Brennan  0:00  

You’re listening to Dodge Movie Podcast. Your hosts are Christi and Mike Dodge the founders of Dodge Media Productions. We produce films and podcasts. So this is podcast about films. Join them as they share their passion for filmmaking.

Christi Dodge  0:17  

Welcome back, everybody to the Dodge Movie Podcast. This is episode 128. And we watch Mr. Mom on Max. So if you have that subscription, it is free to watch. This is the last week of July. So you have a few days. So you have one day to guess what the theme for July is. Get those in. 

Mr. Mom came out in 1983. And it’s it’s directed by Stan, Dragoti and he brought us She’s Out of Control in 1989 And The Man with One Red Shoe in 85. It stars Michael Keaton, Terry Garr,  Martin Mull, Anne Jillian, Jeffrey Tambor and Christopher Lloyd. The DP is Victor Kemper who also did National Lampoon’s Vacation and Clue in 85.

It was written by John Hughes; Breakfast Club in 85, Planes, Trains and Automobiles and 87 and Uncle Buck and 89. The synopsis for this film is after he suddenly laid off a husband switches roles with his wife, she returns to the workforce and he becomes a stay at home dad. And he has to take care of three young children a job he has no clue how to do. I got one tag, let’s see. No way to all right. I have to. When mom goes to work, dad goes berserk.

Mike Dodge  1:59  

Oh, not bad. Got a rhyme.

Christi Dodge  2:03  

It’s under my tagline category, but it just doesn’t sound like a tagline. Caroline’s a rising executive. Jack just lost his job. Jack’s gonna have to start from the bottom up.

Mike Dodge  2:17  

It’s kind of long for a tagline and not as good,

Christi Dodge  2:20  

So the premise of this film came about when John Hughes told Lauren Shuler Donner about a disastrous experience he had after he was looking after his two children while his wife was away, and Donner found it so hilarious. He was asked if it would make a good movie. And Donna replied, It sounds. It sure sounds funny to me. Hughes wrote the film and flew to Los Angeles to rewrite the script with donner. Ron Howard was asked to direct this film, but he turned it down in order to make Splash. And Michael Keaton turned down Splash in order to make Mr. Mom.

Mike Dodge  2:58  

Well, I think Splash was probably the better choice there.

Christi Dodge  3:04  

It’s a third feature film made by television producer Aaron Spelling, who recounted in his memoir, I couldn’t find a film that was suitable to take my wife and my kids to so we made one.

Mike Dodge  3:16  

So that’s why it looks like a sitcom. I bet probably. Yeah. That makes sense. I wonder if he just brought in all the people he knows. And his aesthetic from television.

Christi Dodge  3:28  

So kick us off. What is the pickup line for Mr. Mom?

Mike Dodge  3:32  

Wake up? Yeah, when he kind of has to wake up a little bit?

Christi Dodge  3:40  

Yeah. It kind of works. Every I think everybody had to wake up not just Jack, not just Jack, I think, you know, she had to wake up to Did she really want to be an executive? Right? And what did that mean? Cuz she was missing her kids stuff.

Mike Dodge  4:01  

Yeah, it’s interesting. The premise of him being an engineer, I think was a difficult choice. I think it’ll work better if he was in a different job because he appears to be not only dumb, but not handy. And that, to me is kind of when I first saw it that didn’t, didn’t stand out to me. But it did the second time through like, I can’t say he worked at an auto factory. So we can assume he’s a mechanical engineer.

Christi Dodge  4:37  

And he seems like he’s in a some what managerial position, but he would have probably worked his way up.

Mike Dodge  4:43  

Right. I mean, they call him an engineer. And, and so he would know to 20 verses 110 Yeah, I mean, it’s a funny line. Yeah. And he doesn’t read the box. The directions with the detergent. No engineer, I know would just not read the instructions.

Christi Dodge  5:02  

I can tell you how the 222

Mike Dodge  5:05  

to 221. Yeah, it’s a funny joke. 

Christi Dodge  5:09  

Okay, so it came from two actors, basically, was it wasn’t it Fred will know, Martin Well, is standing there. Yeah, it was Martin Mull and Keaton. He said the joke. So and Keaton says, oh, yeah, that’s funny. They rolled it in.

