Episode 179 - Second Sight: LIVE!

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

Just a quick open question to the board, because I wondered about this while I watched:

 

So, this guy ...

 

... sex symbol, yes or no?

 

The movie exists in a world where nuns will leave The Calling for him, and single, alone women are not completely freaked out when he approaches them in a diner declaring intimate details about their identities and lives. Not to mention, Dan Fielding on Night Court is a total womanizer who meets and sleeps with a different woman every episode.

 

I feel unqualified to opine on this because 1) I find nearly everything about fashion and sexuality in the 80s totally repugnant and 2) I know we're dealing with pre-Bechdel movie-making sensibilities here, and so EVERY man in EVERY movie is attractive to ALL women.

 

How 'bout it? Who out there longs for Larroquette's long-waisted love?

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

On the poster, that's a flying saucer right? Could there possibly have been an alien subplot that was cut? It seems unlikely given the writer strike but its such a dumb thing to put in the promotions for a movie with nothing about aliens in it.

WOW, you're right!

 

Plus, there's a dog on the poster ... was there ever a dog in the film?

[tomspanks 9039]

On the poster, that's a flying saucer right? Could there possibly have been an alien subplot that was cut? It seems unlikely given the writer strike but its such a dumb thing to put in the promotions for a movie with nothing about aliens in it.

 

I seriously thought it was a lampshade at first. But it looks more like a floating black hole?

 

Just a quick open question to the board, because I wondered about this while I watched: So, this guy ...

... sex symbol, yes or no?

The movie exists in a world where nuns will leave The Calling for him, and single, alone women are not completely freaked out when he approaches them in a diner declaring intimate details about their identities and lives. Not to mention, Dan Fielding on Night Court is a total womanizer who meets and sleeps with a different woman every episode. I feel unqualified to opine on this because 1) I find nearly everything about fashion and sexuality in the 80s totally repugnant and 2) I know we're dealing with pre-Bechdel movie-making sensibilities here, and so EVERY man in EVERY movie is attractive to ALL women. How 'bout it? Who out there longs for Larroquette's long-waisted love?

 

Sorry, no.

[grudlian. 4725]

Just a quick open question to the board, because I wondered about this while I watched:

 

So, this guy ...

 

... sex symbol, yes or no?

 

The movie exists in a world where nuns will leave The Calling for him, and single, alone women are not completely freaked out when he approaches them in a diner declaring intimate details about their identities and lives. Not to mention, Dan Fielding on Night Court is a total womanizer who meets and sleeps with a different woman every episode.

 

I feel unqualified to opine on this because 1) I find nearly everything about fashion and sexuality in the 80s totally repugnant and 2) I know we're dealing with pre-Bechdel movie-making sensibilities here, and so EVERY man in EVERY movie is attractive to ALL women.

 

How 'bout it? Who out there longs for Larroquette's long-waisted love?

I've sen a friend of a friend say they thought John Larroquette was really hot. She is the only person I've ever actually heard say that.

 

Im curious about that because the lecherous scumbag want Dan's original personality. He was originally just conservative and mildly horny. It wasn't untilI season 2 or 3 that he really took off as as sleaze bag.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Just a quick open question to the board, because I wondered about this while I watched:

 

So, this guy ...

 

... sex symbol, yes or no?

 

The movie exists in a world where nuns will leave The Calling for him, and single, alone women are not completely freaked out when he approaches them in a diner declaring intimate details about their identities and lives. Not to mention, Dan Fielding on Night Court is a total womanizer who meets and sleeps with a different woman every episode.

 

I feel unqualified to opine on this because 1) I find nearly everything about fashion and sexuality in the 80s totally repugnant and 2) I know we're dealing with pre-Bechdel movie-making sensibilities here, and so EVERY man in EVERY movie is attractive to ALL women.

 

How 'bout it? Who out there longs for Larroquette's long-waisted love?

According to Janet Varney, yes

 

I was just thinking about how she would've been a fantastic guest just cause of her love for John Larroquette lmao

[Cameron H. 23786]

(FORUM FAUX PAS: I haven't had a chance to listen to the episode yet, but since y’all are talking about the poster already...Anyway, I apologize if anything I'm about to say was covered in the episode.)

