Sports and your spouse
Today is the anniversary of the film debut of Diner (March 5, 1982).
Diner is an American comedy-drama written and directed by Barry Levinson. It was Levinson's screen-directing debut. IMBd describes the movie as 'A group of college-age buddies struggling with their imminent passage into adulthood in 1959 Baltimore.'
There is a classic scene which Eddie Simmons, played by Steve Guttenberg, presents his fiancee (Elyse) with a 140-question test (only six appear in the movie) on the history of the Baltimore Colts. Elyse must pass the test as a condition of marriage.
Elyse, who is heard but never seen in the film, failed the quiz by two points. But Eddie, despite his qualms about marriage, decided to overlook her score and marry her.
The quiz scene was named runner-up to the football game played in the movie M*A*S*H as one of the "best sports scenes in a non-sports movie" by ESPN.com.
I thought we could do a fun topic tonight on the sports interest/knowledge of your spouse and the impact on your relationship. Does your spouse enjoy and understand sports? Do sports cause conflict between you and your spouse? Does your spouse root for a rival?
Kelly is a huge sports fan. She was a gymnast in high school and considers Olympic gymnastics and figure skating must watch events. We first met when she was an intern in our my Sports Department at CLTV in Chicago. She later worked at then SportsChannel Chicago as a chyron operator. She entered all the onscreen stats and graphics for the broadcast of games for the Chicago Bulls, White Sox and Blackhawks. I married her despite the fact she's a 49ers fans.
She gets why I have to flip over to Sports Center before we turn off the TV before bed. She gets why I carve out afternoons for my fantasy football and fantasy baseball drafts. She was cool with us naming Casey after Sean Casey and using a combination of Peyton Manning/Walter Payton in naming our daughter, Peyton.
Honestly, I can't imagine what it would be like if she didn't like sports. In reality, we would have never met. That's scary.
Do you have a story about the connection of sports and the relationship with your spouse?
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Background on Diner
What a cast:
Steve Guttenberg as Edward "Eddie" Simmons
Daniel Stern as Laurence "Shrevie" Schreiber
Mickey Rourke as Robert "Boogie" Sheftell
Kevin Bacon as Timothy "Fen" Fenwick Jr.
Tim Daly as William "Billy" Howard
Ellen Barkin as Shrevie's wife, Beth Schreiber
Paul Reiser as Art Modell
From the Baltimore Sun, It was simultaneously endearing and appalling, this idea of requiring a potential mate to pass a test of football trivia as a condition of matrimony.
The man most responsible for the quiz, Ernie Accorsi, received no credit for his labor. He was an assistant general manager for the Colts in 1981 when someone -- he doesn't recall who, but is sure it wasn't Levinson -- called from the studio to talk about the movie.
As Modell, played by a youthful Paul Reiser, notes in his toast to the newlyweds at the film's conclusion: "Most marriages depend on a firm grasp of football trivia."