This week, Roy Scheider stars in the very first original movie produced for the Disney Channel (which is a slightly different honor than being the first Disney Channel Original Movie) as an again pitcher for the Detroit Tigers in TIGER TOWN!
[00:00:00] It's showtime folks! It's on Bad Hat Harry's.
[00:00:04] What was the weight of the car when you got it?
[00:00:06] You're not right or wrong. You just don't care.
[00:00:09] Benway!
[00:00:11] Oh, sons of bitches.
[00:00:13] I didn't know.
[00:00:15] I didn't know.
[00:00:18] And welcome to episode 20 of The Complete Works season 4,
[00:00:28] a deep dive into the career and films of actor Roy Scheider.
[00:00:32] My name is Mike Smith and joining me on this journey across the Scheiderverse
[00:00:36] is my friend, co-host, and fellow Royboy.
[00:00:39] Mike Treascio.
[00:00:40] How you doing today, Mike?
[00:00:41] I'm doing just great. I can't believe here we are, man. We're still doing it.
[00:00:45] We're 20 episodes? Like, wild.
[00:00:47] 20 episodes in. Who would have thought we made it this far, Mike?
[00:00:51] You never know. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that could just like...
[00:00:53] What if it's just over, you know?
[00:00:55] Yeah, it could derail the podcast entirely.
[00:00:57] Yeah.
[00:00:58] We've talked about that a lot this year, actually.
[00:01:00] It's kind of on the forefront of everyone's minds.
[00:01:03] Yes, but you know, we're still moving ahead.
[00:01:06] We are still forging through the career of actor Roy Scheider.
[00:01:09] But today, Mike, it is time to talk about the history of Disney Channel original movies.
[00:01:16] Oh, the deep and storied history.
[00:01:18] Yes. So Disney Channel original movies or DCOMs as they are sometimes known.
[00:01:23] Known in the biz?
[00:01:24] Yes. Yeah. The cool kids know they're called DCOMs.
[00:01:27] All the rage back in the 2000s.
[00:01:30] And they're still making them today.
[00:01:32] But with the decline of cable and the rise of streaming, I'm not really sure they're as big of a deal for new generations.
[00:01:38] I think that's fair to say, right?
[00:01:39] I mean, that seems right.
[00:01:40] As a person that wasn't into them as a kid and is not into them as an adult.
[00:01:45] Sure.
[00:01:47] Yes. I mean, that was going to be my follow up question, Mike.
[00:01:50] I mean, did you ever watch any Disney Channel movies when you were a kid?
[00:01:53] I mean, yes, some of them, a few.
[00:01:54] But I was I was not a Disney Channel kid in general.
[00:01:58] That's fair. I was also not a Disney Channel kid.
[00:02:00] I was more of a Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon guy.
[00:02:02] Yeah, same. Same for me.
[00:02:04] But there were definitely a couple that I remember.
[00:02:07] I can't I can't even like name any of them, but I definitely do remember like enjoying and being like, oh, yeah, that like keeping an eye out or whatever.
[00:02:14] The TV guy at as much as you do in your 11 or whatever.
[00:02:17] Sure.
[00:02:18] At the end of the TV guide era also.
[00:02:20] And like watching them watching the the Disney Channel ones, I guess.
[00:02:24] I mean, the sports ones because of the sports ones.
[00:02:27] So like is like Eddie's million dollar cook off.
[00:02:29] Is that one of the ones that was like a baseball one or something?
[00:02:31] Or was it about a cook off?
[00:02:32] It was probably about a cook off.
[00:02:33] Probably got a cook off.
[00:02:34] He double hockey sticks.
[00:02:35] I feel like it was one of them.
[00:02:36] That seems a little risque for Disney Channel.
[00:02:38] It does.
[00:02:39] I don't know.
[00:02:40] I know Johnny Tsunami was the surfing one.
[00:02:43] I don't remember that.
[00:02:44] That's a good guess if it's not.
[00:02:46] Yeah, but there were a ton of them and they and they are still making them, although a lot of the ones they're making now are kind of sequels or remakes to previous D comms kind of catering to nostalgia with movies like a live action Kim Possible or another version of Freaky Friday.
[00:03:02] But if you were growing up in like 2007, these things were inescapable.
[00:03:06] Of course, the big one was High School Musical.
[00:03:08] Did you ever watch High School Musical, Mike?
[00:03:09] I have not.
[00:03:10] Somehow I avoided it and all the sequels and everything, and I've just never had a girlfriend make me watch them.
[00:03:15] So I don't really know how I've avoided them this long.
[00:03:19] I have also never in full seen High School Musical, although my girlfriend is a huge Disney Channel person.
[00:03:26] She was a Disney Channel kid and she is very into the idea of Disney Channel original movies like she is obsessed with a lot of them.
[00:03:33] She's made me watch a few of them, but for some reason High School Musical has not been one she's made me watch maybe because like she doesn't think she can take it if I don't like it.
[00:03:41] Yeah, that might be part of it.
[00:03:43] But she has made me watch the ultimate Christmas presents which is popped up.
[00:03:47] She would tends to watch that one most years.
[00:03:49] We watched Halloween Town together, which I had seen when I was a kid.
[00:03:51] I have seen Halloween Town.
[00:03:52] Yeah, yeah, I think you were a Halloween Town guy.
[00:03:55] I'm a hocus pocus guy.
[00:03:57] I'm a hocus pocus guy.
[00:03:57] Well, okay, yeah.
[00:03:58] You better calm down.
[00:04:00] Not one of those babies who likes Halloween Town.
[00:04:02] I like hocus pocus.
[00:04:03] That's right.
[00:04:04] And I would just like to confirm H.E. Double Hockey Sticks is a wonderful world of Disney original film starring Wilfred L and Matthew Lawrence.
[00:04:12] Okay, so that's a separate thing from Disney Channel original movie.
[00:04:15] I guess you're right.
[00:04:15] Yeah.
[00:04:16] What I'm saying is High School Musical, a huge cultural phenomenon.
[00:04:18] They put out the second one a year later.
[00:04:20] The third one, like by then High School Musical was so big they put it out in theaters.
[00:04:24] I remember that was a big thing.
[00:04:25] That's right, yeah.
[00:04:25] And so that's like a weird thing where that one's technically not a Disney Channel movie because that one is in theaters.
[00:04:30] And of course, you know, so many big names like Lindsay Lohan and Zac Efron, Hillary Duff, Demi Lovato.
[00:04:36] They all either got their star or got their profiles really boosted by starring in these movies.
[00:04:41] All that is to say, I think most of these movies are pretty bad.
[00:04:45] You better calm down before the Disney adults come after us.
[00:04:48] Right, exactly.
[00:04:50] But like I said, my girlfriend is a big Disney Channel original movie fan.
[00:04:53] She's got a lot of nostalgia for these movies.
[00:04:55] She actually used to listen to a podcast where every episode was going through the entirety of the Disney Channel original movie lineup.
[00:05:03] Wow, that's crazy.
[00:05:04] Yes.
[00:05:04] I forget what the name of that podcast was or I would plug it.
[00:05:07] I don't think the podcast is still going.
[00:05:09] But I mentioned to her today that today on the podcast, we are actually going to be talking about the very first Disney Channel original movie to which she responded.
[00:05:20] Roy Scheider is in under wraps.
[00:05:24] Okay, I feel like we're going to get into some some nitpicking on a definition of what a Disney Channel original movie is a little bit.
[00:05:31] So I had to look up what under wraps was apparently under wraps is a movie in which Bill Fagerbecky, who is the voice of Patrick Star on SpongeBob plays a mummy.
[00:05:39] And that is considered the very first movie branded as a Disney Channel original movie.
[00:05:44] So no, Roy Scheider is not in under wraps.
[00:05:47] Instead, Roy Scheider is in the very first movie produced for the Disney Channel, which I think qualifies it to be considered the very first Disney Channel original movie.
[00:05:57] Now, now we're going to we're going to you need to take me through TV history if you have if you have the history for me.
[00:06:04] Sure.
[00:06:04] There was a separate Disney Channel at the point that this movie premiered or is this just on ABC and we're calling it the Disney Channel?
[00:06:11] So the Disney Channel had launched at this point.
[00:06:14] Wow.
[00:06:14] OK.
[00:06:15] Yes.
[00:06:15] I mean, it was not it was mostly like, you know, reruns of like, you know, stuff Disney didn't care about like that.
[00:06:22] Yeah.
[00:06:27] Original movies, which they weren't called DCOMs at the time.
[00:06:30] They were called Disney Channel Premiere Films.
[00:06:33] OK.
[00:06:33] And they had that branding from this movie in 1983 all the way until 1997.
[00:06:39] And then in 97, they switched to Disney Channel Original Movies where they were under wraps became the first one.
[00:06:45] I can't believe that she just had under wrapped on lock, though.
[00:06:49] She knew.
[00:06:49] Oh, yeah.
[00:06:50] She knew right away that it was under wraps.
[00:06:52] And then shortly after that, you had movies like Brink, Xenon, Girl of the 21st Century.
[00:06:56] Yes.
[00:06:56] Yes.
[00:06:57] Smart House.
[00:06:58] Luck of the Irish.
[00:07:00] The Other Me.
[00:07:01] Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire.
