(upbeat music) ♪ We've written you thousands and thousands of words ♪ ♪ You've gotten production from two lovely nerds ♪ ♪ I'm begging you sweetly, I'm down on my knees ♪ ♪ Oh please, grow for me ♪ ♪ Just giving you histories of dozens of years ♪ ♪ You get syndication ♪ ♪ All we get are tears ♪ ♪ You have your own theme song ♪ ♪ Oh pod how you tease ♪ ♪ Now please, grow for me ♪ ♪ You're published to all of the platforms we know ♪ ♪ You've even got patrons who pay for the show ♪ ♪ The downloads are lousy, still we won't give up ♪ ♪ We'll schedule and get it, we'll even run it ♪ ♪ So I clog you on from us blood ♪ ♪ We'll keep on recording ♪ ♪ And wrecking our brains ♪ ♪ If it'll get less, there's ♪ ♪ We'll open our veins ♪ ♪ We'll bleed from this podcast ♪ ♪ If that's how it be ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Now please, oh, oh, oh, please ♪ ♪ Grow for me ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Welcome to Does This Still Work. The podcast is always an S. Does this still work? I'm Joe Dixon. - And I am George Romaka. Today we are discussing Little Shop of Harsh from 1986 and some historical context. If you hear some pitter-pattering noise, listeners, I am so sorry. It is a massive thunderstorm outside and that is the rain and I can't frickin' do anything about it. ♪ Who will stop the rain ♪ - Yup, that's a song, right? - I think so, yeah. You can reach us at dtswpot@gmail.com to complain about that rain sound on Facebook, Letterbox, and our YouTube channel. Joe is on Blue Sky at JoeDixon.bsky.social. Please tell your friends about us. Even the ones who go from bad relationship to bad relationship that are hazardous to their health and leave five-star ratings everywhere. You can pick what we watch and get extra per episode content by funding us on Patreon for as little as a dollar a month at patreon.com/dtswpot. Now Joe, take us back to 1986. (dramatic music) - And that's the way it was. - This is a movie about a talking and man-eating plant from outer space. Sadly, that wasn't a common thing back in 1986. So rather than news articles on flowers from another universe, we're gonna take a look at two other things from that year. The first thing being Skid Row and the second being musicals. Skid Row, in case you didn't know, is a real place. In fact, there are any number of areas in every city in America that have their own Skid rows. This is where the poor people live. The term Skid Row refers to people's lives being on the skids. The origin of the term comes from logging. Loggers carry their logs to the river by sliding them down roads made from grease skids. Now the Skid Row I'm about to talk about is a neighborhood in downtown Los Angeles. Sadly, there's a serial killer hunting people in this Skid Row back in 1986. George, read the headline from the central New Jersey home news. Serial killer, one more threat for LA's Skid Row residents. In my very brief research, I discovered the LA's Skid Row has been a killing ground for several different serial killers. The earliest documented case happened in 1964, and the last guy was convicted in 2014. Over four different men are responsible for a total of 46 murders. Most of the victims were homeless, though some of those killed were just visiting friends and family, or wanted into the neighborhood. Relating back to the headline to our dread, the scumbag with terrorist Skid Row in '86 was never actually captured. Before he could be arrested, he committed suicide, but the items found in his hotel room, including his owning murder weapons, closed the case on that one. If you are a new listener, you might be curious why I don't name the persons who did these horrible acts. And the reason for that is simple, I do not like giving the names of people only famous for murder. I tried to avoid it as much as possible, because, you know, fuck those guys. You can find the article in the show notes and Google the rest if you want to know more. Moving on, let's look at something lighter, musicals. George, I know you were a baby at this time, but even if you weren't around when these shows open, you still know more about musicals than I do. I want to read you a few musicals that opened in Broadway in '96, and you can tell me if you've ever heard of them. I got this list from theatertrip.com. Okay, then. George, are you familiar with Stephen Sondheim's 'Into the Woods', the most famous song for it being 'Into the Woods'? I've heard that it exists. I can't recall how that song goes, and I've never seen or heard that musical. I know that it involves people, characters meeting, fairy tale characters, and they all go into the woods for some reason. That's what all I know about it. I've never seen it either. Why about this next one? It is 'Smile', and it says, 'Smile' is set behind the scenes at a California teen pageant in the 1980s, and is based on a movie from the 1970s. The music was by Robert