Do you love the 1980s? John Hughes comedies such as "The Breakfast Club," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "Sixteen Candles," "Pretty in Pink," "Weird Science" and "Some Kind of Wonderful" captured the struggles of teens during the period.

Hughes later shifted toward adulthood during the later part of the decade with movies like "She's Having a Baby," "Uncle Buck," "The Great Outdoors" and "Planes, Trains and Automobiles."

John Hughes films and the nostalgia of the 1980s helped serve as the inspiration for and provided some themes in the new film "Prom Pact" that debuts March 30 on Disney Channel and Disney+. 

Co-host Bruce Miller spoke with stars Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Blake Draper and Margaret Cho, as well as executive producer Julie Bowen of "Modern Family" fame and director/executive producer Anya Adams.

Before those interviews, Miller and co-host Terry Lipshetz discuss "Life Moves Pretty Fast: The John Hughes Mixtapes," a box set compilation of music from those 1980s movies from Hughes that was released in November.

The talk about how the songs provided the backdrop in key scenes in the movies and how some of the selections came about, as well as Hughes' love for music.

About the show

Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was generated by Podium.page and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

0:00:03
Welcome everyone to another episode of streamed and screened and entertainment podcasts about movies and TV from Lee Enterprises. I'm Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer at Lee and cohost of the program with Bruce Miller, editor of the Sioux City Journal and a longtime entertainment reporter. Bruce How's everything going? You know, Terry, come on. I lived through the eighties, and now you've discovered something from the eighties that I urine all excited about. You got a a big kind of album collection, if you will, or a a what do they call box set? A set. Is that the term that you are you young people using that term box set today? Or is that just something from the old days? But it it samples John Hughes movies. That is correct. Let's hear all about it because I've the eighties are big. If you didn't know, the eighties are back. And we're gonna relive them. Babies are back in a big way. So recently, this isn't a yesterday release.

0:01:00
This came out in the late I I think it was pretty much for Christmas that that selling period. Life moves pretty fast. The John Hughes mix tapes. It's a box set. It was released in England.

0:01:14
They put out several configurations. There was, like, a two l p version of a condensed mix. Six LPs, four CD box set, and then there was like a deluxe four CD box set that also had a a seven inch single and a cassette. But what it did was it collected the key tracks? It's not like complete soundtracks from each movie, but it's a lot of the key tracks from John Hughes movies of the nineteen eighties. So we're talking sixteen candles, the breakfast club, weird science, ferris bueller, And then it kinda brings everything up to Uncle Buck, which was released in nineteen eighty nine. So that was the last movie that they really sampled from. So there's nothing new or none of the like, Christmas tracks from home alone or any of those. But it's it's that huge period.

0:02:04
And and for me, you know, when I was boy, probably ten years old or so, my aunt took me to see Ferris Bueller's day off in the theater. And it was the greatest thing. And and that movie, Weird Science, some kind of wonderful these were movies that I just loved watching and growing up too, so they they kinda hold a special place in in my heart as a movie. But as a music collector, somebody who's got a really large collection of of CDs and Vinyl, I always love a really good soundtrack. And one thing that has eluded me all these years was a soundtrack to Ferris Bueller's day off because it never came out. They never released one. So this was kind of a fun way to collect not all the tracks from Ferris, but it has pretty much every key track you can think of from that movie in this box set.

0:02:56
Is that something about a certain age when something strikes and hits you? That you go, I have got to have that. I've got to own a piece of that somehow because I remember that with my first Disney cartoon. It was stored in the stone. And I wanted something from sword and the stone in the worst way. Then it became I wanted something from midnight cowboy. Because that was my first x rated film that I'd ever seen. But I've never had it with music because I think I've gotten more than enough and a lot of times I don't listen to music more than once. I know that sounds really terrible, but it's like watching a TV show. I can watch it once, but then we're gone.