[00:07:02] I couldn't remember if Luck of the Irish was was one of these movies.
[00:07:05] That's the with Timothy Elifon.
[00:07:07] Timothy Omenson from Psych.
[00:07:08] Timothy Omenson.
[00:07:08] Yes.
[00:07:09] That's what I was trying to remember.
[00:07:10] Yeah.
[00:07:10] Yeah.
[00:07:10] Get a Clue was Disney Channel movie.
[00:07:13] The Even Stevens movie, of course.
[00:07:15] Wow.
[00:07:15] We can forget Even Stevens.
[00:07:17] I mean, Even Stevens rocks.
[00:07:18] That was a good show.
[00:07:19] I was into it.
[00:07:20] Yeah.
[00:07:21] And so many other big movies in the Disney Channel Pantheon.
[00:07:24] The Cheetah Girls.
[00:07:25] I'm just looking at the list of all the Disney Channel original movies that exist at this
[00:07:28] point.
[00:07:28] Mostly because I don't have too much to say about today's movie.
[00:07:31] So I'm trying to stop time.
[00:07:33] But since Roy Scheider is in it, it is time to talk about the very first movie produced
[00:07:37] for the Disney Channel, and that is Tiger Town.
[00:07:43] On the Disney Sunday movie, he was a has-been who found hope.
[00:07:47] All you have to do is believe.
[00:07:48] Roy Scheider, Justin Henry.
[00:07:50] Dreams can come true in Tiger Town.
[00:07:53] So Roy Scheider appears in Tiger Town as Billy Young, an aging baseball pitcher for the Detroit
[00:07:59] Tigers in his last season.
[00:08:01] But the main character of the movie is Alex, a young fan who believes in Billy to help bring
[00:08:06] the Tigers to the World Series.
[00:08:07] And he's played by Justin Henry, who is best known as-
[00:08:10] Are you ready for this, Mike?
[00:08:11] I saw the Wikipedia page.
[00:08:13] I'm ready.
[00:08:14] He is best known as the kid from Kramer vs. Kramer.
[00:08:17] We can't escape it.
[00:08:19] We're never going to get away from Kramer vs. Kramer.
[00:08:22] Yes, it is.
[00:08:24] I mean, it was such a big movie in 1979.
[00:08:26] It has permeated the culture.
[00:08:28] And so Justin Henry ends up as the lead in this movie.
[00:08:32] He was also Molly Ringwald's brother in 16 Candles around the same time.
[00:08:36] Got it.
[00:08:36] Yes, that's right.
[00:08:37] Or is it 16 Candles or Pretty in Pink?
[00:08:39] One of the Molly Ringwald movies.
[00:08:40] He's-
[00:08:41] I don't remember.
[00:08:42] But his father is played by Ron McLarty, who is also the voice of Papa Bear and several
[00:08:47] Berenstain Bears TV specials.
[00:08:49] And there are also a lot of different cameos from real life Detroit broadcasters and celebrities.
[00:08:54] Plus, Mary Wilson, who is a founding member of the Supremes, sings the national anthem at
[00:08:58] the first game.
[00:08:59] The movie was written and directed by Alan Shapiro.
[00:09:01] I heard that name and I was like, wait a minute.
[00:09:04] I had conflated two different conservative people in my mind.
[00:09:11] Imagine, though.
[00:09:12] I had somehow like pushed together Alan Dershowitz and Ben Shapiro into one person.
[00:09:18] I was like, Alan Shapiro, no!
[00:09:19] But this is just a guy named Alan Shapiro who wrote and directed this movie.
[00:09:23] Also wrote and directed Flipper from 1996 starring Elijah Wood and Paul Hogan.
[00:09:28] Yes.
[00:09:28] And The Crush.
[00:09:29] Directed The Crush, right?
[00:09:30] The Alicia Silverstone movie, according to Letterboxd.
[00:09:33] Oh, cool.
[00:09:34] Which is insane.
[00:09:35] I've never seen The Crush.
[00:09:37] I don't know it.
[00:09:37] But yeah, what a nightmare Kernenberg monster Alan Dershowitz and Ben Shapiro wish together
[00:09:43] we'd be.
[00:09:44] I hate that mental image and everyone else has to suffer for it.
[00:09:47] I'm sorry that I brought that into the world.
[00:09:49] That was entirely my fault.
[00:09:51] Tigertown premiered on October 9th, 1983 on the Disney Channel.
[00:09:56] And the channel had actually just been launched in April of that year.
[00:09:59] So Disney Channel was like five months old when Tigertown premiered.
[00:10:04] If you were instead watching one of the main networks that night, ABC had Ripley's Believe
[00:10:09] It or Not, Hardcastle and McCormick, and a TV movie called Making of a Male Model.
[00:10:13] CBS had 60 Minutes, Alice, The Jeffersons, Goodnight Beantown, and Trapper John MD.
[00:10:19] And NBC had Knight Rider.
[00:10:21] And presumably nothing else.
[00:10:23] Hell yeah.
[00:10:24] When you got Knight Rider, that's all you need.
[00:10:26] That's it, baby.
[00:10:28] The IMDb plot synopsis for Tigertown reads, Alex and his father are Detroit Tigers fans.
[00:10:34] The team is not doing well.
[00:10:36] And Alex's favorite player, Billy Young, isn't either.
[00:10:39] The team's and Billy's luck turn around after Alex experiences a tragedy that hits close
[00:10:43] to home.
[00:10:44] So yeah, Mike, going into it, I mean, like you said, you were not a big fan of Disney Channel
[00:10:49] original movies growing up.
[00:10:50] Correct.
[00:10:50] Yeah.
[00:10:51] Just not, yeah, I was more of a Nick kid.
[00:10:54] And I feel like there is like weird allegiances to those things when you're a child and you're
[00:10:59] like, well, I watch Nickelodeon.
[00:11:00] I don't watch Disney Channel or whatever.
[00:11:02] Yes.
[00:11:02] Yeah.
[00:11:03] I do think the Disney Channel sub was mostly like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network had a
[00:11:07] little bit more of an edge to them, I guess.
[00:11:08] At least they were sort of branded that way.
[00:11:10] Yeah.
[00:11:11] Whereas Disney Channel was much more like the squeaky clean version of kids programming.
[00:11:15] Right.
[00:11:15] Right.
[00:11:16] As a rebellious 10 year old or whatever.
[00:11:17] No.
[00:11:18] Yeah.
[00:11:18] I was like, I'm watching Invader Zim, baby.
[00:11:20] Yeah.
[00:11:21] Rocko's Modern Life.
[00:11:22] I don't understand it, but it's fun.
[00:11:24] Yeah.
[00:11:24] So I didn't really watch.
[00:11:25] The guy who made this will never do anything wrong.
[00:11:27] I wasn't allowed to watch Red and Stimpy.
[00:11:29] Really?
[00:11:30] Yeah.
[00:11:31] There were some rules in my household.
[00:11:32] Yeah.
[00:11:33] I was not, you know, not a ton of nostalgia for the Disney Channel original movies.
[00:11:37] Although it is, this is a fun, you know, learning experience that there is a, like an
[00:11:42] era delineation with this other produced for the Disney Channel thing and then the actual
[00:11:46] like Disney Channel original movie brand thing.
[00:11:48] Oh yeah.
[00:11:49] And I think, you know, watching this movie, this is so far removed from what my like conception
[00:11:54] of a Disney Channel original movie is.
[00:11:56] Yes.
[00:11:57] Yeah.
[00:11:57] This movie that is, you know, about a kid rooting for a baseball team that I like,
[00:12:01] and not even like his own school baseball team, like all the other like school sports
[00:12:05] movies that they make in the 90s and 2000s.
[00:12:07] No, this is just a kid that likes the Detroit Tigers, which is wild.
[00:12:12] That is a weird thing where it's a sports movie where you're supposed to be really invested
[00:12:16] in the Detroit Tigers, but instead you're following a fan of the Tigers for most of the
[00:12:21] movie, right?
[00:12:21] Yes.
[00:12:22] For the whole, for the whole movie.
[00:12:23] Roy Scheider, I feel like maybe did a week on this movie.
[00:12:26] If that, uh, he's in a bunch of scenes playing baseball that they could have just all
[00:12:30] filmed at one in one day and then a couple of locker room scenes.
[00:12:33] And that's really it.
[00:12:34] So there's that aspect of it too, that we're like, we're here for the Scheider of it all.
[00:12:37] And even in the beginning of the pod, when he's in, you know, he's the, the uncredited
[00:12:41] guy that makes a bet in now all I can think is Tiger town.
[00:12:45] What was paper line?
[00:12:46] Paper lion.
[00:12:47] Yeah.
[00:12:47] Which is also a movie about a Detroit team.
[00:12:50] So even when he's in those kinds of roles, like we talked about at the beginning,
[00:12:53] beginning of the season when he's got like one or two lines or whatever.
[00:12:55] Um, this is post Oscar post biggest movies, best movies of all time.
[00:13:01] Uh, and it's like, man, why is, what's Roy Scheider doing in this?
[00:13:04] You know?
[00:13:05] Um, but it is, it is, it is a pretty fun performance sometimes.
[00:13:08] And we'll, we'll get to that.
[00:13:10] I'm sure.
