MY FELLOW AMERICANS (1996) AND THE CROSSROADS OF THE NINETIES

Few things define an era better than its politics and films, whether borrowing too many aspects from each other, or capturing an optimism that would soon evaporate in the next decade. While it seemed to get lost in the shuffle of political satires released during the Clinton administration, Peter Segal's 1996 effort has become (for this writer) a microcosm of the post-TCM/Grumpy Old Men era, nestled in that "Cold War is over, let's rest on our laurels" cultural zeitgeist.

Jack Lemmon as Former President Russell Kramer

James Garner as Former President Matt Douglas

Dan Aykroyd as President William Haney

John Heard as Vice President Ted Matthews

Bradley Whitford as Carl Witnaur

Everett McGill as Colonel Paul Tanner,

continuing his run of playing villainous government officials.

Wilford Brimley as Joe Hollis

Lauren Bacall as Margaret Kramer

Intended as yet another Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau vehicle, My Fellow Americans came off the heels of box-office hits Grumpy Old Men (1993) and Grumpier Old Men (1995), but with Matthau having to drop out for health reasons, he would be replaced by James Garner, himself coming off a successful run of Rockford Files T.V. movie revivals.

Truth be told, Garner pulls off the "ladies man" part of Douglas

better than 90s Matthau would have.

Armed with a solid script and excellent cast, MFA is a surprisingly difficult movie to gauge in that there's so much going on in it. But while it barely made back its budget and was considered weak for a political satire, it, like many 90s mainstream comedies, comes off as more and more wide-eyed with the passage of time.

It's an old premise, but the "two enemies forced to work together" plot

is the movie's glue, given the talents of Garner and Lemmon.

Former Presidents Kramer (Lemmon) and Douglas (Garner) are drawn into an elaborate conspiracy involving bribery, assassinations, cover-ups, and a nationwide manhunt. All the while, they have to contend with both each other and the truth of their unfulfilled lives after their presidencies.

Kramer merchandises his image to all hell in the hopes

of staying relevant after his presidency.

MFA is certainly dated in more ways than one, but its script, cast, direction, and chemistry bring it well above its negative critical reception.

Lemmon somewhat outshines Garner due to having more of a character arc,

and Kramer is surprisingly earnest and vulnerable given the genre.

Douglas is hardly a stretch for Garner's (underrated) capabilities,

but he's perfectly ornery and has terrific chemistry with Lemmon.

(Especially considering the role wasn't intended for him.)

Heard is pitch perfect as Matthews, a few-years-removed riff

on former Vice President Dan Quayle.

Matthews offensively apologizing to the black golfer he hit with his ball

is unfortunately all too timeless today.

The film's only tonal off note is when Genny (Connie Ray), mother of a homeless family

that's driving Kramer and Douglas, explains how she and her husband lost their jobs

and home due to the presidents' policies. The scene is played almost totally seriously, at odds

with the earlier lighter-hearted satire. (The piano music doesn't help, either.)

Sela Ward as Kaye Griffin

Ward only has roughly two scenes in the film, which is a touch weird,

given how the film doesn't have many female characters to start with.

Did she originally have more scenes, or did I overestimate Sisters' popularity?

A more contentious point is that this movie has a serious lack of Bacall.

That, and I don't quite buy her as Lemmon's wife.

Why not have her as his badass campaign manager instead?

While stereotypical, the LGBT characters are equally as kind

as the other characters who help Kramer and Douglas,

and (spoiler!) even help save their lives.

THE ROLE OF THE NINETIES (AND DID WE ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING?)

Being a 90s kid too young to remember much of that decade, MFA represents for me a warmer, sunnier, safer time, when normalcy and optimism prevailed, and things were in a state of calm. Of course, this outlook has the downside of obscuring systemic problems that were already rife in the 90s, but were conveniently ignored by the white mainstream. 

Still, as I've said before, MFA and Kramer's character arc come off as idealistic in light of what would later happen in real life (especially as reflected in other political satires). Even just a few years later, a movie like MFA probably couldn't be made with the tone that it has. In its present state, MFA may dip into sentimentality at times, but one could make the argument that those "dips" were emblematic of the time, when treacly shows and movies were still popular.

But the microcosm I referred to at the start of this post is how MFA would turn out to be one of the last in a series of comedies aimed at an older adult audience, with casts having at least one Old Hollywood star as a headliner. 

