 Hello, and welcome to Release Date Rewind. My name is Marc J. Parker, and I am a film lover, filmmaker, film celebrator. And normally this is an audio podcast, wherever you get your podcasts on your favorite apps. But thanks to Portland Media Center, you are about to watch the video component of this show where I celebrate movie anniversaries with my friends. Each month I usually talk about two different movies that I love with different friends, and we talk about the making of the movies, Trivia, any fun memories associated with them. So I hope you enjoy, because now it's time to rewind. Well, I am so, so happy to be reunited with my friend. She's been on the show before. She's back. We have Solana Sorrento in the house. Hello. Hi. How's it going, Solana? Good. Very good. I'm so happy to be back. You know, you were one of our most popular, well, our, as if it's me and a team, it's me. You were one of my most popular guests for real. That episode, we did back in February of last year, I can't believe it's been that long. We talked about Silence of the Lands in Hannibal, one of the best episodes. People loved it. People were like, oh my God, Solana is great. You need to have her on more. Oh, thanks. So finally, everyone, she has returned. Yes, I'm back. And we, I'm so excited to talk about this movie that stars, I know someone that you love. I love her too, but I know you love. You have been an addict for years of Madonna, wearing a Madonna shirt. And I have to say, she is so damn good in this movie, A League of Thrones. She is. She really is. They all are so good. The host is perfect, right? Yeah. They really are. Yeah. Penny Marshall is like queen. Yes. She gave Hocus Pocus, which came out a year after A League of Thrones, right? I know, yeah. The Marshall siblings, I should say. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But before we nerd all out about A League of Thrones, I want to, like, let's catch up. How's your summer been? I know we were just talking about your crazy flood. Yes. Tell me about like your mom's dance recital that you were hoping with. Oh, okay. So it was her 54th recital. Next year is the big 55. Yeah. And I did the music in the background. I, what didn't perform. Last year I am. I am. I'm dancing. Yeah. Hopefully she'll have like alumni. Yeah. I'll be tapping. I love that idea. I'll be tapping. Not ballet. Tap. Yeah. And then I did something for the two seniors because it was their last year. So I had all these baby, not baby pictures, but they started at three. And now they're 18 off the college. And of course I used, I'll remember, I should have used, used to be my playground. Oh my God. Yeah. I know. Maybe I'll use that for next year seniors. Next year. Yeah. I love, I'll remember. Yeah. That is a good song. That song is so good. So emotional. But like I got a good beat. It does. Yeah. You know, I have to admit, I don't love this used to be my playground. Does that, is that awesome? Yeah. I mean, I, I could see what you mean. I remember seeing it for the very first time, like this is like dating me now. Like, all right. I'm old. So on entertainment tonight, they were like, Madonna's going to be in this new movie about girls playing baseball. And here's a sneak peek, and she's on this, like the swing, you know, like, and I was like, I, you know, like, okay, like, but, oh yeah, I mean, it makes perfect sense that she made a song for this movie. But you know, I don't know, I don't love the song. It's not a bad song at all. It's emotional. It's like a nice kind of like ballad, but it doesn't really fit the movie for me. No. No, like playground. Okay. But not like, should be like, this used to be my field. The lyrics make sense. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. This used to be my field. Yeah. Yeah. With the girls. Yeah, you're right. Maybe not playground, but you know, the lyrics work. It's just, um, this movie is so energetic and so, I mean, it pops. And the song is very mellow that I'm like, that sounds like a really, like that would be a movie for a really sad drama. You know what I mean? Right. Yeah. Yeah. The connection, but I know it was obviously a big song. Well, that's why they did it at the credits. Cause you couldn't really put it, you know. Totally. It never really fit in any scene, even when like the sisters are fighting or any kind of like downer scene. It was, the song was too serious or something. Yeah. Yeah. But it's a nice song for sure. Yeah. Maybe I'll remember used to, would have been better for that movie. Actually. Yeah. With the whole, you know, they're older and they remember. Yeah. Well, it's crazy. I was thinking about it earlier today. Yeah. You and