 

Something I found bizarre about the movie poster is the need for Wills to be carrying TWO guns! He's got one in his hand and one holstered at his belt.

 

 

I suspect the original image the gun was in his belt and the artist was told to make the gun more "obvious," and then forgot to fix the original image. As it stands - I don't know - it just seems sort of...excessive. Yes, he carries a gun in the movie, but it's not like he's "the gun guy" or anything.

 

Also, was anyone else as dumbfounded as me that when they were in the strip club and the kidnappers told WIlls to "drop his weapon," instead of actually dropping it on the ground they allow him to just re-holster it? What the fuck? When you have your opponent dead to rights, maybe you don't let them remain armed... Was anyone in this movie not a Grade-A fuck-up?

[JonathanVik 37]

Anyone else thought that Bobby was a girl at first? That long hair really threw me off.

[Cameron H. 23786]

Anyone else thought that Bobby was a girl at first?

 

[PollyDarton 1807]

On the poster, that's a flying saucer right? Could there possibly have been an alien subplot that was cut? It seems unlikely given the writer strike but its such a dumb thing to put in the promotions for a movie with nothing about aliens in it.

I would be totes into an alien side story... but I think that's the giant manhole from the cold open.

 

 

So, this guy ...

 

... sex symbol, yes or no?

 

I could get there.

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

What really confused me, is how the film portrays the Catholic Church (in a very religious town) as totally being cool with hiring psychics. I'm not at all religious, but even I knew that believing in anything other than God, is a big No No.

 

A quick google search lead me to this POV:

"To try to discover the future through palm reading, tarot cards, or some other form of fortunetelling, or to try to control the future through black magic, witchcraft, or sorcery violates the first commandment."

 

I don't care what you believe in, but anything that violates the 1st thing you are expected to follow or preach... is some shit you shouldn't be messing with. Ha!

 

 

source: http://catholicstrai...rs-and-witches/

 

Yeah that is all devil stuff so it is weird that the Church is involved with this detective agency.

 

The other Catholic correction I have is they kept calling her a "nun in training" and I believe the word for that is novice.

 

Oh and here's another nun related c&o that I worry will blow a hole in "Nundercover." When I was at Catholic school they told us to call habited individuals we saw outside "sisters" (such as the teachers). I was told that only the cloistered women were to be called "nuns." So I am not sure you could go undercover if you were a nun, unless you never left the convent.

 

I looked it up on Wikipedia and it says, "The 1917 Code of Canon Law reserved the term "nun" for religious women who took solemn vows or who, while being allowed in some places to take simple vows, belonged to institutes whose vows were normally solemn." And those words are English but they make no sense to me. Even after I looked up a "Solemn Vow" (a religious vow concerned with an action or abstaining from an action???).

 

 

ETA: I am from NY so I don't want to be stereotypical and start a beef with Boston, but only one second opinion song? When I was at the Jazz Singer ep we had like six and all but the guy with the guitar was cut out. Get it together, Boston.

[tomspanks 9039]

I could get there.

 

You'll have to take me along, bc I seem to have lost the map.

[PollyDarton 1807]

Wow you guys... I mean... Please just watch the the first minute of this if you can. It's when Pinchot hosted fucking Saturday Night Live. The whole thing has to be the worst monologue I have ever seen on this show and that's saying something.

https://www.nbc.com/...monologue/n9536

[ChunkStyle 1160]

In a battle between the last two HDTGM heroes, Superman and Bobby McGee, who wins the contest of on the spot made up powers to serve the plot? It is close but I think Bobby McGee takes it. Having a boring character next to him to name and narrate his actions puts Bobby over the top I think.

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

I could get there.

Genuine curiosity ... what would it take?

 

Oh and here's another nun related c&o that I worry will blow a hole in "Nundercover." When I was at Catholic school they told us to call habited individuals we saw outside "sisters" (such as the teachers). I was told that only the cloistered women were to be called "nuns." So I am not sure you could go undercover if you were a nun, unless you never left the convent.

I can't decide whether it would be easy or difficult to go incognito as a nun in your own convent. Maybe she went "nundercover" in a different convent?

