Ivan Reitman (above right, with Dan Aykroyd and Rick Moranis on the set of “Ghostbusters”) packed a lot of movie theatres when I was a university student and beyond.
His low-budget cottage country comedy “Meatballs”(1979) co-starred an actress named Kate Lynch who went to my high school in Etobicoke (Michael Power-St. Joseph’s). She was great, but there was also a guy in the picture who Reitman knew from their days together working on the Harvard Lampoon Radio Show. Bill Murray had already blown up after a season on Saturday Night Live, but he kept his promise to do Reitman’s little movie. Things seem to have worked out after that for the two of them.
As a director, Reitman spun that little wonder into a string of comedy hits everybody in my age bracket saw over the next decade-plus: “Stripes,” “Ghostbusters,” “Legal Eagles,” “Twins,” “Dave” “Ghostbusters II” and “Kindergarten Cop.” More films followed.
It wasn’t that many years prior that he was making comedy shorts with some pals in Hamilton, Ont., out of McMaster University. Collectively, with their other friends, they would all go on to define comedy for a generation. Among them were Martin Short, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Andrea Martin and Eugene Levy — the latter still killing it (with Catherine O’Hara) in Super Bowl ads in 2022.
I was fortunate to host a Banff World Media Festival industry salute in 2016, not with Reitman but with one of his early associates — Don Carmody. The producer shared several great stories about working with Reitman way back when the two were helping David Cronenberg crank out a couple of his mid-’70s indie horror flicks, “Shivers” and “Rabid.”
Carmody was also in on the wild ride that was pulling together production of Reitman’s pivotol comedy directing effort, “Meatballs.” When the folks at Everything Zoomer came calling, I was happy to weave a few of those tales into my tribute to Reitman posted now at their site. Please follow this link to that feature.
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