On April 10, 1992, the comedian Sam Kinisondied in a car crash when his car was hit by a pickup truck in California. Kinison, who had just married his girlfriend five days earlier, was 38 years old.
Although Kinison started out like his father as a Pentecostal preacher he eventually changed careers and began appearing in comedy clubs. His first national break came when he was in his early 30s in 1984 when he appeared on an HBO comedy special devoted to young comedians. His 1984 breakthrough performance on the HBO Rodney Dangerfield’s Ninth Annual Young Comedians Special introduced him to much of the world. Then, the following year, he had another big break with his first appearance on Late Night with David Letterman. The world of comedy was never the same.
Rodney Dangerfield introduces the new comedian Sam Kinison to the world in the following video. Check it out.
Caddyshack was released more than three decades ago on July 25, 1980. Although the movie initially received a number of poor reviews, over time it has become a comedy classic. But there still may be some things about the movie that you don’t know.
Did you know . . .
– Caddyshack was the first movie directed by Harold Ramis, who would go on to direct other classics such as Groundhog Day.
– The idea for the movie came from Brian Doyle-Murray’s experiences working as a caddy in Illinois.
– Originally, the producers planned to get Don Rickles for the Rodney Dangerfield part as Al Czervik.
– At one point, a young Mickey Rourke was considered for the role of caddy Danny.
– Doug Kenney, who co-wrote Caddyshack with Doyle-Murray and Ramis, also co-wrote National Lampoon’s Animal House(1978) and co-founded National Lampoon Magazine in 1970. He also had a small role in Animal House, where he played Stork. Unfortunately, he was despondent over the early bad reviews for Caddyshack and never saw the movie achieve its cult status. Kenney died a little more than a month after Caddyshack was released. He died while in Hawaii, where he was trying to fight various demons. He either fell off a cliff or committed suicide.
– Many of the film’s segments were improvised by the various actors, including Bill Murray making up much of the role of Carl Spackler.
– The character of Al Czervik was initially a small role. But Rodney Dangerfield could not be stopped when he started his routines. Thus, he ended up with a much larger role than originally planned.
– If you want to read an excellent article about more of the story behind Caddyshack, check out this article from (where else?) Golf Digest.
Is Caddyshack one of the best comedies of all time or an overrated movie? Leave a comment.
