2. How did the project come to you? The painting above the couch in Belle Steinberg's apartment is a landscape of Texas bluebonnets, which seems strange when taking into consideration that the scene takes place in Brooklyn. He thought the script was really good, but he had done two or three movies in a row and he said he wanted to get back to the theater. O'Toole was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. The man yells, "Somebody stole my girl!" The name of the television variety comedy show was "The Comedy Cavalcade". The broadcast version extends the rehearsal of the "Boss Hijack" sketch to include several more pieces of business, including the illusion of steam shooting out of King Kaiser's ears. It was Aug. 2. Is it summer, spring, fall, or winter? Feedback. Liturgical Season: Trivia Questions! The film formed the basis of a Tony Award winning musical play also called "My Favorite Year", which opened at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, 150 W. 65th St. on October 31, 1992 and ran for only 36 performances after 45 previews - a flop at the box office. I remember reading it in the hotel room and as I finished, I said, This is everything I know. I was in high school when Your Show of Shows was on. These are my favorites from that year. One of the best trivia topics for adults is celebrity baby photo trivia. The director replied that the script had not been given to anybody else, at which point O'Toole agreed to do the film. Some people love a word because they find it useful, some because they find it delightfully useless. We all have a season that we feel should last a whole year, and some people like a season for what they get to wear outside or activities they may enjoy. Then he comes back, and he said he had to go, that there was a crisis at Fox. The character of Benjamin Stone was based on Mel Brooks, while Alan Swann was based on Errol Flynn. An excellent vehicle for O'Toole to shine in a tour de force performance. Favorite Movies of 1961 Trivia Quiz The next installment of my series of quizzes about 1960s era films covers the year of my birth, 1961 (I'm OLD). He said, Heres the thing and I thought, Here we go again. He said he liked it very much, but he hadnt read the last ten pages and to please indulge him and he would call tomorrow. So how has your past shaped your favorite movies, games, foods and people that you love to hang out with? In the screening with it, the audience enjoyed the picture, but the scene put a pall over things. Benjy Stone (Mark Linn-Baker) is described by various names in the film such as Benjamin Steinberg, Ben Stoneberg and Ben Stoneberger. By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and I had also worked at 30 Rockefeller Plaza [the films setting] as an NBC page and guide, and I knew every inch of that place. 4. Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head: Season 2, Link to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Season 5, Link to Marvel Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer, Link to RT25: Celebrating 25 Years of Rotten Tomatoes, Link to Betty Gilpin & Co. on Deciphering. Alan has passed away, and Benjy comes to his grave, kneels down and pours a bottle of Courvoisier over the tombstone. In what year was the first-ever Wimbledon Championship held? I would get on the phone with my friend Shelley Berger, who I am still close to, and we would do all these routines they had done on the show on Saturday night. Stay up-to-date on all the latest Rotten Tomatoes news! With Peter O'Toole, Mark Linn-Baker, Jessica Harper, Joseph Bologna. You are winter. Cinemark It just seemed to lack energy. The narrator laments one cannot tell a Chevy from a Buick, Pontiac or Oldsmobile in the present day. This quiz has 2 formats: you can play it as a Timed Quiz Game or as shown below. Also, the ride shown here might have been inspired by James Garner's obstetrician house call by mounted police horseback in The Thrill of It All (1963). What is another word for a kitten's whiskers? So, Im on this mission, because if he says yes, Im going to get to make a movie. We've gathered some of the English language's most frequently chosen favorites into this quiz. My Favorite Year is a film that rises -- and sometimes soars -- on the beauty of its central idea and on the loving, intelligent way its been fleshed out. According to Cameron Mitchell, his Boss character was based on Jimmy Hoffa, while the character of Herb was modeled after Neil Simon. | Aug 16, 2011, Full Review hide this ad. Columns. According to the DVD commentary, the director said the original ending was to take place at Swann's grave. First, Tax Day can't be on a weekend, and April 15, 2023, falls on a Saturday. It was the former comedy writer's experiences with Flynn that helped Benjamin find the right tone for the film - a mixture of awe and comic exasperation toward a once famous star who was trying to hide his insecurities through heavy drinking. Hint Charley Varrick The Big Haul Millions Money, Money, Money! Its like what [critic] Walter Kerr