All language subtitles for The.Movies.That.Made.Us.S01E01.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG.eng

[retro music playing]

-[man] Rolling...
-[metronome clicking]

-[man 2] We're rolling!
-[man] Speed!

Marker!

And playback!

[narrator] In 1987...

there was a film set in 1963

about a girl who found love,

courage, and rhythm...

during a summer that
changed everyone's life.

And that movie...

[woman] Dirty Dancing.

That's the title,

and now we'll figure out the story.

[narrator] But the story behind the story

is just like that summer
of Johnny and Baby's impossible romance.

The odds were against them...

You cry yourself to sleep.

[narrator]
...and no one wanted it to happen.

Over 40 rejection letters.

[narrator] This low, low-budget movie
had incredible on-screen chemistry

between two stars who
carried the movie, a watermelon,

and a grudge.

She begged us please
to have anybody but Patrick.

Do the words "dream on,"
mean anything to you?

Patrick could be very intense.

[Patrick] Concentrate!

[narrator] But in a manly world,
it was women who got this film made...

with help from a straight
to video company.

We were all in over our heads.

[narrator] And they were treading on toes

and breaking box-office records

in every corner of the globe.

This is the story of how one of history's
most beloved movies was made.

We didn't have a lot of time.

[narrator] And nearly not made.

He looks over at my bosses and says...

"Burn the negative."

[opening music playing]

[narrator]
These are the movies that made us.

When Dirty Dancing hit the screens
on August 21st, 1987,

it unleashed the raw, lustful energy
that had been laying dormant

since humans knew how to dance... dirtily.

And in case you haven't seen that story
for a while...

Here you go!

[narrator] Here's a quick catch up.

A young, politically idealistic girl,

whose nickname was "Baby"...

Baby's going to change the world.

[narrator] ...travels to a resort
for summer with her wealthy parents.

Can you keep a secret?

[narrator] Carries a watermelon onto the
metaphorical wrong side of the tracks...

-I carried a watermelon.
-[narrator] ...mixes with the help,

discovers a girl in a kitchen
who needs an illegal abortion...

-What's he gonna do about it?
-What's he gonna do about it?

[narrator] ...concocts an elaborate plan
to help the girl...

It's not illegal, is it?

No, Daddy.

[narrator] She lies to her dad,
the abortion goes wrong,

the girl needs her dad's help.

You're not the person
I thought you were, Baby.

[narrator] She falls in love.

She makes up with her dad.

The end.

But before we get to the end,

we need to rewind to the early '50s,

where we find a 12-year-old girl,
named Eleanor Bergstein.

But back then, she was known as Baby.

In a lot of ways, Eleanor is Baby.

This is Eleanor's baby.

Let's not take their word for it.

Let's ask
the Dirty Dancing creator herself.

Don't... Okay, then I have to warn you.

Don't ask me 1,000 questions about
whether this is the story of my life,

'cause that'll make me nuts.

Well, Dirty Dancing is based around
a character called "Baby..."

I was called "Baby" until I was 20...

[narrator] ...who goes to the Catskills
with her parents.

I did go to the Catskills with my parents.

[narrator] One off which is her father,
who's a doctor.

My father was a doctor,

and he was a very, very good man.

There are a lot of things
that I took from my life,

but that's different than it being
the story of your life.

[narrator] Indeed.

However, there is one other
important thing from Eleanor's past

that is probably worth mentioning.

At night, we went to basements
and we dirty danced,

and I was a really good dirty dancer.

[narrator] However, dirty dancing itself
wasn't really a thing,

like the mambo, or cha-cha-cha,
or Pechanga.

Pechanga. Great idea.

-Dirty dancing is essentially...
-Street form of dancing.

It was bending and grinding,
and being so close,

and having these kind of conversations
with our bodies.

[woman and man moan]

And you're doing it
in an underground room somewhere,

-out of the eye line of the parents.
-Of the adults.

They were like, "No, stop! Over!"

[narrator]
But it was far from over for Eleanor.

In the coming years,
as a struggling writer,

she brought dirty dancing out of
the basement and onto the big screen.

But hang on,
it's not that movie just yet.

My first movie was called It's My Turn,

and I wrote a dirty dancing scene in it.

When it came time to shoot the scene,

-they decided...
-I'm ready.

...they would go
straight to having sex.

So, no dirty dancing.

[narrator]
The removal of this scene led Eleanor

to make a very important decision
about her next script.

I'm going to write a film

and you can take out everything,

but you can't make the film
without the dirty dancing.

And that's when I came up with the idea.

[narrator] But hang on,
you can't dirty dance all by yourself.

Eleanor needed a producing partner.

I am Linda Gottlieb.

I am a producer.

[narrator] Perfect. But Linda wasn't
just any producer.

[Linda] Eleanor and I used to double-date.

[chuckling]
We dated two guys when we were very young.

We didn't marry either one of them.

And so we had a sort of past history,

but we didn't know each other really well.

But what Eleanor did know was that
Linda was a producer looking for ideas.

[Eleanor] She had a deal with MGM.

We met for lunch and she said,

"I want to do a film about
two sisters in the Catskills in the '60s."

I sort of thought,
"This is going nowhere."

So I switch the subject and said,

"Tell me more about your background.
I don't know that much really about you."

I was called Baby until I was 20...

"My father was a doctor."

And she said, "Well, you know..."

I did go to the Catskills
with my parents...

She said, "I was always a natural dancer."
And she said, "In fact..."

We went to basements and we dirty danced.

And I literally dropped my fork.

And I said,
"That's the million-dollar title."

