“This feels a bit like Groundhog Day.”
That’s a common expression for many. It’s another way to say that something feels like de ja vu, expressing that it feels like today feels as if it’s already happened. The phrase, however, is an interesting one, given its roots.
There’s been lots of cases where sayings – particularly slang – from films have made their way into public consciousness. So it wouldn’t be unheard of for saying something “is like Groundhog Day” to come out of the 1993 Bill Murray comedy where he’s stuck in a time loop on the surface. But there’s so much more going on underneath.
The film was written as a spec script by Danny Rubin. Rubin had an idea for a time loop story. Eventually, he also had an idea for a story about immortality. He eventually realized that he could combine the two. And as for choosing Groundhog Day?
“That was just a coincidence,” Rubin says. “I knew there was a day. I had to pick one. I couldn’t start writing until I knew which day it was. Everything was oriented around that. And I thought Okay, I need some ideas. And I just opened the calendar and the first holiday I came to was Groundhog Day. And I was like Perfect!“
“There’s already a small town ceremony,” Rubin continues, “and my character should come from outside of that and it should feel very small town to him and very claustrophobic. He should feel too big for the town.”
On top of the immortality and time loop, you also have a romantic comedy that finds Phil and his producer Rita. At the start of the film, Phil treats her with the same disregard he treats anyone who isn’t him. As the story progresses, he starts to become more and more taken with her, and has to find a way to make her fall in love with him within a single day. It’s only when he stops trying that he’s successful.
At the time, there were two offers to make Groundhog Day. The first would’ve been a completely independent approach, making the film for $3 million dollars. The second was to have it be a studio film, directed by Harold Ramis. Rubin figured he should go with the latter. Thus, that’s how Harold Ramis got involved.
One thing that is substantially different from Rubin’s original draft and the final product is how we meet our main character. Phil, a cynical and self-centered weatherman who detests going to Puxsutawny every year to cover Groundhog Day, we were originally going to meet mid-time loop.
“With that,” says Rubin, “you get a first act that already has the fun dissociation about everyone wondering what’s so magical about Phil that he knows what everybody is about to say and do. And at the end of the first act is when you realize he’s stuck in this town and every day is just repeating.”
Ramis loved the idea and promised that it would not change. However, eventually it was decided upon that in order to make it more of a commercial film, they had to do a proper introduction. Thus, we meet Phil just as he’s about to go to Puxsutawny.
When it came to who would play Phil, there were multiple actors considered, including Tom Hanks and Michael Keaton. However, it was decided by Ramis that both were perhaps “too nice.” He needed to find someone who you could buy into being this miserable weatherman. Bill Murray was that guy.
Murray, of course, went way back with Ramis. The two old friends had worked together on numerous occasions, including Stripes, Caddyshack, and Ghostbusters. Not to mention, it was a perfect vehicle for Bill Murray’s sarcastic persona. It was a part that only Murray could perfect.
While the film is of course a Bill Murray comedy and has loads of laughs throughout, there is a bigger conversation attached to it. It’s a behavioral study, in a lot of ways. We’re watching what having to relive the worst day of your life can do to someone, and how they would respond to it. What would it take to get him to change as a person? Just how long would he have been in there before he finally escapes the time loop and gets to February 3rd?
While they never explicitly say in the film – which was a Harold Ramis decision in order to fight off the studio wanting to make it a mere 2 weeks -, everyone has their take on it. Harold Ramis thought it was 10 years. Danny Rubin, however, always envisioned it being closer to 10,000 years. In the end, it’s sort of nice leaving it up to the audience’s interpretation.
Of course, Groundhog Day far preceded the film. While the film shows the event as a jovial occasion, in the actual Puxsutawny, it is anything but. This is a sacred tradition, and is treated as such. When writing the script, however, Rubin’s research was limited to a single phone call that lasted 20 minutes.
“When I was looking at my calendar for an idea of which day Phil would repeat,” recalls Rubin, “I thought Oh, I wonder if it really is Groundhog Day. If I’m remembering correctly about Puxsutawny and the name of the city. And so I went to the library and looked it up and found the phone number for the Puxsutawny library, which was also the chamber of commerce. And when I called and they answered the phone ‘Happy Groundhog Day,’ I knew. I put that poor busy librarian through 20 minutes of questions about the town. What do they make here? What do people do here? How’s the town laid out? That was the extend of my research.”
Rubin and Murray eventually traveled to Puxsutawny and spent some time there during pre-production. This is where Rubin got a better feel for what the ceremony actually was, and got to see them tapping on the door to bring the groundhog out.
A lot of comedy in the film is born from Murray’s interactions with the locals, which is tweaked slightly with every repeating interaction. However, none may be more memorable than his interactions with the annoying insurance agent on the street, Ned Reyerson.
