His movie Mannequin was the first date i had as a 17 year old guy with a cute 16 year old girl... celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary with our adult son and daughter next year. Thanks for everything Andrew ❤
the store is still open, in camp hill pennsylvania: boscovs. same mirrored ceilings, same layout until the extension was added decades ago. just FYI if you need an anniversary vacation...
Man, I never knew they took it as a bad thing. As a kid growing up in the '80's we thought the "Brat Pack" was really cool. It was the stars at the time that represented everything we loved.
Agreed. I thought all the people labeled that were cool. I don't agree with McCarthy about being pigeonholed. It could happen for sure. But it's also your choice to break out of it and prove people wrong. Often, actors get labeled and absolutely destroy what made them famous and then, are famous for something else: talent.
I think if you were Gen X, you didn’t have a problem with them being with the brat pack because they were youthful and cool. But two baby boomers and a silent generation they were seen as annoying and it was probably hard for them to get work in more serious films because they were kind of pigeonholed has the kids.
Less Than Zero was on the other day. I watched the whole thing. I was 15 when it came out- it's still as good now as it was then. Incredible performances by McCarthy, Downey, Gertz and Spader at such young ages, relatively speaking.
Wow, I thought exactly the opposite watching it just a few days ago. I was 20 when the movie released so my age was close to the young people in the story. I came from a middle class upbringing with a strong family unit, mom and dad were married and at home with us two kids our entire lives. LTZ shows a bunch of unbelievably spoiled and entitled filthy rich kids apparently so bored it leads they to party and do drugs to their own demise. The parents shown in the movie are also no sort of role model and certainly unlike any parents I'd ever seen. My view of the movie aside from the 80's music bringing back memories was that it was totally unrepresentative of young adult life. Then again, neither I nor any of my friends was into any drugs nor did we party like celebrities, so that may explain why to me it felt completely fictional.
Totally agree. I considered it a tribute to the Rat Pack, substituting “brat” because they were kids, or at least comparatively so to the original. The Rat Pack was a group of cool grownups; the Brat Pack was a gang of cool kids.
An excellent example of how perspective and context can completely change how people view such an iconic period of time. While we were all envious of them, they were struggling for career survival against the odds.
I guess everything is relative. They were in (at the time) some of the most popular movies, around the globe. How they could think of themselves as "not being seen" is beyond me, and probably millions of (struggling, for real) actors whose names you've never heard of.
We were part of the background cast for the movie Kansas, a carnival scene filmed in our small Kansas town in our annual Fair. Shooting all night for 3 days, the Carnies were getting tired, working 24 hours. And a little edgy. My 7 year old daughter was with me, and the kindness that Andrew McCarthy extended to her and others was over the top. Very Nice Man. My daughter still remembers his Blue Eyes….
What's frustrating to me is that Andrew was such a great actor, and most people who say that don't even know what that phrase means. I'm not talking "Oh, I could relate to his character." I'm talking about his ability as an actor. He was like his generation's Montgomery Clift. And it was just really perplexing how he just sort of fell off the face of the earth, never to be heard from again for decades. But hey, I guess that's how he wanted it. There have been a lot of great actors who did not want to be stars. They are two different things. I'm happy for him because it looks like he came through the other side the better for it but I'm sad for the rest of the world because it would've been great to see what he might have done as an actor.
@@mycinnamongirl I was 15 when St. Elmo's Fire came out and paid attention to all things '80s those years. While McCarthy seems like a really nice guy and I enjoyed seeing his name as director of 26 episodes of The Blacklist, I have to agree with you. He happened to be of the right age in that business in the time of the yuppie/preppie ensemble pieces. He could wear sport coats with collared shirts under, show up in a scene with a bottle of wine, had that hair, that little smile and was handsome. As you stated though, he didn't have all that much otherwise - no dynamic to him, really. Not at all. And man, looking now at his IMDB acting resume, there are A LOT of mediocre at best, awful at worst or movies I didn't know existed that he was in during that time and throughout the '90s.
That's just it. He and all the others didnt want to fall off the face of the earth. They wanted to keep getting jobs. The phrase definitely had an impact on their careers. From a fan perspective we thought it was cool but their reality damaged not just their careers but their friendships.
