Transcript - Ep 289 - Office Ladies Do: Grease 2

TRANSCRIPT

Office Ladies | Episode 289 - Office Ladies Do: Grease 2!

    Jenna [00:00:04] I'm Jenna Fischer, 

    Angela [00:00:05] and I'm Angela Kinsey. 

    Jenna [00:00:06] We were on "The Office" together, 

    Angela [00:00:08] and we're best friends. 

    Jenna [00:00:09] And now we're doing the ultimate Office lover's podcast, just for you. 

    Angela [00:00:13] Each week we will dive deeper into the world of The Office with exclusive interviews, behind the scenes details, and lots of BFF stories. 

    Jenna [00:00:21] We're the Office Ladies 6.0. 

 
    Jenna [00:00:00] Hello! 

    Angela [00:00:01] Hi! 

    Jenna [00:00:02] We are very excited today. Because today we are breaking down the fabulous musical movie, "Grease 2." 

    Angela [00:00:12] I had no idea what I was in for. But before we get into it, I think I need a wardrobe change.  

    Jenna [00:00:18] Well, maybe I need a wardrobe change too. 

    Angela [00:00:20] Oh no, you did it too?! 

    Jenna [00:00:23] I did... Something. 

    Angela [00:00:24] Okay, let's see what you did. Did you go cool rider? 

    Jenna [00:00:27] I went T-Birds. 

    Angela [00:00:29] Oh, you went T-Birds! Okay, Jenna has on a black leather jacket. She's got on a black neck scarf. You gotta get that collar up, lady. 

    Jenna [00:00:37] I got my black leather jacket and my white shirt and my skinny jeans. I know the T-Birds wouldn't wear a neck scarf, but I have a rash on my neck today. So I thought, "Let's cover it up with a silky neck scarf and just kind of go lady T-birds." 

    Angela [00:00:51] You're right on point, because neck scarf is all throughout this movie. One more thing, Jenna. Ready? I actually owned this. Don't ask me why. 

    Jenna [00:01:01] You have a pink satin jacket. Hello! 

    Angela [00:01:06] I tried to do the little scoopy ponytail. 

    Jenna [00:01:09] Oh, and the glasses. Oh, yeah! 

    Angela [00:01:12] Sunglasses. Also, you wear sunglasses inside in this movie, is what we're talking about. 

    Jenna [00:01:15] Yes, ma'am. 

    Angela [00:01:16] The only thing we're missing is bubble gum. 

    Jenna [00:01:19] And cigarettes. 

    Angela [00:01:19] And cigarettes, because guess what, guys? [singing] We want a C-O-O-L-R-I-D-E-R 

    Jenna [00:01:27] Well, we owe someone a very big thank you, and that person is Nathan B. from New Jersey. Because when I was in the general mailbox recently, I saw that Nathan wrote this, "Please, please do a movie breakdown of Grease 2." 

    Angela [00:01:43] Oh my goodness, Nathan. 

    Jenna [00:01:45] We're here for you. We can't wait. So Lady, I can't remember when it was. It was a while ago. We talked about Grease 2 on this podcast, about how I had seen it and you had not. I don't even remember this conversation. But it resonated. People started sending us comments and mail, like Nathan, asking us to watch it. 

    Angela [00:02:06] Yeah, it's true. I'd never seen it. I mean, I'd seen clips of the "Cool Rider" video but I had never seen the whole movie. 

    Jenna [00:02:13] Well, now you have, Ange. 

    Angela [00:02:14] I know.  

    Jenna [00:02:16] And? How'd that go for ya? 

    Angela [00:02:18] I mean, it is a visual feast. 

    Jenna [00:02:21] [laughing] That's a good description. 

    Angela [00:02:23] I think some of the songs are great. I think some of them are cringy. Okay, where were you in the world when you first saw this movie? 

    Jenna [00:02:30] Lady, I don't remember exactly when I saw it. I don t know if I saw when it came out, or if I saw it later. All I know is that my childhood... My sister and I loved watching "Grease" and we loved watching Grease 2. And we watched them both on repeat and we would recreate the dances and we will do all the songs. We would have my dad get out a stepladder so that we to climb the ladder like Stephanie and Cool Rider. 

    Angela [00:02:58] Oh my gosh, you and your sister were kind of like how Isabel and her friends were with "Frozen." 

    Jenna [00:03:03] Yes! 

    Angela [00:03:03] Although there wasn't a song about reproduction. 

    Jenna [00:03:06] No, or "Greased Lightning" in Grease has some, you know, innuendo. 

    Angela [00:03:14] At the time, when I watched Grease growing up, it went over my head but I watched Grease 2 as a 54-year-old woman and, holy crap, the number of sexual innuendo songs. 

    Jenna [00:03:26] It's double entendres for 114 minutes. Basically.  

    Angela [00:03:29] Exactly. 

    Jenna [00:03:31] Alright well, let me kick you off with a summary and then we're going to get into some facts and stats. Here's your summary. Two years after the events of Grease, we are back at Rydell High. There is a new bunch of Pink Ladies and T-Birds and a new kid in school. It's Michael, Sandy's sweet, straight-laced cousin from England. But when Michael falls for Stephanie, the tough leader of the Pink Ladies, he quickly learns that she only has eyes for dangerous guys on motorcycles. So Michael hatches a secret plan to transform himself into Rydell's mysterious new biker, the Cool Rider. But Grease is still the word. 

    Angela [00:04:18] Grease is the word. 

    Jenna [00:04:20] Mhmm. Alright, here's some facts and stats. The runtime of this movie is 114 minutes. It was released on June 11, 1982, the same day as "E.T." 

    Angela [00:04:33] I read that and I thought, "That's a tough day to come out," I mean E.T.! 

    Jenna [00:04:37]  I know. Grease was first a musical that debuted in 1971, then a film in 1978, and now we have Grease 2, three years later in 1982. This movie stars Michelle Pfeiffer and Maxwell Caulfield. They were both basically complete unknowns, except that Maxwell Cauffield was an up and coming successful theater actor. Guess what this movie did to his career? 

    Angela [00:05:05] Some of the interviews made me sad. 

    Jenna [00:05:06] It's not great. This poor guy. 

    Angela [00:05:10] He said it took him years to find his way back. 

    Jenna [00:05:12] Yeah, it kind of launched Michelle Pfeiffer and it tanked Maxwell Caulfield, but not in the hearts of people who love this movie. 

    Angela [00:05:20] No, because for people that love Grease 2, it is a cult classic. 

    Jenna [00:05:24] We love him! 

    Angela [00:05:25] Yes, we love him, and he's fine. He's doing just fine now. 

    Jenna [00:05:29] He's doing great. 

    Angela [00:05:29] But it was a little bit of a rough patch, thereafter.   

    Jenna [00:05:33] It was. This movie was written by Ken Finkelman. It was directed and choreographed by Patricia Birch. And this is kind of cool, Patricia Birsch was the choreographer for the original musical Grease and also for the first movie. This was the first time a female choreographer had become a film director. It was also her directorial debut. It is also her only theatrical film directing credit. I think this was a tough one for her. She said that the script wasn't finished by the time they started filming. 

    Angela [00:06:08] She had to start a whole movie production with an incomplete script. She didn't even know where scenes were going. 

    Jenna [00:06:16] Angela, how was this movie received at the box office? 

    Angela [00:06:20] Well, let's just set the stage for how much pressure this movie was under, first of all. The original Grease had a budget of $6 million. Do you know how much money it made, lady? Almost $400 million. 

    Jenna [00:06:34] Oh my gosh, back then?! 

    Angela [00:06:36] Back then. $396 million and change. 

    Jenna [00:06:41] Wow. 

    Angela [00:06:42] Yeah. So now here's Grease 2. People have high expectations. Their budget was $11.2 million. 

    Jenna [00:06:50] More than Grease? 

    Angela [00:06:52] Yeah. 

    Jenna [00:06:52] Where did the money go? 

    Angela [00:06:54] I think in costumes. Guess how much it made. 

    Jenna [00:06:58] I'm afraid to ask. 

    Angela [00:06:59] $15.2 billion.  

    Jenna [00:07:02] No. Oh, it only made four million more than what it cost? 

    Angela [00:07:04] It barely broke even. Lady. 15 million versus 400 million. 

    Jenna [00:07:10] Wow. 

    Angela [00:07:11] That's tough to come back from. 

    Jenna [00:07:13] You know, Grease 2 was supposed to be the second film in a four-film franchise. 

    Angela [00:07:19] That didn't happen. 

    Jenna [00:07:20] No, I guess the third and fourth film were gonna take place in the late 1960's, in the counterculture era. It was also gonna be a TV series. 

    Angela [00:07:29] They had big plans. 

    Jenna [00:07:30] They did. Well, there was an idea for this movie that didn't happen and that I think would have been kind of cool. 

    Angela [00:07:36] What's that? 

    Jenna [00:07:36] This is according to Wikipedia: early plans for Grease 2 had Jeff Conway and Stockard Channing's characters, Kanickie and Rizzo, as the main characters. This was gonna be while they attended summer school. 

    Angela [00:07:49] [laughing] Cause they flunked out. 

    Jenna [00:07:51] I guess. Then it was gonna end with the two of them getting married. Didn't happen. 

    Angela [00:07:57] Didn't happen. 

    Jenna [00:07:58] Would that have been better?

    Angela [00:08:00] I don't know. Well now I'm sort of part of the cult following, you know? 

    Jenna [00:08:04] I love to hear it! 

    Angela [00:08:05] Yeah, and I just can't see anyone else but Michelle Pfeiffer and Maxwell Caulfield now. 

    Jenna [00:08:09] Yeah. Do you want to know what the critics thought of this movie? 

    Angela [00:08:13] Oh, no. 

    Jenna [00:08:14] Well, it has a 37% on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert wrote this little gem, "The movie seems assembled off the shelf." 

    Angela [00:08:24] He's not wrong. 

    Jenna [00:08:26] "There are no inspired songs in it." 

    Angela [00:08:28] Oh, I disagree. 

    Jenna [00:08:29] Disagree. "The big dance numbers seem to be exercises in crowd control." That did make me laugh. There are literally hundreds of people dancing, at all times. "And the story is this idiotic. It depends on how long it will take Michelle Pfeiffer to figure out that Caulfield is the guy behind the mask. This movie just recycles Grease without the stars, without the energy, without the freshness, and without the Grease." 

    Angela [00:08:56] Oh, that's brutal. 

    Jenna [00:08:58] Also, I take issue with one of his criticisms. I'm sorry, the entire Superman franchise is based on everyone not realizing that Clark Kent - 

    Angela [00:09:09] With a pair of glasses! 

    Jenna [00:09:10] Is not Superman. 

    Angela [00:09:14] Just because of a pair of glasses! I would say that it was kind of hard to figure out who he was. His helmet is big, it covers most of his whole head, and his goggles are enormous. 

    Jenna [00:09:22] And did you notice that he does a fakey American accent? 

    Angela [00:09:25] That's right. This is way more camouflage than Superman. 

    Jenna [00:09:28] Way more! 

    Angela [00:09:29] Well, they also wanted a catchier title than Grease 2. I'm not sure it would have helped, because these two are not great options. Ready? 

    Jenna [00:09:35] What are they? 

    Angela [00:09:36] According to the internet, one was "More Grease." 

    Jenna [00:09:40] I don't like that. That's making me uncomfortable. That gives me the ick. 

    Angela [00:09:43] No one wants More Grease. The other one was "Son of Grease."

    Jenna [00:09:48] That feels like a Monty Python spoof of Grease. 

    Angela [00:09:52] It doesn't even make sense, like, I don't get it. 

    Jenna [00:09:55] Also because their son isn't in it. 

    Angela [00:09:58] I know. Okay. Here would be my alt title. 

    Jenna [00:10:02] What is it? 

    Angela [00:10:03] "Collar Up, Cigarettes and Sunglasses." 

    Jenna [00:10:06] I mean, that's a great tagline. That would have been great on the poster. They should have put you on the marketing team. 

