Groundhog Day
Hey, Do You Remember...?
Christopher Schrader
4.8 • 676 Ratings
🗓️ 9 February 2018
⏱️ 76 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's hard to pick which collaboration between Harold Ramis and Bill Murray is the best, but Groundhog Day certainly stands apart from the rest of the pack for many reasons. Unfortunately, this film is also why these two comedy titans stopped speaking to one another for two decades.
They each had their own ideas about what sort of movie they were trying to make and although that's typically a recipe for disaster, whatever push-and-pull was taking place behind the scenes somehow helped transform this into a true classic.
Topics include: an attempt at a more studio-friendly version of the script where all of the story's wonderful mysteries were explained away, other actors considered for the lead role, how this film led to an entire sub-genre of similar fare, little details buried in the background of certain scenes, how long Phil was actually trapped in this town, and much much more!
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, do you remember Groundhog Day? |
| 0:06.6 | Hello and welcome, Hey, do you remember, Hey Hey Do You Remember, a show where we reminisce about a movie or TV series we grew up with, then take off the rose tinted glasses to see how it holds up. |
| 0:32.3 | I'm Chris. |
| 0:32.9 | I'm Donna. |
| 0:33.7 | And I'm Carlos. |
| 0:34.3 | And today we're revisiting Groundhog Day. |
| 0:53.5 | Thank you. And I'm Carlos. And today we're revisiting Groundhog Day. The phrase Groundhog Day no longer means what it used to, at least not entirely. |
| 0:59.2 | Sure, there's the annual celebration that lets us know how much longer winter's going to stretch on for, |
| 1:04.0 | but these days it's more commonly used as the description of an unpleasant experience that feels repetitive and unending, |
| 1:12.1 | which might be the most dramatic example of just how indelible a mark this film has left on pop culture. But long before it |
| 1:17.6 | struck a chord with moviegoers, philosophy 101 professors, and leaders from most of the major |
| 1:23.2 | religious groups, it was all just some scattered ruminations on immortality from a newly minted |
| 1:28.4 | professional screenwriter named Danny Rubin, who was trying to develop a script that his agent could |
| 1:33.1 | use as a calling card around Hollywood. After he watched a screening of interview with the vampire, |
| 1:38.4 | Rubin began to imagine how a person might evolve over time if they were simultaneously blessed |
| 1:43.1 | and cursed with eternal life. As his |
| 1:45.8 | imagination ran wild, he began to realize that his story focused on how the world changed around such a |
| 1:51.1 | character might be too expansive, so we wondered if there was a way to narrow the scope. |
| 1:56.3 | Fortunately, he remembered a premise he'd come up with a few years prior about a man who keeps living |
| 2:00.5 | the same day over and over again. |
| 2:02.7 | There wasn't much more to the idea beyond some of the comedic possibilities it presented, |
| 2:06.5 | but by taking that more manageable setup and combining it with these heavier themes he was suddenly interested in exploring, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Christopher Schrader, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Christopher Schrader and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.