Watch This offers movie recommendations inspired by new releases, premieres, current events, or occasionally just our own inscrutable whims. This week: With the release of Andy Samberg’s Palm Springs and the latest Ghostbusters sequel getting pushed to 2021, we’re highlighting movies starring Saturday Night Live alumni.
Seems Like Old Times (1980)
“Three examples constitute a trend,” goes the journalistic adage, and movie-star pairings that happened exactly twice rarely get perceived as especially notable. (Few people liked Joe Versus The Volcano at the time—what the hell was wrong with everyone?—but its existence nonetheless helped to solidify Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan as a duo.) The world really needed one more Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn vehicle, if only to ensure that their uniquely goofy chemistry will be properly remembered. Despite having been Saturday Night Live’s first breakout success, Chase initially had real trouble anchoring big-screen comedies on his own, as anyone who’s endured Oh Heavenly Dog (admittedly co-starring Benji), Under The Rainbow (nominally co-starring Carrie Fisher) or Modern Problems (basically co-starring cocaine) will remember. Making movies opposite a foil as gifted as Hawn was one of his smartest career moves.
Seems Like Old Times, their second collaboration, wasn’t as well received as 1978’s Foul Play, and likewise tends to be less fondly remembered today. In part, that’s because it’s an unusual variation on a beloved formula. Neil Simon wrote the screenplay in homage to Hollywood’s comedies of remarriage (though Stanley Cavell hadn’t yet bestowed that name upon the subgenre), taking particular inspiration from 1942’s The Talk Of The Town, with Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, and Ronald Colman. Here, the estranged couple are Glenda (Hawn), a defense attorney with a self-destructive predisposition to helping the needy, and Nick (Chase), a terminally sarcastic writer who, in the opening scene, gets kidnapped by criminals who force him to rob a bank on their behalf. On the run from the cops, Nick turns to his ex-wife, who’s since married aspiring district attorney Ira Parks (Charles Grodin). She secretly installs Nick in their ludicrously expensive house’s guest room over the garage, attempting to help without falling for him all over again.
Grodin actually got Razzie-nominated for his supporting role in this film, which just goes to show how utterly misguided the Razzies have always been. (Other nominees that inaugural year included Brian De Palma and Stanley Kubrick, for their “terrible” work directing Dressed To Kill and The Shining, respectively.) Grodin is playing what Michael Showalter would later dub the Baxter: a perfectly nice guy whose function is to represent the unexciting, anti-romantic life that the female lead must inevitably reject. What makes Seems Like Old Times special—and perhaps frustrates some viewers—is its atypical uneasiness with that notion. Chase portrays Nick with maximum blithe smirkiness, making him too much of an arrested adolescent to seem remotely viable as a long-term mate. Grodin, meanwhile, takes Ira’s exasperation to such playful heights that he genuinely comes across as well-suited to Glenda, in his own dorky way. While the movie cheats a bit via its lame epilogue, it generally suggests that Glenda was right to divorce Nick, even though she still loves him. That’s a fairly radical idea for a romantic comedy, especially one written by Neil Simon.
Simon does throw in some of his standard one-liners (“The house looks lovely,” someone says, admiring its interior, “what have you done to it?”; Glenda’s airy reply: “We had it re-shingled”), and Seems Like Old Times gets more traditionally funny as it goes along, culminating in one of those climactic free-for-all courtroom scenes in which the flustered judge can barely keep track of what’s going on. Mostly, though, the film—directed by Jay Sandrich, who otherwise worked almost exclusively on such revered, persona-based sitcoms as The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Cosby Show—relies on the basic situation and its stars’ charisma. Hawn, in particular, rises to the occasion; Glenda spends a great deal of time attempting to prevent Ira from knowing that Nick is still around, and her efforts frequently achieve the daffy desperation of vintage Lucille Ball. (Try to ignore the fact that she spends the rest of her time struggling to rehabilitate people of color who can’t stop breaking the law. At least there’s some counterpoint courtesy of Robert Guillaume.) The film’s great failing may have been convincing Hawn and Chase that they should stay away from each other.
Availability: Seems Like Old Times is available for digital rental and/or purchase through Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, YouTube, Redbox, Fandango, Microsoft, DirecTV, and VUDU.