I have known each other later this year at the end of 2022. I'm pretty sure that will be our 15th anniversary of meeting in the basement at reason time. Yeah. I know that sounds like crazy. But the very, I know. Yes. She was in the dark corner and I screamed and she wasn't all that scary. I actually probably was cause I remember why I called you over. I don't know if you remember this. Into the darkness. I was in the dub room and I was like, all right, how do I do this? Like I can't ask anybody. And I was like, where is that kid with the blonde hair? He knows how to do it. And then I heard you. And I was like, Hey, hey, come here, come here. And then that's how I met you. And then you were really helpful. You're really nice. You're like, sure, no problem. This is how you do it. Yeah. All right. Well, now is a good time. Let's rewind so long. Let's go back 30 years ago when we were, we weren't even born yet. Yeah. I wish 30 years ago, July 1st, 1992, just a few days ago, a league of their own just celebrated 30 years of release. So when did you first see this movie, Solana? Do you remember? Well, I know, like I heard of it because of Madonna and everything, but I'm obviously not a sports person. So I wasn't like, I wasn't like, Oh, I have to say it. But so yeah, you think you rented it? Yeah. I think, but I remember the girls that I went to school with, they were like, you have to see this movie because they saw it. And then I was like, all right, I'll watch it because Madonna's in it. So then of course I loved it. And that was probably the only time ever in my life besides that and Ladybugs, I ever wanted to try to play sports. But then when I knew like it wasn't that glamorous, I was like, that's okay. Especially you probably saw two and maybe you knew this already. But like I was reading when I was researching the movie. Yeah. A lot of the actresses got hurt making it. So yeah, not glamorous, right? Yeah. Some broken noses. I think Gina Davis said like so many women were really skinning their knees. Yeah. It makes sense. Right. Like, you know, the one scene where the girl has like that big black and blue on her, on her like thigh. Yeah. That's real. Yeah. Yeah. That was like purple, red, yellow. Like that was all colors. Oh my God. Yeah. It was all the colors of the rainbow. Wow, that's good makeup. Yeah. Oh my God. But you know what's funny? I don't know if you heard about this, but what's her name? Deborah Winger? Yeah. I think Deborah. She was supposed to be Dottie. But then when she heard Madonna was in it, she wanted to like get out of it. Cause she was like. Interesting. Yeah. I knew she was like basically cast, right? Yeah. And the lead role, which is hard because I think Gina Davis is pretty perfect in this movie. Yeah. Like she looks stunning and she is so good. I wanted her to be in more stuff. But yeah, I read that Deborah Winger was in it, but I didn't know why she left. So did she have beef with Madonna? No. She just thought that like she said she didn't want it to be like an Elvis movie. Like, you know how Elvis like they always like put him in some kind of movie and it was just like more like him singing out of nowhere. Like, you know. Yeah. Because they're not really like actors. They're just stars. Yeah. Kind of dumb it down or something. Yeah. Yeah. And she said something like she worked harder than any of the other cast except Lori Petty, Deborah Winger. Oh, really? She said that. Yeah. That's what I read. And she said that she worked real hard. She went for training for like three months. And I mean, I think they all pretty much did like every single one of them. Yeah. You can feel that a lot of them worked really, really hard. And Lori Petty, like you were saying, oh my God, she she's so good in this movie. Yeah. And I think that she did. But wow. So yeah, that's really crazy. So Deborah Winger must have gotten cast before Madonna to do months of training, right? She did. And then Penny Marshall wanted Madonna because she just heard that she wanted to, you know, do more movies. And I guess she just liked her. Like why not? Right? I mean, it makes such perfect sense to have a movie about all these women and Madonna obviously was huge. Still is huge. Right. Of course. Of course. It makes total sense. And then she bailed out and she still got paid for the movie because that was in her contract. Wow. And then like, I mean, then after that they cast Gina Davis and that was perfect. Yeah. And I heard maybe, maybe this was true that yeah, Gina joined like pretty quick to shooting. Did you see that? Like she didn't have a ton of prep time. No. So that's like even more impressive all the work that she does because