Ep. - 1727 - SATURDAY SERIES: MICHAEL SWERDLICK PART TWO

Reality Life with Kate Casey

Michael Swerdlick returns to the podcast to share expanded behind-the-scenes stories from his career as a screenwriter and reality TV produc

Key takeaways

The character Cindy Mancini was named after a real cheerleader from Michael's high school yearbook.
Michael worked on straight-to-video movies for the Olsen Twins under the company Dual Star.

Main topics

Making of Can't Buy Me Love
Reality TV production history

Notable quotes

I don't want to waste my energy [on negativity].

Conclusion

A nostalgic look at the unpredictable nature of the entertainment indu

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:03) Welcome back for another episode of Reality Life with KKC. Welcome back for this Saturday series episode. Now, last week, I had Michael Swordlick as my guest, and he talked about writing the movie Can't Buy Me Love. I cannot tell you how many DMs I got. People really love this movie, and for good reason. It is one of the best, like you, I can quote from the movie all day long. And people were overjoyed to hear so many of the stories about the making of the movie. You don't even have to really appreciate movie making to just enjoy that episode. So many great stories about how the actors were chosen, all of the people that were inspiration for the characters. Well, after we recorded the episode, Michael said to me, Oh my gosh, I forgot so many more stories. And then his friends were listening to the episode saying, wait a minute, you forgot to tell them about this. So I had to have him back, not only to talk about Can't Buy Me Love, but also to talk about so many of the life experiences that he has had in the entertainment industry, writing scripts, writing pilots, what gets sold, what experiences he's had with different networks. I just knew that you would love all of it. Now, if you don't remember the movie Can't Buy Me Love or have yet to see it, and I'm begging you to go and stream it because it's such a great watch. The deal at the center of it is this. Ronald Miller, played by Patrick Dempsey, pays Cindy Mancini. She's played by Amanda Peterson, and she's this most beautiful girl in school, and she's a cheerleader. He pays her to pretend to be his girlfriend. He thinks being seen with the most popular girl in school is going to change his life, and it does. but not quite the way that he imagined it. It became a huge success. It's like a cult favorite. Surprisingly, it didn't make money right at the beginning, but over time, it has become one of the most beloved rom-coms, I think, in the history of cinema. And again, so many of you loved it as well. So Michael's back. To tell me more about the making of the movie, we also talk about pilots he wrote and what happened to them, his experience working with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. So it's a chance to hear more about a film that so many of us grew up watching and about the parts of a writer's career that we don't usually get to see. Michael's a great storyteller. And here's the craziest thing. In a weird turn of events, we figured out that my niece has babysat for one of his family members in New Jersey. You can't make this stuff up. So I was thrilled to have him back. And I know how much you guys loved the episode with him before. I'm encouraging you to follow him. And here's the great news. He has a bunch of scripts that he's worked on. I think he needs to make them, especially that Anthony Michael Hall script where he's playing Rusty from National Lampoon's Vacation, but he's a father now and he's taking his son on college tours. We have to make sure this movie is made. I'm telling you. So back with me again, Michael Swerdlick. Michael, back by popular demand. The good people who listened were overjoyed by this conversation about Can't Buy Me Love. So you have to come back, as I said at the end of the episode. But aren't you just overjoyed at the reaction to the episode? Speaker 2 (3:25) I am. I am. You really came up with something here because, I mean, all the many, many comments, I read all of them on your thing. And believe it or not, a week ago, I had zero social media presence. As a matter of fact, Jed Clampett had more social media than I had. But my wife did an IG thing knowing, you know, you know, Kay Casey was coming up. And even I got like. followers now. I told my wife I only wanted to have one follower. That would be her. But now I got a few more. And the comments