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- [00:06]
Malcolm Gladwell
Pushkin.
- [00:09]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
The holidays are about spending time.
- [00:11]
Stan Brooks
With your loved ones and creating magical memories that will last a lifetime.
- [00:16]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
So whether it's family and friends you.
- [00:17]
Stan Brooks
Haven'T seen in a while, or those who you see all the time, share holiday magic this season with an ice cold Coca Cola Copyright 2024 the Coca Cola Company the holiday season is back.
- [00:33]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Which means it's a time for giving.
- [00:35]
Stan Brooks
Subaru and its retailers believe in giving back to those who need it most. For the past 17 years, Subaru has made the act of buying a Subaru during the holiday season an act of love when you purchase or lease a new Subaru. During the Subaru Share the Love event, Subaru and its retailers donate a minimum of $300 to charity. By the end of this year's event, Subaru and its retailers will have donated nearly $320 million to national and hometown charities. To learn More, go to subaru.com/subaru More.
- [01:07]
Malcolm Gladwell
Than a Car company, the most innovative companies are going further with T Mobile for business. Together with Delta, they're putting 5G into the hands of ground staff so they can better assist on the go travelers with real time information. From the Delta Sky Club to the JetBridge, this is elevating customer experience. This is Delta with T Mobile for Business. Take your business further@t mobile.com Now Christmas is one week away and how am I celebrating? With restraint and circumspection. In the Gladwell family, we do a mid century modern Christmas. Spare, elegant, middle minimalist, lots of the baby Jesus in a tasteful Scandinavian leather and rosewood manger. No Santa, no reindeer, no elves. Not so for my colleague Ben Nadaff Haffrey. The Glabwells impose a dollar limit on gifts. Like price controls in some socialist state, the Nadaff Haffreys spend months thinking of what to get one another. The Glavels buy a tree at the last moment and we'd be happier if we could just move the whole operation outside of around the Douglas Pine in the backyard, Ben's family has a tree, a little model village covered in snow, and his father's vintage electric train set. Plus a little metal tree with ornaments that's up year round. So when I told Ben that I had never watched It's a Wonderful Life, he was stunned. Then he reached out to me, as the Good Samaritan did to the traveler lying bereft by the side of the road. How could this be? He asked me gently. Because as you can imagine, for the Nadaff Halfreys, it's a Wonderful Life is a sacred text. Then Ben told me another story about what in his mind is an even more important Christmas tale. A story that he regards as the apotheosis of all Christmas movies. A story not in a film, but of the making of a film. Welcome to Revisionist History. I'm Malcolm Gladwell. Today on our show, Ben Naff Haffrey relays for the very first time in history the truly screwy story of the making of the oddest Christmas film of all time. Trust me, you have never heard this story before, ever. Nor have you ever seen the movie in question, unless you're a member of the extended Nadaff Haffrey clan or were recently incarcerated in a state that limits prisoners streaming access to obscure television movies of the 1990s. But when you listen to what follows, you're going to ask yourself the same question I asked myself when Ben first told me this story. How did I miss this?
- [04:03]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Unlike Malcolm, I am a great lover of Christmas movies. Every year, as soon as Thanksgiving's over, I'm firing up the Bishop's wife, Miracle on 34th street or it's a Wonderful Life. And then there's my favorite Christmas movie, a little less famous, the 1945 romantic comedy Christmas in Connecticut. I've watched it pretty much every year since I was little. Barbara Stanwyck plays a magazine columnist who's famous for entertaining on her grand Connecticut farm. She's known as a great cook. It's the end of World War II, and her magazine's publisher has an idea for a great feature. She'll host a returning war hero for Christmas on her farm. There's just one problem. It's all a lie. She doesn't live in Connecticut. She lives in a tiny apartment in New York. And she has no clue how to cook.
- [04:54]
Stan Brooks
My farm. Oh, yes, my farm. Oh, my farm. And he wants to see you right away to arrange it. Arrange it?
- [05:02]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Are you crazy?
- [05:02]
Stan Brooks
Where am I going to get a farm? I haven't even got a window box. That's just it. We'll have to stall him off. You know what a stickler he is for the truth. If he ever finds out we've been making all this up, he'll fire the both of us.
- [05:13]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Chaos ensues. It's a classic screwball comedy and a total delight. But the thing I really want to tell you about in this episode is what happened after I discovered, quite by accident, that there was a remake of this favorite Christmas movie of mine. An action packed, star studded, joke filled, really very different version of the original, made for TV and directed by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. A kind of shocking twist, if you ask me. I mean, why would the Terminator take on Christmas in Connecticut? So I did what any good Christmas fiend would do. I talked to a dozen people about something that happened 30 years ago for way too many hours to get the real story. And I discovered in the process what I have come to regard as the greatest Christmas tale of all time.
- [06:06]
Stan Brooks
I've told this story many times. I've never told it on the record. It's a big story, so if you've got the time, I will tell it to you.
- [06:13]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
That's Stan Brooks in the early 1990s. He was an independent made for TV movie producer.
- [06:20]
Stan Brooks
So I'm developing movies and a friend of mine goes and gets the job at TNC and I make the very first movie for him.