Hamledge. Most famous song from the show was 'Smile'. - I see a recurring theme here about with the most famous songs for musicals being the song sharing the title, but no, I've never seen or heard this one. I'm not even sure I was aware that this one existed. - Are you familiar with either a Sondheim or a Marvin Hamledge? - Not really. - Really? Okay. Maybe you've gone to the theaters. What's it like, thought? - Nope. - That's like your new musicals. (laughing) Well, so much for that set up. Anyway, and finally, what do you know about Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Fant on the Opera'? This is still a Broadway. It opened on October the 9th, 1986, and has been going ever since. It did close like everything else during the COVID-19 pandemic, but once that was done, it came roaring right back. Those follow-ups for that musical are the Phantom of the Opera and the music of the night. George, do you know either of those? - Unlike the other musicals on this list, I am very well acquainted with the Phantom of the Opera. - Oh, okay. - Yes. - Why very well acquainted? You've seen it many times? - I've seen it, never on Broadway, but I've seen the movie adaptation a bunch of times, and I played the song Phantom of the Opera in middle school band. - Okay. - Is it any good? - Have you never heard it? - I know, I think I've heard the music of the night, but I don't believe I heard Phantom of the Opera. - I didn't believe he sang to me in dreams he came. - Oh, I have heard of that, okay. - Yep, that's Phantom of the Opera? - Yeah. - Yeah, all right then, yes, I am familiar with it. Maybe we should get a group thing and go and a go-see Phantom of the Opera, 'cause I've certainly never seen it. - That's an expensive proposition, but yeah. Can it be that, it's truly a cheaper episode, but no, it's, it's 1986. It can't still be that expensive. - They're to take an expensive period. - Well, maybe not then, we'll see. - Okay, George, tell us about Little Shop of Horrors. - Okay, this was directed by Frank Oz. For the show, we've seen his directorial work in Labyrinth and his acting work in The Blues Brothers, and Joe and I have both seen his directing work in In and Out and Heard Him in Star Wars Return to the Jedi. - And I've seen his acting work in Knives Out. I heard his voice in Inside Out, also in his voice in Elmo's Potty Time. For me, one of the funniest things I ever seen in my life. I don't know why, but I did have Elmo on the toilet, made me laugh very hard. (laughing) I also seen his acting in an American Werewolf in London, heard his voice in The Muppet Movie, and he acted in training places. - And I've seen his work in The Muppets Take Manhattan, a movie that was foundational to my life philosophy. - Oh, really? How so? The diner owner talking to Kermit says, "People's is people's." And that just kind of stuck with me. - Okay. (laughing) - This is based on the film by Roger Korman. - Which I did actually see. This is much better. I don't care what anybody says. Roger Korman was a terrible director. Don't believe anybody who says otherwise. He was awful. Sure, he's a lovely human being, but God damn, his pictures were bad. Anyway, I've seen his work in The Mask of the Red Death, Bloody Mama, The Trip, X, The Man with X-ray Eyes, and The Pit and the Pendulum. He also acted in the retro gaming married and the sides of the lamps. He was the boss on that, which I didn't realize until I read the credits. And we both seen him in Apollo 13. - This is based on the 1960 screenplay by Charles B. Griffith. And there was a musical of this. The screenplay for this was based on it, and written by Howard Ashman, who also wrote The Little Mermaid. Blurbs IMDB says, "A nerdy florist finds his chance for success "and romance with the help of a giant man "eating plant who demands to be fed." - Okay. - Okay. - Pretty reductionist, but all right. - Amazon says, "A timid clerk in a skid row flower shop "feeds people to Audrey too, "his talking plant from outer space." Yeah, those things happen. - Those things do happen. - So, from IMDB trivia, according to Frank Oz, Howard Ashman's exact words to him were, "This is supposed to be stupid. "My tongue was firmly in my cheek when I wrote it, "henced the deliberately artificial looking sets "and costumes and comically absurd premise." - Oh, okay. - Also, this was shot at the same time in an adjacent soundstage as aliens and cost $7 million more. - Wow, that's an interesting contrast. - Yeah. - Little shop of aliens. Can you imagine if you're busted through the wall to this picture? (laughing) Did a dance number with the Xenomorph? - Yeah, sure, that's singing. - The film starts with a nebulous, oozy looking backdrop to a narrated title card. - On the 23rd day of the month of September, in an early year of a decade, not too long before our own, the human race suddenly encountered a deadly threat to its very existence. And this terrifying enemy surfaced as such enemies often do in the seemingly most innocent and unlikely of places. - Then we go to that early year of a decade, not too long before our own, where not too long is doing heavier lifting with every passing decade to what looks like to be the early 1960s. We see Messianic's flower shop in a dilapidated neighborhood in a thunderstorm. Here's where the music starts, an upbeat do-wop number sung by a Greek chorus. A Greek chorus is a group of characters providing meta commentary about the plot and characters. This particular chorus is three black women, named Crystal Renet and Chiffon, named after the 50s and 60s girl groups, the crystals, Renets, and Chiffons. