Transcript: Special Episode - STEEL MAGNOLIAS!

We had so much to say in our special episode all about Steel Magnolias, the transcript needed its own post! So here it is:

Nikki: Welcome Salina.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: This is very exciting. And welcome everyone else.

Salina: Welcome.

Nikki: You have to say, hey, y'all.

Salina: Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so excited. Hey, y'all.

Nikki: We have a very special episode this week.

Salina: The most special, the most probably the most this is a mic drop, walk away moment.

Nikki: Are you telling me you're in the podcast after?

Salina: I'm not, but like, I would feel satisfied. Like I'd had a meal.

Nikki: This one in some ways you said it in the last episode - like this is like the ultimate. This is what we started out to do. This does feel like the one where if we were brainstorming the podcast three years ago or whatever, this would have been what we would have wanted to cover. Should we tell them what we want to cover today?

Salina: That would probably be helpful. Yeah.

Nikki: We're finally going to deep dive into Steel Magnolias. It felt like it deserved its own episode, a whole solid episode.

Nikki: So as a reminder, last week we covered the designing women two parter the first day of the last decade of the entire 20th century.

Nikki: We called that one babies Cars and Dolly Parton.

Nikki: But we had two really big references that fall right in the wheelhouse of a podcast about the south and southern representation on TV.

Nikki: Dolly Parton, our queen, an angel on earth and Steel Magnolias.

Nikki: We got both of those references in one episode.

Nikki: So it felt like let's do totally separate episodes on those.

Nikki: So we're going to focus on Steel Magnolias with this episode and then this week's extra sugar is going to be Dolly Parton.

Nikki: I'm calling it a deep dive on Dolly.

Salina: Love it.

Nikki: That's where we are.

Nikki: That's this week.

Salina: Wonderful.

Salina: Well, before we get into the actual move and all the things there are to cover there, I thought we could just loosen up a little, do a little warm up, if you will.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: Are you ready for this?

Salina: All right.

Nikki: Is this going to take any energy from me?

Nikki: Because I got to hold on to my energy.

Salina: I don't think so.

Salina: I think it's just a question.

Nikki: Oh, I like questions.

Salina: But before you answer, I think I can take a guess.

Salina: But my question is who is your favorite still Magnolia's character?

Nikki: Oh, gosh.

Salina: Here's my guess while you're thinking.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: Oh, do you know?

Salina: Okay.

Salina: So I think you love them all.

Salina: I think that's what you would say.

Salina: But if you had to pick, if you had to make a selection, you're going to say Truvi.

Salina: I'm wrong.

Salina: Oh, my God, I'm wrong.

Nikki: Let me tell you this.

Nikki: I think my answer would change on different viewings.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: I think you might catch me say one character, Truvi, is definitely a top.

Salina: Sure.

Nikki: The other character that I really love a lot is Sally Field's character.

Nikki: And I think Melin reminds me of Sally Field in general, reminds me of my mom.

Nikki: There's something about they both have brown demeanors.

Nikki: There's something about the way they're sort of a little bit low key, but also I don't know.

Nikki: And so this time, watching it in particular, I was struck by how much she reminds me of my mother.

Nikki: And I think there's a little bit of a tug to that that makes me feel like, oh, that's mom.

Nikki: And I've thought that throughout the years watching this movie.

Nikki: So I think you asked me that today.

Nikki: That's my answer today.

Nikki: I also really love Truvi.

Nikki: Annel probably never really makes my list, just to be honest.

Nikki: But I think every other character on.

Salina: Different days, probably almost, maybe not Annele.

Salina: And it's not that I don't love that character.

Salina: I do.

Salina: There's just a couple of things over the course of the movie where it's a little cringey for me.

Salina: Do you want to take a shot at Mine Weezer?

Salina: It's a tie between Clary and Weezer.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: But yeah, she's amazing.

Nikki: They're both amazing.

Salina: Well, a twist on that question, maybe.

Salina: I think it just depends on who you are.

Salina: Who do you identify the most with Weezer?

Salina: Is it really?

Nikki: I don't think so.

Nikki: I don't think so.

Salina: She seems a little salty for you.

Nikki: That's such a good question.

Nikki: And this is the perfect time for me to think about who it would be.

Nikki: I think probably there have been times because of where we are in life that it's been Shelby, because just sort of taking those big steps in her life that she's taking over the course of the movie, from getting married to having a baby.

Nikki: Obviously, I don't identify with the health issues at all, so I don't understand that part of life at all.

Nikki: But I think some of the things she says about wanting a family and some of the things I kind of could identify with her, probably.

Nikki: Okay, but then also weezerouch.

Salina: Well, I think anytime you have these ensemble casts anyway, it's kind of like all these pieces are a part of a person.

Salina: Right.

Salina: And I think that's what makes something so strong is because then you can really maybe identify at least a hair with everyone.

Salina: Right.

Salina: Do you want to take a guess with who I can most identify with?

Nikki: Spud.

Salina: Some weeks, yes.

Salina: Casey does call me EOR from time to time.

Nikki: I almost see you as a Truvie.

Salina: Almost.

Salina: Really?

Salina: What a high compliment.

Salina: So mine's weezer.

Salina: When Weezer rounds the corner early on in the movie and says, this is it.

Salina: I found it.

Salina: I'm in h***.

Nikki: It's not like her bag falling off her shoulder.

Nikki: That's you on a Monday.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: So all I could think was, good God, it's me.

Salina: And I just really feel like that's kind of who, even if that's not who I'm portraying to people on the outside.

Salina: Because I don't know.

Salina: I don't try and show that side of myself immediately to someone, because that's a lot.

Salina: But that's who my insides have always been.

Salina: I mean, possibly even when I was like five years old, I could always just kind of identify with Lisa.

Salina: I was like, I get this lady.

Salina: I get this.

Nikki: She makes sense to me.

Salina: Yeah, she's making some solid arguments.

Salina: She also has more money than God.

Nikki: Okay.

Nikki: Just been in a really bad mood for 40 years.

Salina: I mean, haven't we all?

Salina: Closing in on it.

Salina: So what I wanted to do past that was start off with some basics because I think we do need to do a little scene setting.

Salina: I mean, maybe not everyone listening to this, for one, has seen it turn this off and go watch it for sure.

Salina: But number two, right, if you haven't watched it in a while, this might be a little bit of a refresh for you so we can start off from a similar place.

Salina: First of all, we're not going to be holding back on spoilers.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: This is a deep dive.

Salina: This is a celebration of a 33 year old movie.

Salina: So in fact, I'm going to be spoiling it in about 25 seconds or so.

Salina: So you've been warned.

Salina: Still Magnolias is about this is our synopsis.

Salina: We're going to start off like any Designing Women episode except make it Still Magnolias.

Salina: It's about a group of Southern women whose friendship helps them cope through the trials and tribulations of life and death in a small Louisiana parish.

Salina: And don't fret, Nikki, I did look across about three different synopsis that I.

Nikki: Didn'T care for to make this one.

Salina: I was like, it had to be perfect.

Salina: Wrong.

Salina: Wrong.

Salina: Although I will say because I think depending on who you talk to, they might think it's Shelby's movie or they think it's Melin's movie or they think it's a Nell's movie.

Salina: So I think there's probably an argument.

Nikki: For all someone thinks it's a Nell's movie.

Salina: Oh, we're going to get there.

Salina: Oh, gosh, actually, yeah, IMDb does.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: So the movie premiered on November 15, as you told us in episode 13.

Salina: Now that I've said a number.

Salina: November 15, 1989.

Salina: Starring Sally Field, Shirley McClain Olympia Dukakis These were all Academy Award winners at the time as well as Dolly Parton, Darryl Hannah and then breakout star Julia Roberts, who would go on to win an Academy Award herself in 2001.

Salina: Supporting cast included tom Scarrett, Dylan McDermott not to be confused with Dermot Mulroney, Sam Shepard and Kevin J.

Salina: O'Connor.

Salina: That was off the cuff.

Nikki: Thank you.

Salina: Pop culture did real good.

Salina: It was directed by Herbert Ross, who will just talk about a little bit more in the trivia section.

Salina: It's important, I think, to understanding the background of the movie, but the screenplay was written by Robert Harling, who we have talked about a little bit, but I feel like this is pretty well known.

Salina: But for those who don't know, Still Magnolias is a film adaptation of Harling's 1987 play of the same name.

Salina: It is based in part on his sister, Susan Harling Robinson, who died in 1985 of complications from type one diabetes.

Salina: In my research, I realized that he has actually written three of my all time favorite movies and the most rewatched movies of my entire life.

Nikki: That's good to know.

Nikki: Tell me more.

Salina: It blew my mind when I saw it just because, I mean, I think, you know, what a movie person I am.

Salina: It's like such an integral part of my life.

Salina: And so it was these two movies, as well as Still Magnolia's, I was just like, what is happening?

Salina: Soap dish and the First Wives Club.

Salina: These are two additional movies that I have just seen a trillion times.

Nikki: I don't know.

Nikki: Soap Dish.

Salina: Nikki, get out your movie list, okay?

Salina: Because it's going on there.

Salina: So while Nikki puts us on her movie list because it is her turn this next time.

Salina: Despite an initial limited release, still Magnolia debuted at number four at the box office, and it stayed in the top ten for 16 weeks, grossing more than 83.7 million domestically, or a little over 200 million today.

Salina: That is a really darn impressive dramedy.

Salina: That doesn't happen every day.

Salina: I don't even know if that would happen today, honestly.

Salina: The landscape is just so incredibly different.

Salina: If it's not a franchise, it just doesn't see those kinds of numbers anymore unless it's some sort of really weird phenomenon.

Salina: So this was a unique moment.

Salina: So critical reception was somewhat mixed.

Salina: It had a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics.

Salina: That is 68% of 34 critics.

Salina: Reviews are positive.

Salina: I always have to go back and look at that because that is just a little bit of a brain breaker for me.

Salina: And then 89% audience score.

Nikki: So it means 30 some odd percent of critics were wrong.

Salina: That's right.

Nikki: Not what I'm hearing.

Salina: That's what I think you're hearing.

Nikki: A third of critics just have bad taste.

Salina: And I didn't look at all.

Salina: Okay?

Salina: I really just looked at Roger Ebert's.

Salina: I can't help but hearken back to when we first started covering Designing Women.

Salina: I think it was at the end of season one.

Salina: We talked a little bit about the critical reception and how when you looked across all of it was all men being like, what's all these women?

Salina: Why is it all these women talking about their periods?

Salina: I mean, it wasn't exactly that, but kind of.

Salina: So I can't help but wonder if some of that is in the sauce.

Salina: Julia roberts won a golden globe for best supporting actress.

Salina: She and Sally Phil were also nominated for an Academy Award that season for Best Supporting and Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress respectively.

Salina: It was Robert's third movie and it was her first nomination.

Salina: So the movie won.

Salina: Favorite drama?

Salina: Motion picture at the People's Choice Awards.

Salina: This is going off pure memory, so I apologize if I get this wrong, but funnily enough, with things that we've discussed already this season.

Salina: I think it tied with Batman that year.

Nikki: What a good year.

Salina: Batman, man.

Salina: We just didn't know what was coming.

Nikki: It's true.

Salina: Anybody want a Marvel movie?

Salina: So I'm going to stop here briefly before we dive in.

Salina: Because again, that was just scene setting.

Salina: Nikki, don't feel like you have to, but if you had any initial reactions or anything that's just out there for you already, I want to give you an opportunity to jump in.

Nikki: Well, I'm afraid to say too much because I don't know what else you have.

Nikki: But I think the writer basing the story on his sister is once you know that, I feel like it adds a layer to your view of the movie because you said it's based in part on his story with his sister.

Nikki: It sounds like Shelby's story tracks pretty closely with his sister's story, like wanting to have a baby even though doctors told her she shouldn't.

Nikki: I read some things or I've read things over the years where he says that.

Salina: His mother.

Nikki: So this dynamic between Melin and Shelby is always a little bit tense.