    Angela [00:10:13] Do you wanna know what's on the actual Grease 2 poster? 

    Jenna [00:10:16] What? 

    Angela [00:10:17] "The music and feeling go on forever." 

    Jenna [00:10:19] I like yours way better. 

    Angela [00:10:21] Yeah, mine is spicier. 

    Jenna [00:10:22] Yeah. It invokes more of the tone of the movie, for sure. 

    Angela [00:10:28] Alright, well, I think we should go to break. When we come back, we've got an enormous opening number. 

    Jenna [00:10:33] Huge. 

    Angela [00:10:34] That's what she said. 

    audio cue [00:10:38] [musical sting] 

    Angela [00:10:38] Alright, the movie opens up. It's the early 60s, we have a huge establishing shot of Rydell High School. 

    Jenna [00:10:45] Mm-hmm. Principal Miss McGee and Blanche, the assistant principal, are walking out and they're gonna put up the school flag. It reads "Rydell High School: 1961." First day of school. 

    Angela [00:10:59] First day of school and these are flashback characters from original Grease. 

    Jenna [00:11:03] Yes! 

    Angela [00:11:03] Already I'm happy. 

    Jenna [00:11:04] The first line of the movie is a voiceover by principal McGee. This is how we're gonna kick off this movie. I found it interesting. Are you ready? "A new school year, Blanche. A new era. If the Russians can put a man in space, just imagine what our young American minds can do at Rydell." 

    Angela [00:11:28] It's amazing. It is a theme throughout the movie; Russia and nuclear. 

    Jenna [00:11:33] Possible nuclear attacks. 

    Angela [00:11:35] Shelters, sirens. 

    Jenna [00:11:37] Like you said, these gals are back from the original movie. Eve Arden plays Principal McGee. She is an absolute legend. She was nominated for an Academy Award. She won an Emmy Award. She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

    Angela [00:11:51] Two? 

    [00:11:51] Yes, one for radio and one for TV. She was also a radio personality. And then Doody Goodman, who plays Blanche, she did a ton of theater. She was a regular comedic guest on "The Tonight Show," and she was on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." And she was nominated for an Emmy for (listen to this category) Best Continuing Performance in a Series by a Comedian, Singer, Hostess, Dancer, Emcee, Announcer, Narrator, Panelist, or Any Person Who Essentially Plays Herself. 

    Angela [00:12:23] Is that all etched on the trophy? 

    Jenna [00:12:25] [laughing] I don't know. How do they fit that on the plaque? 

    Angela [00:12:30]  I don't know. I would watch that woman play the xylophone all day long.  

    Jenna [00:12:38] Lady, I kind of thought that if they remade this movie today, that you and I would play Miss McGee and Blanche. 

    Angela [00:12:42] Yes! I wanna be Blanche so badly. 

    Jenna [00:12:44] I want to be Miss McGee! 

    Angela [00:12:46] I want you to swat at me as I continue playing the xylophone. 

    Jenna [00:12:49] I'll be so flummoxed! Well anyway, these two agree that it's gonna be a great school year. Just as they agree, you hear the sound of screeching tires and a crash and we cut to the Pink Ladies arriving in their pink car. 

    Angela [00:13:06] Yeah, they're not good at driving, guys. They screech and come to a halt several times in the movie. 

    Jenna [00:13:12] But their leader is late. Why didn't she ride with them? Why can't they pick her up? 

    Angela [00:13:17] Maybe she didn't like to ride with them. 

    Jenna [00:13:19] I don't know. 

    Angela [00:13:20] Maybe she doesn't trust their driving. 

    Jenna [00:13:22] Maybe not, but this is our first glimpse of Michelle Pfeiffer, who was 23 years old when they filmed Grease. And now we're going to have our big opening song and dance number: "Back to School Again." 

    Angela [00:13:33] The choreography for this number is so impressive. The song is also really catchy. I read that there were 20 main dancers for all the numbers, but then to fill out the whole thing, there were almost 500 cast members. 

    Jenna [00:13:47] I believe it. 

    Angela [00:13:48] It's unreal. I don't know how you direct something of that scope. I don't know how you dress everybody. This is an amazing feat for the casting crew. When asked what her favorite number was from the movie, the director and choreographer, Patricia Birch, said this: 

    Patricia Birch [00:14:03] I think the opening of Grease II is one of the best things anybody's ever done. I managed to do a seven-minute, non-stop informational number. That's where you got to know them. 

    Interviewer [00:14:14] I love that opening, yeah. 

    Patricia Birch [00:14:16] It's a good opening. I know it's a good opening. 

    Angela [00:14:19] I so agree with her. 

    Jenna [00:14:20] She is right. The opening of this movie is perfection. 

    Angela [00:14:24] It's everything you want in a big musical number. The song is called Back to School. Let's hear a little bit of it. 

    clip from Back to School from Grease 2 [00:14:32] I gotta go back, back, back to school again / It's bye bye fun, get your homework done / and pass me in by ten / I gotta back, back, back to school again / Whoa, whoa, I gotta go / back to school again 

    Angela [00:14:59] How catchy is that? 

    Jenna [00:15:01] It's so great. Well, like Patricia Birch said, during this whole dance number, we're meeting everybody. We're understanding the relationships. 

    Angela [00:15:10] Lady, I have to tell you. 

    Jenna [00:15:11] What? 

    Angela [00:15:11] Do you know who our first Collar Up moment is? 

    Jenna [00:15:14] Is it when all of the T-birds arrive? 

    Angela [00:15:16] No, it's actually Stephanie. 

    Jenna [00:15:18] Oh, she puts her collar up! 

    Angela [00:15:20] Yes, she's our first collar up. I will be tracking collars and sunglasses, just so you guys know. 

    Jenna [00:15:26] Well, she has both. 

    Angela [00:15:28] She does. And at three minutes, 48 seconds, We meet the T-birds. Here's what you need to be a member: You need a leather jacket that doesn't move with your body, right? It's so stiff. You need cigarettes, lots of them. You need sunglasses and you need poofy hair that comes to a point in the middle of your forehead. You're ready. 

    Jenna [00:15:57] You got it. Do you want a T-Bird breakdown? I sure do. Good, because I've got it for you. Adrian Zmed plays "Johnny Nagarelli," the leader of the T-Birds. He was 27 years old when he shot this movie. And incidentally, he played Danny Zuko in Grease on Broadway. So he actually originated the role of Danny Zuko. 

    Angela [00:16:18] Oh, what a full circle moment for him.That's really cool. 

    Jenna [00:16:20] I know."DiMucci" is played by Peter Frechette. "Goose" is played by Christopher McDonald. You know him from "Thelma and Louise" and "Happy Gilmore." And "Davey" is played Leif Green. Now we're gonna meet Miss Mason, the hot music teacher? She seems to teach a lot of classes. 

    Angela [00:16:39] Well, she also teaches English. 

    Jenna [00:16:40] I know, I was like, "She also has time to go to Mr. Stewart's classes, apparently." 

    Angela [00:16:46] Yes, she does and sit in. She also loves hairspray. She's carrying two cans of hairspray. 

    Jenna [00:16:52] Two, yes. 

    Angela [00:16:52] Yeah, she's constantly spraying her hair. So don't get too close to her, you're gonna breathe that in. 

    Jenna [00:16:56] Yes, Miss Mason was played by Connie Stevens, everyone. 

    Angela [00:17:00] Connie Stevens, who once dated Elvis Presley. 

    Jenna [00:17:03] I read that. 

    Angela [00:17:04] I know. 

    Jenna [00:17:06] Like, for a while. And she loved him. 

    Angela [00:17:08] Yeah, and then her second husband was once married to Elizabeth Taylor. 

    Jenna [00:17:13] Eddie Fisher. Her daughter is Joely Fisher, the actress. 

    Angela [00:17:17] This is wild. 

    Jenna [00:17:18] I know. 

    Angela [00:17:19] Also, I do want to note The T-Birds. 

    Angela [00:17:46] Are very flirty with Miss Mason. 

    Jenna [00:17:49] Oh, yes. 

    Angela [00:17:50] Miss Mason says, "I'd love to see you all in music appreciation." And Johnny says, "I'd like to see all of you in music appreciation." And Miss Mason says, "You just might." I mean... This is very spicy.  

    Jenna [00:18:04] Very spicy. They can also see her in English class, which she also teaches, by the way. Alright, well we're gonna get to this credit sequence and this is where we're going to meet Maxwell Caulfield, playing Michael. He was 22 years old, he gets first billing. 

    Angela [00:18:18] Wow. 

    Jenna [00:18:19] Yeah. I would have thought that if they were sort of equal experience, or status in the world of Hollywood, which it seemed like he and Michelle Pfeiffer were... I sort of see this as a little bit more of Stephanie's story. Do you see it as Michael's? 

    Angela [00:18:34] I mean, I think it's the two of them, honestly. 

    Jenna [00:18:37] Yeah, it's a two-hander. 

    Angela [00:18:38] It's a two-hander. I did see this very charming interview with Maxwell Colfield. A few cast members also shared how supportive the original cast was of everyone in Grease 2. 

    Jenna [00:18:49] I love hearing that! 

    Angela [00:18:50] They said it was like a family: they were like the big brother, big sister, and they were the little siblings, and that Olivia Newton-John, in particular, hosted a few parties and invited all the cast. 

    Jenna [00:19:01] Wow, way to go Olivia Newton John! 

    Angela [00:19:03] I know! 

    Jenna [00:19:04] Well you know her boyfriend was in the movie? 

    Angela [00:19:05] I know! 

    Jenna [00:19:06] We'll get to it. 

    Angela [00:19:07] We'll get to it! 

    Jenna [00:19:08] Alright, we're going to meet Michael, we are going to learn he's Sandy's cousin, and he's going to run into Frenchy. 

    Angela [00:19:14] Yes! We love Frenchy! That's a flashback character. 

    Jenna [00:19:18] Played by Didi Conn, Frenchy explains everything that's happened since she left Rydell. We find out she flunked out of beauty school because in tinting class her hair turned pink. And that now the most important thing in her life is skin care, so she's back at Rydell to get her chemistry and to mix her own cosmetics. This is a lot of information about a character who is gonna disappear halfway through the film. 

    Angela [00:19:41] She's just gotta establish why she's back at high school. 

    Jenna [00:19:43] I guess. 

    Angela [00:19:44] But she probably could've done it in one sentence. 

    Jenna [00:19:46] Yeah, it's a lot. 

    Angela [00:19:47] No judgment. 

    Jenna [00:19:49] Well, listen, through all of this, we're still dancing, we're singing, and now we're gonna hear the pink lady's pledge. I thought we should hear it, cause I love it, and I can't get it out of my head. 

    audio clip from Grease 2 [00:20:02] The pink lady's pledge to act cool, to look cool, and to be cool, till death do us part. Think! Pink! 

    Jenna [00:20:15] Yeah, that's the pink lady's pledge. 

    Angela [00:20:18] Victoria's Secret kind of stole the "think pink?"  

    Jenna [00:20:23] I think they did. I've been thinking about that for days. 

    Angela [00:20:24] Yeah, me too. 

    Jenna [00:20:25] I'm glad you said it. 

    Angela [00:20:26] Well, there it is, it's on record. 

    Jenna [00:20:28] Here's your Pink Ladies breakdown: "Stephanie Zanone," leader of the Pink Ladies, played by Michelle Pfeiffer. "Paulette Rebchuk," played by Lorna Luft, "Rhonda Ritter," played by Alison Price, "Sharon Cooper," played by Maureen Teefy and "Dolores Rebchuck," who is Paulette's little sister and is played by Pamela Adlon. Now we're gonna see the coach, played by Sid Caesar, another returning character. 

    Angela [00:20:53] Coach Calhoun. 

    Jenna [00:20:55] There's more dancing. So much dancing. Everyone dances inside. The T-Birds stop to comb their hair, though. 

    Angela [00:21:03] That's very important to them. They have to fix their hair a lot. 