“I remembered the first time I went to buy insurance and found myself in a room with an insurance agent who was like that,” says Rubin. “He wouldn’t stop talking. He didn’t seem to care what I had to say about anything. And I finally had to stand up and leave and he followed me, still talking. And got to my car, still talking. And I get in my car and he’s still talking. I had to close the door and roll up the window on the guy. He never stopped. And I thought That’s my Ned Reyerson.“
“I slightly took it from my insurance guy at the time,” remembers Stephen Tobolowsky, who played Reyerson in the film. “He was a sweet guy. Annie and I were just married and had a kid. And you know “You’re gonna need life insurance. You gotta have life insurance. What can we do for you? You know we have a good package here. We have a good package. We could make this work, we could make this happen. You know, we have a very special package.”
“After the movie came out,” Tobolowsky recalls, “he went to see the movie. And he called me up on the phone and said ‘Stephen, I just saw Groundhog Day and you were playing an insurance guy! You were playing an insurance guy like me. It was such a thrill! You know, people are always making fun of insurance people. At least this time, they show insurance people in a good light!’”
Initially, the filmmakers looked to Punxsutawney to film. However, the actual festivities take place in a wooded area YP in the mountains, that didn’t necessarily lend itself to the “stuck in time” vibe they were going to. Instead, they landed on Woodstock, IL.
Woodstock is not too far from where Murray and Ramis grew up. And the town square lent itself to just right vibe that they were looking for. When you stand in the center of it all, there is a tinge of claustrophobia that Phil would need to feel. It’s as if you’re in a bubble.
As filming began in 1992, they obviously would have to film all of the scenes on a single day, to account for any weather changes. The Ned scenes were shot during the first week. Tobolowsky had been filming another movie at the time. After he wrapped the night before, he flew to Chicago, got into Woodstock at 2:30 AM and was on set by 6:30. Even on limited sleep, he still managed to give the incredible comedic performance that we see.
“I got a call from Harold during rehearsals,” says Rubin. “And he said ‘You know this guy, Stephen Tobolowsky?’ I said ‘I don’t think so.’ He said ‘Well you’ve seen him because he’s in a lot of stuff. You would not believe this performance. You had to kind of scrape him off the walls.’”
“Bill was one of the greatest actors I have ever worked with on set,” Tobolowsky says of his natural chemistry with Murray. “He was always ferociously in the moment. Notably, it would raise the ire of some people, thinking he was nitpicking. But he was ‘Wait a minute, what’s going on here? What are we doing here?’ And he’d be very adamant about it.”
There have been reports that have come out over the years of certain animosity between Harold Ramis and Bill Murray during the film, and a rift that was present until shortly before Ramis passed away in 2014.
However, when you watch the film, that couldn’t be the furthest thing from your head as an audience member. All the debates between how to balance comedy and the philosophical made the film that much better as a result. You can’t just call it a comedy. You can’t just call it a philosophical film either. There’s so many different things at play, that you don’t even discover until – ironically – repeated viewings.
According to Tobolowsky, Ramis once said “The story we are telling is not just a romcom, but it’s a perfection of the human soul.”
When the film was released in February 1993, the reviews were kind. And the first two weeks at the box office were fair. But by the third week, people were going back for more. It was a rare film that had people returning for repeated viewings in the theater.
That momentum didn’t stop during the theatrical run. Within a few years after the film came out, you started hearing people say “It’s sort of like Groundhog Day.” But they’re not talking about the holiday. They’re talking about a repeated event, lifted directly from the movie.
Funny enough, there are people born after the movie was released who actually think first of the movie and not the holiday at all. The holiday is a complete after thought.
“What’s funny is I bumped into that while we were working on the Groundhog Day musical,” says Rubin. “Most of the actors were born after the movie came out, and always associated it with the idea of a repeating moment of time. They had a hard time understanding some of the lines, because they didn’t realize this was the origin of it. (Laughs).”
The film was transcended all expectations. Not only is it consistently referred to as a cult classic, but in every political cycle, that phrase keeps coming back and popping out – just like a groundhog. “It feels like Groundhog Day.”
“There are very few perfect movies,” says Tobolowsky. “There’s always a way a movie screws something up. And Groundhog Day is as close as you could come to a perfect movie. Even down to the credits. Even down to the music. Everything about it was a right choice. That’s unusual.”
“It really is a gift to me just to remind me to be appreciative,” adds Rubin, “because it’s such a positive part of my life. And part of that has been meeting people who wouldn’t cross the street to say boo to me. (Laughs). But if they knew I was the guy who was involved in making this film, then sure. They’ll have all sorts of happy things to say to me. People treat me kindly and I am appreciative.“
30 years later, the momentum shows no signs of slowing. So long as there’s a way to watch it, it’s always going to be February 2nd.