100 Comments
This is such a great pick, I saw this movie approximately one million times as a kid. It was one of those on regular HBO rotation. Will never forget the housekeeper going off to get her feet scraped. “Love that chicken pepperoni!”
Those are two things I also remember from watching on HBO all summer. It wasn’t until my daughter had a sports injury and they mentioned scraping. I remembered the cook’s feet scraping and finally understood what she was going to have done. Not fun for the scrape-ee!
“Well said, well spoken, B.G.”. It was frequently played on HBO’s sister channel Cinemax in the 80s and I watched it about as many times as yourself.
We must be of the same … ahem … vintage, because I too have seen this a million times for the same reason. And I freaking loved it every time! I love the exchange about taking the broom outside … “he didn’t say what he was going to clean up.” “Oh, shit.” “Maybe that was it.”
As I was reading this article, I kept getting this weird memory niggle, the kind I get when I read about something I only experienced as a child. So I am reading along, hit the mention of Charles Grodin, and think “Is this the one where the housekeeper goes to get her feet scraped?” So thank you! It is that one! I also must have watched this a thousand times when I was like 10 and then never again. I never would have realized it otherwise.
Yes, this and “Foul Play” were on all the time in the early 80s on HBO (I can still picture the set-top box with the dial) and my friend and I must have seen each over a hundred times. Love both these movies so much, and as much as I love Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn here, Charles Grodin just kills in his deadpan delivery.
Same. Even tried making Chicken Pepperoni once (the internet suggested it was like chicken cacciatore with pepperoni in…. tasty enough but not whatever Aurora made)
all the lines, including Chester’s “Mmmmm Hmmmm” were part of my home’s vocabulary growing up.
I was going to ask if this was the one where the housekeeper was going to be off to get her feet scraped (what even is that?) I get the small details of this one and the Sally Field movie with James Caan where he’s the ghost of her dead husband mixed up. (Kiss Me Goodbye) I don’t know why. They’re nothing alike except that the newly married person is being haunted (“haunted” in the case of this movie) by her previous husband and trying to hide it from the new husband.
Was re-examining this movie recently, and it made wonder why after this and the aforementioned Foul Play, why did they not make any other movies together? Was it this movie not being especially successful? Or my usual assumption that Chevy was likely an asshole and Hawn didn’t want to work with him again?But I’ve never found any stories about that. Has anyone ever seen anything that speaks to why they never worked together again?
If you are Goldie Hawn, and you have the choice between working with Chevy Chase as your co-star and working with Kurt Russell, I don’t think that is a difficult choice
Yup, Jackass or Jack Burton.
Not a difficult choice.
Foul Play and Seems Like Old Times (even though it’s 1980) both feel SO 1970s. It might have just been changing tastes in movies, Neil Simon romantic comedies were on the way out and raunchy National Lampoon movies were coming in.
I think this is a really good observation. Comedies started to move into the “irreverant” mode almost immediately thereafter (think Porky’s, Easy Money, Caddyshack, Stripes).
Goldie Hawn was playing those roles herself, wasn’t she? Especially in Private Benjamin which I just learned actually pre-dates Stripes(!)
She isn’t really irreverant in Private Benjamin, though. Just inept.
Beats me. I love Foul Play. Theme song by Barry Manilow! I constantly use the [speaking to his dog] “Go make breakfast” line.
Foul Play is one of my favorite movies that I haven’t watched in a long time.
The Scrabble scene with the two old ladies had kid me roaring!
I think what stands out to is that, in between those two films, they both had box office successes (Caddyshack, Private Benjamin) that showed they could carry a movie as the lead on their own. It also seems they have had different creative ambitions — Hawn pursued more complex and dramatic roles while Chase seem satisfied with light comedy. They were going in different directions.
Chuck Klosterman said he thinks one reason Chevy gets so much hate(other than, you know, being a giant fucking asshole) is that his refusal to step outside of his comfort zone comes across as self-loathing.
It probably doesn’t help that Chevy hasn’t seemed that happy about his choices – I think he said that he regrets leaving SNL when he did (even though career-wise it was a pretty smart decision, whatever his reasons were – if he’d stayed much longer he would have been usurped by other talented performers and the Chevy Show would have faded into memory).