She said, "What is?"
"Dirty Dancing."

She's said, "No, that has nothing to do
with the story.

I said, "Eleanor, that's the title,

and now we'll figure out the story.

So we joined forces,

Linda and I came together on the film.

[narrator]
Linda had her development deal at MGM,

a studio with a long history
of dance and music.

So, all they had to do show the script
to MGM president, Frank Yablans,

and hope he'd join them
on the dance floor.

Frank read it.

He loves it. We're doing a movie.

And the next day Frank Yablans
was fired...

and all my projects were dead.

[Eleanor] It was just dead in the water.
That was it.

[narrator] Well, not quite it.

[Linda] The rights revert to me,
the producer who controlled the deal,

and I have one year to get them made.

And if not, the rights
go back to the studio.

So the clock was ticking,

and the two of us really decided
we were going to get this movie made.

The first call I made
was to Katzenberg at Paramount.

He said no, thanks,

and then I took it to
every other studio in California.

"No, thanks."

And they said, "The story doesn't
make any sense. We don't like it."

[Linda] And then I took it
to minor studios, and mini majors,

and independents.

We'd run out of studios.

Forty-two rejection letters.

They were really afraid of a girl's movie.

It was a woman's story told by women...

which was a rarity.

[narrator] Well, compared to
some of the top movies of 1986...

Mick Dundee from Australia.

[narrator] ...a girly dancing movie
with an abortion...

Stop!

[narrator]
...had the studios recoiling in horror.

The studios were run by guys,

and guys wanted big, hard movies.

[narrator] So, even if they could get
a studio to read it...

They didn't get it.

[narrator] For Linda and Eleanor,
things were looking grim,

but thousands of miles away,

far from Hollywood,

things were looking...

[screams]

...downright gruesome.

Based in Stamford Connecticut,

Vestron Video was
a powerhouse distributor

of VHS Classics such as...

-[man] Chopping Mall.
-[narrator] and...

[man] Don't Open Till Christmas...

They were... not quality-driven.

Let's put it that way.

[narrator]
As people started watching videos at home,

Vestron started seeing an opportunity.

Up until 1983,
home video was really entirely triple X.

I've been looking
for a handsome stud like you.

The major studios didn't even recognize
the value in home video.

So they licensed it out
to companies like Vestron.

Vestron was making a fortune.

The majors, at that point, said,

"Why are we outsourcing this?"

[narrator] And so the studios began
distributing their own home videos,

leaving Vestron... ejected.

But, not so fast...

[Michael] Vestron weren't stupid.
I mean, they would see this coming.

They had a bunch of money,

they had a pipeline,
they knew how to sell home video.

So they started to make movies.

[narrator]
However, to make successful movies,

Vestron would need to hire
experienced movie producers.

Enter Mitchell Cannold.

They hired me to be head of production,

um, because I'd made these two...

[chuckling] um...

B-minus, which is gracious, movies.

-[narrator] And Mitchell's motto was...
-Even if it's bad, it's good.

[narrator] But bad or good, Mitchell
knew he couldn't do it alone.

When I got to Vestron,
I was all alone and I needed help.

[narrator]
So, Mitchell hired Dori Berinstein as...

Vice President in charge
of Physical Production.

[narrator] Ooh. Sounds like an expert.

I knew nothing about it.

We were all in over our heads.

[narrator] And with that,
Vestron was open for business...

to make their very own movies.

[Dori] Vestron was getting
all the reject scripts from the studios,

everything that had been passed on--

In effect, almost literally, dump trucks
with 5,000 scripts or so...

are dumped in the loading dock
in the dumpster of the company.

We read, and read, and read, and read

some really awful scripts.

Twenty-five pages in...

[narrator] Back in the dumpster.

But Mitchell was reading garbage, too.

And one weekend,
he came across a notorious stinker,

The script for Dirty Dancing.

And I remember, I read it
on a Sunday night.

[narrator]
A Sunday night that would change

Vestron's fate and Mitch's life forever.

My parents had taken me
to the Catskills as a kid,

along with my younger brothers.

And so, the life that's
depicted in the movie was--

was... one I knew, one I loved,

one that was a formative part
of my history.

[narrator]
As much as Eleanor may have been Baby,

could it be that Mitchell
was a real life Johnny?

-[laughs] No.
-He wasn't Johnny. [laughs]

I was far more like
the waiter in the movie...

Hey. How about a dance later?

...and doesn't get the girl.

[narrator] But more importantly...

[Baby] Dance with me.

[narrator] ...did he get the script?

I was laughing, I was crying.

I got all the jokes.
I got all the meaning.

I got all the themes of it.

He loved it.

But most of all, I was in tears
because it meant something to me.

He loved it.

I don't care that it's been [bleeps]
all over town.

I had to get this movie made.

[narrator] Despite the cost
of long-distance phone calls,

Mitchell wasted no time
and picked up the phone.

[Linda]
"This is Mitchell Cannold from Vestron,

and I'm really interested
in making your movie."

And I thought,
"This is a prank phone call."

Vestron was in the VHS business.

It was clear they didn't know
what they were doing.

I knew nothing about it.

But I thought,
"This is a great opportunity. [chuckles]

If I move quickly,
we can get this film made."

[narrator] But they'd need more
than just Mitchell to get it made.

There was no sure thing that the company
was going to greenlight this.

So the first order of business
was bringing in the right director.

[narrator]
Linda, Eleanor, Mitchell and Dori...

were a little on the inexperienced side.

So, for the film's director,

they hired...

