Each year during the holidays, a hot, new toy becomes the sought-after item kids want under the tree. Be it an action figure, doll, video game system, or other trending toy, parents clamor to buy the item by any means necessary. Most people would have had to experience visiting or calling multiple stores to find that one toy or might have worked retail during the holiday season, which means most people will also understand what Jingle All the Way is about. The movie involves Howard Langston and postman Myron Larabee competing to find the hard-to-get action figure Turbo Man for their respective sons. It’s Christmas Eve, and all the stores are sold out, but they follow hollow clues and rumors to obtain this toy. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Howard, and Sinbad as Myron.
While not the most popular of Schwarzenegger movies, or holiday films, Jingle All the Way has a cult following thanks to its treatment of the shopping frenzy that still holds up over twenty years later. Jingle All the Way currently stands at 16% at Rotten Tomatoes; the audience score is somewhat better at 38%. The film combines slapstick comedy and satire about the holiday shopping season with scenes that everyone can relate to. Even after all these years, some wild details about the production of Jingle All the Way make the film even more interesting. Although they may never raise the ratings to a significant degree, the movie is very likable and enjoyable now because of the actors, theme, and nostalgia.
Updated Dec. 20, 2021 by George Chrysostomou: Jingle All the Way might not be the classic it was intended to be, yet it’s an enjoyable holiday film that continues to be talked about today. Perhaps because of its hilarious performances or questionable writing, ultimately there’s still a lot of fun to be had with the mid-’90s production. There’s so much more for fans to know about the behind-the-scenes making of Turbo Man’s costume, the Wintertainment Parade, and other elements of the movie.
Sinbad Almost Quit Acting Over The Role
Schwarzenegger’s agent recommended Sinbad for the role of Myron, but many of the producers felt the villain role would upset the balance of Sinbad’s clean-cut, family comedy roles. Sinbad felt otherwise: he thought the audience would empathize with rather than loathe the character. He had to miss the audition because Sinbad already had a commitment to on a USO tour in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Producer Chris Columbus waited for Sinbad’s return for the audition. In an interview on the Blerd Empire podcast, Sinbad said he thought he messed up the audition. He informed his brother, who was also his manager, that he was done with show business. Patience won out as Sinbad ultimately received the part and helped bring out some of Arnold’s best quotes.
Turbo Man’s Watery Costume
The actual actor who played Turbo Man was Daniel Riordan. He’s best known for voicing characters in over twenty-five video games and several animated movies. Except at the end when Schwarzenegger was in a Turbo Man suit, Riordan voiced the character and donned the costume.
Many of the scenes with Turbo Man were in non-winter locations, so it became hot inside the suit. Because of that, a special vest was worn by Riordan. This type of vest is also used by race car drivers to stay cool. It had special tubing that ran cold water in and around the vest so the user wouldn’t overheat. Unfortunately, that system was only on the torso; the inside of the helmet succumbed to the heat of the Vasquez desert, where they filmed many of the flying scenes.
Legal Troubles
The producers and the parent company, 20th Century Fox, were sued for plagiarism. The lawsuit claimed the script was similar to another written by Brian Alan Webster, a high school teacher whose screenplay’s rights were owned by a publishing firm. The script was titled Could This Be Christmas? according to legal paperwork. Webster’s story was about two mothers of different races competing to get the same Christmas gift for their sons. Perhaps it would have been an underrated Christmas movie in its own right.
20th Century Fox lost the lawsuit: they were ordered to pay $19 million dollars to the publishing firm. However, in 2004, this ruling was overturned because the court found Jingle All the Way was based on a treatment years before Webster’s story.
Officer Hummell Was Originally A Woman
Robert Conrad is well-known for his 1960s TV series The Wild Wild West. He also was a pop and rock musician and the host of a radio show called The PM Show with Robert Conrad. In Jingle All the Way, Conrad was cast in the role of Officer Hummell, the cop who happens to be near Howard Langston when the father does something inappropriate or with questionable legality. Hummell consistently foils Langston’s plans.
When the script was first written, Officer Hummell was a woman. According to the Associated Press, Conrad said producers gave him the part because “they wanted someone who could pull up next to Arnold and tell him to pull over and he pulls over.”
The Wintertainment Parade Was Filmed In 100-Degree Weather
Because the area around Minneapolis and St. Paul have notoriously long winters, the Twin Cities were a great location to film Jingle All the Way, since the movie took place during the Christmas season. However, the major Jingle All The Way Wintertainment Parade scene was done at Universal Studios located in Los Angeles (per Mental Floss), when spring was transitioning into summer. This made for 100-degree days around that time when they did the Wintertainment Parade in a three-week period.