I don't know if she already was pretty athletic. I assume so since she didn't have a ton of prep time. Right. Yeah. That would not be me. Oh my God. No. I would love to do a movie like this if I was an actress, but are you kidding? No. Like you were saying. Yeah. Movies. I'm already like, I know. I have a stand in from like failing Jim. I know. I know. I know one of the boys kicked a soccer ball on my face and after that I was like, I remember I was trying to act all tough, but I was like, I can't say. Oh my God. I know. I've been there. Yeah. This volleyball is fun. I'm pretty decent at that. But oh, yeah. Where your, where your face is vibrating, but you're just, Yeah. No, it's cool. It's cool. But like, Yeah. You so badly need to sneeze or something. I wanted to cry and be like, I'm like, you know, Yeah. But I'll never forget that. And I was like, my nose is broke. I know it. My nose is broke, but I don't. Just like act like you don't care. And I'm like, And I'm so glad you bring up ladybugs because I talked about it. You know, I feel like it's been really fun. I feel like 1992 had such great movies, especially movies about like women and girls. Right. You know, but how amazing to have these two great comedies with, you know, female sports teams. They're so different, but they're such a great like double feature. You know, Yeah. So fun. But yeah, it was reminding me when I've never really loved baseball, honestly, like, I mean, watching a baseball game every now and then, it's been years, You don't really need to pay attention. You're outside, like, you know. Oh, I've never been to one. Oh, you've never been to one. I went to like our local one, like Tratton Thunder, it's called, like once. But I spent most of the time in the gift shop because I have a dog that is the bat boy. I was petting him with all the four year olds, like, oh. That's so perfect. Yeah. And so like, yeah. I mean, I would go to one if I had like a box, you know, air condition, food. Oh, totally. Yeah. No, yeah. Box seats are definitely where it's at. But, you know, even like on a summer evening when it's not too hot or like September, you know. Yeah. It's been fun every once in a while, every like 10 years, going to see a game and, you know, it feels very, you know, like baseball is just so like classic American. Yeah. Old fashioned, traditional. So it's kind of fun. I care more about that than like going to like a football game. I really don't care. Yeah, I know. I can't do that. No. So that's why I commend this whole cast for doing awesome action. I mean, the Gina Davis slide, I know that's not really her. I did read that that awesome like towards the end, the like catch in the slide. Yeah. That was like a stunt double. But man, oh, that's like so impressive. You know? Yeah. This summer, Tom Hanks is managing the impossible, the Rockford Peaches. So let me set the scene before we get even further into our favorite moments from this, this movie. I'm going to just give you some pop culture stuff. Okay. Back in July, 1992. This is what was happening, Solana. So John Gotti was in the news. He had just started his life sentence in jail. Just a couple days prior to this. Okay. So of course mafia guy, lots of crimes. He had just gone to prison for, I think like a week before this came out. Also, I thought this was funny. I thought you would get a kick out of this. I saw that apparently the first pay bathrooms, the first public bathrooms that you had to pay to use were introduced in the U.S. in New York city, of course, for 25 cents. So if you had to go somewhere, this was, I guess for, right? Yeah, you would need a quarter. This was before you could like sneak into like Starbucks before they were on every corner. You would have to pay 25 cents in some public bathrooms. So, there you go. Oh wow. Yeah, new thing back in. On the music side, the big songs at this time were I'll Be There by Mariah Carey, her cover. That was really popular, I like that one. And then how funny, that was number one for a little bit and right as this movie was like really hitting its stride, Baby Got Back was, it's funny. Oh my God. Baby Got Back to me seems so much older than this movie. I know, I thought that was in the 80s, but yeah. No, Sir Mixa Lot, Baby Got Back was number one for a while when this was in theaters, yeah. I thought this was fun. On the TV side, Melrose Place randomly premiered July 8th a week after this movie came out when not too many shows premier like that, like on Fox, Broadcast, Major Network. Usually it's like September, October, you know, maybe late August, but that had a summer start. And that was a huge deal. Did you watch Melrose? I did, yeah, because it