Tim Allen ‘Never Felt Good’ About Getting Harold Ramis Fired From ‘Galaxy Quest’
While the Santa Clause franchise is completely unhinged, and Jungle 2 Jungle has aged about as well as a carton of milk that had already expired before Jungle 2 Jungle came out, there’s at least one live-action Tim Allen movie that still holds up today: Galaxy Quest.
Sure, it’s basically a Star Trek-coded remake of Three Amigos, but Galaxy Quest is a genuinely funny movie. And it works in large part thanks to the cast, which includes the late great Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Tony Shalhoub and Sam Rockwell. Plus, the dude from Home Improvement.
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Allen plays the thinly-veiled Shatner surrogate Jason Nesmith, a washed-up actor famous for captaining the NSEA Protector on TV’s Galaxy Quest, often with no shirt on.
As we’ve mentioned before, the Dean Parisot-helmed comedy was originally supposed to be directed by Harold Ramis — until the studio tried to force him to work with Allen. As producer Mark Johnson explained, “Harold didn’t do the movie because we couldn’t cast it. The people we went to all turned it down, and by the time we got to Tim Allen, Harold couldn’t see it.” And after one awkward meal with Allen, the Groundhog Day director left the project for good.
In a recent interview with the Star Trek podcast The D-Con Chamber, Allen recounted the events of his one meeting with Ramis and studio executives, including then-DreamWorks head Jeffrey Katzenberg. “We met all together, I thought to frame what type of character they wanted,” Allen said. “And (Ramis), like, stopped eating in the middle of it. He was a very pleasant guy, and (he) just said, ‘I think we’ve got a misunderstanding here.’”
Ramis went on to explain, “‘I really want an action guy that can be funny, not a funny guy that can do action.’ And everybody got real quiet.”
After announcing his misgivings about Allen (Ramis reportedly wanted to cast Alec Baldwin as Nesmith), the executives asked, “Could you leave us alone for a minute Tim?”
“I came back from the bathroom, and he was gone,” Allen continued. “And they said, ‘We’re going to move on to another director.’ And I went, ‘Well, that’s uncomfortable.’ So I got him fired, and I’ve never felt good about that.”
The Shaggy Dog star felt especially bad about this development because he actually got Ramis’ take. “I understood what he was talking about,” Allen admitted. “It was more of a Spaceballs feel to the script.” Although he was quick to praise Parisot’s approach, which he argued had more of a “documentary” feel.
Of course, whether or not Ramis was “fired” or quit because he didn’t want to make the movie with Allen in the lead role is up for debate. And, in retrospect, Allen should probably feel more sorry for some of the people who didn’t quit Tim Allen projects.
