Jingle All the Way

Em: 00:02:42

Hi everyone, I'm Em and welcome to Verbal Diorama, episode 324, Jingle All the Way. This is the podcast that's all about the history and legacy of movies you know, and movies you don't. That got a Turboman for Johnny months ago.

It's nestled safely under our tree. Welcome to Verbal Diorama. Whether you're a brand new listener, whether you're a regular returning listener, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much for choosing to listen to this podcast. I'm so happy to have you here for the history and legacy of Jingle all the Way.

We are fully in going on the run up to Christmas now, and I love doing Christmas movies on this podcast because it just genuinely makes me start to feel quite festive, even though I am recording this in November. But that's how podcasting works. Huge thank you.

If you are a regular returning listener, thank you for coming back to this podcast, for continuing to listen and support this podcast. This podcast will be seven years old in February, a fact that constantly blows my mind. And it's been going now for, oh, 324 episodes.

So sometimes I wonder, like, how am I actually doing this? But I am doing this. So I guess I'm just going to carry on doing this.

But however many episodes of this podcast you've listened to, even if this is your first, thank you so much for your support because listening to a podcast is supporting a podcast and it really genuinely does mean so much.

I'm just going to jump straight in because in the decades since Jingle all the Way came out, it may have not set the box office alight or charmed critics at the time. But it hasn't faded into obscurity. On the contrary, its popularity seems to grow every year. And it's now widely regarded as a holiday classic.

Loved by millennials and loved by the people who made it. You're my number one listener. Here's the trailer for Jingle all the Way.

Em: 00:06:52

Mattress salesman Howard Langston is great at his job at providing for his family. But not so great as a present husband and father. After he misses his son Jamie's karate grading, he asks him how he can make it up to him.

All Jamie wants for Christmas is a Turboman action figure. The hottest toy of the year.

Unfortunately for Howard, his wife asked him to pick one up weeks ago, and it's now Christmas Eve and every store is sold out.

Howard must spend the day scrambling from store to store in desperate search of one, crossing paths with the equally hapless Moiran, a conspiracy theorist postal worker whose son also wants a Turboman more than anything.

Let's run through the cast we have Arnold Schwarzenegger as Howard Langston, Sinbad as Myron Larabi, Phil Hartman as Ted Maltin, Rita Wilson as Liz Langston, Jake Lloyd as Jamie Langston, Robert Conrad as Officer Hummel, Martin Mull as the KQRS DJ Jim Belushi as Mall Santa Danny Woodburn as Tony the Elf and Paul White as Giant Santa. Jingle all the Way was written by Randy Kornfield and was directed by Brian Levant.

anything else. From Barbie in: 1959

In every generation, one toy is given the responsibility to be the one thing each child can't live without. But as the decades went on, the effects of TV advertising ramped up.

Materialistic desires and consumerism started to infiltrate everyday family homes. People wanted more and more and expected to find more and more.

In late: 1983

The riots lasted for months, with thousands of people left bruised, battered, some hospitalized, and most egregiously, many hundreds without their Cabbage Patch Toy kids.

esorted to violence. By early: 1984

Now no one really knew why the Cabbage Patch Riots happened other than parent company Colaco appealing to a huge number of children between 6 and 12 that they could adopt their own doll. And this craze foreshadowed similar holiday toy crazes and now, of course, Black Friday sales.

But in the 80s, the Internet wasn't a thing, and in the 90s it was in its infancy and you couldn't check the stock in stores. You had to drive to a shop to pick up the latest craze that your kids were desperate for.

y weren't isolated either. In: 1993

A year later, in: 1994

And yet the toys were so scarce, parents were setting up tents to camp outside of stores, driving across state lines to get to stores with stock, calling Bandai 700 times a week and sending them 300 letters a week trying to locate the toys. They also bribed sales assistants hundreds of dollars to save certain figures.

Michael Goldstein, the then CEO of Toys R Us, called it the biggest phenomenon we have ever seen in the toy business.

You could buy Power Rangers clothing, watches and lunchboxes, but you couldn't buy the action figures with the white and pink ranges, the most elusive with black market sellers. And possibly also a warehouse full of mall Santas offering pink Rangers, which usually retailed at $13 for over $50.

billion in: 1994

The only other toy to sell as well as Power Rangers was Barbie, and she'd been doing it for over 30 years. At that point, trying to get his eldest son, also called Jamie a red or green Power Ranger, was Randy Kornfield.