I wouldn’t say Chase “carried” Caddyshack on his own. It’s much more of an ensemble piece, and of the four top-billed actors in the film, his performance is the least memorable.
I agree with your assessment, but nevertheless Chase is top billed, which is still meaningful from a business perspective. Animal House is an ensemble movie too, but its also considered a John Belushi vehicle.
Rereading my 2-3 books on the Lampoon —> SNL branch of US comedy right now…. Seems to me that Chase didn’t really do a lot of planning and that his success, and SNL’s success, was “accidental.” Not that they didn’t work hard on it and deserve it but that it became much, much, much bigger than anyone expected. That—stumbling from one thing to another—plus his rep as an asshole is probably why he didn’t do more with Hawn. One of the 2-3 books above is “Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story” which is a good read. The “four top-billed actors” were originally supposed to support the main story about a love triangle among Danny, Maggie and Tony. That story was drastically reduced in editing. Also, this was Harold Ramis first time as a director and he knew almost nothing so shooting was rocky. Plus cocaine.
I first read that as if they were books you had written. haha!What are the other two?
The SNL oral history and the Doug Kenney biography A Futile and Stupid Gesture. I only ever wrote a Masters’ Thesis and it sucked. I wouldn’t mind going back to my uni library to see if anyone ever checked it out….
That’s more than I ever wrote. I mean, I wrote a lot of essays for school and pieces for my school paper, and poems when I was a teenager (oh, they were so awful!) But, there’s nothing anyone can check out of mine.So, do colleges/universities just keep all the theses that their students write? Seems like you would run out of room eventually.
I dunno actually. It was professionally edited and bound in plain black leather and stuck on the shelves with all the other Masters’ Theses going back a while. I’m not sure if other universities do the same. Probably? It was basically regurgitating sources with some lame field work that was a poor imitation of the aforementioned sources. It added no new data to the topic. I hated grad school. The reason being, I had no idea what I wanted to do in grad school or as a career and so had nothing interesting in my grad school applications to interest any top tier institution. As a result, I wasted two years in a garbage institution/program. Well, I did get a grad degree which is enabling me to earn more money but it was the worst two years of my life by far. I was about as stressed, depressed, friendless and broke as you can get. That was a long time ago though…
“Plus cocaine” is responsible for so much in history. It’s not that I thought that Chase did much planning — as I said he didn’t seem to have much creative ambition beyond making light comedies that traded on his established persona.
Vacation was Chase’s biggest hit (I think?) but shifting to goofball husband and father probably killed any further possibility of playing a charming sarcastic cad. Plus Bill Murray did that so much better…
Also, Neil Simon totally owned the 70s but it seems like he has no legacy at all.
I think the first Fletch was a big hit for him. Then there was Spies Like Us. So it didn’t really kill his un-fatherly asshole roles. I think the Vacation series of films just defines Chase to a certain group of people because THAT’s what they remember him for.
Fletch had so much potential to be a long running franchise. There are about a dozen Fletch novels by Gregory McDonald. It could easily be rebooted with a new actor without having to rely on callbacks to Chevy Chase.
There were rumors back in the early 2000s that Jason Lee was being groomed to be the new Fletch, with Kevin Smith being associated with it in some way — writing, I think, not directing. Jason Lee could have probably pulled it off back when he was in his 30s, but I suspect at 50 he’s now too old to be considered by studios for a franchise gig like that.
A friend of mine hates the movie, but he started reading the books and loves those.
I guess. But dammit, I want a Travis McGee franchise to get its shot first.
Ryan Reynolds on line 2.
Remaking the Fletch series has been in development hell for well over two decades now. As I recall, the last serious attempt was maybe 2011 or 2014.Apparently Kevin Smith was attached at one point back in 1998 with either Jason Lee or Ben Afleck (I can’t even imagine what a mess that would have been). Jason Sudekis was apparently in pre-production as late as 2014 before everything stalled in 2018. I also have hard time picturing him as Fletch.I could easily see how this could start as a low budget comedic series starting with the prequels that would make good returns so studios would gradually increase the budget and funding. Also, though, with each film it would get just a bit darker as Fletch ages (just like the books do, but still maintain the dark comedic parts of the latter books). I haven’t read any of them in 15 years, but the whole series ends on such a dark note it’s kinda a perfect capstone to everything. Also possible: 5-6 episode limited series for each book, which sounds a whole lot more feasible. tl/dr: I’ve spent a bit of time thinking about this since around 1990.