It's mind-boggling now to think of how short the post-Grumpy Old Men era truly was. Seemingly overnight, studios were scrambling to cast Matthau and Lemmon (and/or their contemporaries) in comedy vehicles dependent on their chemistry. Adding to the trend was a renewed interest in Old Hollywood, a large chunk of which was precipitated by Ted Turner's 1986 purchase of the MGM film library. Growing cable channels not only aired classic films, but commissioned many T.V. movies starring the same actors. (Lemmon, Bacall, Gregory Peck, and George C. Scott easily come to mind.)

Lemmon and Scott would even star together in the T.V. movie adaptations of

12 Angry Men (1997) and Inherit the Wind (1999).

After 1996 (or '97) however, things would take a turn. Not only were younger stars like Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler now headlining the biggest comedy hits (and hitting that much-desired 18-35 demographic), but the culture at large was skewing younger and younger. (Even my memory of the time had the Y2K/aliens/dance music aesthetic hit virtually overnight.) Perhaps the best indicator of this shift in retrospect was Bacall, much-hyped for her nomination for The Mirror Has Two Faces, famously losing the Best Actress Oscar to Juliette Binoche. 

But even had this era lasted longer... well, I don't mean to sound morbid, but... the stars were dying. And since the 80s, in increasingly rapid succession. 

Matthau would pass away in 2000, with Lemmon following a year later.

Close friends Garner and Bacall would pass away less than a month apart in 2014.

It may have ended abruptly, but seeing this era's renewed appreciation for the stars and talents while they were still around (and seeing these films appreciated by younger folks now) warms my heart as a classic film and T.V. buff. 

AND THE REST...

In addition to its great main cast, MFA boasts a multitude of character actors and future stars, including (but not limited to)...

90s villain mainstay James Rebhorn as defense contractor Charlie Reynolds

Conchata Ferrell as a truck driver who picks up Kramer and Douglas

While MFA won't win any awards for its depiction of Mexican immigrants,

it does give a small role to Michael Peña in turn.

Comedian and future Simpsons writer Dana Gould as a sandwich delivery boy

who Douglas has tackled by his Secret Service agents as a distraction

Director Paul Feig as a reporter who gets a cramp from writing

down Matthews' cringeworthy apology

John O'Leary as Ben, the night guard of Kramer's presidential library

The legendary Esther Rolle as Rita, the White House Chef

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

Jack Lemmon as one half of a duo on the run who hides on a train?

(And with a Marilyn impersonator to boot!)

Before he would perfect the "walk and talk" on The West Wing, 

Bradley Whitford pioneered the "spin and talk" and the "jog and talk".

"Who dances at speeches with ex-Presidents? Sexual Harassment Panda!"

In case you forgot this was made in the 90s,

James Garner on the toilet singing "Macarena".

Believe it or not, The Odd Couple II would later pretty much

steal this immigrants scene (and do it noticeably worse).

It was only in screencapping for this post that I noticed these priceless

facial expressions from Bacall.

TIDBITS AND SUCH

Although I thought he did a fine job with this film, Garner and Lemmon didn't get along with director Segal, as Garner stated in his 2011 autobiography The Garner Files that Segal "was a self-appointed genius who didn't know his ass from second base and Jack and [Garner] both knew it."

Chris Roberts' podcast I Saw It On Linden Street has a greatly informative episode on MFA here.

All political satires grow more and more relevant with time, but My Fellow Americans proves that satirizing the worst of politics could at least at one time be done with a reassuring counterbalance of American optimism and sense of justice, and the film deserves more notice for its talent, its place in time, and as a companion to the Matthau/Lemmon renaissance.

"You son of a..."

Copyright © Chynna Moore

THE (SUBTLE) INFLUENCE OF "ARTHUR"

My early childhood, in hindsight, seemingly coincided with television's increased efforts to make children's programming educational, aiming for "edu-tainment", as was often stated. But every so often, a series will come along and get so much right that people are realizing the positive effect it has had on them even decades later.

Adapted from Marc Brown's popular Arthur picture book series (starting with Arthur's Nose in 1976), Arthur premiered on PBS on October 7, 1996. Initially a co-production between PBS affiliate WGBH Boston and Montreal-based film and television company Cinar, Arthur combined the mandated "lessons" with character humor, excellent voice acting, and bouts of random, absurd humor that were likely the basis for this writer's humorous leanings today.

Believe it or not, the above makes less sense in context than out of it.

And make no mistake, I remember Arthur from its very olden days. Back when the show was sponsored by Brach's Juicy Juice, the "Viewers Like You" card wasn't followed by a "Thank You", and when the title cards of each episode (one half-hour consisted of two "episodes", separated by the PBS-only "A Word from Us Kids" segment) were merely shown rather than also spoken by one of the title character's friends.