0:03:36
The thing about John Hughes own, I think we've talked about this before. I've interviewed him many times during that eighties period when he was doing all these films, and the people who were in his films thought he was the coolest man ever. Just the coolest guy. He was like that uncle that always had the right record collection and would turn you on to things and make you feel like oh, yeah. I've got to know that too. So I does that come through in the music selection? Absolutely. So a lot of the songs in the box set. And and also just from his all of his movies in general kinda come from a certain period. He's a huge he was he obviously passed away a number of years ago, but he he was a huge music collector. So he would go to the studio, do his thing, leave in the early hours, go to the record store, kinda clean them out, you would be hanging out and whether it'd be at home, or in his office. He had, like, records all over the place, cassette he would make mix tapes, and that's kind of where The name of this album came from is the John Hughes mix tape because they found boxes of his mix tapes that he put together kind of with the soundtrack in mind that he wanted to use for the movie. So they they pulled the bits and pieces out of this, but you're right, even in the liner notes of this, It talked it talked a lot about the affinity that the actors had toward John because he was really about maybe ten years older than a lot of these.

0:05:06
So the the cool uncle piece really comes through because I think he was born around nineteen fifty, but that brat pack era of actors, they were born right around like nineteen six feet. Right? So, you know, to to them as teenagers, here's this guy who's, like, twenty five, thirty years old, who has this cool record collection. He had he had a job. He was an advertising executive for a while and then, like, blew that off. And got into movies. So he was just this cool guy who when you're at that age of of, like, in your twenties, late twenties, you feel like you can still connect to younger people, but, you know, you're not necessarily a parent yet, so you don't, you know, you're you're not too restrictive and and you're kind of that that cool guy. It's funny because he looked like somebody who went to an Ivy League school and kind of, if you will, lorded it over you that he had more knowledge than you did. This is just impressions I remember from being around him. But he was always very giving and very friendly. And he would talk about these things, the inspiration. And I if I remember right, he would let the actors know about the songs that he wanted to use So they would be inspired by that music when they're when they're doing the acting. So he was very good at kind of creating an atmosphere that they could they could get into and understand and then hopefully project it on screen.

0:06:31
The liner notes of this box that really got in deep into the weeds. So a lot of times when I'll get liner notes in in an album, I'll read them. I'll glance through them, but this one really sucked me in because they gave you each and every track in the box. And it would say, you know, such and such song. It came from this movie. This is the scene it was used in. And then they talked to the people that were involved. So it was mostly tarkin Gotch.

0:06:58
He was a British music executive. He wrote the bulk of the liner notes, but along with him and a few others, they they kinda had the backstory of how these songs came into existence. So one really good example was with she's having a baby, which was a very personal story to John Hughes because it was a bit autobiographical with the birth of his son and kind of and it it was even in the movie. He was a advertising executive in Chicago, which was a lot like him. So he had planned out the scene and he filmed it and he had in it a song. It was called song to the siren. It was from an gear music band called Myrtle Coil. Okay? So he he films it. They've got the music over it.

0:07:43
And then at that point, they're just like, okay, we gotta get the rights. We gotta pay the band and and we'll include the movie. So they go to them and they're like, no, we don't we don't wanna do it. So they just thought it was they're playing around. They just want more money. It's John Hughes, he had already made a name for himself. So they're like, alright. Just go back and pay him more money. And they're like, no. We we don't want that. And then finally, it got through to John, and they're like, John, they're not gonna accept any level of money. They don't wanna do anything that's seen as, like, commercial because it's unhip. It's not cool.

0:08:15
So he was devastated because the entire scene of this movie, it it's that that and at the House spittle when, you know, will the baby survive? Will his wife survive? And so tarkin goes, says, I'm friends with Kate Bush. Let me talk to her and see if she'll do a song. So he talks to her. They bring her the end clip of the movie, probably on like a VHS tape or something. She watches a scene, composers a song, sings it, they get it back to John, and they're at this point, they're thinking we're gonna just to redo it and, you know, nice effort. And it's this beautiful song that they end up playing over it. The only thing he had to do was add in a couple your scenes because he didn't wanna trim the song. He wanted it to run its entire duration. So it ended up into this, like, wonderful piece of history, but you wouldn't know it without reading these liner notes, the back story. It was really cool. That's that's fascinating. It's It's weird how when you do see those scenes without any music behind them, how really like, this is gonna be this is gonna work.

