One of the common SNL sketches of the late Nineteen Eighties was Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon’s “Hans and Franz,” about two Austrian weightlifting cousins of Arnold Schwarzenegger with a health TV program to “pump you up.”
What nobody knew till now’s that within the early ’90s, the 2 comedians teamed up with Conan O’Brien and Robert Smigel (my very own comedy hero) to write down a film concerning the characters. Arnold Schwarzenegger needed to do the film, which apparently is what earned the undertaking a inexperienced gentle.
However after the script was written, the plug was pulled, and the film by no means obtained made. Now, over 30 years later, the 4 are performing the script on Conan’s podcast, “Conan O’Brien Wants a Good friend,” in a sequence of episodes. The primary episode got here out a number of days in the past, and under is a video of the podcast efficiency.
This primary episode is fairly rattling humorous, and the film would have had a Austin Powers / Pee Wee’s Huge Journey vibe.
Within the episode, Conan explains that they have been naive to write down the film round Schwarzenegger’s participation.
“One of many issues {that a} smart particular person would have completed, if we had been smart… is to write down a film that perhaps Arnold has a fast cameo in, as a result of Arnold was on the time was the largest film star on the earth. What we did, which shocks me now up on re-reading it, is — I remembered Arnold was in it, however I forgot that Arnold is in it extra that anyone. So we hung all the undertaking…”
And naturally, when Schwarzenegger backed out, the film was lifeless. On the podcast “Good One,” Robert Smigel says that he heard that Schwarzenegger left the undertaking as a result of his action-parody film The Final Motion Hero got here out and did not do properly on the field workplace, and so he did not wish to do a self-referential parody of his persona once more.
Here is a 1987 SNL Hans & Franz sketch.