Animation errors were common in Arthur's early episodes,

chiefly the "white" (actually light pink) tongues of the characters,

which would later be corrected in subsequent episodes.

Mixing adaptations of the Brown stories with new stories, Arthur never felt forced or hamfisted in what it set out to do, all the while being hilarious for both kids and their parents watching.

"He's not a peanut! He's a pecan!"

And recently, I've come to realize Arthur's subtle, but important influence on my own writing.

THE DIVERSITY

By today's standards, Arthur's first four seasons would be considered "white-bread", but in 1996, it was practically unheard of for an animated children's show to have characters not only racially diverse (the special Arthur's Perfect Christmas would officially establish Francine Frensky as Jewish and Alan "The Brain" Powers as African-American and celebrating Hannukah and Kwanzaa, respectively), but also diverse in families (Buster Baxter's parents are amicably divorced, the Tibble Twins live with their grandmother while their mother travels for work) and economic situations (Buster and Francine live with their families in apartment buildings, Arthur's family lives in a two-story house, Muffy Crosswire lives in a giant mansion and relies on servants and butlers).

Arthur was careful to emphasize that all of these characters were friends, no matter how different their backgrounds were. Notably, since most of these changes happened with the advent of the series, Marc Brown's subsequent Arthur books and novels would adopt them as canon and in turn, adapt these episodes' stories as well.

And then there's Sue Ellen, with her introductory episode serving as an aesop about not being suspicious of "new kids" just because they're somewhat unfamiliar with (technically-New England) American things. While she often served as a way of sorts for the writers to introduce kids to folk tales, traditions, and other concepts from foreign countries, recent rewatches of her family life subtly show that she's likely part of an interracial family as well.

The key with Arthur (barring the few times where it was pivotal to the plot) is that the above was all handled subtly and as "no big deal". All these characters came from loving, committed families and had parents who were flawed but ultimately wise, kind people.

THE "GROWN-UP" REFERENCES

Arthur had countless spoofs, references, and parodies to sate parents watching it with their children, from spoofing the opening of PBS's Mystery! to referencing "The Amazing Kresblain".

Seriously, were you ever expecting this show

to have a Dr. Katz spoof, of all things?

The episode "Arthur's Cousin Catastrophe" has Arthur's "proto-hipster" Uncle Sean play charades, fielding guesses such as A Bridge Too Far and The Bridge on the River Kwai, before he answers with On the Bridges of Medieval Paris by Virginia Wylie Eggbert, asserting that "all [his] friends have read it."

Also...

21st Century Rat.

How's that for a Logo (Screen) Gem?

Basically, seasons one to four of Arthur is the place to go if you're craving kid-friendly references to mid-to-late 90s entertainment.

THE RANDOM, ABSURD HUMOR

It would prove difficult to list all of the out-of-nowhere gags that make Arthur what it is, but here are the first ones to come to mind:

Special guest star Art Garfunkel sings

"The Ballad of Buster Baxter". 

And absolutely no one knows where he came from.

Neighbor Mr. Sipple brings D.W. a cabbage because she googled

her eyes and stuck out her tongue, which where he comes from,

means "Bring me a cabbage, fast!"

Buster's swim cap, which seemingly draws

inspiration from Edric, the Guild Navigator.

To avoid drawing attention to a visiting Mr. Rogers,

Arthur resorts to putting fakes beards on himself and D.W.

Yes, folks, Slobbering Idiots

is an actual film in the Arthur universe.

An imagine spot has Joshua Redman (above) and

Yo-Yo Ma in a wrestling match, where they play

improvised instruments in hopes of beating each other.

"Buster Baxter, Cat Saver". Exactly what it says on the tin.

Another imagine spot where Francine gets so angry 

that her head literally pops off.

The random accidents that befall Lakewood Elementary principal 

Mr. Haney, with various characters at fault saying "Sorry, sir." 

as if he were a stranger, despite them knowing full well who he is.

..."Oh."

Various classic Arthur episodes are available on YouTube, whether you're looking for a nostalgia trip or curious about what launched all those internet memes in recent years.

TIDBITS AND SUCH

In 2000, production company Cinar's scandal involving off-shore funds, plagiarism, and misuse of Canadian government grants came to light. (Arthur went largely unscathed due to WGBH's involvement in production.) While English-language articles on it are relatively scant due to Cinar being based in Quebec, if you're fluent in French, I highly recommend you read up further on a story that's been largely forgotten in the English-speaking world.

Former head writer Joe Fallon wrote and performed Arthur's original ear worm "Crazy Bus", though this writer prefers the rendition by Yo-Yo Ma and Joshua Redman.

Copyright © Chynna Moore