Nikki: And it sounds like his mother's interaction with his sister about this particular topic were intense as well.

Nikki: And he was a little bit afraid that when his mom saw it, she was just going to feel some sort of negative way because it hurts to see that played out in front of you.

Nikki: But he thinks actually it was really cathartic for her.

Nikki: And again, I think in some watches because I've seen this movie so many times, my opinion of things changes dynamically with it along with my life context.

Nikki: And there are times I watch Melin where I'm like, she's such a pain in the b***.

Nikki: Like Shelby just wants to live her life.

Nikki: And then now mom had on I watch it and I'm like, she's just trying to protect her baby.

Nikki: And it's just like all these varying layers.

Nikki: So that's the thing of all the stuff you just talked about, the writer's perspective and where it was coming from blows my mind every time.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I'm just going to also give a full disclosure here that I talked to my mom about this movie yesterday and full on sobbed talking to her.

Salina: And I was like, god, I hope this gets some of it out.

Salina: Because I don't mind crying here as much as I mind the fact that you can't understand what I'm saying any longer.

Salina: But I was recounting some of the things my mom didn't know.

Salina: It was based on the play, which blows my mind.

Salina: But I was walking her through once I learned that some of the factoids that we'll go through today and just I couldn't even get through it.

Salina: And I was just like, and when.

Nikki: You can't talk, it's kind of the worst kind of crying.

Salina: Well, and so I don't know how good that would be for an audio medium.

Nikki: The other thing I'll say about at some point, I probably owe it to myself to watch the play in some sort of way.

Nikki: But I have to tell you, the scenes, I don't care for plays.

Nikki: And the scene setting, honestly, of this movie is part of what makes it what it is to me.

Nikki: Because even though we don't live in Louisiana, the things they show feel Southern to me.

Nikki: They feel like life experience.

Nikki: And so the scene setting is so important.

Nikki: And so I play set in a beauty parlor the entire time.

Nikki: Hard for me to imagine.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: So that would be hard for me to give up from the movie.

Salina: I understand that.

Salina: I do.

Nikki: So apparently it was a good play.

Salina: People loved it.

Salina: I think that is definitely accurate.

Salina: And we'll talk about that as well.

Salina: So, just in terms of general thoughts, I think I'm already getting a little bit of a glimpse of maybe some of the things that you're talking about.

Salina: And it's funny, as you were kind of giving your opening to things, it had me thinking a little bit about what I wasn't able to articulate as I was going through this.

Salina: But yet the way that you feel about this movie, because it's been a part of our lives for so long, it really does change over time.

Salina: And you may identify with a particular storyline or something, just depending on where you are in your life.

Salina: And I think that's really something.

Salina: But what other general thoughts did you have that you want to share?

Nikki: Well, you know something, when I was watching it this year, because this is I mean, I've probably watched it, I watch it every year around Easter.

Nikki: Let me say that first.

Nikki: This is my Easter movie.

Nikki: I have holiday movies, and it's not the holidays till I watch it.

Nikki: This is my Easter movie and it's not Easter until I've watched this movie.

Nikki: So it perfectly coincided I know it perfectly coincided with Easter this year, but every time I watch it, like you said, I notice new things.

Nikki: But one thing that strikes me, and we've been doing this podcast for a few years now, looking at an 80s TV show now ninety s, and we point out all these things that are really dated in the storyline.

Nikki: This movie holds up really well given that it's 33 years old.

Nikki: We have a section, I think, later in the show where we're going to talk about some 80s things and some dated things.

Nikki: So there are definitely things that stick out as old.

Nikki: But by and large, there are no off color sayings.

Nikki: There's nothing really offensive in the movie that doesn't hold up.

Nikki: There's not a ton that dates.

Nikki: It like there's not a ton of pop culture references.

Nikki: There's not a ton of things that are of that time that's really rare to come across a movie made in the late eighty s that I don't watch and say, like, this is an 80s movie.

Nikki: It's starting to look a little old, but it feels relevant to me.

Salina: And I think some of that might be that small town vibe, right?

Salina: Small towns are always a little slower.

Salina: And I don't mean that in a bad way at all.

Salina: It's not as quick pace as even being in the suburbs.

Salina: And I think when you are dealing with those basic tenets of life, life, death and weddings and having babies, those things march on, no matter what iPhone version you have in your hand now.

Salina: Okay, I don't know if this sounds weird, but I'll just say it.

Salina: Watching this movie makes me feel very proud to be a woman.

Salina: Their strength, their intuition, and their bond in this movie is so beautiful.

Salina: And it's beautiful in real life, too.

Salina: And you already mentioned that complicated relationship between Shelby and Melin.

Salina: And I would just say it captures that complicated and sacred relationship between mother and daughter, and it captures also that relationship between best friends.

Salina: In some cases.

Salina: It can be both for people, right?

Salina: And in both situations, whether it be your best friend, your mom, or both, you may aggravate the crap out of each other sometimes, but we love each other all the time.

Nikki: And it's cool that it's almost intergenerational in some ways.

Nikki: I think it was really genius to put Melin at a certain age.

Nikki: Then you have Weezer and Clary at a certain age.

Nikki: You have Shelby at a certain age, who kind of I think she and Annele are probably about the same age, with Shelby maybe airing a little younger, living two totally different life experiences, but all of these differences and they still sort of come together in that universal experience of being a woman and walking through life together.

Nikki: And yeah, I agree with you.

Nikki: I think that's it's genius.

Nikki: It's just genius.

Salina: It's genius.

Nikki: Can I tell you, there are some sign, some scenes that make me cry, like, no matter how many times I've seen them, no matter what, I know is coming.

Nikki: So when I was watching this for this episode, I had to split it up over two days.

Nikki: And I watched it in the morning before my daughter came down, and I was watching it one morning when she came down the stairs, and it was the part where Shelby collapses on the floor and Jackson comes home to the baby crying.

Nikki: And I was in full on, and she didn't have any of the context, so she was like, what is happening in this movie?

Salina: And I was like, she's on the ground because she's going to die.

Nikki: She's looking at me like I'm a crazy person.

Nikki: That scene will make me cry every freaking time.

Salina: Every time.

Salina: When Melin runs out of cry and.

Nikki: When Melin runs out of the hospital to go get Jack Jr.

Nikki: Something about that entire scene when she runs out of the hospital.

Nikki: She gets in the car.

Nikki: They have their panning, the scenic view.

Nikki: He toddles across the little pathway to her.

Nikki: You see the aunt, she's all rumpled, and you can tell they just woke up in the morning.

Salina: Well, I think it's because you can sort of capture in that moment, too, this idea that she's like, that's her piece of Shelby left in the world.

Nikki: Which is what Shelby told her.

Nikki: Shelby told her that's why she wanted a baby, because that was her piece of immortality.

Nikki: And so Sally Field's character gets to experience that.

Nikki: Finally, she gets to see what Shelby said all along.

Salina: Let me ask you something.

Salina: Do we start a Still Magnolia's podcast and not bring in Kleenex?

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: So that's happening.

Nikki: Yeah, that part.

Nikki: And then, of course, Melin's breakdown at the funeral.

Nikki: It is broken so beautifully with humor.

Nikki: But I've been to enough funerals that I know what that feeling feels like.

Nikki: And I cannot fathom that being your baby.

Nikki: It's just too much.

Salina: It is too much.

Nikki: Too much.

Salina: It is Steel Magnolias.

Salina: Am I right?

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: The other thing I wanted to say, too, is, like, watching this movie puts me in my fills about the women I love the most in my life.

Nikki: Don't go too far down that path.

Salina: I know the ones I just feel like I can't live without and the ones who have held me up or got me through.

Salina: It's really hard not to think about your own mom.

Salina: Love you, mom.

Salina: It's just impossible not to and think about just that.

Salina: There's no even when just pushed you off, there's no other relationship like it.

Salina: You know why?

Salina: Because you were a part of them.

Nikki: Because she was there when you came in.

Salina: Crazy.

Salina: So, on reflection, I was also thinking in this time around, especially with the kind of deep dives that we've done into Designing Women, how amazing it is that Hollywood bankrolled an all female movie in 1989.

Salina: I wonder if the studios were taking note of The Golden Girls, the Designing Women's, the Murphy Browns, and realizing that, well, maybe these women have some.

Nikki: Maybe there are women in the world.

Salina: I also thought a lot about how this is one of my favorite movies and possibly one of the best movies ever, and I think I've built a case for it.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: But I want to see what you thought.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: In case you want to argue that this is a horrible movie.

Nikki: I refuse to argue that.

Nikki: The other thing, though, that I didn't mention in general thoughts, but may be relevant here, is that I think I watched this movie probably for the first time in the realm of fried green tomatoes and beaches.

Nikki: Like, I kind of lump all these together.

Nikki: And so I'm curious as you go into this, I'm kind of keeping space in my mind for other movies like that.

Salina: Yes.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: Go ahead.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: It's so funny because what you're saying is in my memories section, too, and it's definitely about Fried Green Tomatoes.

Salina: The first thing that I thought about a lot on rewatch and watching it through this kind of critical lens, which I haven't done before, is just how unbelievable the writing is.

Salina: It is the most quotable thing I have ever seen.

Salina: I started to write down all of my favorite lines and then I had to stop because I realized it would just be me reenacting the movie.

Nikki: I limited mine to Truvies quotes because she has a handful that I just they're tops for me, but I also for myself, it's tough.

Salina: I wrote some down for the Southern section and then I had a couple that were just so like if it really struck me and this time through and it wasn't what I was thinking of.

Salina: It was hard.

Salina: It was hard.

Salina: That's what I'm saying.

Salina: I don't know if another movie takes the viewer as successfully through all of the emotions but somehow still feels balanced on the other end.

Salina: It is genuinely one of the saddest, funniest and most thoughtful movies I've ever seen.

Salina: I think a lot of people get swept up in the big stuff that happens.

Salina: But I want to make an argument that Still Magnolias is also a million small moments.

Salina: Like the spud Truby stuff well, like that too.

Salina: Which are, like, kind of like these diverting plotlines.

Salina: But I'm thinking, like, similar to how a great comic hones in on these things that we think or do but we don't tell anybody about but everybody kind of knows.

Salina: And then you're like, I do tie my shoes that way.

Salina: How did you know?

Salina: But when they're heading into the chapel for the wedding and the interaction between Melin and her son is so funny to me.

Nikki: Steps on her foot.

Salina: He steps on her foot.

Salina: And it's like some mixture of like, I love you, but also you're really getting on my nerves, like, these last three years.

Salina: And then they sit down and he farts.

Nikki: Oh, I'm not sure I've ever noticed that.

Salina: You hear, like, a little noise and he goes, Sorry, I thought that was.

Nikki: Him apologizing for stepping on her foot.

Salina: That's when they're walking oh, my.

Salina: Then they're sitting down.

Nikki: I've never noticed that.

Salina: Yeah, he like, a little toot squeezes out teenage boys.

Salina: Exactly.

Salina: And it's just like this perfect capture of all of that is so and you get a lot of that in the movie before it goes to all these emotional tones.

Salina: So that's my case.

Salina: It's just like it captures the big, it captures the small.

Salina: The writing is so good.

Salina: It's so quotable, it's so emotional, but, like, balanced.

Nikki: That's my argument for making it one of the best movies.

Salina: Yes, but I do and I didn't even go into all the good, like, such a good cast and all of that.

Salina: But those are all of my reasons why I think it's tops for me.

Salina: How do you feel about the end of this movie after the funeral scene?

Salina: So everything in the closing Easter scene.

Nikki: I'm worried that this is a leading question that's going to walk me into the wrong answer, but I'll say it's fine for me.

Nikki: Now, what I will tell you is I think it's a little bit odd that Annel wanted to name her baby Shelby, whether it was a boy or a girl.

Nikki: And the fact that she said it at the post funeral, like, gathering at the house, this isn't, like, great timing to me.

Nikki: So this idea of Annele after that is just sort of awkward to me.

Nikki: That she's going into labor when poor Melin is still trying to grieve.