The fact that it was a pejorative, is one of the reasons our generation jumped on loving it. The fifties had the Rat Pack, and we had the Brat Pack. Both groups exemplify the coolness and excess of their times.
It was a pejorative because they played in a lot of coming of age, teenage and early 20’s angst movies. People were saying it was the Me generation. However, as we know now, we’re the group sitting on the sidelines eating popcorn and watching the other generations tear each other apart. 😮😂
"Our gen jumped on it?" Speak for yourself, wow. Please. So wrong on so many levels. Bet you wish you lived in a John Hughes movie home with brat packers...wow.
Is he actually a co-host? I have never seen him say anything or be involved in any way. I figured he was just a tech guy or producer that sat nearby... 😎
There were 8 members of the Brat Pack. Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy.
Also RDJ and Tom Cruise. I would definitely consider Charlie Sheen a member, also Lou Diamond Phillips. Judd Nelson was too old to be in the pack. Molly and Anthony were not really old enough. I thought it was a term for the partying cocaine pack, like the Rat Pack of the 60’s, the members of the original Ocean’s 11.
"You Couldn't Ignore Me if You Tried" is the definitive book of that entire era, and *everyone* goes on record. There is some pretty funny snark the actors have to say about each other. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
I've seen Weekend at Bernies 30-odd times. So many great lines by this guy "My old man worked hard. All he got was more work." My favorite work of his was Heaven Help Us. I had a big crush on him.
In a time when typecasting was the norm, being labelled when you're just starting out could be very damaging to an acting career. Thank goodness versatility is more embraced now. A lot of actors worked hard to get us to this point.
I remember hearing "Brat Pack" right around the time St. Elmo's Fire came out. I don't even recall which specific actors were supposedly part of the group, but since I'd had an enormous crush on Emilio Estevez ever since I saw him in a made-for-TV movie, In The Custody of Strangers, I thought the Brat Pack was the best thing in the entire world. And with The Breakfast Club - which is still one of my all-time favorite movies - I thought they were awesome. I knew the term was supposed to be an insult, but I also knew the insult was bullshit. These were actors that were very good-looking but were also amazing actors. I can believe it had a negative impact on some of their careers, but I'll always remember the Brat Pack fondly.
What a cool guy. Always thought he was great as a kid. I had an ex-girlfriend who found a book called Looking For Andrew McCarthy. The guy has made such a cultural impact - without Scorsese!
I agree. He was one of my big favorites and when he wasn't on screen anymore, I pretty much grieved. My favorite: St. Elmo's Fire. Loved his character in that.
Andrew is 100% right...i remember the Brat Pack was definitely not given in complimentary terms...it was basically saying the rat pack was legit and all the members were icons and super talented whereas the brat pack were basically a bunch of punks.
It should be remembered in the context of the original "Rat Pack" of Sinatra and Sammy and Dean etc as an exclusive group of a generation's top stars. That's how I always thought of it so it was a good thing.
This is exactly what the journalist was going for. To use the rat pack to compare as a reference, just to belittle and insult a group a young actors. What it did was work against him and now the brat pack is just as legendary and famous.
Man he nailed it. The shocking thing about the '80's is that we didn't know we were living in a Golden Age in entertainment - movies, TV, music, (arguably design) - until it was too late. Critics "duty" is to criticize new stuff so, being sort of gatekeepers, this poor actor got his reputation shafted at the time. Understand, youngsters, that the 1980's, as awesome as it was, were a Dark Age of information when compared to today. Being labeled a "brat" (i.e. difficult to work with) could not be countered with a UA-cam video or a Wikipedia page. Here's a movie idea (vaguely inspired by _A Night at the Roxbury_ and _American Graffiti_ ): two or three teenagers in Southern California set out to try to meet all members of the Brat Pack in 24hrs. Along the journey, they learn some of the same lessons as in those movies and that famous actors are humans, not god-like movie stars. Not sure if CGI and AI are yet good enough to de-age and portray the Brat Pack with total believability and I've never liked the idea of casting imitators.
