July 8-14, 2004

naked city

It's Their Time, Up Here

The Goonies never say die.

by Debra Auspitz

"We're a little disappointed in The Goonies. We had hoped it would have done as well as Gremlins, but remember Gremlins already had a ready-made audience through the dolls, toys and other merchandise. Goonies is not a household name." — Barry Reardon, president of Warner Bros. Distribution

Reardon, who has since retired, made that remark to an Associated Press reporter at the start of the '85 summer movie season. Goonies had opened the week before to mostly favorable or lukewarm reviews (Gene Siskel's headline shouted "Key for Enjoying Goonies: Sleep Through Opening") and a not-shabby first weekend box office for its time ($9.1 million).

What Warner Bros. couldn't know then is that the little Spielberg-produced pirate/adventure movie would indeed become a household name — to the point where, 20 years later, stores that cater mostly to folks who weren't even born when Sloth first uttered "Hey, you guys" are stocking their shelves with Goonies T-shirts.

With VH1's I Love the '90s starting later this month, the assumption might be that whatever Goonies resurgence exists now will soon die out along with the '80s revival craze that swept it up.

But the DVD, released in February 2003, offers one clue that Goonies fans aren't so much following a trend as nursing a collective obsession. On most DVDs, the obligatory commentary track is just a few unseen cast members or the director, reminiscing as the film plays softly. For The Goonies, the movie was often relegated to a box in the corner of the screen, putting the focus instead on the cast (the kids, anyway), gathered in a room, riffing. It was a sure nod to the audience's connection to the film, their curiosity to see the grown-up Goonies back together.

What also remains, apparently, in both die-hard fans and a later generation, is a hunger for Goonies merchandise. A trip to Best of Philadelphia, one of the souvenir shops in The Bourse, reveals a jarring sight: Among Philly-centric items like Rocky T-shirts and tourist tchotchkes is a wall of shelves entirely devoted to Goonies shirts. From a simple skull-and-crossbones logo tee to retro iron-on images of Chunk doing the Truffle Shuffle, the shirts seem at once completely out of place and instantly recognizable.

Store manager Emma La Marco says that in the three months the shirts have been in stock, they've been selling very well, and attract two distinct types of consumers — 20-somethings who remember the film fondly and schoolkids on field trips who "think it's funny, but they don't really get it." The store already has new models on order.

Best of Philadelphia is part of a chain of 44 "Best of"-type shops around the country owned by the Massachusetts-based company Color Inc. "We go to these trade shows and we ask around about what's going to be hot," says director of buying Phyllis Roche. At a trade show in Las Vegas, Roche was informed that Goonies merchandise was being reintroduced, possibly to promote a sequel, Goonies 2: Never Say Die.

Ah, Goonies 2. The One-Eyed Willie treasure mother lode for wannabe Goondocks residents. The film, usually said to be featuring the original cast as adults whose children embark on an adventure, has been discussed, dreamt about, fan-fiction-ized and confirmed/denied for years now.

The mythical sequel is also credited by RASH! Theatre co-creator Ren Casey as one reason the film has experienced such popularity in recent years. Casey should know — his company will put on Save the Goondocks! (A Musical Parody) in the New York Fringe Festival this year. (Casey, informed of the apparently die-hard Goonies fans in Philly, promises to look into a local stop, but for now, check it out at www.rashtheatre.org.)

"The concept for the show," explains Casey, "is that we are trying to do the impossible: put an adventure movie loaded with special effects on stage. You can't do it, the medium just won't allow it. But here we are, working so hard and trying so hard and you just love us for it. The fun is that it mirrors the movie exactly, but things are tweaked and necessarily altered for the stage. The show also criticizes, yet pays homage to, a staple of our childhood."

But why Goonies? "Every generation has its own icons of popular culture which act as a thread tying the generation together. It's a universal common ground where we can all meet. I think it's important to recognize what those are. The Goonies is definitely one of them."

As yet, nothing official has been said about the fabled Goonies 2, but the cult following persists. City Paper's halfhearted attempts to reach Kerri Green (Andi) and Robert Davi (non-Joey Pants Fratelli brother), as well as Goonies soundtrack staple Cyndi Lauper went, unsurprisingly, unanswered. Casey has also reached out to the cast to invite them to his show, and is anxiously awaiting a response.

But whether or not we ever get our sequel, and even if the cast has moved on (some as far as The Shire), The Goonies really will never die as a cult favorite and generational icon — or as a profitable enterprise.

As Roche puts it, in business terms, "The Goonies has been good this year."