Oscar-winning director, Emile Ardolino.

And, at last, Dirty Dancing had someone
who knew how to make an Oscar-winning,

full-length feature film.

Emile never directed a feature film,
mind you.

[narrator] Oh. Well,

Emile's win was for a 26-minute
documentary about kids learning to dance.

Da-da da-da-da-da, ba!

-[narrator] But at least...
-Emile was born in dance.

That was what he did.

[narrator]
So, these inexperienced movie makers

put their trust in a director
who'd never made a feature film.

And at a meeting at Vestron HQ,

they really needed Emile to deliver.

It was really all about Emile being able
to speak to his vision at the meeting

that would convince my colleagues

that I knew what I was talking about

and this movie was worth making.

[Linda] They asked Emile Ardolino,

his first big opportunity,

they said, "Emile, tell us your views
on this movie."

And Emile opened his mouth...

Nothing came out.

[gags]

[heart beating]

Emile had a complete panic attack.

He was completely speechless.

All of my bosses are looking at me

thinking I'm out of my [bleep]-ing mind.

He literally lost his voice.

At the biggest moment in his life,

he lost his voice.

How the heck is he going
to take our money

and go make a movie?

And somehow even that didn't ruin it.

I mean... [chuckling]

I don't know, we were just lucky.

[narrator] Emile's silent vision

somehow spoke to the inexperienced
Vestron executives.

To the credit of all of the Vestron folks
around the table,

they took a chance, they rolled the dice
and they pushed the button.

[narrator] With that, Vestron greenlit
their very first feature film.

But a big budget blockbuster, it wasn't.

The budget was slightly less than
four and a half million dollars,

-which at the time was--
-Low budget.

-Really low budget.
-[gulps]

[narrator] That green light was starting
to look more like a distress signal.

[alarm sounding]

But the clock was ticking,

and one of their biggest problems
was music.

Music is the soundtrack of the heart

and I couldn't imagine
the lines of dialogue

without the music
that I particularly picked.

I made a cassette tape
called "E.B.'s Dirty Dancing,"

and it described which scene
each song was in.

[narrator] Songs like "Do You Love Me"
by The Contours.

There was "Love Man" by Otis Redding,

"Big Girls Don't Cry"
by The Four Seasons.

-Also...
-"These Arms of Mine."

The way that she integrated
music and dance within her storytelling

was so sophisticated to me.

[narrator] Sophisticated or not,
licensing songs isn't cheap.

Music is very expensive.

So whatever I had in the budget, which was
minimum, we would need for the music.

[narrator] But, it wasn't just those
old classic songs they'd need.

They'd need original music too.

We don't have a big budget here,

but we've got to get
music from the period

and also new songs.

So it was...

It was tricky.

[narrator]
They'd need to face more than the music

'cause they had a big location issue too.

The movie was set in an expensive
Catskills resort in the summertime.

We certainly couldn't afford to buy out
a resort during the summertime,

because it's packed with people,

so we had to go south.

[narrator]
So they did, ten hours south in fact,

where they found a lodge
on a mountain by a lake,

called The Mountain Lake Lodge.

That corner of the United States

was the last place in the country
that the leaves changed.

[narrator] And it cost small change too,
compared to the Catskills.

[David] It looked right, it felt right

and it didn't need
hardly anything done to it.

[narrator] But still, they could only
afford 14 days of shooting there. So...

We found a boys camp in North Carolina
that had the staff cottages,

and had a pavilion,
where we could do the dance sequences.

[narrator]
But if you thought finding the Catskills

that weren't the Catskills was hard,

-finding the actress to play Baby was...
-Really hard.

Because Vestron have
to approve the cast.

One of their executives pipes up,

"I'm going to just give you
my really best idea, Linda."

I said, "What's that?"

"Pia Zadora."

How can I tell until I know what you got?

[Linda] The blonde sex bomb.

Exactly the opposite
of what I had in mind.

Completely wrong for the part.

[narrator]
For Eleanor, it was all about looks too,

but she wanted...

A little skinny girl
with long curly hair down her back,

'cause that's what I looked like.

[narrator] Winona Ryder and
Sarah Jessica Parker were in contention,

but for Linda and Eleanor,
there was only one choice.

Jennifer Grey was pushed
into the audition room by her father.

And as she walked in, she said,
"Wish me luck, Daddy."

And we were in love.

And she just closed the Baby's face
in my mind.

I just thought, "That's it."

And from that moment on,
she was the only person I wanted.

Oh, thank God you're here, Lisa.
Listen, you've got to do something for me.

Tell Mommy and Daddy
that I have a terrible headache

and I'm in bed, and check on me once.
Okay? Thank you.

[woman] No.

Lisa, look, I don't have time.
Just do it for me. Okay?

[woman] No.

[narrator] Up until now, Jennifer Grey
had only had supporting roles

like in 1984's Red Dawn.

And 1986's...

If you say Ferris Bueller,
you lose a testicle.

[narrator] Yeah, the one where that guy
takes a day off.

Jennifer was a good mover.

And I think she'd had things
like dance lessons,

but wasn't a dancer, per se.

But what Jennifer brought to it was a...

vulnerability...

and an awkwardness, and a clumsiness

that was necessary
at the outset of the film.

-[narrator] So, everyone was happy.
-Yes.

[narrator]
Oh. Everyone, that is, except for Vestron.

-They wanted...
-Anyone but Jennifer Grey.

[narrator]
So, as the bickering over Baby began,

perhaps they could agree on
the other lead character in the movie.

I was very concerned
about the character of Johnny Castle.

