‘Fletch’ and the Legend of Chevy Chase | The Rewatchables | The Ringer

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan charge it all to the Underhills' account after rewatching 'Fletch,' the 1985 comedy starring Chevy Chase, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, and Joe Don Baker.
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[@robertwiles8106]

Theme from Fletch is one of the most underrated themes of all time.

[@rdl5477]

So good. This is the deep dive podcast into CC’s career I didn’t know I needed.

[@russellmathias6911]

I guess im randomly asking but does someone know a way to get back into an Instagram account? I stupidly lost my password. I love any help you can offer me.

[@jayjones9225]

Ryan Reynolds is kind of that sarcastic, I’m too cool to care person now

[@vetoland92]

they got there at the end lol

[@DJCloroxx]

He definitely was just doing him in Waiting and Van Wilder.

[@hustonsingletary402]

Vince Vaughn would be a perfect cast for a modern day Fletch, IMO. Additionally, "God Don Don, who is it Mr. Senelininn...?" airport scene is one of my most rewatchables for Fletch.

[@patrickthomas8890]

2005 Vince Vaughn definitely, especially with Todd Phillips.

[@laureencriss8220]

-No, the name is Cavanaugh. -Who is it? Morris or Pierre?

[@franklintang1014]

They never mention how weird Fletch’s #32 Magic jersey is in this movie. The gap between the 3 and the 2 is ridiculously huge.

[@KBH27]

I never get tired of this classic!

[@Robskit6]

Kid; "Are you a cop? Fletch; "As far as you know!

[@gerbermack]

I find actress DWN very charming in this movie. The Rewatchables fellas aren’t giving her credit. She never struck me as being a bad actress. My impression of her character was that of a very attractive woman in a marriage that’s run it’s course. Her husband’s a wealthy guy, who’s private exploits wouldn’t surprise her, and she’s smitten and charmed by Fletch. I love her in this movie.

[@allobove7798]

She's horrible in Tombstone. Just a pretty face.

[@laureencriss8220]

She was great in Fletch. Idk about other movies. But, she was beautiful and played her character well.

[@alhollywood6486]

Fred "The Dorf" Dorfman

[@burkleybarthel9627]

"Would you like to look at the wedding pictures? No thanks, I'm trying to quit !"

[@tristramcoffin926]

Yall are missing it with Fletch Lives. Perhaps the best line in either movie is, "She felt great to me!"

[@randycunningham7318]

Fletch Lives is hilarious.

[@QC_Charlottean]

I’m a big Fletch Lives fan. Hal Holbrook as the bad guy and R Lee Ermey as Jim Bakker parody. Sneaky funny. “Y’all come on. All of us?”

[@randycunningham7318]

Seems Like Old Times is hilariously great.

[@twodollarshoe]

I had never seen this film, but watched it after this. Now I know the exact moment Ryan Reynolds's professional persona was conceived - which makes sense, his breakthrough role being NL's Van Wilder. Fletch is a Proto-Deadpool.

[@toofus1523]

Fletch might be one of the most quotable movies of all time. Foul Play is worth a re-watch, Chase is great and it the type of comedy not made anymore. Worth watching for Burgess Meredith alone.

[@laureencriss8220]

When I was at a party in college, I replied to what some guy said, "Yeah, I assure you". He said, "You do Fletch?!" Yeah!

[@k31rifleman]

Mrs stanwyk “Is there anything I can do for you or more to the point…to you” She was gorgeous

[@anthonymartin7925]

They forgot, "It was something your wife said while we were in bed together. She said we had the same build. From the waist up I imagine."

[@JGKrump]

Woah! There's Fred! Won't he be surprised!

[@lefthook9707]

When Tommy Lasorda died a few weeks back I commemorated him by sending the clip from Fletch, "I hate Tommy Lasorda", to friends.

[@geraldinemcgowan2385]

I wish I could unwind a movie the way these guys do,

[@grady187]

Weird that the certified Chevy-oligist didn’t mention that Chevy had a talk show and that it famously bombed. I don’t think we have to guess how he would of fared as the Carson successor when his show only made it 5 weeks.

