Dan Wilbur
Groundhog Day is here which means it’s time to watch the 1993 movie Groundhog Day instead of the news that we’re getting 6 more weeks of winter. Bill Murray’s time loop comedy will make you feel better about being stuck in the same day for the past year. This is the most topical movie of the COVID era.
If you haven’t seen it, I’m guessing you were born sometime after the year 2000 or so, and I ask you: what is it like to feel things still? What is it like to eat food without gaining weight? I kid, of course. We’re all sad right now.
The movie is about a mean weatherman who finds himself reliving the same day over and over. That day? You guessed it, Groundhog Day. Of all the days you could relive, one spent in the first week of February is probably on the bottom of your list. We all need to laugh it off together.
For those of you who’ve seen the movie 100 times, these facts about the production will give you something to talk about while annoying the person you’re watching it with. Instead of simply quoting the movie, you can quote this article.
Here are some facts about Groundhog Day (1993) that will make you stop thinking about how you’ve been living the same day since early 2020:
1. The groundhog bit Bill Murray multiple times, and the actor had to ask doctors about a rabies shot.
Bill Murray said in an interview: “I went to the doc and said, ‘Hey, I got bit by a groundhog, should I get a rabies shot?’ He said, ‘Well, no.’ ‘You mean I’m not going to get it?’ He said, ‘Well, no. See, we don’t know if groundhogs give rabies.’ And I’m like, ‘Because you don’t know, you can’t give me the shot?’ He said, ‘That’s right.’ ‘And what if I get it, then what?’ He said, ‘Then we’ll know. Then we’ll know, then, won’t we?’ ”
2. When Bill Murray smashed the alarm, it didn’t break, so the crew smashed it with hammers. The radio continues to play a garbled sad version of the song. They used that in the movie.
3. Director Harold Ramis originally wanted Tom Hanks for the role of Phil, but later decided Tom Hanks was “too nice.”
He’s too likable. Look at that face!
4. The original idea was to make Phil live 10,000 years in the time loop.
There are only roughly 38 days shown in the film.
5. Stephen Tobolowsky (Ned) was named an honorary Grand Marshal in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania for Groundhog Day 2010.
Both Harold Ramis and Bill Murray were also offered the position. Tobolowsky did the whistling belly-button routine mentioned in the film when he was a guest, though.
6. Michael Shannon, star of The Shape of Water (2017), got his first feature role in the film. He did not make a good impression on Murray.
The actor tried to relate to Bill Murray about the band The Talking Heads, and Murray blew him off. Harold Ramis made Murray apologize to the young actor, and that only made things worse.
7. Fun Easter Egg: All the clocks in the diner have stopped.
8. There’s a small plaque in Woodstock, Illinois on the corner where the Ned and Phil scenes take place.
The plaque says “Bill Murray stepped here” in honor of Ned’s warning about “that first step…it’s a doozie!”
9. The original script started with Phil Connors already stuck in the time loop.
Screenwriter Danny Rubin apparently made Harold Ramis promise to keep the murky plot point in the script so audiences would be confused and intrigued by the opening. Sadly, Ramis did not keep that promise.
10. There were a bunch of extra shots of Phil doing crazy stuff to prove he was stuck in the exact same day. They were all cut.
The above scene is about Phil becoming a pool shark, but there were several scenes of Phil in his room spraypainting everything and going nuts with a chainsaw. These moments were cut (too over-the-top)and replaced by the simple snapping of a pencil to show what was happening.
11. This movie ruined the friendship between Bill Murray and Harold Ramis.
They eventually made up 20 years later, but they stopped speaking to each other, partly because Bill Murray’s divorce was causing additional anxieties over the filming. Harold Ramis stopped making time for Bill’s frantic calls, and they stopped talking altogether after filming was complete.
12. Several writers claim they came up with Danny Rubin’s idea first.
Though a number of sci-fi writers unsuccessfully argued that their idea was the inspiration for the film, Dann Rubin was able to point to a short story from 1892 called “Christmas Every Day” as the impetus for the movie.
13. The ice sculptures were made by a real Punxsutawney resident known as “The Chainsaw Wizard.”
14. The crew voted on whether or not Rita and Phil had sex at the end of the film.
Bill Murray wanted to have his shirt off in the final shots. A crewmember said no. There was some confusion about what happened on the night the lovers spent together. The film is not explicit about what happened. It’s like Inception! We may never have an answer.
h/t IMDB