Nikki: But the feel and this is what I'm talking about what I love about the movie is the feel of everything feels like Easter in my childhood.

Nikki: It just feels like Easter egg hunts and our cute little Easter outfits and our baskets.

Salina: And I like little jackets outfits very much the same as last weekend taught me.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: And there is literally a pitcher that Melin is pouring out of that we've talked about before.

Nikki: It's the blue pitcher with the white lid.

Nikki: She's pouring sweet tea out.

Nikki: My mom has that picture.

Nikki: To this day, my mom has that picture.

Nikki: That's our sweet tea picture.

Nikki: So everything about that final bit of the movie feels like my life memory.

Nikki: And then I feel like it brings the whole story full circle.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: I really like it.

Salina: So I've got zero problem with it.

Salina: I will say that the funeral scene is such an iconic, I don't know, eight minutes of cinema that most of the time I don't even think about the imp part.

Salina: Really.

Nikki: I'm glad they didn't end with the funeral.

Nikki: Let me just say that.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: So what I read at some point that I just never really thought about before is like, that was added on for the movie.

Salina: The funeral was no, the funeral was definitely part of the Easter part.

Salina: The Easter part.

Salina: So that whole part is pretty much tacked on.

Salina: And I think some people read it as feeling tacked on.

Salina: And I do think I can see that.

Salina: And I think some people saw it as a little trite, like, similar to what you were saying in episode 13.

Salina: Like life coming into the world on one side and going out of the world so perfectly on the other side.

Salina: Like, yes, that's happening all the time.

Salina: But I think that was some people's reading of that scene.

Salina: And so I just was wondering if that had ever been something that you had thought about.

Salina: It was not something I thought about.

Nikki: It's funny because I don't think you can end the movie without closing Annele.

Nikki: So this goes to that argument of whose movie is it?

Nikki: I don't think of it as Annel's movie, but I.

Nikki: Think we've talked about her pregnancy enough.

Nikki: And she said she was going to name her baby Shelby, that it just would feel awkward to end the movie without her delivering a baby.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: So I appreciate and I want to know how Melin is carrying on sometime after losing her daughter.

Nikki: I want to see that play out.

Nikki: And I want to know that her friends are still there, that there's still a community and there's still a network even after the hard part of life ended.

Nikki: Do you know what I mean?

Nikki: Or one of the hard parts of life ended.

Salina: Yeah, I mean, I think it's okay to end on a hopeful note.

Nikki: It also bookends.

Nikki: So you start with these very scenic views and you see Annele walking through the streets, and then you book end with these very scenic views with Annele headed toward the hospital for another major life event.

Nikki: It's a nice bookend to me.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Am I arguing those people who think it's tacked on?

Nikki: Because that's what I'm doing right now.

Salina: Because I thought, like, at first I think they had me swayed at first.

Salina: And the more I thought about it, the more I was like, no, because if it ended at a funeral scene, even if you get like that cathartic moment with Weezer where you get to laugh and you feel like you're coming down a little bit, I don't think that's enough decompression from the so does the play 30 minutes that you've cried.

Salina: I actually don't know how the play ends.

Salina: I just know the Easter thing is specifically because of the movie.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Between all of those hospital scenes, like Melin doing the exercises with Shelby, melin sitting there and reading to her from.

Salina: Cosmo, it's 30 minutes of straight crying.

Nikki: Watching the men cry, watching them sign the paperwork to end her life, to Melin running to the baby and then to the funeral.

Nikki: It is truly like a huge build up, an emotional build up.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Those people are so stupid.

Nikki: It's not.

Salina: Hold back now.

Salina: How dare you talk about my mother that way?

Salina: So stray observations.

Nikki: Stray observations.

Salina: I'm going to get back to whether my first stray observation we've kind of already circled around, but is there an argument that this is Annele's movie?

Salina: So I hadn't thought about it that way until I saw that really interesting IMDb synopsis that's like just the way it's written.

Salina: It's like, centered on Annele.

Salina: Like, Annele comes into town and what.

Salina: Anyways, so I'm going to say some points that I think could be an argument for it is one, she goes through potentially the most amount of transition in the movie.

Salina: She moves to town.

Salina: She's been through a really weird relationship.

Salina: We don't know exactly what's happened there.

Salina: She goes through a reawakening spiritually.

Salina: She finds Jesus again, maybe for the first time.

Salina: I'm not really sure.

Salina: And then she starts a new relationship and she's having a baby by the end.

Salina: She's also the bookend for the entire movie.

Salina: She is our entree into this world and into this group.

Salina: And she is having the major event at the end.

Salina: I'm not saying it's her movie.

Salina: I'm just saying there is a part of me that's like, okay, IMDb, you.

Nikki: Wrote it that way.

Nikki: That is so funny.

Nikki: That never would have this is a Shelby movie.

Nikki: This is about Shelby and Melin.

Nikki: Everybody else is just supporting characters.

Nikki: Truly.

Nikki: I mean, Shelby experiences the biggest life transition, she dies.

Salina: That's true.

Nikki: Melin experiences the second biggest life transition, she loses a child.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Everybody else is supporting them.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: A transition may have not been the right word.

Nikki: I know what you mean.

Nikki: The most character development or the most character development thing.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: But I don't know because I don't think Shelby changed.

Nikki: No, I don't think so.

Salina: And I don't think Melin really changed.

Salina: We wouldn't know unless we I think Melin did okay.

Nikki: I think when Shelby passed away, she changed.

Nikki: So she has that moment at the funeral.

Nikki: She says she's right.

Nikki: It is a brown football helmet.

Nikki: And then she says, going to run to Jack Jr.

Nikki: That whole thing about him being like her connection to the world, I think she changed in realizing, holy crap, my child was teaching me something this whole time.

Nikki: She knew what she was talking about.

Nikki: She knew this is what life is all about.

Nikki: And that's what she was.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: I think there was an element of change.

Nikki: It's just so strange.

Nikki: And I came in hot on the Annele thing, but not as much as.

Salina: Annele, though, because Annel goes are like a wild child face.

Salina: We don't get to see it.

Nikki: But she's such a supporting character.

Salina: I know.

Salina: Until I see the news laid out.

Nikki: Drunk on the street, I haven't seen the Wild Child.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I don't know.

Nikki: That's so fascinating that in all my years of watching this movie, I never would have put this as an Annele movie.

Salina: Right.

Salina: Also, I think the crushing argument is that Robert Harling wrote it about his sister.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: You should have seen me when I read that synopsis the first time.

Salina: I was like, what the what?

Salina: Anyways, but then I was like, well, we have to talk about it now.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: So this is another stray for me.

Salina: This has always bothered me early on.

Salina: Clary says Annele is too young for a past because she's all of 18.

Salina: Sure.

Salina: Me, too.

Nikki: Can't be more than 19.

Salina: I looked it up.

Salina: She would have been 28 when the movie was filmed.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: It seemed to me that Shelby was a little bit younger than even Annele.

Nikki: Like, Shelby, in my mind, just graduated college.

Nikki: Annele's a woman who's lived some things.

Salina: So drum and weezer.

Salina: This is something else I've got to ask you about.

Salina: I already have my answer, but I'm.

Nikki: Still going to ask.

Salina: Were they like hot for each other.

Nikki: Drum and weezer.

Nikki: Oh, gosh.

Salina: You all should have seen the shock in her a**.

Salina: She was not expecting that.

Nikki: I was not prepared for that because I see him as a little brother to her big sister, and he's, like, poking her like a little brother pokes his big sister.

Nikki: Not poking that way.

Salina: No.

Salina: When you went to brother and sister, I left.

Salina: So I will just say I've always thought the answer was yes.

Salina: I've always thought they kind of had a thing for each other.

Nikki: What?

Salina: Yeah, it's like an immature flirting.

Salina: They're just old and flirting.

Salina: Like, all that reads like flirting to me.

Nikki: Drum feels like a very immature grown man and is a very, very easy target because she gets so angry.

Nikki: So he will do anything to irritate her because she gives him the reaction he wants.

Salina: Yes, he's an easy target.

Nikki: I am not owning any of this.

Nikki: Gross EW.

Nikki: Gross EW.

Salina: Well, except for the fact that he's married you're consenting adults.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Gross EW.

Salina: I didn't say I agreed with it.

Salina: I just said they've always read like there's some chemistry there.

Salina: Okay, so what's observations do you have, if any or anything else that you want to discuss before we move on to memories?

Salina: Let me put it that way.

Nikki: Nothing else to discuss before we move on to memories.

Salina: So I don't really have a ton of memories to share because most of it's just like me watching this movie and crying.

Salina: But I will say that I totally identify with what you were saying earlier, where you have these moments where absolutely you're going to cry.

Salina: For me, it is at that moment where Shelby falls and then on out.

Salina: But there's a little Pavlov's dogs going on for me, too, whereas almost sometimes the minute that music music starts, it's like, I know what's coming, and I'm already there.

Salina: So I don't remember the first time I saw it, but given I was talking to my mom yesterday and then realizing, oh, yeah, we're related, she was like, when did that come out?

Salina: I was like and I told her, and she was like, when did it come out on video?

Salina: I was like, Mom, I don't know.

Salina: But she, like, starts googling it and she found it.

Nikki: Oh, when?

Salina: So it was released June of 90, I think, is what she said.

Nikki: Good Lord, that's fast.

Salina: Is it?

Nikki: It came out in November of 89.

Salina: Oh, that would be really fast.

Salina: Now I don't now I don't trust it.

Salina: Anyways, it doesn't matter.

Salina: I would have seen it.

Nikki: Trust put verify working on it time.

Salina: Because, yeah, it used to take, like, a year for me to come out.

Salina: Maybe it was closer to the holidays or something.

Salina: Anyways, she thinks that I probably saw it for the first time when I was, like, 6.

Nikki: June 19, 1990.

Salina: Oh, look at that.

Salina: Sorry, mom.

Salina: I didn't mean to leave you.

Nikki: That is so fast.

Salina: That is really fast.

Salina: Anyways, but that was just what we did.

Salina: We rented movies.

Salina: We watched movies.

Salina: She was like, there's no way I didn't rent that.

Salina: She was like, I love that movie so much.

Salina: And she was like, you definitely would have seen it.

Salina: And the funny thing is, I remember watching it back to back with Fried Green Tomatoes once Fried Green Tomatoes came out.

Nikki: When I think about this movie, my earliest memories are somewhere in that Beaches Fried Green Tomatoes category.

Nikki: Like when I was old enough to process each one of these movies and the emotional value.

Nikki: So probably like middle school is probably the first time.

Nikki: But like I said, I've watched it.

Nikki: I'm like you.

Nikki: I've watched it so many times, it's hard to tie a specific memory to it because I just watch it.

Nikki: It's just a movie I watch.

Salina: Well, I do have one other memory of it, which is before I watched it, in preparation for this episode.

Salina: The last time I watched it was.

Nikki: With you and your home for the 30th anniversary, probably.

Nikki: We went to the movie theater they were showing it.

Salina: Had to.

Salina: How do you see it?

Nikki: I also when I cry in movies, I don't want other people to know I'm crying.

Nikki: Like, when I was a kid, they used to make fun of me because I would cry at everything.

Nikki: I just am a crier.

Nikki: So I used to be really embarrassed.

Nikki: So I remember going to see it even then.

Nikki: I was like, Suck it back in.

Nikki: Suck it back in.

Nikki: Don't cry.

Nikki: Please don't cry.

Nikki: Please don't cry.

Nikki: Even in front of my mom.

Nikki: Like, I just don't want to be that weepy.

Nikki: And she weirdly, doesn't cry.

Nikki: Weirdly, doesn't cry.

Nikki: And I'm like, how are you not crying right now?

Salina: My mom cries for all of us.

Salina: My mom jugga definitely see how she acted.

Salina: I mean, just like it just flips right off.

Nikki: It's a shame that I didn't become an actor because I can pretty much cry on demand.

Salina: That's all you have to be able to do.

Nikki: I have, like, a handful of memories I can draw on every time that will make me cry.