was on after 90210. Yeah. Oh yeah, they went hand in hand for sure. But I was so young and I still watched it, so yeah. Oh yeah, I would occasionally, I never got into Melrose. I'm sure I would probably love it now, but I never ever got into it. But I would occasionally watch 90210, but I mean, I was young. I didn't know what was going on. Yeah, I can either. I just, I like looking at Luke Perry. Totally, yeah. Everyone is so cute and you're just kind of watching them cry and talk and roller skate. I don't know, whatever. But then when I got to high school, I was like, it's not like 90210. It's really not, like. No, it's not. No. No, yeah. Why is my hair not that like fluffy? This is not working out, right? Big movies that were popular, Batman Returns was number one for a while. Love that one. There's Michelle Pfeiffer, Danny DeVito, Michael Keaton. I love that one so much. That was huge. Unlawful Entry had just come out. I still haven't seen that one, but that was a great 90s thriller. Who's in that? Kurt Russell, I think, and Madeline Stowe. That was like one of those popular thrillers. So Unlawful Entry had just come out, House Sitter with Steve Martin and Goldie Hahn was popular. Patriot Games, which I think is Harrison Ford. I think that's Harrison Ford. I forget. Action movie. And of course, Sister Act, which I just talked about on the show a few months ago. That was hugely popular, right? Making a bunch of money, much like a League of their Own was about to make. So that's what was going on at the time. So, Solana, I'm gonna throw it over to you in your own words for anyone out there who hasn't seen this movie, Shame on You. Although I have to admit, I had always seen clips. I had seen clips for years. I knew the movie, but I have to admit everyone. And I'm embarrassed to say this. This was my first time watching the whole movie from start to finish. Isn't that crazy, Solana? Now? Like recently? Yeah. Just recently this week. Yeah. I thought I had seen it, but I realized as I was watching him, like, well, I know that moment. I know that line. I've seen that. But wow, I have never seen some of these scenes before. Oh, wow. I know. I don't know what took me so long. Maybe like you were saying, it was a sports movie. It was a historical movie. So maybe I just was like, I'll get around to it someday. But anyway. They play it so much. So maybe you thought you saw the whole thing. I know I saw it on TV here and there. I know a couple of years ago for Greg's mom's wedding, it was on TV and I watched like a good chunk of it. But I guess I just never realized like, I didn't know the beginning, how like Gina Davis and Lori Petty like joined the team. I'm like, John love it. It's his whole big, you know? And he's so funny. Oh my gosh. But yeah, Solana, tell us in your own words, what is the League of their own about? It's about, well, during the war, they had to stop baseball obviously because men were getting shipped out and drafted. So Harvey, can't they, Harvey, the chocolate guy? He's supposed to be like Wrigley, you know? Yeah, he's based off of him. Yeah, play by Gary Marshall. He decides that he wants to keep baseball going and he wants to have girls obviously, you know, but they have to be good looking but play baseball really well. So he wants to start a league and then he goes, well, he sends people all around the country to get, you know, go watch softball games and baseball games and get women from all over the country to be, I think a part of four teams, I think it was. Rockford, Peaches and yeah, four teams. And then you follow the two sisters that like live on a dairy farm and once it's... I think they're in Oregon, am I right? Yeah, I think, yeah. Yeah, I think so, yeah. Doddy and Kit. Doddy's husband is fighting in the war and Kit's not married and then you follow them and then you just start following, who's the next one? Oh, Marla. Marla, Marla, oh my gosh, she is so funny. So then you just, it's a good uplifting story, just, you know, just a bunch of women coming together and just doing something they love because they all loved baseball. So yeah, and then we meet in, we meet Tom Hanks, who's pretty funny in the movie. It's so funny, this is a role that he doesn't normally play often. You know, it's kind of a jerk, he's spitting, he's chewing dip, like he's, he's, he's, the spitting is like so gross, but so good. I know, yeah. He's just doing it in front of him all the time, like he's drunk, it's funny to see him be, yeah, like a jerk. Yeah, yeah. But then it's just, I think it's just a good story of like family and like, you know, with the sisters and I don't know, I guess did I explain it? Yeah, that's beautiful, well