I read that the guy who created Scrubs was supposed to do a Fletch movie with Zach Braff in the early 2000s that fell through.
I could see a Bill Laurence produced Fletch being a success, but without Braff. Braff reminds me of the main guy from Ed, the TV series that was on for a few seasons around when Scrubs first started. They have their niche and should never stray from their target audience.
Good News! We’re apparently getting Jon Hamm! https://variety.com/2020/film/news/fletch-reboot-jon-hamm-1234707111/Hamm’s got great comedic chops, I think he may be too good-looking for the role, but it’s probably the only way they could make it today: the only way you could have someone be the level of dick that Fletch requires is that if the young white women who have the power to cancel it get a sufficient moist-on for the lead.
I love Jon Hamm! You are absolutely right Hamn knows “The Funny” and most of all he is fearless about lampooning his image as a traditional handsome guy.
I’ll go with everything you said. My dad was a big fan of Gregory MacDonald. I saw the first Fletch probably right after it came out and thought it was hilarious. Imagine my surprise after reading the book. It was so much darker and while it had a few (dark) comedic elements, it still made me a fan of the books as well. I always found it interesting that for the three prequel Fletch novels, MacDonald played into the character that Chase portrayed in the two movies (Fletch Lives has its moments) rather than the one he initially created.
As I say up above, my friend hates the movies but is a big fan of the books. I don’t think he read the prequels.
Hasn’t Chevy Chase’s achilles heel always been that he’s a complete asshole? People with other options didn’t usually go back for seconds.All you have to do is watch that shot of Pierce falling into the drumset for seemingly twenty minutes to know there has to be another reason the guy doesn’t get hired.
Yeah but people are much more accepting of a good looking asshole in his 30s than a chubby bald asshole in his 60s. I don’t think that reputation hurt his career as much as you might think, he had plenty of opportunities.
I also don’t think being an asshole was as much of a detriment then as now, men being arrogant sarcastic pricks seemed to be in vogue in the 70s and 80s.
He did have a good 1980s, less so thereafter. Somebody recently said Memoirs of an Invisible Man is terrible, I only remember the bubble gum.
I’d say Memoirs of an Invisible Man was extremely underrated, and was Chase’s last good film work—in a mostly dramatic role, no less. The movie smartly gives us a Chevy Chase-like character, and then strips him of all the worldly & personal connections he once snarked at and held at semi-hostile arm’s length. The results are surprisingly affecting. And as usual, Sam Neill elevates things.
It might also be John Carpenter’s good film work. (Though I’ve heard positive things about “The Ward”.)
No, you heard wrong. The Ward was ultimately forgettable, completely devoid of any of Carpenter’s staples.
I seem to remember hearing that Chase wanted to play MEMOIRS more seriously, but was pressured to deliver more typecast funny business.
Didn’t know that! But even if so, his character’s situation gives the role plenty of inherent pathos, and Chase’s performance isn’t so broad as to make anyone forget that.
I figure that Hollywood will let you be a huge pain in the ass right up until the point that your movies stop making money. Then you’re done. Chase got off to a great start, but his career slowly started to sag into a long series of mediocre, mostly forgettable efforts. When appearing in Fletch, he still seemed like a movie star. But the next year, in Spies Like Us and The Three Amigos, he was starting to look like old news. That’s when being a famous asshole really cost him – at the point in his career when he needed someone to choose him over a number of viable replacements, everyone hated him. All his bridges were burned, and the good scripts started to go to different actors.
>Yeah but people are much more accepting of a good looking asshole in his 30s than a chubby bald asshole in his 60s. Funny, that.
Yes, but the question is, is this why Goldie Hawn never worked with him again.I mean, you’ll notice Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman never worked together again after Kramer vs. Kramer. I’m pretty sure that’s not because they were never asked to.