- [06:27]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
TNT launched in 1988 at the start of the cable television revolution. Then, as now, cable was expensive, but it was growing. The whole game was trying to raise awareness to get people to sign up. And with channels running 24 7, there was a lot of space to fill, which led to a boom in made for TV movies. Stan's first film on TNT was a big success. So he got another bite at the.
- [06:52]
Stan Brooks
Apple and he calls me, he goes, what do you want to do next? So they said, wait, in a million years would you ever let me do a remake from the MGM library? Because that's what Ted owned. And he said, yes, just pick one.
- [07:02]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Christmas movies always do well. And there was one. Stan loved Christmas in Connecticut.
- [07:09]
Stan Brooks
And I'd known the Barbara Stan movie. And so I said, well, this could be a good one. It was right as Martha Stewart was exploding. I thought, well, what if this is Martha Stewart? What if she's on TV and has an empire and it's all fake? And so they loved that take. And so off we went to the races.
- [07:26]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
He got a writer to work up the script in television.
- [07:30]
Stan Brooks
It was great because you could get your stuff made.
- [07:32]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
This is Janet Brownell, one of the all time great bards of TV movies. Writer on Eloise at the Plaza, 12 dates of Christmas, Days of Our Lives, and the uncredited rewrite of Tim Allen's the Santa Clause.
- [07:44]
Stan Brooks
All Brownell.
- [07:46]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
She loved the original Christmas in Connecticut.
- [07:49]
Stan Brooks
It is, it's charming. And in fairness to me, the original draft was very close.
- [07:55]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Janet wrote a draft of the script for Stan's remake and we turn it.
- [07:59]
Stan Brooks
In and they go, this is good, this is good. We need a Christmas movie. So now I have, and I have a nice little Christmas programmer and nothing more.
- [08:09]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
It's the middle of 1991 in Hollywood. Janet and Stan's low budget television movie remake is. Isn't really the sort of thing to get people talking, but they're making progress. He's got the old school movie star Diane Cannon cast in the lead as the Martha Stewart character and an offer out to a director. And then one day his phone rings. His assistant says it's a big Hollywood agent named Lou Pitt.
- [08:36]
Stan Brooks
Now understand, I'm in the television movie business. These guys are never calling me. So if they do call me, it's never good. And he gets on the phone and he says, do you have a director for your Christmas in Connecticut movie? And I said, well, almost, yeah, we may have an offer out. And he said, okay, well if he doesn't say yes, I want you to consider my client. And I go, okay, I'm waiting to hear the name. And I go, who? And he goes, arnold Schwarzenegger. And I burst out laughing. Oh, he was, he was totally shocked.
- [09:13]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Lou Pitt, legendary agent to Arnold Schwarzenegger.
- [09:17]
Stan Brooks
That's hilarious, Lou. No, seriously, is this a joke? Is this a joke? He goes, no, seriously. I go, I'm. Schwarzenegger's not doing a Christmas movie for tnt.
- [09:29]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
To be clear, Arnold had just finished shooting James Cameron's epic Terminator 2. Hasta la vista, baby. Terminator 2 is the one where Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a killer cyborg sent from the future to protect young John Connor from a different killer cyborg also sent from the future to kill him. As you can imagine, such a plot necessitates a lot of elaborate production work. It was moviemaking on a scale that was practically unheard of, especially in Los Angeles.
- [09:58]
Stan Brooks
The production actually changed the course of a river to shoot high speed chases in the extensive flood control channels of Los Angeles.
- [10:06]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Anyways, back to Stan and Lou the agent.
- [10:10]
Stan Brooks
I go, lou, why on earth would Arnold Schwarzenegger. He says, well, here's why.
- [10:16]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Arnold Schwarzenegger was 44 years old. He had two kids. Nobody is an action hero forever. Maybe it was time to explore some alternatives.
- [10:26]
Stan Brooks
And so he, he was kind of tired after T2 and he said, tim, Lou, I would like to direct a movie. The directing thing was kind of out of the box, out of left field. And they said, well, okay, we'll put together a big feature. He goes, no, no, no, I want low risk. If I do a terrible job, I don't want anyone to be upset. I don't want A big budget. And I want it to be family friendly because I don't want anything to be controversial. Nothing. I just want something very simple. And the only one that fit the bill was Christmas at commandican. So I said, okay, I'll call you if this guy passes. And I hang up the phone and of course my heart's jumping out. I'm like, I go, what? And I said, yeah, I'm serious. I read it, I think he'd like it. So get me an offer.
- [11:13]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Stan gets the green light from the executives at TNT. There's some negotiating, and they offer Schwarzenegger 100,000 bucks. And then one night, Stan's phone rings.
- [11:24]
Stan Brooks
I pick it up and I hear, Sam Brooks, yes, please hold for Arnold Schwarzenegger. And now I'm serious. I can see my heart beating. And he goes, hello? I go, Arnold, are you the guy with this Christmas script? I said, yes. He says, it's fantastic. I'd love to direct it. I go, okay. He goes, but I have to shoot in Los Angeles and I have to do it in these days. And there goes a nice little notes from the script. I go, okay, can you be here in an hour? And I go, no. He goes, can you be on Wednesday? I go, yes, I can be there on Wednesday.
- [12:00]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
He goes over for a meeting at Arnold's offices in Santa Monica.