And he was struggling with the long queues for toy stores, the sold out signs, and hearing other parents going to great lengths to get these toys, which sparked an idea for him to write a screenplay. Before he wrote it, he pitched it to Nickelodeon movies, which was just getting started at the time, and they passed.

So he decided to write it on specific.

The original script was darker in tone, Turboman was called Turbo Tom, and the third act took place at a Turboman factory, with the father having to go up against a full sized robotic Turboman. Kornfield, who was a story analyst at 20th Century Fox at the time, used a pseudonym, Ed McQueen, for the original draft.

When it was finished, a few people responded positively, so he passed it to a couple of agents, one of whom was film producer Warren Zeid, who would go on to produce American Pie and Final Destination, and he started shipping the script around.

erienced his own toy craze in: 1995

He performed uncredited rewrites on Cornfield's script, changing the ending to the Christmas parade ending, which then attracted executives at 20th Century Fox who at that point didn't know the writer of the script actually worked for them. They soon found out that Ed McQueen was actually Randy Kornfield.

th Century Fox since: 1988

r, who had signed on in March: 1994

brand new production company,: 1492

But he would also be vitally important to Jingle all the Way. Getting a green light, he would eventually abandon Return of the Apes, which would become Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, starring Mark Wahlberg.

comedic muscles with twins in: 1988

At one time, Daniel Stern was considered for the role until Arnie got involved. Schwarzenegger loved doing action movies and he loved doing comedies, and he wanted to alternate one and the other.

So when the Jingle all the Way script landed with him, he loved the idea of playing an everyday guy, a husband and a father, as well as having the action and the comedy. His physique wouldn't only come in handy for the action parts, but also for when Howard Langston becomes Turboman to play opposite Arnie.

The filmmakers got in Touch with Danny DeVito with the idea that both Schwarzenegger and DeVito would agree to star in the movie, with DeVito as Myron, the postal worker also trying to find his child, a Turboman. But while Schwarzenegger was interested, DeVito wasn't.

The movie was green lit purely on Schwarzenegger's casting, which also netted him a $20 million paycheck.

His agent recommended comedian Sinbad for the Myron role, and for his part, Sinbad wasn't the only actor who ended up in the film to audition for Myron. Both Phil Hartman and Jim Belushi tried out for it, but Sinbad was a similar size to Schwarzenegger.

Hartman would end up in the role of sneezy neighbour Ted and Belushi as the mall Santa. And this would be Hartman's last movie released before his tragic, untimely death.

The following year, Sinbad ordered a mailman outfit for his audition. Turned up for the audition, and everyone else was also wearing a mailman outfit. He was tired of auditioning at the time.

And when he was called in, the script fell out of his hands and went everywhere. He was so agitated that he flew off the handle, jumped on the table, chastised Schwarzenegger, did the lines and left.

He was certain that he'd fudged the audition, but they loved his off the cuff remarks, and he got the part. Based on that supposed terrible audition. It turns out that Sinbad wouldn't use much in the way of the script in the movie either.

with him in those scenes. In: 1995

ch so that he wrote a book in: 2022

And the Flintstones being such a mega hit led to him becoming a director people wanted to work with. But he wanted to choose his next movie carefully.

ll the way script in February: 1996

He helped design Turboman alongside storyboard artist Darryl Henley and concept designer Tim Flattery.

But the issue was that Marvel and DC kind of had superhero designs licked, and every color combination and style had already been used for someone else. They knew they wanted campy and tongue in cheek. But they were up against another issue. The issue the movie itself would also battle with.

had to be ready by the end of: 1996

In less than a year. In nine months, actually. Which would mean not very much time to design Turboman or to make toys, but more on that later.

The fact that Turboman still looks like Iron man is acknowledged by Brian Levant. And it's a Marvel Excuse the pun that Marvel actually never sued. But at the time, Iron man wasn't really the top tier hero that he is nowadays.

Randy Kornfield's script was always set in Minneapolis, and he had the Mall of America in mind as the setting. He'd never been, but he'd heard all about the largest mall in the US and in the Western Hemisphere.

It's only the 12th largest in the world, though the largest in Tehran is over three and a half times bigger. Anyway, the production wanted a typical wintery Midwestern town.

And despite also looking at Milwaukee and Chicago, Schwarzenegger pushed for filming on location in the Twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. And the Minnesota Film and TV Board went above and beyond to accommodate filming. As production tax incentives didn't exist in the 90s.

re planning to film in May of: 1996

But Minnesota winters tended to last longer than any other state and they wanted a Christmas movie to look Christmassy, but they still had to fake the snow.

