Parenthood

Parenthood
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ron Howard
Produced by	Brian Grazer
Screenplay by	Lowell Ganz Babaloo Mandel
Story by	Lowell Ganz Babaloo Mandel Ron Howard
Starring	Steve Martin Tom Hulce Rick Moranis Martha Plimpton Keanu Reeves Jason Robards Mary Steenburgen Dianne Wiest
Music by	Randy Newman
Cinematography	Donald McAlpine
Production company(s)	Imagine Entertainment
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$20 million
Box office	$126 million

Parenthood is a 1989 comedy-drama film with an ensemble cast that includes Steve Martin, Tom Hulce, Rick Moranis, Martha Plimpton, Joaquin Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, Jason Robards, Mary Steenburgen, and Dianne Wiest.

The film was directed by Ron Howard, who assisted in developing the story with screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. Much of it is based on the family and parenting experiences of Howard, Ganz, Mandel, and producer Brian Grazer, who have at least 14 children among the four of them. Principal photography was filmed in and around Orlando, Florida with some scenes filmed at the University of Florida. It was nominated for two Academy Awards: Dianne Wiest for Best Supporting Actress and Randy Newman for Best Song for "I Love to See You Smile".

The film was adapted into a NBC television series on two separate occasions, in 1990 and again in 2010. While the first series was cancelled after one season, the second series ran for six seasons.