- [12:05]
Stan Brooks
So now I'm going to this meeting on Wednesday. And you walk in and there's this giant lobby. And the first thing you see is the exoskeleton, the metal thing with the red eyes from Terminator. So there's no doubt. I mean, the posters are up on the wall, but there's no doubt when you walk in and you see this seven foot thing, you go, oh, crap, I know where I am. My heart's beating. And I go in and he's in his office, which is massive. It's like, you know, signs of a football field. And he's on one. You walk in on this end and he's on the other end. So you gotta walk past all the, you know, the props and stuff. And then he's at a big, huge desk with a big giant chair. And behind him is a bookshelf, but with all of the Mr. Universe awards, not film stuff, it's all his bodybuilding awards. And I remember we were going through the script and I said, hey, I want to use the restroom. And he pointed to me by putting up his bicep and pointing it like this. His bicep comes cleaning. He goes, it's that way. And I go, was that just to show me your bicep? And he goes, I have to show the guns whenever I can. And I realize, okay, so this guy definitely has a sense of humor about himself.
- [13:23]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
They sit down. Arnold has notes on the script.
- [13:26]
Stan Brooks
He wanted more humor and a little more jeopardy. And so we added in this sort of big action sequence at the beginning where he rescues the kid.
- [13:37]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
And all of a sudden, Janet Brownell, who wrote the original script for the remake, is looking at a very different movie. The whole thing took this like 180 degree turn.
- [13:50]
Stan Brooks
At that point. It was just like, what is happening?
- [13:54]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
And Stan just did not want to lose him.
- [13:56]
Stan Brooks
And I'm like, okay, I truly don't see this, but if it gets a film green light, I don't give a shit.
- [14:04]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Arnold wants them to get someone else to come in and punch up the script.
- [14:08]
Stan Brooks
He wanted more humor. And as it happened, my best friend in the world had written Commando Commando.
- [14:14]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
The 1985 action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, which the critic from the LA Times referred to as a, quote, gory crowd pleaser and a glorified fireworks display.
- [14:26]
Stan Brooks
And Arnold loved them and said, you think you could get him to do a comedy? Pass.
- [14:31]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Jeph Loeb, the friend who wrote Commando, gets hired to do the rewrite with his writing partner.
- [14:36]
Stan Brooks
We walk in, he's sitting on a white couch, maybe it's literally the length of the biggest limousine you've ever seen in your life. And he has his feet up on this white porcelain marble table. He's got a big cigar in his mouth and squips all around him. And he doesn't say hello, he doesn't introduce himself, he doesn't do anything. He just. The first thing out of his mouth is, so what have you guys been doing since Commando? Clearly not going to the gym.
- [15:12]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
I just have to say everyone in this episode is going to do their own Schwarzenegger impression, which is good, because even though we couldn't land an interview with him, I feel like he's here with us in spirit. Anyway, they settle in and start rewriting the film Commando style.
- [15:26]
Stan Brooks
So that's where things kind of went off the rails for me personally, because it's like, okay, this is becoming a completely different thing.
- [15:34]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
It just Schwarzeneggerized into like this thing.
- [15:38]
Stan Brooks
That was bigger than life. I mean, she just did an amazing job. We didn't make any real big structural changes. That's all hers. But a dialogue pass and go through it and try to find more of Arnold's vision.
- [15:57]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
They start burning through the script, a big job for any director is giving notes on the rewrites. Schwarzenegger was calling in help from his director friends, including legendary comedy director Ivan Reitman, the guy who did Ghostbusters. Everyone was working to realize Arnold's vision.
- [16:15]
Stan Brooks
Now, you have to understand that on. On Commando, he would do this all the time. He would go, I have a great idea. Listen, this is what I want to do. When the guy comes at me, I want to throw a buzz saw at him and it chops off his arm. And then I'm going to pick up his arm and punch him in his face with his own arm. And we would go, well, we like the buzzsaw part. Can we just do the bus stop art? So, like, our job is not to go, and maybe that's not going to work. Our job is to make it work. And it doesn't help that the next day he would say, okay, we're doing really well. We're really getting there. It's really coming to where I want it to be. So I gave it to Steven, and Steven talked to me last night, and he says, I have to really be careful, and this is what I want you to do. And again, I'm like, is Stephen. The guy at the gym is Stephen. Who is Stephen? And then suddenly as you go, you know, as he starts to sort of talk more, you go, he's talking about Steven Spielberg.
- [17:19]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
This was beginning to look like a train nobody would step in front of. Back at tnt, the executives had a dim sense of what was going on.
- [17:28]
Stan Brooks
It's not how it's done now.
- [17:30]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Laurie Posemantier, one of the TNT executives.
- [17:33]
Stan Brooks
Whether you're famous or not, as a director, that doesn't happen to let somebody go and change things as much as we're changed.
- [17:41]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Meanwhile, they've cast the rest of the film. Joining Diane Cannon would be Hollywood screwball legend Tony Curtis, probably best known for playing opposite Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot. Along with him would be ex country music star Kris Kristofferson. Here's TNT's senior vice president of production at the time, Nick Lombardo.
- [18:00]
Stan Brooks
Even when they cast that, I thought, well, that is the weirdest cast I've ever heard of. I mean, the idea that these people fit together made no sense at all. I mean, Diane Cannon and Kris Kristofferson in the same frame. It makes a star is born when he's holding Barbra Streisand look organic.