In a battle between the last two HDTGM heroes, Superman and Bobby McGee, who wins the contest of on the spot made up powers to serve the plot? It is close but I think Bobby McGee takes it. Having a boring character next to him to name and narrate his actions puts Bobby over the top I think.

Isn't Bobby basically a god? He is telekinetic, telepathic, empathic, omniscient, and a spiritual medium, plus has the ability to heal. The only biblical powers he seems to lack are the power to create and to transubstantiate. His powers may seem convenient but they don't have any evident limits so I'd say it could be more than just plot needs. Meanwhile, Superman's "masonry breath" power is straight out of the screenwriter's ass.

 

If Bobby is a god, that means he could be Superman's creator ... can a god create a hero so powerful that he, himself, cannot defeat them?

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

Wow you guys... I mean... Please just watch the the first minute of this if you can. It's when Pinchot hosted fucking Saturday Night Live. The whole thing has to be the worst monologue I have ever seen on this show and that's saying something.

https://www.nbc.com/...monologue/n9536

Is he trying to do some kind of Kaufman-esque "the joke is on the audience" monologue, where he just gets off on how uncomfortable he makes the audience through how unfunny he's being?

 

That was ... weird, for sure.

[grudlian. 4725]

 

You'll have to take me along, bc I seem to have lost the map.

Are we arguing John Larroquette is not a good looking man? Or just not a sex symbol?

 

I'd argue he is attractive. The posted photo is pretty 1980s and that may not be appealing 30 years later. I'm sure middle aged women in the 1980s probably thought he was pretty good looking. Looking at a recent picture of him, I'd say he looks better now.

 

 

I'm not sure John Larroquette was ever really marketed as a sex symbol. Maybe I'm splitting hairs on the definition of sex symbol. Dan Fielding (and I think that's where this reputation truly comes from) had a lot of sex with a lot of different women. He was also portrayed as being desperate, getting turned down or slapped by disgusted women he approached, sleeping with blowup dolls and, I think, prostitutes on occasion. Not really sex symbol behavior or reputation. Especially if you compare him to other middle aged men sex symbols of the 1980s like Tom Selleck, Harrison Ford, Richard Gere or Burt Reynolds.

 

The closest modern equivalent I can think of is Barney from How I Met Your Mother. Obviously, it's a bit different since we know Neil Patrick Harris is gay, but was he pushed as a sex symbol to women in the early days of How I Met Your Mother?

[FrancisRizzo3 212]

So, what was cut when JSC said you better not cut that out. Because there's a pretty obvious cut there.

[tomspanks 9039]

Are we arguing John Larroquette is not a good looking man? Or just not a sex symbol?

 

The latter.

[PollyDarton 1807]

I'm not sure John Larroquette was ever really marketed as a sex symbol. Maybe I'm splitting hairs on the definition of sex symbol. Dan Fielding (and I think that's where this reputation truly comes from) had a lot of sex with a lot of different women. He was also portrayed as being desperate, getting turned down or slapped by disgusted women he approached, sleeping with blowup dolls and, I think, prostitutes on occasion. Not really sex symbol behavior or reputation. Especially if you compare him to other middle aged men sex symbols of the 1980s like Tom Selleck, Harrison Ford, Richard Gere or Burt Reynolds.

 

The closest modern equivalent I can think of is Barney from How I Met Your Mother. Obviously, it's a bit different since we know Neil Patrick Harris is gay, but was he pushed as a sex symbol to women in the early days of How I Met Your Mother?

 

Well... there's a difference between being sexy and being horny maybe? 80s Sitcoms have a great tradition of characters who were horny AF, and Dan Fielding is a great example. There was Sam Malone, Blanche Devereaux, Mona on Who's the Boss, David Leisure's character on Empty Nest... I'm sure there's more. Are these characters sex symbols or just lusty bastards? Does acting horny make you sexy?

[PollyDarton 1807]

You'll have to take me along, bc I seem to have lost the map.

Genuine curiosity ... what would it take?

 

Laroquette is tall with boyish charms... he's a lovable scamp. He kind of looks like a teddy bear and he's likable.