I always thought of the label "Brat pack" as an endearing term that represented a group of loyal friends that would do anything for each other. That's what being a teen in the 80's was like for me and our group of friends. What a wonderful time it was and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Thanks to every member of the "Brat pack" for the awesome memories and movies that I now share with my children. They always want to hear my stories of what it was like for us back then, they envy our time. Let's hope theirs gets better soon. Have a great day everyone. :)
I had no idea that people did not know “Brat Pack” was a derogatory appellation. It was associated with the entitlement and fast lifestyle of kids of a certain pedigree and privilege and did indeed brand them as teen idols rather than the incredibly talented actors they all were. Safe to say, the guy was jealous as hell but he had some facts behind him. You could get away with a lot more back then.
Love that Andrew McCarthy. The high school crush of every girl I knew. But he's so much more. A thoughtful and talented writer with something to say that is meaningful.
I love how the younger guy is on his phone and totally doesn’t care about the brat pack, the , eighties or what the guest is saying . Totally representative of how most of us in our 50s view our children and the younger generations.
Absolutely no difference to any generation. It's just that the phone is tangible and therefore you can see the lack of interest. It happened through the ages of every generation; young people didn't/dont want to listen to old people reciting their glory days (through rose tinted glasses), so they'd stop listening, stifle yawns and nod occasionally.
I am 44: I was a big 80's-worshipper in the 90's and 2k. The old punk bands, the Brat Pack, Madonna, whatever. That is AS FAR BACK as you can expect people to care. If someone is 20 now and cares about "old school" pop culture, they will go back to about 2002, max. Just the way it works. The only 80's fans you will find are 1.) kids who lived through it or 2.) the younger siblings who were children during it. Would also add: when a boomer would talk about 1968 when I was a kid, I would completely tune them out. Anything prior to say, 1980...didn't care.
@@chazarcola7639 Yepp. She was also not really Pack material: she was always kind of the straight woman/foil in that movie. Although, she is also helping Lowe cheat on his wife, so....not a saint. But not a cokehead 80s character, either.
my favorite movie(s) of his is Weekend at Bernie's. Idk why but it's just such a crazy movie with an insane premise, and he plays that character perfectly along with Jonathan Silverman. "Yeah our boss is dead, but so what let's party it up while we drag his corpse around with us" lmao. I gotta go watch it now
That's really too bad, one idiot writes an article and it can have sort of affect on that many young actors. I'm glad he realizes now that when we say or think of "the brat pack" for whatever reason the word brat doesn't even mean what it would normally means. It's more of a cool, young group of really talented actors and like he said, they are our avatars sort of. I loved every movie Andrew was in, he did such an amazing job in everything. Less than Zero always stuck with me growing up, it really stood out to me for the acting in that movie. Side note, the dude looks amazing for how many decades that have passed.
Remember what's big to YOU may not be to someone else. Especially for young people......Like the Brat Pack label may have seemed cool to us but for those actors, they probably wanted a more polished view of themselves in order to be taken more seriously.
As an eighties girl, I never saw (and still haven’t) Top Gun but Less than Zero I’ve lost count. Even the small part of Andrew living in a trailer on the edge of a cliff in ‘New Waterford Girl’ he makes his mark.
Book was great, too. Also: Ellis wrote it when he was NINETEEN YEARS OLD. On summer break from college. Something to aspire to...what a work for a teen writer! Turned into a great movie, etc. I wish I had done that much before 20....
Interesting perspective by Andrew. Being in a group has its privileges, but in this case the label itself was a type of type cast for Andrew and the other members of the "brat pack". Labels have a way of shaping perception, it can work to an actor but in this case, it seemed to work against them.
I want to know what happened to the series he was in about 10 or so years ago called the family?! That series was AMAZING!!!! He was so excellent in it (of course).
One of my favorite "80's teen movie" was 'Class" with Andrew McCarthy, Rob Lowe and a bunch of others (including John Cusack, Alan Ruck - from 'Ferris Bueller' and 'Speed' fame, and Virginia Madsen) many of whom seem to be largely forgotten now. I was 13 when I first saw 'Class' (not ashamed to admit that I was crazy about Jacelyn Bisset as the paragon of hot older woman - the original cougar for many my age cohort!
As a young dude in the 90's, I always thought he was a healthy middle ground to aspire to. NOT a nerdy stalker, like a Jon Cryer type. But also not so much of a Rob Lowe-typecast "bad boy" that he could ruin his life. Just a perfect "decent guy who can still get the girl". Very nice.
