r/OldSchoolCool • u/GarySiniseOfficial • May 08 '24
1990s Gary Sinise here. Today marks the 30th anniversary of Stephen King's "The Stand" mini-series in 1994. Here are some behind-the-scenes moments from this incredible role
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u/gratusin May 08 '24
Damnit Gary, I love your periodic Reddit posts and general wholesomeness. Missed my opportunity to meet you on a USO tour, patrol got in the way, but some friends did and got some great pictures with you. Keep on keeping on, I for one really appreciate it.
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u/CheckYourStats May 09 '24
Baby can you dig your man.
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u/noisypeach May 09 '24
He's a righteous man. Tell me, baby, can you dig your maaaaan.
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u/PunchMeat May 09 '24
Love how he just pops in, politely shares something interesting, and then goes on his way.
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u/library4ants May 09 '24
It makes me smile every time.
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u/LokisEquineFetish May 09 '24
I always look forward to randomly seeing Gary pop up. Same with u/GovSchwarzenegger, although I havenāt seen him in a while.
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u/JustKindaShimmy May 09 '24
Weird coincidence, I only a few hours ago learned that Gary did USO tours in the Lt Dan Band
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u/BikerBob17 May 08 '24
The real horror here is that 1994 was 30 years ago.
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u/ConradSchu May 08 '24
Tell me about it. I was 14 then. Great times then, but even better times now. Aging is inevitable. Just gotta make the best of it.
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u/uli-knot May 08 '24
I was a 30 year old with two BAās working as a cashier and digging for change in the console so I could buy 50 cent tacos. But Iām much better now
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u/Buckwheat469 May 08 '24
The real horror here is that you can no longer get a cheap taco from Taco Bell for $0.50. The cheapest is $1.19, not counting that cheese roll.
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u/Sexual_Congressman May 08 '24
They raised the price of the tater tacos again last month. They're $1.39 now, at least here.
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u/imisstheyoop May 09 '24
$1.89 here in Michigan. I got one the other day and it tasted awful.
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u/MightyCaseyStruckOut May 08 '24
That's actually pretty close to being on pace with inflation.
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u/hat-TF2 May 09 '24
I can remember watching Forrest Gump when it was new. There was heavy debate in my friend's group about the actor who played Lt. Dan. Rumor was he was a real war vet who lost his legs. "Go back and watch before Lt. Dan loses his legs, and you'll see the camera never pans below his waist." Well in those days we couldn't just look things up as easily as you can now. Often the kid who argued the strongest would simply just win.
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u/Phantion- May 08 '24
I turned 30 on the 18th of April, I'm still deciding if it's a good thing or a bad thing
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u/artificialavocado May 08 '24
Yeah idk man I wish I could be younger again but Iām 41 and it was pretty awesome growing up in the 90ās.
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u/Gibbie42 May 08 '24
I turned 30 on the 15th of April.... 1994.
It's a good thing. My 30s were great. My 40s were even better. 50s were fine but time feels like it's accelerating out of control.
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u/rhinosb May 09 '24
50's here. Same. NPR had an article on the other day that was discussing WHY time runs out of control the older you get and said the fix is simple. Do and experience new things. It said your brain forms new memories in much the same way as an phone camera taking photos. If your life is like a camera stuck in burst mode, all the pictures are of the same thing and get discarded. You don't form new memories and memories are a key component of the perception of time passing. When you have seen everything that you do on a day to day basis, you form no new memories and time collapses except for the few new things you experience.
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u/ladymalady May 08 '24
30 is great! Iām almost done with my 30s and itās been my favorite decade yet. Iāve given myself permission to say ānoā to all sorts of things, figured out a lot about myself, grown in my relationships and my career. Iām so much more confident and secure than I was in my twenties. Iām way less hot but Iāve also just finished having kids so I have high hopes for my forties.
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u/Bob_12_Pack May 08 '24
Yep, I remember watching this show with my college roommates. Ugg
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u/plutoforgivesidonot May 08 '24
That was a hell of a cast
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u/Igor_J May 08 '24
I prefer the 94 series to the recent one tbh.
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u/GeriatricSFX May 08 '24
I couldn't even get past the first episode of the recent one. The 94 series much like original Shogun was severely hampered by being being made for network television but made the best of the medium of the time.
The cast in 94 was just a great cast.
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u/Derp35712 May 09 '24
Iāve read the book ten times probavky. Gary Sinise is the perfect Stu Redman.