Trivia

• During filming, the cast became obsessed with playing the murder game (a game in which one person, who is the murderer, has to find a subtle way to kill other players simply by looking at them without giving themselves away as the murder). This is very apparent in the dinner scene where everyone is sitting around the table. If you watch everyone's eye movements, it's obvious they are playing the game.
• This movie is based on Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Lowell Ganz, and Babaloo Mandel's experiences as parents.
• Martha Plimpton plays the older sister of Joaquin Phoenix a.k.a. Leaf Phoenix. In real life, she dated his older brother River Phoenix for nearly five years.
• In this film, Steve Martin plays the father of several children. In reality, Steve Martin did not become a parent until he was 67 years old, in 2012.
• According to Ron Howard in an interview, the scene where Helen discovers the nude pictures was actually an incident that happened to producer Brian Grazer.
• In a Vanity Fair interview in March 2016, Dame Helen Mirren said she had never regretted not having children, except briefly when watching this film: "It was about the whole story of being a parent, and how it never stops, even when you're a grandparent. I realized I would never experience that, and for about twenty minutes, I sobbed for the loss of that, and the fact that I never experienced it."
• The film grossed just under $100 million during the original run in theaters. Several years later, the project was re-released into theaters, so it could be logged officially as earning $100 million.
• Martha Plimpton was bald at the beginning of filming, because she had just finished Silence Like Glass (1989), in which she played a cancer patient. She wore a wig throughout filming, and a hairpiece, when Julie has a mohawk. This is probably why halfway through the movie Julie and boyfriend Todd (Keanu Reeves) shave all their hair off; Howard was sick of the wig and wanted Plimpton to show her real hair finally.
• This was Helen Shaw's final film before her death on September 8, 1997, at the age of 100.
• Director Ron Howard's daughter Bryce Dallas Howard as a little girl can be seen as an extra in the audience of the children's play. She would later star alongside Joaquin Phoenix (Lucius Hunt) in The Village (2004).
• Final theatrical release where Joaquin Phoenix is credited as Leaf Phoenix.
• Joaquin Phoenix (still being credited as Leaf Phoenix at this time) was homeless just a short time before he appeared in this movie. His family also belonged to a cult called the Children of God in the 1970s for a while. It was somewhere during this time they all changed their surname from Bottom to Phoenix.
• According to the interview in the DVD extras with composer Randy Newman, the soundtrack song "I Love to See You Smile", which is perhaps his most beloved, was written with Mary Steenburgen's smile in mind.
• This was the first movie filmed at Universal Studios Florida before it opened on June 7, 1990.
• As originally written, Karen would smoke a joint every night. Mary Steenburgen argued that this was out of character for a woman strong enough to confront her family's problems head on. The filmmakers agreed, and changed the script. Although Gil outs her as a former marijuana addict in a parent teacher meeting they're having about Kevin; in a scene which did appear in the final film. "She was just like a chimney in college!". So traces of Karen's pothead past do make it into the script.
• This movie was made into two different television series: Parenthood (1990), which starred Ed Begley, Jr., Jayne Atkinson, and a young Leonardo DiCaprio, and was cancelled after only twelve episodes; and Parenthood (2010), starring Peter Krause, Lauren Graham, and Dax Shepard, and which ran from March 2, 2010 until January 29, 2015.
• When Grandma (Helen Shaw) inhales the helium balloon and says that when she was born, Grover Cleveland was President. Shaw was born on July 25, 1897, just four months and three weeks after the end of Cleveland's second term.
• The film cast includes four Oscar winners: Mary Steenburgen, Dianne Wiest, Joaquin Phoenix and Jason Robards; and two Oscar nominees: Lowell Ganz, and Tom Hulce.
• In the scene where Gil and Karen are going to Kevin's school to speak to the school principal, the school is Gerald Paris Elementary School, named as an homage to Jerry Paris, who directed 42 episodes of Happy Days (1974). Ofcourse Ron Howard knew this since he worked with him during the run of Happy Days. Clint Howard, Ron's brother who appears in this movie and also appeared in Happy Days, also worked with Paris; as did much of the crew and some of the supporting cast which Howard cultivated from his TV years on Happy Days and Andy Griffith as well.
• Frank's classic car is a 1935 Ford Model 48 DeLuxe convertible.
• The porno tape that Helen discovers in Garry's closet is Blonde Goddess (1982). The clip shown is from the first scene - a parody of Indiana Jones. Adventurer 'Louisiana Smith' is attempting to rescue 'Jungle Jane' from a tribe in the Yucatán.
• Dianne Wiest and Mary Steenburgen were best friends and worked as waitresses at the Magic Pan and other Los Angeles restaurants in the 70s before they hit it big in Hollywood, and before they were cast as sisters-in-law in this movie. Both won Oscars.
• Dan Aykroyd, Michael Keaton, Robin Williams, Tom Hanks, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Tom Selleck, Billy Crystal, and Tim Allen were considered for the role of Gil Buckman.
• Howie Dorough, from the Backstreet Boys, was a teenage extra in this movie. He is in the first row of students in the classroom when Nathan comes in and sings The Carpenters' "Close To You" to Susan.
• Larry's $26,000 debt is equal to almost $54,000 as of January 1, 2020.
• In the opening scene at the ballpark, the base runner has a decided limp, because he pulled his hamstring on one of the first dozen takes of the shot. The shot in the film, is one they settled on after approximately twenty takes, due to the fact that the hitter was unable to hit the ball into center field. The hitter was a college player, not a professional, as originally dictated to the casting department.