I was 21 years old cleaning toilets while commuting to state University for a major I didn’t want to do, but this guy was mislabeled by a media outlet because Emelio Estevez got his break because his dad was famous. We’ve all got tough lives …
The brat pack moniker was to denote overindulgent spoiled narcissists who hadn't put in the work to be where they were ( in some people's eyes). The gen x faction that appreciated the moniker saw it as aspirational in an ever tightening social order that saw the crazy freedom of the 70's slowly dissappearing into the Just Say No 80s. The real actors became characters and ultimately caricatures of actors. You can see who ran with it, who ran from it, and who railed against it.
Wasn't "dispearing", kids in the 80's just saw the hangover and stupidity of the hippies. Single mothers, drug addict parents, etc. That's why you had the 80's straight edge thing in punk, lots of warnings about safe sex and pregnancy, a more clean cut vibe, etc. Freedom wasn't being "stifled". It was just: young people were learning what did and what did not work in the world of partying. I'm very glad to have been a kid in the 80's. Lots of good wisdom came out of that hangover period. Much now standard advice to youth.
Ironically, it didn't seem to slow Emilio down, who went on to do three Young Guns movies and several Mighty Ducks movies after that. The best movie with Andrew McCarthy is the 90's Joy Luck Club where he has a smaller role. Great frickin movie.
Back in 1985, no one outside of New York would have seen that article. I still have never seen it (have not looked for it). We all used the name as a compliment. It was very cool to be compared to the Rat Pack. They were an exclusive group of young stars. Years later, I heard they took offense to the name and never really understood why. 😎
I never read that article or knew anything about the origins of the term, but I always implicitly knew it was derogatory, and always found it rather odd that the media used it so casually as a term of endearment. The same goes for that genre label "teen angst", which I found belittled and trivialised the stories in films dumped into that genre. Granted, a lot of them were fluff, but a lot of them were also great character studies and examinations of society in general.
For me, the term Brat Pack don't just refer to the cast of Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire... I'd also use it to refer to all the other TEEN stars and movies in the 80s, starting with 1983's The Outsiders...up to those in 87/8..or John Hughes- related.
Listening to Andrew talk about the animosity regarding the coined term “brat pack”, is a living embodiment of what it was like to be young in the 80s. The dismissive and marginalizing of young adults was imbedded into our growth and development by our elders in homes, school and public institutions. We were a different type of people, we played, we created, we were a thinking generation and empathetic with our inclusivity and not just a little nihilistic; the Sesame Street/Mr Rogers generation. Adults of the day seemed to be really threatened by the social change we represented and they tried their best to snuff it out. Kicking a negative label onto popular young actors of the day, was just another day that ended in y. There’s a nostalgic pride in the term brat pack now, because despite all, young adults succeeded in stamping the 80s with their cultural hallmark, regardless of the efforts by an aging demographic to control the message.
At the end of the day he is an actor/producer/Director and has a passion for his craft and his body of work..He seems stressed every interview refers to him as part of BRAT PACK and lets talk about that in his 50's now..Can your imagine???
Andrew excelled in that geeky awkward looking , boy becoming man phase , he had a charm and innocence about him, that made him perfect for such parts. He was great in all the films , class was a particular favourite!
His movie Mannequin was the first date i had as a 17 year old guy with a cute 16 year old girl... celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary with our adult son and daughter next year. Thanks for everything Andrew ❤
🥰
Please tell me you two had “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” as your wedding song.
@@HoustonSoto how did you guess 😁
the store is still open, in camp hill pennsylvania: boscovs. same mirrored ceilings, same layout until the extension was added decades ago. just FYI if you need an anniversary vacation...
Not a bad movie for a first date. Love that flick
Man, I never knew they took it as a bad thing. As a kid growing up in the '80's we thought the "Brat Pack" was really cool. It was the stars at the time that represented everything we loved.
Gen X got knee capped at every turn it seems.
Agreed. I thought all the people labeled that were cool. I don't agree with McCarthy about being pigeonholed. It could happen for sure. But it's also your choice to break out of it and prove people wrong. Often, actors get labeled and absolutely destroy what made them famous and then, are famous for something else: talent.
Where's the world's smallest violin? Boo hoo.
Because it was.
I think if you were Gen X, you didn’t have a problem with them being with the brat pack because they were youthful and cool. But two baby boomers and a silent generation they were seen as annoying and it was probably hard for them to get work in more serious films because they were kind of pigeonholed has the kids.