- [18:16]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
So armed with one of the all time weirdest, most stacked casts in the history of film, a comparatively small budget of $3 million, a slot on an upstart cable network, and a script based on a 1940s screwball comedy that's been punched up by two of the writers behind a big 80s blockbuster. An Austrian former bodybuilder, fresh off his repeat performance as a time traveling cyborg prepared to direct his first Christmas film.
- [18:41]
Stan Brooks
You don't as a TV movie producer ever get near anything this hot, ever. You just don't. I mean, we were all a little nervous about the whole thing, you know, because it's like you're playing with matches and you know, oh yeah, Arnold direct this. You know, it's like for us, $3 million was a lot of money. I don't know. I don't know. Whatever it was like, oh my God. He wanted to prove that he could be a director.
- [19:09]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
And everyone was about to find out whether or not he could.
- [19:19]
Malcolm Gladwell
This show is sponsored by Better Help. We're on the verge of another holiday season at the Glavo Family. We're going to be loading up the minivan and going to Canada to see my family. My mother will delight in her grandchildren. My brother will make a feast that will take days to prepare. It's my favorite time of year. The holidays bring the comfort of family and ritual. But when the holidays end and you want some more of that comfort, it's worth thinking about therapy. That's the kind of comfort that never goes away. Someone with the skill and compassion to help you think about your life and how to make it better. Therapy is not just for people in the middle of some great trauma. It's a tool that all of us can use to learn positive coping skills, to learn how to set boundaries, and to learn how to be the best version of ourselves. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. Find comfort this December with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com gladwell today to get 10% off your first month. That's better help. You've heard it thousands of times before. But since New Year's is approaching, be prepared to hear it a thousand times more. New Year, new you. It's the mantra of the new year, accompanied by all kinds of resolutions. Losing weight, being kinder, drinking less. The list is endless. But here's one thing they all have in common. People don't stick to them. In fact, Studies show that 90% of those resolutions are broken, usually within two weeks. But here's one resolution that's easy to keep if you follow my advice. A resolution that can improve your energy level, your mood and your mental health. I'm talking about pledging to get better sleep. And if you combine that resolution with a thoughtful luxury mattress, you can't help but keep it. Every Saatva is handcrafted to lull you to sleep and keep you sleeping soundly night after night. So this year, think new year, new mattress, and just be sure the mattress is a Saatva. And now save $200 on a thousand dollars or more at saatva.com gladwell that's S-A-T V A.com glad gladwell the holidays.
- [21:51]
Stan Brooks
Are about spending time with your loved ones and creating magical memories that will last a lifetime.
- [21:56]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
So whether it's family and friends you.
- [21:58]
Stan Brooks
Haven'T seen in a while or those who you see all the time, share holiday magic this season with an ice cold Coca Cola Copyright 2024 the Coca Cola.
- [22:14]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Christmas in Connecticut the remake began filming about two months before Christmas in Los Angeles. Because Arnold Schwarzenegger had never before directed a feature film, though let the record show he had directed an episode of the TV show Tales from the Crypt, the production arranged for things to film more or less in the order they happen in the film. There's a lot less to keep track of, continuity wise that way. But this also posed a problem. One of the anxieties of adapting a great work of art is figuring out how to make it your own. The 1992 made for TV remake of Christmas in Connecticut does this immediately by introducing its male lead, a park ranger named Jefferson Jones, mid workout routine in his mountain cabin. If you're looking for signs that this is not your grandmother's Christmas in Connecticut, the sight of Kris Kristofferson as Jefferson Jones sweating after busting out some chin ups on a beam in his cabin is your first warning. A man on the television offers some brisk exposition while he cools down in the last hour.
- [23:13]
Stan Brooks
Experts predict this should be the biggest storm to hit the Rockies in the last decade.
- [23:17]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
More than 4ft of snow is anticipated.
- [23:19]
Stan Brooks
To blanket the area in the next 48 hours.
- [23:21]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
The phone rings. Another ranger is calling to tell Jones a kid has gotten lost in the blizzard. He has to go out and find him. This is the fabled action sequence Schwarzenegger had requested. They shot the blizzard on a soundstage. It's the moment Jefferson Jones becomes a hero. But which is why he gets invited to be a guest of Elizabeth Blaine's for her Christmas special in Connecticut. It's gotta look epic. It's got to have that Arnold Schwarzenegger feeling. Unfortunately, Terminator this is not. Here's Jim Wilburger, director of production.
- [23:53]
Stan Brooks
Yeah, there's a scene where Kristofferson suddenly has rescued the kid. And you see him rolled down this little hill of snow, which was shot on stage. You're okay and trying to make more of more of it because there wasn't that much set for that little hill. And, you know, and then suddenly you see all the people rush in to rescue, you know, I mean, this was just not good blocking, and. And that's just an experience.
- [24:26]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Schwarzenegger wanted jeopardy. But this kind of looks like a snowball fight gone awry. Jones stumbles over a very small hill holding a child that looks like it might be a mannequin. He's groaning and yelling, but his lips aren't moving. So tough start. Luckily, though, a lot of the film is set inside Elizabeth Blaine's fake Connecticut house, where she's shooting a Christmas special in celebration of Jones. The bulk of production happened there, so the whole crew set up at a house in South Pasadena for the real work. This introduced Arnold to the second problem of directing, actor, ego management, and the issue of his trailer.