    Jenna [00:21:06] And then this whole thing ends, this is a moment that is burned in my brain from my childhood. It ends with a guy running across the lawn, 

    Angela [00:21:16] and just diving through an open window of the high school! 

    Jenna [00:21:20] Yeah, and then that ends on a downbeat. It's like "boom." Yeah, and now we've opened the movie. 

    Angela [00:21:25] And there's a cello hanging from the flagpole. A bunch of kids are hanging out the windows. This school is a little wackadoodle. 

    Jenna [00:21:34] Well, at the lockers, the pink ladies discuss nose jobs, they discuss who JFK would rather be with, if it's Jackie O. or Marilyn Monroe. 

    Angela [00:21:41] Mm-hmm. 

    Jenna [00:21:42] Johnny, the head of the T-Birds comes over and Stephanie has to remind him it's over, Johnny. We're over. 

    Angela [00:21:49] Paulette clearly likes Johnny. Nine minutes, 13 seconds, we have another very big collar up, moment courtesy of Johnny in a stiff leather jacket. 

    Jenna [00:21:58] That's great. Louis is gonna come over and give Sharon a big old smooch at the lockers. 

    Angela [00:22:04] I know. 

    Jenna [00:22:04] Real big kiss, these two are on. 

    Angela [00:22:07] There's a lot of people kissing in close proximity to other people in this movie. So if you don't like PDA, this movie is a little bit of a cringe fest for you. 

    Jenna [00:22:18] This is not the high school for you. 

    Angela [00:22:19] No. 

    Jenna [00:22:20] Well, Stephanie starts to go to class but then she realizes she's wearing jeans and so she goes to her locker to change into a skirt. 

    Angela [00:22:26] Yeah, she's got these little... What do they call them? Pedal pusher leggings, right? 

    Jenna [00:22:30] Yeah, like, little cigarette pants. 

    Angela [00:22:32] Cigarette pants. 

    Jenna [00:22:33] Well, I got to wondering, was this a real thing? That girls in the 60's couldn't wear pants to school, even public school? 

    Angela [00:22:42] Yeah, I noticed that Stephanie looks around and sees all the other girls in skirts and then quickly grabs her skirt. 

    Jenna [00:22:49] I deep dived it. 

    Angela [00:22:50] What was the rule? 

    Jenna [00:22:52] I found this amazing Reddit thread called "Ask Old People." One of the threads was about this very subject, people asking, "Was it a rule that girls had to wear skirts to school?" And according to the old people, the answer is yes. Prior to 1970, girls had wear dresses or skirts that went down to their knees. One person said that the hem of the dress had to touch the floor if you were kneeling. That's how you knew if it was the right length. Girls could not wear pants, jeans, shorts, and also no open-toed shoes. One woman said she had to wear pantyhose, "in an un-air-conditioned classroom in Texas." Then I found this comment in the thread and I loved it. This old person said, "I graduated from high school in 1970, and it was only during the last few months of that year that I ever wore pants to school. A girl named Nancy just showed up one day in pants." 

    Angela [00:23:48] Go Nancy! 

    Jenna [00:23:49] "And when she got sent to the principal's office, she calmly made her case. At some point, he (of course it was a he) was persuaded. I never knew what she said exactly, but I know she was a smart, even-tempered girl who had an older sister. They were being raised by their dad because their mom had died, which gave them both a sort of gravity. After this conversation with the principal, she went back to class and finished her day and they made an announcement that girls could now wear pants." 

    Angela [00:24:19] Wow. 

    Jenna [00:24:20] "I can't really describe what an impact that event had on all of us, but me in particular. You could ask why, you could make an argument, you could persuade people with power over you to change. That girl was a legend. Wherever you are, Nancy, thanks." 

    Angela [00:24:39] That's awesome. 

    Jenna [00:24:40] Pretty cool. Incidentally, this thread also said that boys had to wear shirts with collars, they had to be tucked in, and their hair couldn't be longer than the tops of their ears. Maybe that's why the T-Birds put all their hair up so high. 

    Angela [00:24:54] And then let it droop down their forehead. 

    Jenna [00:24:57] Right. There was no rule about forehead hair. 

    Angela [00:24:59] They could compensate in the front. 

    Jenna [00:25:02] They weren't allowed to have facial hair either. Well, now Michael is trying to find a locker, and he's chosen one of the T-Birds lockers. And they are going to intimidate him by harmonizing. They harmonize at him. 

    Angela [00:25:16] They do. 

    Jenna [00:25:17] Well, Stephanie sees all this. And she looks at Michael, and she says, "It's OK. It's going to be alright," and now he's done for. He's totally smitten. 

    Angela [00:25:27] He's going to get even more smitten, but he had a lightning bolt moment with her. 

    Jenna [00:25:31] It was immediate. 

    Angela [00:25:33] Well, now we are in one of Miss Mason's classrooms, if she has many. Or does she use one, and she just rotates? 

    Jenna [00:25:39] I don't know. But it's her class. 

    Angela [00:25:42] It's her classroom. We hear over the intercom, Principal McGee, she's making an announcement. Blanche is playing the xylophone. And she says, "Listen, everyone, there's lots of extracurriculars, and we want you all to try out for things." And then she says, "and we'd like to welcome a new straight-A student, Michael Carrington." And then Ms. Mason has the whole entire class be like, "Hi, Michael." I had this happen to me. 

    Jenna [00:26:08] You did? 

    Angela [00:26:09] It's horrifying. 

    Jenna [00:26:10] Yeah. 

    Angela [00:26:11] So teachers out there, don't single out the new kid like that. I was new, moved from Indonesia to Dallas in the 80's. And the teacher was like, "We have a new student today all the way from Indonesia." And everyone was like, "Who is the freak show?" And I was like "Hi." No, please don't call attention to me. Just let me be the new kid on my own terms. 

    Jenna [00:26:36] Yeah, I get it. Well now we're gonna go out to the fields. I guess it's track practice, it's band practice, it's football practice. The twin cheerleaders want Michael to play piano for their talent show auditions. 

    Angela [00:26:51] So, lady, there's a pretty big wardrobe malfunction that happens during that conversation behind Michael and the cheerleaders. 

    Jenna [00:26:58] What? In the background? What happens? 

    Angela [00:27:01] In the back ground, at around 14 minutes, there are some dudes running on the track and jumping over hurdles. [starts laughing] And on the left side of the screen, one of the hurdlers... 

    Jenna [00:27:14] What happens? 

    Angela [00:27:16] [laughing even harder] His wiener pops out. 

    Jenna [00:27:18] [laughing] No, it doesn't! What are you saying? 

    Angela [00:27:20] He quickly tucks it back in. 

    Jenna [00:27:22] No. 

    Angela [00:27:23] Yes, there's a lot of scuttlebutt online about it. People have put it in memes, a TikTok. It's on Twitter. It's all over the place. 

    Jenna [00:27:31] This poor guy! 

    Angela [00:27:32] This poor guy. I did go and watch to see if it's true. And you do see something find its way out and then he quickly tucks it back. Oh my God. 

    Jenna [00:27:48] Oh. It's a nut. 

    Angela [00:27:49] I think it's a little bit of Beans and Franks. A little bit. 

    Jenna [00:27:53] It's definitely... It's definitely the beans. Beans are out. Wow. 

    Angela [00:28:00] That happened. 

    Jenna [00:28:01] This poor guy. 

    Angela [00:28:03] I know. 

    Jenna [00:28:04] How did they not see that in the editing? 

    Angela [00:28:07] I mean, there's so many continuity errors in this movie. Don't even get me started on "who's in the pool, who's out of the pool" later on. 

    Jenna [00:28:19] Alright, well, listen, now after he agrees to... [giggles] 

    Angela [00:28:25] Play piano at the talent auditions, right?

    Jenna [00:28:27] Yes, Michael asks Frenchy about Stephanie, but she says you can only date Stephanie if you're a T-bird. And he says, "How do you become a T-Bird?" 

    Angela [00:28:35] And then, as if enough isn't happening on this field, a rival biker gang shows up. 

    Jenna [00:28:42] Led by Leo Balmudo, aka "Crater-Face," played by Dennis Stewart, who is the same guy from Grease that used to bother the T-Birds.

    Angela [00:28:52] Right. In Grease, he drove a car and he was leader of the Scorpions gang. But now in Grease 2, he's the leader of a motorcycle gang called, wait for it... 

    Jenna [00:29:03] [laughing] It's so bad. 

    Angela [00:29:04] Cycle Lords. 

    Jenna [00:29:05] The Cycle Lords. It's not an intimidating name. The Scorpions was a better name, I think. 

    Angela [00:29:12] "Get out of the way. The Cycle Lords are coming." 

    Jenna [00:29:14] The T-Birds, they throw their leather jackets on top of their gym shirts. They light a cigarette and they walk over and they're like, "We can't rumble with you tonight, because tonight we bowl. We're bowling tonight." And the Cycle Lords are like, "Oh, I guess they're busy bowling." 

    Angela [00:29:30] "We're not gonna fight them now." Respect for the bowling. 

    Jenna [00:29:34] Then Johnny says to Paulette, he wants her to "look special tonight." He's flirting with Paulette. He does this whole thing through this whole movie. Where he flirts with Paulette, and then he flirts with Stephanie and then he flirts with Paulette, and he flirts with Stephanie! 

    Angela [00:29:49] He full on kisses Paulette in front of Stephanie. And then is like, "Stephanie, why don't you want to be with me?" Like, what?

    Jenna [00:29:56]  Yeah, this guy's all over the place. Alright, should we go to the bowling alley? Because this is the pièce de résistance of this film, in my opinion. 

    Angela [00:30:06] This is just an amazing moment in cinema. It was also Patricia Birch's second favorite number because the musical number and the dancing are again phenomenal. The song is called "Score Tonight." It's our first real sexual innuendo song, because bowling leads to a little whee-whee in the sack apparently. 

    Jenna [00:30:28] The scoring, right. So there's a bunch of students there bowling. There are also some nuns, in full habits, bowling. 

    Angela [00:30:36] Yes. The nuns are bowling and they have beef with the team they're bowling against. I zoomed in on their outfits. They shake their fists at each other and I'm like, "Who do the nun's not like? Who are they bowling against?" And they're wearing these brown gingham tops and they this little emblem. It looks like of some kind of roman helmet. I don't know who they are. 

    Jenna [00:30:58] Well they're not getting along, I guess. That's amazing. 

    Angela [00:31:03] Speaking of these costumes, I would love to give a shout out to the costume department headed by Robert De Mora. I cannot imagine dressing this many people for a movie. I'm going to be highlighting a few costumes throughout. I'd say the best dress for this particular number goes to Paulette. 

    Jenna [00:31:20] 100% those gold pants. 

    Angela [00:31:22] My gosh, she's in the pink gingham personalized button down pink lady blouse with gold trim, and like you said, the most glittery and super, very tight, gold pants. Also, the collar up moment goes to Paulette as well, but the sunglasses inside moment goes Stephanie. 

    Jenna [00:31:42] Well, I think we need to hear a little bit of Score Tonight. 

    clip from Grease 2 - T Bird [00:31:46] Last game coming up. Winner take all, agreed? 

    clip from Grease 2 - Pink Lady [00:31:48] Can you just shoot the ball? Shoot the ball! 

    clip from Grease 2 - other T Bird [00:31:50] SHOOT THE BALL! 

    audio clip from Grease 2 from Score Tonight [00:31:57] Come on everybody, gather round / I'm gonna show you how to knock them down / when I'm on the ball, I'm the number one / and I'm going to show you, how it's done / let's roll, let's roll let's rock and roll / hey come on, let's get the show on the road / we're going to score tonight / we're gonna score tonight / If you're looking for a fight, then the time is right / we're gunna wipe the floor with you tonight / we're gonna sco-ore tonight!

    Angela [00:32:47] So fun. 

    Jenna [00:32:48] So that leads into a giant dance break. We are spinning. We are pirouetting. We are high-kicking. 

    Angela [00:32:53] We are toe-touching. 