As luck would have it, these hot days were also the days Sinbad needed to wear his Dementor costume. This was probably uncomfortable for Sinbad. It got so hot that the water in the helmet would start to boil.
Schwarzenegger Almost Didn’t Take The Role
There was a moment in the film’s casting where Arnold Schwarzenegger almost didn’t star as Howard Langston. In early 1994, Schwarzenegger signed with 20th Century Fox (per Giant Freakin Robot) to star in a Planet of the Apes remake. The production company didn’t like any of the scripts– even the one that Chris Columbus wrote. Columbus decided to leave the Apes project, so Schwarzenegger left at the same time.
This made him available to be cast in Jingle All the Way in February 1996, almost two years after Planet of the Apes began production. The Apes remake eventually did get made, finally making it to theaters in 2001. That version starred Mark Wahlberg and was directed by Tim Burton.
Turbo Man Was Really Sold In Stores
From the get-go, filmmakers had planned real-life, physical action figures based on the movie. The first figure to hit the market was Turbo Man. The production designer for the movie worked with Tim Flattery, who was a character designer and had worked on Batman and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
They conceived various designs for each of the characters that would be sold in stores. Flattery was also involved in the life-size suit used by Schwarzenegger at the end of the movie. Of course, only the main character, Turbo Man was released in stores (per The Digital Fix). The villain, Dementor, never found a home in the retail market.
So Close, Dementor Dolls
Besides the Turbo Man real-life doll, Dementor almost had a life on retail shelves. The creepy Dementor is the arch-enemy of Turbo Man who uses a teleportation unit and commands minions called the Demon Team.
A prototype Dementor doll was designed and manufactured. It was tested in research and had high marks from the users. Because of that, Sinbad figured his doll would go to market (per TheArnoldFans). The actor said, “I had a prototype but they said ‘give it back, we’ll get you the real one when it comes out.” He added, “And dude, it NEVER came out!” The actor had a little theory on why: “I think that they didn’t want the competition between Turbo Man and my doll.”
Turbo Man Was Afraid Of Heights
Daniel Riordan is mainly a voice actor for animated TV shows and movies and video games. He does have some roles that required more than just his voice. For Jingle All the Way, he donned the Turbo Man suit and was the inspiration for millions of kids with his in-movie TV show, Turbo Man.
The action hero had a suit that allowed him to fly with rocket packs. Riordan was required to do some stunts with wires and support harnesses. Movie crews make stunts like that safe for the most part, but Riordan had one phobia directly related to Turbo Man: Daniel was afraid of heights. For the movie, he fought through it.
Phil Hartman’s Backstory For Ted
Ted Maltin is the neighborly single dad who gets the attention of many moms in the neighborhood. He does it all: cooks, fixes things and is an all-around great dad, but he has his eyes only on one woman: Liz, Howard Langston’s wife. That’s all there really is to know about Ted. The movie doesn’t dive into his past, but actor Phil Hartman sort of did. It’s not an official backstory as approved by Chris Columbus or 20th Century Fox, but it’s entertaining.
Hartman said, “Ted is a guy who sued his employer for headaches caused by toner fumes and now hangs around the neighborhood and helps all the housewives.” At the time, Hartman was being “pigeon-holed” in Hollywood, but said that “Ted’s another weasel to add to my list of weasels.”
Schwarzenegger And Sinbad Improvised
It’s hard to picture other actors in the place of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad in the roles of Howard Langston and Myron Larabee respectively. Arnold had only done a handful of comedies at that point, while Sinbad was known for his irreverent family humor.
It should come as no surprise that Sinbad is a great improvisation comedian. According to Eighties Kids, he often improvised lines in Jingle All the Way, and much of it was left in the final version of the movie. What may be surprising is that Schwarzenegger is also good at improv; he made up lines in response to his co-star’s. The two had a great dynamic, and it’s hard to tell what lines were improvised and what lines weren’t.
Turbo Man’s Name Was Almost Different
The main superhero of Jingle All the Way is Turbo Man. In the movie, Turbo Man has a TV show and action figures that are extremely popular with the children in the film. The hero is so popular, his toys sell out quickly, and every kid wants anything with Turbo Man on it. The name that made it to Jingle All the Way wasn’t the only one conceived for the action hero. Several other names were considered besides Turbo Man.
These included names like The Turbo, Turbo Guy, and The Turbo Guy. Even the name Turbo Tom was thrown out there, despite not knowing Turbo Man’s identity, backstory, or alter-ego. The final name, of course, is the best-sounding one, and the least cheesy.