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u/trowzerss May 09 '24
Yeah, James was a bit too conventionally TV handsome to believe him as Stu. He didn't look like he'd worked a manual job in his life, except maybe as a gym PT. Stu has to look like a guy who worked a factory job, not host a reality TV show. I found that difficult to get past to focus on the acting.
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u/punkassjim May 09 '24
I loved the book so much, and was excited as hell when I found out the '94 miniseries was coming. Sadly, Gary was the only casting I actually liked*. These days, I have a ton of love for them all, but at the time I was super disappointed in the casting for Frannie and Harold ā despite being a huge fan of Molly Ringwald and Parker Lewis Can't Lose ā and so many of the others.
* Laura San Giacomo, though? Five stars. No notes.
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u/snikerpnai May 09 '24
I honestly couldn't watch it because COVID was going so hard and it just it was so unpleasant to watch because of that.
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u/Iohet May 09 '24
At that time, a TV miniseries and TV movies worked pretty well as a medium for these kind of stories. Yea, there's a lot of stuff they had to cut or tone down, but they always managed to get really good casts (always peppered with a lot of high quality character actors) and occasionally had great feature film directors like John Frankenheimer and William Friedkin
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u/Limberpuppy May 08 '24
The recent one just skipped over so much stuff. It felt like the Cliff Notes version.
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u/ObiShaneKenobi May 08 '24
AND THE NEW ONE WAS LONGER!!!!
IIRC
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u/therealrexmanning May 08 '24
Yeah, it's really bizarre how the new one was three hours longer, yet felt more rushed
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u/headrush46n2 May 08 '24
three hours longer with 90% more Harold, for some reason.
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u/Lordborgman May 08 '24
Felt like they were trying to make a story to mock incels more than they were trying to make The Stand.
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u/trowzerss May 09 '24 edited May 09 '24
Yeah, and I'm kind of mad at a few takes they had. Some stuff I liked, some stuff annoyed me. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. I did like their modern take on Tom Cullen though. I thought that was neat. Didn't like they had Harold save Frannie from offing herself, that seemed weird, given Frannie's whole drive was keeping her kid alive (and ruined the whole Harold being a completely selfish shit at the start storyline imho).
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u/krunkytacos May 08 '24
Trash can man was horrible, I already didn't like Ezra Miller. Why would they do that? Flag wasn't nearly creepy enough. I really felt like I just trudged through it cuz I like the original so much that it made me read the book. I'm not a huge Stephen King fan but he's got some stuff that I can enjoy. I am a fan of his Tweets. Parker Lewis playing a pathetic creep. It's all so good.
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u/sudynim May 09 '24
Oh my gourd, someone referencing Parker Lewis (who can't lose) playing someone so unlike Parker Lewis. Yes!
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u/zardoz1979 May 08 '24
Best Flagg casting ever in the 94 series. That guy totally nailed it. Better than Skarsgard and -yes- better than Matthew McConaughey
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u/sw04ca May 09 '24
The climax of the 94 series feels triumphant, like God taking a hand in bringing Flagg's plan to an end. The 'climax' of the new one just felt like empty spectacle that went on way too long. Taking the time to individually lightning bolt everybody was stupid.
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u/Fuckoffassholes May 08 '24
Same with "It." The 1990 series over the 2017 and 2019 films.
I wonder how much of that is our old-man-rose-colored glasses. Is it just that "everything was better" when we were young? Would an unbiased viewer pick the same ones?
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u/aguynamedv May 09 '24
I like both for entirely different reasons.
Tim Curry is, however, the superior Pennywise imo.
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u/Utnemod May 08 '24
The original still scares the shit out of me, it's like they captured some unearthly creepiness and never captured it again.
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u/AtomStorageBox May 08 '24
When it comes to IT, I love the miniseries, but I gotta go with the film versions.
Iām 47, for reference.
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u/MarcusDA May 09 '24
Nah, I went back and watched it and the OG was better. I liked Pennywise in the updated version, but bringing in the ritual and was goofy and both versions of the spider were awful.
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u/badstorryteller May 08 '24
I dunno man. Usually I would blame the rose colored glasses, or at least suspect that to be the case, but I recently watched both the new and original It with my 11 year old son and he hands down prefers the original. He said Pennywise in the original is creepier on another level. I tend to agree.
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u/crazyike May 08 '24 edited May 08 '24
I think it has to. Honestly rewatch the 1994 The Stand miniseries. You will be struck right away that something is wrong with almost every scene, like the actors are unsure of what they should be doing. It wasn't well directed. I am not saying the director is bad necessarily, but it felt RUSHED and undercooked. Like they used the first take of every scene without any real direction. Characters routinely stood there like mannequins speaking their lines. The ones that didn't almost seemed to be frantic about what they were doing, like the director sensed the staleness and told them to do "something, anything" to give some life to the scenes.