that came to you and came to me, I'm shocked and happy that how much people love the movie, remember the movie. Speaker 2 (4:09) quote lines from the movie, like ridiculous quoting lines and had a bunch of like interesting questions and observations that I had never seen or thought about before. So people, I would, I would say a lot of these people have seen the movie more than I've seen it. Probably. And, and, uh, yeah, so it was great. So your, your podcast, um, a lot of people from my past has popped up and. My homeboys from Scotch Plains, New Jersey were all listening to it and Speaker 1 (4:41) getting Speaker 2 (4:42) into it. Yeah, it was fun. It was really great. Speaker 1 (4:45) Well, let's talk about a couple things that you remembered after we had recorded that you thought might be fun for people to know, including where you came up with the name Cindy Mancini. Speaker 2 (4:57) Oh, okay. This is a good one. Cindy Mancini actually went to my high school. She was a cheerleader. Speaker 2 (5:04) And initially, I didn't want to say, oh, when I wrote the script, I couldn't come up with names. Like, they're hard. Like, how do you make up a name? So I went to my yearbook and I started pulling names. And like the pizza places, Alfonso's from my hometown. And, you know, this place, all the places, got to a diner is the diner. Now, when we ended up shooting in Arizona. they weren't going to spend money to change the name of Scoops, the ice cream place, to Alfonso's. Speaker 1 (5:32) They Speaker 2 (5:33) weren't going to do that. So it was just easier for me to write from my hometown using names. And I ended up changing a lot of names, but then everybody fell in love with Cindy Mancini. Speaker 1 (5:45) Now, cut to the real Cindy Mancini, Speaker 2 (5:47) who is a terrific girl, cheerleader, popular, all that. She actually said it in her article in her hometown newspaper. oh, were you upset that Michael used your name? She loved it. She thought it was great. And she actually contacted me like a year or two after the movie and said to me, you know, I'm thrilled by it. Did you do it on purpose? I said, yeah, I kind of used your name, but I thought I was going to take it out at some point. But then at that point, it was too late. Everybody's like, we love the name Cindy Mancini. We love Mrs. Mancini. Yeah. That kind of thing. Speaker 1 (6:26) And by the way, she was a real sex pot. I mean, they cast a woman who was so pretty and she had such like a sex appeal. So you believe that character. Speaker 2 (6:33) Oh yeah, no, she was great. And then... You know, I had this like sleazy guy hit, you know, take her out and move. And okay. Another crazy story. The New York giants, my football team, we just lost Jackson dart yesterday, but my football team, the quarterback for the New York giants name was Phil Sims. And this was a year. I Speaker 1 (6:59) know, you Speaker 2 (7:00) know, Phil Sims. I know Phil Sims. He's been on the show. I love Phil. He's a quarterback. He made my dreams come true. And this actor comes in to read for this Italian mafia guy who's going to take out the mother. The actor's name, Phil Simms. If you don't think I'm hiring that guy, you are crazy. Easy to be in my movie. By the way, he was terrific. He played it perfectly. He did. Terrific actor. Speaker 2 (7:30) Sure enough, that year, a month later, the Giants won the Super Bowl. They beat Denver to win their first Super Bowl. I'm in Tucson. And I said, I have to watch the Super Bowl with my brother, Peter, because we watch every Giant game together. So I flew home on Saturday and came back Monday. And I took one day off from the film of Camp I'm Alone. So I wanted to watch the game with my brother and celebrate with my brother. So I just came back to L.A. for a day. Speaker 2 (7:59) In that scene with Phil Simms, I had a line in there that they took out. It wasn't even 1987. It wasn't politically correct. When she looks out at the guy and she sees like kind of a sleazy guy. And by the way, he kind of hits on Simms. He sure did. And she turns to the mother and she goes, where'd you meet this guy? Guidos or us? And they wouldn't let me put that line in there. You know, Guido, Italian. Wasn't it like Speaker 1 (8:29) Guido Sarducci was that character on Saturday Night Live? Yes, Speaker 2 (8:33) yes, he was. Father Guido Sarducci. So, you know, I grew up with all Italians. These are my people. So they give me a lot of latitude, the Italian community. You know, New Jersey, basically