[@75aces97]

Yeah, that's a pretty big omission. What few people who watched his show saw how Chevy would handle the Johnny Carson role. It didn't go well. l

[@PatrickReagan]

I saw Fletch when it came out in the theater. I made my Dad take me to see it. The scenes were clever and I didn't the want the movie to end. My only disappointment was, in the promo poster for the movie, CC was disguised as a hockey player and obviously that wasn't in the actual movie. Only Chevy can play Fletch. They should do another movie, but only if Chevy wants to. As for favorite scenes, the airplane mechanic does it for me

[@savage_skirt5386]

Forensics werent really a widespread practice until about '90/'91

[@danajim3281]

Love this movie. Fletch F. Fletch. Also the music is great too.

[@k31rifleman]

I do the “0h he drawls the foul” running into the ex wife lawyer I do that shit with my sons all the time

[@Weaponator18]

1:02:40. No, it's not apex mountain for newspapers. That would be Watergate without question. Great pod though!

[@angelotro]

The Onion had a headline way back in the day that I was both proud and ashamed of: "Area Insurance Salesman Celebrates 14th Year Of Quoting Fletch".

[@bakerman10]

Jon Hamm is now in the new Fletch, but a very different Fletch, based more on the book's character.

[@adampitts573]

Always love Chevy chase movies growing up and the good thing for me my sons a fan just like me ,has been since he was little im 49 now and he's 19 and Always quoting Chevy film quotes lol😆

[@burkleybarthel9627]

Alfa romeo kid was in the waltons. His deep voice is hilarious!

[@qmagnificent2529]

Fletch has feelings and expresses them subtly in the scenes when the guy wants to garnishee his wages and the sequence thereafter

[@KarSevak1992]

One of my favourite movies of all time.

[@RMS5006]

Awesome!

[@David-iv6je]

Chevy Chase might be the ultimate "you like him or you don't" actor, and a large part of his schtick was asshole. Not just that he was an asshole, his character was an asshole. The problem is he played THAT same character in every movie and people simply got sick of him. Many of his successes were carried by other people, though not Vacation movies, obviously.

[@KBH27]

Love Mrs. Stanwyk

[@Rudy04]

The highlight of this amazing pod is all The Saint talk

[@grantterlecky1248]

Just rewatched it after this pod. Doesn’t hold up. Good acting by Kilmer. Overall it’s silly. I’m out.

[@ShiroMiura-fy4lw]

For not going to film school, chevy did alright in foul play and beyond

[@denisepink8794]

I love his sarcasm his cheesy 1 liners are hilariously like when he told him if u shoot me ur likely to lose alot of those humanitarian awards or thank god the police are here.I livenyour body Larry 🤣

[@k31rifleman]

Don’t worry my sons hated “Weird Science “. And I’m still LMAO

[@SoulNRnB]

Perfect casting for Fletch if remade. Ryan Reynolds

[@rigsby1454]

Ryan Reynolds sucks

[@othervoices76]

What kind of name is Poon ?

[@othervoices76]

Comanche Indian

[@laureencriss8220]

Comanche Indian!

[@russellponce9265]

Stamp of approval at Stone Cold Fucking Classic

[@Cragun.]

Not sure why you guys think Chevy (whom I love) could have been a talk show host. He did a talk show in 1993 called The Chevy Chase Show, and it was awful. He was visibly nervous and uncomfortable, but the sketches were gold. It was hard to watch as much as I wanted to.

[@at0mly]

Paul Rudd could do a Fletch.

[@diaphanouswaffle]

Don't recall having seen "The Saint"...but now that I've checked out the soundtrack, that's my kind of music: Fluke's "Atom Bomb", Chemical Brothers' "Setting Sun", Underworld, Dreadzone, Sneaker Pimps-I mean, those are artists in a genre I quite like, so thanks for bringing them up (despite being mocked and dismissed by other folks on the pod).

[@diaphanouswaffle]

Oh, and I liked the instrumental music (Harold F, for the win !) so much that I bought the cassette tape soundtrack, and skipped over the typical "song" songs (stuff with lyrics, which I found boring and shrill) and just kept replaying the groovy funky electronic keyboard tracks (esp. the deep bass-y parts). Back in the day, I even taped pieces of the score off the tv when the movie was playing, bc I was so drawn to those sounds...was reminded of all this after having just enjoyed your "Beverly Hills Cop" rewatchables ep. (and had to go check out some of that music, too).

[@QC_Charlottean]

Just for Bill, I’m queuing up The Saint right now.