The movie filmed on location in the Twin Cities, including shops at Linden Hills Homes in Adena, the famous Mickey's Diner in St. Paul's, Nicollet island, and the Mall of America.

Over five weeks decking out empty stores with Christmas decorations, filming locations received lucrative per day payments from the studio, allowing a school in Falcon Heights to purchase brand new computer equipment. They shot the house scenes on Bruce place in Adena, Minnesota, in a home owned by the McCary family.

Both interiors and exteriors were shot at the house, which they used from 5.30am to 7pm Diane McCary refused to allow Arnold Schwarzenegger to smoke cigars in the house. Just imagine that story at parties. Yes, I said no to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

There was of course a real reindeer on set, but there was also an incredibly convincing animatronic made by animated engineering, which was head, neck and shoulders only and puppeteered by Mecki Hewson and Dave Nelson. Filming at the Mall of America was hectic.

Crowds of people turned up knowing Arnold Schwarzenegger was filming, and his stunt double, Peter Kent, who also doubled for him for most of his movies, including Terminator 2, would be the one jumping into ball pits and running up and down escalators.

There was no time to rehearse the Santa fight and Schwarzenegger did his own stunts on that with a fight scene put together on the day by stunt coordinator Joel Kramer.

The city's Holly Dazzle Parade, which are daily parades that take place in the evenings from the day after Thanksgiving until a couple of days before Christmas, couldn't be used, mostly because they didn't take place in May. The event was renamed the Wintertainment Parade for the movie. And for practical reasons, they couldn't film it on location on Second Avenue.

Nor could they film it in the evening. The parade was filmed at the Universal Studios backlot in California on the New York street set designed to resemble Second Avenue.

In July: 1996

Em: 00:22:00

And in a stark contrast to the Minnesota weather, it was 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In California, that's 43 degrees Celsius. People in winter coats and costumes were passing out.

And even Schwarzenegger, who had a cooling system in the Turboman outfit sort of similar to the one he'd have for Mr. Freeze just after this, was still struggling with the extreme heat. I just feel sorry for the guy in the booster costume. No one liked Booster.

The parade itself, despite being filmed in the middle of summer with blazing sunshine, had custom floats, including the one for Turboman himself, which was 46ft long. 10,000 pounds of red and gold confetti was shot over the streets, and some extras were costumed as the local news team.

And the Pasadena City College marching band performed as the Turboman Band. The All Santa marching Band consisted of members of the UCLA marching Band. A news helicopter was dispatched to cover the event for the evening news.

And as Howard takes to the skies as Turboman, those flying scenes were coordinated by John G. Bellew, who previously worked on the Rocketeer, which is an incredible movie, by the way, if you've not seen it. And also Bob Harmon, who worked on the flying scenes for Superman.

So although this movie gets a lot of flack for not having great visual effects, there were some really talented people who were working behind the scenes. And speaking of a Superman, it's time to segue into the obligatory Keanu reference of this episode.

was the mayor of St. Paul in: 1996

And he actually commented on the production filming in St. Paul. Quote, When Keanu Reeves was here, a bus came in from Wisconsin, and Arnold is bigger than Keanu now.

revious year in the spring of: 1995

And I guess when you live in Minneapolis or St. Paul, you just get used to celebrities just coming by and filming movies in your area.

negger signing on in February: 1996

Only 200,000 official turboman dolls were made for the movie's release. A 13.5-inch replica talking turboman and a Turboman Time Racer car.

eleased in time for Christmas: 1996

ckle Me Elmo came out in July: 1996

k Friday. And by Thanksgiving: 1996

But they vastly under predicted what would happen when Rosie o' Donnell featured the toy on her chat show, a show aimed at stay at home mothers with preschool children who loved Elmo.

So when you couldn't get Tickle Me Elmo, the scarcity caused a frenzy, with people arrested for fighting over the few remaining dolls, black market sales and parents running after delivery trucks. A clerk at Walmart in Canada was trampled by shoppers desperate to get one of the 300 Tickle Me Elmos he was unboxing to stock on store shelves.

He suffered a concussion, a broken rib and injuries to his back, jaw and knee. Now of course, ebay was founded the year prior, but at the time Internet connections were still dial up. I remember that noise.

I'm sure many people listening remember that noise too. So instead, newspaper ads were listed selling $30 Elmo dolls for $1,000 or best offer.

rboman not getting his day in: 1996

leasing a reproduction of the: 1996

And just like Howard and Myron discovered in the film. Getting your hands on Turboman in real life also proved difficult, with low stock and action figures appearing on ebay for hundreds of dollars.