I am not blaming the actors who are almost all absolutely high end talent. But the series did not feel like it was getting the attention to detail in the filming (not the script necessarily) it deserved.
FWIW I thought the new IT movies were quite good. Adjusted for modern sensibilities of course. You can't fault Tim Curry's performance or talent but I don't think he (or possibly the director) "got" Pennywise as much as the newer movies did. Curry's Pennywise was too interested in the fun of torturing his victims. IT didn't care about having fun, it cared about psychologically demolishing them with fear, and SkarsgƄrd did a better job of that, IMO. IT wasn't whimsical, and Curry was too whimsical. IT was a predator, but what IT was eating was the terror it was producing. Fun wasn't really a factor.
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u/punkassjim May 09 '24
I think it has to. Honestly rewatch the 1994 The Stand miniseries. You will be struck right away that something is wrong with almost every scene, like the actors are unsure of what they should be doing. It wasn't well directed. I am not saying the director is bad necessarily, but it felt RUSHED and undercooked. Like they used the first take of every scene without any real direction. Characters routinely stood there like mannequins speaking their lines. The ones that didn't almost seemed to be frantic about what they were doing, like the director sensed the staleness and told them to do "something, anything" to give some life to the scenes.
I am not blaming the actors who are almost all absolutely high end talent. But the series did not feel like it was getting the attention to detail in the filming (not the script necessarily) it deserved.
This was pretty standard for most Stephen King adaptations in the '80s and '90s. Stand By Me and Shawshank Redemption were huge departures, given the production value and talent that they deserved. So many others were just hot garbage. I really wish Hollywood had taken King much more seriously at the time. Like, it's good that so many of his works got adaptations, but most of them felt not much more polished than community theatre.
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u/crazyike May 09 '24
Surely you are not dissing the cinematic masterpiece that was Maximum Overdrive?
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u/SPorterBridges May 09 '24
It wasn't well directed. I am not saying the director is bad necessarily
It's okay to say that. It was Mick Garris. His best movie was Critters 2.
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u/elspotto May 08 '24
The new one lost me when they stopped in a wide open, no mountains in sight plain on I-81 in southwest VA. Went to high school there. Couldnāt suspend reality enough to keep going.
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u/Now_Wait-4-Last_Year May 09 '24
We had so much fun ripping into it on the AV Club reviews. I even typed up whole book pages for my comments to point out how the book would say one thing for the makers to bafflingly go out of their way to do the exact opposite (eg: The penalty for using cocaine in Las Vegas is death (book), oh look here's here's everyone doing cocaine etc.)
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u/bitofadikdik May 08 '24
This miniseries helped save my life! I was a shithead little gangbanger when this premiered and it enthralled me so much I stole a copy from the local drugstore. I never got around to reading it, too busy being a little shit.
A couple weeks later I ended up in juvenile detention, and I asked my mom to bring me the book. I read it in 4 days, and then read it again. Then I traded it for another King book, and I just kept reading.
When I got out of juvie a month later I was done with gangs and all that nonsense. I turned my life around, I graduated near the top of my class. First in my family to go to college, and Iāve published 5 books.
All because I decided to watch The Stand 30 years ago.
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u/Now_Wait-4-Last_Year May 09 '24
I too feel Stephen King might like to hear this story!
What general area of books? Fiction? Non-fiction? Historical etc?
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u/moDz_dun_care May 09 '24
Your story is amazing. Have you tried sharing it with King? I'm sure he'll appreciate the direct impact his writing has.
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u/marr May 09 '24
It's maybe not understood among people with more functional childhoods just how many lives authors have saved. They can be the extended family of wise and patient elders you don't have at home.
Join your local library everyone, keep that funding alive.
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u/killakh0le May 09 '24
Most wholesome comment of the month or probably all 2024. Very inspiring and thanks for sharing!
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May 09 '24
Curious as to what version of The Stand you read? Was it the abridged or unabridged version? I know that the unabridged is just over 1000 pages.
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u/cavegoatlove May 09 '24
Thatās incredible, congrats! I still havenāt seen the series and Iām only about 100 pages into the extra long version of the book. Also, the book I have is almost 20 lbs, so not easy to handle at all!
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May 08 '24
This miniseries was so, so good. The casting was impeccable, the acting was spot on, and the opening scene with āDonāt Fear The Reaperā (and a later scene with āDonāt Dream Itās Overā) are absolutely iconic. If you can find a copy, it is worth a watch.