- [25:03]
Stan Brooks
Arnold's trailer was like a house on wheels. It was literally like you'd look at it from the outside and you'd say, wow, that's got all kinds of pop outs and the roof went up and everything. But when you got inside, it was literally like you had just walked into, like, the Greystone mansion. You know, it's probably almost three times as wide as a normal trailer. And that it was the length that became the issue. Diane comes in and she says, why is Arnold's trailer bigger than my trailer? Nobody's supposed to have a bigger trailer than me.
- [25:37]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Diane Cannon was the star of the film, but she was maybe realizing that this production was all about the director. Schwarzenegger, though, was dealing with other problems. Namely, he had chosen one of the hardest genres for his first major directing foray. Screwball comedy is like dancing on the head of a pin. It thrives on chaos, but it has to be a kind of controlled chaos. With his big personality cast, low budget, short timeline, and hastily rewritten script, Schwarzenegger had an excess of chaos and a minimum of control. I mean, you have one somewhat disgruntled actress portraying fake Martha Stewart and another who's a macho park ranger, but who, for no apparent Reason relays this backstory partway through the movie.
- [26:20]
Stan Brooks
Actually, before I moved to Colorado, I lived in Chicago. I grew up there. Taught comparative literature at the university for 10 years. Really? I got offered tenure and head of the department. It's what I thought I wanted, but meant being caged in by concrete and crowds for the rest of my life.
- [26:40]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
This is, I'm pretty sure, the only time in the entire film Jefferson Jones passed as chair of the University of Chicago's Comparative Literature Department is mentioned. And I love Kris Kristofferson. But most of the rest of his performance veers between stiff and oddly sexually charged.
- [26:57]
Stan Brooks
When he starts smearing the pine SAP on her neck.
- [27:01]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Yeah, that. It's just kind of transcendently weird.
- [27:07]
Stan Brooks
Yeah. Well, not to mention his two times he's, like, staring at her butt, you know, up close.
- [27:12]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
There's an extensive shot of that.
- [27:15]
Stan Brooks
Well, I bet you can't buy that at Bloomingdale's. You're right.
- [27:20]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
So you've got two characters who really just barely hang together, and then you have to direct them in tightly choreographed, zany sequences that have got to feel plausible, yet also hilarious. For instance, the scene with the baby. Remember, in Christmas in Connecticut, Elizabeth is a total fraud. She doesn't know how to cook. It's not even her house in Connecticut. And she's got this fake staged family with her, including a fake baby. She had to keep up appearances for the sake of her column. In the original film, there's a lovely scene where she and Jefferson Jones give her fake baby a bath. She, a supposed domestic goddess, is meant to bathe her child, which she suspiciously has no clue how to do. He steps in and does it for her like a total pro. It's part of why she falls in love with him. And because it's so well executed in the original film, we believe they're falling in love in this totally implausible moment.
- [28:14]
Stan Brooks
Soap. Soap. There. Oh. Oh, Roberto, she's eating the soap. What'll I do? What? Hurt her. They all do it. Oh, really? You'd make a wonderful father, Mr. Jones. You're not married yourself by any chance, are you? No. Cards are stacked against me. I guess every time I meet a girl I like, it turns out she's already married. Oh, that's too bad.
- [28:39]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Now, this also happens in the Arnold Schwarzenegger version.
- [28:44]
Stan Brooks
Maybe we should finish up for her. Finish up what? A bath. You know what? I just had the most wonderful idea. How would you like to bathe her? Me?
- [28:53]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Sure.
- [28:54]
Stan Brooks
I think it'd be fun for you. Here.
- [28:56]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
What happens next is the greatest travesty in the history of bath time. It's as if you gave two aliens a baby and said, give this a bath, not realizing that on the planet therefrom, not only are there no babies or baths, but. But actually there's not even water. What do you remember about that?
- [29:14]
Stan Brooks
Well, some of that was improvised.
- [29:16]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
What happens is they just drench the baby in shampoo and then they barely wash any of it out. On the bat scale, it's two rubber duckies out of ten. But the premise of the scene is that Jefferson Jones is crushing it.
- [29:28]
Stan Brooks
It was pretty hilarious, I thought. And also very clumsy. And they really gooped up the kid's hair. My God. I don't know. I'm sure the prop guy wanted to do my shit. Here's some soap, sweetie.
- [29:43]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Here's the duck.
- [29:44]
Stan Brooks
That's a director thing. I mean, that is a flat out director fail. I mean, that right there. Yeah.
- [29:49]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Like, retake the scene 100%.
- [29:51]
Stan Brooks
And there probably were three or four versions of that. That's the one he chose. You know, it's not like that was the only one. She likes that. You're awfully good at that for a bachelor, you know? You sure you don't have a whole slew of kids hidden somewhere? I nursed a couple of bear cubs till their mother came back. This is better. In Bear Cubs, can you see a beauty?
