You might think today I'd be thinking of cute, furry little creatures or even the sneeze of an impact Punxsutawney Phil's prediction had on today's activities, but you'd be wrong. Mostly I was thinking of the Bill Murray variety of Groundhog Day. And while you may not care to know that I've had an irrational crush on him no matter how long in the tooth he gets, here are some fun things via imdb.com you may not know about the movie:
In one scene, Connors throws himself from the bell tower of a high building. This building is actually an opera house in Woodstock, Illinois. Local legend has it that a ghost of a young girl haunts the building since a girl once fell off of the balcony section inside the opera house and died.
Bill Murray was bitten by the groundhog twice during shooting.
On the DVD, Harold Ramis states that the original idea was for him to live February 2nd for about 10,000 years. Later he says that Phil probably lived the same day for about 10 years
Originally, Phil was supposed to murder the groundhog in his lair. This was changed, however, since it seemed too much like Caddyshack.
The idea comes from 'The Gay Science', a famous book by Friedrich Nietzsche. In his book, Nietzsche gives a description of a man who is living the same day over and over again.
Harold Ramis considered Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and John Travolta for the role of Phil Connors, but he considered them as "far too nice" compared to Bill Murray.
Have a great Groundhog Day, everyone!
I have never told anyone this but I can't think of one Bill Murray movie except Ghostbusters (my kids made me)I have ever seen all the way through. Am I missing out on something societal? does this 19 minutes count?
And if that groundhog today changes the weather back to winter today i am going to Pennsylvania looking to make some stew. It's been 50 degrees for two days here, remarkably unusual for MI in Jan/Feb.
I'm not a big Bill Murray fan. Did like him in Ghostbusters. I've seen Groundhog day. Lana is a fan of it.
@WM and @Charles...Bill Murray is kind of an acquired taste. I had a crush on him in Meatballs and I guess it never went away. He reminds me of someone from my past that was very special to me and extremely funny, so it might be just me 😉
Ignore them, L.A. I get it entirely. You're right, as always. I haven't dropped by here in ages, but did I tell you I hate Google for screwing up Blogger so much I almost quit blogging?
@Rick...thanks, Rick. I knew you'd understand 😉 I actually considered stopping blogging, too. For a split second. Then I asked myself: Am I being a fogey who doesn't want to change tech because I'm set in my ways? Time will tell. Great to see you here, cat boy 🙂