    Jenna [00:32:55] Everybody has a bowling ball. They're spinning with their bowling ball, these are clearly fakey balls. 

    Angela [00:33:00] They weigh nothing. 

    Jenna [00:33:01] No, clearly. No one's even trying to make them look like they weigh anything. They just throw them up above their heads. They spin with them. I think one of the things that makes this song so great are the vocals on Adrian Zmed. I mean, when you hear him singing at the beginning, He's just crushing it, and also Lorna Luft. I want to play a clip that starts with this high note by Adrian Zmed and leads into Lorna Luft's section of the song. 

    clip from Score Tonight - A Zmed [00:33:36] Hey, Paulette, take a look over here. I'm your king pin, honey, and I'm getting in gear. 

    clip from Score Tonight - L Luft [00:33:46] Hey, Johnny, Johnny! Go up all that strike and I just might be your baby tonight! 

    Jenna [00:33:52] I mean, am I right? 

    Angela [00:33:53] Yeah. 

    Jenna [00:33:54] The voices on these two. 

    Angela [00:33:55] Absolutely amazing. 

    Jenna [00:33:57] Well, it makes sense, because Lorna Luft. This was her theatrical film debut, but she is the daughter of Judy Garland. She is the half-sister of Liza Minnelli. It runs in the family, clearly. Incidentally, did you know that Cher was originally signed on to play Paulette Rebchuk, but she backed out? She said that the salary was too low and they didn't have a finished script. Cher was like, "I think I'm gonna pass. I think I'm out." 

    Angela [00:34:25] Well, Lorna Luft crushes it. There is a dance move in this number I need to talk about. 

    Jenna [00:34:31] Which one is it? There's so many. 

    Angela [00:34:34] It's called "I'm annoyed, but I'm still gonna dance." 

    Jenna [00:34:36] Okay, who does it? 

    Angela [00:34:39] Stephanie. 

    Jenna [00:34:39] Oh yeah. 

    Angela [00:34:40] She's so annoyed, you know? But she's like, "Fine, I'm gonna dance, but I'm gonna pout about it." It's pretty amazing. Like, I wanna do that dance move. Also, a lot of people online called bulls**t on dancing on the bowling lanes. This is what some folks said. "Everybody is dancing at the bowling alley and even dancing on alleys. The alleys in a bowling alley are heavily waxed, so the bowling balls don't have friction while rolling. Everyone dancing on the alleys would be slipping, sliding, and falling all over the place." 

    Jenna [00:35:12] Well, I want to offer: maybe this is why they can spin so much. They spin with ease.  

    Angela [00:35:18] I think they would be busting their ass. Many people wrote about that. One other thing I'd love to share is that Michelle Pfeiffer said in an interview that she kept her bowling ball from this movie and still has it. 

    Jenna [00:35:30] Well, outside, Michael is... What is happening here, okay? 

    Angela [00:35:35] He's got some type of book, like, a manual that tells you how to talk to people about bowling. 

    Jenna [00:35:42] Yeah, I wrote down the suggestions from the book. 

    Angela [00:35:45] I did too! 

    Jenna [00:35:46] "Always be courteous when asking for a game." 

    Angela [00:35:49] "Hi, want a game?" "Howdy, fellas! Let's bowl some balls!" 

    Jenna [00:35:53] "Bowling anyone?" What is this book? There were a lot of pages in this book. 

    Angela [00:35:58] I have to think that it addresses more than bowling. 

    Jenna [00:36:04] I hope so. But also, wow, that there's even a section. Well, inside, everyone is now done bowling. They're walking up to return their shoes. Johnny wants a trophy for winning, because they won. So Paulette goes over and she gives him a big, long smooch. And he's like, "That's great. That was the trophy for Best Average." Then he turns to Stephanie and he says, "How about a kiss for Best Score?" And Stephanie says, "I ain't no one's trophy." And he says, "So that's the way it's gonna be now, huh, Miss Independent?" And she says, "Yeah, independent. I kiss who I want, when I want. I could kiss the next guy who walks through that door if I want" and he says, "Be my guest." Well guess who walks in right at that moment? 

    Angela [00:36:56] Michael. 

    Jenna [00:36:57] And she lays one on him. He's shocked, everyone's shocked. Then she walks over to the group and she says, "Let's eat." Wow, this scene, that whole line of "That's the way it's gonna be now, huh, Miss Independent?" She's like, "Yeah, independent." My sister and I used to do the dialog from this scene. 

    Angela [00:37:17] That's adorable. 

    Jenna [00:37:18] That's some of my favorite dialog from the movie. 

    Angela [00:37:20] That's so cute, lady. Well, our next big scene is a new day at school. We're gonna meet Mr. Stewart.  

    Jenna [00:37:27] I'm sorry but before that, we're gonna see the pink ladies arrive (again without Stephanie) and I just want to say I don't understand why they can't drive Stephanie to school. 

    Angela [00:37:35] I don't know, is that when they almost crash into the tree? 

    Jenna [00:37:38] Yeah. 

    Angela [00:37:38] I don't think she likes to ride with them, lady. 

    Jenna [00:37:40] Okay, fine. They almost run over Mr. Stewart upon arriving. 

    Angela [00:37:45] Mr. Stewart very quickly meets Ms. Mason, aka Sexy McSexy, and he says he likes her hair. 

    Jenna [00:37:52] She loves her hair! 

    Angela [00:37:53] She's got great hair. 

    Jenna [00:37:55] Mr. Stewart was played by Tab Hunter. So incidentally, both Connie Stevens and Tab Hunter were matinee idols when they were younger. So the casting of these two was kind of a nod to the older audience. It reminds me a little bit of us in Lee's movie, Angela. It's a movie about young people and rock and roll. 

    Angela [00:38:17] And a few recognizable oldies? 

    Jenna [00:38:19] Yes, they sprinkle in some matinee idols of the past. That's me and you and Fred Armisen and Bobby Lee, I think. That's our job in Lee's movie. 

    Angela [00:38:31] I would do it all day long, it's super fun to be the oldies on set. We find out about the big talent show. It is the Rydell Revue, prizes are 100 long playing records. 

    Jenna [00:38:41] The T-Birds really want them. 

    Angela [00:38:43] Yeah they do. 

    Jenna [00:38:43] Well, now we're gonna get to this little bit in the hallway between Johnny and the principal. She's scolding him about riding motorcycles across the school lawn. The whole time, he's hiding a cigarette in his mouth. 

    Angela [00:38:54] Yeah, he's smoking as she walks up and he does the thing where he folds it into his mouth.  

    Jenna [00:38:59] Yeah, this would drive me crazy. I would have to skip this scene. I don't care for it. I don't like it that then his friend slaps him on the back and he swallows it. This would make my sister and I crazy, this scene. 

    Angela [00:39:11] Well, I looked up how they did this gag. According to the internet, actor Adrian Zmed confirmed it was a real cigarette, not a special effect. The bit was written into the movie by Ken Finkelman, who did this in high school. So Zmed practiced this trick every day for roughly two months before shooting the scene. He did hold the cigarette in his mouth, but he did not swallow it, Jenna. 

    Jenna [00:39:33] That is crazy to me! I assumed that he did the flip, I believed it, and then I assumed they took it out and that whole time that he was talking to Miss McGee, he was just pretending to have it. 

    Angela [00:39:43] Mm-hmm. 

    Jenna [00:39:44] That makes it even harder for me to watch now, knowing that the cigarette was in his mouth the whole time. 

    Angela [00:39:51] He did say when the camera came onto his back, he didn't have the cigarette in his mouth anymore. 

    Jenna [00:39:53] Well, thank God. 

    Angela [00:39:54] But when he was facing forward, he did. 

    Jenna [00:39:56] Wow. Well, let's get to these talent show auditions, lady. 

    Angela [00:40:00] First, we have a riveting song about a guy named Brad. 

    Jenna [00:40:03] By the twins. 

    Angela [00:40:04] Mm-hmm 

    Jenna [00:40:05] with Michael on piano. So this guy, Brad, was played by Matt Lattanzi. He had a small part in "Xanadu" the year before, where he met Olivia Newton-John. Then he got cast in Grease 2. And this whole time, he was Olivia Newton John's boyfriend. They actually ended up getting married. They had a daughter. They divorced after 11 years of marriage. But maybe this is why she was hosting all those parties, because her boyfriend was in the movie. 

    Angela [00:40:36] But also, I mean, Lorna Luff said that the whole cast was so warm to them. 

    Jenna [00:40:40] I believe it. Well, now we have the Pink Ladies. They're gonna audition. Their song is "Calendar Girls." Michael is playing the piano again. Sharon is clearly running the show. The role of Sharon was originally gonna be played by Jennifer Beals, but she left to take the lead role in "Flashdance." But I think if I was going to be in this movie (like when I was younger) I would've played Sharon. 

    Angela [00:41:05] I love this line that she says to Rhonda. She goes, "Rhonda, you're fall. Give me maturity. Give me aging." Rhonda's like, "Give me a break." 

    Jenna [00:41:16] Who would you have played? 

    Angela [00:41:18] Maybe Paulette. 

    Jenna [00:41:19] I could see you as Paulette, you'd be great. Well, the Calendar Girls song, I find it so grating. It's hard for me. I really hate the beginning with the ah-ah-ahs, so I'm gonna play a clip. 

    Angela [00:41:34] You're playing the song you hate? 

    Jenna [00:41:35] Yeah, because it's gonna lead into a really cringy conversation between Michael and Stephanie. 

    audio clip from Grease 2 [00:41:45] [Calender Girls fading out]

    clip from Grease 2 - Michael [00:41:50] Hello. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Stephanie [00:41:52] Hi. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Michael [00:41:52] I wanted to ask if you're free after school today? 

    clip from Grease 2 - Stephanie [00:41:54] Yeah, I'm free every day. It's in the Constitution. 

    Jenna [00:42:00] Yeah. That's another line we would always quote. "I'm free every day." 

    Angela [00:42:05] "It's in the Constitution." 

    Jenna [00:42:06] Yeah. The Pink Ladies get cut off after just one season, and Sharon is really upset. But Michael's going to hit up Stephanie again after the song, but she's too busy to go out. She's very busy. He'd like to know, "What was up with the bowling alley?" And she's like, "That was a joke." 

    Angela [00:42:23] OK, get over it. 

    Jenna [00:42:25] "Listen, it's a no." And then she forgot her book, so he asked her again. He says, "How about the day after tomorrow?" And she can't take it. And she's going to explain what she's actually looking for in a guy. I think we should hear it. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Stephanie [00:42:40] If you really want to know what I want in a guy? Well I'm looking for a dream on a mean machine. With hell in his eyes. I want a devil in skin-tight leather He's gonna be wild as the wind. And one fine night I'll be holding on tight to a cool rider, a cool rider. If he's cool enough, he can burn me through and through. Whoa, if it takes forever, then I'll wait forever. No ordinary boy, no ordinary boy is gonna do. I want a rider that's cool. 

    Jenna [00:43:32] Here's the thing. She is so dynamic when she's singing. There's this spotlight on her. Her eyes are on fire. She has this amazing red lipstick. She's so intense. She's completely captivating. 

    Angela [00:43:45] She is, she's wearing all black. She has a black top, black tight pants, black bangle bracelets. Her pink lady jacket is reversible, lady. She's wearing it in black. But if Michael didn't know really what she's into, her necklace is a dead giveaway. 

    Jenna [00:44:03] Why? What is it? 

    Angela [00:44:04] It's a gold necklace with a motorcycle pendant. 

    Jenna [00:44:11] Here's the thing, I wrote down, "I think this is why she got the part. Holy s**t, she's amazing." All during this first section of the song, there were these weird cutaways to Michael listening to her sing, and he's a complete blank slate. But then something happens. 

    Angela [00:44:28] What? 

    Jenna [00:44:29] Then she starts dancing. 

    Angela [00:44:32] I learned one of her dance moves, I'd like to show it to you now. 

    Jenna [00:44:35] Oh God. Please. 