Mike Dodge  5:32  

Makes tons of sense that neither Martin Malone or Michael Keaton never met an engineer. 

Christi Dodge  5:38  

And Hughes, if he did do that joke, maybe, you know, in the reading of somebody.

Mike Dodge  5:45  

Yeah. So it’s almost like other than electrician, the one profession where that joke doesn’t work, right. But it’s a really funny joke, right? I know, engineers that quote that joke. So it landed in that sense, but it was just, I thought that was interesting. Because as we talked about, don’t write a movie about the troubles in Ireland unless you know what you’re talking about, right? I feel like this character is funny, but he doesn’t approach this like an engineer would. Right. So that was one of those cases where Mike Judge whoever did Office Space, he knew that environment. And that’s why it landed so perfectly. I think I thought that was an interesting thing to make him an engineer. 

And as far as I can tell, he’s supposed to work at Ford. Because they drive brand new mercury, Grand Marquis Ford, Ltd, sedan and Ford Ltd, Country Squire station wagon, all Ford products all brand new for the year this was made. So that to me that says he’s working at Ford. Now of course, they probably didn’t want to say for its naming an f4 to yell at them. But in 1982 laughs in the auto industry was a thing that was a top right.

Christi Dodge  7:02  

Was there anything in the cinematography that stood out to you? I don’t have anything down. 

Mike Dodge  7:07  

I had a few things I thought were interesting. One is there’s a lot of fog machine in the bedroom in the opening scene. And I think they did that to get the sunlight through the window to make it feel like spring. And I’m surprised they didn’t have like Verdi spring playing with the the birds chirping. But almost immediately thereafter, we talked about this may have been a positive and there’s the shadow from the wood in the window across Keaton’s face. It did drive me nuts. I interrupted, sorry, go, I didn’t know if you had if you had an explanation. 

In Windows, in the old days, it was hard to get big sheets of glass. They had the wood in between each, each little pane was a separate piece of glass. Now, it’s one solid sheet, but they still do the cross hatching with the little like molding. And the shadow from those horizontal and vertical things was right across his face as he’s talking, and the actors moving. So that line is moving up and down on his face. It was really distracting. And I can’t believe that nobody noticed it on set. Like, it was so harsh. It seemed intentional. Yes. And that I couldn’t figure out why. Like, what the intention was behind it.

Christi Dodge  8:29  

I mean, other than just the sun was baking in on that window.

Mike Dodge  8:33  

Budgeting you put a scrim over it, or something called?

Christi Dodge  8:37  

It felt like artificial? Oh, is that what it was? Maybe? Was that? Were they filming at night? And they had a really harsh light outside the window? Yeah, to mimic the sun. And so there they were like, of course there’s gonna be…

Mike Dodge  8:53  

Yeah, is very interesting. And then I wonder, too, was this shot like a multi camera sitcom in that? One take, we’re just going right, everybody in position, say your lines and get out. Right. And then there were two montages. There was a jack fixing up the house montage. But there’s also a corporate Olympics montage, which is really kind of funny. And I don’t know if it’s funny, because for the reason that Aaron Spelling and the director intended. But my question is whether corporate Olympics could even happen today. 

Because I’m thinking of all the lawsuits of if somebody gets injured, and then they’re gonna say it’s ableist. And so not everyone can compete. That was in the 80s, though, I think that was actually probably a thing at many different companies to have the corporate Olympics and I do like how the plot the writing is, you got to lose to the boss, right? That’s right. That’s mandatory.

Christi Dodge  9:59  

I was I’m really concerned. When we chose this film, I remember fondly enjoying it right when it came out. And I was concerned that it wouldn’t hold up. I was worried either. You know, we’ve tried to watch a comedy sense, and they’re either too slow or they are inappropriate, just in looking in today’s with today. And I was really surprised. This one held up quite well, I was pleased.

Mike Dodge  10:31  

So I kind of agree and disagree. I agree in the sense that I too, was concerned that it would be a little gender biased. Right. And it didn’t, it really didn’t follow the tropes of the time of the bumbling right with the one exception that this gag bumped me badly. Where he’s embarrassed to buy maxi pads. Yeah, that one. That was the best. But yeah, so it did better there. It did. Worse in that it played to me the second time like a 90 minute sitcom episode, not as a film. So it was very TV movie ask and I don’t remember that for the first time I watched it.

