The Goodbye Girl - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Goodbye Girl or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Goodbye Girl

[mathew]

One of five films written by Neil Simon that featured his wife Marsha Mason. The movies include The Goodbye Girl (1977), Chapter Two (1979), The Cheap Detective (1978), Only When I Laugh (1981) and Max Dugan Returns (1983).

[sylvia]

The feature film debut of Quinn Cummings.

[edgar]

Marsha Mason recalled a scene between her and Quinn Cummings in which Cummings was supposed to say her line and move to a chair and sit down. "I noticed that she did it exactly the same way every time. Acting that way shows good discipline, but the freshness can go away pretty quickly." Mason decided she wanted to try something different just to see how it might change the scene. "Quinn and I started the scene again and when it came time for her to move to the chair," said Mason, "I sat in it instead. Naturally, she was thrown by this and looked to Herb. He carefully and quietly explained to Quinn that in life we never know what another person is going to do and we don't always know how we are going to respond to someone or something. She listened intently, nodded her head, and said, 'I got it.' She was extraordinary in her ability to go with it. At nine!"

[jessie]

First of two Neil Simon written films starring Richard Dreyfuss. The other is Lost in Yonkers (1993).

[harry]

This Neil Simon written movie is considered a male-female version of Simon's earlier hit, The Odd Couple (1968).

[victoria]

Sources point to this film as the first romantic comedy to gross $100 million.

[sara]

Lucy (Quinn Cummings) wears a yellow sweatshirt with a picture of a Wacky Packages sticker on the front. The spoofed product is "Liptorn Molten Lava Soup."

[victoria]

The $200/month rent Eliott paid for a two bedroom apartment (adjusted for inflation) would be $811 in 2017. While no specific address is given, assuming they're on the Upper West Side, the average rent for a one bedroom in 2017 is approximately $3250.

[ray]

Features Quinn Cummings's only Oscar nominated performance.

[amber]

Marsha Mason also recalled working with Quinn Cummings: "One of my favorite actresses to work with - was nine years old going on twenty-seven. She made 'precocious' a wonderful word. Quinn Cummings was a little girl with a very big intelligence. She knew her lines, was as quick and almost as smart as Richard, could land a joke with the best of them, and she was a professional."

[tamara]

When Richard Dreyfuss was asked in a 2000 interview what made the film so special, he replied, "Goodbye Girl was a wonderful script. Wonderful. And as actors we never got tired of it. Never...It was funny and loving. And the actors and actresses in the show--especially Marsha and Quinn--were perfect. Like God had said these are the actors to work with. I once said that I'd like to play Elliot until I retired and got a Swiss watch because he was great. I wanted to be him, and I wanted to acquire his personality for my own."

[camila]

As with both Neil Simon's Plaza Suite (1971) and The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975) before it, exteriors and location filming was shot in New York City whilst interiors were shot on studio sound stages in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.

[melinda]

One of two films directed by Herbert Ross in 1977 to be nominated for Best Picture of the year. The other was The Turning Point (1977), for which Ross was also nominated for Best Director.

[kenzi]

During the fight in the strip club, the red-vested bartender jumps over the bar to help with an unruly patron. A close look reveals the bartender is Jamie Farr (uncredited).

[kim]

Exteriors were filmed on-location in New York City. Interiors were filmed on a sound stage in Los Angeles, CA.

[lynn]

The movie was remade for television around twenty-seven years after this film was first made and released. Jeff Daniels played the Richard Dreyfuss role whilst Patricia Heaton took the Marsha Mason part. The "updated" remake involved little rewriting of this film. The TV remake screenplay is literally word-for-word and scene-for-scene from this movie's original script with the exception of a few curse words removed to make it more appropriate for television. A line that referred to Richard Dreyfuss's height was removed as it wouldn't make sense when said by Daniels.

[jesse]

Neil Simon wrote a sequel to this movie, entitled "Mr. Famous," in which Elliott Garfield and Paula McFadden were reunited in California. There were several readings of the script, with Simon, Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason, director Herbert Ross, and producer Ray Stark, but the movie was never produced. In a 1991 interview, Dreyfuss explained that the movie was never made because it dealt with Elliott Garfield's problems after he became famous, and "no one gives a damn about the problems of a movie star." Actress Quinn Cummings revealed that there were about 20 copies of the script for "Mr. Famous" in existence - she still has hers.

[albert]

Among the Richard III cast is adult film actor R. Bolla (credited under his real name Robert Kerman). He was immediately recognized and treated warmly by Richard Dreyfuss.