said, absolutely. Yeah, you know, this, it's funny because like Tom Hanks is billed first in the credits. Yeah. But I think that was just because he was, he was and still is such a huge star, but really it's all about Gina Davis and Laurie Petty. Really, yeah. The sisters are really front and center and of course we'll get into it, but then they have their sad, you know, argument, which really like splits them up and, you know, yeah, they very much are at the center and it's great because, yes, there are lead characters, but it feels like every single character has a great moment. They do, yeah. There are so many great supporting women that they all, like you really get to know them. They're not just like, oh yeah, she had one line and off you go, you know. Right, yeah, yeah. So good. Okay, so now before we get into our favorite scenes, favorite lines, I'll just tell you, we'll just briefly talk about those major players, where they were in their careers, because it's always fun, I think, to kind of see like what had just come out that they were in. So yeah, like you said, this is, you know, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, A, A, G, P, B, L, real group, so this is a fictionalized story of a real life, you know, team. Right. The screenwriters were Lowell Gans and Babalu Mandel. What a name, Babalu. I know, excellent. Very impressive, I feel like here's your Oscar just for your name. So they had worked together, they wrote City Slickers, Paramount and Splash. So those were some big hits right before this came out, right? We have director Penny Marshall, whose brother Gary we were just talking about was in the movie. Penny, she's so great, of course, we know her as an actress, director, she did a lot. So she had just previously directed Awakenings, the movie with Robin Williams. I still haven't actually seen that one, but that came out, I think, a year or two before this one. She directed Tom Hanks in Big and she directed Whoopi in Jumping Jack Flash. Oh, okay. So she had some big movies under her belt. I was reading, and maybe you did, you saw this too, Solana, that she was inspired to make the movie and I guess got the screenwriters involved and talked to the filmmakers of this documentary she watched. It was so inspiring. It was a 1987 documentary called A League of their Own, I think. I think that's actually what it was titled. It was a TV doc and so she talked to the two women, Kelly Candell, I believe it's her name and Kim Wilson. So you'll see in the credits of this movie, it says story by those two because the team is modeled after the team they documented. So I thought that was cool that Penny's just watching this doc and it's like we gotta turn this into a scripted movie. So on the cast side, Tom Hanks, like we were just saying, he had just done Bonfire, The Vanities, Joe versus the Volcano, which is such an odd movie that he did, like Ryan, Turner and Hooch, The Burbs, and of course Big. So Big Star, lots of great comedy there. Gina Davis, like we were saying, she had apparently just sort of swooped in in the last few days of prep before doing this. She had just done a year prior, of course, one of the iconic movies ever, Thelma and Louise. Yes, yeah. Love that movie. She had done that and of course she did, Earth Girls Are Easy and one of my all-time faves, Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice, yeah. Right? Yeah. Don't you love Beetlejuice? And she's so good in that too. She is. One of my all-time faves. So she, and of course, The Fly, she was in that gross The Fly movie. Oh right, yeah. With Jeff Goldblum in the 80s. So she had done some cool things. Laurie Petty, she had done a ton of TV but she was just in Point Break with Keanu and Patrick Swayze and Cadillac Man. Now we're getting to Madonna. Madonna had just a year prior released her Truth or Dare documentary which was huge, right? How many times have you watched Truth or Dare? Oh man. Well, I had it on DVD. So, and like watching it now, I can't believe I watched it when I was the age that I was when it came out. I mean, probably a lot of it went over my head. Oh, I'm sure. Maybe. But yeah. But yeah, so Madonna did Truth or Dare, right? She was also just previously in movies, Shadows and Fog, which was directed by Woody Allen. Oh, I did see that. I didn't see that one. I didn't realize she was in a Woody Allen movie. Yeah, it's all black and white. Like, I kind of like just fast forwarded to her. I don't really remember what it's about. But I think she's like a fortune teller or something. Oh, okay. I think or maybe that's another movie. So she had worked with him and she was, of course, in a movie. I loved as a kid