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Now I should say very quickly that I actually saw a Little Shop of Horrors on Broadway. I enjoyed it immensely. Obviously, 'cause I went and saw the movie, so I must've liked it. It's interesting, they do not, in fact, now that I think about it, I also had an amateur version of Little Shop of Horrors. So I've seen it more than once on stage. But in any case, they interact in this movie, but they don't interact in the actual film. I'm sorry, in the play, in the musical, they don't interact with anybody. Also, the boss, since I mentioned about what the difference between the musical and the film adaption, the Frank Gardenos character, the boss, he has a singing number in the live version, which they cut it for the film, which is good, 'cause the song is awful. Yeah, so let's get into it. Crystal is played by Chinesha Arnold. This is her cinematic debut. And I saw her in the last "Black Man" in San Francisco, and top five. Ronette is probably by Michelle Weeks. And she's finally played by Chinesha Campbell, who we saw from the show in Boorang. I know from the TV show Martin, and I recently saw in another church movie. I also saw in Blind Spotting, Zac and Mary make a porno, house party one and two, and another 48 hours. Plus, I also saw her in school days. - The song gives us an idea of what's to come. A lot of terror, horror, and bloodshed. So you know, watch out. - What did you think of the song, actually? - I think the music in this is fantastic. - Yeah, I really enjoyed it. - Yeah. (laughing) - The song ends in the basement of the flower shop, where our protagonist, Seymour Krillborn, is uns safely trying to reach something on a top shelf. OSHA didn't exist, at least not as we know it, until 1971. Seymour is a clutz, so he and the shelf and all its contents come crashing to the floor. - Unfortunately, this is like a cartoon, so no one really gets hurt when they fall. - Yeah. (laughing) Seymour Krillborn is played by Rick Moranis. For the show, we've seen his work in space balls, we've both seen him in Ghostbusters. - I've seen him in the TV show SCTV. - And I've seen him in Ghostbusters II, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Honey, I blew up the kid and the Flintstones. - He played Barney, right? - Yep. - Yeah, it makes sense. - His boss and owner of the shop, Mr. Mushnick, calls down after him, expressing frustration with his incompetent employee. Mushnick is played by Vincent Gardenia. First film episode, and then was Death Witch I and II. Then I seen him in All In The Family. The TV show is actually canonologically correct. (laughing) Then I saw him in Hickey and Boggs, cold turkey, little murders, and where's Papa? - As Seymour cleans up, a radio plays President John F. Kennedy's response to a recent total eclipse at a sun, which they call, and I'm quoting here, an unprecedented astrological phenomenon. I just want to point out that we've been documenting his older eclipses since about 1223 BCE, so it's not at all unprecedented. Also, it, citing John F. Kennedy and playing him here, puts this movie firmly in like 1961. - Clearly before his assassination, and yes. - Yeah. Arriving at work late with a black eye is Mushnick's other employee, Audrey. The black eye is from her boyfriend, and Mushnick tries to politely tell her that he's no good. Seymour comes upstairs and drops a tray of flower pots. Audrey helps him clean up, and we see they're obviously into each other, but neither sees themselves as the kind the other would want. - Audrey is played by Ellen Green, who we've both seen him neck-a-gun, 33rd and 1/3rd, and I've seen him the cooler, talk radio, and pump up the volume. - Mushnick shoos away the Greek chorus, who introduced the next song, Skid Row. ♪ Then you go ♪ ♪ Down, down, where the folks are broke ♪ ♪ You go downtown, where your life's a joke ♪ ♪ You go downtown, where you buy a joke ♪ ♪ Can you go ♪ ♪ Home to Skid Row ♪ - I could just listen to that whole song again. - Yeah. (laughs) This is gonna be very frustrating. Later, gentlemen. Make sure you get the album for this song. It is very good. - Yeah. - That song's just terrific. - And again from IMDB Trivia, the soloist