# Raiders of the Lost Ark starring Tom Selleck **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 23, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-starring-tom-selleck/746908 "2016-02-23T19:58:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-starring-tom-selleck/746908/21 "2016-02-25T02:01:03Z")
Tom Sellack is a matinee idol heartthrob. Harrison Ford … is not. He’s a good looking man but he doesn’t look or really carry himself like a Movie Star. Sellack has the kind of looks that would have gotten him this part back in the 30’s. Ford looks and carries himself like a carpenter who still can’t quite believe his luck. Ford’s Professor Jones is not a sexy Bond-substitue. He’s a nerd who really cares about antiques and history. He’s not into the glamour or excitement. He’s not an art thief. He really does want to take that priceless cross and put it in a museum where it can studied in safety. Ford’s Indy subverts our expectations of what The Hero should be like. Sellack is charming and studly - and also exactly what we’ve come to expect our Movie Heroes to be. When Ford gets the girl, it’s because she sees his true self behind his everyman appeal. When Sellack gets the girl - well, you know why he gets the girl. It’s the same reason he gets all the girls. Big whoop. Everyone in the audience dreams of being Indy at the end of that movie. Ford makes it easier to imagine ourselves in that role. Sellack, by not being an everyman, makes it harder. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-starring-tom-selleck/746908/22 "2016-02-25T03:22:35Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > [http://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/59/b7/ed/59b7ed54c7c654646363c16c206124e9.jpg](http://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/59/b7/ed/59b7ed54c7c654646363c16c206124e9.jpg) > [@Patch](#): > > The Nazi on the middle right has a wonderful expression on his face for that photoshop. He does. Still, that 'stache on Indy has got to go. That poster looks like the one for a porn parody version. Because of the 'stache. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-starring-tom-selleck/746908/23 "2016-02-25T15:57:59Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > If Selleck had done the film, today people would be talking about how “iconic” his performance was … and we’d be rolling our eyes at the notion of this colorful, flamboyant role being played by that sourpuss Harrison Ford. Exactly. Whoever played the role would have created the “ideal” Indiana Jones. Selleck would have been more dashing and worldly. And that would have become how Dr. Jones was supposed to be. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-starring-tom-selleck/746908/24 "2016-02-25T16:11:14Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > I love the Indiana Jones movies, but I never quite accepted Ford’s Indy as a professor who grades papers and has office hours and so forth. He looks like a fish out of water in the campus scenes. > [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > I always thought that was the point. Risking life and limb in jungles? No problem! Facing a bunch of students at office hours? Run for your life! > > He was supposed to be the awkward prof. [Relevant Cracked article.](http://www.cracked.com/blog/why-indiana-jones-never-published-his-research/) ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-starring-tom-selleck/746908/25 "2016-02-25T16:15:16Z")
> [@Reddy\_Mercury](#): > > As some know, Tom Selleck was originally cast as Indiana Jones, but had to drop out three weeks before filming began because CBS wouldn’t let him out of his contract to do Magnum, P.I. At the last minute, Selleck was replaced by Harrison Ford. > > Do you think Selleck would’ve been a good Indiana Jones? Point of correction: Selleck turned down the role of Jones. He did not try to get out of his Magnum contract. That being said, I think he would have done a fine job and his Jones would have become the iconic portrayal, just as it did for Ford. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-starring-tom-selleck/746908/26 "2016-02-25T18:12:35Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > That being said, I think he would have done a fine job and his Jones would have become the iconic portrayal, just as it did for Ford. Do you think Selleck could’ve played an iconic Han Solo? ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-starring-tom-selleck/746908/27 "2016-02-25T19:46:14Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > [Relevant Cracked article.](http://www.cracked.com/blog/why-indiana-jones-never-published-his-research/) That’s fantastic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-starring-tom-selleck/746908.md?page=1)