Watch Fever Pitch in its entirety, right here, right now on Fancast.
Jimmy Fallon was once the next big thing. He was the dreamiest of all Saturday Night Live cast members at the time, even if his early guitar-work was trying too hard to be Adam Sandler and he could never, ever complete a sketch without giggling. Unless, of course, he was wearing a beard and hosting the Barry Gibb Talk Show. Then he was comedy gold.
He's been out of the public eye for a while, but he's recently made news as the sure-fire contender to replace Conan O'Brien on NBC's Late Night when Conan moves up a time slot to replace Jay Leno on The Tonight Show (which will create a painful choice between comic geniuses O'Brien and David Letterman while Fallon takes on Craig Ferguson). So what better way to commemorate both this and the fresh pine-tar scent of the beginning of baseball season than with a look at Fever Pitch, the 2005 comedy he made with the Farrelly Brothers about a guy torn between his love of the Boston Red Sox and the love of Drew Barrymore.
This was made, of course, at the tail end of the 86-year Curse of the Bambino, when Sox were as hopeless a prospect for winning the World Series as the Chicago Cubs continue to be. The filming coincided with the Sox suddenly making it to the big dance, and the finale was shot on the actual field after they won Game 4 of the ALCS, then the Farrellys had to rewrite in a rush to incorporate the improbable world championship they never could have guessed. So now Chris Kattan and Heather Graham have to make a movie about the Cubs and see how that works. Then maybe Horatio Sanz and Kate Hudson can do the same for the Cleveland Indians.
So check out Fever Pitch for free right now, and remember the good old days of cheering for a hopeless underdog, and wonder why it's so much less exciting once they actually win the big one.
SNL Clips with Jimmy Fallon or Drew Barrymore:
Celebrity Jeopardy, where Fallon is playing Sandler.
The Barry Gibb Talk Show, with Justin Timberlake.
Jarret's Room
Morning Radio Z-105!
The Real Corona Ad
Drew Barrymore's Body Fuzion