Even now, as I'm recording this episode, Turboman is out of stock at Walmart Online.

However, I suspect that has something to do with me prepping this episode in and around Black Friday, but the fact Turboman is still selling out surely is testament to the ongoing audience love for for this movie Jingle all the Way had its premiere at where else but the Mall of America, with 20,000 local people in attendance and appearances from Arnold Schwarzenegger, who pushed for the premiere in the mall. He even said I'll be back on his last day filming in Minneapolis, and that was him keeping his promise.

November: 1996

It would drop to fifth in its second week and would stay in the top 10 for five weeks on its $60 million budget, 20 million of which was Arnie's salary. Jingle all the way would gross $60.6 million domestically and $69.2 million internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $129.9 million.

So it made the studio money. Just but not quite the money expected from a mid-90s Arnie Christmas comedy.

It currently has a 20% of Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus of Arnold Schwarzenegger tries his best. But Jingle all the Way suffers from an uneven tone shifting wildly from would be satire on materialism to to an antique slapstick yuckfest.

It was given a glowing review by Jeff Strickler from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, a panning review by Emmanuel Levy in Variety, and a middling review by Roger Ebert. But mostly it was critically panned for being highly formulaic, lacking in plot and the slapstick tone, and standalone direct to DVD sequel.

was released in December: 2014

The lead role in the movie would instead be played by Larry the Cable Guy.

In March: 2001

th Century Fox, in: 1993

Soon after, 20th Century Fox purchased the rights to Jingle all the Way soon after awarding $19 million, though the judge later reduced the amount to $1.5 million.

In March: 2004

The court determined that Jingle all the Way was based on a treatment that was completed long before anyone at Fox had access to the script for could this Be Christmas?

And the original trial judge had not informed the jury that that neither the writer of Jingle all the Way nor anyone else at Fox could have seen the plaintiff's script before the treatment for Jingle all the Way was completed. I don't want to be the person that has to return $1.5 million, but there you go.

Jingle all the Way may not be the number one greatest Christmas movie in the world, because that's the Muppet Christmas Carol, but what it is is a stark takedown of the capitalist machine that is Christmas, wrapped in a neat, sleek Austrian action hero that we all know and love, with a who's who of supported cast, all about how society is only ever fulfilled by consumerism. And every year the cycle continues again in its rawest form. It's a satire of the darkness of Christmas. And this was Randy Cornfield's original idea.

Not Sinbad pretending he had a bomb wrapped in Christmas paper that blows up in one police officer's face.

The idea that a father has to buy his son's love at Christmas presents over presents, as in gifts over being there in person, as if that somehow young Jake Lloyd isn't going to need years of therapy as a grown man, which he probably did anyway, thanks to Star Wars Episode 1 the Phantom Menace. Because if you're wondering, yes, that is Anakin Skywalker, except much younger.

It's likely that the Chris Columbus rewrite of the script added those wacky Home Alone esque elements, such as Arnie breaking into his neighbor's house to steal the toy from under the tree, and hijinks ensues. It feels very Chris Columbus. But despite the darkness that's always lurking. This movie is more prescient than anyone really gives it credit for.

It may not have predicted the melees at toy stores across the world at the festive period, although I'm certain this is more of an American thing because I've never seen parents fighting in an Argos.

That is a very British reference, but it certainly shines a light on modern entitlement for the biggest and most expensive gifts, as well as the merchandising of everything surrounding a big movie or TV show. Again, this isn't new.

I remember breakfast cereals in the 90s advertising things like Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles or Power Rangers, but the idea that kids can't escape this messaging.

So much so I know here in the UK it's against the law for ads promoting unhealthy food for children to be shown during the day, but time strapped parents, often working multiple jobs, will do anything to keep their children happy. I get it. At Christmas I'll buy my nieces and nephews whatever they want.

You never want a child to go without, but the sheer entitlement of shoppers who will literally beat up other people to get at something just speaks to the pressures of of raising children. Pressures that only ever get worse year after year. And Keeping up with the Joneses.

It's an effective satire about how commercial Christmas has become. Howard Langston is a privileged man working a good job and has the money to be able to buy his son whatever he wants.

Myron isn't as well developed, but it's clear he doesn't have the same amount of wealth and privilege. He's also a black man, which I think is relevant to how systemic racism can make people of colour work longer hours for less money.

Myron isn't a particularly good guy. He does attempt to endanger a young child, after all, and yet he gets the toy at the end. But he also probably ends up in jail.