Nikki: Whether it's this movie, other movies I've seen, I've got them, I just tap in and immediately go, but this movie just every freaking time makes me cry.

Nikki: And it's hard to remember a life not watching this movie.

Nikki: I don't remember not having seen Steel Magnolia.

Nikki: I've seen it more than I've not seen it, if that makes sense.

Salina: Well, it's been for most of our conscious life, right?

Nikki: Exactly.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: I mean, most of our memories aren't before age four.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: So I think that makes sense.

Salina: I thought we could talk a little bit about favorite parts.

Nikki: Too many to name.

Salina: Who is what?

Nikki: I'm with too many to name.

Salina: Oh, okay.

Salina: All right.

Salina: Well, moving on.

Nikki: I'm just kidding.

Nikki: I love the wedding scene.

Nikki: I love all of it.

Nikki: Like the reception, the dance circle.

Nikki: Normally, like a dance circle is going to turn me off, but those people doing almost like the line dancing of sorts.

Nikki: I love it.

Nikki: I love the whole thing.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: I think it's delightful.

Nikki: I've said already, I love the scene setting parts.

Nikki: Annele walking through the small town in the beginning, the Christmas festival.

Nikki: I just really like the celebration of small town.

Nikki: How it feels confined, but also, like, warm and welcoming.

Nikki: Like a warm blanket.

Salina: I think this was the most I'd ever paid attention to the first part before they actually get to Truvies.

Salina: And when she is walking through the town and how beautiful those houses are.

Nikki: Gorgeous.

Salina: Goodness.

Nikki: And there's stuff like there's the little baseball team crossing the street and just it's all very small town.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: And then the last thing I'll say that I really, really like about it is like we talked about a minute ago, quotes.

Nikki: Do we have a whole section for quotes?

Salina: No.

Nikki: Okay, good, because I put them right here.

Nikki: One of my favorites is when Dolly says, any good shoe?

Nikki: I wear a size six, but a seven feels so good, I buy a size eight.

Nikki: They're eight and a half.

Nikki: Perfect.

Nikki: I love that.

Salina: It's great.

Nikki: Of course, she'll be saying three minutes of wonderful.

Nikki: Like she'd rather have three minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special.

Nikki: What a wonderful who writes that?

Nikki: I may love the part where Annele decorates the porch and then she says, Hide that cord so it don't look tacky.

Nikki: Because if that's the thing and then, of course, Clary is saying, if you don't have anything nice to say, come sit by me.

Salina: I don't think of anyone else that you.

Nikki: I love the lines.

Nikki: They're so great.

Salina: Yeah, they're just all good.

Salina: So, my first every scene with Tom Scarrett.

Nikki: Oh, he's very funny.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Bonus if it includes Weezer.

Salina: So, honestly, I like seeing the two of them together.

Salina: Not like that.

Nikki: I think you've just invented a relationship to make yourself feel better.

Nikki: Feel something.

Salina: I just need to feel something.

Salina: So the iconic Armadillo cake scene where she cuts off the tell and hands it to Drum and he says, ain't nothing like a good piece of a**.

Salina: Who.

Salina: Nikki doesn't think there's any flirting going on here.

Salina: That's okay.

Salina: It's weird flirting, but some people flirt weird.

Nikki: I don't think it's flirting.

Nikki: It's just showing her like, you can't bother me, but what?

Nikki: I don't care.

Nikki: I'm going to eat it anyway.

Salina: It's interesting that some of the criticism of the movie I read was that the male characters weren't fully formed.

Salina: So, first of all, insert about eight cuss words here, okay?

Salina: I don't want to hear about a not fully formed male character.

Salina: But also, I felt all the men in this movie were great, with the.

Nikki: One exception being Truvy's son.

Nikki: He also felt very tacked on to me.

Nikki: And random.

Salina: You know who he's always reminded me of?

Salina: Who?

Salina: Like a young Val Kilmer.

Nikki: Oh, I could see that.

Nikki: I could see that.

Salina: I think when I was really little, I thought it was him.

Salina: Well, I was like, probably six.

Salina: And I was like, Is that Val Kilmer?

Nikki: You know what's so funny about that is like, the brothers, they don't have very much of a role in the movie, but they feel as fully formed as they need.

Nikki: Like at the end, at the funeral, when the dad gives one of the sons a hug.

Nikki: I don't know how to explain it because it's not going to sound articulate, but I remember thinking, like, this is full circle for him when you see.

Salina: A sea change because it's the kid that farted in the pew.

Salina: Thank you.

Salina: Suddenly, and I don't blame him.

Salina: Sorry.

Salina: But when he's at the one year old's birthday party and he's like, this boring s***, it's me.

Salina: One year old birthday party.

Salina: And so I was like, dude, I see you.

Salina: But also you see all of that or the jokes, even when Shelby's about to go to surgery.

Salina: And then it's real.

Salina: It's real.

Salina: After that, it's hit the skids.

Nikki: And he's still so young.

Salina: Some growth.

Salina: Well, apparently one of those is probably Robert.

Salina: Yeah, that was occurring much younger.

Salina: Right?

Salina: Because by this point, he's out living in New York.

Salina: But yeah, I think that's fair.

Salina: Another favorite for me is really every Little Moment with Clary and Weezer.

Salina: I think they're the cutest.

Salina: I mean, they're so mean to each other, but I love it when they're.

Nikki: Buying pork and beans, you know, when.

Salina: They'Re flirting with each other.

Salina: I just want to be their best friend.

Nikki: Yeah, but no room for you.

Salina: They've got each other.

Salina: No, there isn't.

Salina: I'm not cool enough, not cool enough, or rich enough.

Nikki: They're complete enough without you.

Salina: Thank you.

Salina: Nick, when do we get to your dream so I can crap all over it?

Salina: But also when Weezer forces Clary to walk her home after the wedding and he's like, you block away.

Salina: Definitely.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: I was telling her earlier about how, like, a good comedian knows how to hone in on these things.

Salina: These are like conversations I feel like I've had with my friends where they're like me.

Salina: Like, literally the other weekend, I had to call my friend from the parking garage at the works and be like, please come park my car.

Salina: I like, rolled down the window riding by them.

Salina: And I was like, help me.

Salina: Or them in the locker room together after the game, and all those football players are running around half naked.

Salina: And she just like, good friends.

Salina: Could she have done it nicer?

Salina: Yes, but she's like, you're making an idiot of yourself.

Salina: Nobody about this about colors of uniforms.

Salina: Anyways, all of the salon scenes are up there for me.

Salina: And let me tell you why.

Salina: I think that I hear you on feeling like you would lose out on some things when it's in the play, but in terms of a movie and so much of it being in the salon, while that is obviously a relic of the play, it's a much less clunky way for us to get exposition about the characters.

Salina: At the same time, we were able to show what was going on with Shelby and experience it together.

Salina: And I think that ratcheted up the emotional component.

Salina: So first we see just how bad her diabetes can get, though I read that it's downplayed both in the play and the movie, how tired and emotional she is when she gets all her hair cut off.

Salina: It's just these signals, right?

Salina: We see the dialysis marks, what that's doing to her, and it's how we find out about the kidney transplant.

Salina: So we get these big mile markers, and I just think it does a really nice it serves as a good backdrop for that and also for the passage of time.

Salina: It's also where we get some of the best interactions and we get to see the women really forge and deepen these bonds.

Salina: Because you get the idea, like, some of these characters weren't as close, maybe, when the movie started, but some of these really difficult things start happening, and then they come closer together.

Salina: So the scene where Shelby tells Melin she's pregnant when I was little, that part used to bore me.

Salina: And so just thinking about the things we've been talking about so far and how as we've grown up and watched this movie, how things hit us differently, I appreciate it so much more now that I'm older.

Salina: And I think the acting is just so spot on.

Salina: It's so natural and relatable in some weird way, even though that's never happened to me.

Salina: But just this bumping of heads between mom and daughter.

Salina: And then the line that you said, this is where Shelby says, I would rather have three minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special.

Salina: I wrote that down because I think that this watch is the first time that that line has ever hit me in the way that it did this time.

Salina: And I don't know if that's just getting older or just like I've never had to really watch it this closely before or what, but it just really hit me in such a more profound way this time, when all the still magnolias gather in the other room at the Christmas party because they understand Melin is really going through something and that Shelby's pregnancy isn't all sunshine and rainbows.

Salina: I really like that part a lot.

Salina: I used the word intuition earlier.

Salina: Another word is paying attention.

Salina: I think you really see that on the part of the friends here.

Nikki: It takes them a second, though.

Nikki: They assume this is good news.

Salina: Everybody but Weezer.

Nikki: Yeah, for sure.

Nikki: Oh, but because she asked, Why are you so grouchy?

Salina: Because she was paying attention.

Salina: And I think that's something that women have the ability to do.

Salina: I actually really liked the even though maybe it's not as fleshed out as it could be when Spud is there and he is dressed and ready for that funeral and how happy Truvi is.

Salina: Just that he shows up and he is present in all of the ways.

Salina: I really like that a lot.

Nikki: Makes me so sad, though, that her bar is so low that that's exciting.

Salina: I know.

Nikki: Which I think is why their relationship trips me up.

Salina: And I think low bar or not understanding depression or whatever the case, for someone who is in that dark of a place, that is an exciting thing.

Nikki: But the one thing so I definitely think he's depressed.

Nikki: The one thing that sticks in my head is the part where he's working on the car and she's sitting out there and she's trying to pour her heart out to him and she's trying to tell him.

Nikki: Just really makes me realize how much they have each other.

Nikki: And he's like, Hand me that screwdriver.

Nikki: And I just realized I don't think that's depression.

Nikki: I think that's someone who just doesn't care enough about you to listen.

Salina: Hey, who said you can't have both?

Nikki: That's true.

Salina: Lucky gal.

Salina: The funeral scene.

Salina: Of course we talked a good bit about that, but I had a couple of walkaways from this time, too, that I wanted to share, which is one beware of any woman who says she's fine.

Nikki: You're never fine.

Salina: I think it may be this movie that taught me to duck another not fine.

Salina: She's not my daughter.

Salina: Isn't Annel a study in things you shouldn't say to anyone?

Salina: God bless her heart.

Salina: I know she's trying.

Salina: She's trying the best she can, I think.

Salina: It just always reminds me.

Salina: It's why normally when I get condolence cards, they're blank because I feel like there aren't any right words, but I don't know.

Salina: Then, of course, the breakdown of all breakdowns, followed by the most iconic lines that reverberate through my ears at least twice a week.

Salina: You think I'm kidding, but I'm not.

Salina: Half a chickapin paris give their it's to take a whack at Weezer.

Salina: So much so that I am wearing a shirt.

Salina: It talks about weezer right now, and I would never slap Weezer.

Salina: I would, however, like to be Weezer.

Salina: So are you ready for a little movie trivia in Background yes.

Salina: We've barely talked, so I can't promise for the biggest still Magnolia fans that we can cover any new ground.

Salina: But I combed through several articles and websites to aggravate to aggregate the best lists that I could of the most interesting things that I could find.

Salina: And I just want to say, if you've never read The Garden and Gun Oral History for Designing Women, sure, if you guys would do that, that would be fantastic.

Salina: But in the meantime, read it for Still Magnolias.

Salina: It is excellent.

Salina: And we'll link to that from the blog post.

Salina: Like, I cried reading it.

Salina: But also southern living has things AFI has things, and we'll link to all of those as well.

Salina: And just to say, this is not my original research, this is secondary research.

Salina: And just that very appreciative that these things are on deck and that we can share these with you today.

Salina: So we have to talk a little bit about the play, because without it and its success, there is no movie.

Salina: One of my favorite bits in that garden and Gun oral history was a reflection of the play's initial Off Broadway run.

Salina: There was so much buzz, and major stars were showing up every night.

Salina: I'm not going to go through all the list, but among them, every single golden girl was there in the audience.

Salina: I thought you'd like that.

Salina: Then came Elizabeth Taylor.

Salina: They had to close down the street when she came.

