John Travolta

Made films the shows talk about.

Wikidata Q80938: matched by corpus:resolve, told apart by the only person by that name on Wikidata.

Counted as director, the making department they hold the most credits in. The films the hosts said they directed, which the two lists below run through too: One Way for Color (as transcribed). Count them as actor (34 films), craft (1 film) instead.

Draws on

What the speakers say they, or a film of theirs, drew on. Each is a speaker's account: “the maker said so” when they report the maker's own words, “the host's read” when the read is theirs.

No line says they, or a film of theirs, drew on anything.

Drawn on by

What the speakers say drew on them or a film of theirs, marked the same way.

No line says anything drew on them or a film of theirs.

What the speakers said they did

Directing (1) everyone in directing

Acting (57) everyone in acting

Other (4) everyone in other

Craft (1) everyone in craft

What was said about them, by kind

career (16)

  1. career (career arc): John Travolta → Matthew McConaughey. Travolta was never in the wilderness; he was like pre-McConaissance McConaughey, a bankable rom-com star not respected.
    “I think it is closer to pre-ma connaissance, Matthew McConaughey.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Look Who's Talking with Hillary Busis · 0:26:52 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. career (career): John Travolta → Pulp Fiction. Pulp Fiction in 1994 began a heater of three to four major movies a year through 2000.
    “He's on a heater from Pulp Fiction 94 through 2000.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Domestic Disturbance’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 0:22:51 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. career (career): John Travolta → Battlefield Earth. Travolta's slide is dated to Battlefield Earth, with this movie as backwash.
    “This is the sort of backwash of Battlefield Earth.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Domestic Disturbance’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 0:23:13 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  4. career (career): John Travolta → The General's Daughter. The General's Daughter is where Travolta's run starts to go bad, in one speaker's view.
    “I would say general, it starts with general's daughter, which is also not good.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Domestic Disturbance’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 0:23:34 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  5. career (career): John Travolta → Tom Hanks. In the late 90s Travolta was the backup choice to Hanks for many roles.
    “he was kind of the backup choice to Hanks for a lot of different roles.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Domestic Disturbance’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:32:56 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  6. career (career): John Travolta → Nick Cage. For a stretch Travolta and Nick Cage were the two biggest action stars.
    “he and Nick Cage are the 2 biggest action stars in the world.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Domestic Disturbance’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:33:03 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  7. career (career): Michael Madsen → John Travolta. Madsen's 90s roles overlapped with the ones Travolta was getting.
    “Also in the 90s for him, a lot of his roles to me intersected with roles that Travolta was getting.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Species’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:06:19 · Chris Ryan (0.40 sure it was them)
  8. career (career): John Travolta → Saturday Night Fever. Travolta added surf, Batman and other late-50s/early-60s dances to the twist scene from his own memory; the dance scene would be stupid in any other movie.
    “So that's why he introduced like the surf wave and the Batman dance and all this other stuff because he was like, I remember the late 50s, early 60s dances.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Pulp Fiction’ (Part 2) With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 0:30:27 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
  9. career (career): John Travolta → Saturday Night Fever. Travolta's apex is Saturday Night Fever, since 70s stardom was bigger, like Stallone and Rocky.
    “I think it's Saturday Night Fever.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Pulp Fiction’ (Part 2) With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 2:00:54 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
  10. career (career): John Travolta → Cop Land. Movie stars playing non-star roles at a career inflection point, Travolta like Stallone in Cop Land.
    “I thought the Travolta stuff is very similar to the Stallone and Koplin.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Pulp Fiction’ (Part 2) With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 2:42:03 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
  11. career (career): John Travolta → The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. Simmons traces Travolta's path from the TV movie to Kotter to this film.
    “Boy in the plastic bubble.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Saturday Night Fever’ With Bill Simmons and Jimmy Kimmel · 0:14:03 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  12. career (career): John Travolta → Welcome Back, Kotter. Before the movie Travolta was a TV star; Welcome Back Kotter was the show everybody watched.
    “everybody wanted to be Vinnie Barbarino”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Saturday Night Fever’ With Bill Simmons and Jimmy Kimmel · 0:15:07 · Jimmy Kimmel (0.80 sure it was them)
  13. career (career): Robert Stigwood → John Travolta. Stigwood spotted Travolta and signed him to a three-film deal.
    “Stigwood's like, that guy's a movie star signs him to a 3 film deal.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Saturday Night Fever’ With Bill Simmons and Jimmy Kimmel · 0:17:18 · Bill Simmons (0.85 sure it was them)
  14. career (career): John Travolta → Burt Reynolds. Simmons argues Travolta was a bigger star than Burt Reynolds because of better movies.
    “Burt Reynolds also felt huge.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Saturday Night Fever’ With Bill Simmons and Jimmy Kimmel · 0:18:24 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  15. career (career): John Travolta → Grease. Simmons names Grease, not Saturday Night Fever, as Travolta's apex mountain.
    “I would actually say Greece was probably his apex mountain because Greece follows Saturday Fever.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Saturday Night Fever’ With Bill Simmons and Jimmy Kimmel · 1:09:21 · Bill Simmons (0.85 sure it was them)
  16. career (career): John Travolta → Robin Williams. Both came out of 1970s sitcoms and rose to be movie stars, hence the Old Dogs pairing.
    “Coming out of sitcoms in the 70s and then ascending to become major movie stars and everything.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 0:14:47 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)

