Hello again, Goodbye Girl. Just
one question. What brings you
back?
Its author, Neil Simon, is
pretty much at a loss on this
subject. That's largely because
he's hardly touched a word from
the acclaimed 1977 original. It
received five Oscar nominations
?including for best picture
?and won one (a best actor
trophy for Richard Dreyfuss).
"There isn't an awful lot
that I wanted to change,"
Mr. Simon told TV critics last
summer during the closing days
of shooting TNT's remake of The
Goodbye Girl. "There are
certain things that I can't
even think of right now as they
came up when they came up. But
I mean, why change something
when it works so well?"
Indeed. But why do it again if
it's not going to be done
differently?
What's done is done, though.
And the teaming of Everybody
Loves Raymond star Patricia
Heaton with under-appreciated
Jeff Daniels is hardly an
abomination. Together with cute
kid Hallie Kate Eisenberg (of
Pepsi commercial fame), they
turn out a serviceably
entertaining version of Mr.
Simon's Manhattan-set
"love at first fight"
dramedy. It's hardly
revelatory, though. The
original still holds up quite
well, as a recent viewing
attests. And the alterations
made in TNT's remake barely
amount to piddle-paddle. For
instance:
* In 1977, Paula McFadden
(Marsha Mason) and her
precocious 10-year-old
daughter, Lucy (Quinn
Cummings), opened the movie by
carrying armloads of new
clothes bought on sale at
Alexander's department store.
In the remake, it's
Bloomingdale's.
* The bearded Mr. Dreyfuss
wore glasses in the role of
struggling actor Elliot
Garfield. The bearded Mr.
Daniels doesn't.
* Ms. Heaton's ample cleavage
is on frequent display in the
remake. Ms. Mason, then married
to Mr. Simon, did not put on
such a show.
* Elliot spoke of his 147 IQ
in the original. It's been
upped to 157.
* A bottle of cheap chianti
was $1.80 in 1977. Now it's
$6.99. And Elliot's salary for
a month's worth of work on a
movie has increased from $2,000
to $2,350 a week.
* Ms. Mason's Paula clumsily
talked up a Subaru during her
part-time job at an auto show.
Ms. Heaton pitches Toyotas.
* Mr. Dreyfuss' Elliot cites
a string of horrible newspaper
and local TV reviews of his
performance as a gay Richard II
in an off-Broadway play. Mr.
Daniels' Elliot jokingly throws
in a few cable channel pans of
his performance as a gay
Richard II in an "off-off
Broadway" play.
* The original closes with a
sappy song written and
performed by Paul Gates. The
remake closes with the same
song performed by Hootie &
The Blowfish.
Imagine what might have been,
however, had Mr. Dreyfuss' role
gone to Robert De Niro in a Los
Angeles-based film titled
Bogart Slept Here . That was
the original plan, which film
historian Robert Osborne will
tell you when Turner Classic
Movies shows the first Goodbye
Girl on Thursday at 7 p.m.
Instead Mr. De Niro was deemed
both miscast and unfunny.
Filming ceased while Mr. Simon
fine-tuned the story and
shifted its locale.
All these years later, the
famed playwright is collecting
another nice residual check
from a cable network that
didn't exist back in 1977. The
TNT redo is watchable to be
sure, but otherwise a virtual
carbon of the feature film that
lost most of its Oscar duels to
Woody Allen's Annie Hall.
Maybe that could be TNT's next
project, with Sean Hayes and
Lisa Kudrow stepping in for Mr.
Allen and Diane Keaton. It
would make just about as much
sense.
The Goodbye Girl
Grade: B
Friday, TNT cable (repeated
Saturday and Jan. 18 at the
same time).