Who knows? Chase is known as an asshole but I don’t think he has a reputation for being a sexual predator or anything like that, he’s just an arrogant prick (who actually comes from tremendous wealth so.. big surprise) and that’s only gotten worse with age, especially as his movie career slowed down and his talk show was a huge disaster that’s still made fun of.. Maybe he and Hawn just weren’t offered more movies together and went their separate ways, maybe they just wanted to do different things… there doesn’t have to be a huge scandal there? I mean I wouldn’t disbelieve it if there was but all I’ve seen in this article and the comments is speculation.
Does Dustin Hoffman have a reputation of being a sexual predator? I hadn’t heard that. I had head that he is a dick, especially with his method acting and he treated Meryl Streep horribly on the set of Kramer vs Kramer. Was pretty shitty to the kid who played their son, too. So, I just figured since Chase has the reputation of being kind of a dick, maybe after the second movie, Hawn said, “You know, I really don’t want to work with him anymore.” It is just speculation, that’s true. I mean, for all I know, the reason Streep and Hoffman haven’t worked together since the Kramer movie (outside of, apparently, the Lemony Snicket movie, but I suspect since he is uncredited his role was small and they didn’t actually work together) is because of his dickish behavior (which is not speculation.) Maybe they just never got offered anything else together. But, considering the level of actors they are, it is pretty telling that they never worked together again.
I came to make this very comment. The simple answer is that no one really liked working with such an asshole. There are no real good stories I have ever heard about working with him. The best you get is a carefully worded response about how much comedic talent he had and how funny he could be on screen.
I mean, eventually you just burn all of your bridges.
God, that drumset gag is so, so good. I remember Chase’s slapstick gifts from old reruns of SNL, but there’s still something special about an old man almost casually stumbling into all those drums.
just going to say that it’s not about him being old. Joel McHale took about a five second run at some Chevy Chase physical comedy as Chevy Chase in the massively underwhelming movie about Lampoon. But it’s not about being old or young or anything, he was a unique talent, and that was enough in the 1980s when you could be a bag of shit before it ran out. I mean, Chase is going to hell for fucking with Donald Glover, if not a lot of other things.
Because Chevy Chase was/is a massive gaping asshole that no one liked working with.
“I was married to him before I was married to him.”I really like this movie, I think the screwball elements of it work well.Apparently the recipe for Aurora’s Chicken Pepperoni was a much wondered about thing, because there are several blogs that work to re-create it.
https://wildflourskitchen.com/2016/09/09/auroras-chicken-pepperoni-true-movie-character/Fun fact: the Governor goes on to play Blanche’s husband on the Golden Girls, while the judge goes on to play Rose’s boyfriend Miles.
because Chevy Chase is an arsehole and Goldie Hawn always seemed like a very nice person. Next!
I’ve been watching Community and now seeing these clips of much younger Chevy Chase is, well “jarring” isn’t exactly what I mean but, um… surprising?
I haven’t read the article (yet). But is it because Chevy is supposedly a dick to work with?
I’ve still never seen a Zagnut bar in real life.
nothing but trouble is the best chevy chase movie ever.
Such a weird and forgotten movie
I adored this movie when I was a kid. I can still quote lines from it and imagine Goldie’s voice. Between this and Private Benjamin I had a full platonic girl crush on her. It was years later when I saw a clip of Foul Play and got confused, thinking it was a scene I didn’t remember from Seems Like Old Times. Side note- I came across Charles Grodin in something recently and instantly resented his character. It took me a few days to realize that stemmed from this movie.
It’s pretty safe to resent Charles Grodin’s character in whatever he’s in. He’s SO great at playing the heel.
FANTASYYYY, MISS PIGGYECSTASYYYY, MISS PIGGY
And ya can’t even sing! Your voice was dubbed!
Yes – see HEAVEN CAN WAIT.
Can I borrow your towel for a sec? My car just hit a water buffalo.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say “Because Chevy Chase was a real jerk to work with.”
Answer: Because Chevy Chase was always a horrible person, and everyone hated him.
I’d be interested in a When Romance Met Comedy take on this. Those are always a smart, solid read. Someone tap Caroline on the digital shoulder.ETA: No offense to Mike! This was good too!
