Hot, Hazy & Hollywood Part Two: Looking Back at the Summer Movie Season of 1989, 35 Years Later

 

Clockwise: the posters for Ghostbusters II, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids 

Batman, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. 

by Michael Lyons

Some movies change how we go to the movies. One such movie was released in the summer of 1989.

This is the second part of a three-part article that looks back at three significant summer movie seasons, all celebrating anniversaries this year. Last week was the summer movie season of 1994, thirty years later. This week, it's a time travel back to the summer movie season 1989, as it celebrates 35 years.

In the eighties, summer movie seasons roared through our lives like a never-ending freight train of Fridays that carried one blockbuster movie after another. The summers of the 1980s saw some of the biggest movies of all time, including two of the original Star Wars films, as well as E.T. and Back to the Future.

The last summer of the '80s was like a grand finale to all of this, bringing mammoth movies that packed theaters and generated pre-release excitement that everyone, even the most casual moviegoer, was talking about.

And it all kicked off, as summer movie seasons used to, on Memorial Day weekend, with the return of that icon of '80s summer movie blockbusters, Indiana Jones.

The collaborative magic of those two box-office wizards, who had both brought a sense of wonder back to movies - George Lucas and Steven Spielberg - coupled with that everlasting movie star - Harrison Ford, had gifted us with Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981 and its sequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984.

The whip-cracking archeologist soon became a pop culture persona of the highest order and a movie hero on the Mount Rushmore of action movies. With this, it's safe to say that the third installment, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, had been eagerly awaited. The addition of the original James Bond himself, Sean Connery, playing Indy's father in the film, only added to the furor of every film fanatic.

Harrison Ford and Sean Connery in

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Added to this was the news that this would be the last Indiana Jones installment (if we only knew...); it's no wonder that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade broke the record for the biggest Memorial Day Weekend box office, which it held until The Flintstones in 1994.

However, Indy's box-office record was short-lived, as it was "scared off" by another sequel to another major 80s summer movie, Ghostbusters II, which bowed in theaters less than a month later. 

Director Ivan Reitman's 1984 spirited comedy starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramos, and Ernie Hudson ignited popularity with fans patiently waiting for the Ghostbusters to return.  Return they did, in a sequel that zoomed into theaters like the Echo-1 with its sirens blaring (the ghost in the film's logo was even re-branded in an eye-catching pose with "two" fingers held up).

Left to right: Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, 

Dank Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson in Ghostbusters II

Many viewed the sequel as a disappointment, as it was met with generally negative reviews. So much so that it took twenty-eight years for a "reboot" and thirty-two years for a true sequel (which allowed for another this year and the potential for a new franchise). Despite this, Ghostbusters II blasted all other box-office competition, including Last Crusade, setting another box-office record.

But that record would only stand for a week when the movie mentioned above that changed how we go to the movies was released...

...Batman.

You couldn't escape Batman. That indelible Bat-signal logo, now so iconic, was everywhere you looked. In early 1989, a quick teaser trailer debuted in theaters, with the first glimpse of Michael Keaton (such divisive casting at the time) as Batman, Jack Nicholson (such perfect casting) as Joker, and Tim Burton's take on the mythic comic.

Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson in Batman.

The months, weeks, and days leading up to Batman's bow in theaters became like the countdown to a holiday. Going to a midnight screening on Thursday evening (as this writer did) was like attending a concert. The audience's excitement was palpable.

It became "Batman summer."

Through their promotion, Warner Bros and producers Jon Peters and Peter Guber turned Batman into more than a movie; it was an event! If you missed out on Batman that summer, you felt you were missing out.

And it changed the moviegoing experience. This "event movie" became the model in Hollywood for the next decade, especially when it came to summer movies  (Jurassic Park, The Lion King, and Independence Day, just to name a few), and it all started with Batman. 

Summer of '89 was also the summer of surprise hits, and the biggest of these was Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Disney returned to its Dean Jones-Fred MacMurray-live-action roots with the story of a scientist (Rick Moranis) who accidentally miniaturizes his kids.

Marcia Strassman and Rick Moranis in

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

Even though opening the same day as Batman, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids found its audience, scored big at the box office, and is fondly remembered by the generation who ventured out to theaters to see it that summer.

The films that filled out the line-up alongside these box-office hits were equally impressive films that could have filled a summer themselves. They included the more dramatic, Oscar-season-worthy Dead Poets Society starring Robin Williams; William Shatner's directorial debut with Star Trek V: The Final Frontier; Spike Lee's brilliant and still oh-so-relevant Do The Right Thing.

