Dirty Dancing

The Rom Com Rewrite

Whom amongst us has not carried a watermelon?

Content note for this episode: Roe v. Wade, abortion, bodily autonomy, reproductive justice.

Dirty Dancing

Year: 1987

Written by: Eleanor Bergstein

Director: Emile Ardolino

Stars: Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey

Show notes:

With one of the most iconic meet-cutes in the history of cinema, some serious obstacles and an all-time great happy ending, this might be the best rom com ever made. Is it really a rom com, though? Who cares when it’s the best freaking film in the history of cinema!

In this episode, we mention The Wedding Year (2019) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8367184/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt), which we covered more fully in our previous episode. Lisa also talks about the film That Thing You Do (1996) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117887/), the TV show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015-2019) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4094300/?ref_=nm_knf_t1) and the band Fountains of Wayne (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountains_of_Wayne), all of which featured music by Adam Schlesinger. She also references Titanic (1997) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120338/). The intensely erotic upside-down Spiderman kiss that Charles Adrian mentions is from the 2002 film Spider-Man (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145487/) starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst.

We also reflect, from about 28 minutes in until about 36 minutes in, on how the story of Penny’s abortion is handled in this film and how differently that part of the film hits now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned in the US.

This episode features a contribution from Charles Adrian’s younger sister Lissa Gillott.

We record these episodes over the internet. Sometimes the audio is not perfect. We apologise for that.

Music in this episode is by Martin Zaltz Austwick (martinzaltzaustwick.com). Artwork is by Lisa Findley.

Thank you for listening!