who started that song was Tony-nominated singer-actress comedian Burcheese reading. It was her last film appearance before she died, and she sang that live on set. - Wow. - And the clip that I just played is not the best part of her singing in that. I just, that was trying to avoid us getting a DMCA hit. - I understood. - This was gonna be a like minute and a half long sound clip. (laughs) - But it is, oh my, yeah. Just everyone in that, just like, that song's a real banger. Skid Row, let's Audrey blame her romantic troubles, and Seymour blame his lack thereof on being from the wrong part of town. The rest of the cast sing about the economic despair they face and the shittiness of running their at-race. One of the best lyrics is Seymour singing that depression is just status quo. - Quick question. - Mm-hmm. The poverty here, granted this isn't more of a cartoon, but the poverty here and the poverty in rent. What do you think is more realistic? - Here. - Yeah. - I definitely think it's more realistic here. Yes. - I do, yes. I agree with it totally. It's weird. (laughs) - Yup. - It's like up to periscope, it's more accurate than, what, the hunt for rent, October, whatever it was we saw. - Like down periscope. - Yeah, down periscope and whatever the other movie we saw. - Crimson Tide. - Crimson, Crimson Tide, right. Like, that's what the serious film, but yet this dumb comedy was more accurate for the picture of the Navy than that movie. And here, this is more better than the picture in poverty. This dumb comedy about a freaking plant, space killing plant than a rent, it's weird. - One of the asset directors, they wanted this to all look period, all look 60s. And one of the hardest things to come across were old trash cans. So she drove around in a truck, full of brand new trash cans. And anytime she saw an old trash can by the side of the road, she'd go up to the house and offer to trade. - Oh, interesting, okay. Hollywood works in mysterious ways. - Yep. We get a mini montage of time passing in the flower shop that hasn't seen the customer in an unrealistically long time for it to still be economically viable. - Mm-hmm. - Mushnic recognizes this and wants to close shop and retire. Seymour and Audrey have an idea though. Seymour got this weird little carnivorous looking plant and if they put it in the window, maybe it'll attract customers. So they put it in the window. Immediately, a customer walks in asking about it. In the song Da-Do, which is mostly the Greek chorus singing doop while Seymour narrates, he tells us that he got the plant during a total eclipse at a sun from a Chinese guy who sells him weird plants. - The Chinese gentleman's probably the only really problematic point for me in this whole picture. - Yeah. - I've always had this problem with the pictures of ages and films always in his other. - Yeah. - And this one, he's like, he's even wearing the whole outfit and everything, like. He couldn't be an American who's supporting him there. He has to really be Chinese man. - Yep, not crazy about it. - Business takes off. The flower shop has never been so busy or profitable. After a day of this, Mushnick is so delighted that he wants to take his team out for dinner. Audrey can't 'cause she has a date with her no good yet professional boyfriend. And the plant, which Seymour has named Audrey to, Nick named Tui, which is what I will use because we already have an Audrey and that's too much for me to keep track of, isn't looking so good. So he has to stay at work and figure out how to care for it. In "Grow For Me", Seymour lists off the things he's tried that haven't perked the plant up. He accidentally pricks a finger on a rose thorn and the plant mimics his suckling sounds. It's macabre, but Seymour has a job to do and a little squeamishness won't stop him. ♪ I've given you sunlight ♪ ♪ I've given you rain ♪ ♪ Looks like you're not happy ♪ ♪ Unless I open a vane ♪ ♪ I'll give you a few drops ♪ ♪ If that'll appease ♪ - I didn't check on this. So I'm not certain. I don't know if you know the answer. Do we know Rick Amaris actually? I mean, I know he does the singing. Do you know if they did any sort of like weird audio stuff so they could sound better? 