| Meet the Parents | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Greg Glienna |
| Produced by | Jim Vincent Emo Philips |
| Written by | Greg Glienna Mary Ruth Clarke |
| Starring | Greg Glienna Jacqueline Cahill Mary Ruth Clarke Emo Philips |
| Music by | Scott May |
| Cinematography | Bradley Sellers |
| Editing by | Dan Schalk |
| Release date(s) | 1992 |
| Running time | 76 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US $100,000 (estimated) |
Meet the Parents is a 1992 American independent comedy film written by Greg Glienna and Mary Ruth Clarke. Glienna also directed and starred in the film as the main protagonist, Greg. The film tells the story of a young man meeting his girlfriend's parents for the first time and the problems that arise when the girl's father takes a disliking to the young man.
Filmed on a budget of approximately $100,000 and shot in and around Chicago,[1] Meet the Parents was not widely distributed and did not earn a large profit at the box office upon its limited release. It did, however, garner some critical acclaim and attention from several people in the film industry who wanted to see the film remade on a bigger budget. Several years after the film's release, Universal Studios purchased the rights to the independent film. After hiring screenwriter Jim Herzfeld to expand the script, a new version of Meet the Parents was filmed and released in October of 2000.
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A clumsy but well-meaning young man named Greg (Greg Glienna) is on his way to visit his girlfriend Pam's (Jacqueline Cahill) parents for the first time. Stopping at a gas station on the way, he is warned by an attendant (Jim Vincent) of his girlfriend's previous boyfriend's catastrophic experience when he first met her overprotective father. He ignores the advice to turn around and go home. Arriving at the parents' home, he quickly becomes a target of the girl's family's anger when he, among other things, clogs and overflows the toilet, destroys the dinner roast and the family's beloved Victrola, almost blinds his girlfriend's mother with a fishing rod, gets into bed with his girlfriend's sister, and accidentally drowns the family dog. When he feels that the family has nearly been brought to the brink of destruction, his girlfriend's father chases him out of the house with a shotgun.
Film critic Suzan Ayscough reviewed the film for Variety magazine in 1992. In her review, she called the film a "wonderfully twisted black comedy" even though she believed it to be "excessive and occasionally overdone." Ayscough predicted that the film "could garner a cult following among anti-establishment urbanites" due to its "blatant attack on marriage, suburban indifference, Christian hypocrisy and the nuclear family" and unsuitability for mainstream audiences. Opining that the "script desperately needed an objective eye", she concluded by calling the film an "amusing vehicle which aptly displays the multiple talents of Greg Glienna."[2] Film producer Elliot Grove, founder of Raindance Film Festival and the British Independent Film Awards, listed the original Meet the Parents on his personal Top Ten list of favorite films where he called it "much funnier and tighter than the Hollywood version".[3]
Producer Nancy Tenenbaum acquired the rights to the original film and then she sent a copy to several people of interest hoping to have a new version of the film made. Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh replied that he was interested and that he wanted to direct a remake. He brought it to the attention of Universal Studios who initially declined but subsequently optioned the rights to the film in 1995.[1] Sodebergh took on the project but then dropped it when he got involved with Out of Sight.[1]
In 1995 Universal Studios purchased the rights to the film.[1] The screenplay was expanded by screenwriter Jim Herzfeld and film director Jay Roach was hired to direct the 2000 version of Meet the Parents with Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro in the leading roles.[4][5][6] Distributed by Universal Studios domestically and by United International Pictures internationally, the new film was a big financial success earning $166.2 million in the United States and a total of $330.4 million worldwide.[7]