Christi Dodge  11:22  

Yeah, there was I mean, there was the he overloads the washing machine scene.

Mike Dodge  11:29  

And were they the first to do that? I thought Lucy did though.

Christi Dodge  11:32  

I mean, if not Lucy so many others, right. Oh, it did Kevin McAllister. Maybe he put dish soap in the I feel like we watched a movie recently where instead of using dishwasher washer detergent, they use dish detergent, which you’re not supposed to put in a dishwasher.

Mike Dodge  11:58  

Okay, so I need some of my super fans to help me out here. I’m pretty sure there was a Lucy episode. I can remember where she does this. But anyway, yeah, it was cutting edge comedy.

Christi Dodge  12:09  

And then he burns the chili. The vacuum cleaner basically as a mind of its it was the first robotic Roomba  cleaner because it can run on its own. 

Mike Dodge  12:21  

I really wonder how fun was it for Adam and Jamie to make that remote control vacuum cleaner

Christi Dodge  12:29  

There’s just chaos because like all while all this is going on the exterminators coming the pilot light guys coming TV repair person. I never scheduled more than one service person to be at the house at the same time.

Mike Dodge  12:43  

Again, he’s an engineer. And as you said he kind of risen to a supervisory capacity. Yeah,

Christi Dodge  12:48  

I think he’d be good with scheduling on different days. Right. So that was a little Yeah, memento. But I said he has a dream, where he shaves his beard and then turns into an expert on cleaning, fitness school, volunteering, taking care of the kids and taking care of the wife all while the Rocky theme plays in the background. Yeah, so that was a bit of a montage, I guess. Yeah.

Mike Dodge  13:12  

And the beard was to represent that he had given up he letting himself go.

Christi Dodge  13:18  

He was kind of cleaning up his act. I thought there were certain things. You know, like, anytime you step in somebody else’s shoes, you have an appreciation for what they do, right? But then sometimes you innovate a way of doing something that they didn’t think, because maybe they were just in the weeds. And this is the way you’ve always done it. And, and so I think from the perspective of I can’t think of an example, but I felt like there was a time when he did something in a little bit different way that still achieve the goal. But in a in a very kind of dad loosey goosey cool kind of way.

Mike Dodge  13:58  

Yeah, I’m trying to remember specifically, when you brought that up, I was actually comparing it to Uncle Buck, where I think that was a bit more heavily explored was John Kennedy’s character. You know, he did things like the giant pancake, right, right things, things like that. But it is kind of interesting to compare and contrast. This would be good if we knew any film professors like and of course, Uncle Buck versus Mr. Mom, how did they approach that in some sense? domesticity? It’s kind of a gender swap? 

Like you said, everybody else’s job is easy, right? And then you start doing it and you’re like, oh, wow, this is actually harder than I thought. And I think we we didn’t see as much of that with Caroline’s character play by Terry gar. That hers was more as she was trying to kind of return to the workforce. It was more that than necessarily. That working was more difficult than she had expected.

Christi Dodge  14:57  

Yeah, I’m, I’m bleeding probably Playtonic now, yes, Rose burns character goes back to work. And she’s just like, I’m so tired,

Mike Dodge  15:07  

Right, which is, you know, I’ve heard that from people who have been out of work for a while, and they go back to work, and it is physically and mentally draining. So that would have been a little bit more expected. But this was the 80s. So the whole thing about Martin most character showing up with the limo, and working super long hours, that was very much the air of Gordon Gekko. So I don’t think it would have played as well with the audience to have the Oh, wow, God works hard, right? I don’t want to work 16 hours a day.

Christi Dodge  15:39  

I thought it was a good turn when he makes the special dinner for her. And she shows up late because that’s probably something that happened in reverse before when she was staying at home taking care of the kids and stuff.

Mike Dodge  15:54  

And I was talking just earlier today, someone about how mobile phones ruin most movies. And that’s one of the things that we often saw, was being late for dinner. But now you would if you didn’t call you just text, you know, gotta stay late boss is working on whatever. Right? So so that’s one of those things that wouldn’t really hold up now. You’d have to do it in some different way to get that. But yes, that was and that’s where I think that was probably realistic, but is on the edge of a cliche of showing up late and dinners cold and the person who made it Sam Perry. 