Italian. Yeah. A lot of sections. Speaker 1 (8:47) I wanted to ask you, too, about the character of Bobby. I read that that actor went on to become a game show host, but he was perfect in that role. Speaker 2 (8:56) Okay. Wow. Another good one. Bobby. Bobby's father was the head of the Tucson Film Commission. So this wasn't random. His father said, hey, my son is a good looking dude. He is a good looking dude. He was so cute. Yeah. And he said he would be something in your movie. We all looked at each other and go, well, we want to be good with the Tucson Film Commission because, you know, we may need them. And we did, you know, preventing people from flying over when we're shooting, you know, that kind of thing, getting us access to the airplane graveyard. Oh, yeah. So George, we hired him. Now, we had problems with the mic and his voice, so we ended up dubbing his lines at the end of the day. But I thought I was never going to see this guy again. And like 30 years later, I put on TV, and I'm like, wait a second. Speaker 1 (9:52) And Speaker 2 (9:52) I look his name up, and he was Bobby, you know, the quarterback. Speaker 1 (9:58) Yeah, that was such a good character, too. Speaker 2 (10:01) And that makes you a prostitute. You know, that line. Even I got a laugh at that line. That one's a little much. Speaker 1 (10:09) I wanted to ask you about life after this because you told me that you were involved in several different pilots and one was such a riot and you were talking about all of these wild characters that you found. Speaker 2 (10:24) Yeah. Years later, I... Speaker 2 (10:29) 2008, there was a writer's strike. And I was doing stuff then. I was doing rewrites and I had a pretty good thing going on. But now all of a sudden you're on strike. And I didn't know much in 2008 about reality TV. I didn't really watch Speaker 1 (10:43) it. Speaker 2 (10:44) And, you know, one day my mother said to me, well, why don't you come up with one of these reality shows? And I said, how do I do that? She goes, think of something dumb and make it stupider. And I said, oh. OK, I can do that. So I ended up coming up with a few reality ideas. And one of them was the first one I came up was a thing called Hunk House. And it was there were shows where they put a lot of celebrities who were kind of not as famous as they were in a house together. And I said, well, why don't we just put a bunch of the hunks from 20 years ago in a house together? And they're going to try to get their career back. So that was one. And then I came up with an idea that I thought was going to be my retirement party. It was called Camp In-Laws. And it was, you and I are going to get married. But before we do that, you're going to live with my family. Because you basically married. So I'm going to live with your family. You're going to live with my family. And it was wife swap with in-laws. Now, this is a show that should run for a thousand years because you can just keep doing it. So I had those two shows and I didn't know anybody in the reality business. I didn't know how to get it going. And one night I'm having dinner at Firefly in Studio City and I'm walking out after dinner and I see Scott Baio sitting there. I'm like, oh, my God, Scott Baio, Chachi, he's right there. I went right over to him and I started talking to him and I said, hey, I don't know what you're doing now. He was doing a reality show. Scott Baio is 50, 50. Speaker 1 (12:27) And Speaker 2 (12:27) I said, I have some reality ideas. Turns out we live about. four minutes from each other in Encino. And he said, well, let's get together and talk about it. And so I brought Scott these two ideas and I said, you're Scott Baio. Get me some meanings. Let's go. And Scott Baio calls another guy who was a kind of a kid actor and now was producing shows, Jason Hervey. You know, Jason Hervey? For one Speaker 1 (12:54) of Speaker 2 (12:54) your years. Speaker 1 (12:55) Yeah, Speaker 2 (12:56) Jason Hervey. He was like the amount. He Speaker 1 (12:58) was the shitty, the brother Wayne. Speaker 2 (12:59) Yes, exactly. So now all of a sudden I'm involved with Wayne and Chachi. Yeah. And we go in and the first place we pitch it to is VH1. Speaker 1 (13:10) And Speaker 2 (13:10) of course they buy it in the room. It's perfect for VH1. And now all of a sudden, oh, I sold a reality show. And I'd never been in the reality world before. And we go off and we make it. And it had a bunch of actors in it that I'm sure. You know, Christopher Atkins, Adrian Zamed, Eric