'Cause I've never heard him sing anywhere else. - No. - So I don't know, is he actually a singer? To my knowledge, he sang all his music, his parts in this. Bless his little heart. With just four drops of blood, Tui grows past what that Maxwell coffee tinny's in can contain. - Yeah, so it gets very big, even fed. - Just a little drops of blood, who knew? - Yep. The next scene isn't a song, it's an interview. Seymour takes Tui to the studios of WSKID. In the waiting room, he prevents Tui from chomping on a woman's bottom before being called into the studio. This is where Wink Wilkerson hosts a weird thing show that has a lot of the same problems as podcasting about movies, I guess. (laughing) - Yeah, I wish you folks at home could see this. Seymour, where did you get such a weird plant? - The only reason that's in there is 'cause Wink Wilkerson is played by John Candy, who we sing for the show in Stripes, Splash, Spaceballs, and The Blues Brothers. And we both sing Home Alone. And I've seen in 1941, JFK and here we go again, S-A-T-V. - Yep. - He and Rick Ramirez were coworkers on that show. - And I've seen his work in Uncle Buck and Cool Runnings. - Did you know, well, how did you watch this movie? Did you watch it on Amazon? - Yes, I bought it on Amazon 'cause it was $4.99. - Okay, what are the weird trivia things is Rick Ramirez attended the F-renro of John Candy. I'm like, did I really need to know that? That's not really trivia, that was so weird that was there, like, okay, good to know. I don't, I, I, all right. - Mushnick is listening to the broadcast, frustrated that Seymour forgets to give the address on air, but otherwise pleased. Audrey arrives too late to hear it with her arm in a sling. It's like a piece of lace. It's not a proper sling. - Yeah, it's a very little slink she's got there. She just sets her eyes from the looks of it. - Yeah, well, this is another gift from her boyfriend. Mushnick and the Greek chorus try to convince her to leave the guy for, you know, health reasons, the latter even suggesting Seymour. - Suggesting Seymour. (laughing) - He's really here for me. - Do you think the film makes a little too light of partner abuse? - No, because it absolutely does. I don't even know what to say. - Oh, okay, he didn't say you don't know. That's fine. - No, but always answers. - Yeah, the cast does at every opportunity try to point out that this guy's a sleaze bag and she should leave him. - Oh sure, it does not in any way celebrate the fact that she's abused. It just, the way it's presented though is also very comedic. - Yeah, now Audrey sings Somewhere That's Green, a list song in which she imagines an entire life with Seymour, kids house, Tupperware parties and all, as she sees in Better Homes and Gardens magazines. According to IMDB trivia, this song inspired the song Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid. - Oh really, oh, how interesting, okay. - In Some Fun Now, the Greek chorus sings about Seymour's rise to fame as we watch him desperately trying to give Tuohy enough blood from himself to keep it growing. After another long and busy day, Audrey has another date with her boyfriend, Orvin Scrivelo DDS. He rides a motorcycle and in dentist, he tells us about his childhood sadism and about how his mother encouraged him to find a profession where it would earn a living. (upbeat music) ♪ I am your dentist ♪ ♪ And I enjoy the career that I've picked ♪ ♪ I am your dentist ♪ ♪ And I get off on the pain ♪ ♪ I am full of blood ♪ - If this has any controversy whatsoever to it when it opened up on Broadway, it's, oh, I guess probably also when the movie came out, is apparently some dentist groups complained that the, is my dentist looked bad. I don't blame them. (laughing) 'Cause this impression will stick with you. (laughing) Orvin Scrivelo DDS is played by Steve Martin, who we know from the show in The Jerk. And I've seen in Only Murders of the Building, the TV show, of course. And he was in And The Band Played On, the TV movie, which I saw. Surprised I didn't remember he was in that, but the credit said he was, so I'm saying it. And I've also seen him in all of me, and the man with two brains. And I've seen him in The Father of the Bride, and The Prince of Egypt. I remember the view for Father Bride, and the review could not get over how wealthy these people were in the belief. Apparently, just like, I never seen the picture, but apparently they live in luxury for what it's supposed to be a middle-class family. Yeah. When he comes to pick Audrey up, he's a jerk, but at least he can appreciate that Seymour is locally famous, and he gets a gander at Tui. After they leave, Seymour talks to Tui about his romantic woes. Tui collapses, and to see more surprise, talks. In Feed Me, Tui makes it perfectly clear that he needs to be fed fresh human blood. In return, he offers Seymour everything, money, power, even Audrey. He even suggests straight-up murder. There must be someone you can even see. Real quadratic, and get me some lunch! And Audrey, too, or Tui, is played by Levi Stubbs, who was the lead singer of the Four Tops. And this is his only acting crypt. Yep. And they both know who absolutely deserves to die. A certain dentist who, right at this moment, is laying hands on Audrey across the street. The plot gets pretty dark right here, so they reel it back a bit. The next day, Oren sees a patient with a desire for pain as strong as Oren's desire to cause it. More so, even, because Arthur Denton is such a masochist, that it freaks Oren out. Arthur Denton is played by Bill Murray, who is singing for the show in, Stripes. And