0:09:25
Really? I'm not so sure. You know? And then you can get a song that really pulls it together, and it's incredible. It makes a whole difference. I don't know how you, you know, as a creator, how you would envision that, especially if you have your mind set on something. Like, how do you regroup after somebody says, no, you're not having our music. We're not doing it. And that ends up being a real problem for some of these films coming out in any kind of other market because they didn't make a deal with them upfront for DVDs or whatever else streaming, whatever it might be. So sometimes you get those films and they don't have the real music with them, and I think it kills it. Didn't when they put married with children when they ended up releasing that on DVD years after the show aired on TV, they had to replace the theme song because they didn't have the the DVD rights to do it.

0:10:20
But it it it was really interesting because they, you know, talking about songs, they took the final edit of planes, trains, and automobiles and started showing it to test audiences. So originally, the plan was to use nothing but, like, a country and western song. So they had, like, Steve Burrow and Emily Lou Harris, and it was gonna be nothing but, like, a country and western soundtrack. And the test came back and they're like, well, they kinda liked the movie, but they hated the music. So they had to go back to the drawing board and they still use some of them, but then they added in some more kind of popular tunes too to to bring it around.

0:10:59
Again, you could look at those movies and you think this is a bomb. I've been at a couple of test screenings for things and you go, holy man, they're not this is not releasable. And then it ends up being one of the biggest hits because they tweak the right things. And like I say, music is a huge, huge part of that. But well then, what did you find out about Ferris Bueller? So Ferris Bueller was an interesting one too because if you watched the credits. Right? And it's the that song, yellow, the the oh, yeah. Right? That that rolls over and that they're on the school bus. At the bottom of that, at at the very end, almost when they cut back to the scene where where Matthew Broderick walks back in and you're still here, it says, like, by the soundtrack to Ferris Bueller's day off on cassette and record. And and I remember asking for it as a gift Christmas, and nobody could find it because it just it never actually existed. They never produced it. So what had happened, what they mentioned in in the liner notes was right around that time.

0:12:04
The popular lore is that that John Hughes as well, the soundtrack wouldn't work well as a soundtrack. It's just a collection of songs. You know, it just doesn't make sense to release it. But that's b s because he he did that for every movie up to that point and he did it with every movie after that point. But what happened was right around that time he was trying to launch his own music label called Hughes Music. And they think what happened was it was just the timing was terrible. They couldn't release it on Hughes music because it was still, I think, on Arista, most of those and it just they couldn't get the rights worked out. There was a lot of conflict. So it just never came out. He put out a couple seven inch singles for for fan clubs, but that was it. And it was a very popular soundtrack of songs.

0:12:52
Like, because each of those songs plays so uniquely with different scenes. You know, I sadly, I probably have that that because I should look. I should dig in my archives somewhere because I do remember that when we did the junket for that, there was something kind of interesting. Now, do you remember anything about The the song that was on the in the parade. Was it twist and shout? Was it twist and shout? Yeah. Yeah. We always have twist and shout, or do they have something else? No.

0:13:23
That was that was kind of planned out. They the the funny thing was is I think there was actually, like, another song that they're gonna add in they were gonna like, they did that and they did Dunkin' Shay. Right? But they ended up deciding, like, this whole scene is getting way too long and that's that's fine. So I think they had originally talked about doing maybe another song in the parade. There were also a few other scenes that they were planning to film and they had songs in mind for them. But the movie like, the original cut off Harris Bueller was, two hours and forty five minutes. It just went on forever. Now they'd let them do that. Yeah. Probably. Yeah. Extremely. We're gonna yeah. Just take it up. We just we can get more ads for that. So, yeah, go for it. Well, that's fascinating because that was such a huge, huge part of our lives in the eighties. Those films were seminal, I think.

