Our latest What the Hell Happened Quiz tied into the Time Travel episode of our podcast, Le Show. Let’s see how everyone did.
When I wrote the WTHH entry on Billy Zane, I was surprised to discover that he was one of Biff’s goons in the Back to the Future movies despite the fact I was a pretty big Billy Zane fan back in the day and I have watched Back to the Future dozens of times. A whopping 86% of you guys got this one right. So either you more observant than I am or you read the WTHH article. I am going to assume the latter. ;)
Thompson starred with Dennis Quaid in Jaws 3-D. The two were engaged before Quaid hooked up with Meg Ryan. Tom Cruise starred opposite Thompson in All The Right Moves. Patrick Swayze appeared opposite Thompson in Red Dawn. Eric Stoltz and Thompson appeared together in the Fast Times at Ridgemont High rip-off, The Wild Life which was actually written by Fast Times screenwriter, Cameron Crowe.
Stoltz was then hired to play Marty McFly in Back to the Future after Michael J Fox was unavailable due to his commitment to Family Ties. He recommended Thompson for the role of Lorraine after working with her on The Wild Life. After Thompson was hired, Stoltz was let go. Fox was available and history was made.
Later, Stoltz recommended Thompson again for the John Hughes movie, Some Kind of Wonderful. After Thompson was hired, Hughes fired the director and half the cast. He wanted to fire Stoltz, but the studio talked him out of it. The new director, a friend of Hughes, eventually married Thompson.
Whew! That’s a lot of back story for one question.
In Timecop, Jean-Claude VanDamme (aka “the Muscles from Brussels”) went back in time to save Mia Sara (who is best known for playing Sloane in Ferris Beuller’s Day Off). The rest of the choices were all action guys who seemed like they might have done a time travel movie around that era. (If you count Demolition Man as time travel, then they all did.)
Here’s an excerpt from our podcast on JCVD and Timecop:
Here’s the first stumper of the quiz. I have to admit, this one surprised me. More than half of you thought that Austin Powers traveled through time alone. In fact, the only love interest that didn’t travel through time with him was Elizabeth Hurley. He brought Heather Graham and Beyonce Knowles back to the present from the 60’s and 70’s respectively.
I think by now, it’s pretty common knowledge that OJ Simpson was considered for the role of the Terminator. Ironically, he was deemed too likable and not believable as a killer. Cameron’s original concept for the character was that he should be lean and mean. Someone like Lance Henriksen. But among the oddball casting that was considered was Chevy Chase. 69% of respondents didn’t believe it. Bill Paxton is a Cameron regular and he appears briefly in The Terminator, but he was never considered for Schwarzenegger’s role.
Similarly, several actresses were considered for the role of Sarah Connor. Cameron wrote the role for Bridget Fonda when she was a teenager. He knew her from his days working for Roger Coreman even though she was not acting at the time. Originally, the role was conceived as a teenager, but the character was later made older to fit casting Linda Hamilton.
Debra Winger was actually hired to play Sarah Connor. But just before filming was set to begin, she changed her mind and dropped out. There were literally dozens of other actresses considered. Phoebe Cates was not one of them. Almsot half of you knew that.
The majority of respondents knew Linda Fiorentino did not appear in Peggy Sue Got Married. No one fell for the Nicoloas Cage answer which is good since he’s the leading man. Jim Carrey played one of Cage’s pals and bandmates. Helen Hunt played the daughter of Cage and Kathleen Turner in the present.
Most of you knew that Mel Gibson played a test pilot in Forever Young.
This was the big stumper in the quiz which cost Daffy Stardust his Timelord status and caused him to swear a vendetta on Katherine Heigl. To come up with this question, I actually searched the site for “time travel”. So, it was a deep cut.
Dunst appeared in an episode of the Outer Limits as well as a TV movie based on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride. And yet, no one picked her! Sorvino and Judd – the two top picks – never appeared in anything Twilight Zone related.
Almost half of you knew that Wells bowed out of the Back to the Future sequels to spend time with her ailing mother. Most of you assumed that Wells left the series for a positive reason. Only one of you thought the actress feuded with director Robert Zemeckis. Crispin Glover was actually replaced for among other things asking for more money.
That’s it for this week’s quiz results. Look for a new quiz soon!