George and I have both seen in Ghostbusters and Groundhold Day. And I've seen him in Saturday Night Live, the TV show, obviously, and at Man and the Lost Quadra Mania, the French Dispatch, Coffee and Cigarettes, which is on our list. We're gonna be seeing that in a couple of weeks. Lost in translation, the Royal Tenenbounds, Rushmore, Kingpin, Tootsie, Candy Shack, and Meatballs. And I've seen his work in Scrooge to get smart and zombieland. As I saw, I saw the original Little Shop of Horrors, actual 1960s version, which wasn't obviously a musical. And this Denton, I don't think his character had a name in the original movie, but that guy was played by Jack Nicholson. He was the weirdo comes in and gets his teeth done by the dentist and goes, "Ah, you're freaking me out here. Are you weirdo that I am?" Next in the waiting room is Seymour. Orin's experience with Arthur unsettled him, so much so that he needs to down a nitrous oxide rig to get into the mood. Did this give you any sort of blue velvet flashbacks? No, it didn't. (laughs) Because nitrous oxide and animal nitrate are not similar. What stuff, they're both wearing these masks and you're like, "Preathing." And then Seymour isn't about to be Denton Street, though, and pulls a gun. Before he needs to use it, the dentist affixiates on his own gas supply. Don't you hate when that happens? Yup. The Seymour drags Orin's body back to the flower shop, chops it up with an axe and feeds it to Tui. You know, the really funny thing about him dragging that body, he apparently takes it on the subway with him. Yeah. We seem coming down the subway, steps with the body. Clearly, a human body's wrapped up in whatever sheet he's used to carry it. It's like, "Hey, whoa. Hey, they were, I remember the subways being liberal, but not that liberal." (laughs) Unbeknownst to him, Mr. Mushmuk sees him doing the chopping up part. Seymour sleeps in the basement of the flower shop. Not that night, though. He spends it nervously sitting in a chair beside his bed. Across the street, he sees the police talking to Audrey. So he goes to talk with her. They're wondering where her boyfriend is because he was reported missing when he didn't show up to torture his patients. Audrey is fearful that something terrible happened to him, not because of her love for him, but because she was wishing for it because she couldn't see how to get out of that relationship. (moans) Here we get the song suddenly Seymour. A duet owed to how a good man can purify a woman who's been with bad men. (moans) Don't get me wrong, I love this song and I will sing it with anyone at karaoke, but it is not a great message. - No, it is not, but it is such a good song. (laughs) ♪ Suddenly Seymour ♪ Man, they really, when I saw this on Broadway, they really blasted at each other as they say. Really, to each other's face. (moans) Yep. At the end, they embrace and kiss. He bids her good night and heads home to the shop. Tooey opens the doors for him, chuckling. In the basement, he's ambushed by Mushnick, who's beside himself about the murder he witnessed. Tooey and the Greek choir sing "Supertime" as Mushnick holds Seymour at gunpoint and vowing to bring him to the police. Tooey sings enticements to make Mushnick his next meal. At the front door, Mushnick decides to cut a deal. If Seymour will teach him how to take care of Tooey, he'll put him on a bus out of town instead of turning him into the police. Mushnick turns around to find himself staring into Tooey's gaping mouth, which closes around him. - Oh, oh. - In "The Meek Shell" and "Herit," Seymour is wined and dined by TV and magazine producers, even being offered his very own show to be the first gardening show on network TV. - And no one wonders where Mr. Mushnick is, apparently. (laughing) The cops don't go asking about him. (laughing) During taping, Tooey, who now takes up a quarter of the store and reaches to the ceiling, pulls the same stunt he pulled at the start and wilts. Seymour kicks everyone out of the store. Audrey is confused by his behavior, but he starts hatching a plan. He asks her to run away with him to get married. She heads home to pack. Later that night, he tries to sneak past Tooey, who wakes up and once again asks, then demands to be fed. Seymour offers to run to the store and gets some ground round. Tooey accepts this. After Seymour leaves, Tooey uses its tentacles to slide across the store to get a quarter out of the register and use a payphone to call Audrey, whose phone number it knows somehow. (laughing) As the phone rings, it taps its tentacles on a glass display case and Kit thought that was a nifty touch. - Hmm. - When she answers, it makes sure she sees it in the store and amazed she goes to investigate. It gets really handsy or tentacle-y with her as she misunderstands its asking of a drink as being water. When Seymour gets back, it is already eating Audrey. He manages, which