0:14:16
And it's funny that somebody hasn't gone back and done something about him. I mean, is there a book about him? Is there a movie about him? Is there something about him that they could easily tie these things to. Because, you know, I think he was at the time as big as Steven Spielberg. Because you you know, here's who's influencing a generation. Now when you look in the grand scheme of things, that doesn't hold up. But at the time, I remember the wait for a John Hughes film. It was like guaranteed it was gonna be something you would go to. Because he didn't he didn't repeat himself, and he was always on the cutting edge of whatever was was trendier current at that time. So if you wanted to be a hip teenager, you had to be part of that that whole world. Yeah. They made a couple interesting notes about that in in the liner notes. They talked a little bit about how popular his films were during that time, but he never got to do he probably was deserved because comedies, they don't get nominated for anything. Right? It's just dramas and -- Right. Bad. So your your ferris bueller is not gonna get nominated for best picture. So that was part of it.

0:15:34
And a lot of his films too were actually filmed on pretty small budgets. And if you look at the release of some of those films, he was cranking out like two movies a year. It was eighty five. He did the breakfast club in weird science. Eighty six. He did pretty in pink and ferrous bueller's. Eighty seven was some kind of wonderful in planes, trains, and automobiles.

0:15:53
And he said, I always have to do a movie because he was worried that one would bomb and then the studio would say, you're done. So he said if I'm always working, they can't cancel me. Yeah. Well, you get three in those days, you get three films. Right. You get one, you say hit, then you have two more that will kind of hold you. But if you're not by the third, coming back with another hit, you're out of the business. That's how brutal it was. Yeah. One he one film when you're out. Yeah. So he would have, like, one one kind of in post production are ready to go, and then he'd already be working on the next one. And then the first one would do good. So then he would it would buy him another film after through that. And he was just kinda hop scotching from one to the next.

0:16:40
One other interesting point too from the soundtrack It only included one song from vacation, which was holiday road by Lindsay Buckingham, which was actually very interesting when you read the notes because he hated kind of like mainstream rock and roll in a lot of ways. He he didn't like like Fleetwood Mac. He aided Fleetwood Mac because they were too commercial. But he had Lindsay Buckingham from Fleetwood Mac to Holiday Road, but he didn't really direct that. He just kind of wrote the green play, so that might have been part of it too. But they included that song in in the box, which is fun. You know? And that's the idea that he could write was his biggest success as a director. If he wrote a script, you knew the script is good and you know all these other directors who made hay with his work. But he whenever he was writing, he would be able to tweak it as he needed to for the film he was trying to produce.

0:17:40
I remember one of the young people, and I wish I could tell you who it was. It was Rob Lowe, Demi Demi Moore, if it was Ellie Sheedy or Jed Nelson, I can't remember who it was, said that they thought he was the coolest guy ever, and they looked to him for style. And so I asked him about that. I said, they think that you're kind of like the style setter of all these above the Brad pack of whomever. And he said, me, I wear the same clothes all the time. I don't even I have no sense of style. I am not that person. But if they think I'm cool, that's okay. I'm alright with that. And I found that very fascinating because He did seem like he was at kid who came home from college, who knew a little bit more than everybody else did, and you looked up to him because he had seen the world, but he wasn't gonna volunteer what he had seen. You had to kind of pull it up.

0:18:36
You know, you had asked if if anyone ever did anything on Hughes, you know, a movie or book, the only thing that I could think of offhand was Netflix does a program called the movies that made us, which looks back at films of like the nineteen eighties and pop culture and stuff. So they did one episode on home alone. And even though he he didn't direct that, that was a Chris Columbus film. He wrote it, he produced it. And it kinda got into a lot of the background of John Hughes and because they filmed it at that same abandoned high school that they used for, like, ferris bueller and and breakfast club and stuff. So they they set up offices in there, and they I think they used to Jim to build sets on it and things like that. So that was kinda interesting.