That's my cousin, Johnny Castle.

[narrator] Where there was flexibility
with Baby's dance credentials,

the actor who played Johnny Castle

really needed to be able to move.

Oh, and, uh, look right, too.

I wanted someone who had hooded eyes

So, we went through picture after picture

And I said, "Ah!

Those are the eyes I want."

And we turned the resume over,

and it was Patrick Swayze,
who had "No Dancing."

-[narrator] Oh, well, that's no good.
-No.

[narrator] The search continued.

We auditioned Benicio del Toro

because I was mad for him.

Adrian Zmed.

[announcer] Dance Fever.

Adrian Zmed.

Have you-- have you heard of him?

There were then also those who felt
that Billy Zane was the right guy.

Linda Gottlieb thought
he was the new Brando.

Fight harder?

I don't see you fighting so hard, Baby.

He danced like someone who had

learned to dance wonderfully
for his bar mitzvah.

[narrator] As the titanic decision to cast
Billy Zane as Johnny grew ever closer,

there was a set of hungry, hooded eyes
that Eleanor just couldn't forget.

Ah! Those are the eyes I want.

[narrator]
But this time, Emile Ardolino spoke up.

He told Eleanor something she didn't know
about the perfect-eyed Patrick.

"As a matter of fact, he's a dancer."

And the only reason Emile knew that

was that Emile came from
the dance world in New York...

Da-da da-da-da-da, ba!

...and he knew Patrick from the Joffrey.

His mother is the biggest dance teacher
in Texas.

Do the boys part first.

Heels, heels, heels, heels,

heels, heels, heels, heels, heels.

[narrator]
As seen in this beer commercial,

Patrick could dance.

But as an actor...

First film was Skatetown USA,

where he got to use
his roller-skating skills.

A pretty hilarious movie.
We laughed so much about it.

[narrator] He'd also had several other
film and television appearances,

all noticeably absent of dancing.

Is there something wrong with me?

[narrator] Absolutely not.

The minute he came in,

the minute we laid eyes on him...

-That was Johnny.
-[narrator] But don't forget...

[Eleanor]
Vestron have to approve the cast.

[narrator] It came down to
these two Johnnies and Babies.

[Mitchell] The choreographer
put Patrick with Sarah Jessica,

Billy with Jennifer,
Billy with Sarah Jessica...

Patrick with Jennifer.

[narrator] But one combination
exploded with chemistry.

[Dori] Their chemistry during
their screen test was undeniable.

All you had to do was watch that.

No, lifting your chest
so I don't hurt your ribs.

-It hurts my ribs.
-[all laugh]

[narrator] And Dirty Dancing
finally had the perfect Johnny and Baby...

but there was something
holding Patrick back.

Oh, Patrick hated
the title "Dirty Dancing."

He's a Texas boy, and he goes...

"Sounds like a stripper movie."

[narrator] But still it seemed like
the role he was born to play.

[Lisa]
He didn't want to be the "dance dude."

He knew he needed
to make his reputation as an actor.

[narrator] But in high school,
his reputation was for football.

That's actually where he got his left knee
practically destroyed.

Patrick had "No Dancing" on his resume

because he was going out as an actor

because had a knee injury
and he didn't want to dance anymore.

His knee injury
really affected everything he did.

He had to deal with pain all the time.

[narrator] As well as nagging knee pain,

there was just nagging.

They were desperate to have him.

[narrator] And out of everyone, Eleanor,
the original Baby,

had taken a particular liking to Patrick.

Early on when she was explaining things,

Eleanor wanted
to demonstrate dirty dancing.

[chuckles] She would grab Patrick,

and it was like, "Okay, Eleanor,
you did your demonstration.

You can stop now." [laughing]

[narrator]
And much to Eleanor's delight...

I wanted Patrick very, very badly.

[narrator]
Patrick agreed to do Dirty Dancing.

-Whoa, I did the wrong thing. Sorry.
-[narrator] But there was a problem.

Jennifer did not want Patrick.

[narrator] It turns out the new Baby

didn't feel quite the same
as the original Baby.

She begged us please
to have anybody but Patrick.

Do the words "dream on"
mean anything to you?

Just do the [bleeps] thing, bitch.

They didn't like each other.

Because she'd had
a very bad experience with him.

Because of their history with Red Dawn.

[narrator]
Oh. Turns out, they had a history.

There were already
some sparks flying back then.

Patrick could be very intense.

I explained to him
that Jennifer didn't want him,

and he said, "I don't know
that I want to do this,

but let me talk to Jennifer."

So, he went in alone,

and he sat with Jennifer
about half an hour

and they came out with their eyes red.

[narrator] And when they emerged,

they agreed
to put their old differences aside.

So then, it's alright.

I knew it would work out.

[narrator] For now...

The cast and crew...

Butt out, Baby.

[narrator] ...made their way
to the top of a mountain in Virginia.

We rolling, folks? We got sex!

[laughing]

We were quite isolated up there.

Mountain Lake was very remote.

It was like being in college,

only your professors were
staying with you.

It was very strange.

Stop this, now. Stop this.

[narrator]
Shooting began September 5th, 1986,

and the cameras rolled on a story
that would inspire generations.

But some of the cast and crew

thought they'd be making
a different kind of movie.

Will there be dirty dancing?

Will I be around the dirty dancing?

No.

There was a controversy
among the cast and crew.

"You're not really going to
use dirty dancing are you?"

[narrator] Well, as far as
the Mountain Lake Lodge was concerned, no.

It was Dancing Film Productions.