[@savage_skirt5386]

Noyce: Dead Calm and then Clear and Present Danger

[@CD-gk9ix]

Fletch is Chevy chase at his best

[@cwdkidman2266]

Chevy Chase is GOD!!!!!Always was always will be!!

[@justinmalone330]

Chevy Chase was on The Tonight Show with Carson and Richard Pryor in 1977. The tension between Chase and Carson and Chase and Pryor was strong. Just after Chase’s remarks about talk show hosts.

[@savage_skirt5386]

Tennis was HUGE in the 80s. Some people are extremely uncoordinated

[@shanehowell8169]

Fletch’s apartment 🏆

[@bustergoldenrod]

The mansion was also used in The Bodyguard.

[@laureencriss8220]

I was this close to buying this place. Then, I found out that Hopalong Cassidy killed himself here.

[@jharv1970]

Joe Don Baker was in a few Bond movies.......He married into the Broccoli family

[@qmagnificent2529]

"let's go to Wolfgang puck and get a steak"

[@savage_skirt5386]

Have you ever seen a spleen that large? No, not since breakfast. Geena Davis was a brand new actress. DWN has a famous father... and it's the 80s, tan, beachy blondes were the gold standard.

[@QC_Charlottean]

Bill loves The Saint because of Elizabeth Shue. And I understand.

[@allank8497]

no mention of Rockford Files, which i felt this drew a lot from

[@boxcarhobo7017]

My guys. 👍

[@ZJ-ne9kn]

Good call by chris on jim brown for best athlete actors..

[@markprice5651]

Burt Reynolds

[@dblackesquire]

I liked "The Saint".

[@austin5944]

Chevy Chase is the best

[@diaphanouswaffle]

Who's to say that the fake name "John Cocktoasten" (which clearly sounds like an inelegant mishmash of phallic puns) wasn't an homage to avant-garde French filmmaker Jean Cocteau...and then they just stuck the suffix "sten" onto the end of name (bc they didn't know where to go with it from there, it sounds like an afterthought anyway) ? I'm 50, and saw Fletch in my early teens. At that point I had no critical eye for good or bad acting, plausibility of plot, etc. I just knew what I found funny or dramatic and which actors I liked seeing/hearing. Back before the internet, I studied credit sequences (and read movie review books) to learn names for who these folks were-and I admit, both Tim Matheson & Dana Wheeler-Nicholson were like catnip to me, I simply delighted in their screen presences. So there LOL

[@danielhebert6839]

Chase as great on Community. Dan Harmon utilized him well. However, I doubt that he would have succeeded on NBC late night. His Fox show lasted a month. Letterman would have taken him down.

[@devineimageworks]

Joe Don Baker was playing The Whammer from The Natural in Fletch.

[@shaggycan]

9:25 I think that has less to do with Chevy and more to do with the general zeitgeist of humanity. 1984-1986 were the peak of western civilization. Pretty much any art that came out in those years; film, music, design were just the high point.

[@johnwilson8385]

With regards to the recasting couch, it would not surprise me if it were made known that GIna Davis was asked to play the part of Gail, or even acted in a couple of scenes as Gail, but couldn't take Chevy being Chevy and accepted the Larry role instead and DWN swooped in, could be the good hang with Chevy, and the movie was made with DWN as Gail.

[@RMS5006]

Hear no evil, see no evil. Next!

[@75aces97]

1:00:28 according to Moe's menu it was spelled Cocktoastin.

[@QC_Charlottean]

That’s correct. Not sure the confusion there. He’s telling a hot woman he has a hot penis - cock toastin.

[@patrickthomas8890]

I grew up loving Chevy Chase but never watched Fletch for some reason. Finally did and didn’t love it. Maybe I waited too long. I have a funny feeling it would’ve made a better impression on me if I saw it as a kid and I would still love it

[@babyirene3188]

I'm constantly caught off guard by how seemingly erratic your collective movie knowledge is. You guys seem to know EVERYTHING about every horrible and not horrible American film from the modern era. And yet you can do 75 minutes on Fletch, which you say is a favourite film, and not mention, one single time- Groucho Marx. It's an oversight more egrigious than reviewing The Town and not mentioning Eddie Coyle. That was impressive. This is kind of crazy. Have none of you ever seen a Marx Bros. movie? I mean, all the silly names Chase uses? All the one liners? No ? No comprende? Ah well. What you guys know about you really know about. Enjoyable episode.