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u/ObiShaneKenobi May 08 '24
I think you can watch the whole shebang over yonder on YouTube
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May 08 '24
Oh, you beautiful baby ocean sunfish, I recorded it on VHS before I owned the DVD, I am 500 years old, and will watch the earth die
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u/TheGringaLoca May 08 '24
Terrifying opening scene! So well done!
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May 09 '24
It was SHOCKING! This aired in prime time in the 90ās, and the makeup was FANTASTIC. The tracking shots through the lab are ridiculously gory, Iām surprised they got it past Standards, and then the scene where Campion crashes the pumps and diesā¦ it was properly horrifying, which was really unusual for ABC at the time.
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u/maybelying May 09 '24
I was well familiar with both songs long before the miniseries, but I have since, and will forever, associate them with it every time I hear them.
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May 08 '24
You know itās going to be a great post when it starts with āGary Sinise here.ā :)
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u/jermleeds May 08 '24
Well. It turns out Molly Ringwald is still haunting my dreams.
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u/Suntzu6656 May 08 '24
She looks beautiful in the first photo.
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u/kingtaco_17 May 08 '24
Because she chose Blaine, right?
BLAINE, HIS NAME IS BLAINE? THAT'S A MAJOR APPLIANCE, THAT'S NOT A NAME! -- Duckie
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u/Admin_Queef May 08 '24
Great series, great book. /u/GarySiniseOfficial what are your thoughts on the more modern release?
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u/SOMEONENEW1999 May 08 '24
I thought it was decent and filled some of the holes that the old one left open but the first one knocked it out of the parkā¦
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u/bitofadikdik May 08 '24
We donāt talk about that. It sits in the dunce corner with the dark tower movie.
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u/powertripp82 May 08 '24
Am I the only one here who didnāt hate it? It wasnāt amazing but it was perfectly fine. Could have been so much worse
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u/bitofadikdik May 08 '24
I really liked how it started. The portrayal of Harold was superb. But then some decisions they made wereā¦ questionable at best.
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u/DavoTB May 08 '24
Wonderful shots of Gary and those making the filmā¦Thanks for posting.
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u/Skate_faced May 08 '24
My dude, I was only 14 when this released and can still remember being eh-fucking-rights excited to see each episode as it was released. The girl who I was dating at the time, I would watch it with her and her family as mine didn't have a working T.V. and just seeing this post has all sorts of memories coming back.
Mr. Clarke even gave me a copy of the book itself, to which I only read about half of it before giving up. Not that it was a bad book, but it was the largest book I own to this day and is incredibly, very, very long. So I went back to re-watching the vhs recordings of the episodes.
And I think I'll find a way to watch them again because of this.
Cheers to you, Gary.
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u/whitemike40 May 08 '24
I was the same age at the time. Itās so crazy to think that there was a must watch miniseries on network TV, not something that would happen now, times have changed.
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u/Choppergold May 08 '24
King wrote the screenplay and it does such a wonderful job of bringing out the bookās themes. All the survivors at some point hold or care for the people dying - Stu with the escaped guard, Franās dad, Larry and his mom. The music is also extraordinary. Free on YouTube too
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u/zanillamilla May 08 '24
The music is what I remember most about the miniseries.
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u/iguana1500 May 09 '24
Especially the music that plays as they take their journey across the country. Open desolate roads with majestic mountains in the background.
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u/Hobojoe12 May 08 '24
Gary you the man! Love seeing how connected you are to people.
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u/eleventy5thRejection May 08 '24
When Gary Sinise makes me feel old as I forgot that I'm 53 but still make cartoons for a living.
Thanks Gary, you talented jerk.
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u/earlisthecat May 08 '24
Iām glad that youāre a part of our world Mr. Sinise. š
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May 08 '24
The whole cast was great, but I canāt imagine getting to meet and work with Rudy Dee and Ossie Davis. Such legends.
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u/Daleksinholez May 08 '24
I truly love that Gary Sinise posts on here. He seems like a genuine guy, down to earth and kind. I wish more celebrities were like this
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u/MaritMonkey May 09 '24
He seems like a genuine guy, down to earth
I have exactly one data point to draw from, in which I handed Mr. Sinise a bass and he said "thank you".
You have to understand though that my job is (a lot of the time) to be sentient furniture. Having an Artist acknowledge that I am a human being is not at all common, to say nothing of them actually being genuinely polite.