• The drag racing scene was filmed at Orlando Speed World Dragway, located east of downtown Orlando.
• Jeff Goldblum turned down both roles of Gil Buckman and Larry Buckman.
• Despite being set in St. Louis, Missouri (as evidenced by the Cardinals baseball game at the start of the film, among other signs), the movie was filmed in central and northern Florida. The shopping center where the photo booth is standing is in College Park, Florida. The photo booth was constructed for the movie, and in the background a Publix supermarket is visible (though in the 2020s there are Publix stores across the southeast, in the 1980s thy were only in Florida; there are still no Publixes in Missouri, this movie's ostensible setting). The Showbiz Pizza is located in Altamonte Springs, Florida and is still there, except it is now (like all Showbiz Pizzas) a Chuck-E-Cheese. Kevin's birthday party was filmed at The Mystery Fun House in Orlando, Florida.
• Included among the American Film Institute's 2000 list of the 500 movies nominated for the Top 100 Funniest American Movies.
• In the opening scene Gil Buckman (Steve Martin) is reminiscing as his younger self at the ballpark. In the background a peanut seller can be heard yelling out "Hot peanuts!". Steve Martin's voice was used for this line.
• Despite his strong performance, Steve Martin was thought of by some as miscast due to being 44 and playing a 35 year old when his age obviously showed.
• Dianne Wiest's only Oscar-nominated performance not in a Woody Allen film. Unlike her other two nominations, she did not win for her performance in this film.
• Bryce Dallas Howard's debut.
• This was Ron Howard's first movie after Willow (1988), one of his few flops. Strangely enough, there was talk of a Willow TV show, just like there was a Parenthood TV show.
• When Gil and Karen are riding in the van prior to the crash, they are driving on Kirkman Road in Orlando, Florida.
• When Julie (Martha Plimpton) is brought home by the police, it is in a Kirkwood MO police car. The movie is vaguely set in St Louis, though not shot there, and Kirkwood is a suburb of St Louis.
• Steve Martin and Alisan Porter were in two movies written and directed by John Hughes. Steve Martin had appeared in Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987). Alisan Porter would star in Curly Sue (1991). A VHS case of the John Hughes scripted and produced movie The Great Outdoors (1988) was also used as one of Garry's porno tapes.
• There were two attempts to adapt this movie into a TV series. The first ran for only twelve episodes during 1990-1991. Although the characters all retained their names from the film, all actors but a handful of the children were recast; the adult leads were Ed Begley Jr. and Jayne Atkinson as Gil and Karen Buckman, and the show provided an early role for the then-teenaged Leonardo DiCaprio as Garry Buckman (the role originally played by Leaf / Joaquin Phoenix). The second TV series was a looser adaptation (for example, the main family's last name was changed to "Braverman") and much more successful than the first; it started in 2010, ran for six seasons, and starred Lauren Graham, Peter Krause, and Dax Shepard.
• The name of the school that Kevin attends, and where Gil and Karen go for the meeting with the principal, is Gerald Paris Elementary. Jerry Paris directed 237 episodes of Happy Days (1974), which also starred Ron Howard.
• Jason Robards and Mary Steenburgen both starred in Melvin and Howard (1980), for which Steenburgen won an Oscar, and in which Robards played Howard Hughes. In the television series based on this film, Leonardo DiCaprio played Joaquin Phoenix's role. DiCaprio later appeared in The Aviator (2004) as Howard Hughes.
• Joaquin Phoenix is credited as Leaf Phoenix. As a child, he liked raking leaves and wanted a 'nature' related name like his siblings.
• One of Garry's adult videotapes is hidden inside the cover of Back to the Future (1985). Mary Steenburgen, who plays Karen, would later star in Back to the Future Part III (1990).
• Joaquin Phoenix and Rick Moranis would go on to voice characters in the animated film Brother Bear (2003).
• At 37:12 in the movie, right when Kevin asks Gil why he has to see a psychiatrist, you can see part of a poster for the movie The Dream Team (1989) right next to Kevin.
• Jesse Wolfe, who went on to direct Eye of the Hurricane, starring Campbell Scott and Melanie Lynskey, is an extra in the scene where Dave tells Gil to "dazzle" him, and can be seen thru Dave's office window working in the next room. Wolfe was a theater student at Rollins College, located in Winter Park, a suburb of Orlando where much of Parenthood was filmed.
• Sally Kirkland was considered for the role of Helen.
• Dianne Wiest (Helen) was in The Lost Boys (1987), which was directed by Joel Schumacher, who also directed Batman Forever (1995) and Batman & Robin (1997). Joaquin Phoenix (Garry) would play Batman's nemesis, The Joker, in the DC movie of the same name Joker (2019) thirty years later.
• Hillary Matthews's debut.
• This movie got a PG-13 rating even though it shows clips of a hardcore porno movie Gary was hiding in his room; which includes shots of male genitalia.
• Joaquin Phoenix, one of the most famous and successful actors in the cast was not listed in the opening credits or the posters, as this was one of his early feature film appearances. 11 years later, Phoenix played the role of Commodus in Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000), landing him a spot in Hollywood's 'A List'. Shortly followed with appearances in M. Night Shyamalan's Signs (2002) and The Village (2004), both wide release movies. Signs was very successful. Phoenix's name appeared over the title, along with Mel Gibson's, in all the marketing material.
• In the scene where Steve Martin and Mary Steenburgen are fighting over the fact that she is pregnant, Steve says "Let's just have a dozen, and act like they are donuts." In Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), he plays the father of a dozen children.
• Film debut of Ivyann Schwan.