Salina: When Truvi said her line, when it comes to suffering, she's right up there with Elizabeth Taylor.

Salina: No one laughed harder than Liz herself.

Salina: And it made the nightly news, which I thought was cute.

Salina: All of the main characters are based on real people who are friends of Harling's mom.

Salina: He said he'd never reveal who Weezer is based on, but he was very nervous that she would figure it out.

Nikki: Oh, dang.

Salina: Instead, every woman in town thought it was based on them.

Nikki: Perfect.

Nikki: Excellent.

Salina: And I can't decide if that's everybody having a really weird reading on themselves or everyone just wants to be Weezer.

Nikki: Right.

Nikki: Or maybe just old women are all a little bit grouchy.

Salina: Well, yeah, and some of us were born that way.

Salina: So the play also doesn't include any men, which we've talked about a little bit.

Salina: It's almost entirely set in Truvy's beauty shop.

Salina: So both the inclusion of male characters and things like being at the Christmas festival and all of that, that's all movie inventions.

Salina: And if you haven't caught on to that from the 15 conversations we've had about it up until now, the movie takes place in Chinkapin Parish, which I feel like I'm butchering the pronunciation of that, but there is no such place.

Salina: It was actually filmed in Nakadish, and that is where Harling is from.

Salina: We've talked a little bit about that.

Salina: The producer who bought the rights and won out over other people, who also wanted the rights to it, he promised to film it here in the hometown where Harling and his sister grew up.

Salina: And that's actually what sealed the deal.

Salina: And think about the impression that it's left on you all these years.

Salina: That's a great choice.

Salina: All those things.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Similar to what you were saying, we were watching episode 13.

Salina: It takes you out of it a little bit when you're paying attention like you do, and you see that it is sunny California outside what should be a snowy winter window.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: You can stay at Melin's house.

Salina: Nice.

Salina: It is a BMB.

Salina: We'll link to an article in case you want to go.

Salina: To be clear, I want to go.

Nikki: But you have to call them to make a reservation, just so you know.

Nikki: And I don't make phone calls, so I will never be staying there.

Salina: That's true.

Salina: But you could ask your husband to do that for you.

Salina: I bet you he would.

Nikki: You have to call them and potentially get told no.

Nikki: That they're booked that weekend.

Nikki: That's horrible.

Nikki: I need a computer to tell me no, not a person.

Salina: No.

Salina: Yeah, that's tough.

Salina: Worst case scenario, do you think they just say no and hang up on you?

Nikki: Probably.

Salina: Try again.

Salina: You idiot.

Nikki: Get out of here.

Salina: We don't even want your money back.

Nikki: On a less popular weekend.

Nikki: I don't know.

Salina: So also, according to this oral history, the cast became really good friends and they still are really good friends to this day.

Salina: Oh, really?

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: At least the core female cast.

Nikki: Okay.

Salina: Julia Roberts and Dylan McDermott.

Salina: Their on screen romance led to a real romance.

Salina: Did you read about any of I.

Nikki: Think I've heard that before.

Salina: Okay, so this turned into an engagement, but they broke up in 1990.

Nikki: She got engaged to dermot mulroney.

Salina: Maybe.

Salina: I mean, they have been in the movie together.

Salina: She apparently broke it off with Liam Neeson to be with McDermott.

Nikki: Julia Roberts and Liam Neeson.

Nikki: An unlikely duo at best.

Salina: I mean, she was with Lyle Lovett.

Salina: That feels like the most unlikely pair.

Nikki: No shade.

Nikki: Julia, you do you.

Salina: Absolutely you do you.

Salina: I just took it to mean that Lyle Lovett was a really amazing person.

Salina: Love it.

Salina: Dolly and Darryl Hannah learned how to do hair to make the beauty shop scenes work, especially that first one, which is like they're just all doing hair for about 35 minutes.

Nikki: You can't convince me Dolly didn't know how to do hair before that.

Salina: Well, I mean, yeah, maybe.

Salina: Just not that specifically.

Salina: Although I would argue she's probably had someone doing her hair for a long time and even by then.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: Shirley McClain said of Dolly, this is her quote it was really hot.

Salina: There was Dolly with a waist censure no more than 16 inches around and hills about 2ft high and a wig that must have weighed £23.

Salina: And she's the only one of us who didn't sweat.

Salina: She never complained about anything.

Salina: Never.

Salina: The rest of us were always complaining.

Nikki: I saw that on TikTok a few months ago.

Nikki: It was actually a cast interview from, I think, when the movie came out.

Nikki: And I think actually it was Julia Roberts telling a version of that story.

Nikki: And I will say, having done the extra sugar on Dolly Parton, knowing some of the things she was going through in her life at this point, puts kind of a finer maybe like.

Nikki: A context around that or casts a little bit of a shadow on why she was feeling that way at that point in time.

Nikki: Not to say Dolly, she's always seemed very grateful for what she has.

Nikki: Not to say that, but I do just wonder if some of the things going on had given her a little bit of a different perspective.

Salina: Oh, that's interesting.

Salina: You teeing us up.

Salina: I am, yeah.

Salina: I saw what Julia Roberts said, too.

Salina: I can't remember why I included Sherlock McClain's and not Julia's, but I think in what Julia said, too, that is a little bit of a twist on this is dolly was like, all I ever wanted to do was be rich and famous, and I am and I'm.

Nikki: Not, so what do I have to complain?

Salina: Yeah, so life is good.

Salina: And I was like, Dang, that is some really good perspective.

Nikki: Dolly's got great perspective.

Nikki: She really does.

Salina: I am so excited for your extra sugar.

Salina: So I've never put together that Olympia Dukakis was related to Michael Dukakis who ran for president back in 88.

Salina: Not sure.

Salina: It's not like there's a ton of ducaucuses running around.

Nikki: Don't think about Michael Dukakis all that often, I'm sure.

Salina: Not every day.

Salina: No.

Salina: Although I feel like I watch a show where maybe a succession on HBO where they name their dog du Caucus, I think, but other than that, no, not a lot.

Nikki: I mean, you ran in 88, so you were three.

Salina: Yeah, I wasn't as into politics as I was by four.

Salina: So anyways, they're cousins in real life and so he's running for president right in the time they're filming.

Salina: She was apparently involved in the campaign and she even spoke at the Democratic convention.

Salina: The area, however, perfect fit for Nakatish.

Salina: So the area, however, in this parish is very Republican.

Salina: But to be neighborly, some people put out decoccus signs.

Nikki: That's lovely.

Salina: I think that's the sweetest thing I've ever heard.

Salina: I can't see that happening today.

Salina: Maybe not.

Salina: I just think things are too volatile individually.

Nikki: People are still good.

Salina: I hope so.

Salina: But I was like, that really warmed my heart, like, almost more than anything else did, because that is Southern.

Nikki: I think if you hear it personally from someone that you like and is charming, then you're like, yeah, sure, I'll put the sign up.

Nikki: If someone just leaves a sign on your front porch or if someone tells you something horrible is going to happen if you don't vote for this person, you're much less likely to do it.

Salina: I get the sense from the things that I've read, even though nothing directly said it, but that Olympia Du caucus was probably a real gym.

Salina: There's something that just like, between putting the stuff together I don't know, I think that she probably left a really good impression on people.

Salina: I'm not sure everyone did.

Salina: Okay, brace yourself.

Salina: These next ones are tough.

Salina: Oh, no.

Salina: And then I'm curious.

Salina: I feel like you probably already know these, but tell me if this is a first time learning for you.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: The nurse who turns off the life support for Shelby in the movie is the actual nurse who turned off life support for Harling's sister.

Salina: In fact, all of the hospital support staff in the room helped Harling's sister in her final days in real life.

Nikki: I knew that second part.

Nikki: I didn't realize the first part was so specific.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: And then Harling's mother was on set during the filming of the scenes while Shelby was in the hospital.

Salina: And during the scene when Shelby has taken off life support, she was asked if she wanted to leave, and she declined, saying that once the scene was over, she wanted to see Shelby get up and walk away.

Nikki: She needed to see Julia Roberts leave because she didn't get to see her daughter do that.

Salina: That's right.

Salina: And from what I read, also in the oral history, they were very close.

Salina: So Julia Roberts and the parents.

Salina: Harling said that it was like the most surreal thing he had ever experienced.

Salina: Now, she wasn't like the star that he was.

Salina: Julia Robert.

Salina: That's right.

Salina: But I think people already saw that in her.

Salina: But she came over every night.

Salina: And not every night, but a lot of the nights.

Salina: And she would talk with the parents.

Salina: She would come over and read them poetry.

Salina: They would grill out and stuff together.

Salina: I think she really wanted to get to know them.

Salina: And she's probably exercising some things to make sure that she was able to pull some of that emotion into her work.

Salina: And it must have worked because she probably some awards for it.

Nikki: I wonder if also, she was just a young actress who maybe was a little bit homesick and they gave her.

Salina: A sense of home, probably Southern.

Salina: Southern.

Salina: And she might just be I mean, who knows?

Salina: We're hybrid.

Nikki: Just nice.

Salina: She could be.

Salina: I always feel a little weird talking about real people like this, but she.

Nikki: Talk to us about it anytime she wants.

Salina: Anytime.

Salina: I almost moved to Smyrna.

Salina: But just this idea that it feels weird because they're real people, but just this idea that I think you can go into these parts and know that it's more than just a part.

Salina: And especially in this one in particular, I think that she was going in there knowing that if you're playing a real person, I just feel like that's a whole different level of I don't want to say stress, but responsibility.

Salina: A real person.

Nikki: And a real person whose family and the people who loved her the most are watching.

Salina: Yeah, absolutely.

Nikki: Responsibility.

Salina: And on the plays note, one of the things I didn't include here, but it feels relevant to say is, as I understand it, people within that community helped back the play financially the first time around because they cared so much about that family and they cared so much about the loss of the daughter.

Nikki: Why don't we all just live in a small town?

Salina: There's upsides and downsides, I think.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: I could deal with everyone knowing everything that's going on in my life, but there are a lot of things that don't tell them.

Salina: That's true.

Salina: Also, nothing in my life is interesting, so that would help at this point.

Salina: So Herbert Ross, this is the director.

Salina: So he's a little bit of a controversial figure around.

Nikki: So you're going to have to tell me about this.

Nikki: I've read allusions to this, but I haven't read anything specific.

Salina: Well, he had a pretty contentious relationship with the actors and he was pretty hard on all of them, but especially Dolly and Julia.

Nikki: They can just get right on a town as far as I'm concerned.

Salina: So after a poor take, he reprimanded Dolly Parton and asked her if she could act and she replied, no, but it's your job to make me look like I can.

Salina: So I'm assuming this happened more than a few times because on another occasion, I don't know, it's the same time, but Sally Field reportedly said, you don't say that to Dolly Parton.

Salina: Dolly Parton is absolutely the funniest wittiest and filthiest and she will cut you to ribbons.

Nikki: Melin's, my favorite.

Nikki: Told you.

Salina: Or Sally.

Salina: OOH, that girl hamsies.

Salina: It sounds like he was in a bad place because his wife had died the year prior.

Nikki: Not my problem.

Nikki: Not Dolly's problem.

Salina: But at some point so Shirley McClain had worked with him in the past and at some point I think she pulled him to the side and she ripped him a new one.

Salina: And things got better from there.

Salina: Sally Field worked with him two years later on Soap Dish, and she had a contract agreement made that if she had problems with him, she could have him fired and replaced as an executive producer.

Nikki: Oh, God.

Salina: Now that is some half a** internet research.

Salina: But it sounds good, doesn't it?

Salina: It could be true.

Nikki: I'm going to believe it.

Salina: She's amazing.

Salina: So I'll go ahead and tack this one on since I just mentioned Soap Dish and we've already talked about it.

Salina: But Soap Dish would not exist if it wasn't for this movie.

Salina: I think the whole cast and crew gets really tight knit.

Salina: They're in a small community, they know each other.

Salina: I think they're hanging out a lot after hours or whatever.