I prefer this titleWhy didn’t we get more comedies featuring Goldie Hawn?
Pardon my throwback, but you know who should have made more movies together? Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell, who only paired up twice.
I started watching this one on TV a few years back, but it just seemed too… ‘70s, for want of a better way of putting it. Foul Play, however, never fails to charm me. To the extent that I currently have the Manilow song from it bouncing around my head purely thanks to the single mention of it in this article so, you know, thanks for that Mike.
I used to watch Foul Play a lot when I was a kid. One time I was stuck somewhere without working channels for a few days and my mother and I probably watched the VHS 2-3 times. It’s been a while but I still remember so much of it, and while it is very ‘70s, some elements have come back into conversation today (like Goldie’s close friend who is there to tell viewers “rape is not an act of sex, rape is an act of violence” and gives her self-defense weapons that help her save herself, rather than just waiting for a man). The early portions with Goldie meeting the dying spy and fighting off some guy in her apartment and the closing segments at the opera and with the hilarious battle between Burgess Meredith and Rachel Roberts (Rachel is SO good in this movie – that purring voice) are my favorite parts, but I enjoy just about all of it. It’s interesting to think back on because while, of course, Goldie and Chevy did end up happily ever after, I don’t even remember the romantic portions of the film that much.
Let’s not forget Dudley Moore’s sex pad, truly inspired little cameo there.
Yes, that pretty much made him a big star in the US, back when that was still easier to do (I know he’d done some stuff here before then of course). He’s a blast; that whole sequence is such a great set piece, with the ridiculous bachelor pad and deflating blow-up doll (and Goldie’s reaction to the latter is perfect).
Dudley is brilliant, enjoy everyone!
I feel like the romantic elements were really downplayed. I also think it’s one reason why I like it so much. But, I’ll watch almost anything with Goldie Hawn. This is one of my favorites.
Chevy Chase: how to get paid for being an untalented smartass. Goldie didn’t need that mess.
People who criticize the razzies: you clearly don’t understand the razzies.
Modern Problems is a flawed movie but Chevy Chase and Dabney Coleman make that film great.
Wild guess??? Because Goldie Hawn never wanted to work with Chase again.
I think we didn’t get more of Mr. Chase back then because he was a walking dumpster fire to a degree that even drug-crazed ‘80s Hollywood became frightened by. At this time John Belushi’s death was two years away. ‘Caution’ signs warning of the consequences of self-destructive excess hadn’t gone up yet.
We got plenty of Chevy Chase in the ‘80s. His movie star career died out for the same reason everyone’s does—-too many flops in a row.
Great write up! And nice to see a “Foul Play” shout out. It’s weirdly forgotten, but I saw it as a kiddo and loved it. Recently revisited that one and reviewed it on my website and podcast.
https://cupofmoe.com/film/foul-play-1978-review
https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/celluloidfiends/id/14712914
It didn’t matter too much what the plot was about Chevy Chase acted them all in the same way. Goldie Hawn can rolll her eyes like none other, but’s schtick, not acting. She handled better parts later on and did a good job. Chase was still 1970’s Chase, but when you get older, that behavior isn’t amusing, it’s dumb.
Nahh… it’s still amusing.
While liking both, I’ve ALWAYS preferred Seems Like Old Times over Foul Play.And wait, we mention Robert Guillaume’s presence in the film but not the fact that director Jay Sandrich was a big contributor behind the classic TV series ‘Soap’?
Love this movie, and it’s so nice to see Mike write about it. What do folks make of that epilogue? My wife and I have debated this for years — who does Glenda end up with?
I own this one and watch it often. It just doesn’t get old for me. Also, Aurora! “Well she’s not outside eating chicken, that’s for sure.”
I just watched “O Heavenly Dog” for the first time recently. It’s delightful…not something “to endure.” It’s an easy movie to snobbishly dismiss (as Roger Ebert did too), but underrated, in my opinion. The four ‘80s Benji movies are all solid, lightweight, family-friendly entertainment. It’s surprisingly one of the more consistent franchises.
“I had to get my feet scraped.”
Presumably the answer is either “because Chevy Chase is colossal f***wad/insisted on being paid in cocaine and it became harder to hide the line items”, or some variation thereof.