Less Than Zero was on the other day. I watched the whole thing. I was 15 when it came out- it's still as good now as it was then. Incredible performances by McCarthy, Downey, Gertz and Spader at such young ages, relatively speaking.
One of the best movies ever...it still holds up!
I saw it in the theater when I was a teen. Very dark and disturbing. I didn’t like it. I thought I was in for another “16 candles” type movie.
@@vandalorianvandalorian4769 its the exact opposite of 16 Candles 🤣🤣🤣
Wow, I thought exactly the opposite watching it just a few days ago. I was 20 when the movie released so my age was close to the young people in the story. I came from a middle class upbringing with a strong family unit, mom and dad were married and at home with us two kids our entire lives. LTZ shows a bunch of unbelievably spoiled and entitled filthy rich kids apparently so bored it leads they to party and do drugs to their own demise. The parents shown in the movie are also no sort of role model and certainly unlike any parents I'd ever seen. My view of the movie aside from the 80's music bringing back memories was that it was totally unrepresentative of young adult life. Then again, neither I nor any of my friends was into any drugs nor did we party like celebrities, so that may explain why to me it felt completely fictional.
If you thought the movie was dark and disturbing, DO NOT read the book. The move is like the Disney version of the book….😂
I'm 58 now and can say that at the time the term " Brat Pack " was never, for me, a negative label given to those great actors.
I agree.
But did you have the wool trench coat and clip on earring?
@@deltahomicide9300
No,not cool enough for that!
Totally agree. I considered it a tribute to the Rat Pack, substituting “brat” because they were kids, or at least comparatively so to the original. The Rat Pack was a group of cool grownups; the Brat Pack was a gang of cool kids.
Well, you weren't one of them. I never thought about it from his perspective.
An excellent example of how perspective and context can completely change how people view such an iconic period of time. While we were all envious of them, they were struggling for career survival against the odds.
I guess everything is relative. They were in (at the time) some of the most popular movies, around the globe. How they could think of themselves as "not being seen" is beyond me, and probably millions of (struggling, for real) actors whose names you've never heard of.
Andrew is a fucking legend! Less than zero and my favorite weekend at Bernie’s!!! he looks great, and still has all his hair!
Agree and yes that hair !!! Great human being on top of legendary actor!
And Pretty in Pink... I always thought the world of AM.
@@twistoffate4791 I just watched it again, it was great as always. x
waiting for Weekend at Bernie's 3... probably not much left of Bernie after 35 years but it would be a great reunion lol
@@shaunsteele6926
Well expect just a leg or an arm from Bernie.
Hey its better than nothing!
We were part of the background cast for the movie Kansas, a carnival scene filmed in our small Kansas town in our annual Fair. Shooting all night for 3 days, the Carnies were getting tired, working 24 hours. And a little edgy. My 7 year old daughter was with me, and the kindness that Andrew McCarthy extended to her and others was over the top. Very Nice Man. My daughter still remembers his Blue Eyes….
Weekend at Bernie’s is still hysterical. 😂
What's frustrating to me is that Andrew was such a great actor, and most people who say that don't even know what that phrase means. I'm not talking "Oh, I could relate to his character." I'm talking about his ability as an actor. He was like his generation's Montgomery Clift. And it was just really perplexing how he just sort of fell off the face of the earth, never to be heard from again for decades. But hey, I guess that's how he wanted it. There have been a lot of great actors who did not want to be stars. They are two different things. I'm happy for him because it looks like he came through the other side the better for it but I'm sad for the rest of the world because it would've been great to see what he might have done as an actor.
@@mycinnamongirl I was 15 when St. Elmo's Fire came out and paid attention to all things '80s those years. While McCarthy seems like a really nice guy and I enjoyed seeing his name as director of 26 episodes of The Blacklist, I have to agree with you. He happened to be of the right age in that business in the time of the yuppie/preppie ensemble pieces. He could wear sport coats with collared shirts under, show up in a scene with a bottle of wine, had that hair, that little smile and was handsome. As you stated though, he didn't have all that much otherwise - no dynamic to him, really. Not at all. And man, looking now at his IMDB acting resume, there are A LOT of mediocre at best, awful at worst or movies I didn't know existed that he was in during that time and throughout the '90s.