    Angela [00:44:36] [moving around the studio] 

    Jenna [00:44:40] No, that's the one I can't take! At the end. 

    Angela [00:44:45] Here's the thing. I have compassion for her, because I'm looking at this whole scene through the camera lens and she's got to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time. So she does this weird scooching dance move. I don't know how else you cover that amount of ground unless you can do cartwheels and stuff. But I was curious what Michelle Pfeiffer had to say about her audition process. I was curious about her background for singing and dancing, and I found this interview and here's what she had to say. 

    Interviewer [00:45:19] Now, what was your audition process like for Grease 1? 

    Michelle Pfeiffer [00:45:21] Oh my gosh. Well, it was a total fluke that I got that part and I went on a lark. I mean my agent said "Oh just go." I wasn't a dancer. I wasn't a singer and I was in this little short purple skirt with go-go boots and we had the the dancing auditions. It's literally like a chorus line. It's like, this line goes and then the next line goes and I kept sneaking in the back. And finally, it was only me and and the director's like, "Come on, come on." So I go and go down there. But anyway, I did it, and I got the part, shockingly enough. 

    Interviewer [00:46:02] And then, we all got given Grease 2. And how could we not love that? 

    Angela [00:46:07] I mean, she was surprised. 

    Jenna [00:46:09] Well, here's what I wrote down. I wrote, "She's so sexy when she's singing, and then she is so not sexy when they make her dance. Let this woman sing." Why did this need to be a dance number? It was so good. Because later, we're gonna let Michael wax on for three minutes about his charade. He doesn't have to dance through that song. His whole ballad that I can't even take. 

    Angela [00:46:43] It's just a giant montage. 

    Jenna [00:46:45] Why couldn't she just stand there and sing like the powerhouse that she is? When you're seeing her face and her eyes? The singing sounds great. Leave her alone. Don't make this woman dance anymore. 

    Angela [00:46:57] I would say don't make her do any more than the ladder. The ladder was very impressive. The ladder is tall. It's got a tiny little top of the ladder that then she had to move around on. I was terrified for her. Then the way she comes off that ladder is the coolest thing I've ever seen. 

    Jenna [00:47:14] With her big sweeping leg? 

    Angela [00:47:16] I would have wiped out. I would've absolutely face planted. 

    Jenna [00:47:18] Because she goes down a few, then up a few, and then down a few more and then up one. It's great. 

    Angela [00:47:23] Leave her on the ladder. 

    Jenna [00:47:24] But you know what you don't make her do when she's on the top of the ladder, which again kills the whole ladder bit? The jazz hands. Why the jazz hands? This is not sexy. I'm sorry. Like, if you're dancing for your husband and you're being sexy and then you start doing jazz hands, it's gone.  

    Angela [00:47:42] Or if he likes jazz hands, maybe there's another conversation to be had. 

    Jenna [00:47:46] I mean, sure. Maybe you have a thing for jazz hands, but I just think you can't be sexy while doing jazz hands. There's not a single stripper who does jazz hands. I'm convinced. No one's doing it. It's not happening.

    Angela [00:48:01] I also think that there's maybe a reason the ladder was part of this move because maybe they saw her do the scooch move and they were like, "We need a prop." 

    Jenna [00:48:12] It was great, but it all falls apart when she, Oh God... Anyway, I love Cool Rider but the dancing is hard. 

    Angela [00:48:23] That's all we have to say about that. 

    Jenna [00:48:25] I think we should take a break and then when we come back,  

    Angela [00:48:28] Michael has figured out a way to buy a motorcycle and it includes selling essays and homework. I break down the math of it. 

    Jenna [00:48:37] Oh? 

    Angela [00:48:38] When we come back. 

    Jenna [00:48:39] Great. 

    audio cue [00:48:39] [musical sting] 

    Jenna [00:48:43] Alright, well, we are back. Like Angela said before the break, the T-Birds are gonna start asking Michael to do their homework for them. It's a secret. 

    Angela [00:48:54] It's secret. They got a rep to protect. 

    Jenna [00:48:56] Exactly. 

    Angela [00:48:56] They all are very worried about their reps. 

    Jenna [00:48:59] Yes, their rep of doing their own homework? 

    Angela [00:49:02] I don't know. 

    Jenna [00:49:03] I don't know. But he's doing it so that he can earn money to buy a motorcycle. 

    Angela [00:49:07] Yeah, Louis comes to what we learn is Michael's Uncle's nuclear fallout shelter, where I guess Michael hangs out and does his homework? 

    Jenna [00:49:16] Yeah, I said "Does he live in his uncle's fallout shelter? Or just do his homework in there?" 

    Angela [00:49:23]  I don't know. Either way, it kind of makes me sad. But Louis comes there, he looks around and is like, "Oh, this is a good place to do homework and other things." It looks like he pays Michael what appears to be $5. 

    Jenna [00:49:36] For this essay? 

    Angela [00:49:38] For this essays. I looked up what a motorcycle costs in 1961. On the low end, $800 bucks. 

    Jenna [00:49:46] I mean, he gets a pretty junky motorcycle that he has to fix up through a series of montage. 

    Angela [00:49:52] He goes to, basically, a junkyard. So if you got one that's $800, it'd be about 160 essays. 

    Jenna [00:50:00] Oh my - How? There can't possibly be that many. There's only four T-Birds. 

    Angela [00:50:04] I know. I think you got a real piece of junk. Well now we go to a biology lesson by Mr. Stewart. 

    Jenna [00:50:14] With Miss Mason in the room. 

    Angela [00:50:15] It's got the famous "where does the pollen go?" 

    Jenna [00:50:18] Yes, this is the song "Reproduction." Let's hear the beginning of it. 

    clip from Reproduction from Grease 2 [00:50:25] Reproduction! Reproduction! Put your pollen tube to work! / I don't think I even know what a pistol is / I got your pistol right here. Where does the pollen go? 

    Jenna [00:50:52] Yeah, there you go. You've got this whole number now, the boys are all on one side of the room, the girls are on the other side. The girls are doing that sort of stereotypical back in the day sort of thing of being both sort of sexy, but also the gatekeepers of sex. The boys are just lecherous and wanting to get it on. 

    Angela [00:51:14] There is one moment though, where the girls pretend to be the boys and the boys pretend to the girls. The boys are like, "Oh, you always say no." And the girls are like "Yeah, we'll do this." So I do appreciate that moment. 

    Jenna [00:51:24] We did have a little role reversal there. Yeah. Catchy song. My sister and I were too shy to sing this one. 

    Angela [00:51:33] I get it. 

    Jenna [00:51:34] We wouldn't do this one. 

    Angela [00:51:35] You didn't want to sing about the pollen tubes? 

    Jenna [00:51:37] I guess we didn't. But then, ironically, we would belt out, "Let's Do it for Our Country," which is coming up. Guess what, everybody? Michael has enough money for a motorcycle. He fixes it up by reading a manual. This kid has got so many manuals. 

    Angela [00:51:58] He loves a book. He's very smart. 

    Jenna [00:51:59] He's going to practice riding it in the park. Frenchie looks on, she's concerned. At the end, he like... Pulls away, and then he looks over his shoulder at her. He's wearing his mechanic's jumpsuit. This... I was dead. Like, he is so cute. 

    Angela [00:52:20] This is the look that got it for you? 

    Jenna [00:52:22] This is the one. The Maxwell Caulfield, posters going on my wall. This look. There's another one too. 

    Angela [00:52:30] Mine's later. I'll share about it. 

    Jenna [00:52:32] I wonder if it's the other one that is my favorite. 

    Angela [00:52:35] I doubt it. 

    Jenna [00:52:35] We'll find out! 

    Angela [00:52:37] There is now a montage, you guys, with a passage of time. We find out everyone made the talent show, because I guess they didn't have enough people sign up. We see people practicing for the talent show, we see Michael working on his bike, tinkering with his bike trying to learn how to pop a wheelie, things like that. 

    Jenna [00:52:54] Yeah, the T-Birds are really intimidated by the Mr. Sandman Trio. The Sandman Trio are singing in the showers. They're harmonizing in the shower and the T-Birds are worried. Are they really gonna win the records? These guys are good. 

    Angela [00:53:09] Those guys are real good. Now the montage is over and we're back at the bowling alley. The rival gang, the Cycle Lords, they're gonna surprise the T-Birds. There's so many Cycle Lords. This is not an even match. 

    Jenna [00:53:23] Here's the thing, so just the leader is outside and as Dolores walks in, she calls him scum and she runs in and tells the T-Birds, "He's outside and he's all alone!" So then the T-Birds go outside, but by the time they get there, the whole rival gang is there. 

    Angela [00:53:39] All of the lords are there. 

    Jenna [00:53:41] Like 20? How many are there of them? But as you've mentioned, it's like 20 against four. 

    Angela [00:53:47] They start to rough up Davey, and then the mysterious rider appears. Then all hell breaks loose. 

    Jenna [00:53:55] Yeah, there's this shot of everybody inside the clear bowling alley doors, watching. I wrote down, "I cannot even imagine the nightmare this shot was for continuity." Also, clearly, they had people on  risers, because how were they so tall? They fill the whole space with people. 

    Angela [00:54:17] Cinematically, it's a really cool shot. 

    Jenna [00:54:18] It is. 

    Angela [00:54:19] It took a lot of work though. 

    Jenna [00:54:20] So they are watching out these glass doors as this single mysterious motorcycle guy takes on this whole gang. 

    Angela [00:54:30] It's a whole gang. None of them can catch him. Twenty versus one. They can't get him. 

    Jenna [00:54:34] Also, they suddenly just can't ride their motorcycles. All he does is ride by and they fall over. 

    Angela [00:54:41] I know, they're like "Oh my god!" Now everyone spills out of the doors. They're all in the parking lot now. 

    Jenna [00:54:47] Well, wait, we have to talk about the song that's going on this whole time. 

    Angela [00:54:51] That's what's about to happen. 

    Jenna [00:54:52] "Who's That Guy?" 

    Angela [00:54:53] I know. Stephanie is instantly fascinated, clearly turned on by this mysterious rider. This starts what I'm calling the "acting with bubblegum" portion of the movie. 

    Jenna [00:55:05] Oh, does she have a lot of bubble gum in this one? 

    Angela [00:55:09] What?! Are you crazy? She's popping big bubbles. She's pulling it out of her mouth and stringing it back and forth. She's chomping on it nervous, chomping on it nervous. She pops it, rolls her eyes. She pops it sexy. There's so much gum acting here. 

    Jenna [00:55:24] [laughing] I do not notice it. 

    Angela [00:55:26] Oh my gosh. 

    Jenna [00:55:27] My personal favorite part of this song is the part where Michael sings about himself in the third person. I thought we should hear it because this song is great. I also wrote down "how you sing this song with zero irony, I don't know." 

    clip from Who's That Guy from Grease 2 [00:56:02] Who's that guy? / Where did he come from? / Who's that guy? / Where can I get one? / Who's that guy? / A rad motorcycle / What would they say if they knew it was Michael?/ Looks to me like he could really fly / Won't somebody tell me: Who's that guy? 

    Jenna [00:56:40] What is that? 

    Angela [00:56:41] Is that him? [singing] "What would they say if they knew it was Michael?" 

    Jenna [00:56:45] That's him while he's taking on the gang. 

    Angela [00:56:49] But he also sounds a little bit like Cartman from "South Park." [doing an impression]

    Jenna [00:56:57] It's really crazy, it's really crazy. Well, anyway, he does it. He defeats them. 

    Angela [00:57:04] He does. 

    Jenna [00:57:05] Then we lead into a scene that I love. Stephanie, she can't stop just staring off into space. The Pink Ladies have to come over and this is a scene called "There's Been Talk." 

    Angela [00:57:17] Wait, I love that scene, but before that happens, my favorite line, maybe in the movie, happens. 

    Jenna [00:57:25] What is it? 

    Angela [00:57:26] Johnny is pissed off, a mysterious rider has messed with his mojo. He goes, "Everyone inside, we bowl!" [laughing] It's so good.

