During the coronavirus shutdown, each day we will bring you a recommendation from The Post’s Peter Botte for a sports movie, TV show or book that perhaps was before your time or somehow slipped between the cracks of your viewing/reading history.
CADDYSHACK (1980)
Rated: R
Streaming: Amazon Prime
There probably isn’t a more quotable comedy for an entire generation. So it’s got that going for it, which is nice.
First-time director Harold Ramis’ raunchy comedy about the shenanigans and politics of country-club life meteorically vaulted the careers of “Saturday Night Live” alums Chevy Chase (as trust-funder Ty Webb) and Bill Murray (as goofy greens keeper Carl Spackler), who ad-libbed much of the loosely written script by Ramis and National Lampoon legend Doug Kenney.
“Caddyshack,” which revolves around the scholarship aspirations of teenaged caddy Danny Noonan (Michael O’Keefe) at snobby Bushwood Country Club, is ranked the No. 7 sports movie of all-time by the American Film Institute.
It also featured “Mary Tyler Moore Show” veteran Ted Knight as the irascible club cofounder Judge Smails and marked the first major film role for a 59-year-old standup comedian named Rodney Dangerfield, who finally earned the silver-screen respect he long craved as quipping real estate mogul Al Czervik.
The drug use and rampant partying on and off the set became as legendary as the film itself, which was based on Murray and his brother Brian Doyle-Murray (who played Lou the caddie master) growing up as caddies at Indian Hills Golf Club in Illinois.
Add a couple of points if you like dancing mechanical gophers and songster Kenny Loggins. It must be noted, however, that 1988’s Caddyshack II — with Dan Aykroyd replacing Murray, Jackie Mason in for Dangerfield and Robert Stack for Knight — also stands near the top of the leaderboard for worst sequel ever made.
Quote of Note
Judge Smails (Ted Knight): “You know, Ty, you should play with Dr. Beeper and myself. I mean, he’s been club champion for three years running and I’m no slouch myself.”
Ty Webb (Chevy Chase): “Don’t sell yourself short, Judge. You’re a tremendous slouch.”
Botte Blows: 4.7 of 5