apparently is a whole porn category unto itself. (laughing) - Well, that did not occur to me. (laughing) Now who has a dirty mind? - I, it's, that's an observation, not an idea. He manages to pull her from its mouth and they get away. Outside, Audrey assures Seymour that she loves him for who he is, not for his fame. He steals his resolve to face down Tooey in the final battle, but not before turning down one last offer from world botanical enterprises who want to sell cuttings of Tooey all over the world. Seymour realizes that this was Tooey's plan all along. - Okay, now in the act of production, if you ever see this perform live, Audrey dies. He winds up eating, well, he enters Audrey and she says, "Feed me to the plant, please, Seymour." This is my final thing and he does it. And then he, and Seymour goes, you know what, I'm going to finally get rid of this plant and he tries to kill it from inside. He's running it inside the mouth and gets eaten himself. - Huh. So it's actually, the original ending, this is dark. - Dark, everyone dies. - Yeah, everyone dies. It's not happy ending. And the next song is not in the musical. - Yeah, in Mean Green Mother From Outer Space, Tooey dispenses with any civility and cops to being bent on world domination. The battle doesn't go well for Seymour as Tooey brings down half the building on him. From the rubble, Seymour manages to grab an electrical cable and electrocute Tooey until it explodes. Then Seymour and Audrey embrace in the aftermath. The movie ends with them going into a very sound stage looking home, exactly as Audrey envisioned in Somewhere That's Green. The end. - The original ending was supposed to be, they also get killed like in its stage production and the plant ends with the army fighting the plant as he's taken over the world. And the ending says the end with a question mark. But apparently that didn't test well with audiences. And so they changed the ending to what we see here. Which by the way, is a better ending. - Yeah. - I prefer the happier ending. I'm sorry, I just, I do the dark ending. What do y'all get eaten? - I prefer this. So my friend does this still work. - Oh, hell, oh yeah. Oh my God, yes, this is fucking great movie. - It is great in the middle. - So fucking much, yeah. - It is great. (laughing) - I loved it. I loved all the songs in it. I just really enjoyed this movie. (laughing) I mean, yes, like I said, the whole thing with the age of guy, it's a little problematic. The whole thing about her relationship with him, it's the first of the songs you mentioned, but man, it's a fun movie regardless. - Yup. - Sometimes, things can be problematic and still entertained. (laughing) - Most like cause it doesn't take itself too seriously. - That's true. - That makes it work a lot better. - It makes it work a lot better. Yes, I agree 100%. - Yeah, if you've never seen it, and then while you listen to this, if you haven't, go see it, go buy it, rent it, whatever. It's a really fun movie. - Alrighty. That was quick. (laughing) Well, we don't got anything in the bitch about it, we just go right through it. I was like, buddy. (laughing) Look at George, what's up next? - Next week, we will be talking about stir crazy from 1980. I have not seen this thing in years, so I can't wait to find out how problematic it may be. - Yeah. I've never seen it. - Yes, you've never seen it, I have seen it, and it's about two guys, Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor go to prison. Will there be a lot of gay sexual abuse jokes? Ugh, I don't remember. - Almost certainly. (laughing) - I've been betting there are. (laughing) 1980, Richard Pryor. Yeah, it's probably in there, but we'll see. Who knows? Maybe it's, I haven't seen it in years, I don't remember much, right? Be fun to find out. Anyway, so I guess that's it for this episode. I'm Joe Dixon. Thanks for listening. - And I'm George Rameka. Thanks for listening, indeed, 'cause if a podcast drops and there's nobody around to hear, it's just another collection of ones and zeroes that doesn't matter. (dramatic music) Oh yeah, oh yes, yes, yeah, get outta here. What's wrong? Get outta here. - You've been listening to Does This Still Work? Produced by Joe Dixon and George Rameka. The hosts can be reached via social media, email, or the contact page at dtswpod.com. Be good to yourself and others, because that still works. (dramatic music) (dramatic music) - Next in the waiting room is Seymour. - What about your credit? - Oh, dear Miss Manners. Well, out of town at a government training symposium, my father found himself so annoyed at someone's lack of manners that he almost became involved in a fight. Dear Susan, I don't like my boyfriend, but I cannot get enough of him. Dear Dr. Brothers, my daughter is a talented, intelligent woman who can go far in the business world if she just learns to keep her mouth shut about her radical views of women.