    Jenna [00:57:38] Alright, well now let's hear There's Been Talk. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Pink Lady 1 [00:57:42] Ah, you know, Steph, there's been talk. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Pink Lady 2 [00:57:45] We haven't been talking. But there has been talk, Steph. Questioning your loyalty to the Birds. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Pink Lady 3 [00:57:51] Well, it doesn't mean that you got to go steady with Johnny. In fact, I think it's better for the both of you that it's over. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Pink Lady 1 [00:57:56] Yeah, but the code does say that we're T-Bird chicks, at least till grad. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Pink Lady 2 [00:58:01] Let's go, Louis. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Stephanie [00:58:03] Yo, maybe I'm tired of being someone's chick. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Pink Lady 2 [00:58:05] Tired of being someones chick? Are you feeling OK? 

    clip from Grease 2 - Stephanie [00:58:09] I don't know what I'm feeling. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Pink Lady 3 [00:58:13] Here. Have a ciggy. Maybe it'll make you feel better. 

    Jenna [00:58:17] Yeah, I love it. I love all that dialog. I think it's great. 

    Angela [00:58:21] "Have a ciggy." 

    Jenna [00:58:22] "Have a ciggy." Paulette offers her a ciggy, but she can't get it lit.  

    Angela [00:58:26] She can't. But guess who can light it? 

    Jenna [00:58:28] The cool rider. He offers her a ride. She can't believe it, but then the cops show up and he says "Some other time."

    Angela [00:58:37]  And then he jumps the entire cop car. Stephanie's about to come undone. I think we do need to discuss the mysterious rider's wardrobe. It is no shirt. 

    Jenna [00:58:51] Yes, it's no shirt under, but with a leather jacket. 

    Angela [00:58:54] Leather jacket, very unzipped though. Like, halfway down to his belly button to show off his chest. When he offers to light her cigarette, you can see his breath. So I know it was cold that night. But yeah, mysterious rider. Johnny sees all of this, by the way, and he is really upset. 

    Jenna [00:59:16] Yeah, there's this weird shot of him at the end taking it all in. Also, we should note he is doing an American accent. 

    Angela [00:59:24] When he's the mysterious rider. 

    Jenna [00:59:26] When he offers her a ride. Alright, well it's the next day. Michael is hanging out with Frenchie in the science lab. 

    Angela [00:59:34] Oh, she's heard all about it. 

    Jenna [00:59:35] Oh yeah, he's like, "It was me." 

    Angela [00:59:36] Yeah, and she's like, "You knocked her socks off as the cool rider, but when you're yourself, you knock her socks back on." 

    Jenna [00:59:43] Oh, that's a great line. 

    Angela [00:59:45] I know. 

    Jenna [00:59:45] Well, the Pink Ladies walk in. Michael claims that he's got confidence from the night before. He's gonna ask her out, as Michael. 

    Angela [01:00:00] Yeah, and he's gonna go and have this sexy leading question: "Ever read a Superman comic?" 

    Jenna [01:00:02] And she says, "Not in the last few hours." 

    Angela [01:00:06] This is your go-to lead-off line? "You've ever read the Superman comic?" Michael.

    Jenna [01:00:13] So listen, you're not gonna see Frenchie again. She's done. 

    Angela [01:00:16] Oh, that's right. 

    Jenna [01:00:17] You're not going to see her at the end of the movie, she just sort of disappears now. And in a 2003 interview, Didi Conn explained that the reason Frenchie disappears halfway through the movie is because the script was not finished when they began filming. The draft they started with included Frenchie, but the character was written out. She was told halfway through the movie that she was no longer needed. They did decide to include Frenchie in the final cut, but they had very limited footage. She described the entire filming process as "rushed, frantic, and unorganized." So anyway, that's the end of Frenchie. 

    Angela [01:00:53] Well, now Louie is going to sneak into Michael's uncle's nuclear fallout shelter to try to trick Sharon into sleeping with him. 

    Jenna [01:01:04] Yeah, he has the other T-Birds go outside the shelter and crank the alarm that's outside. 

    Angela [01:01:09] The siren, yeah. They're gonna have this duet called "Let's Do it for Our Country." You can imagine what that entails. She's gonna get wise to him at the end and she's like, "I'm outta here." She's upset. 

    Jenna [01:01:24] But there's this whole thing where she's wrapping him up in gauze and stuff? 

    Angela [01:01:26] She thinks she's healing him or something.

    Jenna [01:01:28] Like, Florence Nightingale or something? Before he goes off to war, I guess she's gonna wrap him in some gauze and then have sex with him. I'm not sure. Well now, we're at the gas station. 

    Angela [01:01:42] Yes, the only mechanic in this whole movie is Stephanie. It's her dad's gas station because in Grease, the greasers are mechanics. So Stephanie is that for this movie. 

    Jenna [01:01:54] Well, she's very overwhelmed. She has multiple people asking her for things. 

    Angela [01:01:59] They're very annoyed patrons, at this gas station. 

    Jenna [01:02:02] Yes. I don't understand why she doesn't finish one thing at a time. She starts three different customer's things. Like, just finish it and then move to the next person. But instead, she has got three unfinished businesses all yelling at her. 

    Angela [01:02:15] All yelling at her. Gas is, I would like to point out, $0.50 a gallon. 

    Jenna [01:02:20] Michael pulls up. He puts some gas in his motorcycle. He says [in husky voice] "What do I owe you?" Because he has to be in a very quiet husky voice. 

    Angela [01:02:25] He is a little bit of Batman. 

    Jenna [01:02:27] Yeah. 

    Angela [01:02:28] [in the same husky voice] "What do I owe you?" 

    Jenna [01:02:29] She says, "50 cents." He's wearing his leather jacket. It's unzipped. Still no shirt underneath. Amazing. 

    Angela [01:02:35] And then she realizes who it is. 

    Jenna [01:02:38] It's the cool rider. 

    Angela [01:02:39] And they are gonna go for this bike ride. I mean, Stephanie is living her best life. 

    Jenna [01:02:45] Yeah, they ride away on the bike. She's wearing no helmet. 

    Angela [01:02:49] No helmet. Her hair also looks fine, by the end of it. She hasn't eaten a bug. Her eyes aren't watery and her hair looks normal. 

    Jenna [01:02:59] Also though, in the middle of them going down the road, she moves and straddles him from the front. 

    Angela [01:03:07] Yeah, she does a little leg wrap around. 

    Jenna [01:03:10] Yeah. They stop at sunset, at the top of the hill. They are kissing. He's never taken off his helmet or his goggles this whole time. 

    Angela [01:03:19] Nope. Pretty sure his goggles have fogged up and he is about to reveal his identity and then they're interrupted by the arrival of the entire T-Bird gang. 

    Jenna [01:03:32] Yeah and he races away. He says, "I'll see you Friday night at the talent show. Out front." 

    Angela [01:03:35] And she's like, "What? Talent show? How do did he know?" 

    Jenna [01:03:39] So this is pretty steamy, this moment between them, right? Like, they have some chemistry, you're seeing them together. Would you be surprised to know that according to the internet, Michelle Pfeiffer and Maxwell Caulfield did not get along during filming? 

    Angela [01:03:53] Oh, I read that it was platonic. I didn't know it was, um... 

    Jenna [01:03:57] Yeah, maybe "doesn't get along" is the wrong wording., But a few years after the film was released, Maxwell said in an interview that they got along infamously. And Michelle Pfeiffer supposedly in an interview, said that she found Maxwell self-adoring. This just goes to show you, you don't have to have chemistry in real life to have sparks fly on screen. 

    Angela [01:04:21] Acting! 

    Jenna [01:04:21] Acting. 

    Angela [01:04:23] Well, here's the thing, guys. Johnny is super upset by Stephanie's new romance. He threatens to fight the mysterious rider. Stephanie's like, "Stay out of my life." Now Paulette is pissed because she's like, "Johnny, you don't ever get jealous about me." Everyone tells Sharon to shut up. So all the ladies leave in a huff. 

    Jenna [01:04:43] They all storm inside the gas station. 

    Angela [01:04:45] That's right. 

    Jenna [01:04:45] Slam the door. 

    Angela [01:04:47] I have a wardrobe tid bit about this scene. 

    Jenna [01:04:49] Yes? 

    Angela [01:04:50] First of all (I did not discuss this up top, I should have), all the Pink Ladies have a look. Sharon is Jackie Kennedy. That's why she wears the little pillbox hat and pearls. Stephanie is usually in all black. You know, she's the motorcycle gal. She's got the necklace. Allison wears headbands and scarves. Paulette's character wants to be Marilyn Monroe. 

    Jenna [01:05:11] I mean, that's clear. 

    Angela [01:05:13] Yes, and in this scene, she is dressed almost identical to Marilyn in the white dress that even flies up as she walks into the gas station. But here's what actress Lorna Luft had to say about trying to get this Marilyn look. 

    Lorna Luft [01:05:28] The thing with me was, they wanted this character to sort of be this character who was obsessed with Marilyn Monroe. So it was all about my hair. Alan wanted me to be, literally, the platinum blonde. He sent me to a hairdresser in Westwood. She bleached out my hair. I got to tell you, it was really painful. Because in those days, they didn't have the real bleach now that they have that isn't painful. They bleached off my hair, I was weeping. The next day, I went into hair and makeup for a hair and make-up test for the film. And the hairdresser went like this, and it came out in her hand. They had broken off all my hair. My hair was this long. And that's when Alan said, "Oh, put a wig on her." I thought to myself, "They couldn't have thought about that before they did that to me?" 

    Angela [01:06:43] So Alan, that she's talking about, is Alan Carr. He was a producer on the movie. And when you watch the interview, she sort of does the motion of what the hair person did. She just ran her fingers through her hair, and it just came out in clumps. 

    Jenna [01:06:58] I mean, that's because, like she said, they just scalded your hair back then. 

    Angela [01:07:05] She said that her hair ended up being about an inch in length. It broke off that much. 

    Jenna [01:07:11] Wow. 

    Angela [01:07:14] So, shout out to Lorna Luft for enduring all that. 

    Jenna [01:07:19] She's so good in the movie. 

    Angela [01:07:20] She's so great.

    Jenna [01:07:21] I love her as Paulette. 

    Angela [01:07:22] I do too. 

    Jenna [01:07:23] Well, with all the girls inside the gas station, the T-Birds decide that they need some guaranteed action. 

    Angela [01:07:31] Yeah, they're going to go prowling. 

    Jenna [01:07:33] Yeah, They launch into the "Going Prowling" song, which kind of turns into a rehearsal for their talent show performance.

    Angela [01:07:42] It morphs into it. I will say, the number they perform (I guess for the talent show), stylistically is really cool looking. There's this back thin curtain on the stage. And the gals, I guess where you go to score is the grocery store? 

    Jenna [01:07:59] Yeah, because it's three ladies' shadows and they're cashiers at a grocery store and they are dancing. 

    Angela [01:08:07] Yeah, it's this cool kind of black and white effect behind them and now we know their talent show number. 

    Jenna [01:08:15] Alright, well, now we're back in Ms. Mason's class. She's now teaching English, and Stephanie has to stay after class because she didn't do well on her Shakespeare essay. 

    Angela [01:08:27] Guess who's gonna help her, you guys? It's Michael. They have a very cute scene at  this little coffee shop, where he's gonna to help her with her homework. There's chemistry there, where he is just Michael. There is chemistry. 

    Jenna [01:08:42] Yes, this scene is meant to show that Michael and Stephanie can have a connection even when he's not the cool rider. 

    Angela [01:08:49] Right. 

    Jenna [01:08:50] But here's my beef with it. I don't understand how, after spending a significant amount of time with Stephanie, Michael isn't totally turned off by her. She seems completely superficial and self-absorbed. She just keeps talking to him about the cool rider. She says, "What if he takes off his goggles and he's just an ordinary guy?" And he's like, "What if he is?" And then she's like, "I don't wanna talk about this anymore." She's obsessed with the ketchup and everything about her is a giant turn off to me. 