0:19:25
But he was buddies with John Candy, and he didn't show up really to any of the filming except for the one day they had John Kandy on set to film his, like, two scenes as you know, that that guy that meets up with Catherine O'Hara at the airport. And it was funny because they said they paid scale for him. So, you know, whatever scale is and nineteen ninety ish. They they worked them for, like, twenty hours just just to get, you know, like, five minutes of screen time. They were gonna they were gonna milk that until the end and they said John Kandy ever exhausted. Yeah. Yeah. So he was exhausted. And then as soon as John Kandy was done, John Hughes took off and Chris Columbus took back over. Yeah. Is it that is weird. That is weird. But I think they would defer. I really think that was the kind of the way it was with him even though he was not listed as director, you know.

0:20:19
They they have enough of these people who are still around who would make a great documentary. I think somebody should do that and interview the alcoholic calkins and all these other ones who have been part of that John Hughes world and give people a sense of what it is today because I don't know that kids today have anything like that. There isn't, you know, one of those kind of filmmakers that you say, it's a must. I've gotta go see it. Quentin Tarantino doesn't make enough films. To really merit the loyalty, if you will, that somebody like John Hughes engendered. You'd have to go back to the old forties and fifties to really find somebody else who had that same, yeah, will go attitude. It's interesting.

0:21:03
When a celebrity dies, I'll have that moment, like, that's sad. You know, that he was a great musician, great actor, whatever. But it doesn't really I I don't feel it in any way. I the the two deaths that I could think of from from a celebrity standpoint, because it it impacted me in some way. When John Hughes died, I just felt crushed because there was my childhood. And the other one was Michael Kriton because he was my favorite author. He'd written so many, you know, Jurassic Park was I got roped in with that, but movies or books like The Androbanist rain and Congo and the terminal man rising sun. I mean, these were all really good books and and I was devastated by I think that death also. And actually, they just discovered some some books of his that were written under a pen name and they're gonna re release So I'm I'm excited about that. I'm getting ready for, like, more Michael Creighton books that that I didn't even know existed. But it it was, like, those two desks kinda just hit me hard because from as a child or as a teenager, these were huge parts of my life and a lot of other celebrities. It doesn't hit me that way.

0:22:13
Well, can I give you something that I think you should watch? Sure. I'm not sure if you're gonna go all Bruce, please. No. But it's on the Disney Channel and Disney Plus. It's coming up this week and it's called prom packed. And it's about these two friends. It's a boy and a girl who are friends, not romantically, but they're just besties. You know? And I think that's something that we haven't seen for a while. And they decide that they're going to go to prom. Which has an eighties theme for its prom. But, you know, you hear about promposals all the time, where how somebody asks somebody to go to problem. Well, in the film, they do all of these kind of bits from eighties film. So you will see a lot of John Hughes represented in the in the course of this. And they're very funny, very cool the way they they pull off. And I was able to talk with members that cast the producers and a key guestar. But I have a I have an interview here that I think you might like because it talks all about them.

0:23:17
Ram Peck premieres March thirtieth on Disney Channel and Disney Plus, and Bruce has interviews with key people from the film. In this first clip here from stars, Payton Elizabeth Lee and Blake Draper. Alright, Blake. Fill me in.

0:23:29
What surprised you most about the United States when you came here? Oh. What surprised me most, I think Self-in-depth. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When I when I ride and Los Angeles for the first time and I was driving around with Milo actually, I couldn't believe how many billboards that were. That's just Which is, I guess, must be strained. But in Australia, we just don't have that many billboards of films and and then television shows. So that was kind of jiring to be like, wow, this is really a town built on entertainment. Sorry. System Are you on one now? Are you guys on one now yet? I think we're on a couple. Sorry. It's a big idea. You have to get over there and pose with it. That's the deal. Yeah. No. I was I was at the shelving mall recently and I popped up on one of the screens there, and it was kind of a jump scare. People like you.

