The Jaws Thread

[Mel O'Drama]

There’s a documentary on prime that I really wanted to watch but I had to turn it off due to the narrators voice. I really don’t understand why they hired someone with such a boring drawn out tone.

All documentaries should be narrated by Percy Rodrigues. That'd keep the attention:

 

[Sarah]

Tonight.

ITV4 at 9 @Mel O'Drama

NO GRENADES.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Tonight.

ITV4 at 9 @Mel O'Drama

NO GRENADES.

Oh - it always excites me to see a Jaws film in the schedules. Especially one that starts during "prime time".

It takes me right back to when it was an event for a Jaws film to be shown. And the excited anticipation of watching the films on TV before I had them on video.

 

[Sarah]

I’m on my phone at the moment - but you know I’m making ‘the Bess face’ @Mel O'Drama

 

[Sarah]

I’m fifteen minutes into it and I want the shark to eat her alive @Mel O'Drama

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I've found myself channel surfing and have just stumbled upon a documentary on Sky Arts: Discovering Roy Scheider.

It's only been on a few minutes but it's fascinating.

They've talked about his soap opera work, his early film works including chatting up Faye Dunaway and the fortune teller from Dynasty in Puzzle Of A Downfall Child; and chatting up Jane Fonda in Klute, which looks very early Seventies indeed,. How have I not seen these two films?

Now they've reached The French Connection and are in more familiar territory.

They've also talked about his broken nose, which came from his boxing career and said it gave him a French look which set him apart from being just another American actor.

 

[Sarah]

Does it mention Bess Armstrong @Mel O'Drama ?

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Now they're on Jaws!!!

Some guy from Empire says how important his character's fear was to make the audience believe it, so it's not just three men running round with a plastic shark.

He carries that movie on his shoulders all the way through.

Does it mention Bess Armstrong @Mel O'Drama ?

Yes. It says she's the reason he didn't do Jaws 3D. In they end, they gave his role to a dolphin called Sandy.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Oh - they're on to Marathon Man already. That was quick.

Never mind. There's still Jaws 2 to come.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

It's so good to see Roy's body of work talked about outside the documentaries about Jaws.

They've only shown a couple of short clips from each film, but he's magnetic in every one. And so authentic.

This quote from one of the talking heads sums up his appeal:

There is no fakery involved. When he shows that he is a tough guy he really is a tough guy. When he shows that he is vulnerable, he really is vulnerable.

Oh my. They've just shown him chatting to Greg Sumner.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The coverage of Sorcerer reminds me it was discussed somewhere round here last year. It's still on my viewing bucket list, even though I'm a complete wuss when it comes to sudden explosions out of nowhere.

Oh, Jaws 2 barely got a mention. They didn't even mention it by name. They just said he followed up the poorly received Sorcerer "with a sequel to Jaws". They didn't even show a still image of it. It was said over images from his next film, All That Jazz.

Apparently, playing Bob Fosse in All That Jazz was his favourite of all the work he did.

And then working with Meryl Streep and Jessica Tandy in Still Of The Night. And latterly with Matt Damon in The Rainmaker. He worked with the best.

I'd forgotten Roy was in the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

God - I really need to make time to dive into more of Roy's films.

 

[ClassyCo]

Watching Jaws while in the water.

I don't think I could do it.

Watch 'JAWS' While Floating on a inner tube

I've been talking to my fiancée about doing this very thing in the above ground pool behind her parents' house. She's not on-board yet, but I mentioned the idea to my co-worker, and she's wanting to do it with her husband, kids, and in-laws.

 

[DallasFanForever]

Pretty interesting idea! I honestly never thought about this before but it sounds fun

 

[ClassyCo]

I was completely baffled to learn that producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown originally wanted the third film to be a spoof of the series. They felt a return to the Brody family and Amity Island would be too familiar for audiences. They worried the familiarity would make the third film less scary than the first two and therefore they urged the studio, Universal Pictures, to initiate the spoof. Zanuck and Brown teamed up with National Lampoon writers Todd Carroll and John Hughes, who fleshed out the story and characters for a third film, which had the working title National Lampoon's Jaws 3/People 0. Apparently Jaws writer Peter Benchley was going to make a cameo in the first scene where he was eaten by a great white shark in his private swimming pool. Peter Steinberg, then head of Universal, was touted to make a cameo, as was Steven Speilberg, who directed the original 1975 film. Bo Derek was also publicized as being part of the cast, which had been drawn from her recent success in 10 (1979).

None of this ever bore fruition. It died on the drawing board, and we ended up with Jaws 3-D instead.

​

 

[Alexis Colby Carrington]

1 and 2 are the best but 3 is the first I saw on ITV on a Saturday in the late 80s U.K.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

1 and 2 are the best but 3 is the first I saw on ITV on a Saturday in the late 80s U.K.

Oh yes! For many years, the version of Jaws 3 I watched was recorded from ITV, and I can still remember where the adverts were placed.

Likewise, there's a moment in Jaws that always makes me think of the commercial break that was placed there in an ITV screening in the early Eighties.

I still remember being ridiculously excited when Jaws was shown on BBC1 for the first time in December 1987 (I'm fairly sure it was the 20th), because it was the first time a Jaws film aired on TV without adverts.

Those TV memories are so special. They're the way I was introduced to the series when Jaws aired in October 1981 (which had the highest viewing figures of anything on UK TV in 1981).

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The subject of Jaws on TV has prompted me to seek out some ITV-related Jaws stuff:

Here are the bumpers and adverts from the first screening of Jaws on ITV. If you look closely you can work out where some of the adverts were placed:

Some of the adverts are unintentionally hilarious. And as for the products... anyone for an Alpha Probe?!

That first advert would never make it onto TV today. Can you imagine?!


Speaking of less-than-politically-correct, the Thames TV continuity announcer introduced the British TV premiere of Jaws with a Bernard Manning style mother-in-law joke, as seen here:

And here's the Jaws 2 British premiere being advertised right after the premiere of Superman: The Movie. A great time to be alive:

Finally, here's a nice retrospective article about the ITV premiere of Jaws: The Day Almost Half A Country Tuned In To Watch Jaws​

 

[Sarah]

I need to announce that JAWS THE REVENGE is on on Sat night!!!!

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I need to announce that JAWS THE REVENGE is on on Sat night!!!!

The excitement with Jaws The Revenge on TV is guessing which version of the ending they'll show.

Should we start placing bets now?!

 

[Sarah]

The excitement with Jaws The Revenge on TV is guessing which version of the ending they'll show.

Should we start placing bets now?!

There’s... different.... endings?!?!?