Because we didn't want to upset them
and make them think it was a porn film.

[woman moaning]

[narrator]
But if it wasn't that, what was it?

[Eleanor] There is a really very serious
social and political agenda

underneath this movie.

This is a movie about class structure.

House Painters and Plasterers,
Local Number 179, at your service.

Dance can be
incorporated into storytelling

in so many different ways.

The class struggle would be three dances.

The grinding and the dirty dancing
reflected the underclass,

the wealthy people upstairs
doing the family foxtrot,

in between you had Johnny Castle and Penny

being the exhibition dance team
with aspirations.

[Kenny]
And that was really, really important

in how we develop this movie

in terms of dance as a language.

So we threw on music,

and Dirty Dancing was discovered.

[narrator] But hang on...

what music exactly were they dancing to?

Because, as we know...

Music is very expensive.

[narrator] So, to help get the rights
to the songs Eleanor wanted...

"These Arms of Mine."
"Do You Love Me?"

[narrator] Yep, those ones.

Vestron brought in experienced
music supervisor, Danny Goldberg,

but he wasn't having much luck.

And there was no... music.

And we were down here on location

and I kept saying,
"Where's the music from Danny?"

He kept saying, "It's coming,
it's coming, it's coming."

There was no music.

This is a music movie, it's a dance movie.
We have nothing.

[narrator]
Well, it's hard to rehearse to nothing.

We were choreographing it already

to music that wasn't
going to be in the movie.

We were dancing to Genesis.

At some point they had an idea

of putting a track by
the Fine Young Cannibals in.

And then they were trying to get me
to use the sound-alikes...

and I said no.

[groans] You know, this is-- this is nuts.

He finally said,
"Shoot it to a click track."

[clicking]

Can you imagine

shooting that final scene, the finale,

with a goddamn metronome click?

[metronome clicking]

[narrator] Most of the dance numbers
would be shot at the next location.

And having no music when they got there

was starting to become a real possibility,

but Eleanor wasn't willing to compromise.

For me, the movie doesn't exist
without the music.

And it doesn't exist without
the music that I particularly picked.

Danny Goldberg was promptly un-picked.

A colleague of mine at the company
introduced me to Jimmy Ienner.

And he said to me,
"I think this guy can do it."

And I said, "I hope so,
because we don't have anybody else.

[narrator] Don't be so sure about that.

Patrick came up to us,

and he said, "I have an idea for a song
that would be amazing for this film."

-Patrick had written...
-"She's Like the Wind."

[narrator] ...several years before.

[Linda]
Patrick one day handed me something

and he said, "You know, I do some songs."

And I listened to "She's Like the Wind"
and I loved the song.

I just loved it.

Let's use it!

[narrator] Well, that's, uh, one song down.

Jimmy Ienner handled the rest.

He claimed he went down
on Phil Spector's big toe.

He kept saying, "The girl has to have it."

He came back with the rights
to "Be My Baby."

[narrator] Thanks to Jimmy,
Eleanor got all the songs she wanted.

And he turned out to be
my knight in shining armor.

He got those songs for me.

[narrator] And just in time, too.

Because after just 14 days
of shooting in Virginia,

the cast and crew packed up
and headed to North Carolina

to shoot the rest of the movie.

-[woman] And who's in with Patrick?
-Jane Brucker.

Jerry's driving,
because the restaurant called

and gave some shit about me driving.

Below this double line here
was everything we did in Virginia.

Everything above the line,
we did in North Carolina,

which was really the bulk of our shooting.

We would use the light posts
both in Virginia and in North Carolina.

You never question that you're
in one place or the other.

You don't know you're in two places.

[narrator] So, even the locations
found a way to connect.

Could Patrick and Jennifer?

With the dance scenes looming,

it was time to find out
if that chemistry they had

would create sparks...

-[Linda] They didn't like each other.
-[Mitchell] Because of Red Dawn.

[narrator]
...or just blow up in their faces.

Pull the pin for me.

And I'm your Texas redneck asshole that
ain't gonna buy into no [bleep] bullshit.

So let's get up here.

I was just so aware of the dynamic

between Patrick and Jennifer
while we were shooting

because he was this experienced dancer.

He was with the Eliot Feld Ballet.

And Jennifer had never danced
really before.

I can't even do the merengue.

She can't even do the merengue.

On camera, we basically see her
learning to dance.

Johnny, you're a strong partner,
you can lead anybody.

The dynamic between them
was really teacher-student.

Don't step on the one.

You've got to start on the two.

And I think that connection
between the two of them,

and Patrick really being frustrated
when Jennifer couldn't get something,

it was very authentic.

[narrator] If Patrick was frustrated,
how do you think Jennifer felt?

Jennifer would be there, ready.

And where is Patrick?

Patrick was historically,
irritatingly late.

[narrator] Not only was Jennifer punctual,
she was also quite sensible.

Patrick said a stunt double
was a wussy thing to have.

Jennifer thought that was ridiculous.

[narrator] Notice the extra poofy hair.

Yep, she even had a stunt double
for this scene.

The scene of them crossing the log

is the epitome of the difference
between Patrick and Jennifer.

[Doro] It was very dangerous.

There was a ravine underneath it.

Eight or nine feet above
the rocky bottom of that creek.

And Jennifer was saying
[bleep] "It's a log, I could fall off.

Mm, I don't think so."

And I think Patrick
really didn't like that.

-I got it now.
-[laughs]

It was a real macho thing.
Patrick was a macho guy.

And I said,
"Patrick, if you screw that up,

you've got 100 people here out of work.