- [30:10]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
It's like on SNL when the actors break and laugh, when Elizabeth's like, I'm not sure if we got all the soap out. And Jefferson's like, well, we didn't. That's the true reaction. And it must be improvised. But then they go back to the scripted version where Jones is doing a great job. Most of the people on set have some kind of moment like this.
- [30:28]
Stan Brooks
You know, the forest with the snow and the sleigh that Ry comes along. And there's even one shot I noticed where you can see the wheels under the sleigh. I remember the day I was there, they were filming that scene where chaos erupts, you know, and the tree falls down and all that. We had to do that scene quite a number of times. It was as chaotic as the scene is, but behind the scenes, it was even more so.
- [30:56]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
It's a little like opening a bologna factory for cultural.
- [31:00]
Stan Brooks
You know, it's sort of like, what's going on in there? Nothing good. Nothing good. Don't ask anything.
- [31:08]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
So it was kind of hectic on set, and yet I think you can hear in people's voices how much they love telling this story. Pretty much across the board. This was a happy memory for the people I spoke to, not least of all because they never lost sight of just how improbable it all was.
- [31:26]
Stan Brooks
And then in the middle of all this, there's Arnold running around going, you know, move the camera over here. I do this over here. Let's go do this. No, I think it could be 10 times funnier. Come on. So there's Arnold's voice, you know, just bellowing out. And that was the other thing that I really remember was that while this is happening, while we're making this little tiny movie, he is in theaters with Terminator 2 and it's doing numbers that no one has ever seen before. And we were on set when it crossed $500 million. But when you're standing next to the guy who's the star of that movie and his major concern is whether or not is it in focus. Forehead, let's go.
- [32:24]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
The forehead thing, you're not the first person to bring that up. Several people mentioned to me that Arnold Schwarzenegger's favorite put down was to call someone a forehead. This actually made it into the movie. When Elizabeth Blaine and Jefferson Jones get pulled over by the cops mid sleigh ride. The one where you can see the wheels, this happens.
- [32:43]
Stan Brooks
Put your hands where I can see them.
- [32:45]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
You're both under arrest.
- [32:46]
Stan Brooks
Oh, come on. Come on, you foreheads. Get them up. You what?
- [32:51]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
This is actually a big part of why I love this movie. It has a kind of free jazz, improvisatory quality to it. It's oddly self referential and also very sweet. It's like how you can hear in someone's voice when they're smiling. That's how this movie feels. Because even at the risk of himself being labeled a forehead who couldn't direct the movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger was showing up every day and putting in his all. For the film buffs and the crew, it was a dream come true just to work with him or with a legend like Tony Curtis, you know, it.
- [33:23]
Stan Brooks
Was a trip to Oz that I knew was short lived, but it was something I was going to take in and enjoy as much as possible.
- [33:33]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
After 20 days of shooting, the film wrapped. They had a party at Arnold Schwarzenegger's restaurant. It was around Christmas time and they all got sweatshirts with the name of the film on the front.
- [33:44]
Stan Brooks
And on the back was a picture of Arnold with a Santa hat on, wearing sunglasses and saying something about I can't remember the full thing but he used the word you, forehead.
- [34:03]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Later, Jim was kind enough to send me a photo of the sweatshirt. It said on the back, more snow, you, forehead. There's my Schwarzenegger impression. With the film in the can, post production and premiere has loomed. That's after the break. The holidays are about spending time with.
- [34:29]
Stan Brooks
Your loved ones and creating magical memories that will last a lifetime.
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Ben Nadif Haffrey
So whether it's family and friends you.
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Stan Brooks
Haven'T seen in a while, or those who you see all the time, share holiday magic this season with an ice cold Coca Cola. Copyright 2024 the Coca Cola Company for many of us, the holiday season means more travel, more shopping, more time online, and more of your personal information in more places you can't control. It only takes one innocent mistake, even if it's not your mistake, to expose you to identity theft.
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Ben Nadif Haffrey
Not to worry.
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Stan Brooks
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Malcolm Gladwell
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- [36:27]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Before we get to the premiere of Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1992 Christmas in Connecticut remake, I want to tell you about something that happened earlier this year.
- [36:36]
Malcolm Gladwell
Thank you all for coming. Thank you Mitch for coming down from Detroit.
- [36:41]
Stan Brooks
Yeah, thanks for having me here.
- [36:42]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Malcolm interviewed Mitch Albom live on Stage at the 92nd Street Y. Albom is the best selling author of some ungodly number of books, but he's probably most famous for Tuesdays with Maury. He and Malcolm were there to talk about his new novel about the Holocaust, the Little Liar. They were warming up with some Mitch backstory about his time as a musician in New York.
- [37:05]
Stan Brooks
I tried the whole starving musician thing, and I played in all the clubs around here.
- [37:10]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
On Monday nights, I was backstage at this event, peering out. I hadn't read Mitch's book. I was up to something else.
- [37:18]
Malcolm Gladwell
Wait, we should probably do this before we get too far afield on the music thing. If you've been talking so much, you will note that behind you. Yeah, there's a Korg.
- [37:29]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
At this point, the audience of people who had come that night to hear the author of Tuesdays with Maury discuss the Holocaust noticed the electric piano behind him.
- [37:38]
Malcolm Gladwell
And we have a request that you play one of your most famous compositions, which you know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about cooking for two from the legendary Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1992 made for TV movie Christmas in Connecticut.
