TERRY GROSS, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. John Candy, the comic actor who rose to fame in the sketch comedy series "SCTV" and such films as "Stripes," "Splash" and "Spaceballs," died at age 43 in 1994. Now, 31 years later, a new documentary pays tribute to Candy and does so in a very intimate and affectionate way. It's called "John Candy: I Like Me." And it's now streaming on Prime Video. Our TV critic, David Bianculli, has this review.
DAVID BIANCULLI, BYLINE: This new movie-length documentary about John Candy is subtitled "I Like Me" for a reason. That's the line that Candy says to Steve Martin partway through their film "Planes, Trains And Automobiles" after Martin's character has bombarded Candy's character with a string of increasingly mean insults. By the end of that movie, the vulnerability and likability of Candy's character has won Martin's character over. This documentary has the same effect. Even if you know little about John Candy, by the time this film is over, you'll miss him a lot.
"John Candy: I Like Me" takes a chronological approach to its subject, but not a typical one. It's more than 20 minutes into the movie before we see any real samples of Candy the performer. We first learn about the type of person he was growing up in Canada. He listened to Firesign Theatre comedy records and played football until he injured his knee and had his kneecap removed, not replaced, removed. We hear from his widow, his now adult children, his friends and other relatives - and also from a ridiculously long list of colleagues, costars and fellow celebrities - all of whom seem all too happy to share the most personal of stories. One of them is Bill Murray, who joined Toronto's Second City improv stage group when Candy did.
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BILL MURRAY: We started at the same time. And we were the worst. We jumped into a show, and they gave us stuff to do. But then you'd have to - the second part of the show was you had to improvise. And no one wanted to work with us because we didn't know what we were doing, so we'd only work with each other. But we were confident. We had a lot of confidence. I don't think people today realize how bad you have to be in order to be a perfectionist. You have to be bad and know you're bad, because there's nothing like being really bad to make you want to be better.
BIANCULLI: Murray talks about some of the alter egos Candy adopted onstage and offstage, too. Like Johnny Toronto, who acted like he owned the city. Eventually, Murray points out, John Candy would become Johnny Toronto, beloved by that city, co-owning a Canadian football league team with hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky and becoming famous as a TV and movie star. That fame started with "Second City TV," also known as "SCTV," which began in Canada in 1976 and quickly was imported to the U.S. It was a low-budget, syndicated alternative to "Saturday Night Live," which had begun on NBC the year before. I loved "SCTV" the first moment I saw it, and so did Tom Hanks, who recalls stumbling upon it while touring a stage show in Canada as a member of Cleveland's Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival. The first sketch he saw was a long parody of "Leave It To Beaver" with Harold Ramis as the neighbor kid Whitey and John Candy as the Beaver.
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TOM HANKS: It was kind of like the promise of that very first time that I saw him - this subtle, big, grown-up guy dressed up as Jerry Mathers, saying, I don't know, gee, Wally.
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JOHN CANDY: (As Beaver Cleaver) That Eddie Haskell, he really makes me mad.
HAROLD RAMIS: (As Hubert Whitney) Well, why don't you kill him?
CANDY: (As Beaver Cleaver) Nah, I could go to jail. Besides, it's against the law.
RAMIS: (As Hubert Whitney) But Beaver, no one would have to know that you did it.
CANDY: (As Beaver Cleaver) I don't know, Whitey. I don't even have a gun.
RAMIS: (As Hubert Whitney) Come on, Beaver.
BIANCULLI: Tom Hanks is the father of actor Colin Hanks, who directs "John Candy: I Like Me." That may explain why Tom Hanks is interviewed, but it also might explain the appreciation Colin Hanks shows as both director and interviewer for the process of acting and of what being the friend or loved one of an actor is like.