[00:13:10] But overall, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it is a, it is a movie that was made for TV, I
[00:13:15] guess, you know, uh, it is a, it is a picture and, um, it is a lot.
[00:13:20] You can tell like right from the very beginning, we got to pad this runtime.
[00:13:23] So let's put this shit in slow motion for some reason.
[00:13:26] Right.
[00:13:26] Every baseball scene is in slow.
[00:13:28] Almost every baseball scene is in slow motion.
[00:13:31] And this movie is only 75 minutes.
[00:13:33] Right.
[00:13:34] Exactly.
[00:13:35] So it feels like we really got to stretch this hour of footage we made and just put the
[00:13:40] shit in slow-mo.
[00:13:41] All the stuff with Billy, the right.
[00:13:44] Billy is the, the, the fan, the kid.
[00:13:47] Um, uh, no, Billy is the pitcher.
[00:13:48] Billy is Roy Scheider.
[00:13:50] That's right.
[00:13:50] Yeah.
[00:13:50] Alex is the kid.
[00:13:51] Alex.
[00:13:52] Yes.
[00:13:52] It like there's, there's, there sort of is no story in this movie.
[00:13:56] It's like, there's really no arc.
[00:13:57] He goes on.
[00:13:58] I mean, he experiences things.
[00:13:59] And I guess that's like a weird, like cinema verite version of this movie, you know, uh,
[00:14:04] or like Italian neorealism, but for the Disney channel.
[00:14:07] Um, but, uh, he, like, there's really not much happening here is what I'm getting at.
[00:14:12] You know, you know, it's actually, it's interesting that you mentioned Italian neorealism because
[00:14:17] just one, one of the, uh, letterbox reviews that I'm going to read a little bit later, uh,
[00:14:23] is from the son of the director, uh, who specifically mentions how much his dad loves bicycle thieves.
[00:14:28] No way.
[00:14:31] And, uh, and he can like see like, you know, there's like overt references and smaller stylistic
[00:14:36] references in the, uh, in it.
[00:14:37] So yeah, it's interesting that you picked that up, that you picked up on that.
[00:14:43] That's great.
[00:14:45] Hashtag analysis, baby.
[00:14:47] Um, yeah, all that's all that to say.
[00:14:50] Yeah, it's fine.
[00:14:51] Yeah.
[00:14:51] I mean, you know, it's, uh, it's the first Disney channel original movie.
[00:14:56] Yeah.
[00:14:57] Yeah.
[00:14:58] Uh, with all that that implies.
[00:14:59] No, I mean, it's, uh, it's an okay time.
[00:15:02] I think it's sort of starts to pick up a little bit towards the end when you are actually like,
[00:15:05] like it's during the, uh, the final game.
[00:15:07] What's weird, a weird thing about it is that it's at this point in sports history, I had
[00:15:12] to like look up this thing, but the tigers were in like a historic slump at this point.
[00:15:17] Like they, they had not been to the world series in like 40 years.
[00:15:20] Right.
[00:15:20] Uh, and so, you know, Detroit was like a, you know, like they were kind of a joke within
[00:15:25] the league and all that kind of stuff.
[00:15:26] Uh, and this movie came out in 1983, the following year, 84 tigers came back.
[00:15:32] Tigers, uh, went to the world series.
[00:15:34] I'm not sure if they won, but they went to it.
[00:15:36] Uh, so maybe it was this movie that gave them the, uh, they just needed to believe.
[00:15:42] Yeah.
[00:15:42] They just needed to believe in themselves.
[00:15:44] Uh, and then they could do it.
[00:15:45] And actually, uh, this movie debuted on a Disney channel in 83, uh, but it did get
[00:15:49] a small theatrical release in Detroit, uh, the following year.
[00:15:54] Uh, people in Detroit did go see this movie in theaters, uh, when the tigers was, had
[00:15:58] started to pick up a little bit in the lore of the tigers in this era.
[00:16:03] It's kind of important, uh, a little bit, right?
[00:16:05] Yeah.
[00:16:05] I think that's interesting.
[00:16:06] You know, uh, it's, it's, we've talked about before in the, uh, previous, um, TV movies,
[00:16:11] my sort of fascination with TV movies as like a, as like an entity and just, you know,
[00:16:15] the cultural artifact of this being a, the, the first to, you know, I won't say DCOM, the
[00:16:20] first, uh, original film produced for the Disney channel and having that tie in with the Detroit.
[00:16:26] That's, that's fascinating.
[00:16:27] I didn't really know that about the tigers.
[00:16:29] Um, I did laugh really hard when they introduce Shider's character as like having like nine gold
[00:16:34] gloves and like a three 10 lifetime batting average.
[00:16:37] And I was like, okay, so he's the best player that's ever lived.
[00:16:40] Calm down.
[00:16:40] Like take it or one of the best players.
[00:16:43] Like take it easy.
[00:16:44] But he's never made it to the world series.
[00:16:46] And that's like his always been his dream.
[00:16:47] Uh, but what's, what's a little bit weird about the movie is that it doesn't end the
[00:16:50] world series.
[00:16:51] It ends like it's the pennant game, right?
[00:16:53] It's like the, uh, they win the league.
[00:16:54] Yeah.
[00:16:55] Yeah.
[00:16:55] They win the league.
[00:16:56] And so they're going to go to, they're going to go to the division series next.
[00:16:59] They're not even going to the world series next.
[00:17:00] Right.
[00:17:01] Um, but it is just like that, you know, that hope that like they could,
[00:17:04] make it there.
[00:17:05] What the movie kind of ends on for you.
[00:17:07] I don't know.
[00:17:08] I think it's okay.
[00:17:09] It's, it's, I would say okay to not good.
[00:17:11] It's not something I would ever like choose to watch again.
[00:17:14] And I think it does get a little bit better as, uh, as you get towards the end.
[00:17:17] Um, but I think it's just such a weird thing to have a sports movie and, uh, I don't know,
[00:17:22] have the, have your entire point of view character be this little kid who's watching the entire
[00:17:25] time.
[00:17:26] That didn't work for me at all.
[00:17:27] Yeah.
[00:17:28] Yeah.
[00:17:28] Especially because there's really no like a dramatic tension until like the
[00:17:34] final act, like the last 20 minutes or whatever.
[00:17:36] Right.
[00:17:37] Regarding the, the tigers and Alex, it's just Alex's life that the first, I don't know,
[00:17:43] 55 minutes or whatever, or just him, the, the realism thing, like just being a kid in
[00:17:48] school with the, and being obsessed with the tigers and like the starts skipping school
[00:17:52] to go to games and all this stuff.
[00:17:54] And he thinks he's like the magic fan and he's good.
[00:17:57] They got to believe.
[00:17:57] And if he misses the game, they lose and all this stuff.
[00:18:00] Um, but it's really until it's like, Oh, they're in the race.
[00:18:02] And he's like crossing off the magic number, the number of games they need to win, like in
[00:18:06] his notebook.
[00:18:07] And like, we're, it's like a montage thing and it's exciting.
[00:18:09] Um, but up until then there's like school bullies in flat, flat caps.
[00:18:14] Like you give me a books chump or whatever.
[00:18:16] Like, I don't understand this.
[00:18:17] It's like gangs of middle schoolers, like out of the thirties.
[00:18:21] It's very weird.
[00:18:23] They're like the Bowery boys from, uh, like those James Cagney movies and stuff.
[00:18:27] Like it doesn't make sense.
[00:18:28] Like what are these characters doing in this movie?
[00:18:30] Yes.
[00:18:31] Yeah.
[00:18:31] No, it's a, it's, it's a weird movie.
[00:18:33] It's a, and it really feels like not much is happening for most of its runtime until the
[00:18:38] very end.
[00:18:39] Uh, but you are watching, so you are introduced to Alex as, you know, this kid who was just
[00:18:43] like, he loves baseball and he loves the tigers and Billy young's his favorite player.
[00:18:47] Or actually the opening scene is just like a play by play of like a baseball game.
[00:18:50] And like, you hear the announcers kind of introducing you to Billy young.
[00:18:53] Yeah.
[00:18:54] Um, and they're like, oh yeah.
[00:18:56] Yes.
[00:18:56] In slow motion.
[00:18:57] It's like, oh yeah, there goes Billy young.
[00:18:59] One of the greatest players of all time, but he's had a rough season and you know, he's,
[00:19:02] he's over the hill, he's old.
[00:19:04] And at this point, I think Roy Scheider is like 50.
[00:19:08] Um, yeah, he's retiring.
[00:19:09] This is his last season.
[00:19:11] So he's Roy Scheider himself is much older than a normal, like aging baseball player would
[00:19:16] be.
[00:19:16] Yes.
[00:19:17] True.
[00:19:17] Yes.
[00:19:17] Correct.
[00:19:18] Right.
[00:19:18] I think maybe that helps give it some gravitas a little bit like, oh man, he looks really
[00:19:22] beat up.
[00:19:22] Yeah.
[00:19:23] Well, I was actually pretty impressed, um, with Scheider's like athleticism and stuff in
[00:19:29] the baseball season.
[00:19:30] I mean, I know we know he is a former amateur boxer and all this stuff.
[00:19:33] And he's always like that kind of, uh, 1960s old man shredded, you know, kind of look to
[00:19:39] him.