- [37:58]
Stan Brooks
Yeah.
- [37:59]
Malcolm Gladwell
Can you see the recognition?
- [38:01]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Yes, it was my keyboard, and yes, I had planted it there.
- [38:06]
Stan Brooks
Mitch. Mitch.
- [38:07]
Malcolm Gladwell
No, no, this. For some reason, I have no idea. My colleague Ben is obsessed with this and really wanted us to do this. And I thought, how great would it be for you to sing one of our songs? Just like. Just give us a little taste.
- [38:18]
Stan Brooks
Well, I have to tell you the story.
- [38:20]
Malcolm Gladwell
Tell the story. Tell the story.
- [38:21]
Stan Brooks
Okay. So after I got out of the music business, I had a college roommate who went into the movie business.
- [38:29]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
That would be Stanley M. Brooks, executive producer of Christmas in Connecticut. Stan and Mitch were roommates at Brandeis.
- [38:37]
Stan Brooks
And he knew that I was a musician and he was making a movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger as a producer, and Schwarzenegger was the director of Christmas in Connecticut. The remake sounds about as good as it was, I think. And they needed. It's a song because she played. Diane Cannon played the lead, and she was a cook on TV or whatever. So the song had to be about food. And they wanted to use Harry Connick's Recipe for Love or something like that, but they couldn't afford it. So Stan calls me and says, we need a song that's kind of upbeat about food for Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie. Can you do it? You know, I said, well, when do you need it by? Thursday, you know, it was Tuesday, you know, So I just went and wrote a little song. And my wife is a singer, a fantastic singer. And I said, honey, can you sing this song? Because we don't have time to go find anybody else. And he listened to it, and he said, I like the one with the girl. And that's how the song was Chosen.
- [39:45]
Malcolm Gladwell
Yeah, Yeah. I want you to play it. I really think you should.
- [39:49]
Stan Brooks
So it went. Now remember, it had to be about food.
- [39:53]
Malcolm Gladwell
Food.
- [39:53]
Stan Brooks
So it went. Let's go to the kitchen. I got something fixing. Appetizing. And do here's a clue we're cooking.
- [40:10]
Malcolm Gladwell
For two.
- [40:13]
Stan Brooks
They'Re inside Inside the oven Something warm and loving friends wouldn't laugh if they knew that it's true we're cooking for two here's the core of the bridge I was a soup for one girl Leftovers every night all but once I tasted your kisses I was.
- [40:34]
Malcolm Gladwell
Dining by candlelight Here's a recipe for.
- [40:38]
Stan Brooks
All the world to see we take some me and some you Let it stew we're cooking for two I love you. We're cooking for two that definitely ranks amongst one of the most embarrassing things I've ever.
- [41:11]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
They planned to play it over the credits. With a Mitch album closing track in hand, Christmas in Connecticut was almost ready to debut. Most made for TV movies you just put out on television, but not this one.
- [41:24]
Stan Brooks
First of all, TV movies don't have screenings. If we have a screening, it's like 10 people and you know, you rent a screening room somewhere. Like this was the big theater at the dga which holds, I don't know, a thousand people, massive screen and there's a huge red carpet and a press line. We had two theaters going and they were filled. When I tell you that there's never been a television movie before or since that had a press line and he's walking down working the press, you know, and I, you know, the TNT of all this is Dan Brooks, the executive producer. Arnold.
- [42:01]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
According to Stan, Ivan Reitman and James Cameron were there along with a whole slew of Hollywood royalty. The screening was in la. It was a media sensation.
- [42:10]
Malcolm Gladwell
Watch out Hollywood.
- [42:11]
Stan Brooks
There's a new director in town and.
- [42:13]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
He'S used to making a big impact.
- [42:15]
Stan Brooks
That is in front of the camera.
- [42:16]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
When you act and you see such.
- [42:20]
Stan Brooks
Talented directors as I've worked with, it inspires you.
- [42:25]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Janet Brownell, the screenwriter was not having such a good night. I remember sitting at the screening with.
- [42:32]
Stan Brooks
My agent and I was like crying. I mean, I was like, oh my.
- [42:35]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
God, why were you crying?
- [42:38]
Stan Brooks
Because it's like, it's so bad and my name is on this. My agent was very fast to get me a drink at that point.
- [42:44]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
I just remember outside there was kind.
- [42:46]
Stan Brooks
Of a Christmas themed sort of party and just like, I need to get out of here.
- [42:52]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
But there was no putting the genie back in the bottle. TNT was running Promos non stop.
- [42:59]
Stan Brooks
I love romantic comedies, so I made one myself.
- [43:02]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Christmas in Connecticut.
- [43:04]
Stan Brooks
It's a romantic comedy with all the trimmings. What in the world could possibly go wrong? Christmas in Connecticut, directed by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
- [43:14]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
You have a problem with that?
- [43:16]
Stan Brooks
A TNT exclusive premiere Monday, April 13th.
- [43:20]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
I don't know if you caught that, but the film came out in April, one week before Easter. As one review put it, quote, don't ask me why a Christmas movie is premiering in April. As his then wife Maria Shriver reflected, he just does. He's a big one on, don't think about it or talk about it. Do it.
