The Cable Guy (1996) on Netflix
After his marriage proposal fails, Steven Kovacs moves into an apartment and bribes cable installer Chip Douglas for free movie channels. Chip takes the deal as an invitation to friendship.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.2/10191,461 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes55%
Trailer
Plot summary
Steven Kovacs is settling into an apartment of his own; a marriage proposal to Robin Harris did not work out. On the advice of his friend Rick Legatos, he offers money to the installer who hooks up his television, Ernie "Chip" Douglas, and receives free movie channels. Chip marks him as a preferred customer and asks to see him socially; Steven agrees without enthusiasm. The visits come often enough that Steven's friends drift away from him. Chip explains that his father was absent and that his mother let television raise him, then leaves repeated messages on the answering machine and has an expensive home theater system delivered as a gift that Steven turns down.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Cable Guy (1996)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Lou Holtz Jr. was a Los Angeles prosecutor, not a screenwriter, when he saw a cable company employee late at night in his mother's apartment building and wondered what the man was doing there. His script set off a bidding war that Columbia won with $750,000 plus a $250,000 bonus if the film got made.
- Chris Farley was attached to play the cable guy when the script was sold and dropped out over scheduling; Adam Sandler was considered too, before Jim Carrey took the part for $20 million, a record fee at the time.
- Judd Apatow wanted to direct and Columbia said no, but took his suggestion of Ben Stiller, who had employed Apatow on The Ben Stiller Show. Stiller was himself considered for the customer Steven Kovacs before the role went to Matthew Broderick.
- Holtz's original script was a light comedy about a likeable loser, which Apatow compared to What About Bob?. Carrey, Apatow and Stiller kept the idea of a technology expert invading a stranger's life and turned the rest into a satire of thrillers such as Cape Fear and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.
- Apatow and Stiller flew to South Carolina, where Carrey was shooting Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, and improvised many of the set pieces with him over a few days. Apatow later went to Writers Guild arbitration for a writing credit and lost, with Holtz keeping sole credit.
- Ben Stiller shot every scene of the film twice, once in a dark version and once in a light version, and said he was surprised that the studio never objected to the violent ending he chose.
- The Medieval Times duel between Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick copies the Star Trek episode Amok Time, down to the Vulcan lirpa weapons, the dialogue and the background music; Stiller is an admitted Trekkie.
- The soundtrack held the first solo recording ever released by Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains, among previously unreleased alternative rock and heavy metal tracks put together for the film.