[00:19:40] So, uh, but it looks like he actually knows how to play baseball in, in a lot of the
[00:19:43] seeds that you see, you know, this swing and his throw and everything.
[00:19:45] It's like, oh wow.
[00:19:46] Okay.
[00:19:46] Sometimes you see a movie and you're just like, well, this guy doesn't know, like doesn't
[00:19:51] actually do, can't actually do this.
[00:19:52] Just out of curiosity.
[00:19:53] Do you have any examples that come to mind, Mike?
[00:19:55] Um, not really off the top of my head, but you can tell sometimes.
[00:20:00] Okay.
[00:20:01] You know, you get, you get a vibe in some of the, like, I guess maybe more in like the
[00:20:04] basketball movies and stuff.
[00:20:05] I think, I think he looks good.
[00:20:06] He looks convincing is what I'm saying as a guy that is supposedly the greatest batter
[00:20:09] of all time or whatever, like whatever stats are giving him.
[00:20:12] Yeah.
[00:20:12] I mean, we did talk about this in, um, in the paper line episode, I think, because we were
[00:20:16] kind of talking about sports movies in general, but, uh, baseball movies are like my favorite
[00:20:20] kind of sports movie.
[00:20:21] Like there, uh, and there is just something about like how cinematic the sport is that other
[00:20:25] sports don't really have.
[00:20:26] Uh, and Patrick Williams has a very good video about that that came out a year ago or something
[00:20:30] like that.
[00:20:31] But like the way baseball is structured where there's like not that much action going on
[00:20:35] at any given time until there is right.
[00:20:37] Uh, like just the, the dynamics of that and like the, like the ease of like the geography
[00:20:42] of the field where you know where everybody is at any given time, like it makes it a very
[00:20:45] cinematic sport.
[00:20:46] Yeah.
[00:20:47] You can see their faces is like just such a simple thing.
[00:20:50] That's such a huge thing.
[00:20:51] Yeah.
[00:20:51] I mean, you know, there, I can't think of like that many great football movies.
[00:20:54] And I think part of that is cause there, you, you have no personality behind the helmets.
[00:20:59] You can't see what's going on.
[00:21:00] Yeah.
[00:21:01] Um, so yeah, I mean, I, I, there are basketball movies I really like, uh, and I, I am in general
[00:21:05] more of a sports movie guy than a sports guy, but, uh, baseball is the one that I've always
[00:21:09] been like drawn to the most baseball and boxing movies.
[00:21:12] Uh, and partially that's just cause I love Rocky so much, but it's like 80% Rocky.
[00:21:17] And it's 80, it's like 80% Rocky, 20% raging bull.
[00:21:21] Yeah.
[00:21:21] Fair.
[00:21:21] Yeah.
[00:21:23] Uh, but like Rocky and raging bull, probably the greatest sports movies ever.
[00:21:26] It's true.
[00:21:27] You know, don't just go at Tiger town.
[00:21:29] Uh, yeah, well, you know, that's what I'm saying is that even though I'm like an easy
[00:21:32] mark for baseball movies, unfortunately, Tiger town, this didn't do much for me.
[00:21:36] Still couldn't get you.
[00:21:37] Uh, yeah, but Roy Scheider is in the movie and I think he's pretty good.
[00:21:41] He's solid.
[00:21:42] Like you said, I mean, the athleticism is there.
[00:21:44] I think he has like this world weariness to him that, uh, is, is really effective at capturing
[00:21:49] that kind of aging and baseball player vibe.
[00:21:51] But also when he finally starts to do better, uh, thanks to, uh, Alex using the force or
[00:21:56] whatever, uh, you know, when he finally starts to do better, uh, like there is like this
[00:22:02] genuine, uh, warmth and joy, uh, that Scheider brings to it.
[00:22:06] Like he's just so excited to, um, kind of end his career on a higher notes, uh, and maybe
[00:22:11] achieve his dream of going to the world series.
[00:22:12] But I think that's like less of like a necessity for him.
[00:22:15] It's just like, you know, kind of ending it on a high sort of thing.
[00:22:17] Yeah.
[00:22:17] There, there, it starts with him striking out in that first, in that first scene and getting
[00:22:21] booed right by his own hometown crowd.
[00:22:23] Yeah.
[00:22:23] This legend of the sport being booed.
[00:22:25] Um, uh, but it ends in such a triumphant, uh, you know, he gets, he gets the walk off hit
[00:22:30] at the end in that last game for them to go to the playoffs.
[00:22:33] So, and, and I think in particular there's a montage.
[00:22:35] I think at the end there, it's the whole thing when, like I mentioned before, where Alex
[00:22:38] is like counting down the number of games they need to win to win the pennant and all
[00:22:41] this stuff.
[00:22:42] Billy Young's like season is turning around and, and it's like all these commercials and
[00:22:46] stuff that Scheider is doing.
[00:22:47] Uh, those are like very funny, I think.
[00:22:49] Uh, and that was like finally like, oh, he's doing something, uh, you know, in the movie
[00:22:53] and he's doing all these endorsements on like TV ads and then, and all this stuff.
[00:22:57] And it's very, it's, I think that is a very funny part.
[00:22:59] Uh, yes, no, I think Scheider is having like some fun in the movie, which I think is cool
[00:23:04] to see.
[00:23:04] Yeah.
[00:23:05] He's getting that, that, well, like I said, a couple of days paycheck, you know, good for
[00:23:07] him.
[00:23:08] Yes.
[00:23:09] Which is always nice.
[00:23:10] He's finally not dying in a jungle for a movie.
[00:23:13] Maybe that's why he did it.
[00:23:14] Maybe that's it.
[00:23:15] I mean, you know, that, that's such a weird thing that I think we're going to have to
[00:23:19] like kind of look at throughout Scheider's filmography, uh, going forward is that Scheider
[00:23:23] is like a very big actor, I think in terms of like that seventies run, like, you know,
[00:23:28] I mean, he's in jaws.
[00:23:29] He's the lead character in jaws, a movie that everyone has seen and everyone loves.
[00:23:34] And it was the biggest movie ever when it came out.
[00:23:36] And yet whenever I've told people that we're doing a Roy Scheider podcast, they ask who
[00:23:42] is that?
[00:23:42] Right.
[00:23:43] Uh, that's very true.
[00:23:45] Yeah.
[00:23:45] You know, and I, I feel like, uh, you know, he never really had like a movie star kind of,
[00:23:51] uh, persona, you know, or like he, he never really had a movie star kind of a persona,
[00:23:53] he never really got like a movie star level of fame.
[00:23:56] Like he was always like a beloved actor who was really great in a lot of big movies, uh,
[00:24:01] you know, especially in the seventies.
[00:24:02] But yeah, for whatever reason, like he never got like, he never like went beyond that,
[00:24:06] even though he was in again, jaws, the biggest movie of all time.
[00:24:10] And when you look at like that cast, I mean, Robert Shaw died shortly after that, but like
[00:24:14] Richard Dreyfuss, I think is more of a well-known name than Roy Scheider is.
[00:24:18] I think so.
[00:24:19] Yeah.
[00:24:19] Jaws, right?
[00:24:20] Yeah.
[00:24:20] It seems, it seems like it.
[00:24:22] Popular consciousness is weird.
[00:24:23] It's what I'll say.
[00:24:24] Yeah.
[00:24:25] You know, uh, that is very true.
[00:24:28] That's very true.
[00:24:28] Um, but yeah, I mean, and I think part of that is because, you know, sorcerer was sort of
[00:24:32] billed as like the next big thing and that sort of bombed at the time and all that jazz
[00:24:36] was, uh, hugely critically acclaimed, uh, and people certainly saw it at the time, but
[00:24:40] maybe not, it was not a jaws level hits, uh, or anything like that.
[00:24:43] And then he takes a few years off.
[00:24:45] I mean, he like then disappears for a couple of years, comes back, does a still other night,
[00:24:49] which, uh, people didn't like kind of a bomb.
[00:24:52] And then, you know, does blue thunder and stuff.
[00:24:53] But I think he's sort of like, uh, he's the lead in a lot of movies, but I think he's more
[00:24:58] of like a character actor lead, uh, in a weird way.
[00:25:00] Right.
[00:25:01] Yeah.
[00:25:01] He's one of those guys that, um, has a leading man face, but is more of a character actor,
[00:25:06] uh, so to speak, I guess.
[00:25:07] Sure.
[00:25:08] One of those things.
[00:25:09] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:25:09] Uh, so yeah.
[00:25:11] How do you think this fits into the shadow roles that we've seen so far, Mike?
[00:25:14] I mean, paper lion has already been mentioned.
[00:25:16] Okay.
[00:25:16] So I can't say paper lion is what you're telling me.
[00:25:18] Well, I think, uh, you know, we should quickly mention paper lion once more.
[00:25:21] Just, it is interesting that like, uh, like we said before, shatter is such a New York
[00:25:25] guy.
[00:25:25] Right.
[00:25:26] Um, you know, he's somebody who is like, I think if I didn't heavily associate it with,
[00:25:30] with New York before this podcast, I do now.
[00:25:33] Um, just, he like has the vibe of seventies, New York, like to a T and in so many movies for
[00:25:39] some reason he's in two movies that are sent to Detroit sports team.
[00:25:42] That's true.
[00:25:43] Yeah.