[narrator] And, well...

guess what happened?

-[Patrick] Whoa! Ah!
-[thuds]

[siren wailing]

[Linda] He fell, he hurt himself,

we lost time on production,

and everybody suffered in the end.

[narrator] Falling onto rocks
and aggravating his chronic knee pain

was the last straw
for an already rocky relationship.

There were sparks between the two of them.

Those kind of sparks, if they're handled
by the right director...

Cut!

[Mitchell] ...can translate very well
onto the screen.

We could let her leave that frame.

[narrator]
But was Emile Ardolino the right director?

One late night...

he would face his ultimate test.

One night, she had low blood sugar.

It was in the middle of the night
in the middle of nowhere

in the middle of all that mud,

and she said, "I need a cheese platter."

Patrick's ready to kill her.

Kenny's like, "We're in the middle
of nowhere in the middle of the mud

and she wants a cheese platter?"

Not just a piece of cheese,
but a cheese platter?

And Emile was so genius...

because he just let the camera go.

She giggles.

He's upset.

He does it again.

That was completely real.

"It's late.

We're overtime.

We want to get the freaking shot done.

She won't stop laughing."

[man] Alright. Once again.

"She needs a cheese platter?"

[laughs]

[narrator] By now it was clear,

their gamble in this documentary maker
had paid off.

[Linda]
He could spot something at the moment

and just go with it,
and-- and-- and capture it.

The cast trusted him completely.

[narrator]
And his directorial mastery was obvious,

even showing Patrick and Jennifer

how great they were during their audition.

[Mitchell] And it reminded them
of the passion they brought to each other

and, I think, settled them down.

[Lisa]
Patrick and I were talking about it.

I said, "Hey, use it.

It's an interesting thing
that often anger and upset

could look like passion. Intense passion.

[man] You're having a great time.

[narrator] For Jennifer and Patrick...
it was a new not so red dawn.

And as they approached the finish line,

it seemed as if the cast and crew were
having the time of their lives.

-[record scratches]
-Weren't they?

We have to shoot the finale.

The night before we were shooting...

They've sent us another paper bag
full of cassettes.

All original songs
that had been submitted.

[narrator] Jimmy had delivered
on the old classic songs,

but he was cutting the original
finale song they needed close.

And we were taking these cassettes
out of the bag one at a time

and listening to them.

Pop, take it out. Next one.

The last cassette,

it starts off...

[low pitch]
Dum... dum-dum dum, dum-dum-dum dum...

I stopped it, and I said, "Miranda...

is it because it's the last
friggin' cassette?

Or is there something
in the lyric of this song?"

-And she said, "Put it on again."
-Put it in...

[singing indistinctly]

Oh, my God, maybe that's the song.

Well, that was it.

[narrator]
And for the next three days straight,

it was all they heard.

A cast of hundreds, endless dancing,

working late into the night.

We were doing it until, like,
3:00 in the morning.

-[woman] Hi, Mom.
-[man] Hi, Mom.

[narrator] And they also filmed that line

that might well be more famous
than the movie itself.

Nobody puts Baby in a corner.

"Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

What a ridiculous line.

There was no corner
we were shooting in.

There was kind of a pillar.

[narrator] But the line's author
must surely have seen that immortal phrase

as she penned that unforgettable dialogue.

I think it's really...

something that I was not
deeply committed to,

I don't think it's a great phrase.

[narrator] Okay then, how about the guy
who acted it into a great phrase?

He thought it was the stupidest line
in the world, and I think he was right.

Years later he said, "Boy, was I wrong
about that one."

[narrator] But it wasn't just
a painful line Patrick had to endure.

The finale had some of the most

technically difficult dancing
in the movie.

When he jumps off the stage
and does that tour...

He really busted up his knee.

[man] Here we go. One more time, please.

He had to leap off that stage
12 or 13, 14 times.

[man] Here we go.

Woo!

He was hurting.

[man] Once again.

Woo!

And he came over to me
and he whispered in my ear,

"I've got one more in me.

Please make sure all the cameras get it."

Then I said to Emile,
"We have to get it right now.

Patrick's suffering.

He wants to do this,
but we have to get it at this moment."

Let's do one more.

-[crew member] Standby.
-[slate board clacks]

[crew member 2] Speed!

[crew member 3] And playback...

[Emile] Cut!

[crew cheers]

He had one more in him.

So, he was that kind of a person.

He suffered for his art.

[narrator] But Patrick wasn't done yet.

The finale wouldn't be complete

without one iconic moment

and one last show of strength.

[man] Roll!

Cut!

Playback.

And...

[Emile] Cut!

Woo!

[triumphant music]

[narrator] After 45 days,

those splendid words...

[man] That's a wrap.

[narrator] ...marked the end of shooting

on this very low budget dancing movie.

Back at Vestron HQ,

they must have been ecstatic.

[Mitchell] So the rough cut's done.

We have something that we think is good.

We don't know how good,
but we think it's good.

We're certainly proud of it.

But you've got to remember
that the people at Vestron at this point,

they'd never made a movie before.

We knew we could benefit from

a more experienced Hollywood person.

And someone knew someone
who knew Aaron Russo.

[narrator] This big Hollywood hotshot

had produced Trading Places and The Rose.

So if he liked their little dancing movie,

they'd have nothing to worry about.

We were so nervous.

We watched Aaron Russo

watch the rough cut of the movie.

We were feeling really good.

The movie's over, the lights come up,

he turns around in his seat.

He looks over us,
past us at my bosses and says,

"Burn the negative
and collect the insurance."