@@mycinnamongirlWow! We have a great actor here! What's the title of your movie?
@@greg6602Another acting genius. What's the title of your movie?
That's just it. He and all the others didnt want to fall off the face of the earth. They wanted to keep getting jobs. The phrase definitely had an impact on their careers. From a fan perspective we thought it was cool but their reality damaged not just their careers but their friendships.
The fact that it was a pejorative, is one of the reasons our generation jumped on loving it.
The fifties had the Rat Pack, and we had the Brat Pack.
Both groups exemplify the coolness and excess of their times.
I believe Lauren Bacall named the Rat Pack and wasn't a term of endearment that it would become. But you probably already know this.
I think now there is the Frat pack or something like that.
It was a pejorative because they played in a lot of coming of age, teenage and early 20’s angst movies. People were saying it was the Me generation. However, as we know now, we’re the group sitting on the sidelines eating popcorn and watching the other generations tear each other apart. 😮😂
"Our gen jumped on it?" Speak for yourself, wow. Please. So wrong on so many levels. Bet you wish you lived in a John Hughes movie home with brat packers...wow.
@@hmicky-mickey You really don't get, the Gen X tactic of "embracing a pejorative, to take away its negative power," do you?
1:49 My favorite part of this interview is your co-host completely disengaged playing on his cellphone ignoring the conversation.
Classy.
How embarrassing
Lmao awful
"See me.", Andrew pleads.
Cohost 1.5 feet away: *viewing singles in his area on his phone*
Is he actually a co-host? I have never seen him say anything or be involved in any way. I figured he was just a tech guy or producer that sat nearby... 😎
Not a co-host tho.
I love Andrew McCarthy!!!! 🩷💕🩷💕🩷💕🩷😍😍😍😍😍
There were 8 members of the Brat Pack. Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy.
Charlie sheen ? No ?
@@deerheart87 No.
molly ringwald was great , she made 80s teen movies . she understood how awkward it was to be a teen.
Also RDJ and Tom Cruise. I would definitely consider Charlie Sheen a member, also Lou Diamond Phillips. Judd Nelson was too old to be in the pack. Molly and Anthony were not really old enough. I thought it was a term for the partying cocaine pack, like the Rat Pack of the 60’s, the members of the original Ocean’s 11.
James Spader & Robert Downy Jr were honorary members.
Andrew was my favourite Brat Packer back in the day. I can't believe that he's 60 now!
The Brat Pack. Bro, you were seen. You provided a whole generation with entertainment. Don't let anyone water that down ever.
"You Couldn't Ignore Me if You Tried" is the definitive book of that entire era, and *everyone* goes on record. There is some pretty funny snark the actors have to say about each other. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Immediately knew the quote, but had no idea of the book. I'll seek it out, thanks for the heads up!
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! I re-read it every now and then just because it is so informative and entertaining for this Gen-Xer. @@al201103
You suppose if they like to altogether favorite 80$ actors present a book on that era!
I'll second that. Amazing book!
@@freddybeer I pick it up once a year and can just start reading anywhere. 😆 It's SO enjoyable!
I've seen Weekend at Bernies 30-odd times. So many great lines by this guy "My old man worked hard. All he got was more work." My favorite work of his was Heaven Help Us. I had a big crush on him.
In a time when typecasting was the norm, being labelled when you're just starting out could be very damaging to an acting career. Thank goodness versatility is more embraced now. A lot of actors worked hard to get us to this point.
I remember hearing "Brat Pack" right around the time St. Elmo's Fire came out. I don't even recall which specific actors were supposedly part of the group, but since I'd had an enormous crush on Emilio Estevez ever since I saw him in a made-for-TV movie, In The Custody of Strangers, I thought the Brat Pack was the best thing in the entire world. And with The Breakfast Club - which is still one of my all-time favorite movies - I thought they were awesome. I knew the term was supposed to be an insult, but I also knew the insult was bullshit. These were actors that were very good-looking but were also amazing actors. I can believe it had a negative impact on some of their careers, but I'll always remember the Brat Pack fondly.
What a cool guy. Always thought he was great as a kid. I had an ex-girlfriend who found a book called Looking For Andrew McCarthy. The guy has made such a cultural impact - without Scorsese!
He was an awesome movie actor, better than a lot of the rest.