[00:25:43] You know, which could be a weird coincidence, but, uh, yeah, the no paper lion, of course,
[00:25:47] centered on the Detroit lions, a movie, which also features several real life Detroit lions
[00:25:52] and Detroit, uh, broadcasters and things like that.
[00:25:54] Uh, and now we have a tiger town, which I don't, I don't think any of the real life tigers
[00:25:58] are in this movie.
[00:25:59] Um, but there are a lot of cameos from broadcasters and like, you know, all that stuff.
[00:26:04] Yeah.
[00:26:05] That's what I understood also.
[00:26:06] Um, yeah, I think it, I think, uh, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he,
[00:26:09] he has, he has this like working class thing going on, right?
[00:26:12] He's got this, you know, every man thing.
[00:26:14] And even though he's a, one of the greatest ballplayers of all time, allegedly in the movie,
[00:26:18] uh, he's on, he's on the worst team, right?
[00:26:21] You know, like he's on the tigers.
[00:26:23] Uh, so I don't know, it all, it all fits in with, uh, the, the sort of, um, persona
[00:26:28] of Scheider, even if it is an athlete, it's still like the athlete who's struggling
[00:26:33] kind of thing.
[00:26:34] Um, right.
[00:26:35] So, yeah.
[00:26:35] And then as far as, I mean, we, I can't remember any, uh, I mean, assignment Munich,
[00:26:39] right.
[00:26:39] We talked about other TV movies.
[00:26:41] Oh yeah.
[00:26:42] But we had a lot of trouble finding them, which is interesting.
[00:26:45] I can't, I can't believe we found more of the Hong Kong weird movies from Michelle Yeoh
[00:26:50] than we've found of the TV movies from Reich Eiter.
[00:26:53] But I guess it's, it's further back in time than we've ever had to try to contend with,
[00:26:57] um, on stuff that was likely never released in any official, uh, home video capacity.
[00:27:04] Right.
[00:27:04] Right.
[00:27:04] Which has been the case with, uh, Tiger town, um, which, uh, yeah, it does have like a VHS
[00:27:09] rip.
[00:27:09] It's on YouTube.
[00:27:10] You can watch it there.
[00:27:11] Um, but, and that's, you know, how kind of how we watched it, but like, uh, Disney has
[00:27:15] never really released this movie.
[00:27:17] I mean, they did put it on VHS back in the day and, you know, they had, they aired it on
[00:27:21] the Disney channel and they would air it on ABC once in a while, like, you know, for
[00:27:25] a few years, but, uh, there's never been, there has never been a DVD release of tiger
[00:27:29] town.
[00:27:29] It's not, it's not available to stream anywhere, including Disney plus, which I remember when
[00:27:33] Disney plus launched the idea of it was like literally everything that Disney's ever produced
[00:27:39] will be on Disney plus except for song of the South or whatever.
[00:27:44] Right.
[00:27:45] That was sort of the, uh, the thing.
[00:27:46] Uh, and since then there have been like, you know, I've, I've seen like several gaps in
[00:27:52] the Disney history that, uh, just aren't on Disney plus.
[00:27:55] And I think they're, they're less focused on that now and more focused on just like churning
[00:27:58] out star Wars shows or whatever.
[00:28:00] But like when it first launched, it was meant to be like almost the entire Disney back catalog.
[00:28:05] And they do have, I think almost every Disney channel movie, um, maybe not the stuff before
[00:28:11] they were branded Disney channel, original movies, but I think like most of the Disney
[00:28:14] channel stuff that was like, was part of our generation that like we may be more familiar
[00:28:18] with, I think that's all on there, but Tiger town never made the cut.
[00:28:22] It's not there.
[00:28:24] Those bastards.
[00:28:25] Also, they still don't have house of mouse, which, uh, I learned about recently.
[00:28:29] And that seems crazy.
[00:28:30] I don't know why they don't have that.
[00:28:31] I don't know if you remember house of mouse, Mike.
[00:28:32] It sounds familiar, but I don't know what it is.
[00:28:35] House of mouse was a TV show that aired on the Disney channel, uh, that I actually did
[00:28:38] like quite a bit.
[00:28:39] Uh, and it was a show where Mickey mouse and his friends all ran a nightclub and everybody who
[00:28:45] went to the nightclub was like somebody from a Disney movie.
[00:28:47] Uh, and so there would just be like, you know, people in the audience and it'd be like,
[00:28:51] Oh, it's Aladdin and Jasmine.
[00:28:52] And here's like, you know, Bella and the beast.
[00:28:54] And here's like all that stuff.
[00:28:55] The whole thing of the nightclub was like, you know, every episode there would be like
[00:28:58] three or four different, like older cartoons that they would show through house, but there
[00:29:02] would be like a wraparound story tying everything together.
[00:29:04] It was a fun show.
[00:29:05] It was good.
[00:29:06] Uh, and I'm wondering like if it's just because the older cartoons they can't show or whatever
[00:29:09] reason, um, or there's like weird rights issues with stuff that like maybe lapsed.
[00:29:14] Uh, I don't think Disney has the rights to Tarzan anymore.
[00:29:18] For example, they have the rights for their movie Tarzan.
[00:29:20] Yeah.
[00:29:21] Um, but because it's based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, there's like some kind of
[00:29:24] like a state issue or whatever.
[00:29:25] And so I know, I know the Tarzan level in the original kingdom hearts has never been in
[00:29:30] any subsequent kingdom hearts game.
[00:29:32] And that's been really, that's been the reason they've never been able to go back to it.
[00:29:35] So I'm wondering if that, if it's stuff like that, where it's just like random things
[00:29:39] here and there, because there's like characters in the background that they might not own
[00:29:42] anymore, uh, all that is to say the characters in Tigertown do not appear in house of mouse.
[00:29:49] And really that's a travesty and neither one is on Disney plus.
[00:29:54] Uh, I think, um, I think we should talk about the way Alex, his dad just dies in this movie
[00:29:59] because it's insane.
[00:30:01] Uh, yeah.
[00:30:02] So, I mean, so you were introduced to Alex and his dad early on in the movie and, uh,
[00:30:05] it's, it's clearly his dad that is like fostered this love of baseball and Detroit tigers
[00:30:09] for Alex and it's a big thing for him.
[00:30:11] And then one day Alex, his dad lays down and, uh, then he dies.
[00:30:14] Yeah.
[00:30:15] He says, I'm not feeling too good.
[00:30:16] I'm going to stay home from work today.
[00:30:17] And then he dies.
[00:30:18] Yes.
[00:30:19] Alex is not there.
[00:30:20] Like he's like says goodbye to his dad as he's like laying down and like, you know,
[00:30:24] okay, dad, hope you feel better.
[00:30:25] And then, you know, he leaves.
[00:30:27] I think he maybe goes to the tigers game.
[00:30:29] He might go to the tigers game.
[00:30:30] Yeah.
[00:30:30] It's cat night and he, his dad can't go.
[00:30:33] Yeah.
[00:30:33] Right.
[00:30:33] Yeah.
[00:30:33] And so he goes to the tigers game and he comes back and all the adults are gathered around in
[00:30:37] the room and it's like, and this guy you've never seen before is like, Alex, I'm sorry.
[00:30:41] Your father, he's dead.
[00:30:44] It's wild.
[00:30:45] It's crazy.
[00:30:46] They let this middle schooler just go to the tigers games alone.
[00:30:49] Uh, it was the eighties man.
[00:30:50] It was the wild west.
[00:30:51] There was no rules back then.
[00:30:52] Yeah.
[00:30:52] And they're also just like throughout the movie, sneaking, like hopping the fence into the
[00:30:56] stadium, but like when there's not games and like nobody's doing anything about it.
[00:31:00] Again, I think in the eighties you could just do that.
[00:31:02] I think that's it.
[00:31:03] You must've been.
[00:31:04] Yeah.
[00:31:04] I think that's totally possible.
[00:31:06] Um, just speaking from, uh, you know, anecdotal thing.
[00:31:10] Uh, my dad's mom, uh, used to work at Shea stadium, uh, and they would sneak into games
[00:31:17] all the time.
[00:31:18] That was like a thing.
[00:31:19] Amazing.
[00:31:20] Um, so yeah, I mean like that, they had the connection of like, you know, their mom works
[00:31:24] there.
[00:31:25] Yeah.
[00:31:25] So they would be able to go in or whatever, but, uh, yeah, I think you can like the, the
[00:31:29] security was a lot less tight than it is now.
[00:31:31] Um, like I was trying to imagine like, you know, I would go to Yankees games and stuff
[00:31:34] once in a while.
[00:31:35] Like you try to get into Yankee stadium, like on your own without a ticket.
[00:31:38] Good luck.
[00:31:39] Yeah.
[00:31:39] You'll be in literal jail.
[00:31:41] Yes, exactly.
[00:31:43] George Steinbrenner himself will put you in jail.
[00:31:46] He's dead now.
[00:31:46] Right.
[00:31:47] He's got to be dead.
[00:31:47] He's been dead.
[00:31:48] Yeah.
[00:31:48] Yeah.
[00:31:48] But he will still do it.
[00:31:49] He'll do it.
[00:31:50] Uh, but yeah, Alex's dad's death scene, uh, is insane.
[00:31:55] Uh, and that happens maybe like 20, 30 minutes into the movie.