0:24:19
And So Satan believes a lot of Have you been teaching him everything? Are you now his his tudor in this too? He's he's tutor in fame. He never did that. Anything I'm doing right now? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I have to I see.

0:24:33
Yeah. I needed a lot of help. Yeah. She needs more. No. I mean, I don't know enough to tutor anyone in anything. But now, they're also putting you with Milo in doggy. Right? Yes. Do you ever get rid of him?

0:24:49
I try my very best and fail at every point. It's he is a a force that needs to be tamed at some point. Yes. I do my best. I do the same. I think it's Georgia.

0:25:03
But you know, Mandy and Dewey are kind of alike, aren't they? Sorry? Aren't Mandy and Dewey kind of alike? Oh, definitely. I mean, I think they're both very strong, smart, independent women. And I just feel so lucky to be able to play both of them. And I guess if I can play a strong, smart woman, authentically, then it must mean something about me. Right. If she wouldn't like that or is she just really out of it? When you see her off the screen. This is for you, Blake. This is Yeah. She is really happy. It was just another screen. She's a mess. Don't tell them. No kidding. Pain. No sick. No pain. Pain's amazing.

0:25:48
She's a he said she said, wow. She's she's a lot of similarities with the characters that she plays. We're smart. So it's all these types. It's a vague you. It's pretty smart. Yeah. She's a smart she's she is a smart lady. She's independent. She's he's very strong. She's very head strong, which I've definitely learned. The hard way? I love the hard way, but, no, I've taken a lot from Payton. And, yeah, she's she's amazing. Payton said off the set. I want him off the set now. Is that what she does? Yep. Yep. Definitely.

0:26:20
I was shocked, though, Blakely, that you didn't know how to play basketball. Yeah. This is my first time. It's my first time learning it. Luckily for me. Or yes. Sorry. Go again. Is that easy to see? Super fast. Not easy. I for Seth. Already forgotten how to play because I haven't touched a basketball since I was lost on Seth. But luckily, if I may, my older brother is an amazing basketballist. So he actually helps coach me, which was really, really fun and I And what did he think?

0:26:49
Did he think you were any good? I think he was worried at the start. But people had a lot of time that happened and somebody's really helped me out. But I had a few other coaches You need one of them? Payton and in in Vancouver as well. So Yeah.

0:27:03
And did you use the beef method? I did actually. Yeah. I I did it. It it it it cried. My gram had a point and it and it helped me as Blake.

0:27:15
Bing and Graham. Wow. It's very matters. Isn't it? This really kind of conjures a lot of John Hughes talk, I think. Yeah. Did you see it? Did you see that kind of central election for sure? Oh, definitely. I mean, I was raised on John Hughes movies. My mom loves the eighties, the music, the clothes, the the movies, and so all of it was very infused into my upbringing. So it was really exciting to get to sort of keep the spirit of the eighties romcom alive and then, you know, make some adjustments so that it makes sense in a in a twenty first century world. But yeah, it it was so much fun to get to dive into that that sort of feeling.

0:28:01
Are you surprised by the little more adult tone that this took from other Disney films? I don't know if I was surprised. I was excited about it. You know, I think kids these days are so smart. And they're not to be underestimated. And I think it is our job to create content that speaks authentically to what it is to grow up today, what it looks like, what it sounds like, what it feels like. And so I don't know if it's more grown up, but it's just more truthful. So but it was very exciting for me because I think that's very important. Yeah. Definitely.

0:28:37
Blake, if I said, get your head in the game, would you know what I was talking about? In basketball? High school. High school musical? Did you see she tutored you on that answering. I can see that. You I do love high school musical. Our high school musical is amazing. I remember I vividly remember saying a lot. You vividly No. The last one, like, the last musical three. I remember my older brother telling me about it. Right? Is that how it goes? Hey, Thank you guys so much. I appreciate it. Thank you.

