This whole thing is reminding me of the situation with Star Wars, the more locial explanation for which seems to be a special print made specifically for drive-in theaters. If an original dirve-in print were to turn up and be viewable, the whole “Luke was watching the battle through binoculars!” and “No, he wasn’t!” thing would be solved once and for all.
Having seen Star Wars at a drive-in, I can empathize with April et al., but there doesn’t seem to be any “out” with Big.
Someone on here claimed they had that alternate Star Wars. Their family owned a cinema or something like that. Has any footage of the recalled scenes surfaced over the years?
If any of them exist, they would be in a drive-in print, which have (had?) to be different from the standard theater print due to the lighting conditions. I don’t recall seeing any of the other scenes, just the battle switching to a long-range view followed by Luke with his binoculars and me wondering what the hell was going on.
I’m the guy who made this thread 11 years ago and despite having a solid memory like you, I have come to realize that it is another movie and my mind conflated the two. I know; it’s shocking, but true.
IIRC, the someone An Gadaí is thinking of claimed to have an “Episode IV” print from 1977 which, of course, turned out to not be the case.
Slight nitpick: “13 Going on 30” didn’t alternate with TV showings of “Big” through the 1990s, because it wasn’t released until '04; you mean “14 Going on 30”, which is a much worse title and a much more obscure film.
I’ll search when I’m on my desktop but I think we’re talking about different posters.
I spent years trying to find a book I read in elementary school - eventually, I realized I was conflating “Islands in the Sky” by Clarke (Islands in the Sky - Wikipedia) with “Step to the Stars” by Del Rey. Both involved boys who go to a space station, so it’s natural that I confused them.
Is this the whole “Star Wars said Episode IV” in the original release thingy? Wasn’t it really in 1981 or so that they added it?
Yes. I was misremembering ironically enough.
I just watched the 14 going on 30 clip. I think that I may have confused the two as well. I don’t remember the movie at all, but the ending is similar to what I remembered “Big” as. Don’t remember the boy becoming the teacher though.
On the other hand…
…for some years, the wise denizens of the SDMB insisted that conflated memory was in play when people insisted they remembered some ditzy girl answering, “In the butt,” when Bob Eubanks asked her, on The Newlywed Game, “What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever had to urge to make whoopee?” Never happened, they said, pointing out that Bob Eubanks himself denied it ever happened and offered to give $10,000 to anyone who could prove him wrong.
It was just faulty memory, said they.
I agreed they were probably right.
But then… I changed my mind, when the clip was found.
I remember the alternate ending of “Big” and was also confused when I saw the movie again and it was not the ending I remembered.
I have never seen the movie “14 going on 30” (never heard of it, I did not watch TV movies when I was a kid) and that clip does not match my memory of the end scenes from Big. I specifically remember the Josh-as-a-kid character’s reaction to the new girl in class when he realized it was her.
Somewhere, Sir William of Ockham is laughing.
It seems absolutely evident, from all that’s been presented, that it’s more likely a small number of people are conflating another very similar movie with *Big *than that some enormous number have forgotten there was an alternate ending.
Is there a single Doper out there who has a line to Tom Hanks, Penny Marshal, Gary Ross or even David Moscow (young Josh)?
ETA: I just found David on Facebook; maybe someone who FBs could get him to answer.
I half-way changed my mind on that one. I will concede that it happened, but that a few private viewings of the clip ballooned into a widespread belief that it was seen by many over the air, which could not have happed due to censorship at the time. The show was not live, and it wouldn’t have been aired with that clip sill in.
Did I see a different version of Big? The version you guys saw has that iconic scene where they’re in a toy store dancing on a giant guitar playing Classical Gas, right?
No-this is the other one where they dance up and down a giant flute, plugging the holes with their bare asses.
They released a special DVD with an extended version full of cut scenes. If there was an alternate ending filmed it would have been on that version. It wasn’t because it doesn’t exist.
217 likes. Either someone set the page up in his name or that’s really embarrassing. Either way I would feel bad trying to contact the page.
ETA never mind it was a fan page.
I remember that other topic used to have a different ending where the alternate *Big *ending does exist.