[00:31:58] And you know, it's obviously a traumatic event for Alex.
[00:32:01] Um, but he still has to go support the tigers, man.
[00:32:03] Uh, and he just goes back to, he, he, he keeps going back to the stadium, uh, and wishing
[00:32:08] really hard that Billy will, uh, score.
[00:32:11] And then he does.
[00:32:12] Yeah.
[00:32:12] He thinks real hard.
[00:32:14] Cause that's the last thing his dad told him.
[00:32:15] Yes.
[00:32:16] Like if you believe in the tigers, they'll, they'll win.
[00:32:18] Yeah, that's right.
[00:32:20] Anything.
[00:32:20] If you believe hard enough, anything can happen.
[00:32:22] Yeah.
[00:32:22] And, uh, so he goes and sits in the front row and closes his eyes real tight.
[00:32:26] And then Billy young gets hits every time.
[00:32:28] Uh, and the days he doesn't go, they lose.
[00:32:31] And then when they're on the road, they lose.
[00:32:32] So he has to go, I got to go to every game.
[00:32:34] You don't understand.
[00:32:36] I'm the reason they're winning.
[00:32:37] I'm the only one who believes in them.
[00:32:40] Exactly.
[00:32:40] And so, yeah.
[00:32:41] And so he's skipping school to go to Detroit tigers games and all that stuff.
[00:32:46] And you know, the bullies are trying to like keep him from going.
[00:32:48] And because they're bullies and they're like, what do you get to leave school?
[00:32:51] So really point Dexter or whatever dump his books.
[00:32:54] Yeah.
[00:32:55] Then there's like a, a very long sequence.
[00:32:58] So like the tigers are about to play the pennant, uh, right.
[00:33:01] The final game.
[00:33:01] The final game.
[00:33:02] Uh, and you know, it's, it's important that Billy's theirs that they win.
[00:33:06] And then, yeah, he's at school.
[00:33:08] He gets attacked by the bullies and he's like, he's, he's trying to leave school early
[00:33:12] and can't, and then has to like find some way to get over there.
[00:33:15] He like steals a girl's bike and like runs it, like does the whole thing.
[00:33:18] And it's just a long sequence where you're like, finally, there's some energy in this
[00:33:22] movie a little bit.
[00:33:22] Right.
[00:33:23] Where it's just like, Oh, like it's like a thumping like drum score.
[00:33:27] That's like going along with it too.
[00:33:28] It made me think of rumble fish.
[00:33:30] Yeah.
[00:33:31] Sterling.
[00:33:32] Score.
[00:33:33] Wild.
[00:33:33] Absolutely.
[00:33:34] Uh, and so it's like a race to get to the stadium, but the game's already going and
[00:33:38] Billy gets there finally, just like as Billy Young's about to go up to bat.
[00:33:42] And I think Billy like sees him in the audience or something.
[00:33:45] Um, I don't, there's something.
[00:33:47] Yeah.
[00:33:47] Cause Billy sneaks on the field earlier and plays catch early in the movie and plays catch
[00:33:52] with, or Alex plays, sneaks on the field and plays catch with Billy had left him a note
[00:33:56] or something or in his locker, he sneaks into the clubhouse and leaves a note for him.
[00:34:00] And then he, uh, says what's on the note to Billy.
[00:34:03] So now Billy knows like, Oh, this kid left me this note.
[00:34:05] And then, yeah, I think they like catch each other's eyes or something, uh, in the bottom
[00:34:10] of the ninth, the last, you know, two men on whatever, two outs, the whole thing.
[00:34:14] Um, and he gets the, the big hit for it for Alex, you know?
[00:34:18] Yes.
[00:34:18] He, he gets the hit.
[00:34:19] He scores the tigers win.
[00:34:21] Uh, and yeah, it's a very big triumphant moment.
[00:34:24] People are running out onto the field.
[00:34:25] Alex is running out on the field.
[00:34:27] And yeah, I think that, I think maybe it's that point where they catch each other's eye.
[00:34:29] Like, as being carried away heroically, uh, he's like, Hey, thanks kid.
[00:34:34] Uh, or whatever.
[00:34:35] And, uh, then the credits roll.
[00:34:37] The movie just ends.
[00:34:37] Just ends.
[00:34:38] Hard out.
[00:34:41] Which honestly more movies should do.
[00:34:43] Yeah, sure.
[00:34:44] I'm not against it.
[00:34:45] Uh, uh, it was a little weak.
[00:34:46] I thought there, I, it just felt like there was more, I guess after that, like that felt
[00:34:51] like, I know it does feel at the climax, like looking back now.
[00:34:54] Cause it's like, Oh yeah, the movie stops.
[00:34:55] Right.
[00:34:56] Um, but it kind of feels like the pre like big thing, like, cause it's not the world series.
[00:35:03] Yeah.
[00:35:03] Yeah.
[00:35:03] Yeah.
[00:35:03] Yeah.
[00:35:04] Uh, also it feels like there's still like unresolved stuff between like Alex and his
[00:35:07] mother that like, hasn't really like been resolved.
[00:35:10] Right.
[00:35:10] Yeah.
[00:35:11] He's like sneaking out.
[00:35:12] His grades are dropping like all this stuff.
[00:35:14] Uh, and I forget exactly.
[00:35:16] They have some conversation about it.
[00:35:18] Uh, and she's about how like you can't throw away your life for a stupid baseball game or
[00:35:22] baseball team, you know, a whole thing.
[00:35:24] Uh, but proved her wrong.
[00:35:26] I guess the tigers are going to the world series, baby, or they're at least going to
[00:35:31] the division players that'll maybe get them to the world.
[00:35:35] Did you see that story?
[00:35:36] Um, it was going around and when the horizon was cut was out, um, or part one.
[00:35:42] Right.
[00:35:42] With, uh, an interview, an older interview with Kevin Costner about, is it the natural?
[00:35:46] No.
[00:35:46] What's that?
[00:35:46] The natural is a movie.
[00:35:47] Yeah.
[00:35:48] Yeah.
[00:35:48] But I think that's Robert Redford.
[00:35:49] I don't think.
[00:35:50] Oh, but you're thinking of a Costner movie.
[00:35:51] You think you feel the dreams?
[00:35:52] Uh, are you thinking for love of the game?
[00:35:54] Are you thinking maybe Durham?
[00:35:56] Uh, Kevin Costner did a few baseball movies.
[00:35:58] Yeah.
[00:35:59] It's either bull Durham or for love of the game.
[00:36:01] Uh, but okay.
[00:36:02] For love of the game.
[00:36:02] Underrated.
[00:36:03] I like the movie a lot.
[00:36:04] I don't know if I've seen it.
[00:36:05] It's a Sam Raimi joint.
[00:36:06] Oh shit.
[00:36:07] Well, that's crazy.
[00:36:09] Put that on the list for Mike makes my clutch next year.
[00:36:13] Uh, when, when does baseball season started to be a perfect one to, uh,
[00:36:15] uh, usually March or April.
[00:36:18] Okay.
[00:36:18] Well, it's real early now, but anyway, he was telling the story.
[00:36:21] It's one of the games.
[00:36:22] I it's, it's, uh, one of the movies that ends with them.
[00:36:25] I think he's on the Tigers actually in the story.
[00:36:27] Anyway.
[00:36:28] Okay.
[00:36:29] Um, is that bull Durham?
[00:36:30] Anyway, whatever.
[00:36:31] Where they're playing the Yankees.
[00:36:32] Bull Durham's like a minor league team.
[00:36:33] I think he's on.
[00:36:34] Okay.
[00:36:34] So then maybe it's for love of the game.
[00:36:35] They're playing the Yankees and they beat the Yankees at the end of the
[00:36:38] movie.
[00:36:39] They wanted to film in Yankee stadium, which meant George Steinbrenner had to
[00:36:41] approve it.
[00:36:43] Uh, like this is for love of the game.
[00:36:44] This is for love of the game.
[00:36:45] Okay.
[00:36:45] Yeah.
[00:36:46] And George Steinbrenner wouldn't approve it because the Yankees lose in the,
[00:36:49] in the, like the final game.
[00:36:50] And so Kevin Costner gets on the phone and he's tell,
[00:36:53] tells the story about how he just like lied to George Steinbrenner.
[00:36:56] He's like, no, but that's just where the movie ends in,
[00:36:59] in the season.
[00:37:00] Yankees win the world series that year.
[00:37:03] And that's all I'm thinking about is you,
[00:37:05] like the movie ends in the regular season.
[00:37:09] Uh, and it worked like, he was like, really?
[00:37:11] They do.
[00:37:11] And he's like, oh yeah, no, it's a great, they go game seven.
[00:37:13] They go, they win the world series.
[00:37:15] It's a whole thing.
[00:37:16] Oh, okay.
[00:37:16] Interesting.
[00:37:17] And he, then he approved.
[00:37:19] That feels like a George Casanza talking to Steinbrenner in Seinfeld.
[00:37:24] Right.
[00:37:24] It's so funny.
[00:37:25] Oh yeah.
[00:37:26] Cause when the world series, the end of the movie you say, all right.
[00:37:28] Yeah, exactly.
[00:37:30] You know,
[00:37:31] our story just ends in the regular season where they lose that's that game.
[00:37:34] But that year they go to the world series.