Spike Lee and Danny Aiello

in Do the Right Thing.

Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, with Joe Pesci in tow, returned for Lethal Weapon 2; things were dead at the beach in Weekend at Bernie’s; Bond was back, in the form of Timothy Dalton in License to Kill; everyone wanted to "have what she's having" with Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally.

Danny Glover, Joe Pesci and Mel Gibson

in Lethal Weapon 2.

Ron Howard gathered an all-star cast, including Steve Martin, Diane Wiest, Mary Steenburgen, and Rick Moranis (MVP for summer movie season '89) in Parenthood; Tom Hanks went to the dogs in Turner & Hooch; James Cameron took his first foray into the, then, emerging world of CGI with The Abyss; John Hughes brought us another of his 80s icons with Uncle Buck, starring John Candy; two horror icons returned with A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child and Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan.

Left to right: John C. Reilly, Sean Penn,

Don Harvey and Michael J. Fox in Casualties of War.

The summer of 1989 closed out with two powerful dramas - Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn in director Brian De Palma's Casualties of War and the directorial debut of Steven Soderbergh with Sex, Lies and Videotape.

What a summer at the movies, closing out a decade that served as a “golden age” of summer movies. For so many, 1989 was the summer at the movies.  Just looking back on this line-up brings back waves of warm-weather-infused excitement for a nostalgia-laden summer movie season from 35 years ago.

And, there's still one more summer movie season to look at that features many of the stars of summer 1989, along with creatures you shouldn't feed after midnight, a kid learning to wax on and wax off, a rock star from Minneapolis, and more. The summer movie season of 1984...

...which is where we are headed next week for part three of Hot, Hazy, and Hollywood.

My new book, Magic Moments: Stories, Lessons & Memories from a Twenty-Year Career at Walt Disney World is now available at Amazon!

For more of my articles, podcasts and more (including cool T-shirts!) head over to Words From Lyons!

 

Hot, Hazy and Hollywood, Part One: Looking back at the 1994 Summer Movie Season, 30 Years Later

 

Clockwise: the movie posters for Speed, Forrest Gump,

The Lion King and The Flintstones.

by Michael Lyons 

 

Summer Movie Season.

Those three words ignite such excitement in movie fans. And, in the days before streaming, when we waited eagerly for movies to come to movie theaters and not television screens, the excitement of the summer movie season was, dare I say, greater...and better.

Yes, I dare to say it because it's true.

This will be part one of a three-part article that looks back at three significant summer movie seasons, each one part of a golden age, of sorts, from times when audiences lined up around the block just for the chance to get a ticket to a movie, to an era when movies were treated like events.

Each one of the summer movie seasons to be discussed is celebrating an anniversary this year. We begin here in part one, with the 30th anniversary of the summer movie season of 1994:

 

You thought "Barbenheimer" was something? Imagine "Barbenheimer" almost every weekend at the box office, particularly during the summer.  That's what movies were like in the 1990s, when movie studio's promotional departments kicked into high gear, hyping their films to the point that they were less like movies and more like events.

This was especially true during the summer of 1994. And, that summer kicked off with a movie whose promotion truly...rocked.  The Flintstones, a long-delayed live-action version of Hanna-Barbera’s popular animated sitcom, landed in theaters for Memorial Day Weekend to start the summer movie season.

However, the hype began an entire summer before, with a specially produced teaser trailer for The Flintstones shown in front of 1993's summer behemoth, Jurassic Park. This made perfect sense since "Steven Spielrock," who was directing Jurassic Park, was also producing The Flintstones.

The cast of the live-action film, The Flintstones.

The Flintstones didn't just arrive in theaters; it landed with the same colossal sound of Fred pounding on the door and yelling, "Wiiiiillllmaaaaa!" You couldn't escape marketing for the film. From endless commercials on TV to toys that redesigned the characters to look more like John Goodman, Rick Moranis, and the rest of the actors in the film, to the "BC-52's" new version of the familiar title song played on top 40 radio stations and McDonald's, re-named "RocDonald's," carrying themed food and Happy Meal toys, The Flintstones got to the point that, as a moviegoer, you felt as if you had to see the movie; otherwise you'd be left out.

All of this swirling Bedrock brew-ha-ha worked, and The Flintstones was the much-anticipated blockbuster that "Univershell" pictures had been hoping for, and it became the sixth highest-grossing film of the year.

Several weeks after The Flintstones came a summer movie that, while not initially an event, soon became one through positive review and word of mouth - Speed.

From an era when a number of movies were attempting to ape the "Die Hard model," Jan de Bont (a cinematographer on a number of movies, including, ironically, Die Hard) made his directing debut with this gripping action movie.

Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock in Speed.

A bus is rigged by a terrorist (Dennis Hopper) to explode if it goes under 50 miles an hour and hurtles by at the accelerated pace of the bus. Keanu Reeves became an action icon, Sandra Bullock's star was quickly on the rise, and suddenly, Speed became the movie everyone wanted to replicate. 

However, Speed wasn't the biggest movie of the summer. That honor goes to Disney's animated feature, The Lion King. Now iconic and part of our pop-culture lexicon (along with a Broadway musical and CGI re-make), when The Lion King debuted, it rocketed Disney's growth at their studio and the animation renaissance into the stratosphere.

Following The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin, The Lion King was a wish fulfillment for Walt Disney himself - that animation is another form of storytelling that all ages can embrace.

And The Lion King was embraced, indeed. It was the number-one movie of the year, and for a time, it was the highest-grossing animated film of all time. 

The cast of 1994's The Lion King.

The Lion King's release was at such event status that in the months and weeks before it came out, there was more than buzz around it; there was genuine excitement. Disney even treated it like an event, opening the film at Radio City Musical Hall in New York and the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles as "The Lion King Summer Spectacular," where the film played for ten days before coming to area theaters, along with a stage show featuring the Disney characters.

And don't forget the toys, Burger King promo, TV specials, and Top 40 hit songs that swept throughout the world like winds across the Savanna. 

Then, just several weeks after the King was crowned ruler of the box office, another film came out to steal our pop-culture heart.

Just after the July 4th weekend, an unassuming character with a story that crossed most of our 20th-century history by blending dynamic CGI effects came to theaters.

Forrest Gump, from director Robert Zemeckis, with a career-defining performance from Tom Hanks, not only ignited the box office but also touched our hearts, won every major award, and like so many films during 1994, settled comfortably in our zeitgeist, where it still lives.

Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump.

It was such a close race at the box office over Independence Day weekend that after the weekend was over, Entertainment Weekly had an animated graphic that staged a horse race between the Forrest Gump and Lion King posters.  Forrest won the weekend by a nose.

Jack Palance and Billy Crystal in 

City Slickers II

The summer of '94 also saw a big-screen version of the TV show Maverick, with Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, and James Garner; The Crow, which sadly starred Brandon Lee in his final role; Eddie Murphy back in sequel mode for Beverly Hills Cop III; Billy Crystal in the same mode for City Slickers II: The Search for Curly's Gold, and Jack Nicholson turning into a Wolf. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis

in True Lies.

Long before Yellowstone, Kevin Costner went for western epic with Wyatt Earp; Alec Baldwin was The Shadow; Disney brought live-action fantasy family fare with Angels in the Outfield; John Grisham's bestseller The Client came to the screen, and Arnold Schwarzenegger reunited with James Cameron for True Lies.

Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis in

Natural Born Killers.

We were wowed by computer animation and Jim Carrey in The Mask; Harrison Ford played Jack Ryan in Clear and Present Danger; The Little Rascals returned, and summer closed out with Oliver Stone's devisive Natural Born Killers.  

And so, thirty summers ago in 1994, we flocked to theaters to see mammoth movies and smaller stories in a summer filled with pure popcorn and Oscar hopefuls. It was a time when going to the movie theater was still an event.

That event-fueled experience began five years before, during a summer of adventuring archeologists, spirit chasers, and a dark knight. The summer of 1989...

...which is where we are headed for part two of Hot, Hazy, and Hollywood, next week.

Looking for summer reading? My new book, Magic Moments: Stories, Lessons and Memories from a Twenty-Year Career at Walt Disney World is now available! Click here to purchase! 

 

 Check back all summer for new articles and podcasts at my website: Words From Lyons!

 

Motherly Love and Laughs: Classic Sitcom Episodes About Moms

 by Michael Lyons

 

Mothers bring such love into our lives, and sometimes, it's provided in the guise of a laugh. Several classic sitcom episodes have shown this, some poignant, some touching, all funny.

Here is just a brief list of some to binge, just in time for Mother's Day Weekend:

 

"Hello Mom," The Honeymooners, December 3, 1955

Ralph (Jackie Gleason) receives a telegram that his mother-in-law is coming to visit. As he has a contentious relationship with his mother-in-law, he drives Alice (Andrey Meadows) crazy as he awaits her arrival.

 

*SPOILER ALERT!*

 

The only issue is Ralph finds out that the telegram is from his mother. After seeing how he behaves, Alice is very welcoming of Mrs. Kramden.