Shame he didn’t get cast in roles that showed his skills.
which I think was his point, the brat pack label meant people didnt take them seriously.
Ahhh! ❤❤ i always loved Andrew MCarthy!!! ❤❤
Did anyone catch the name of the other writer Andrew mentioned ? Vince something? Around the 1:30 mark
Andrew is great. It's a shame you don't see him in anything anymore.
Isn’t he a director, now? I did see him play a great arrogant murderer on an episode of Monk!
I agree. He was one of my big favorites and when he wasn't on screen anymore, I pretty much grieved. My favorite: St. Elmo's Fire. Loved his character in that.
@@twistoffate4791
Do you remember when he came out with Rob Lowe on their movie "Class"?
Another classic!
He was recently on Good Girls. Amazing as usual.
I forgot that one. Great movie. They don't make movies like those anymore.@@twistoffate4791
Andrew is 100% right...i remember the Brat Pack was definitely not given in complimentary terms...it was basically saying the rat pack was legit and all the members were icons and super talented whereas the brat pack were basically a bunch of punks.
It should be remembered in the context of the original "Rat Pack" of Sinatra and Sammy and Dean etc as an exclusive group of a generation's top stars. That's how I always thought of it so it was a good thing.
This is exactly what the journalist was going for. To use the rat pack to compare as a reference, just to belittle and insult a group a young actors. What it did was work against him and now the brat pack is just as legendary and famous.
Why no Weekend at Bernie's 3?
Shudda seen more of Andrew McCarthy over the years! Wish he loved the movies as much as we do! Weekend at Bernie’s
Man he nailed it. The shocking thing about the '80's is that we didn't know we were living in a Golden Age in entertainment - movies, TV, music, (arguably design) - until it was too late. Critics "duty" is to criticize new stuff so, being sort of gatekeepers, this poor actor got his reputation shafted at the time. Understand, youngsters, that the 1980's, as awesome as it was, were a Dark Age of information when compared to today. Being labeled a "brat" (i.e. difficult to work with) could not be countered with a UA-cam video or a Wikipedia page.
Here's a movie idea (vaguely inspired by _A Night at the Roxbury_ and _American Graffiti_ ): two or three teenagers in Southern California set out to try to meet all members of the Brat Pack in 24hrs. Along the journey, they learn some of the same lessons as in those movies and that famous actors are humans, not god-like movie stars. Not sure if CGI and AI are yet good enough to de-age and portray the Brat Pack with total believability and I've never liked the idea of casting imitators.
I always thought of the label "Brat pack" as an endearing term that represented a group of loyal friends that would do anything for each other. That's what being a teen in the 80's was like for me and our group of friends. What a wonderful time it was and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Thanks to every member of the "Brat pack" for the awesome memories and movies that I now share with my children. They always want to hear my stories of what it was like for us back then, they envy our time. Let's hope theirs gets better soon. Have a great day everyone. :)
if they ever remake the Breakfast Club the only way I'll be content is if John,Allison,Brian,Claire and Andrew are all the parents.
That's actually a good idea
I had no idea that people did not know “Brat Pack” was a derogatory appellation. It was associated with the entitlement and fast lifestyle of kids of a certain pedigree and privilege and did indeed brand them as teen idols rather than the incredibly talented actors they all were. Safe to say, the guy was jealous as hell but he had some facts behind him. You could get away with a lot more back then.
Love that Andrew McCarthy. The high school crush of every girl I knew. But he's so much more. A thoughtful and talented writer with something to say that is meaningful.
I love how the younger guy is on his phone and totally doesn’t care about the brat pack, the , eighties or what the guest is saying . Totally representative of how most of us in our 50s view our children and the younger generations.
Absolutely no difference to any generation.
It's just that the phone is tangible and therefore you can see the lack of interest.
It happened through the ages of every generation; young people didn't/dont want to listen to old people reciting their glory days (through rose tinted glasses), so they'd stop listening, stifle yawns and nod occasionally.
Usually the person on the phone is interacting and monitoring the chat.