Christi Dodge  16:32  

Yeah. And now even the wife could, you know, find my husband and know exactly where, right. So or the person at home?

Mike Dodge  16:42  

What are you doing in Westland? Fine, exactly.

Christi Dodge  16:47  

I wrote down, he takes pride in his work at home. And when he worked for the car, oh, in both places, he took pride in his work. So it showed that he took pride in his work. When he was working in the factory. They showed us a scene and then at home, initially, once he got his feet wet, then he took pride like he wanted. It shows him going around the house and kind of doing a better job and taking pride in and the house looking nice.

Mike Dodge  17:15  

Yeah, to me, that is more realistic engineer behavior. You want to do it correctly, whatever that definition is,

Christi Dodge  17:22  

I agree. And then now we bring in an Jillian’s character, which she’s got the hots for him, Joan, Joan from across the street, has takes a liking to him, which I thought this was kind of odd because they show us that they were friends before. It’s not like she newly moved into the neighborhood. She was his wife’s friend. When Carolyn was there, they were friends. And so in fact, when she walks in, he’s playing poker. At one point, she walks in, and he’s playing poker with all their friends from the neighborhood all the women, right? And then she works late one night, or is she out on a trip? I think maybe and and Jillian’s character, Joan comes over to seduce him. And I liked the scene in the mirror, because he’s like, No, you love your wife. Right? Don’t do this.

Mike Dodge  18:23  

I did like that part with him. I just want to back up a tiny bit and say, they established in dialogue, whether you bought it or not. One of the moms says, Joan, he’s married. And she says, so were we like at one time or something. So they so to me, that established Why suddenly he was on the radar. But yes, I was surprised in a pleasant way of that dialogue, as he’s kind of going through the, the devil on one shoulder, angel on the other. He’s going with the back and forth the pros and cons. 

I thought that was realistic that and Jillian was a stone cold hottie at that time. And a divorcee in the neighborhood, right? That he knew. And she’s obviously coming on to him. So it makes sense to me that it wouldn’t be a clear cut thing that it’d be like, Well, hey, you know, she’s gonna get lucky.

Christi Dodge  19:20  

And so it was debating with himself. Right in, you know, in the mirror. No, you’re married. You have a good thing. Don’t do this. But he’s flattered that somebody’s interest. Sure. Yeah, exactly. But then so then he, I can’t remember how it happens. Oh, he goes in. Maybe that’s when he’s in the bathroom. And then she’s laying on the bed and his wife Carolyn walks in, and she’s like, what?

Mike Dodge  19:46  

And I thought that was realistic. Sometimes in the movies. The wife walks in, it’s like, oh, hi, Joan. Right, or there’s like, Oh, I was just checking the comforter for wrinkles or something. And she’s like, Oh, okay, right. It seems cool. Interior guards. Carolyn was like, What’s going on here? 

Christi Dodge  20:03  

Are you in my bedroom? Yeah,

Mike Dodge  20:05  

I would be stunned if I came into any room in the house and one of our super fans was there. Probably should be told ahead of time if we’re having visitors.

Christi Dodge  20:15  

Yes. Anything else in the writing department?

Mike Dodge  20:19  

I know that Hughes wanted to get some exposition in before the layoffs. So he had Keaton talking to the workers. I’m not sure about the choice to do it on the assembly line. Why? So? Unless that like they thought that was a good gag. So first of all, the viewer has a hard time hearing. But then I think in reality, they work there, they would know. You would do that. I mean, I think they wanted to have a shot of them on the assembly line to let us know what they do. But to me, that’s a conversation that you have at the coffee pot. 

So that was a little like, I’m not I’m not sure exactly about that. And then there was a point where is it good line? You’re not a bomb? Are you daddy? And he says no, but I’m working on it. It’s kind of a funny line. But I think for us nowadays, bomb isn’t the insult that it was in previous generations, even in 82. I don’t think it carried the same connotation that it maybe didn’t 52 to be called a bomb.

Christi Dodge  21:25  

So I did make do under the costume section that he was growing out his beard. Any other things in costuming that caught your eye.

Mike Dodge  21:34  

Oh, yeah. So loved the poofy shoulders on Carolyn’s first day outfit very 1982

Christi Dodge  21:41  

You love 80s fashion.