contrast (2)

  1. contrast (pilot contrast): John Travolta → Harrison Ford. Travolta dresses as a pilot while Ford flies small crashable planes.
    “unlike Harrison Ford when Travolta flies planes, he wears a little pilot outfit.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Look Who's Talking with Hillary Busis · 1:44:57 · Hillary Busis (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. contrast (contrast): John Travolta → Channing Tatum. Magic Mike is the closest modern equivalent to the frenzy Travolta caused: an unknown whose dancing drove women crazy.
    “the closest thing to it from like the current era is Magic Mike.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Saturday Night Fever’ With Bill Simmons and Jimmy Kimmel · 0:31:19 · Jimmy Kimmel (0.55 sure it was them)

craft (2)

  1. craft (craft): John Travolta → Spider-Man 3. Travolta's drugged, lopsided face is likened to Topher Grace in Spider-Man 3.
    “Travolta's got, like, Topher Gray Spider Man 3 face.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 1:12:04 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
  2. craft (craft): John Travolta → Batman (the Joker). The digital facial-palsy effect is called Joker face and compared to a Batman villain.
    “He's fully jokerified.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 1:13:56 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)

industry (1)

  1. industry (industry): Jonathan D. Krane → John Travolta. The producer was Travolta's manager for years, and any movie listing him as producer is not big.
    “he was Travolta's manager from 78 or from maybe 1988 through 2004”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Domestic Disturbance’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:07:02 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

people (5)

  1. people (bad performance): Hairspray → John Travolta. Hairspray is nearly perfect except for one radioactive performance, Travolta's.
    “I think that movie is like a 9.8 out of 10. And then it has one radioactive performance.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Look Who's Talking with Hillary Busis · 0:06:58 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  2. people (peak performance): Get Shorty → John Travolta. The speaker calls Get Shorty their favorite Travolta movie-star performance, quiet and controlled.
    “I do think that is my single favorite Travolta movie star performance.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Look Who's Talking with Hillary Busis · 0:57:48 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. people (people): Kelly Preston → John Travolta. Preston, Travolta's real wife, plays Robin Williams' love interest, and Travolta's real daughter plays her daughter.
    “Kelly Preston, uh, famously, uh, uh, wife of John Travolta, absolutely.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 0:21:08 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  4. people (people): Robin Williams → John Travolta. The pair were Mork and Barbarino and were long asked when they would make a movie together.
    “No, no, it was it was Mork and Barbarino.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 1:06:27 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  5. people (people): John Travolta → Robin Williams. Compared to Spielberg and Cruise: fans waited decades for them to team up.
    “It was like Spielberg and Cruz.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 1:06:33 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)

unmapped (2)