[00:37:36] Oh, okay.
[00:37:36] Interesting.
[00:37:37] Did you ever see,
[00:37:38] there was a baseball movie called fever pitch,
[00:37:40] uh,
[00:37:40] with Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore.
[00:37:43] I have seen that.
[00:37:43] Uh,
[00:37:44] and it's about,
[00:37:45] uh,
[00:37:45] a Red Sox fan.
[00:37:46] It's about like a Red Sox.
[00:37:47] Like it's about the Boston Red Sox.
[00:37:48] Uh,
[00:37:49] and they filmed it in like 2004,
[00:37:51] I think.
[00:37:53] Uh,
[00:37:53] and so that was the year the Red Sox won the world series for the first time
[00:37:55] in like 86 years.
[00:37:57] And I remember that.
[00:37:57] I remember that very vividly.
[00:37:59] Cause you know,
[00:37:59] I was,
[00:37:59] we were a Yankees household.
[00:38:01] Right.
[00:38:01] Uh,
[00:38:02] and so I forget,
[00:38:03] were they playing the Yankees in the world series?
[00:38:04] I don't think so.
[00:38:05] Um,
[00:38:06] it was somebody else.
[00:38:06] It wouldn't have been in the world series,
[00:38:08] but maybe in the playoffs.
[00:38:09] I don't remember.
[00:38:10] Okay.
[00:38:10] Yes.
[00:38:10] But yeah.
[00:38:11] Cause I remember it was also just like a crazy,
[00:38:12] like they won the playoffs in like four games and they won the world series
[00:38:16] in four games.
[00:38:16] Like it was a quick thing.
[00:38:17] Uh,
[00:38:18] and it was the first time it had happened in 86 years.
[00:38:21] Uh,
[00:38:21] and so it was a,
[00:38:22] you know,
[00:38:22] big historic thing,
[00:38:23] but they were making the movie fever pitch and the ending of the movie was
[00:38:27] supposed to be the Red Sox losing the world series.
[00:38:29] And they were filming it at the actual world series where the Red Sox,
[00:38:33] uh,
[00:38:34] were playing and they won and they had to change the ending of the movie.
[00:38:38] That's crazy.
[00:38:40] Uh,
[00:38:41] which is kind of nuts.
[00:38:42] And I remember actually like Red Sox fans,
[00:38:44] like some of them being like partially a little miffed about them filming there
[00:38:47] because it was like,
[00:38:48] Oh,
[00:38:48] you're encroaching on our historic moments of the Red Sox winning for the first
[00:38:52] time in 86 years.
[00:38:54] That's wild.
[00:38:55] I was a Yankees household as a kid.
[00:38:56] So I was like,
[00:38:57] that was the perfect time to be a Yankees fan.
[00:38:58] Cause they won all the time.
[00:39:00] For sure.
[00:39:01] Yeah.
[00:39:01] What a prime time baby,
[00:39:02] late nineties,
[00:39:02] early two thousands.
[00:39:03] Like you had nothing but Yankees wins.
[00:39:05] Uh,
[00:39:05] and it was funny.
[00:39:06] I was at,
[00:39:07] uh,
[00:39:07] a green day concert in Seattle,
[00:39:08] uh,
[00:39:09] last week at T-Mobile park,
[00:39:11] which where the Mariners play.
[00:39:12] Uh,
[00:39:12] and so when I go to a baseball stadium,
[00:39:14] like I haven't gone to in a while,
[00:39:16] but like I would go to Yankee stadium and be like,
[00:39:17] Oh,
[00:39:17] look at all these banners of like all their world series wins.
[00:39:19] And I went to this Mariner stadium and I was like,
[00:39:22] Oh yes.
[00:39:22] An ALCS win 20 years.
[00:39:26] Oops.
[00:39:27] It's like,
[00:39:27] this is a little sad.
[00:39:31] Uh,
[00:39:31] anyway,
[00:39:33] sorry,
[00:39:33] Mariners fans,
[00:39:34] I guess anything else,
[00:39:35] anything else about tiger town that stands out to you,
[00:39:37] Mike?
[00:39:37] Not really,
[00:39:38] not in particular.
[00:39:38] Like we said,
[00:39:39] not a,
[00:39:39] not a whole lot happens necessarily.
[00:39:41] There's not a lot of traumatic tension or drive really until that last 20
[00:39:44] minutes or if it's even 20 minutes,
[00:39:46] I don't think.
[00:39:46] Sure.
[00:39:47] Well,
[00:39:47] I think the montage,
[00:39:49] that whole sequence,
[00:39:49] um,
[00:39:50] when he realizes that if he goes and praise or whatever,
[00:39:52] he uses the force that they win.
[00:39:55] Um,
[00:39:55] so now he's got to go to every game and that whole stuff is pretty
[00:39:58] exciting and fun.
[00:39:59] And they're doing the fake commercials and all that.
[00:40:01] And then that final like sprint to the stadium.
[00:40:03] Cause the bullies like tear up his ticket and steal his money or
[00:40:06] something.
[00:40:07] They,
[00:40:07] they do something like that or just like are pinning them down.
[00:40:10] So he can't get there in time.
[00:40:11] Um,
[00:40:12] and then yeah,
[00:40:12] he's got that sprint and he's chasing the bus and he's stealing
[00:40:14] bikes and he's running through lots and he's doing all this stuff.
[00:40:18] It's,
[00:40:18] it's all right.
[00:40:19] It gets,
[00:40:19] it gets somewhere,
[00:40:20] but it takes a long time to get there and it's only a 75 minute movie.
[00:40:24] Yes.
[00:40:24] It's a,
[00:40:25] it's not really worth it in the end,
[00:40:26] uh,
[00:40:26] which is a little bit of a bummer.
[00:40:27] Yeah.
[00:40:27] It's not,
[00:40:28] it's not something we would have seeked out,
[00:40:29] but now we've seen it.
[00:40:30] And now we can say we've seen the very first Disney channel original movie.
[00:40:34] That's right.
[00:40:35] I wish,
[00:40:35] I wish there was a way on letterbox and maybe there is if you pay for it,
[00:40:38] um,
[00:40:39] to sort your diary by,
[00:40:41] by number of views.
[00:40:42] Cause I feel like this movie had less than 300 logs.
[00:40:46] Oh yeah.
[00:40:47] Uh,
[00:40:47] on letterbox.
[00:40:47] And I feel like we've encountered a lot of those this season where it's like,
[00:40:51] we're one of the hundred people that have logged this movie or whatever,
[00:40:54] you know,
[00:40:55] whatever it was.
[00:40:55] Yeah.
[00:40:56] I think,
[00:40:56] was it assignment?
[00:40:57] Munich had less than at 25 or something like that.
[00:41:00] Something like that.
[00:41:00] Yeah.
[00:41:01] It was 20 or two of them were us.
[00:41:03] Um,
[00:41:03] so yeah,
[00:41:04] it would just be interesting to see.
[00:41:06] Cause like you said,
[00:41:07] jaws and then,
[00:41:09] and then stuff like this.
[00:41:10] Yes.
[00:41:10] Yeah,
[00:41:11] absolutely.
[00:41:11] Uh,
[00:41:12] should we go to,
[00:41:12] should we speak in a letterbox?
[00:41:13] Should we do some letterbox reviews here,
[00:41:14] Mike?
[00:41:14] Yes.
[00:41:15] I would love to know what the son of the director has to say.
[00:41:17] Yes.
[00:41:18] We'll get to his in a few minutes or well in a,
[00:41:20] you know,
[00:41:21] at the end of the thing,
[00:41:21] he's the last one is what I'm saying.
[00:41:23] I got a few reviews here for tiger town from letterbox.
[00:41:26] The first of which,
[00:41:27] uh,
[00:41:27] is from Luke Bonanno who gave it a three and a half star review.
[00:41:31] Two interesting tidbits about the movie that are forever etched in my
[00:41:34] mind.
[00:41:34] One,
[00:41:35] this was announced for a DVD release back in the fall of 2004,
[00:41:39] back when catalog Disney DVDs were 90% of what I reviewed.
[00:41:43] It inexplicably got pulled from the schedule and the DVD still has never,
[00:41:47] ever materialized.
[00:41:48] So strange.
[00:41:49] The YouTube rip is pretty unsightly.
[00:41:50] So I wish Disney would make it available in some kind of proper form.
[00:41:53] Hello,
[00:41:54] Disney plus if fuzz bucket and the boogity movies can be on there.
[00:41:58] So can this,
[00:42:00] uh,
[00:42:00] two,
[00:42:01] this TV movie ended up getting a Detroit area theatrical release the year,
[00:42:04] the year after it first aired,
[00:42:06] which coincidentally happened to be the tiger's best season in forever.
[00:42:09] Deathbed.
[00:42:10] Dad was really onto something regarding believing.
[00:42:13] You just got to believe you just got to believe it's all it takes.
[00:42:16] Uh,
[00:42:16] here was a two and a half star review from Jeremy hall.
[00:42:19] I have to admit that I too have attempted to use the force while in the
[00:42:23] stands at the ballpark.
[00:42:25] And then he tries to use it in his,
[00:42:27] out as like milk and is in the lunchroom.
[00:42:28] Remember?
[00:42:29] Like,
[00:42:30] okay.
[00:42:30] Interesting.