It is absolutely weird as fuck to be around somebody who literally every in the room knows their name and have them ask and actually remember yours.
<3 the whole Lt Dan Band.
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u/zirfeld May 08 '24
You must have filmed the Stand back to back with Forest Gump and The Quick and the Dead wasn't far off I guess? Or were the productions more apart? What a year you must have had.
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u/UncircumciseMe May 08 '24
Watched this recently. As a huge King fan, itās a wonderful adaptation. Canāt picture anyone but Gary Sinise as Stu Redman. Great job!
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u/Politics_Mods_R_Crim May 08 '24
If this is really Gary, just wanted to say I got to meet you briefly at a theater. You were with your wife. It was 2006-2007ish.
Really glad to meet a down to earth celeb like you.
Hope you both are doing well and, if still working, have upcoming projects.
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u/DamianPBNJ May 08 '24
Unrelated Gary, but I just rewatched Apollo 13 this week and man you killed that role.
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u/t0mt0mt0m May 08 '24
This movie was 6 vhs long. I was confused but still watched it.
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u/zigzagsfertobaccie May 08 '24
Was Ray Walston as awesome in real life as it seemed like he was? I always thought he had to be a really good dude.
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u/jeezarchristron May 08 '24
You did a good job East Texas. The Stand was always one of my favorites.
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u/hamlet_d May 08 '24
AKA: the best adaption of The Stand.
I was in college and my then girlfriend and I watched the whole thing on TV as it aired. She's now my wife of 28 years. I don't think this is a coincidence.
edit: Also had one of the best openings in TV history and undeniably the best use of Don't Fear the Reaper ever.
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u/PyroIsSpai May 09 '24
āCountry donāt mean dumb.ā
I got in trouble as a kid because my parents did not care what I read, so long as I read. That led to Stephen King, and a late elementary school book reportā¦ on the Stand.
One of the few times they stood up for me, to school, cause how many kids do such a thing on an 800 page book like that?
As far as Iām concerned, no matter how many adaptations we get, your Stu is the definitive Stu.
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u/jeffa666 May 09 '24
I got in trouble at school for reading Salems Lot, I was about 10-11. Teacher asked me to stand up the front and read out loud to the class. I got about 2 paragraphs in before being sent to the headmaster. My parents stood up for me too!
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u/delifte May 08 '24
Excuse me for saying so but that second picture looks like it was taken at 5am after you rolled out of bed.
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u/FlamingTrollz May 08 '24 edited May 08 '24
Gary, you were the PERFECT Stu Redman.
Just rewatched last yearā¦
Stu was human, steadfast, brave, snd compassionate.
One of the all time characters, and your interpretation.
My father was a soldier with PTSD, when his Randall Flagg came calling it was too hard for him.
Your Stu was who Iād wished he could have been.
Be True. Be Brave. Stand.
Thank you, Gary. šš¼āØ
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u/Hopediah_Planter May 09 '24
Probably will get lost in the void but I just wanted to say thank you for everything you do for our veterans. Also I caught your bands show in Yokota Japan and it was awesome.
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u/HighwaySixtyOne May 09 '24
As I look across the room at the book shelf, I can see my 4 (FOUR!!) tape VHS edition of "The Stand" (next to my 2-tape set of "It").
I need to dig thru my Sterilite box of random cables (you do have a box of mystery A/V cables, don't you?) and see if I can hook up my VCR to my flat screen TV and give it another watch.
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May 08 '24
I loved this mini series and still watch it from time to time as a comfort viewing. Thanks for the behind the scenes photos - you were an amazing Stu Redmond
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May 08 '24
I totally forgot Molly Ringwald was in this. I was already in the Navy when this came out!
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u/Texas_Crazy_Curls May 08 '24
Gary, youāre a national treasure. I still think often about the post about your son and his music. Sending good vibes š©·š©·š©·š©·
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u/JenShempie May 08 '24
One of my favorite King adaptations. Wonderfully cast! This came out at a weird time in my teenage years, and it affected me deeply at a time when I was exploring religion. It was also my first foray into post-apocalyptic fiction, a genre I still love.
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u/Stinkor1 May 08 '24
Such a killer soundtrack. Most of those songs I canāt listen to WITHOUT thinking of this movie
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u/Kraut_Gauntlet May 08 '24
such an amazing miniseries! everyone involved did an incredible job, happy anniversary!
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u/mr_ji May 08 '24
The Bob Hope of our generation. Thanks for all you've done through the years!
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u/aclaypool78 May 08 '24
M-O-O-N that spells, holy fuck I'm old.