 

A typically classic and funny Honeymooners  - including when Ralph looks to move in with Ed and Trixie (Art Carney and Joyce Randolph) - but also a heartfelt one that speaks to the forgiveness and closeness of family.

 

"The Odd Couples," The Odd Couple, October 27, 1972

 

Oscar (Jack Klugman) has never told his mother (Jane Dulo) that he's divorced. So, rather than upset her, he asks his ex-wife, Blanche (Brett Somers), to move back in and pretend they're still married. Also, Felix (Tony Randall) has to move back in with his ex-wife, Gloria (Janis Hansen).

 

This leads to comedic confusion, as both couples try to cover up, mainly when their friend, Murray, the cop (Al Molinaro), shows up and is unaware that none of the cover-up has transpired.

 

This is a well-crafted episode that speaks to, in its funny way, the fragility of relationships and how we never cease being parents or children throughout our lives.

 

"Rebecca Gains, Rebecca Loses," Cheers May 6, 1993

 

The central part of this episode may revolve around Rebecca (Kirstie Alley), but there is a hysterical subplot involving Cliff (John Ratzenberger) and his mom, Esther (Frances Sternhagen). It seems that the gang at Cheers gets suspicious of Cliff. After several things he has said, they think Cliff may have murdered his mother.

 

Turns out, he has moved his mother into a retirement home. Cliff and his mom always had a different, funny relationship on the show, as neither seemed to grow out of their roles since “Clifford’s” childhood and Esther’s adjustment to the retirement home is perfect Cheers humor.

 

"The Doll," Seinfeld, February 22, 1996

 

Of all the amazing supporting players on Seinfeld, one of the best is, without a doubt, George Costanza's (Jason Alexander) mother, Estelle (Estelle Harris). In this hilarious episode, the character's shrill star shines when George discovers that his fiancé, Susan (Heidi Svedberg), has a doll collection that includes one bearing a striking resemblance to George's mom (he even imagines the doll talking to him!). 

 

"Mother's Day," Modern Family, May 4, 2011

Here is an episode centering on Mother's Day, and in typical, hysterical, Modern Family style, it balances multiple stories. Claire (Julie Bowen) and Gloria (Sofia Vergara) decide to spend Mother's Day hiking, while Jay (Ed O'Neill) and Phil (Ty Burrell) stay at home to cook a lovely Mother's Day dinner for everyone and wind-up bonding. Meanwhile, Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) gets angry when he realizes that Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) thinks he is the "mom."

 

The episode also contains the standard Modern Family brilliant writing, such as when Claire confides to Gloria that she sometimes wants to punch her kids:

 

Claire: The last time they were horrible the way they were today, they happened to be all lined up, and I couldn't help but think if I hit just one of 'em, the rest would go down like dominoes.

Gloria: Geez!

Claire: I know. That would rob me of the pleasure of hitting each one individually, but...

 

Laughs like that, and like all of them in these episodes, also come with love, something Moms bring into all of our lives.

 

Happy Mother's Day!

My new book, Magic Moments: Stories, Lessons and Memories from a Twenty-Year Career at Walt Disney World is available now at Amazon!

Head over to Words From Lyons for more of my articles, books and podcasts!

 

 

An "Episode" in All of Our Lives: Remembering the Summer of "Phantom Menace," 25 Years Later

Fans wait for Phantom Menace tickets, outside the Ziegfeld theater 

in New York City, in May of 1999. 

by Michael Lyons

The day after seeing Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace in May of 1999, I remember opening up one of the newspapers, and the headline, the lead story, was George Lucas' brand new, eagerly awaited entry in his seminal, now ubiquitous space opera.

The journalist covering the story recalled how at the screening they attended the night before, just before The Phantom Menace started, the lights dimmed in the theater, the crowd hushed, and a fan shouted, "God bless Star Wars!"

That's how all of us who had been waiting since Return of the Jedi, sixteen years earlier in the summer of 1983, felt.  Since that summer, Star Wars, as a movie, pop-culture phenomenon, and thing, had been as barren a desert as Tattooine itself. 

As Star Wars fans, we had felt forgotten, hanging our hats on only three films, waiting for that day when Mr. Lucas would make good on his promise to tell the other stories that had been toiling around in his brain from that galaxy "far, far away."

It is so strange to think of in today's world, where if you just say Star Wars, a new movie, Disney+ show, or theme-park land seemingly appears. That was not the case in 1999; we were all ready for it. When The Phantom Menace finally bowed, we had all seen it, discussed it, and dissected it that entire summer twenty-five years ago (time indeed does speed faster than a jump to hyperspace, doesn't it?). There were many feelings, some high, some low, and some mixed.