Because of "Second City," we hear from Catherine O'Hara, Andrea Martin, Martin Short, Dave Thomas and others. Because of John Candy's long string of movies, we hear from Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, and Macaulay Culkin, who speaks admiringly of Candy's many films with writer-director John Hughes. Those films include "Planes, Trains And Automobiles" and, with Culkin, both "Home Alone" and "Uncle Buck."
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MACAULAY CULKIN: If you're going to associate an actor with John Hughes, a lot of people will think, like, oh, Molly Ringwald or something like that. And it's like, no, it's John Candy. I've done as many John Hughes movies as Molly Ringwald. We've both done three. I think he did - Candy did nine. You should associate those two.
BIANCULLI: One scene from Candy's film career that this documentary is smart enough to present intact comes from "Uncle Buck." It features John Candy and 8-year-old Macaulay Culkin meeting and asking questions of one another in a parody of the interrogation style of dialogue made famous by Jack Webb in "Dragnet." It worked in 1989, and it works now.
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CULKIN: (As Miles Russell) Where do you live?
CANDY: (As Buck Russell) In the city.
CULKIN: (As Miles Russell) Do you have a house?
CANDY: (As Buck Russell) Apartment.
CULKIN: (As Miles Russell) Own or rent?
CANDY: (As Buck Russell) Rent.
CULKIN: (As Miles Russell) What do you do for a living?
CANDY: (As Buck Russell) Lots of things.
CULKIN: (As Miles Russell) Where's your office?
CANDY: (As Buck Russell) I don't have one.
CULKIN: (As Miles Russell) How come?
CANDY: (As Buck Russell) I don't need one.
CULKIN: (As Miles Russell) Where's your wife?
CANDY: (As Buck Russell) Don't have one.
CULKIN: (As Miles Russell) How come?
CANDY: (As Buck Russell) It's a long story.
CULKIN: (As Miles Russell) Do you have kids?
CANDY: (As Buck Russell) No, I don't.
CULKIN: (As Miles Russell) How come?
CANDY: (As Buck Russell) It's an even longer story.
CULKIN: (As Miles Russell) Are you my dad's brother?
CANDY: (As Buck Russell) What's your record for consecutive questions asked?
CULKIN: (As Miles Russell) Thirty-eight.
BIANCULLI: We also hear from others, like Conan O'Brien, an unabashed John Candy fan in college, who invited him to visit the Harvard campus and specifically the Harvard Lampoon, which Conan edited. Conan was astounded that Candy came, amazed by how nice and how present he was, and influenced by a piece of advice Candy gave him at the time.
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CONAN O'BRIEN: I remember admitting to him that I was very interested in comedy and I might even want to try it. I'll never forget this. He looked me square in the eye, and he said, you don't try it. You either do it, or you don't do it. You don't try it, kid. And that spoke to me. Like, all in, kid, all in or not at all.
BIANCULLI: I wish this documentary included more samples from Candy's brilliant characters on "SCTV." And there's virtually no mention of "The David Steinberg Show," the Canadian TV series preceding "SCTV" that gave Candy an even earlier break in 1972. But I felt happy and, at times, a little sad watching "John Candy: I Like Me." Colin Hanks does a fine job of profiling a gifted comic and actor and, by all accounts, a very sweet human being. And after you watch the documentary, Prime Video has a handy selection of John Candy movies to dive into, including "Uncle Buck," "Planes, Trains And Automobiles" and "Spaceballs." I highly recommend taking that plunge. John Candy - I like him, too.
GROSS: David Bianculli reviewed "John Candy: I Like Me," which is streaming on Prime Video. Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, we unpack the ceasefire agreement in Gaza with veteran State Department negotiator Aaron David Miller, who's now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He says, the Gaza deal isn't a lasting peace agreement but an important step made possible in part by Donald Trump's transactional approach to politics and diplomacy. I hope you'll join us.
To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram, @nprfreshair.
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GROSS: FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our managing producer is Sam Briger. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Our consulting visual producer is Hope Wilson. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. Our co-host is Tonya Mosley. I'm Terry Gross.
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