- [43:39]
Stan Brooks
And then he goes, I think we want to screen it again. That was too much fun. I go, okay. I go, I'll see if I can organize. No, I want to meet in Washington with my friend Jack Valenti. So now we all fly to Washington. And it was a who's who of Washington and it was senators and members of cabinet. It was a seated dinner. And I remember my wife and I sit down. We wouldn't work in the room. So we sit last at our table and the guy next to me has got like a dress uniform on. And I say, hey, Stan Brooks, I'm the producer. And he goes, hey, Oliver North.
- [44:16]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Oliver north of Iran Contra fame. The film was a big hit in the beltway. Suffice it to say this made for television Christmas movie had an unusually big reception. But it also didn't really do much to establish Arnold Schwarzenegger as a director. The reviews were mixed.
- [44:33]
Stan Brooks
Well, I'm looking at IMDb right now. It's like the rating is 4.8 out of 10 and they're not far off. Nobody had any, oh my God, we're making It's a Wonderful Life.
- [44:45]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
I realize I've had a lot of fun with this movie and gun to my head, do I think it's good? No. But do I love it? Obviously, yes, because it's so totally weird and over committed to its bit that it has a kind of joyfulness to it that honestly gets me in the Christmas spirit. And at its core, like the best Christmas films, the story behind the movie is a story of love and friendship between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Stan Brooks, two men brought together by a love of making movies. After the film, Stan and Arnold stayed in touch. Stan even moved into Arnold Schwarzenegger's office building. Their kids played football together. And even though they never made another movie together, their collaboration had one more act almost 10 years to the day from when Christmas in Connecticut began shooting. Arnold Schwarzenegger became the governor of California. At the time, there was a lot of hand wringing over an issue called runaway production. Lots of states had started offering tax breaks to lure films into shooting somewhere other than California. It had become a real problem for Hollywood as an industry town. This was one of the crises Schwarzenegger would have to face in his new role as governor. Now, the way people talked about his becoming governor was the same way they talked about his becoming a director. So it only makes sense that he wanted Stan Brooks in his administration.
- [46:10]
Stan Brooks
So when he became governor, he was in about a year, and he called me and he said, how would you like to be on the film commission? And I said, well, that's a dumb idea. He goes, why? I said, well, because I don't shoot movies in California. I said, I'm like the worst person you could put on the film commission because I take my movies out of state. He goes, no, that's why we want to. Because we want to try and pass the taxpayer.
- [46:34]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
Stan joined the California Film Commission, and over the next few years, he was a key part of the lobbying efforts to pass the tax credits that would make it easier to film in California.
- [46:44]
Stan Brooks
It was a hard fight. And so I ended up making a short film, a short documentary film where we interviewed some of the families that left on wide, and that ended up being more powerful than any speech we could make in their office.
- [46:59]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
The first tax Credits passed in 2009. They've been renewed ever since. So back to our original question. Why did Arnold Schwarzenegger direct this bizarre one off Christmas film? I found my answer in a story Stan told me.
- [47:14]
Stan Brooks
He says to me one night, we finished around seven or eight, and he goes, what are you doing? And I said, I'm going home. He goes. He goes, maria's making dinner. You want to come to the house? So, oh, yeah. Yeah. So we both jump in our cars and we drive to Pacific Palisades. And at that dinner, I remember Arnold turned to me and he says, you're very talent. I don't understand why you don't do big features. And I said, to be honest, I didn't get in the business to make big famous movies. I got in the business to make movies, and I get to make two or three a year. If I'm in the feature business, I'm lucky if I make one every other year, every three years. I go, I'm happy with my life. He goes, well, that's fantastic.
- [47:56]
Ben Nadif Haffrey
This story really hit home for me because I get what that's like to just love making something. Even a kind of improbably dense story about the making of the remake of a Christmas movie. It's like Stan said, if you love making movies or anything, it's just a gift to get to make more, even if they're maybe not the best. Especially if it's clear how much fun you had making whatever it is you're making. So to close, let me just share one quote from the very last page of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, a passage about Scrooge after he's seen the light. Some people laugh to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh and little heeded them, for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset. His own heart laughed, and that was quite enough for him. Maybe Stan and Arnold didn't make it so Wonderful Life, but it seems to me like their own hearts were laughing. So from all of us here at Revisionist History, Happy Holidays, you, foreheads, See you in the New Year. Revisionist History is produced by me, Ben Adif Haffrey and Lucy Sullivan with Nina Byrd Lawrence. Our editor is Karen Shakurji. Fact checking on this episode by Sam Russick, a resident Schwarzenegger fan. Original scoring by Luis Guerra. Mastering by Jake Korski. Our executive producer is Jacob Smith. Special thanks to Sarah Nix, David Arnott, Linda Berman, Iris Grossman and Scott Sassa. I'm Ben Nadifaffry.
- [50:09]
Malcolm Gladwell
3, 2, 1 We wish you a merry Christmas we wish you a merry Christmas we wish you a merry Christmas.
- [50:24]
Stan Brooks
Christmas and a happy New Year Dreadful. That was the worst.
- [50:33]
Malcolm Gladwell
What's the matter with you guys?
- [50:37]
Stan Brooks
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Ben Nadif Haffrey
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Stan Brooks
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Malcolm Gladwell
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Stan Brooks
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