Salina: And they're sitting around one night and Harling asks, I think maybe they're all having this conversation, if you could play like, any one character or do any one thing.

Salina: And Sally Phil basically looks and this is me just paraphrasing here, but something along the lines of, like, I just want to play a character who dresses good and then to stop making me this frumpy.

Salina: And they created Soap Dish and she gets to be this soap opera.

Nikki: I have never heard of this movie.

Salina: That'S like, well dressed.

Salina: I mean, it's got Robert Downey Jr.

Salina: Whoopi Goldberg, Sally Field, Elizabeth Shu.

Salina: It's a really great movie.

Salina: All right.

Salina: There's a couple of things that we have to cover that are in the Still Magnolias universe.

Salina: Do you know they made a sitcom spin off?

Nikki: This sounds vaguely familiar.

Salina: It's tough because I assume at this point you've probably read a lot of different things.

Salina: So it debuted on CBS in 1990, but it was canceled.

Salina: I bet you that CBS worked that whole Designing Women plotline in about Still Magnolias into the last episodes that we recorded because they were already working on this.

Salina: And it was probably going to wind up being part of the Designing Women Murphy Brown Monday night all female lineup.

Nikki: I had read that the reason Dolly did the episode was because she had said from the very beginning of Designing Women she loved the show and she wanted to be on it, and this gave her the opportunity to do it.

Salina: That's amazing.

Nikki: Okay, yeah, she loved the show, but all of these things can be true.

Nikki: This could have been the kismet that brought her to the show.

Salina: It's all true.

Nikki: In our world, it is.

Salina: But the one thing that didn't happen is that show.

Salina: But also, what would you do?

Salina: Can you just let a thing be?

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: So more successful.

Salina: In 2012, Lifetime released an all black cast version.

Salina: It was the third most successful telecast at that time, drawing 6.5 million viewers.

Salina: That's huge for lifetime.

Salina: And it was quite an all star cast, especially since this was before everyone did TV.

Salina: So, yeah.

Salina: Queen Latifah, Alfred Woodward, Jill Scott, Felicia Rashad.

Salina: So we're all in the main cast.

Salina: All right.

Salina: Some casting what if I feel like for Still Magnolias, these are pretty well known, but I think I should still touch on them in case anyone doesn't know.

Salina: Do you know about any of the casting what ifs for, like, Shelby or anything?

Nikki: Probably when you say them.

Salina: Okay, so Meg Ryan, she was under contract, actually.

Salina: So she was a done deal trying.

Nikki: To picture Meg Ryan, but who she is picture her.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: I was like, okay, but she asked to get out of it to be in When Harry Met Sally.

Salina: And so this is, to me, one of those meant to be moments because in my mind, there's no better Shelby.

Nikki: I cannot imagine Meg Ryan in that role.

Salina: There's no better sally.

Salina: I feel like Meg Ryan is maybe and not that she always played like a Sally type role, but I think she does that kind of neurotic a little bit better.

Salina: And I don't think Shelby was that.

Nikki: And I love Meg Ryan.

Salina: Love her.

Nikki: I just don't think that this is the right role for her.

Salina: Right.

Salina: And that's why I say I think obviously she's done roles that aren't that pinned up.

Salina: But yeah, it's really hard for me to picture, especially since Julia is Southern and is just so naturally able to fall into that accent and everything.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: So Wynona ryder was also considered, but ultimately they thought she was too young.

Salina: She was actually only two years younger than Julia.

Nikki: Shelby don't see that either.

Salina: It's hard.

Salina: You have to go back to I almost think because eventually Winona takes on these darker roles, but she's also just dark hair and pale skin, very severe.

Salina: Yeah, but when you think about I'd have to go back to thinking, like, Edward Scissor hands.

Salina: Why Donna Ryder?

Salina: Where she's blonde and like a little softer.

Nikki: She's got an edge.

Nikki: Whereas Julia Roberts feels very approachable and girl next dory.

Salina: Yeah, girl in that gorgeous way that never lives next door to you.

Salina: But yeah, you know, that way.

Salina: That girl next door model.

Salina: So Laura Dern was also considered.

Salina: I could have seen her as Annele, actually.

Nikki: Okay, I'd buy Annele.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: There's no other Shelby.

Salina: I've read conflicting point reports excuse me, about Darryl Hannah, but she was supposedly turned down for the role of Annele because they thought she was too attractive.

Salina: By this point, she's already done Splash, so she basically played the Little Mermaid and she's done a couple of other things where she was just kind of like the hot girl next door.

Salina: But apparently she came in dressed as the part and was so unrecognizable that security refused to let her in.

Salina: I'm just going to say I don't know if that's true, but I love those kinds of stories.

Salina: It sounds good.

Salina: So I thought I'd retell it.

Salina: Anyway, another big one is that Betty Davis wanted to play Weezer and she actually pitched herself to Robert Harling.

Salina: I think she invited him to tea or something.

Salina: She also wanted Catherine Hepburn to play Clary and Liz Taylor.

Salina: I've read that she wanted her to play Truvi, and I've read that she wanted her to play Melin, depending on the source.

Salina: But either way, she wanted that cast of characters in there.

Nikki: That would be a totally different movie.

Salina: Totally different.

Salina: And you're talking about some of the greatest actors that ever were in that lineup.

Salina: But I just can't can they get.

Nikki: Past their transatlantic accent and pull out a Southern accent?

Salina: It is kind of hard to see the Catherine Hepburn accent in there.

Salina: Anyways, that didn't happen.

Salina: Truvi was actually written for Harling's friend, Margot Martindale.

Salina: Is this one you're familiar with?

Salina: Okay, so Margot Martindale, if you look her up, she's more of a character actor, but you would definitely recognize her.

Salina: But anyway, so she played the role in its off Broadway run, and she was supposed to play the part in the movie, too.

Salina: But as far as I understand, Herbert Ross pushed for Dolly and then he yelled at her.

Nikki: Yeah, that's so mean.

Salina: Yeah, you see what I'm saying?

Salina: She's been in everything.

Nikki: Yeah, she's from Texas.

Salina: Well, apparently she's a lot like Truvi in real life because he wrote it inspired by her.

Salina: She's been in a lot.

Salina: Oh, yeah.

Salina: But I think, like any good character actor, I couldn't immediately pull from anything.

Salina: So as an exercise, if they remade Still Magnolias right now, who would you cast?

Nikki: So thinking about this, I started with a list of Southern actors to narrow it down immediately because otherwise you're talking.

Salina: About a universe also, like, you want to be true.

Nikki: So I started with Mullen.

Nikki: I was thinking about, like, a Jennifer Garner type or maybe even Reese Witherspoon.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: Or Mary Louise Parker or, hear me out, Julia Roberts.

Salina: Do you want to know who I have down from a limb?

Nikki: Who?

Salina: Julia Roberts.

Nikki: Julia Roberts.

Nikki: She could be the mom now, right?

Salina: Actually, I think she's a little older.

Salina: Yeah, that's how much time has passed.

Nikki: But, yeah, it's depressing.

Salina: What do you mean?

Salina: I think it feels great.

Nikki: Shelby was the hard one for me.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: Who'd you?

Salina: Shelby on.

Nikki: So I went with, like this was really challenging.

Nikki: It's hard to because it's hard to.

Salina: Know 22 year olds now.

Nikki: It really got so hard.

Nikki: And even I think the two people I picked aren't 22.

Nikki: I think they're in their late 20s.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: Dakota Fanning.

Nikki: She's actually from the Atlanta area.

Nikki: And the other person I thought of was Selena Gomez, but thinking about Winona Ryder, Salina also tends to have that edginess.

Nikki: Edginess.

Nikki: And I think she might be a Bridge.

Nikki: Too edgy for this one.

Nikki: But those were the two I thought of.

Salina: Funny, because I picked Elle Fanning.

Nikki: Perfect.

Salina: Who I have seen really good actor.

Nikki: Dakota is too.

Salina: Well, yeah, but I just thought she was too old, which I can't oh, God.

Salina: How's that feel?

Salina: She is too old to play, like, a 20 year old.

Salina: I mean, not really.

Salina: I guess she could, but her little sister is sitting right there and also really good.

Nikki: I think if we made the movie today, I do think Shelby would have to be a little bit older.

Nikki: They're just earn a ton of fresh out of college 22 year olds trying to have babies.

Nikki: You know what I mean?

Salina: That's true.

Salina: That's a fair point.

Salina: If you're really going to update it all around.

Salina: That's not this exercise, though, right.

Salina: Who's next?

Salina: Well, how about did you pick out someone?

Salina: Oh, you know what?

Salina: I may have told you not to pick out someone for drum, but I did.

Nikki: I have someone.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: Who'd you get?

Nikki: So you think Gerald McRaney's too old?

Nikki: He's too old, right?

Salina: I think so.

Nikki: He's too old.

Nikki: So the next one was but I.

Salina: Like that pick, though.

Nikki: Two opposite ends of the spectrum.

Nikki: The other one was maybe like, a Matthew McConaughey.

Salina: I have Matthew McConaughey or Walter Goggins.

Salina: Walter Goggins from Justified.

Salina: And then he's also on something.

Nikki: I know.

Salina: Oh, I know.

Salina: Vice principal.

Salina: Like, he was on Sons of Anarchy.

Salina: He is definitely southern, does a wonderful southern accent, and he's also incredibly funny, so I think he could really play that part pretty well.

Salina: But I have Matthew McConaughey down, too, because I just couldn't make up my mind, and I thought him and Julia Roberts would look good together.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Even though they don't really talk in the movie.

Salina: That's fine.

Salina: How about Truvy?

Nikki: Truvy?

Nikki: I mean, Dolly could still do it.

Salina: That's true.

Salina: I totally agree with that.

Salina: Is that who you have?

Salina: Then?

Nikki: I have several options.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: This is hard, wouldn't it?

Nikki: Yes.

Nikki: In the vein of Dolly, miley Cyrus could be another option.

Nikki: She's a little erring, a little young, but she's in real life.

Nikki: She's dolly's.

Nikki: Goddaughter.

Nikki: And they have that same Tennessee vibe.

Nikki: As I was looking at her list, I found Beyonce and I was like, okay, here, hear me out.

Nikki: She's from Texas, drop dead gorgeous, and she can be really funny.

Nikki: That would be like a suit.

Salina: I doubt everyone in the world will come see this movie.

Nikki: She'd be delightful.

Salina: It doesn't matter what role.

Nikki: It's true.

Nikki: So that could be interesting.

Salina: Hey, are you ready for this or do you have more?

Salina: No, that is it.

Salina: Kristen chinoweth.

Nikki: I have her for someone else or.

Salina: Reba McIntyre, because I was just going to do with the country music singer vibe.

Nikki: I have reba.

Nikki: For somebody else.

Salina: Oh, look at that.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: All right.

Salina: So how about Annel?

Nikki: Annel.

Nikki: This was really hard for me.

Salina: Dakota Fanning.

Nikki: Dakota Fanning.

Salina: Can I just say, Dakota, when you're listening, I want to be very clear that I'm probably ten years older than you.

Salina: So you are not old for this world.

Salina: You were just old to play Shelby at 20.

Salina: You know, Chrissy and you're really not because I've seen you and you still.

Nikki: Look like you're 20.

Nikki: You know Chrissy Metz from this Is US.

Salina: Yes.

Salina: The sister.

Nikki: The sister, yes.

Nikki: She's from Florida.

Nikki: She could be an interesting take on this for Annele.

Nikki: I think of Annele as a supporting character, not as a main character.

Salina: I like the idea.

Salina: I think I was way too strict on age, so I need to be more flexible with that.

Salina: With that Salina, that one thing.

Salina: Everything else, I'm super flexible and so laid back.

Salina: I picked Antonia Gentry for Annele from Jenny in Georgia.

Salina: She's the daughter, because I do feel like there's a quietness to Annele that I feel like she could capture, but she's still like a character who is magnetic but in a subdued way.

Salina: And in my watch of Jenny and Georgia, that's what I see from that actor.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: How about Weezer?

