The Ladies Man (2001)

Plot: In the grand Saturday Night Live tradition, a long running sketch is dragged kicking and screaming to the big screen where it can fail miserably. This time it's Tim Meadows character Leon Phelps, a late night radio talk show host with a lisp and lots of bad advice in love.

News:

9 October, 2000

Tim Meadows talked to the Toronto Sun about his new movie, which coincidently was shot in Toronto. He says the Leon Phelps character got its start when Meadows made crank calls to radio stations while working with the Second City comedy troupe in Chicago in the 80s. He mentioned it to the writers of Saturday Night Live years later and they built the character from there. "We figured that Leon had a great year in 1979, and he would just not let it go," Meadows says. "Thanks to his radio station gig he was able to live a comfortable life. And, like Leon says, 'It's all good.' "

Translating Leon from a short skit to the big screen was a bit harder. "We had to have a story that was about 90 minutes long," Meadows says, jokingly. "We also knew we had to give Leon a life he really didn't have on Saturday Night Live. It was easy to write the question-and-answer skits on the show. Now we had to explore Leon's job, his life, his girlfriends and his friends and enemies."

Is it all good? Talk about it on the Forums

9 June, 2000

Personally this trailer makes me shudder but some of the other folks here love it so go figure. Anyway, if you haven't seen it yet you can download it here.

• 11.0 MB MOV

20 October, 1999

The poor history of movies based on Saturday Night Live skits hasn't stopped Tim Meadows from working his tail off for The Ladies Man. Filming the movie in Toronto and simultaneously working on Saturday Night Live in New York proved exhausting. There was a period of two weeks where he swapped cities every other day. He had a hand in writing and rewriting the script, casting, costuming and of course acting. "It was really important for me to be involved in everything. It's not because I'm a workaholic. It's because it's my ass that's on the line. If the movie doesn't do well, all people will remember is that it's Tim Meadows' Ladies Man that didn't do well." The movie, which just finished shooting, should be in theaters next summer.

20 September, 2000

Tiffani-Amber Thiessen has been added to the cast of the latest Saturday Night Live skit stretched to feature length. She stars opposite Tim Meadows and Will Ferrell. Anyone want to start taking bets on whether its worse than A Night At The Roxbury or not?

3 September, 1999

Karyn Parsons (Major Payne)has been added to the cast of The Ladies Man, the latest production based on a Saturday Night Live skit. She joins Tim Meadows in the story of a completely hopeless bachelor. Sometimes these SNL movies work (Blues Brothers, Wayne's World) but mostly they don't (Blues Brothers 2000, Wayne's World 2, A Night At The Roxbury, Coneheads, It's Pat).

28 July, 1999

Continuing in the long proud tradition of Saturday Night Live skits stretched thin to fill two hours on the big screen comes The Ladies Man. Lorne Michaels produces as always. Reginald Hudlin will direct. The movie stars Tim Meadows as a slimy phone-in showhost.