Casting a male slightly shorter then the leading lady, in a comedy and slapping on a saccharine (yet touchingly catchy) movie theme???
See:
Tootsie
The Goodbye Girl
Arthur
Have I missed any? Had Tom Cruise been 10 years older…I’m just sure he would have been in one as well.
Only one of the films you listed was made in the '70s and even then, Richard Dryfuss at 5’5" was slightly taller than Marsha Mason’s 5’3¾" .
They were just putting big names together. People knew those men were relatively short by traditional Hollywood standard and didn’t care. It hasn’t changed since then. Before that it was a bit tougher for men under 6 feet to get leading roles, but not unheard of.
Lets see…John Belushi and Blair Brown are/were the same height at 5’8". And ‘Continental Divide’ had a theme sung by Helen Reddy And yes Snow, it was made in 1981. I think all four mentioned films have the males as ‘fish out of water’. More so at least than the women.
Cant think of any films with Stallone that fit the bill. Or Pacino…
To get a list of this “fad”, all you have to do is look at the films of short male actors. Hoffman, Dreyfus, and Dudley Moore probably have a dozen romantic comedies between them.
Was Woody Allen shorter than his co-stars? He seems like it. Although I guess a different genre than you’re asking about. I’m thinking Annie Hall.
Woody is reported to be 5’5" tall, 2 inches shorter than Diane Keaton. Not recalling any snappy tune associated with the movie,
AFAICT each of Dudley Moore’s four wives were taller than him, so in his case it seem like less of a stunt and more real life.