The Toy Story Connection
Many movies are inspired by real-life events, and Jingle All the Way is no different. The original screenwriter, Randy Kornfield, found the high demand for the Cabbage Patch Kids and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in the 1980s and 1990s to be interesting. 20th Century Fox wasn’t too keen on his version. Chris Columbus stepped in and rewrote Kornfield’s script.
Columbus was inspired by his own personal journey of a toy search, according to Filmhounds magazine. Toy Story figures were popular a year before Jingle All the Way began filming. Buzz Lightyear was one of the hottest toys that season. Columbus was hard-pressed to find a Buzz Lightyear and went through some of the same trials as the parents in Jingle All the Way. 20th Century Fox approved Columbus’s screenplay.
The Grand Parade Scene Took 3 Weeks To Shoot
Considering the variety of sequences it’s easy to wonder, where was Jingle All The Way filmed? According to Axios, most of the production was shot in Minnesota. The Jingle All The Way parade scene had to shoot in L.A. in May because there was no major parade that would have fit the movie in the Twin Cities. In the movie, the parade was called the Wintertainment Parade. A New York Street was redesigned to mimic 2nd Avenue. Helicopters filmed the scene from above so that those elements could be added into “matte” shots of the real street.
The entire scene took three weeks to do. About fifteen hundred extras were brought in to fill the street, and three specially-made floats were included in the parade. The marching band featured is the real UCLA Marching Band.
Hartman Made Up Songs To Entertain Bored Child Actors
Sometimes young actors can get bored on set, especially when filming long scenes that could take all day or when multiple takes require repetitive actions and lines. This happened during filming for Jingle All the Way. During a car scene that was taking all day, the two young actors, E.J. De la Pena (who played Johnny Maltin) and Jake Lloyd (who played Jamie Langston), started becoming restless.
Co-star Phil Hartman made up songs to entertain them. One song had lyrics that went “You make my butt shine, the more you kiss it, the more it shines! The clock is ticking, so keep on licking, oh how you make my buttocks shine!”
Chris Columbus The Nitpicker
Filmmakers want to make a perfect movie, but no matter how much footage is shot or how the movie’s edited, it’s rarely “perfect.” Many creators and writers can attest that there’s always something that can be done to improve the final product. Chris Columbus was like that with Jingle All the Way, even up until the deadline from 20th Century Fox.
Using several test audiences, Columbus would see where the big laughs were and tweak the movie if necessary. He did this from August, when filming concluded, until the deadline. Columbus used all the time given to him to “fine-tune” the movie until the “last possible minute.”
Starring Joe Pesci
The poster for Jingle All the Way could very well have included someone out of the ordinary: Joe Pesci (per JOE). When the character of Myron was conceived, and casting began, Columbus was partial to Joe Pesci in the role. That idea was quickly dismissed because five-foot-four Pesci would look ridiculously short next to six-foot-two Arnold Schwarzenegger.
It’s strange to imagine the fighting and wrestling sequences between the two! Schwarzenegger had already played on a similar visual gag when he co-starred in Twins with Danny Devito, so it was best not to repeat the joke. Sinbad is six-foot-five, so it was clear the height difference there would look much better on screen, especially in the action scenes. This kind of gag managed to find its way into the sequel too!
The Director Did Triple Duty
Brian Levant is best known for directing The Flintstones, Are We There Yet, and Beethoven. He was also supervising producer on Happy Days and The New Leave It to Beaver. In Jingle All the Way, Levant did triple duty.
Martin Mull’s Extended Schedule
Martin Mull played KQRS D.J., Mr. Ponytail Man. His role involved facilitating a trivia contest about Santa’s reindeer and who could name them all. It was the driving force on several scenes between Howard and Langston as they fought to find a telephone, eventually booking it to the radio station to give their answers. Of course, the two adversaries misinterpreted the coupon redeemable for a Turbo Man action figure prize as an actual Turbo Man doll.
Mull was told that only one or two days were needed to film his scene. The only caveat was his part in the film needed to be done on a rainy day. It didn’t rain for almost weeks in Minneapolis; Mull stayed on set that whole time.
The Post-Credits Sequel Setup
The movie doesn’t end with Howard Langston saving his son’s Christmas; there’s an after-credits sequence that shows Liz being proud of Howard for doing the right thing, telling him he did a good job for the big day. Then she asks where her present is, and Howard looks at the camera in shock, like he forgot her gift.
That little scene after the credits was a setup for a sequel. Nothing is really known about the sequel, but it can be assumed that the original cast would have returned, though that obviously didn’t happen. Instead, a belated sequel starring Larry the Cable Guy came out in 2014 and went straight to video. The story had no connection to the original, so Sinbad had said, “It won’t work!”
