Episode 58 – Catching The “Fever” With Director John Badham - Part 2

During the second part of Tony’s fascinating conversation with director John Badham they discuss what it was like filming “Saturday Night Fever” on the streets of Brooklyn surrounded by thousands of John Travolta fans, what it was like filming at the 2001 Odyssey discotheque in Bay Ridge, the real story behind Travolta’s famous “You Should Be Dancing” solo dance scene, actress Donna Pescow’s flawless performance during the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge scene, Fran Drescher’s standout three-line part in the film, his surprise that ‘Fever’ is still loved by audiences after 40 years, his memories of working on the 80’s blockbuster action movie WarGames, how the film relates to what’s going on with A.I. today, how it affected U.S. policy when it came out and how the books he’s written about directing “I’ll Be In My Trailer, the Creative Wars Between Directors and Actors”, and "John Badham on Directing" are used as text books in film schools worldwide!

JOHN BADHAM

John Badham, BA, MFA Yale University, PHD (hon) Columbia College, is a Director and Producer of Theatrical Films and Television.

Badham worked in television for years, on Universal TV series like “Cannon” and “The Bold Ones”. He then directed several acclaimed TV movies, including “Isn't It Shocking?” (1973) and “The Law” (1974). His first feature film was “The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings” in 1976.

His breakthrough came in 1977 when he replaced John G. Avildsen as the director of “Saturday Night Fever”, a massive worldwide hit starring John Travolta. His choices after that film were wildly eclectic, ranging from the action thriller “Blue Thunder” (1983) to the comedy-drama “Whose Life Is It Anyway?” (1981) to the comedy thriller “Stakeout” (1987) & its sequel “Another Stakeout” (1993). “WarGames” (1983), starring Matthew Broderick, is his other signature film, renowned for its take on popular Cold War fears of nuclear terror as well as being one of the first films to deal with the subculture of amateur hacking. Another sizable hit was “Short Circuit” (1986), a comedy about a robot who comes to life.

In addition to his numerous film credits, he has also continued to direct and produce for TV, including credits for Rod Serling's “Night Gallery”, the A&E television series “The Beast”, TV movies like HBO's “The Jack Bull” (1999), and episodes of series including “Crossing Jordan” & “Criminal Minds”. He has also contributed commentary to the web series “Trailers from Hell”.

His books “I’ll Be In My Trailer, the Creative Wars Between Directors and Actors”, and "John Badham on Directing" are used as text books in film schools worldwide. His films have been nominated for five Academy awards and two Emmy awards. He has won three Saturn Awards from the Academy of Science fiction and Fantasy and the Grand Prize from the Paris International Science Fiction Festival.

For the past 20 years he has been the Dodge Professor of Film and Media at Chapman University where he teaches beginning, intermediate and advanced directing and production to both undergraduate and graduate students.

John Badham website - ⁠https://www.johnbadham.com⁠

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