And then he walked out.

Um, so I was terrified that the film
would, in fact, be trashed.

They wanted validation.

They didn't get it from Aaron Russo.

[narrator] But Vestron had spent
four and a half million on this movie.

So, they gave Dirty Dancing

one more chance
at a big screen release

before they relegated it
to the VHS shelf of history.

The company organized a screening
for about 1,000 people.

And at the end of it...

the room went nuts.

They went wild, they were
stomping their feet.

They were screaming and yelling,

but what that screening really did achieve

was it galvanized the whole company,

and now the company was unstoppable.

[narrator] Vestron was now fully behind
their own movie.

There was something special in this movie
for everyone.

[narrator] So, they got to work
marketing it for everyone.

This film received an R rating
from the MPAA.

They were all in some way
aroused by the movie

[narrator] Well, they're only human.

[Linda] And Vestron was very unhappy.

They felt it should not
have had an R rating.

[woman moans]

I knew Dick Hefner,
who was the head of the MPAA

and I called Dick.

-[phone rings]
-And I said, "Dick,

if I take out two [bleeps] and a shit,

do we get a PG-13?"

And he said, "It can be arranged."

They were positioning it for 14-year-olds.

[narrator] So much so,
that their national sponsor was...

I think it was Clearasil.

And they were going to put
a tube of acne cream on every poster.

But when they learned that there was a...

uh...

Oh.

There's an abortion in the film.

It's not illegal, is it?

[narrator] Yes. Yes, it was.

[Eleanor]
So then they came to me and said,

"We're going to pay you, Eleanor,
to go back into the editing room,

and take the abortion out,

because otherwise we'll lose
our national sponsor."

[narrator] But Eleanor wouldn't
let a zit removal company

remove any part of her movie.

If we take the abortion out,

there is no reason for Baby...

There's no reason
that she learns to dance,

there's no reason
that she falls in love...

There'd be no sex with Baby and Johnny.

So, the whole story falls apart.
We have no film.

They said, "We should have
thought of that before."

[narrator]
From the day she wrote the script,

Eleanor had not compromised

on the important issues of Dirty Dancing.

I believe in getting moral issues
in movies that everybody will go to,

because they have love and pretty clothes,

and romance and a lot of sex,

and then maybe you'll
change somebody's mind.

[narrator] And that was about to become
the greatest marketing tool of all.

Vestron called me and said,
"I hope you're sitting down.

The New York Times
wants to interview you."

[narrator]
Samuel Freedman's New York Times article

wasn't your average fluff piece.

There were a bunch of movies
that were dance based movies.

That would be Flashdance and Footloose,

and they were really pretty vapid.

But Dirty Dancing was very different.

[Baby] That was the summer of 1963

before President Kennedy was shot.

[Samuel]
This movie deals with issues of class,

issues of racial injustice,

issues of identity...

issues of civil rights, issues of war.

Our Baby's going to change the world.

And what are you going to do, missy?

It also operated
at this purely entertaining level.

Lisa is going to decorate it.

And this was the game changer,

because the first weekend
instead of the teenage viewer,

we got adult audiences.

[narrator] Nearly four million dollars
worth of adult audiences.

[Dori]
Opening weekend, we were all at Vestron

as this film was catching on fire.

[narrator] And not in
a "burn the negative" kind of way.

The returns were coming in.

Dori and I pulled an all-nighter
because it was just so exciting.

[narrator] By Dirty Dancing's
second weekend, that fire was spreading.

Look, the numbers went up!

Everybody was watching.

[narrator]
Oh, but they weren't just watching.

[Michael]
Dirty Dancing, the album, just came out

and it's sold 270,000 records.

I said, "You're kidding.

People would go to the theater,
see the movie,

"My gosh, this is the greatest thing,"

and rush to the record store
to buy the album.

Best original song.

"I've Had The Time of My Life"
from Dirty Dancing.

I watched it go and climb
and climb and climb...

They went back to see it,
they went back again and again.

[narrator] For 19 straight weekends,

Dirty Dancing dominated the box office.

And at the time, it was the highest
grossing independent film ever made.

And suddenly Oprah was calling me.

You know, it's like having sex
with your clothes on, Oprah,

only you don't feel guilty afterwards.

[narrator] Today, Dirty Dancing
has firmly lodged itself

in popular culture and people's lives.

You may now lift the bride.

And it is still making money
after 32 years.

I mean, that's wild.

[narrator] But who it's making money for?

Well, that's where things get complicated.

We didn't make any money
from Dirty Dancing.

[laughing] Linda and Eleanor did.

[narrator]
The dynamic duo of Linda and Eleanor

had formed at that fateful lunch
with a side of destiny...

"That's a million-dollar title."

[narrator] ...all those years before.

But like many lunches,
there's often squabbling over the bill.

Or in this case,

the percentage points
of the movie's net income.

-Oh, the points.
-[man] The points.

Linda, as the producer,
had every right

to decide how to allocate her profits.

[Linda]
I control the net profit participation.

I gave many more points to Eleanor.

I doubled the points that MGM
would have given her.

I gave additional points
to Emile Ardolino,

to David Chapman, to Dora Bachrach,

to Kenny Ortega, to Jerry Orbach,

to Jennifer, and to Patrick.

It made them all very wealthy.

I don't give a flying [bleep] about that.

What I've always cared about is...

my audience.

Yeah, but it doesn't hurt
that it's making her millions of dollars

every single year for 30 years.

Please use that.

[laughing]

[narrator] And as for Vestron,

now nothing could stop this
ex-direct to VHS company

from achieving big-screen success

for decades to come.

