made it more
1:19:51
interesting I think good point the other i thought the dad looked the part but
1:19:58
that's probably the one that got it yeah pretty much which is Well I will say
1:20:04
re-watching this last night Dennis the Menace was very a very different
1:20:10
experience to my original matinea viewing experience in 1993 but I am
1:20:16
still glad that I did revisit it and Amy thank you for revisiting it with me yes
1:20:22
uh to reminisce both Dennis Benis and 1993 little little gem of our childhood
1:20:29
memories yes um do you have closing thoughts about the movie and then don't forget to tell us where we can find you
1:20:36
and and I don't know a little preview of what you've got upcoming sure yeah so let's see i think in conclusion I am you
1:20:43
know I think it's been made very clear that I'm you know not a not a huge fan of this movie and I think the reason why
1:20:49
if I wasn't such a huge Dennis Amen fan I probably would not be nearly as
1:20:56
critical as I as I would be i probably would have just been like "Oh yeah you know it's a kids movie from the '9s
1:21:02
whatever you know it's got some funny moments or whatever." But I think because I have that deep dorky
1:21:07
longstanding connection with Dennis and Menace I think it's hard for me to sort of speak you know super highly of this
1:21:14
movie so is it worth watching as an adult i mean I guess if there's nothing
1:21:21
else to watch I'm sure just you know focusing on Walter Matau will will serve you well um and so where you can find me
1:21:29
the best place to go probably is my website popculture retrospective.com find all of my past
1:21:36
episodes blog posts um links to my Instagram account Twitter X whatever you
1:21:43
call it um things like that i also have a YouTube channel that I try to get episodes posted on to and little clips
1:21:48
of stuff here and there and then shows that I'm currently working on i am working on a show about my show's very
1:21:55
oftentimes is very heavily like researchbased which is why it's kind of on a um sort of undetermined release
1:22:03
cycle i try to get out a couple episodes a month as time time allows i'm working on an episode about Shell Silverstein uh
1:22:10
which has been really interesting and also working on a retro tech part two episode we're going to be talking about
1:22:16
some of the kids electronics that came out in in the '8s like the Speak and Spell and things like that and kind of
1:22:22
the backstory behind Yeah what's the backstory behind the Speak and Spell how did that come about you know always like
1:22:27
to kind of teach listeners about pop culture and stuff and then I'm also going to be having an author on my show
1:22:34
coming up he's written a book that was set in 1995 which is really interesting and a fun read so yeah there's always
1:22:41
always something in the works on my show that's focused on the 80s and 90s and early 2000s in memory of my sister and
1:22:49
yeah popculture retrospective.com i will have Amy's information in the show notes for you
1:22:55
listeners yeah you have a lot of your episodes are varied so there's there really is kind of a little for everyone
1:23:01
whether it's music or movies or TV shows i especially loved the Today's Special
1:23:07
episode oh nice oh god that's that's dipping back into the archives but that's when I feel like I found my
1:23:12
groove was around that episode is when I kind of like felt a little bit more comfortable yeah really liked it well so
1:23:19
you guys if you liked this episode of RetroAde please let me know you can email me at
1:23:25
[e-mail] if you are new to the show you can also find RetroAde
1:23:31
podcast on the director's chair network so head over there there's a lot of other podcasts about different directors
1:23:37
like Ed Zwick Brian de Palma let's see Michael Man and if you are joining
1:23:43
RetroAde from the director's chair podcast welcome i hope you enjoy and until next time be kind rewind
1:23:53
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