‘Wayne’s World’ at 30: bitter fights on set couldn’t kill comedy classic
14.02.2022 - 14:29
/ nypost.com
Sir Mix-A-Lot and Whitney Houston rubbed shoulders atop the music charts. “Roseanne” and “Murphy Brown” ruled on TV.
And in male-dominated Hollywood, “Basic Instinct” and “A Few Good Men” were Hollywood’s big offerings. But one female director would take the film industry by storm with a scrappy, low-budget comedy about a metalhead cable-access show in Aurora, Illinois. Based on the popular “Saturday Night Live” sketch, “Wayne’s World” expanded on the lives of Wayne (Mike Myers) — the charismatic mullet-wearer who still lived at home and filmed the show in his basement — and Garth (Dana Carvey), his soft-spoken, trusty and deeply quirky sidekick.“Wayne’s World” was the second “Saturday Night Live” movie, after 1980’s “The Blues Brothers.” It starred two doofy slackers who launched a thousand catchphrases: Sha-wing! NOT.
Exsqueeze me? We’re not worthy! Not to mention so many variations on regurgitation, it would make you hurl. The still-hilarious movie, which popularized a fourth-wall-breaking style and the use of endless meta gags — including a very funny jab at product placement using blatantly displayed Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Doritos and Reebok logos — went on to make $183 million, equivalent to $334 million today. It’s still the highest-grossing movie based on an “SNL” sketch.But to hear director Penelope Spheeris tell it, the success of “Wayne’s World” — shot in just 34 days — came as a major surprise.
Spheeris, who at the time was known for directing two indie music documentaries, seemed like the perfect fit for the classic rock-worshipping pair. And, as she told The Post, she could work cheap: “It was my seventh movie, but my first studio movie; $14 million was a giant budget to me at the time — but for Paramount, it
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