So his child may get the doll, but his child is going to miss out on a father. Myron understands the consumerist system more than Howard because he went to junior college for a semester and studied psychology.

Jamie doesn't get the doll, but fingers crossed, we hope gets a loving present father. Jamie doesn't need Turboman because he has his dad, except the movie phrases it as he doesn't need Turboman because he has the real Turboman at home.

Just ignore the fact that neither Howard's wife or son recognise his face under a clear yellow visor, nor do they recognize his very Austrian accent.

I know Rita Wilson has spoken about this in interviews and how embarrassed she still is by the fact that her character doesn't recognize her own husband. But honestly, I just think it's hilarious.

I never grew up with this movie, I have zero nostalgia goggles for it, and yet I actually quite enjoy it for all its slapstick fun. It's got some really fun moments, and Phil Hartman is great, just great as Sleazeball Ted.

It's unfortunate that Rita Wilson isn't given more to do, but wives and mothers in 90s comedies never really were, and regular listeners will know how much of a soft spot I have for Arnie that I grew up watching many of his movies with my own dad. People genuinely love this movie and it's thought of incredibly fondly. It feels like the Jingle all the Way Naissance is a thing.

Or at least I'm going to try and make it a thing. This movie for so many years was called a bad Christmas Movie. It's not.

It's a silly Christmas movie for sure, but it's actually way more Christmassy than most. What speaks to modern Christmas traditions more than workaholic parents?

That one gift their child wants more than anything, and an inability to get it? Nowadays we go on ebay to try and find it. Back then they queued outside shops. It's all the same.

It also perfectly summarizes the true meaning of any good Christmas movie that family and loved ones are more important, that togetherness is more than having the biggest and best toys, but mostly that Howard Langston isn't a pervert. He was just looking for a Turboman doll. Thank you for listening.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on Jingle all the Way, and thank you for your continued support of this podcast. If you want to show your support in multiple different ways, you could leave a rating or review wherever you found this podcast.

You could tell your friends and family about this podcast, or you can find me and follow me on social media and you can share the podcast that way. I am@VerbalDiorama. You can share posts like posts, comment on posts.

It all helps really to get the word out there and to hopefully get other people to know this podcast and know what I've been doing. I genuinely love doing this podcast and anything you could do to help would be so appreciated.

If you like this episode on Jingle all the Way, I do have many Christmas episodes in the back catalog. However, I wanted to recommend two specifically.

The first is episode 131, Krampus, which technically is a horror movie, but it also talks about consumerism and capitalism. And basically the fact that Krampus doesn't like that Christmas has turned into that and he wants to punish people. It's a very fun movie.

I like it a lot. And episode 185, the Muppet Christmas Carol, because it just is the greatest Christmas movie ever made and I will die on that hill. As always.

Give me feedback, let me know what you think. But speaking of the Muppet Christmas Carol and a story that's been adapted many times on film, and that is Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol.

Now, nothing beats the Muppet Christmas Carol as far as adaptations of A Christmas Carol go.

ll Murray In Richard Donner's: 1988

Hopefully you enjoy what I do for this podcast and you have some spare change and you want to support an indie podcaster who does literally all of this, everything on her own. I have no assistance. I have no one helping. I have no one doing research for me. I have to do it all by myself. And it's really hard sometimes.

It's really tough.

But if you enjoy and you get something out of these episodes and you have the means to help, you're under no obligation, of course, but there are a couple of ways you can help if you have the means to.

You can make a one off donation@verbaldiorama.com tips or you can subscribe to the patreon@verbaldiorama.com patreon and all money made goes back into this podcast by paying for things like software subscriptions and website hosting and sometimes even new equipment as well.

A huge thank you to the amazing patrons of this podcast to Simon, Laurel, Derek, Kat, Andy, Mike, Luke, Michael, Scott, Brendan, Ian, Lisa, Sam, Jack, Dave, Stuart, Nicholas. So Kev, Heather, Danny, Stu, Brett, Philip, M. Xenos, Sean, Ryno, Philip K, Adam, Elaine, Kyle, Aaron and Connor.

If you want to get in touch, you can email verbal dioramail.com you can also go to the website verbal diorama.com and you can fill out the contact form.

You can say hello, you can give feedback or you can give suggestions, or you can just say, I listened to this episode and I watched the movie and this is what I thought of the movie. I would genuinely love to hear from you you can also DM me On social media as well.

I really love to hear from people, and I always try to respond as quickly as possible. I'm hugely grateful to you all for your support. And finally,

Em: 00:41:27

Bye.