The Peter Bogdanovich story regarding They All Laughed was rarely told accuately. Various versions went around throughout the years, including:

  • Peter bought the rights because he didn't want the studio profiting from Stratten's murder.
  • Peter bought the rights because there were never plans for wide distribution.
  • Peter bought the rights as a memorial to Stratten.
  • Peter bought the rights because it bombed in limited release, and that ruined any possibility for wide release.



None of these are completely true. I was around in those days, though very much wet behind the ears. Allow me to explain what really happened.

Principal photography of the film was completed sometime during the early summer of 1980, which means that Stratten was murdered after it was done. Her murder was on August 14, 1980.

The film distributor was 20th Century Fox. They didn't know what to do with it. They were lukewarm on the film itself, but the murder left them wondering when to release it. They were very careful not to give off the impression that they were exploiting Stratten's tragic killing. There was also a toxicity to the film, given that the murder sprang from the result of an affair between the starlet and the director. Had Stratten simlpy been killed by a jealous ex, without Bogdanovich's involvement, the show would have gone on as normal. For example, Dominique Dunne was murdered by a jealous ex while at home practicing lines for the upcoming epic miniseries V with one of the series actors. While the miniseries gave a brief memorial in the credits for Dunne, it went on as planned, and they replaced her with actress Blair Tefkin. This was around the same time (1982) as the Stratten murder. But I digress.

20th Century Fox sat on it for a full year, before finally deciding to dip their toes into the distribution water by doing some test screenings in Phoenix, Providence, and Minneapolis, in August 1981. These had middling results. Audiences were iffy on whether they liked the film, and 20th Century Fox decided it simply wasn't worth the potential trouble and controversy. They pulled it from distribution. That seemed to be the end of it, but screenings at the September 1981 Venice and Deauville Film Festivals resulted in audiences liking it, once again opening the possibility it would be distributed after all.

Ultimately 20th Century Fox elected for a limited distribution in the fall of 1981, with the possibility for more if it were to become surprisingly successful. Bogdanovich was very unhappy with these plans, feeling that 20th Century Fox was shoving it to the background, and did not have any real plans to mass market it. He was convinced that the film would fail to get much attention, and Stratten would go down in history as a footnote, rather than one of the great starlets who was cut down way too early. He purchased the distribution rights, but had to agree to pay the $8.6 million financing for the film, originally provided by Time-Life. When Bogdanovich found he was over his head regarding distrbution, knowing little about that side of the industry, he lost everything. He also failed to pay back everything to Time-Life, who eventually sued him and his new production company.

Regarding Druff's question as to whether it got the segment on WKRP because of a relationship with someone at that show, the answer is sort of.

There was a tremendous amount of sympathy for Bogdanovich in Hollywood at the time, and many quietly wanted the film to succeed, because it was clearly very important to him, given Stratten's involvement. For example, some Frank Sinatra songs appeared in the film, which otherwise would have been impossible on the $7.5 million budget it had. Sinatra, who felt sorry for Bogdanovich, sold the rights to the use the songs for an extremely low price. He felt that if his songs could help push the movie over the top, he was happy to contribute. Note that Sinatra was especially sympathetic because he lost his own son to kidnapping for some time.

Hugh Wilson was not close friends with Bogdanovich, but they knew each other, and I'd classify them as friendly acquaintances. This was Wilson's way of lending a helping hand. As Druff mentioned, the episode aired some weeks after wide distribution, and in fact it had been pulled from various theaters because of heavy pressure from Paramount, which wanted the spot over the December 1981 holidays for their new movie Reds. By the time that WKRP episode aired, it was difficult to find They All Laughed in much of the country, even though Les Nessman claimed it was just about to open. Once again, Les, you got it wrong!

Wilson did a last-minute rewrite of Lissa Levin's script for the episode. The original script called for some sort of usual misbehavior on Nessman's part during his news segment, followed by a public dressing down by program director Andy Travis. At that point, Les would go on to reveal the news that Travis was allegedly having an affair with the station manager's elderly mother, who owned the station. In the rewritten version, the one you see in the video Druff posted, Les was instead dressed down by Travis for the mistreatment of They All Laughed star Colleen Camp. Note that the showbiz segment done by Nessman in the episode was never seen before or after. This was special for the episode, to squeeze in promotion for the movie.

While this did not help very much, Bogdanovich was reportedly very grateful to Wilson for the effort, and for being willing to do a last-minute script rewrite just for him. Wilson was talented enough to create a memorable scene out of it, which is still beloved by fans to this day.



I hope you enjoyed the full story on They All Laughed. I have a busy day in Hollywood tomorrow, and will likely only get about 3 hours sleep, so I hope Druff appreciates it. Good night.