[00:42:32] Like he's,
[00:42:32] this is actually the beginning of fire starter or something.
[00:42:35] This is actually what's happening.
[00:42:37] Uh,
[00:42:37] here's a three star review from Thomas ring doll.
[00:42:40] Watch this on the Disney channel back in 1983 and gave it a rewatch on
[00:42:43] YouTube.
[00:42:43] This isn't great,
[00:42:44] but it's a fun little 90 minutes.
[00:42:46] It's weird how Disney just decides for us what we can see on the app when it
[00:42:49] doesn't cost them anything to toss it on there.
[00:42:52] I'm glad we're all righteously indignant about this.
[00:42:55] Oh yeah.
[00:42:55] It absolutely should be.
[00:42:56] Yeah.
[00:42:57] If we're not constantly mad at Disney,
[00:42:59] what are we doing?
[00:43:00] That's even the point.
[00:43:00] Yeah.
[00:43:01] Uh,
[00:43:02] and finally here's a three and a half star review from Joey Shapiro,
[00:43:05] the son of director Alan Shapiro.
[00:43:08] I'm a little biased because my father wrote and directed this,
[00:43:11] but I'll be honest.
[00:43:12] I did think it was good.
[00:43:13] My dad loves bicycle thieves and the red balloon.
[00:43:16] And I can see so much of those movies in both the very over references,
[00:43:20] the Italian restaurant scene and the smaller stylistic ticks,
[00:43:24] how light on dialogue it is,
[00:43:25] all the scenes of a kid trying to get across Detroit as fast as he can.
[00:43:27] And it's sweet.
[00:43:29] Go dad.
[00:43:31] Go dad.
[00:43:32] Indeed.
[00:43:32] And yeah,
[00:43:33] I think that,
[00:43:33] uh,
[00:43:33] that Italian restaurant scene is pretty touching.
[00:43:35] Cause I,
[00:43:35] I did the,
[00:43:37] does the dad get laid off right before that?
[00:43:39] Right.
[00:43:39] And then before he dies,
[00:43:40] there's like something at,
[00:43:41] at the,
[00:43:42] at the factory where he works at.
[00:43:43] Right.
[00:43:43] Okay.
[00:43:43] Yeah.
[00:43:44] And they're like walking along the water,
[00:43:46] kicking rocks or whatever.
[00:43:47] And they're like,
[00:43:47] they walk past a restaurant and they see people eating and they're like,
[00:43:50] Oh boy,
[00:43:51] what a life that would be.
[00:43:52] Huh?
[00:43:53] And the dad's like,
[00:43:54] Hey son,
[00:43:55] why don't we go in?
[00:43:56] And like,
[00:43:56] and they have this nice big spaghetti meal right at the restaurant.
[00:43:59] And that was like,
[00:44:00] isn't this movie about the tigers?
[00:44:02] Like what's happening?
[00:44:02] Like what's going on?
[00:44:04] We're supposed to be watching some baseball here.
[00:44:05] Yeah.
[00:44:06] This is only 75 minutes,
[00:44:08] but it is a touching scene,
[00:44:09] you know?
[00:44:10] Yes.
[00:44:10] And also another connection to paper lions sort of through our letterbox
[00:44:14] reviews,
[00:44:15] uh,
[00:44:15] our paper lion episode featured a letterbox review from the grandson of
[00:44:18] Alan Alda.
[00:44:18] That's right.
[00:44:19] Yes.
[00:44:19] Who was in the movie.
[00:44:20] Uh,
[00:44:21] and now we've got a review of tiger town from the son of the director,
[00:44:24] Alan Shapiro.
[00:44:24] So,
[00:44:25] you know,
[00:44:25] it all,
[00:44:25] it's all coming together full circle.
[00:44:27] These movies have been passed on through the generations.
[00:44:29] And that's nice.
[00:44:31] That's nice.
[00:44:31] Good for them.
[00:44:32] Uh,
[00:44:33] but all right,
[00:44:33] I think that's going to conclude our discussion on tiger town.
[00:44:35] Mike,
[00:44:36] uh,
[00:44:36] let us never speak of it again.
[00:44:37] Uh,
[00:44:39] I can't wait for this somehow to relate to another movie and we have to
[00:44:42] break it up in the,
[00:44:42] how do we keep connection?
[00:44:44] Uh,
[00:44:45] I'm are,
[00:44:45] are the flyers a Detroit team?
[00:44:47] That's Philadelphia.
[00:44:48] What's,
[00:44:48] what's,
[00:44:49] uh,
[00:44:49] what's another major Detroit team?
[00:44:51] Is there anything besides the tigers and the lions?
[00:44:53] The red wings are their hockey team.
[00:44:54] The red wings.
[00:44:55] Okay.
[00:44:55] If they're,
[00:44:55] if Roy Shatter happens to star in a red wings movie,
[00:45:00] that'd be incredible.
[00:45:01] I will talk about it.
[00:45:03] That's right.
[00:45:04] It'll be the Detroit sports trilogy that,
[00:45:06] uh,
[00:45:06] Roy Shatter is part of.
[00:45:08] Uh,
[00:45:08] all right.
[00:45:09] Mike D where can we find you online this week?
[00:45:11] You can find me at MD film blog on Twitter and letterboxd and blue sky.
[00:45:15] And if you'd like to donate to support the show,
[00:45:17] you could do that at our Kofi page,
[00:45:19] which is Kofi.com slash Mike and Mike pods,
[00:45:22] where you can donate $50 and pick a topic for a Mike and Mike,
[00:45:24] go to the movies bonus episode.
[00:45:26] Um,
[00:45:26] and if you want merch,
[00:45:28] we have merch available at a red bubble,
[00:45:29] which is Mike and Mike pods.
[00:45:31] Red bubble.
[00:45:31] Dot com.
[00:45:32] That's right.
[00:45:32] You can find me online at M Smith film blog on Twitter,
[00:45:34] Mike Smith film on letterboxd and radio Mike sandwich on Instagram.
[00:45:38] Uh,
[00:45:38] thank you for listening to complete works.
[00:45:39] I'm Mike Smith.
[00:45:40] That's my decree show.
[00:45:41] Don't forget to rate and view the show on Apple podcasts or any other podcast app.
[00:45:45] And if you want to contact us,
[00:45:46] you can tweet at us at complete works pod.
[00:45:48] That's W R K S no O in the word works.
[00:45:50] And you can find the rest of our podcast and rapture press alongside many other
[00:45:54] podcasts,
[00:45:54] all kinds of comic books and movie news and all that good stuff.
[00:45:56] Our theme song was created by Kyle Cullen,
[00:45:59] who you can reach for your own podcast themes at Kyle's podcast,
[00:46:01] themes at gmail.com.
[00:46:02] And our logo was signed by Mac V or at fearless guard on Twitter.
[00:46:06] Next week,
[00:46:07] we are talking about a sequel to one of the greatest movies ever made.
[00:46:11] And no,
[00:46:12] we are not talking about jaws two again.
[00:46:17] What are we talking about?
[00:46:17] We just did that again.
[00:46:19] That'd be great.
[00:46:19] We just do jaws three.
[00:46:21] Yeah.
[00:46:21] Roy shatter and I've been in jaws three,
[00:46:23] but sure.
[00:46:23] Why not?
[00:46:24] Uh,
[00:46:24] no,
[00:46:24] it's time for 2010 at the year we make contacts.
[00:46:27] Oh,
[00:46:27] that's right.
[00:46:28] Yes.
[00:46:29] The sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 2001,
[00:46:31] a space odyssey,
[00:46:32] uh,
[00:46:33] which Roy shatter stars in.
[00:46:34] So yeah,
[00:46:34] very excited to dig into that movie.
[00:46:36] I've seen 2010 exactly one time.
[00:46:38] I remember liking it.
[00:46:39] I thought it was pretty good.
[00:46:40] Uh,
[00:46:40] I'm really curious to revisit it.
[00:46:43] It's going to be fun.
[00:46:43] Yeah.
[00:46:44] I've never seen it before.
[00:46:44] I remember learning like there's a sequel to 2001.
[00:46:49] People forget that there is not,
[00:46:51] that there is in fact a sequel to it.
[00:46:53] I mean the book that it's based on,
[00:46:55] there are like five or six books in the series.
[00:46:57] Wow.
[00:46:57] Um,
[00:46:57] and yeah,
[00:46:58] then they go like further and further into the future and all that kind of
[00:47:01] stuff.
[00:47:02] But yeah,
[00:47:02] no,
[00:47:02] this is the direct sequel to 2001.
[00:47:04] Uh,
[00:47:05] it does feature a couple of actors who reappear in,
[00:47:08] uh,
[00:47:08] 2010.
[00:47:09] So,
[00:47:09] uh,
[00:47:10] yeah,
[00:47:10] get excited for that one.
[00:47:11] So yeah,
[00:47:11] that's going to be coming up soon.
[00:47:13] And remember to check out our other podcasts,
[00:47:14] Mike,
[00:47:14] my go to the movies for all kinds of other movie related stuff,
[00:47:17] including recent releases,
[00:47:18] ranked lists,
[00:47:19] general discussions,
[00:47:19] and a lot more.
[00:47:21] Thanks so much for listening guys.
[00:47:22] And thanks for taking a ride on the shiner side.