Podcast Tuesday: "Diabetic Neuropathy of a Salesman"

Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleason square off in Nothing in Common.

Back in the 1980s, movies depended a lot more on star power than they do today. In the 2020s, some franchise or intellectual property is generally the "star" that sells a movie. But the way to market a film successfully forty years ago was to emphasize the big-name actors in it. If there were any major celebrities in a movie, the studio would make damned sure that their famous names and equally-famous faces appeared very prominently on the posters and in the trailers. 

Garry Marshall's comedy-drama Nothing in Common (1986) is a perfect example. The film is about a hotshot Chicago ad executive whose aging parents suddenly split up. What the ad campaign really wants you to know, however, is that the movie stars Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleason. The one-sheet is literally a closeup of their faces, glaring at each other. Why should you go to the theater? To see these two guys that you already know from other stuff.

Whenever my parents asked my grandmother to accompany us to a new movie, she'd always ask, "Who's in it?" And if we couldn't supply any famous names in the cast, she wouldn't be interested. When Nothing in Common came out, I'm sure it was Jackie Gleason's presence that convinced Grandma to go with us to the theater that day. So we saw Garry Marshall's film as a family. I can't remember if any of us loved or hated it. In fact, there were only a few aspects of the film that stuck in my memory at all, namely Tom Hanks' answering machine message and Jackie Gleason's diabetes-ravaged foot.

Is there anything more to Nothing in Common worth remembering? This week on These Days Are Ours, my cohost and I review the film and give you our unvarnished opinions on it. Please do join us.

Podcast Tuesday: "Revenge is a Dish Best Served by Tom Hanks"

Henry Winkler and Tom Hanks on Happy Days.

It's always interesting to see Hollywood superstars in their early roles, the ones from before they were famous. Oftentimes, these roles are on sitcoms, which always have a variety of guest actors coming through each week and serve as proving grounds for showbiz wannabes. Happy Days was no exception. In Season 10 of the show in 1982, an ambitious young thespian named Tom Hanks guested as Dwayne Twitchell, a semi-deranged young man who has spent years planning his revenge against Fonzie (Henry Winkler).

Tom was not exactly a newbie when he did Happy Days. In fact, he'd already played a leading role on a sitcom of his own, Bosom Buddies. You might think that doing a guest shot on another sitcom might be a step down for an actor who'd already been top-billed, but Tom Hanks definitely didn't treat it that way. You can tell that he brought his A-game to Happy Days, and it paid off. Within two years, the actor was a leading man in motion pictures and stayed that way for decades.

This week on These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast, we review Tom's episode, "A Little Case of Revenge." It's certainly one of the most memorable installments of Happy Days, but is it also one of the best? Tune in and find out.

(today's zomby) AND TOM HANKS RAPS!

And speaking of bizarre iterations of classic American TV shows...

Hop hop pioneers Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks

Admit it. You probably don't think about the 1987 film version of Dragnet with Dan Aykroyd. and Tom Hanks all that often do you? I probably think about it more often than most people, since it was the only Hollywood movie premiere I've ever witnessed. I was an impressionable Midwestern kid on vacation in California with my family, and our tour group just happened to be driving by when the stars were arriving for the premiere. The bus driver stopped and let us watch as the stars got out of their limos and walked to the theater. To me, it seemed like a big deal. As a souvenir, my parents even got me a copy of the movie's soundtrack album. (On cassette, of course. My father complained bitterly about the $6 or $7 it cost.) I think I might still own it. On that very same trip, during our tour of Universal Studios, we got to see a bit of Jaws: The Revenge being filmed, too. That was not quite as exciting, since all they were filming that day was what looked like a very large swimming pool (meant to represent the ocean) with an equally large blue backdrop (meant to represent the sky). Why they needed a fake ocean and a fake sky when the real ones were readily available was beyond me.

But getting back to that Dragnet soundtrack! Certainly the oddest track on it was a novelty rap tune called "City of Crime" by Tom Hanks and Dan Aykroyd. The latter performs his verses in character as Joe Friday, while the former mainly just yells. The background music, which is suspiciously reminiscent of AC/DC's "Back in Black," was created by Dan's brother, Peter Aykroyd.

Anyway, here's a vintage slice of 1987. Enjoy!



Say what you will about "City of Crime," at least it's not as bad as the hip hop output of Tom's son, Chet Haze.