Neese, Billy Huffsey. Now Speaker 1 (13:32) let's just go through each of them because that's such a riot. Okay. So Eric Neese, Real World, also one of the biggest studs ever. Christopher Atkinson was in the Blue Lagoon with Brooke Speaker 2 (13:44) Shields. Brooke Shields, yeah. Speaker 1 (13:46) And then who else was in? Adrian Zamed was TJ Hooker. Adrian Speaker 2 (13:50) Zamed, Speaker 1 (13:50) Grease Speaker 2 (13:50) 2. Grease 2, TJ Hooker. Speaker 2 (13:55) David Chokichi. Baywatch. Baywatch. Jeremy Jackson. Baywatch. Billy Huffsey, fame. Speaker 1 (14:05) Billy Puffsey, yes. Speaker 2 (14:07) And then the guy who sang Talk to an Angel from 90210. Yes, Jamie. Jamie. He was an EMT. Really nice guy. And it went back Speaker 1 (14:17) to it. He still is. Speaker 2 (14:18) Yeah, yeah. He's a great... By the way, they all were good dudes. Here was the mistake Speaker 1 (14:23) that was made. Speaker 2 (14:25) You know, you kind of wanted to show these guys, you know, maybe not looking so great, but when you give guys like this, professionals, five months notice that we're going to start shooting, every one of these guys came in ripped. Speaker 1 (14:38) Oh, did they? Speaker 2 (14:39) They look amazing. They all worked out. Are we talking Speaker 1 (14:42) human growth hormone? No, I have no idea. Speaker 2 (14:46) I have no idea what they did. But you know, Eric Neese, these are all Speaker 1 (14:50) good looking guys. Oh yeah, like he's still fit. He's crazy, yes. Speaker 2 (14:52) Yeah, these are all good-looking dudes. And what they added to the show that I didn't have, they added a pop psychologist. And they did a lot of a psychology session. And I'm saying, the show is good. It's fun. And I was just learning the ropes. I'm there every day, especially on Fridays. They had steak. They brought Speaker 1 (15:16) in the Coke and they Speaker 2 (15:17) grilled Speaker 1 (15:17) the steak. So never missed a Friday. Speaker 2 (15:20) And I'm there with Bayo and Herbie. And those guys sort of, they became the hosts of the show. And everybody's loving it. VH1's all around. We love it. We love it. We love it. And they were going to premiere the show in April. And this is like November now. And they loved it so much as they said, you know what, we're going to do it Sunday nights starting at the beginning of the year. Speaker 1 (15:45) Now, Speaker 2 (15:46) this is a risky strategy because you're going to hit the Grammys. Oh, Speaker 1 (15:51) yes. The Super Speaker 2 (15:52) Bowl, the Oscars, all the award shows. But their attitude was, especially with the Super Bowl. Counter-programming. Women are going to love these guys. We're going to get that demographic. They're going to watch it. That was a mistake. Shouldn't have done that. Because that was a show I felt would have gone further and you would have brought in different guys. And there was great stuff going on. I thought there'd be a spinoff. There was really good stuff with a couple of the actors, not the actors, the guys living in the house. And by the way, the house. It looked like a house. We had a basketball court. We had all this stuff. It looks like a house, but it's a soundstage on Sunset and Gower in Hollywood. And they were supposed to be there every night. But sure enough, like two or three of them, one o'clock in the morning, would just go home and stay with their families and sneak back at seven in the morning. But it was a good experience. So I'm like, oh, now I could sell other shows. You know, I got this one show going. And then I sold Meet the... in-laws. I partnered with a company called ITV and we ended up at this weird network, CMT, Country Music Television. Speaker 2 (17:07) And now I'm thinking, well, Hunk House ended up becoming Confessions of a Teen Idol. That's what they called it. And I thought this was going to go for several seasons and this would be great. It didn't because the numbers, you can't go up against the Super Bowl and the Oscars. It's just not going to work out. So that was probably a mistake to do that. So now I sell The In-Laws Show. Speaker 2 (17:35) I say, you know, I want to be involved with it. And they said, no, no, no. We know what we're doing. We got this under control. And they go off and they shoot it. And they shoot, I think, eight episodes. And then they show me the episodes. And they're pretty good. I don't know where they come up with these people. You know, the weirder, the better. They came up with some strange folks. And, okay, it's an hour show.