Nikki: So Sandra Bullock is maybe a little too young, but I feel like she captures snarky and surly.

Salina: You know what's crazy?

Salina: I'm not sure they're that far apart in age.

Nikki: They might not be looked.

Salina: I think it's just like 1st 2023.

Nikki: Aging versus the late 80s.

Salina: Yeah, it's just a different time period.

Salina: But yeah, her down at first on.

Nikki: The flip for her, I think it was for her on the flip.

Nikki: This is where I thought RIBA McIntyre might be really good.

Nikki: She's got a lot of charisma.

Nikki: She tends to be a little too sunny.

Salina: She can be fiery, though.

Nikki: Yeah, she's a redhead.

Salina: When Barbara Jean got on her nerves, she got real fiery.

Nikki: She really, really did.

Nikki: So I think she could be good there.

Salina: Okay, I have Octavia Spencer.

Salina: God, do you have her?

Salina: Who's she?

Nikki: What about Octavia?

Nikki: As Clary?

Salina: I put Darryl Hannah.

Salina: I thought we could bring her back in a role.

Nikki: So I have Octavia Spencer as Clary.

Nikki: Andy McDowell.

Nikki: And then this is the other place I thought maybe Kristen Chennawith.

Salina: You know what?

Nikki: She plays a really good jaw jaw kind of person.

Salina: Yeah, you can tell.

Salina: I can't.

Salina: Jawshaw It Up is my version of that.

Salina: Yeah, I think all of those are good.

Salina: This is what made it such an interesting exercise.

Salina: I actually also just thinking about one person who I thought could have played Shelby back in the day, was Andy McDowell.

Salina: Although she was a little she's a little older.

Nikki: She's got that super gosh.

Salina: She's the most beautiful woman I think I've ever seen.

Nikki: She's really beautiful.

Nikki: She's soft, but also she can be hard headed and firm, like in Groundhog Day.

Salina: Also something about the hair.

Salina: Just the hair.

Nikki: Dramatic hair moment with Shelby.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Okay, so what about for I did actually also include Jackson.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: I went ahead when you tell me you don't have to do that.

Nikki: Then I realized I probably should go ahead and be prepared because it's going to come up.

Salina: Oh, okay.

Nikki: So I chose Chris Hemsworth because he does accents really well and he's beautiful.

Nikki: I think he might have done the accent.

Nikki: It might have even been a Southern accent in the Vacation Reboot.

Salina: Oh, yeah.

Nikki: So I think he could do that.

Nikki: And then Andrew Garfield, because we were just talking about him in that Tammy Faye movie.

Nikki: Also very attractive man.

Nikki: He could play this role pretty well.

Nikki: And I think they're both more or less in that right age range.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: I went with someone young.

Salina: Let me be clear.

Nikki: Where is this?

Salina: These other people are young, too.

Salina: But I kept trying to think in this, like, oh, my God, who is under 25?

Salina: Which was like, a very brain busting exercise for me.

Salina: But I was thinking about Josh Hutcherson, who is from Kentucky.

Nikki: What's the age difference between him and, like, Chris Hemsworth?

Nikki: Or like, the other one?

Salina: What?

Nikki: Who did I just say?

Salina: I think well, Josh Hutcherson, I think, is about at least six years younger, if not much.

Salina: Not ten years younger than us.

Nikki: 30.

Salina: Okay, so seven.

Salina: Did you look up anyone else that you that was all my casting.

Nikki: Oh, one more person with Spud.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: Tim McGraw.

Nikki: Love it.

Nikki: Tim he's handsome.

Nikki: He's like a little rough edges.

Nikki: I think he'd be good.

Nikki: That's it?

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: That's good.

Nikki: I like it as far as I made it.

Salina: All right, so the other thing I have here is I thought that before we got into references, we could talk about the venn diagram that is still magnolias in designing women.

Salina: So the most obvious is that the designing women ladies are going to see still magnolias together.

Salina: So the movie literally exists within the designing women universe.

Salina: That doesn't always happen in shows where you get, like, real life references like that, especially that are that current.

Salina: Dolly Parton is the inextricable link as main cast in still magnolias and guest star in designing women.

Salina: And then Bernice's almost wedding bridesmaid dresses were somehow almost the exact same as Shelby's, which is something that we discussed back when Bernice almost got married in season three.

Salina: Then years later in 2005, delta Burke starred in still magnolias on Broadway as Truvy.

Salina: How do you feel about that?

Salina: Yeah, I don't see that she was well reviewed.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: I think the review I read said that she was a more subdued truvie.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: But she captured that warmth really well.

Salina: Okay, good.

Salina: You shared this in the Annie potts extra sugar.

Salina: And then we talked about it again early on in the last episode.

Salina: But this is part of that crossover.

Salina: In 2012, Robert harling wrote the TV series GCB, which stars Annie potts, who was channeling her inner Julia sugar baker.

Salina: Oh, goodness.

Salina: It's full circle.

Salina: On a more serious note, the movie is largely based around Shelby's fight with type one diabetes.

Salina: And as we've discussed, gene smart has type one diabetes and has been a really big advocate for years.

Salina: On top of that, when I was putting all this together, thinking about the fact that she was pregnant during this season.

Salina: So I imagine this movie probably hit differently for her.

Salina: That's true.

Salina: I also think there's a case that each of the designing women are an archetype, so they match up pretty well with the still magnolia's cast.

Salina: I'm going to give you the layout of the land here and you can tell me if you think I have just lost my mind or not.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: So I have Sally filled as a married Joe.

Salina: Here are my backup supporting points.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: She's sweet but with a fiery side.

Salina: She doesn't like to show when things get to her.

Salina: She's very private and fiercely protective of her kids.

Nikki: Okay.

Nikki: Buy it.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: Annel as a charlene.

Salina: They both kissed a lot of frogs to find their prince.

Salina: They are both tall, leggy, blondes, both very spiritual and both had pregnancy plotlines.

Salina: Okay, you're winning.

Salina: It like Salina.

Salina: I've got weezer as a Suzanne.

Salina: They're both loud.

Salina: They both wear fur coats in the south where it's hot, so it doesn't make any sense.

Salina: Animal lovers.

Salina: And they're both very eccentric and rich, except for when Suzanne is not it's.

Nikki: Unclear on occasion when she's not right.

Salina: And then I have Clary as a Julia.

Salina: They're both strong women, both have well to do family names, an interest in politics, and both lost their husbands.

Nikki: There you go.

Salina: No one is Dolly Parton, Brittany.

Salina: There's only one Truvie.

Salina: Oh, you know, I go with that.

Salina: I go with that.

Nikki: Or Anthony.

Salina: Anthony.

Salina: Because he is also one of a kind and we know that they're the best.

Salina: So are you ready to run through outdated things?

Salina: 80s references?

Nikki: I feel like you need to take a break.

Nikki: It was just a deep breath.

Salina: Water is very low.

Nikki: So Annele wanted to go through hair magazines at the beginning.

Nikki: Truvi says it's critical to stay abreast of the latest.

Nikki: I don't know.

Salina: That feels 80s.

Nikki: Annele lost her contact working through the festival.

Nikki: Walking through the festival and then tried to get it back because it's a hard contact, I'm sure.

Nikki: And they only have so many of those.

Nikki: That's not something that happens today.

Nikki: Clary working at and buying a radio station.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Melin gave Jack Jr.

Nikki: A bottle full of apple juice or some kind of juice at the hair salon.

Nikki: That's just really not a thing you do nowadays.

Nikki: Before they really have teeth or they have baby teeth.

Nikki: It's just not great.

Nikki: It's a lot of sugar.

Nikki: Sugar.

Nikki: And then something about sucking of the bottle at his age just was not a great fit.

Nikki: Shelby crawling to get to a Landline jackson's mother's glasses at the funeral.

Nikki: Get me every single time.

Nikki: They are super horn rimmed.

Nikki: Oh, are they really super horn rimmed?

Nikki: Like, if you didn't know that movie was made in the late eighty s and you were watching it for the first time, you would have thought late 60s, early 70s.

Nikki: Looking at those glasses, they probably were right?

Nikki: Probably right.

Nikki: And then the last one I had in dated references was that Clary says you are too twisted for color TV.

Nikki: It's a great line.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: It's like they took the spewed it through a fire hose.

Salina: The clothes, the decor, the hair.

Salina: The cheesing of the hair.

Nikki: Funny is I did not catch the hair, obviously, because they're in a hair salon.

Nikki: But for the most part, it didn't look very dated to me.

Nikki: Honestly.

Nikki: It should have.

Nikki: It didn't.

Salina: I mean, it's just these things.

Salina: Like, when you look at the decorations.

Nikki: Around the house, I think I'm desensitized to it because we've been watching Designing Women so much.

Salina: That's fair.

Nikki: Emily's the point where this just feels normal to me.

Salina: Oh, gosh, man.

Salina: It was really something with the teasing of the hair and just seeing them do it.

Salina: So much teasing damage.

Salina: Please tell me that the wedding looked dated to you.

Nikki: Yes, for sure.

Salina: I think for at least, like, most of my life watching this movie, I've always looked at that wedding and been like, yeah, there's a lot going on.

Nikki: My grandmother had.

Nikki: A pink bathroom when I was growing up.

Nikki: And when I see that, I think.

Salina: We all had a grandma with a pink bathroom growing up.

Nikki: Pink bathroom.

Salina: Especially, like, the mauve.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: Was a big time for mauve.

Salina: So spud smoking inside the house, weezer smoking inside the hospital.

Salina: That's dated.

Nikki: Cool.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: That'll get you arrested.

Salina: Now, decorating the car at a wedding with condom, that's a day's gone by.

Salina: You don't see that anymore.

Nikki: I think, unfortunately, there might have also been some Confederate flags involved.

Salina: Yeah, I have that on the list.

Nikki: Okay.

Salina: That did not age that well.

Salina: That's in my Southern references, but yeah.

Salina: I have never noticed that before this watch.

Salina: That's what I was saying.

Salina: Like, anytime you get a close read on things, you're like, don't look too close.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I was, like, watching it, and I was like, Is he carrying a sword?

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: Okay, so calling condoms rubbers, that felt dated.

Salina: Do not decorate my call with rubbers.

Salina: There's a line where Truvi says, oh, get with it, Clary.

Salina: This is the 80s.

Salina: If you can achieve puberty, you can achieve a past.

Salina: So it's just funny to me that everything's complicated in the moment.

Salina: Like, oh, it's the 80s.

Salina: It's the 90s.

Salina: Get with it.

Salina: It's 2023.

Salina: But anytime we reflect back on the moment, we're like, such a simple.

Salina: I'm like, oh, everybody's full of crap.

Salina: Jackson says that the VCR alone is worth marrying for.

Salina: Then later in the movie, one of Shelby's brothers comes in with a videotape all of Vanelle's Christmas decorations on the porch that you talked about earlier, but they've also all had a moment again.

Salina: So especially, like, the big Christmas lights and then just this idea of a coming out story as novelty and their fascination with the experience of a gay man, I felt like that has just really fills of that time.

Salina: I don't think that you would sit around and necessarily have a full fledged conversation about that.

Salina: All that said, rent free, in my head lives, all gay men have track lighting, and all gay men are named Mark Rick or Steve.

Nikki: Qazer's nephew Steve track lighting.

Salina: That's right.

Salina: So, biggest Southern things, what stood out for you?

Nikki: You already mentioned Nakatish, Louisiana, which is where it was filmed just enough to say that it was originally established in 1714 and incorporated in 1819 after Louisiana became a state in 1812.

Nikki: It's the oldest permanent settlement as part of the Louisiana Purchase.

Nikki: A Christmas cajun.

Nikki: That's the song that's playing during Annele's Christmas decoration setup.

Nikki: It says, we'll have a Cajun Christmas, but if you Google a Cajun Christmas, you get a Christmas Cajun as the name of the song.

Nikki: That's confusing.

Salina: That is confusing.

Nikki: But there you go.

Nikki: Red beans and rice.