    Angela [01:09:23] And she kind of eats a hamburger like the Carl's Jr. commercial.

    Jenna [01:09:26] I love how she eats the hamburger! 

    Angela [01:09:28] What? It's so gross. 

    Jenna [01:09:29] No, I like it because she's not being fussy about it. She's going to dive right into that burger and the fries. But I don't know. He's an intelligent person. I feel like he's dumbing himself down for her, which always bums me out when people do in movies. I don't know. 

    Angela [01:09:47] I think my thing with them is that he has to figure out how to be something he's not to win her over. 

    Jenna [01:09:55] Yes. 

    Angela [01:09:56] And that's what you don't want to do. You want to be your authentic self and have someone love you just as you are. 

    Jenna [01:10:01] Well, she is impressed by him. 

    Angela [01:10:04] By his smarts. 

    Jenna [01:10:05] Yes, but then he downplays it. He's like, "Oh, I'm no smarter than you. I don't understand this stuff any more than you do. I just know a few big words that impress teachers." It's like, "No, Michael, I think you understand it. I think actually understand Hamlet. I think you do." 

    Angela [01:10:20] Well, he's gonna ask her out again, and she's like, "No, Pink Lady code, blah, blah blah" and he's like, "According to Dolores, the code stinks." Johnny and Goose show up. Johnny sees Michael talking to Stephanie. Once again, he super ticked off. Lady, I think maybe Michael Scott had watched Grease 2. 

    Jenna [01:10:41] Why? 

    Angela [01:10:41] I think you gotta hear this. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Stephanie [01:10:44] What do you want, Johnny? 

    clip from Grease 2 - Johnny [01:10:46] Yeah, well, I just wanted to let you know that I'm officially declaring us as an item officially over. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Stephanie [01:10:54] You declare it? 

    clip from Grease 2 - Johnny [01:10:58] That's correct. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Stephanie [01:10:58] Okay, fine. Okay? You declared it. It's over. Can I go now? 

    Jenna [01:11:03] He declared it. 

    Angela [01:11:04] I DECLARE BANKRUPSY! That's all I could think about in that scene. 

    Jenna [01:11:08] Well, he asked her for her Pink Ladies jacket. He's like, "I have a rep to protect. If you're not going to date me, you're out of the Pink Ladies." 

    Angela [01:11:15] "If you are not going to date while I date you and Paulette, you are out." 

    Jenna [01:11:20] Well, she doesn't give him his jacket. And do you see where she goes? Do you see where she walks to? The Pink Lady car? Whose car is it? Now she's driving it. Now she's is getting in the car. I don't get it. It cuts to Michael who's standing, watching all of this, by his motorcycle. By the cool rider's motorcycle. No one notices that he's standing next to the motorcycle with the red flames on it? What is with the vehicles in this film? Anyway. Oh God. Now the part of the movie that I fast forward through. 

    Jenna [01:12:00]  It's the only part that I don't watch. 

    Angela [01:12:03] Let me tell you why you shouldn't fast-forward. 

    Jenna [01:12:06] Why? 

    Angela [01:12:06] There is no one hotter in a turquoise sweater than Maxwell Caulfield. He is so dreamy in this sweater. I swear to God, they're selling it right now at Marine Layer It's a timeless sweater. He looks so cute. The song is long and boring and is called "My Charade." It's him in the cafeteria. It's all different moments in high school where he's just tired of playing this charade. Half the time he's not singing, he's just walking and looking around, and the song is a voiceover. 

    Jenna [01:12:37] Yes. 

    Angela [01:12:38] It's all odd. 

    Jenna [01:12:39] Yes. But now, it's the night of the talent show. Stephanie's waiting out front in her sparkly jacket. Cool Rider shows up. But uh-oh, the T-Birds show up too. So he rides away. Why? Why does he keep riding away from the T-Birds? He took on 20 of the Cycle Lords outside the bowling alley. This is four people. But apparently he can't take on these four guys on the motorcycle, so he speeds away and the T-Birds chase him and then the girls follow them in the pink car.  

    Angela [01:13:10] And guess what? There's a construction site, it conceals the deadly drop of Dead Man's Curve and he just goes flying off into the night. Can I say what I wrote? 

    Jenna [01:13:21] Yeah. 

    Angela [01:13:22] "He died?" I thought "where does the movie go from here?" 

    Jenna [01:13:25] You really thought he died? 

    Angela [01:13:27] How do you come back from that? I thought he might have died. 

    Jenna [01:13:32] Well, that's good. That's what they wanted you to think. Stephanie's convinced, but I do have to go back because this is one of me and my sister's favorite lines from the movie. 

    Angela [01:13:41] Oh please, please, I'm sorry, say it, say it. 

    Jenna [01:13:42] It's in the car, when the Pink Ladies are chasing toward the construction site before he flies off the edge. Sharon has a line, because they're zipping around, and she goes - 

    Angela [01:13:52] And Sharon is who you would be in the movie? 

    Jenna [01:13:55] This is me, this is my line. She says, "We're gonna die and I'm wearing my mother's underwear!" That's Sharon's line. 

    Angela [01:14:03] I bet you guys loved that. 

    Jenna [01:14:03] We loved that line. We would always say that line when it came up. Alright, so it's time for the talent show. 

    Angela [01:14:13] I have this moment highlighted as my favorite Paulette moment because she finally lets Johnny have it. 

    Jenna [01:14:18] Yeah, Johnny thinks Paulette is dressed too skimpy. Um... Johnny's not wrong. I'm sorry, for a high school student, is this what you wear during the talent show? 

    Angela [01:14:33] She's in... 

    Jenna [01:14:34] Lingerie. 

    Angela [01:14:33] Is it a bustier unitard? 

    Jenna [01:14:37] It's a bustier, she's got on- 

    Angela [01:14:39] What do you call those? 

    Jenna [01:14:40] What do call that thing you put around your leg, that you throw at weddings? 

    Angela [01:14:43] A garter? 

    Jenna [01:14:43] A garter. I mean, she is covered. But it's very suggestive. And I just wanna - There's nothing wrong with it. Except that, I think, she's 17.

    Angela [01:14:53]  I know what it looks like! 

    Jenna [01:14:55] What? 

    Angela [01:14:55] Visually, for people who haven't seen the movie, if you made a Playboy bunny outfit, but into more of a corset look. Right? 

    Jenna [01:15:06] It's a one-piece bathing suit, strapless, but lacy and suggestive. It's like what I wore in "Blades of Glory." 

    Angela [01:15:16] Oh, yes, it is. That's exactly what it is. Now people are going to Google that, lady. 

    Jenna [01:15:20] Well, do it. I looked great in that movie. 

    Angela [01:15:22] You looked great. I just have to say what Paulette says to him, though. 

    Jenna [01:15:25] Yeah, I love it. 

    Angela [01:15:26] She's like, "Maybe you can bully some chicks in this school, but this chick has been bullied for the last time. I may not be the classiest chick, but I'm the best you're going to get. So take it or leave it." She's kind of swatting at him the whole time. 

    Jenna [01:15:41] He backs down. 

    Angela [01:15:42] I was like, "Way to go, Paulette." 

    Jenna [01:15:45] First, we're gonna see the T-Birds sabotage the Mr. Sandman Trio. They tie them up. 

    Angela [01:15:52] And turn the showers on them, or something. 

    Jenna [01:15:53] Yes, and then the T-Birds go out and they do a great job. 

    Angela [01:15:57] They crush it. 

    Jenna [01:15:57] They're a big hit. 

    Angela [01:15:59] Everyone loves them. Then we have the Pink Ladies number, "Girl for All Seasons." Amazing costumes by the way. There's so many costumes because they do all the seasons. I'm just going to highlight three. December is Stephanie in a Christmas tree themed dress. It's pretty amazing. 

    Jenna [01:16:19] She is wearing a star on top of her head. 

    Angela [01:16:21] Yes, and she looks like a Christmas Tree. January, it's a champagne glass. Featuring foam legs sticking out of the top. Combined with the red sparkly dress, it's amazing. February has to be in the top three. It's a wiggling George Washington face on a belly? 

    Jenna [01:16:41] She's a coin, for President's Day, in February. 

    Angela [01:16:44] Ohhhhhhhhh. I thought she was Mount Rushmore. 

    Jenna [01:16:48] No, she's a coin. But what's interesting, is that her body is painted to be the face of the coin and the eyes of George Washington are her boobs. And then she's belly dancing, which makes his face move. And again, I just wanna say, is this appropriate for high school? George Washington's eyes on a girl's boobs. I don't think it is. 

    Angela [01:17:13] I'm gonna say no. I did not put those two together. I didn't realize his eyes were her boobs. 

    Jenna [01:17:19] Yep, check it out. 

    Angela [01:17:20] Because I was so confused by why Mount Rushmore was being featured in February. 

    Jenna [01:17:27] They go through all the seasons. When Stephanie comes out and she starts to sing, she... 

    Angela [01:17:36] Hallucinates? 

    Jenna [01:17:36] Yeah, she kind of zones out. The star that's on top of her head, she takes it down into her hands and then it flies out of her hand. 

    Angela [01:17:47] And then she follows it to, like, lala land. She's in a dreamlike fantasy. 

    Jenna [01:17:50] Yes. And now we do have a sort of thing that I think is meant to represent heaven (or something) because Michael is now on top of a mountain of white motorcycles. I wrote, "Is he an angel?" 

    Angela [01:18:06] This is what I wrote: "Stephanie is now dressed as a Grecian goddess. She looks amazing. Michael's in all silver. This might be the weirdest number in the whole movie. There's a pile of old busted motorcycles that look white and dusty. Are they corpses? 

    Jenna [01:18:20] I don't know what they are. 

    Angela [01:18:22]  It's foggy. 

    Jenna [01:18:23] Oh yeah, there's tons of fog. I do have to note, again, that even in his silver motorcycle outfit, he has no shirt on under the jacket. 

    Angela [01:18:36] Unzipped. 

    Jenna [01:18:36] Zipped down to his belly button. This is a very long dream sequence song. It's a duet. 

    Angela [01:18:42] It's a duet and Stephanie has two outfits. She's either Grecian goddess or she is also in a silver jacket on the motorcycle with him. 

    Jenna [01:18:53] I wrote, "Don't know how you sing these weird lyrics and not break, they are somehow 100% stone cold serious through this whole song." Especially this part where there's a dialog break. 

    Angela [01:19:06] And they talk to each other! 

    Jenna [01:19:08] I have it. 

    Angela [01:19:09] They do song talking. 

    Jenna [01:19:10] I have it. 

    Angela [01:19:11] Oh, great. 

    Jenna [01:19:12] Here it is. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Michael [01:19:14] Stephanie, please don't cry. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Stephanie [01:19:18] It all seems so unfair. Just when I found you, I lost you. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Michael [01:19:23] That doesn't matter now. The only thing that matters is that I love you, and you're the only one who can keep our love alive. So Stephanie, don't forget me. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Stephanie [01:19:34] I promise. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Michael [01:19:36] Remember, I love you.  

    Angela [01:19:57] Then it morphs back into to her being in the talent show. 

    Jenna [01:20:01] Yes, and she's singing this weird solo now, that has nothing to do with Calendar Girls. She's singing "Turn back, oh oh," all by herself. 

    Angela [01:20:11] The crowd is mesmerized. You could hear a pin drop. 

    Jenna [01:20:16] She's sad, she's on her knees, the song ends, and the audience erupts into a standing ovation. And then Johnny and Stephanie win the talent show. 

    Angela [01:20:27] They win the Talent Show, which I didn't realize meant that they were crowned king and queen of a luau. 

    Jenna [01:20:34] Which is coming up. 

    Angela [01:20:36] I wrote, at this point, "What is happening?" What is happening. Now we have a rock-a-hula luau.

    Jenna [01:20:45]  Yes, this is clearly the "We Go Together" of Grease 2. 

    Angela [01:20:48] You know what this number is? We don't know where the script is going, let's get everyone back in one big scene together and dance it out. I wrote "There are so many continuity errors in this luau scene, I don't even know how to start." 

