June 7, 1991: “City Slickers” Premieres

Left to right: Daniel Stern, Billy Crystal, Bruno Kirby

June 7, 1991: City Slickers premieres, directed by Ron Underwood. Three New Yorkers, each facing a midlife crisis, go on vacation, to drive cattle from a ranch on New Mexico to another in Colorado.

Billy Crystal is Mitch Robbins. He hates his job, and it's beginning to show in his work. He tells his wife, "My father sold furniture, something you could touch, something you could sit on. I sell advertising time for a radio station. So, basically, I sell air!" Patricia Wetting, then starring on the ABC drama thirtysomething, plays his wife, Barbara. Jake Gyllenhaal makes his film debut as their 12-year-old son, and Billy's real-life daughter Lindsay Crystal plays their daughter.

Daniel Stern is Phil Berquist, who manages a supermarket for his father-in-law, a rotten guy. His wife is also rotten. Somehow, they had 2 kids, but she hates him to the point where she hasn't let him have sex in 12 years. He cracks, and has a one-night-stand with a 20-year-old cashier, played by Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa on The Simpsons. She thinks she's pregnant (she turns out not to be), tracks Phil down at Mitch's birthday party, and spills the beans, so that Phil's marriage is over and he won't get any custody of his kids.

Bruno Kirby is Ed Furillo, a sporting goods salesman, who recently married Kim, a much younger model, played by Walker Brandt. He's always talking Mitch and Phil into wild adventures, and the film begins with them running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, with painful results for Mitch. Kim wants a baby, and, in Ed's mind, that's the final commitment. He's scared, because of his own past as a womanizer, which he inherited from your father.

He thinks the cattle drive will be a great getaway from their problems. Phil is scared, but goes, thinking it can't be scarier than the divorce he's about to go through. Mitch doesn't want to go, but Barbara talks him into it, saying he's miserable, and he's making the rest of the family miserable, and he needs to "find his smile again."

Their respective issues are reflected in a game Phil talks them into on the drive: What was your best day ever, and your worst day:

Mitch: Billy wrote his real-life best day into the script. He was 7, and his father took him to Yankee Stadium. Since they only had a black-and-white TV, this was the first game he'd ever seen in color. Mickey Mantle hit a home run, and he was hooked on baseball for life. Worst day: Barbara had a cancer scare, which, fortunately, turned out to be nothing.

Phil: Best day, his wedding. He was the first of them to get married, and he finally felt like he was a man, no longer a screw-up. Worst day: "Every day since is a tie."

Ed: Best day, he was 14, saw his mother catch his father cheating again, figured out that he was cheating on his kids, too, and stood up to him, telling him to get out. The father reached back to hit Ed, but Ed didn't budge. The father knew it was over, and got out, and Ed took care of his mother and his sister from then on. Worst day: "The same day."

Jack Palance won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, as Curly the trail boss, even though he's only onscreen for a few minutes.

Though Crystal is well-known to be a diehard Yankees fan, his character was a Mets fan in the movie because the Mets had been more accommodating over the years. First, the Yankees declined Crystal's request to hold a promotional day at Yankee Stadium for Comic Relief, a charity that Crystal, Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg set up to help the homeless. The Mets, on the other hand, were happy to host it. On the first day of shooting in Spain (for the Running of the Bulls segment), the Mets agreed to waive the $40,000 licensing fee for using their logo; the Yankees did not. And so, as Mitch, Billy wears a Mets cap throughout the film.

This was when George Steinbrenner was at his depths of pettiness. After his return from "exile," he and the Yankees became more accommodating, and treated Billy like the good guy celebrity he is.

Even if they make it to a petting zoo, cows don’t live all that long. However, at least one of the calves who played Norman -- they had to keep "recasting," since the calves literally outgrew the part faster than the film could shoot -- is known to have lived to the age of 18. And Billy Crystal took his horse home, and that horse lived to be 27.

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June 7, 1991 was a Friday. Football was out of season. The Stanley Cup had been decided 2 weeks earlier, when the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Minnesota North Stars. Game 3 of the NBA Finals was played on this day, and the Chicago Bulls beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 104-96 in overtime at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Texas Rangers, 5-4 at Yankee Stadium. Don Mattingly singled Steve Sax home in the bottom of the 9th inning to win it, making John Habyan a winning pitcher in relief of Mike Witt.

* The New York Mets beat the Houston Astros, 6-3 at the Astrodome in Houston. The Mets scored 6 runs in the top of the 9th inning, clobbering a young Curt Schilling, and making Doug Simons a winning pitcher in relief of Ron Darling.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-4 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Cal Ripken went 0-for-4.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Atlanta Braves, 11-2 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Diego Padres, 1-0 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Over 7 innings, Doug Drabek allowed 10 hits, but no runs. Three relievers completed a 13-hit shutout, just 1 hit short of the major league record. The only run came in the bottom of the 2nd inning, when Don Slaught singled Barry Bonds home. Bonds went 1-for-3 with a walk. Tony Gwynn went 1-for-4.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-4 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Indians, 2-0 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Allan Anderson pitched 8 innings of 2-hit shutout ball, and Rick Aguilera pitched a perfect 9th.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-2 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 2-0 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Charlie Hough pitched 7 2/3rds innings of 6-hit shutout ball, and Scott Radinsky was perfect the rest of the way.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the California Angels, 5-0 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Frank Tanana pitched a 4-hit shutout against his former team.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Rickey Henderson went 0-for-4.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 2-1 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Ken Griffey Jr. went 1-for-4. Robin Yount went 0-for-4. Paul Molitor went 2-for-4.