once said about Neil Simons jokes: They have the truth in them. I was terribly reluctant to take that out because Peter did the movie because of it. Actress Lainie Kazan was the only cast member of the cast to reprise her role from this movie around a decade later in the 1992 Broadway musical stage production of "My Favorite Year". The appearance of the hero, in full character mode, to save an underling from the real-life bad guys also was seen in Hearts of the West (1975). An aging, dissolute matinee idol is slated to appear on a live TV variety show in 1954, and a young comedy writer is tasked with the thankless job of keeping him ready and sober for the broa An aging, dissolute matinee idol is slated to appear on a live TV variety show in 1954, and a young comedy writer is tasked with the thankless job of keeping him ready and sober for the broadcast. To hear Richard Benjamin tell it, My Favorite Year was a charmed production. Kaiser nearly removes Swann from the show until Benjy intervenes, promising to keep Swann sober during the week preceding his scheduled appearance. Almost twenty years after this movie was released, its director, Richard Benjamin, directed another movie about 1950s live television, Neil Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor (2001). Two reasons. My agent, David Gersh, sent the script by Norman [Steinberg] andDennis [Palumbo, credited as co-writer due to the Screen Writers Guild arbitration]. Benjy angrily confronts him, telling Swann that he always believed that he was the swashbuckling hero whom he had watched on the silver screen and that deep down, Swann possesses those qualities. He had a farm in Ireland with no phone. Then he said to me, Why dont you get OToole? He said, We do this all the time. You know what it looks like but what is it called? The alleged true-life, final living words that the great comic Shakespearean stage actor Edmund Kean said that are quoted by swashbuckling actor Allan Swann (Peter O'Toole) were: "Dying is easy. He died in prison in January 2021. | Mar 24, 2023. Stone must make sure that the tipsy Swann shows for rehearsals and the final production. After this movie, O'Toole was not nominated again until Venus (2006) in 2007, a gap of around twenty-four years. They told me I had to go up there and convince him to do the film; otherwise they couldnt make the movie. Answer: Brazil. (music by) Cinematography by Film Editing by Richard Chew . And Sid in Spanish (cid) means lord, or king. It just seemed to lack energy. Brooks told him that Gorilla at Large (which starred Mitchell and Brooks' wife Anne Bancroft) was his favorite film and asked him if he wanted to play a Jimmy Hoffa-type character in a film that he was producing at MGM. [Alan Swann has blundered into the wrong restroom]. This quiz has 2 formats: you can play it as a Timed Quiz Game or as shown below. , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes. Answer: Over 2 billion. I said, No theres not, and he said, Well, there could be. So, what he ended up giving us was two hours, but it was a great two hours. At the beginning of the film, Benjy Stone is carrying a cardboard cutout of Alan Swann into the RCA Building; as he dashes to an elevator in the lobby, the theatrical version jumps to Benjy's arrival in the writers' office. Peter O'Toole plays a movie star hero, an Errol Flynn-in-his-twilight-years surrogate, a lost soul, a wandering star, roaming from place to place, accepting undeserved admiration with all the drunken grace he can muster, all too aware that he is only human. One of a number of period comedies directed by Richard Benjamin. He says in voiceover that Alan Swann made him promise he would do something on his birthday every year. When Swann and Benji have their al fresco hot dog lunch, two of the playbills behind them advertise "All Summer Long" and "Can-Can." The film tells the story of a young comedy writer[2] and stars Peter O'Toole, Mark Linn-Baker, Jessica Harper, and Joseph Bologna. A multiple-choice quiz by Reamar42 . The main character was based on him, and he had some input into the script. Trying to get Mel to stop moving is a feat. I turn something down, he does it, he turns something down, I do it. When I got back home, Paula who had made WHATS NEW PUSSYCAT? This film was produced by Mel Brooks's production company. Mel Brooks conceived the story based on his experiences as a writer on Your Show of Shows (1950). She, herself, was a writer for Your Show of Shows (1950), the television program on which the film was based. Now, in the original script, theres a scene which I shot that would have played after whats in the movie. Full Review Then we had the screening without it and the audience was very enthusiastic and very up as they came out. 80. The next block behind them and the skyline, including the long-gone Astor Hotel, is a matte shot. MGM/UA Home Entertainment Inc. Production Co: My Favorite Year: Directed by Richard Benjamin. Actor Mark Linn-Baker received an 'introducing' credit. 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