0:29:11
In the second clip, here an interview with another star of the show, Margaret Cho. Margaret, what was your your high school guidance counselor like? Gosh, I don't even know if I met with my high school counselor, I think a counselor, guidance counselor, I can't remember. I mean, it didn't make an impression on me. To the point where I can say who it even was, but the one person in high school that really believed in me was I had a high school theater teacher who would sign me up for open my comedy nights when I was a really young teenager with my comedy partner at the time who was Sam Rockwell, who's a very famous actor. So we were a comedy duo and she would sign us up because we were too young to sign up So she would call the club and put in our names, and then we would go. We were like fifteen. So young.

0:30:00
But what an amazing vote of confidence and it set me off on a career in him too, I guess, for sure. I think something happened to him, didn't it? I think there's a little something. Well, today, she could get arrested for doing something like that. You know? Yeah. It's still very different. You know, it's a very different time, but she was a young woman. She was, like, in her twenties. You know, and she just saw such a energy in me and in Sam and you know, kind of gave us a lot of encouragement and really tested us to, like, okay, why don't you challenge this by going and doing something at a night club? And so, you know, when she was there to slap her own to make sure it didn't get weird. So she was like the responsible adult throughout, but at the same time was giving us this idea of opportunity, which is really important.

0:30:58
How good were the two of you as a team? Were you good? I don't really remember. I think we were just so young that people were just kind of like, what is going on with these ideas. Right? What even is it? You could see there's footage of it on YouTube of some of our stuff that we would do. And so ridiculous and funny, but it's also like just trying things out, you know, when you're a kid that's sort of what high school's about. You know, I remember when you were the queen of ABC and when all American girl came out and that that was gonna be a big game changer. And now this year, we hear about everything everywhere as a big game changer. Is it It is. It's great. It's really exciting. I wanna see more Asian American participation in film and television. In arts in general, you know, it's really exciting. I think, you know, it's a long time coming. For sure. But I'm so proud that we get to sort of see ourselves in film and this film prompt act also features and centers on an Asian American woman who's forging a pop and you know, to me, that's really exciting.

0:32:12
Did you when they approached you about this, did you say, well, I would be what? You know, I mean, did you see that the guidance counselor would be your role? Well, I I was just offered the role, but I I was really excited to do it. I wanted to work with Payton again. I'd done her show, Dewey, last year, which I I really was impressed by her acting her ability and her innovative genius when it comes to approaching these roles. And I was excited to work with her and The role was written as queer guidance counselor, which I thought was really interesting and really cool. So I really was excited to do it. Did you talk with her at all about, you know, the business? Did you give her any advice? Oh, she doesn't need advice for me. She's doing great. You know, she's, like, so I was looking for advice for me because I think I learned so much from younger people on how the industry has changed and how things are really different. You know, we're we're looking at social media differently. And there there really have so much to offer to like somebody like me who's trying to learn about what new stuff is going on.

0:33:19
Howard Bauchner: You know, when this show makes a big deal about eighties films, What did you think when those eighties films were out? Did you say, oh my god. Yeah. That's really great, or were you looking at them and saying, you know, they're really not showing the picture. Well, I loved it because they were what we had, you know. And I remember going to the first showing pretty in pink at our local theater where I was growing up and was so exciting. Because you had just a film that was about being a teenager, which I think was just so Right. And the coolest adult, which is Annie Pott's is great in the movie. And so I was really channeling Annie Pott's in prom packed because I think that's kind of the right sort of like character that absorb mind matches. Well, I hope this is the start of a lot of things for you because I miss you. I don't see you enough. Yes. We need more meat.

0:34:20
And finally, in this third clip, executive producer, Julie Bowen, known for her role on Modern Family is joined by director Anja Adams. Julie, what did you learn about producing? What did this teach you? I learned a lot. I learned that producers work much harder than actors and get paid less. That's what I learned, and I have a lot of respect for them. And will never complain again.

