December 17 was the bestest night in the whole wide world for Clifford fans at Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles, starting from the moment they entered the venue and were greeted by a mannequin wearing the iconic (using that term loosely!) red suit from the dinner-party scene generously provided by superfan Tom Scharpling. Tickets for the event sold out in under an hour, and whether that’s a reflection of the impact of last year’s Clifford oral history from Vulture or just a statement about the intensity of the film’s cult following, it’s impossible to say. But some attendees flew in cross-country for what was not just a mere screening but a celebration of the much-loved, critically despised, financially failed 1994 movie starring Martin Short as a 10-year-old boy, culminating with the first-ever onstage reunion of Short, co-star Richard Kind, and director Paul Flaherty.
Organizers Hollywood Entertainment assembled a thoroughly comprehensive preshow video that included the original Clifford screen test, audio of Nicolas Cage’s declaration of love for the film, and a special message from the film’s writer, Steve Kampmann, who (more than once) admitted to being on mushrooms while recording it. There was also a clip from a 1994 Charles Grodin appearance on The Late Show where host (and noted Clifford fan) David Letterman predicted the film would be a “monster hit.†Inside this theater, Clifford played like one.
The film itself was introduced by a surprise guest, Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz, who joked that he wasn’t entirely sure he’d ever seen the movie in full. “I thought, in preparation for this, I would sit down and watch it, just start to finish,†Hurwitz said. “And I do think it’s appropriate to let you know that it actually is something I still haven’t seen all the way through yet.†He also offered a hilarious explainer of some of the film’s “dated†humor. “For example, Charles Grodin is talking to Mary Steenburgen, and he compares Clifford to Hitler, and in 1994, that was still kind of a diss.â€
Hurwitz reminisced about working with Short on Arrested Development, which made him so starstruck that he ended up writing virtually an entire episode around him. Short’s Uncle Jack, a radio star turned bodybuilder, received an unprecedented amount of screen time and backstory for a minor character, even by Arrested Development standards, prompting a lot of notes from the network asking, as Hurwitz recalled, “What does this have to do with anything?â€
Then the lights went down and an audio clip of Letterman warned viewers, “You think you’re going to see a regular movie … and then Clifford begins.†As the movie played, the mood in the packed audience — which included Scott Aukerman, Kulap Vilaysack, and Wayne Federman — was absolutely giddy. Short and Flaherty quietly took in the last third of the film from the back of the theater, clearly enjoying it and the crowd response, and if a man can be made to cry by watching two other men watch a movie in which one of those men plays a small boy, then this man writing this sentence would’ve teared up for sure.
But, of course, the main event, bookended by standing ovations, was the Q&A with Short, Kind, and Flaherty. As moderator, Scharpling guided them into unpeeling the onion that is Clifford with 40 minutes of insights and jokes, from Short’s deadpan declaration that watching the movie with the audience was “like meeting Christ†to Kind’s disbelief that no one in the crowd had any holiday parties they’d rather be at. The good-natured insults between the panelists were arguably the evening’s highlight, with Short explaining that Kind ended up being cast because “a lot of people had passed and we were almost out of Screen Actors Guild people,†before telling his co-star that “in the moments that you were focused, it was a joy to work with you.†When Flaherty said that Short had told him that “Spielberg†was impressed with the effects on the dinosaur ride, Short interjected that he didn’t mean “Steven,†he meant “one of his sisters.†Scharpling clarified that though he considers himself a devotee of the film, he didn’t see it in theaters because “I was busy that day.†While much of the trivia had been covered in Vulture’s now-legendary-ish oral history, no one in the audience seemed to mind hearing Short’s impression of Elizabeth Taylor declaring she was a “Clifford freak.â€
At the end, the inspiring takeaway was Short’s insistence that he’d always known they had something special on their hands: “There was never a moment that I looked at this film and thought we screwed up,†he said. “I thought it was hilarious. And the idea that the cream rises to the top is a thrilling concept.†When Scharpling warmly added that while the film may not have been appreciated in 1994 but had found its place now, Short quipped, “No rush.†All in all, the night was as thrilling as Clifford’s visit to Dinosaur World. And not nearly as traumatizing.