 

Is he trying to do some kind of Kaufman-esque "the joke is on the audience" monologue, where he just gets off on how uncomfortable he makes the audience through how unfunny he's being?

 

That was ... weird, for sure.

 

It's such a strange and almost arrogant monologue. I wonder if he would have done that monologue if he had known it would be the only time he would ever be the host of SNL. You can tell, he - a man who is ultimately The Dexy's Midnight Runners of actors - takes this shit REALLY seriously.

[grudlian. 4725]

 

Well... there's a difference between being sexy and being horny maybe? 80s Sitcoms have a great tradition of characters who were horny AF, and Dan Fielding is a great example. There was Sam Malone, Blanche Devereaux, Mona on Who's the Boss, David Leisure's character on Empty Nest... I'm sure there's more. Are these characters sex symbols or just lusty bastards? Does acting horny make you sexy?

All this for sure.

 

John Larroquette is handsome. I read an interview with him from the last couple years and he seemed intelligent, erudite, very bookish and well read while still down to earth. Maybe if he weren't Dan Fielding he could have been?

 

To maybe make this a little more on topic: Why wouldn't Stuart Pankin just keep goobers on him at all times? Seems like the kind of thing you wouldn't leave up to chance if it's the only way to calm down an empath.

[EvRobert 1684]

Circling back to this

 

Quick correction: Patricia Resnick was the writer of the film, and she retained the services of the psychic that served as technical advisor. She's not the psychic herself as Paul had stated.

 

Patricia Resnick wrote 9-to-5. The co-writer on this, Tom Schulman wrote Dead Poet's Society.

 

Tom Schulman sold the rights to Dead Poets Society on the SAME DAY he sold the rights to Second Sight.

[Cam Bert 8145]

So they complained that Bobby McGee is a terrible name choice but the full name of John Larroquette's character is Wilbur Wills which I would argue is just as bad if not worse.

[SeaSkunk 212]

 

Well... there's a difference between being sexy and being horny maybe? 80s Sitcoms have a great tradition of characters who were horny AF, and Dan Fielding is a great example. There was Sam Malone, Blanche Devereaux, Mona on Who's the Boss, David Leisure's character on Empty Nest... I'm sure there's more. Are these characters sex symbols or just lusty bastards? Does acting horny make you sexy?

 

Also, sexy in the eighties seemed to involve men with a lot of body hair (Selleck, Hasselhoff) and Fielding seems like he fits that bill. I don't want to find hair everywhere in my house unless I have a dog or a cat, so it's a no for me.

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

I'd argue he is attractive. The posted photo is pretty 1980s and that may not be appealing 30 years later. I'm sure middle aged women in the 1980s probably thought he was pretty good looking. Looking at a recent picture of him, I'd say he looks better now.

 

I'm not sure John Larroquette was ever really marketed as a sex symbol. Maybe I'm splitting hairs on the definition of sex symbol. Dan Fielding (and I think that's where this reputation truly comes from) had a lot of sex with a lot of different women. He was also portrayed as being desperate, getting turned down or slapped by disgusted women he approached, sleeping with blowup dolls and, I think, prostitutes on occasion. Not really sex symbol behavior or reputation. Especially if you compare him to other middle aged men sex symbols of the 1980s like Tom Selleck, Harrison Ford, Richard Gere or Burt Reynolds.

I picked that photo because he was at the height of things then. You're probably right that Dan Fielding was more hapless than I really remember.

 

To maybe make this a little more on topic: Why wouldn't Stuart Pankin just keep goobers on him at all times? Seems like the kind of thing you wouldn't leave up to chance if it's the only way to calm down an empath.

He does at one point have a totally open container of them that he spills during a car chase. Lidless tupperware seems an odd choice of Goober conveyance when there are ziplock bags in the world.

 

It's such a strange and almost arrogant monologue. I wonder if he would have done that monologue if he had known it would be the only time he would ever be the host of SNL. You can tell, he - a man who is ultimately The Dexy's Midnight Runners of actors - takes this shit REALLY seriously.

Anyone who spends three months studying real-life psychics and comes up with the character of Bobby McGee clearly has no sense of humor about himself.

 

I can't tell if him correcting Don Pardo is supposed to be a joke. Because he mispronounces "show" right after.