0:34:43
Did you find though that now I understand some of the choices they make? You know, like when you say I didn't get cast in this because Well, casting is definitely something that I I've done some directing before, so I was more familiar with that process and definitely learn to take casting less personally after being on the other side. You you realize that there's so many forces at play. It's not always the best actor, it's it you're you're figuring out a whole ecosystem on how it's gonna work. I I think I really figured out that there's a lot of you've got a partner like Disney who's great, and there's a lot of you've got to meet a lot of different needs and a lot of from the people on the set to the highest levels and sometimes there's compromises that don't make sense to somebody who's just standing on set like I used to do. It makes sense. It makes sense.

0:35:40
For both of you, this is a little more adult than most Disney films. And there there's a specific area that I could reference, but I don't wanna reference. Uh-huh. Goodbye with that. You wanna take that on yet? I mean, Disney I I feel like Disney wanted to do this movie because they also are trying to really grow their team, you know, mid kind of range viewership and and really dig into that, and this was a way to do it.

0:36:11
I mean, when you look at the other stuff that's out there for teens, it is a little bit more grown up, and they are opposed to a lot more things on the Internet and on their phones. And so it's like this movie, I think, had a real strong Disney feel But, you know, we we tried to elevate it and and just bring it into kind of the the present day as it were and, you know, blazes trail for Disney into this? Yeah. Disney wants to grow with its with its audience. They have such a solid base in the Disney channel But then when you're moving into Disney plus and you have the whole family watching, there it's not inappropriate to have references to some more mature subject matter. So we did.

0:37:01
I was saying, and I don't know if I got cut off. But I love it. Idea that there was a boy girl friendship, but it didn't have to lead to romance. I thought that was a really cool kind of aspect of the film, and I hope that that's a lot. I hope that happens a lot. Yeah. I mean, that was really important.

0:37:19
When I read the script, I was like, I don't see this. I don't see a lot of, you know, hetero kids being friends, male, female. You just don't see that. And I think it's something that is a reality in the world. And it's you can have friends with the opposite sex and and support each other and love each other and be in a friendship. And I think payton and and Milo crafted it beautifully. Yeah. I think sometimes there's too much pressure if you will. You can't just be friends that's gotta lead to something else. But Yeah.

0:37:50
Do you two remember promposals? I never had that in my day, but I'm ancient, so there you go. No. I think these are pretty recent. I I have my own theory and that is that they came along with social media and the rise of the smartphones in the late, you know, arts. Mhmm. Because before that, like, it you weren't doing big splashy things because you weren't trying to record them and show them on social media. But I could be wrong.

0:38:20
Howard Bauchner: Well, well, how are you asked to prompt? You just somebody comes up to you and says, would you like to put a prom with me and that was it? Well, I on your back and I was back in the passing note stages, I mean, I wrote my prom data letter because he lived in another city and had to fly in for it, and he did, and it was amazing. But I think if, you know, you're in a high school back in the day, you were, like, writing a letter, you had your friend go ask. It was very you know, contained. And I didn't perform I went to a boarding school. We didn't have a prom, so I got to avoid that altogether. Oh, no. This is your prom then. This is it. All the better. Right? It's my wish fulfillment.

0:39:04
There's also a very John Hughes vibe to this film. Did you plan that, or is it just because of the times? Hundred percent. It was up slowly planned in the script and in the development. We wanted to reference it. We wanted to say that those movies left us feeling really good, but then upon reflection, have some really problematic stuff, and we needed a director who could put all of that together in a visual language and and Annie did a great job.

0:39:36
Alright, Bruce. Thanks for that interview. Be sure to watch prom packed. It's on both Disney Channel and it's on Disney plus, but I must tell you the Disney channel version has been sanitized for your protection. So you're not gonna get the kind of the dirty references where they actually go John Hughes on you in the Disney plus version. So watch that one and you'll get some things where you go, oh, I didn't realize that Disney did these kind of things, but they do. And look in the background of everything because you'll see promposals that are not meant to be overt. They're just ones that you as a fan of eighties films would be able to catch the the reference. Sounds good, Bruce. So we'll be back again next week with another episode of streamed and screened.

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