    Jenna [01:21:00] I want to talk about how everybody is dressed so festively except for Stephanie, who's still mourning the death of cool rider. She shows up in a slouchy gray sweatshirt and jeans. She's over it. 

    Angela [01:21:12] She's not happy. 

    Jenna [01:21:12] She's done. But yeah, there's a big dance number. 

    Angela [01:21:15] Big, big dance number. 

    Jenna [01:21:16] Then there's a big above ground swimming pool in the middle of this luau. 

    Angela [01:21:20] My aunt Louise and uncle Sonny had one. I don't know how they put so many things in it. 

    Jenna [01:21:28] Well, it starts with Mr. Stewart and Miss Mason. They're in a boat in the middle. People are swimming and dancing in the water, but then suddenly they're not in the water. 

    Angela [01:21:38] And you never see them again. 

    Jenna [01:21:39] In the water, out of the water. 

    Angela [01:21:41] No one's drying off. There's no towels. 

    Jenna [01:21:43] We dance until the sun sets and now it's time for the king and queen to take their positions. 

    Angela [01:21:49] They're in some kind of native dress. Doesn't feel appropriate. They have crowns, they're in a bamboo raft with paddles and they're put in the above ground pool. 

    Jenna [01:22:02] By six high school guys, who are dressed in loin cloths. Did you see the guy on the right? 

    Angela [01:22:13] Is it the same guy that ran track? 

    Jenna [01:22:15] I don't know. I hope not, because clearly they didn't heat this water. Because when this guy hits the water, he visibly flinches. You see the wind come out of him. He's like, "Oh, it's so cold." Johnny is smoking. 

    Angela [01:22:34] He's always smoking. 

    Jenna [01:22:36] He drops his cigarette. 

    Angela [01:22:37] He almost catches the raft on fire, the bamboo raft. 

    Jenna [01:22:40] He and Stephanie are bickering. She's in such a sour mood. And now, wouldn't you know it? 

    Angela [01:22:49] The Cycle Lords, show up. There's one thing I've been wanting to say. 

    Jenna [01:22:53] What is it? One thing. 

    Angela [01:22:54] There's is one thing. 

    Jenna [01:22:55] What is? 

    Angela [01:22:56] Just go with me on this. Let's say you're madly in love with a guy who plummets to his death off a cliff, on a motorcycle. And then you immediately go to your talent show. 

    Jenna [01:23:09] Yeah. 

    Angela [01:23:09] What? 

    Jenna [01:23:11] That's why she couldn't get through the number, Ange.  

    Angela [01:23:13] Why did she even go? 

    Jenna [01:23:14] I don't know. 

    Angela [01:23:16] Now she's on a pontoon boat in an above ground pool. 

    Jenna [01:23:20] That's why she's so grumpy! 

    Angela [01:23:21] Okay 

    Jenna [01:23:22] That's why she's so annoyed. 

    Angela [01:23:24] Okay. Anyway, Cycle Lords show up. 

    Jenna [01:23:28] Yes, and they're running over all the decorations. 

    Angela [01:23:31] It's crazy. There's a cake booth, and they're going to throw cakes at the Cycle Lords, but they end up throwing cakes at each other. People are throwing stuffed animals at them. 

    Jenna [01:23:40] Stephanie and Johnny, they're trying to row the raft out of the pool, but they can't seem to row. 

    Angela [01:23:45] It's not working. 

    Jenna [01:23:46] Don't worry. 

    Angela [01:23:47] Don't worry, because during the mayhem, the mysterious rider shows up. 

    Jenna [01:23:53] He shows up, he is on top of a thatched roof. 

    Angela [01:23:56] Very high. He jumps off of it, legs split, and lands on (what we guess is) his motorcycle. Cause the next shot is him just riding away. How his nuts survived that, I don't know. 

    Jenna [01:24:10] I don't know. Here's how he's gonna save the day. He jumps over the pool of water. 

    Angela [01:24:16] Jumps over Stephanie and Johnny. 

    Jenna [01:24:19] Yeah, he makes it all the way across. So that means that all the Cycle Lords 

    Angela [01:24:25] Have to do the same jump. 

    Jenna [01:24:26] But they can't do it and they all land in the water. 

    Angela [01:24:29] But they don't land on Stephanie and Johnny, because they're no longer in the pool. 

    Jenna [01:24:33] I guess they got out. 

    Angela [01:24:35] Oh my gosh, lady. There's so much chatter online about it. People are like, "Okay, during the luau, people appear to disappear and appear on the boat and appear and disappear into the pool, some people fall in, then they're not there." It's a whole thing. Also, someone else pointed out that when the bike flips into the pull, the cord they use to make the bike flip is completely visible. So there's that. 

    Jenna [01:24:57] I see. Well, I guess he did it. He saved the day. It's really nuts. The Cycle Lords could have ridden around the pool, but maybe not. I guess that's the challenge. That's how it works when you are cycle fighting. It's like, "Can you do the stunt or not?"  

    Angela [01:25:14] Yeah. Stephanie's so excited. She's like, "Oh my god, you're alive." She takes off her crazy outfit they had her wear, and under it is not her sweatshirt. 

    Jenna [01:25:24] Yeah, now she has a cute outfit on. 

    Angela [01:25:26] A silver lame, amazing, shimmery dress/unitard? Michael now has a leather vest. Collar up. No shirt, obvi. And at first, you guys, Johnny sees all of this and he is so pissed off and he runs up to him. 

    Jenna [01:25:44] And then he's like, "You got one more jump." And she's like, "Johnny, hasn't there been enough?" And then the T-Birds are like, "Yeah, hasn't there been enough, Johnny?" And then he's like, "Jacket!" And Paulette's like, "Jacket," and then, he gets the jacket and then gives it to Michael and he's made Michael a T-Bird. And now, he and Stephanie can be together. 

    Angela [01:26:09] They can and there's going to be a lot of couple-dom. The final song is called "We'll Be Together." Everyone is dancing and this song wins the Closest Singing in Each Other's Faces award. 

    Jenna [01:26:24] Yeah there's a lot of spinning, singing into each other's faces. 

    Angela [01:26:26] I'm talking maybe - 

    Jenna [01:26:29] Lip to lip. 

    Angela [01:26:30] Put two fingers up to your lips, and then imagine someone else's face on the other side of your finger. 

    Jenna [01:26:35] Singing at you. 

    Angela [01:26:35] Singing, full voice. 

    Jenna [01:26:37] I have an audio clip, it has a little bit of dialog between Stephanie and Michael, and then it leads into the top of this song. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Michael [01:26:46] I never thought you'd kiss me like that if you knew who I really was. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Stephanie [01:26:49] Are you crazy? I'm got 2 for the price of one. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Michael [01:26:57] Are you certain? 

    clip from Grease 2 - Stephanie [01:26:57] I've never been certainer. 

    clip from Grease 2 - Michael [01:27:00] Certain? 

    clip from Grease 2 - Stephanie [01:27:01] The certainnest.  

    Jenna [01:27:14] I would have suggested that they cut that dialog before the singing. Cause again, Michael, what are you seeing in her? This is the woman for you? 

    Angela [01:27:28] Lady, I love this movie so much now, and I am the certainest-est of it. 

    Jenna [01:27:37] I hear you. You know what? He accepts her where she is. 

    Angela [01:27:42] That's right. 

    Jenna [01:27:43] That is the love. 

    Angela [01:27:44] He's like, "I love ya, you dumb dumb. Can I please kiss you again?" Maybe he's like, "Don't speak, don't speak." 

    Jenna [01:27:54] "Shh, shh, shhh, sh, sh. Could we go back to the kissing? I love you so much when we're kissing." 

    Angela [01:28:01] And she's like, "You don't need to talk to me, just let me ride on your motorcycle." Maybe this is a relationship in silence. 

    Jenna [01:28:07] Well, this whole thing is gonna morph into graduation. Now we're back outside Rydell High. Everyone's in caps and gowns in front of the school. They're throwing their caps in the air. Everyone's singing toward the camera, except for Stephanie and Michael, who are still singing right into each other's faces. Then we're gonna have this final montage that I've always loved. It starts with the whole group of people running toward the cameras. They jump in the hair and it's a freeze frame. That sort of becomes a yearbook picture. Then you see everybody coupled up, in their couple pairs, and they run toward the camera in slow motion and they do some sort of fun jump and it freezes. 

    Angela [01:28:52] And that's part of the yearbook. 

    Jenna [01:28:53] Yes. There were two alternate endings for this movie. Would you like to hear them? 

    Angela [01:29:00] I can't wait. 

    Jenna [01:29:01] Okay. So one alternate ending had Michael and Stephanie flying off into the sky on a motorcycle, which would have mirrored Danny and Sandy flying off in the car at the end of Grease. They didn't do that. But also, Patricia Birch proposed an idea to feature John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John reprising their characters as a now married couple running a gas station at the ends of the movie. It would have even involved John Travolta singing a new number called "Gas Pump Jockey." But this did not come to fruition. So I guess there was the option to end the movie with a little cameo. 

    Angela [01:29:41] I guess they would have ridden their motorcycle together to Danny and Sandy's gas station. And there would have been this little reunion. 

    Jenna [01:29:49] I guess, with a whole song. How does Gas Pump Jockey go? I don't know. Speaking of songs, so you watched this movie for the first time? 

    Angela [01:30:02] Last week. 

    Jenna [01:30:04] Yes. Aren't the songs so catchy? You know these songs are good because you hear them once and you can sing, I Wanna Score Tonight. You can sing Let's Do It For Our Country. You know these songs after one time watching the movie. 

    Angela [01:30:17] Driving in here today, I was singing I'm Gonna Score Tonight. 

    Jenna [01:30:21] Exactly. It's great. That's a great musical. 

    Angela [01:30:25] That is a really fun musical. And really, Grease 2 has everything. It's got Russia, it's got fallout shelters, it's got lots of cigarettes, 

    Jenna [01:30:40] Lots of gum. 

    Angela [01:30:41] Gum and stiff collared shirts. You guys, I highly recommend it. I also wanna say thank you today. In the booth, we have Jordan filling in for Sam. Thank you, Jordan. 

    Jordan [01:30:55] You're welcome. I was so excited to be helping with this episode because I grew up avidly watching Grease 2. 

    Angela [01:31:02] How many times have you seen it? 

    Jordan [01:31:03] Many times. I had a vinyl of it growing up. My parents, they graduated in '72. My dad rode a motorcycle and worked on them his entire life. I have pictures of him doing wheelies and next to motorcycles. 

    Jenna [01:31:17] Your dad was a cool rider, Jordan. 

    Angela [01:31:20] He was a Thunderbird. 

    Jordan [01:31:23] [laughing] He was a Thunderbird, yeah. 

    Angela [01:31:25] And Matt is here all the way from San Francisco. Matt, thanks for being here today. 

    Matt [01:31:29] This was great. This was very fun to watch. My sister and I are Grease purists, so we never really delved into this. So this was interesting to watch, I had a good time. 

    Jenna [01:31:39] Well, I want to say a thank you to Nathan for suggesting this movie. Hit us up, guys. Let us know, what do you want us to watch? Because we like watching stuff together. 

    Angela [01:31:50] We really do. I couldn't have predicted half of the plot lines for Grease 2. It was a real adventure and I hope you guys all score tonight. Whatever that means to you. 

    Jenna [01:32:04] We love you and we'll see you next week. Oh, that's a delight! I love doing it. 

    Angela [01:32:13] Me too. 

 
    Jenna [00:00:17] Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. 

    Angela [00:00:19] Office Ladies is a presentation of Audacy and is produced by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. 

    Jenna [00:00:24] Our senior producer is Matt Beagle. Our audio engineer is Sam Kieffer, and our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbico. 

    Angela [00:00:32] Audacy's executive producer is Leah Reis-Dennis. 

    Jenna [00:00:35] Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz. 

    Angela [00:00:37] Our theme song is "Rubber Tree" by Creed Bratton.