Nikki: That's what Sammy suggests they take to Melind's House before the surgery in which we had for lunch today.

Nikki: The Piggly Wiggly is where they do their grocery shopping.

Nikki: And I brought up the Easter egg hunt at the end with all the kids in their ruffled socks and bonnet hats.

Nikki: That feels very Southern to me.

Salina: Yeah, definitely.

Nikki: Those were the highlights.

Nikki: Let me be clear, it's a southern movie.

Salina: It's all southern.

Salina: Moving on.

Salina: So a nickname likes Bud and then actually every single name sounds really Southern.

Salina: And then I always forget and I wind up spelling Weezer like the 90s band.

Salina: Let me be very clear, they're obviously still a band, but they did get their start in the 90s.

Nikki: In my entire life, I have never known someone named Melin or Weezer.

Salina: No, but they are real names that he pulled so crazy.

Salina: Yeah, he pulled them from his family tree or something.

Salina: So let's see.

Salina: I also just felt like Sally Field's reaction to things in this movie were very like of a stereotype of a southern woman, especially at the beginning of the movie, just like she's completely exasperated and exhausted by things, but also she's not really going to let you see it.

Salina: There's just like this stillness about her.

Nikki: Magnolia, would you say?

Salina: I might say that Southern hair magazine is not real from what I found.

Salina: But a lot of people, one, have googled for it, and number two, I did find a prop master who makes and sells fake ones.

Salina: Excellent for runs of still magnolias on stage.

Nikki: Perfect.

Salina: Having a hair studio in your house.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: We own that per se, but I absolutely know that's true to my Southern experience.

Salina: Currently the woman doing my hair does it in a salon that she has set up in her home.

Salina: The gossip everywhere in this movie, but like, especially at the hair salon in this iconic line that you've already talked about.

Salina: You know I don't like to talk ill about anybody, but as Clary says, if you don't have anything nice to say, come sit by me.

Salina: Also, apparently ripped off from Alice Roosevelt longworth.

Salina: Okay, there you go.

Salina: Just for your back pocket.

Nikki: There's the Part earlier in the movie, too, when Dolly Parton says, you know, I'd rather step on my own lips than talk bad about my can, or something like that, and then continues to say something terrible.

Salina: That's right.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: Wedding stuff.

Salina: Being forced to have all your family in your wedding feels southern.

Salina: Having not.

Salina: I mean, that's probably universal, but nine bridesmaids, that feels very southern.

Salina: The grooms cake southern.

Salina: The shape southern.

Salina: That was also based on a real experience that Harlan had at a wedding.

Salina: So it was actually an armadillo.

Salina: What he invented was the red velvet part, and he is credited with, much to your chagrin, Nikki Reviving.

Salina: The red velvet cake.

Nikki: God, gross.

Salina: Then I wrote down some Southern quotes.

Salina: Jackson is from a good old southern family with good old southern values.

Salina: You either shoot it, stuff it a Marriott.

Salina: That's what really melts my butter.

Salina: How about a glass of iced tea?

Salina: It's the house wine of the south.

Salina: I'm an old Southern woman and we're supposed to wear funny looking hats and ugly clothes and grow vegetables in the dirt.

Salina: Don't ask me those questions.

Salina: I don't know why.

Salina: I don't make the rules.

Salina: And then some of the people at the wedding wear what?

Salina: Oh, we talked about that.

Salina: Moving on the food cup a cup of cuppa, which is the recipe that Truvi shares.

Salina: It's basically cobbler.

Nikki: Cup of flour, cup of cup of.

Salina: Flour, cup of sugar, cup of fruit cocktail.

Nikki: Fruit cocktail with the juice.

Salina: At the Christmas festival, they're serving a low country boil.

Salina: And then Truvi brings home fried chicken.

Nikki: And then we got good old Southern Christian.

Salina: That's right.

Salina: Annel pours out Sammy's Dixie beer.

Salina: This is in fact, a real beer from a New Orleans brewery that was founded in 1907 and it was Dixie Brewing Company, but in 2021 was renamed Fobird Brewing Company.

Salina: Sorry.

Salina: I looked up a lot of stuff.

Nikki: I called it liquor.

Salina: Did she really?

Nikki: Beer is not liquor, is it?

Salina: But I think that's pretty true to the experience.

Salina: Someone pouring out alcohol probably doesn't really know the right nomenclature.

Salina: And then just props to the prop master because that's a really good detail to have pulled New Orleans beer and made sure that was on site.

Nikki: And just to think on Designing Women, they couldn't even get the scenery outside the window right.

Salina: It's tough.

Salina: And then we can't leave Southern references without talking about the accents in this movie.

Salina: Do you think there is a best or worst or both?

Nikki: I wasn't prepared for that question.

Salina: I'm so sorry.

Nikki: I mean, obviously Dolly Parton's is great.

Nikki: I don't know that I could put them on a ranking.

Nikki: I didn't watch with that.

Salina: That's fair.

Salina: I picked Dolly.

Salina: I also picked Shirley.

Salina: I think that Shirley McClain's accent was really good.

Salina: I think Annel's is the worst, but still fine.

Nikki: I have to watch it with that thought in mind.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Sorry, I didn't mean to catch off guard.

Nikki: I kind of actually forgot to put this in here.

Salina: So you'll just have to bear with me while you think on in case anything strikes you.

Salina: But I did look into who was actually from the south or not.

Salina: We've obviously already talked about a couple of these individuals that we know just by heart.

Salina: So dolly Parton.

Salina: Tennessee.

Salina: Julia Roberts, Georgia.

Salina: Shirley McClain is also from the south.

Salina: She's from Virginia.

Salina: Sally Field, Pasadena, California.

Nikki: She does such a good Southern accent.

Nikki: Forrest Gump, this movie.

Nikki: I think she was in the when.

Salina: You good, you good.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: Olympia Dukakis.

Nikki: She can't be Southern.

Salina: Massachusetts.

Salina: Perfect.

Salina: And then Darryl Hannah's from Chicago.

Salina: So there was one woman who all the local women thought had the most accurate accent.

Salina: Any guesses?

Nikki: Olympia Dukakis.

Salina: Yes.

Nikki: They just loved her.

Salina: This is what I'm saying.

Salina: I was, like, piecing it together.

Salina: I was like, she even sounds southern.

Salina: I think she does.

Salina: I think she sounds like that.

Nikki: Charles it's so funny.

Nikki: Again, that's why I say I would have to watch it because I think I'm so far past trying to poke holes in this movie because it's so ingrained in my mind that it's impossible for me to be like and they're just making up accents.

Nikki: We were able to do that early in Designing Women.

Nikki: I'm not even sure I could do that exercise now with Designing Women, so that's a tough exercise for me.

Salina: Well, what was funny to me is if they weren't just in love with.

Nikki: Olympia, okay, please God, next time I watch Steele Magnolias, I hope I don't watch it thinking, Darryl Hannah is such a bad accent.

Nikki: Now I'm going to be in my head forever and be like, that's why.

Salina: I was surprised when we did the banister buffs of Atlanta and I told you, I said, the woman who comes in and she's like the manager or whatever, she sounds just like Annel to me.

Salina: And I never thought Annele's accent was that good.

Salina: It was just always a little overplayed for me, which is why I absolutely thought that when I went to go look for where that actor was from, I could have just sworn she was going to be from the Midwest or something and she was from the south.

Salina: So that's why I said to me, it's the worst one out of all of them.

Salina: But it still sounds like this other woman who's from the south.

Salina: So it's whatever.

Salina: Who knows?

Salina: We're just making this stuff up, guys.

Salina: We're just making it up.

Salina: So references we need to talk about.

Salina: Do you have anything here?

Nikki: The only one I wrote down was Spud made a reference to Circus of the Stars when he was working on the car.

Nikki: It's one of the few pop culture references in the movie.

Nikki: And I have heard of Circus of the Stars.

Nikki: I couldn't have told you what it was.

Nikki: I can now tell you that it was an annual television special broadcast by CBS in the United States in which celebrities performed circus type acts.

Nikki: They had 19 shows in total.

Nikki: The first was broadcast in 1977, the last in 1994.

Nikki: Over the years, the series featured many leading movie and television stars.

Nikki: Dixie Carter and Delta Burke both appeared on it at some point.

Nikki: So this is your Designing Women tie in.

Salina: Oh, my goodness.

Salina: It's also weird too, because I think so, like CBS is like behind this movie somewhere.

Salina: Yeah, somewhere in the dissemination or something.

Salina: And it's just so funny how it's almost like a little bit of like a let down to hear some of these things because you're like they're like just find a way to work in our titles to our shows.

Nikki: Speaking of what, I was watching King of Queens last night.

Nikki: She had a stack of postit notes sitting on her desk and it was Nordic Track branded just randomly in a lawyer's office.

Nikki: She has a stack of Nordic Track postit notes on her desk.

Salina: Of course.

Nikki: Brand endorsement is so crazy.

Salina: It's so weird.

Salina: So speaking of that, Coca Cola, I had never noticed it before.

Salina: There is Coke Cola in so many of these scenes and a lot of it's glass bottles, which I thought was unique.

Nikki: Yeah, I think people see that as Southern.

Salina: I think that's right.

Salina: It's not my experience, but sure.

Nikki: Now all I can think of is Annele saying I'll have a cherry coat.

Nikki: You're right, she does have the worst accents.

Salina: I'm so sorry.

Salina: I did look into it and I think the bottom line is because I almost put this as a Southern reference because it's smart to have Coca Cola in there, but the way it's in the south, it's not Atlanta, but Coca Cola is Atlanta based.

Salina: And so for that reason it feels like it could be like a smart, like, hey, we realize we're in the south, but then after the 15th time I saw it, I was like, okay, this is just product placement.

Salina: And what I will say, without going into the details is it is an.

Nikki: Exclusive deal struck with Coke.

Salina: Well, we'll link to an article from the New York Times from 1989 about it for all our advertising enthusiasts because it's a deep cut, but it's out there.

Salina: The other one that was really bothering me is whether or not Amberlynn really had eleven fingers.

Nikki: What did you find out?

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: It sounds like it was made up probably by like there was like a little bit of I don't know if you guys know your history around this very well, but a little bit of a Catholic Protestant thing going on at this time.

Salina: And it sounds like it was a little bit of propaganda against her from a man who never even really saw her in real life.

Salina: And so even though at the time I think it was probably being reported as fact, now more time is marched on.

Salina: And now historians, it sounds like Phil a little bit differently, but we all.

Nikki: Believe she does because Olympia Dukakis taught us.

Salina: But I'm here to speak the truth.

Salina: That's all she wrote.

Nikki: Oh, boy.

Nikki: Salina, did it live up to your expectation?

Nikki: Was this everything you wanted it to be?

Nikki: Have you said everything you need to say about Steel Magnolias?

Salina: I could never have said everything I need to say, but I have said everything that maybe we have three listeners still around who have made it this far.

Salina: And so you and I do not pass out at the table.

Nikki: All right, well, our next episode, we're going back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Nikki: So we're going to talk about designing women.

Nikki: Episode 14 the Mistress Everyone can follow along with us and engage.

Nikki: That is, we'd love everyone to follow along with us and engage.

Nikki: Instagram and Facebook at Sweet tea and TV tiktoksweetvpod Our email is sweettvpod@gmail.com.

Nikki: Our website is www.sweettv.com.

Nikki: There are several ways to support the show.

Nikki: You can tell your family and friends about us, rate and review the podcast wherever you listen.

Nikki: And we have some additional ways to support the show on the Support US tab of our website and come back Thursday.

Nikki: We're going to explore the life and legend of the greatest hick who ever lived.

Nikki: Designing women's words.

Nikki: Not mine.

Nikki: Miss Dolly Parton.

Salina: If you didn't tack it on, I was going to.

Salina: I'm like that's.

Salina: Not Nikki saying that.

Nikki: I only talk about Miss Parton with full respect.

Salina: Well, you know what that means.

Nikki: What does it mean, Salina?

Salina: It means we love you more than our luggage and we'll see you around the bend.

Salina: Bye.