Mike Dodge  21:43  

I kind of do. And I love her 80s hair. Yeah, she had great hair. Interesting. They had the red Lacey, Teddy and Joan at that time, I believe and Jillian was considered VAVA voom. But boy, Were there a lot of three piece suits in this film. And I don’t know if the waistcoat was that popular in 82. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember.

Christi Dodge  22:05  

And you made comment of the home.

Mike Dodge  22:10  

Yeah, that house is very small from the curb. But it’s like the TARDIS where the interior is larger than Pinewood Studios in England. It was nuts. How big the interior that house was. And that giant basement?

Christi Dodge  22:24  

Yeah, yeah, the basement was pretty big.

Mike Dodge  22:29  

I mean, we’re not supposed to pay too close attention. Close. It’s just a movie, right?

Christi Dodge  22:34  

I mean, know that even though the vacuum cleaner was possessed. Yes. But and so to add extra fear, they added the jaws theme. Right. And it was running through the house. The thing that scared me not because I knew it wouldn’t hurt the kid. But the kid had is blankie Oh, yeah. And I was so afraid that the vacuum cleaner was gonna, you know, sweep up his blanket.

Mike Dodge  23:07  

Yeah, yeah, there’s a couple things that I found a little problematic in the relationship between both Jack and Carolyn and then Ron, her boss play by Martin Mull. Jack calls her doll face, which again, is not a period correct term. But even then it just is a little. And he was condescending. At one point. She said she was gonna go back to work because he was having trouble finding a job. And he’s like, What is the phone ringing off the hook that I haven’t heard? So I wasn’t too keen with that. 

But then we can’t skip over the fact that her boss basically breaking and entering on her hotel room. And that that was kind of maybe in 1982 that was considered a normal seduction move was to just invite yourself into someone’s room. So when they come out of the shower, you’re like, tada. But I like wow, that seemed a little a little aggressive even for 82.

Christi Dodge  24:09  

I’m pretty sure and add to that wasn’t a welcome behavior. wouldn’t think so. I don’t think that’s was there any head trauma after the break?

Mike Dodge  24:20  

There was actually first Larry chokes Jinx who is played by Jeffrey Tambor after he gets furloughed, so they take the layoff poorly. But yes, Carolyn punches run in the nose after he tries the Weinstein maneuver on her. And then Jack punches Jenks in the nose when he yells at his son Alex. And he said If you yell at my kid like that again, I’m gonna punch you then he does.

Christi Dodge  24:45  

I know. I was glad he followed up with that.

Mike Dodge  24:47  

I am protect the kids. Have a smooch smoochy smoochy smoochy there were several smoochies Jack kisses Carolyn goodbye before leaving to carpool to work at first when he’s working. He kisses her in front of the fireplace at the INEC, too. And then they kiss after he gets his job back.

Christi Dodge  25:07  

Nice. Yes. And a driving review.

Mike Dodge  25:10  

All righty. So the 1983 Mercury grammar key was a great example of crappy 80s cars really wasn’t particularly exciting, right? Maybe it’s decent made car but you know, it’s, you know, the kei cars came from Chrysler, that era. There’s a toy model of Richard Petty’s number 43 on the breakfast table, which I really appreciated. And the question I have is I didn’t I couldn’t tell if that was a Ford. Because there is the 83 Ford Country Squire station wagon. I think that was a period correct for a family in general. But certainly if you worked for Ford, right, I want to mention, there’s couple scenes like where Joan gets in her Mustang, again, another Ford product, and really accelerates quite hard out of the driveway into the street. Could be other cars for kids playing Joan. 

So let’s not accelerate that hard in reverse. Can’t see where you’re going. The Cadillac stretched limo, which is interesting, not a Ford product. And the Fox Body Mustang that Joan drives says that she’s a party girl, right? Cuz he’s a lady who’s driving a Mustang. But I’m a little concerned about the plot point where they go to the Thunder from Down Under a stripper show. And she drives home. Was she not drinking? I don’t think she should be driving. She had had quite a few cocktails.

Christi Dodge  26:39  

Maybe she had a really big meal with it as well.

Mike Dodge  26:42  

Let’s hope.