Vestron went bankrupt.

[Mitchell]
Dirty Dancing, because it was the first,

it was a natural belief

that you could get
lightning-in-a-bottle again and again.

They made very bad movies.

Parents.

BackTrack.

Hider in the House,

And God Created Woman,

Little Monsters.

That's disgusting.

[belches]

Every single thing they did lost money.

[narrator]
In fact, they lost so much money

that in 1991,
Vestron closed its doors for good.

Ronnie's gonna be pissed.

-[laughing]
-No kidding.

[narrator] But the Vestron legacy

is more than just one great movie

and a bunch of bad ones.

Another little miracle occurred

during the making of
this most fortuitous film.

I was far more like the waiter
in the movie...

Hey. How about a dance later?

...and doesn't get the girl.

[narrator] Well, guess what?
That's not true at all.

-Your office was there. I was over here.
-Yep.

We were in the trenches together.

We worked beautifully together.

All the meetings that we had...

Oh my gosh.

[Mitchell] Three years later,
we fell in love and got married.

And all of it because of Dirty Dancing.

So, how lucky am I?

[narrator]
For a four-and-a-half-million-dollar movie

to become so successful,

luck has probably got, well,
something to do with it.

But for Linda,

it was more the tenacious drive she shared

with a group of people

who just wanted to make a great movie.

[sparse piano music]

Wow.

It's amazing.

It's 32 years later.

And this dining room looks the same.

Same lighting fixtures, the same stone.

Oh, my gosh, that's amazing.

Enjoy.

Thanks.

The Houseman family sat at this table.

So that's wild.

[narrator] The Mountain Lake Lodge
has taken great pride

in preserving what's left
of this iconic location.

Baby's cabin.

And this was a sign,

a big, red-- big, red wood building

that had a staff quarters.

"No guests, please."

This is the gazebo

where we shot several
scenes in the movie.

I'm sorry I lied to you.

But you lied too.

[Linda] I remember watching that scene
being shot,

and feeling so moved.

It's a very touching moment.

He has tears in his eyes.

I love you.

[sobbing]

And I'm sorry I let you down.

I'm so sorry, Daddy.

I don't know whether any of you guys
have got a daughter or not,

[chuckling]
but my daughter did that to me one time.

Um... you know...

That one scene,

it just got me right in my gut.

And after the father comes to his senses,

he realizes, "She's a grown lady now.

I have to treat her as one."

[narrator] But as for the most iconic
location at the Mountain Lake Lodge...

[Linda] There was a lake here.

It's gone.

Gone.

[narrator]
And it's been that way since 2006.

[Linda]
The lift in the lake happened about here,

even though obviously there's no lake.

The cinder blocks used for the platform
are still here.

They were really troopers.

It was freezing.

Oh, sorry.

-Good. No, no no!
-[shrieks]

[Linda] Oh, boy.

"This stone is in memory

of Patrick Swayze,

1952 to 2009,

for his starring role

in the hit movie of 1987, Dirty Dancing,

and to his courageous battle
with pancreatic cancer."

[Lisa] It's a merciless disease.

When Patrick...

went in to battle this,

I saw an unbelievable strength

that I never knew he had.

But that's what he would do.

He's a fighter.

[Miranda]
Just like he jumped off that stage

doing that tour as Johnny Castle
with a bad knee,

he continued on with chemo and sick

and pancreatic until the 11th hour.

You know, "I ain't dead yet."

[piano playing]

[Lisa]
He had the question, "What is my legacy?"

And...

"How will I be remembered?
Will I be remembered?"

But I got to see how loved he was.

I got to see that during his illness
and afterwards.

[Linda] He really made this film.

And we all owe him so much.

You know...

So many people have died
since this movie.

But Emile's death was...

was really painful, really awful.

Everyone who ever worked
with him loved him.

He'd given of his heart and soul
for this movie.

He was the glue

when there were a lot of forces
that could have torn it apart.

[Eleanor] His partner picked up the phone

and said, "Eleanor,
Emile is dying of AIDS."

I'd lost a friend I loved very much.

I just want to say...

I just want to say something...

to thank the crew.

[man] Yeah!

[all cheering]

Dirty Dancing, it changed our lives.

The magic, the wonderment...

you know, that happened on that mountain.

[Mitchell] If you ask yourself,

"Could this movie have been made
by some other company...

at some other time?

Would it have worked?"

Anything's possible, but I doubt it.

Because what happened here...

was a perfect storm...

of the right people

at the right time,

with the right story,

and the right actors...

I love you.

[Mitchell] ...and the right director,

and the right choreographer,

and the right music,

and it was a blessing for all of us
for all of our lives.

We're all living
on top of each other 24/7,

dancing, talking, loving, crying.

That passion...

was so real.

This movie changed my life.

And the fact that it has
stood the test of time,

and endeared itself to so many people,

is absolutely magic.

It's a wonderful feeling.

[Eleanor]
I didn't want money, I didn't want fame.

I wanted my work to change people's lives.

I can stand up almost
any place in the world

and say, "How many people in this
room have seen Dirty Dancing?"

And almost all of them not only will have,

but it means something personal to them.

And that's extraordinary.

Extraordinary.

Oh, sorry.

[fading tick tocks]

♪ It's too late ♪

♪ For tears ♪

♪ Honey it's too late ♪

♪ Too late to cry ♪

♪ Oh but it's too late ♪

♪ Oh for begging me baby ♪

♪ Honey it's too late
Too late ♪

♪ To cry ♪