[@alhollywood6486]

Fletch F. fletch

[@jiminy300]

I too enjoyed the saint !!!

[@tristramcoffin926]

I actually loved Fletch Lives. It isn't as good as the first one but it's still funny. The Bug Busters scene might be by favorite.

[@cooldoctor174]

Great pod.. thanks fellas

[@robd1811]

o i love the fletch movies both of them they are hilarious so glad my dad made me watch them in high school btw i was born in 1993.

[@Walacama]

Freida’s Boss.

[@laureencriss8220]

Who's Frieda? My secretary. 😂

[@CarlosRojas-zb8zs]

FINALLY! FLETCH LIVES NEXT!

[@savage_skirt5386]

Ryan Reynolds seems to fancy himself the modern day Chevy

[@laureencriss8220]

If anyone is thinking of re-making Fletch, they might as well write a different character and script. Fletch can't be remade.

[@qmagnificent2529]

Libertini was in all of me

[@KBH27]

So many quotes and funny moments. I love the part where he hits the car with the tennis racket. Just for starters.

[@alhollywood6486]

Can I borrow your towel? My car just hit a buffalo.

[@KBH27]

@@alhollywood6486 Water Buffalo

[@alhollywood6486]

@@KBH27 I'm ashamed and abashed. Well done sir.

[@alhollywood6486]

Melanoma, Carcinoma, some kind of Noma?

[@KBH27]

@@alhollywood6486 lol, i could probably recite the whole movie by now at 52 Saw it when it came out played the VHS to death. uh huh right,......well which one? 1 B or 2 ? ever serve time? never mind, just get me a glass of hot fat and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia while you're out there

[@Bryan8329]

I thought I heard some stray rumor they were going to make Fletch a TV show, with Chevy playing him. I'd prefer that than to see someone else take over the role.

[@jharv1970]

Jon Hamm would be my new Fletch

[@arthurtrommel1438]

he was and the movie sucked

[@ProfessD]

please do Mitchell on the Rewatchables.

[@brianhansen6189]

I once changed my MySpace profile name to Dr RosenPenis ca. 2005

[@stephenallen4625]

I honestly want PTA to do the next Fletch with whoever. Gosling, I think works. I immediately thought Joaquin, but then it's just inherent vice... but that's okay

[@pmorton7960]

You guys ever going to do the professional?

[@daves536]

Fletch tells his wife's attorney to leave his rubbers outside if he's wearing any.....then, after paying the back alimony, tells him to, "Keep $10 for yourself......go get yourself a nice piece of ass".

[@colinlastname5809]

I think this movie is just a worse Beverly Hills cop, but Fletch lives is a great movie that I think improved 10x on fletch

[@lefthook9707]

Fletch crushes Beverly Hills Cop.

[@franksound6922]

BHC feels more like an actual crime/action blockbuster and Eddie Murphy gives it the fun, light comedy element. Fletch never felt like the story or anything else was something to even be considered serious. It s much more this sarcastic Chevy Chase or Bill Murray flavor

[@EgbertWilliams]

Great. I can download the audio of this for 25MB, whereas the regular podcast site requires 180MB!!! It didn't used to be such a data hog, but somebody has royally screwed it up.

[@Heathaze813]

Modern Problems was awesome. Sorry, said it. Ryan Reynolds Deadpool would be a recent comparable wiseass.

[@jdigitalseven7]

Ryan Reynolds would be the perfect Fletch as Chase and him they have same sense of humor. The TV show Psych reminds me most of Fletch.

[@burkleybarthel9627]

Too short!

[@randycunningham7318]

He copies Chase.

[@cwdkidman2266]

Fuck anyone who doesn't worship Chevy Chase

[@bertmustin]

Did Dana Wheeler Nicholson run over Fennessey's mom?

[@a.r.t93]

1:10:40 yoink!

[@alhollywood6486]

Nonsense. If you love Top Secret you'll love this

[@qmagnificent2529]

The fletch and geena Davis Larry dynamic is odd.

[@des0163]

Chevy "The Asshole" Chase

[@qmagnificent2529]

Uncle Phil is one of the cops

[@dukelukas5965]

SIMMONS!!!! YOU THINK BEVERLY HILLS COP 2 IS BETTER THAN BEVERLY HILLS COP???!!!