Christi Dodge  26:44  

And then you didn’t mention this. I didn’t want to step on it. In 80s movies in on TV and movies. carpooling was a big deal probably after the 79 the gas gas crisis. In the early 80s. It was more of a thing like there were five men in that car. And they talked about splitting the gas price. So it’s just it’s just funny because it’s just something you don’t see. You might see people I guess in an Uber, you might see people in a taxi and movies and film or TV and film today. But you just don’t see the carpooling.

Mike Dodge  27:28  

carpooling was big in the movies. Yeah, I don’t know, anyone, any adult male in Southern California in that time, that did carpool. 

Christi Dodge  27:40  

Well, it’s interesting. I wonder if it was more near a big city. And now a lot of these guys. They all worked at the same place. Yeah. And then presumably, the person would then drop them. You know, obviously, they were pulling up at Jack’s house, and the four of them were already in the car.

Mike Dodge  28:00  

Right. So I was only exposed to people who lived in suburbs. Right, right. Me too. But the people that were worried about gas prices all bought motorcycles, and they rode a motorbike to work. They were tended to be like the Honda Goldwing the nice ones not like the Harley. Everyone else drove their own motor vehicle. It was for the same reason that all of us steroid carpooling is because you want the flexibility. Yeah. Now there are people who have carpooled, but often those are people who do not have a car. Yeah. In my experience, but I remember back then I didn’t know anybody who carpool to work, we carpool to school, because then five minutes when kids in the car had no car, like one person at a car, and he picked up everybody, right?

Christi Dodge  28:52  

Because it was more fun to ride with your friend then under the bus. Yeah, yeah. All right. So we go to the number. Let’s go to the numbers. Okay. First, I want to say that this was the first time that Michael Keaton got top billing. This is his first movie that he was kind of carrying. 

Mike Dodge  29:09  

Was this after Night Shift?

Christi Dodge  29:10  

I don’t I think we’re going to be talking about Night Shift in a couple of months. So we can we’ll find out the back. Yeah. So the film’s budget was $5 million. It made $86.8 million. This movie. Whoa, yeah. What is that adjusted? Was I know adjusted would be like 188.6. So it is it made at almost $87 million. 

Mike Dodge  29:39  

Oh, he put butts in seats.  Got him that Batman roll. 

Christi Dodge  29:44  

It gets a 6.6 out of 10 on IMDb critics give it us 76 and audiences are much cooler at 57%. 

Mike Dodge  29:53  

Well, I can say that I didn’t. I remember it more fondly than it landed the second time around.

Christi Dodge  29:58  

I was just listening to a podcast and they brought it up and they were like, oh, remember Mr. Mom was so funny. So I very much remembered it being quite funny. And I feel like I watched it more than once back in the early 80s. So that’s why I was just like, please don’t disappoint me. We’ve been disappointed a couple of times. So I was just, I was really hoping that this one would hold up. And it was it was funny. It wasn’t like, remember when we rewatched Tootsie recently introduced still so I mean, I love that movie. But I remembered it being more comedic than it was dramatic. And when we rewatched it, I found that the opposite was true. There are comedic moments in it, but I feel like it’s more of a drama.

Mike Dodge  30:44  

This one is definitely still all comedy, but it was more sitcom II than I remember.

Christi Dodge  30:51  

Yeah, that’s a good tonal description. Yeah, yeah. It’s just over an hour and a half at 131. It’s rated PG it is listed as a comedy drama. It is a Sherwood production 20th Century Fox, and it won the Best Family motion picture at the young artists awards. All right, everybody, you have one more day to turn in your guests. For the month of July, you have five movies to choose from. I need some guessers so that we can have a winner. Hit me up at 971-245-4148 for our way you could text or you could even leave a message. And we could maybe even play the winning person on the pod. Or you can email me your guests at Christi at Dodge media productions.com. And all of this is in the show notes. Have a wonderful last couple days of July and never forget,

Mike Dodge  31:57  

Dodges never stop and neither do the movies.

Brennan  32:00  

Thanks for listening to Dodge Movie Podcast with Christi and Mike Dodge of Dodge Media Productions. To find out more about this podcast and what we do. Go to dodgemediaproductions.com. Subscribe, share, leave a comment and tell us what we should watch next. Dodges never stop and neither do the movies.