Dick Tracy. Yes. Me too. Oh, I love Dick Tracy, yeah. I'll have to bring you, when that hits, I think that was in 1990. So we have a while before it hits its next anniversary, but maybe I'll bring you on and we'll have to talk about Madonna and that because it's so weird, so good, so colorful. I love her song. She made, I feel like she did a couple songs for that. Well, yeah. I loved more when she said more. That's my favorite, all-time favorite Madonna album. I'm breathless. Okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I did more. I did that for Tap one year. I'll have to record it and show you the recording, yeah. Oh my God, I love that. Yeah, that was pretty iconic. Well, because it was Stephen Sondheim too. Oh, really? He wrote more. He wrote the song that she sang with Mandy Patankin at the piano, the slow song. And he wrote a couple other songs for the movie. Wow, I had no idea. That's a Sondheim movie. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Wow, okay, interesting. So yeah, so she did that. And then on the music side, she was about to release in October 1992, I believe, her Erotica album. So she was really in her sexy days. Her previous album at this time was Like a Prayer in 1989, which was, of course, massive. Right. So yeah, she was doing some huge things at the time. And like we said, it made perfect sense to cast her because she was a major pop star. Of course, you'd have her as one of the ladies, you know? And she's really so good. She and Rosie, back me up, they're such a great duo. Oh my gosh. And just the little things they do, I'm sure a lot of it had to be improvised because just the way they reacted to things, it's so perfect, you know? We gotta mention Rosie. This was her first movie, I think. Her first movie role, she had only done a few TV shows, MTV series Stand By Your Man and Give Me a Break. She was in a good amount of episodes of those. And she, of course, was a comic. But yeah, this was her first role in a movie and what a splash. I know she was, later on, she was nominated for Breakthrough Performance at the MTV Movie Awards for this, which is so fitting. I don't think she won. But wow, what a great way to make your movie moment, you know? Yeah, I know. That's so good. I know. She'll be, I guess, maybe a guest star in the League of their Own reboot. I saw that, yeah. Yeah. I wonder what that will be. You know, it's funny. I know we're jumping ahead a little bit, but after this came out, I had no idea. Maybe you did. There was already a League of their Own TV show. I didn't know that. Did you see that? Oh yeah. It only aired six episodes. I think it was a quick flop. But yeah, it was sort of like a sequel to the movie. It was a different cast. Some of the same women were in it. Some of the smaller roles, you know, none of the leads. But yeah, it was more adventures with Dottie and the girls, it said. And yeah, I think it might have aired on ABC or something. Oh, I don't know. I kind of, I don't know. I know what you mean. Once I read that, I was like, why? I didn't know that. But the more I was reading about it, I was like, oh, okay, this sounds vaguely familiar, but it's hard because a lot of movies turned into short-lived TV shows back then. So, you know. But yeah, so Rosie will, I guess, pop in on the new one, which will be on Amazon Prime. And it looks fun. It looks like a good group of girls. So hopefully it's cool. I know. And Nick Allferman is supposed to be like the Tom Hanks. So that should be funny, yeah. Which I think that could work really well. I mean, it's not hard to picture him in that role because he already played grumpy in Parks and Rec. So, yeah. Still missing the cut-off man. Now that's something that I would like you to work on before next season. Because it's flash, flash, flash. Tell me how many times have you seen this movie? Do you know? Can you count? I say I watch it at least two or three times a year. So, I don't know. Let's say 20. Let's say 20. Wow, big fan. I love that. Yeah. Cause whenever it's usually on at night, so you put it on and just relax and yeah. Oh, totally. That's such an easy movie to just fall right into and you're hanging out with the girls and you know, it really is such a fun, nice movie. You know, it's just something about this time period of the early 90s and the look of this movie that it's like just so, it's immediately nostalgic. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's like so nice and sweet and you're just gonna have a good time and let it wash over you. You know? Yeah. Thanks so much for watching. Next week will be part two of this discussion. And in the meantime, please follow Release Date Rewind on Instagram.