But one thing couldn't be denied - we had a new Star Wars movie!

The Phantom Menace hype machine kicked into full gear for me in the fall of 1998 during a trip to the theaters to see A Bug's Life. Before this second Disney/Pixar feature, I saw, for the first time, that very first teaser trailer for The Phantom Menace.

At the time, there were stories of fans buying a ticket to a movie, staying for The Phantom Menace teaser, and then walking out before the feature started. You remember it, right? Just after the 20th-Century Fox logo, we saw "Lucasfilm, LTD," glowing in green, with familiar music playing underneath, after which the title card followed: "Every generation has a legend..."

Chills. Chills.

This was when we got our first look at Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan, Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon, a young (er) Yoda, an imposing villain named Darth Maul (with a double-blade lightsaber), Natalie Portman as Queen Amidala, and Jake Lloyd as Anakin, a/k/a soon to be Darth Vader.

Theaters had also featured young Anakin in a savvy teaser poster, featuring the young boy casting a shadow in the shape of Vader.

The Phantom Menace teaser poster.

When the teaser trailer announced, "The Saga Begins Spring 1999," it couldn't get here fast enough. 

It was evident that others shared my excitement. After that fall of '98, what followed for was a countdown to an all-encompassing "event" that fanboys and movie studios could only dream of.

My cousin Ken shared my love of Star Wars, and over the next five months, we became partners on the journey to see Phantom Menace. We were in contact when the next trailer debuted in March of 1999 and seamlessly sought out a "bootleg" version that made its way to the internet (little did we know how commonplace that would become).

It was around then that we started hearing about lines forming at theaters. Fans who brought beach chairs, tents, and lightsabers sat outside movie theaters so they could be among the first to purchase tickets at the box office (how grateful we should be now to have apps for this right on our smartphones). And the fans waited for months, in all kinds of weather.

Fans in Washington, D.C. waiting for

Phantom Menace tickets in May of 1999.

Then, pre-sale tickets were available in early May, and my cousin Ken was on it! I believe ours were purchased through the now archaic-sounding MovieFone. Ken told me that he had gotten two tickets for opening day for a 9:30 show...9:30 in the morning. Some theaters, including the Loews in Stony Brook, NY, where we would see it, would show Phantom Menace almost 'round the clock.

Ken and I were two of the many who took the day off from work (I remember reading that some businesses closed because so many employees were taking the day to go to the movies), and in the weeks and days leading up to Phantom Menace, coverage in the media was inescapable.  Local news, national news, Entertainment Tonight, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, CNN - if you were a news outlet, you were covering Star Wars. 

Each of them not just covering the film but the hype around it, from fans camped out to packed, cheering theaters. Phantom Menace had turned what would have been a random Wednesday in May into something much more. It was the "Barbenheimer" of its day, but even more so.

Ken and I sat in the theater on that gray, chilly New York morning. The Fox fanfare, LucasfFilm logo, "Long time ago..." title card, and explosion of "Star Wars" all received thunderous applause from the hungry crowd.

Then, Phantom Menace started, with its story of trade federations, a young Darth Vader who yelled "yippie," a pod race, Jar Jar Binks, and Samuel L. Jackson looking badass as usual as a Jedi.

The conversation of all of this consumed the next several months, playing out against the backdrop of action figures, T-shirts, Taco Bell promotions, Pepsi cans with character pictures on them, and much more that made it the summer of Phantom Menace.

An ad for The Phantom Menace

Pepsi promotion.

How did I feel about it? The same way I do now - Phantom Menace. is kind of like a gift that's not what you were expecting, but you really appreciate the sentiment. It was wonderful to have a new Star Wars movie and to think about what this meant for more prequels...but Phantom Menace wasn't quite the Star Wars movie I was hoping for.

More emotion, more connection, like that seen in the three previous films, and a little less CGI focus (which is, admittedly, still impressive) would have been nice, in my humble opinion.

In the twenty-five years since the summer of Phantom Menace, I have come to peace with my disappointment. I also genuinely appreciate the nostalgia that the generation who grew up with the film (and saw it as their Star Wars) has for it. 

Two and half decades later, I have also come to appreciate the film for what it gave fans and how it opened a portal in Star Wars popularity that has made George Lucas' galaxy an everyday part of ours.

So, happy 25th anniversary to Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace. May the Fourth be with you, and yes, "God bless Star Wars!" 

My new book, Magic Moments: Stories, Lessons and Memories from a Twenty-Year Career at Walt Disney World is available now at Amazon!

Head over to Words From Lyons for more of my articles, books and podcasts!