  1. unmapped (meet-cute guess): John Travolta → Kelly Preston. Preston is in Two of a Kind, so the speakers guess that is where they met.
    “That film has Kelly Preston in it. So my guess is where they met.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Look Who's Talking with Hillary Busis · 0:53:23 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  2. unmapped (anecdote): John Travolta → Good Times. Kimmel gave Travolta the other piece of original Good Times artwork on Travolta's first appearance on his show.
    “I gave him the other piece of artwork.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Saturday Night Fever’ With Bill Simmons and Jimmy Kimmel · 1:23:16 · Jimmy Kimmel (0.85 sure it was them)

verdict (1)

  1. verdict (verdict): Robin Williams → John Travolta. One speaker says Williams is far funnier than Travolta in the film.
    “Williams is like 10 times funnier than Travolta in this movie.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 1:08:48 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

what-if (5)

  1. what-if (what-if): John Travolta → Vince Vaughn. Casting what-if: Travolta as the villain and Vaughn as the nice first dad would be a better movie.
    “I had, uh, Trivoltan Bond, which part's better movie.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Domestic Disturbance’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:11:47 · Craig Horlbeck (0.30 sure it was them)
  2. what-if (what-if): Tom Cruise → John Travolta. Cruise in the Travolta role, or Hanks against type; the speakers say Travolta is playing a Cruise part.
    “Travolta's playing a cruise part.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Domestic Disturbance’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:21:22 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  3. what-if (what-if): John Travolta → Pulp Fiction. If Travolta had starred in The Player, the Pulp Fiction comeback might have gone differently, and Bill is glad it did not happen.
    “It's a really interesting Travolta sliding doors.”
    The Rewatchables · 'The Player' With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Wesley Morris · 1:13:56 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  4. what-if (what-if): John Travolta → Annie Hall. Kimmel would have given the Oscar to Travolta; Kimmel says Woody Allen deserved it for Annie Hall.
    “Woody Allen should have won”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Saturday Night Fever’ With Bill Simmons and Jimmy Kimmel · 0:23:54 · Jimmy Kimmel (0.70 sure it was them)
  5. what-if (what-if): John Travolta → Al Pacino. Simmons wonders whether a very young Pacino could have done the opening walk.
    “maybe Al Pacino, as a very young man, could, but he's not even that...”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Saturday Night Fever’ With Bill Simmons and Jimmy Kimmel · 0:31:05 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)

Fun items about them

  1. fun, about John Travolta: Griffin's mother described Travolta as bovine; she meant the face, not the size.
    “I think his face looks like the face of a cow.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Look Who's Talking with Hillary Busis · 0:08:26 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about John Travolta: Travolta's directorial debut: a 62-minute movie about the first time he flew on a plane; the speaker saw him wear a beret to every Cannes screening.
    “he wore a beret to every single screening of the film.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Domestic Disturbance’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 0:26:05 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about John Travolta: Why the paycheck movies: owning a private plane means doing five a year.
    “when your aspiration becomes to have your own private plane that you can fly around, you just start taking paycheck movies.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Domestic Disturbance’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 0:27:10 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about John Travolta: Travolta is Sam Darnold: can win three games with him, or a Super Bowl with the right coach.
    “Travolta is Sam Darnold.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Domestic Disturbance’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:32:23 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about John Travolta: To understand heroin Travolta spoke to a recovering addict, then drank tequila in a hot tub with Kelly Preston.
    “They drank tequila and lay in a hot tub, try to figure it out.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Pulp Fiction’ (Part 2) With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:56:53 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about John Travolta: Charlie's magic hobby is set up by the fire trick and then dropped for the rest of the film.
    “He never once chose any affinity for magic over... the rest of the running time for the film.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 0:44:43 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  7. fun, about John Travolta: The fire-from-the-hands moment: Griffin insists Charlie can really conjure fire, since nothing disproves it.
    “Charlie has the ability to conjure fire with his bare hands.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 0:45:25 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  8. fun, about John Travolta: Travolta's Joker face after the mixed-up pills is a digital effect.
    “His Joker face is digital.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 1:14:49 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)