@@MichelleAlexandria-EMlol, yeah that’s what’s wrong these days. Everyone is just “monitoring the chat”
I am 44: I was a big 80's-worshipper in the 90's and 2k. The old punk bands, the Brat Pack, Madonna, whatever. That is AS FAR BACK as you can expect people to care. If someone is 20 now and cares about "old school" pop culture, they will go back to about 2002, max. Just the way it works. The only 80's fans you will find are 1.) kids who lived through it or 2.) the younger siblings who were children during it. Would also add: when a boomer would talk about 1968 when I was a kid, I would completely tune them out. Anything prior to say, 1980...didn't care.
I was 8 years old when Pretty in Pink came out. My older sister watched it 8 million times. I swear Andrew looks younger than me these days.
The Breakfast Club, Some Kind of Wonderful, Pretty In Pink, Mannequin. All fantastic movies of the time. Loved all of them
I just noticed your Fright Night poster is gone. Boo! I hope it appears again in the rotation.
What happened to it ?
There are 8 members of the Brat Pack
Alley Sheedy
Molly Ringwald
Demi Moore
Rob lowe
Emilio estevez
Anthony Michael Hall
Andrew McCarthy
Judd nelson
The cast of THE BREAKFAST CLUB
and ST. ELMO'S FIRE. Except for
Mare Winningham who is an
Emmy award winning Real Actress.
@@chazarcola7639 some try to include Mare as a member of the pack. She was only in one brat pack movie. I give her an honorable mention.
Agreed he left people out
@@chazarcola7639 Yepp. She was also not really Pack material: she was always kind of the straight woman/foil in that movie. Although, she is also helping Lowe cheat on his wife, so....not a saint. But not a cokehead 80s character, either.
Where do I begin? Mannequin. Weekend At Bernies. I still watch it every year. When I was kid my brother and I would reenact scenes from the movie😂
Never negative for me. I am that girl that has and will always love the “Brat Pack”
I grew up on your movies. Thank you!
Big part of my growing up.
Rest in piece, John Hughes.
my favorite movie(s) of his is Weekend at Bernie's. Idk why but it's just such a crazy movie with an insane premise, and he plays that character perfectly along with Jonathan Silverman. "Yeah our boss is dead, but so what let's party it up while we drag his corpse around with us" lmao. I gotta go watch it now
The "Brat Pack" made so many iconic movies of my teen and adolescent years!! It was such a great time😊
"See Me...See Who i am"...Social Media Has Highlighted This Human Need to a Whole New Level
Weekend at Bernies!!!
Just rewatched Less Than Zero a few weeks ago. Liked it way more now than when I first saw it.
There were more than 6 members of the brat pack. 8 official members & several (Tom Cruise, Robert Downey Jr etc) unofficial members
That's really too bad, one idiot writes an article and it can have sort of affect on that many young actors. I'm glad he realizes now that when we say or think of "the brat pack" for whatever reason the word brat doesn't even mean what it would normally means. It's more of a cool, young group of really talented actors and like he said, they are our avatars sort of. I loved every movie Andrew was in, he did such an amazing job in everything. Less than Zero always stuck with me growing up, it really stood out to me for the acting in that movie. Side note, the dude looks amazing for how many decades that have passed.
Remember what's big to YOU may not be to someone else. Especially for young people......Like the Brat Pack label may have seemed cool to us but for those actors, they probably wanted a more polished view of themselves in order to be taken more seriously.
As an eighties girl, I never saw (and still haven’t) Top Gun but Less than Zero I’ve lost count. Even the small part of Andrew living in a trailer on the edge of a cliff in ‘New Waterford Girl’ he makes his mark.
By far my favorite character in saint Elmo’s fire
Less Than Zero is one of my favorite movies .... It's gorgeous .. The Thomas Newman soundtrack is perfect
Book was great, too. Also: Ellis wrote it when he was NINETEEN YEARS OLD. On summer break from college. Something to aspire to...what a work for a teen writer! Turned into a great movie, etc. I wish I had done that much before 20....
Wow, I didn't realize that's how he felt. I really liked him in Pretty in Pink.
Interesting perspective by Andrew. Being in a group has its privileges, but in this case the label itself was a type of type cast for Andrew and the other members of the "brat pack". Labels have a way of shaping perception, it can work to an actor but in this case, it seemed to work against them.
The world needs him to come back. Brilliant Actor, Miss Him
As a part of the brat pack generation, I consider myself part of the pack and proud of it.
Really looking forward to the documentary Andrew
I was in high school when they were popular. The 80's was a great decade!!
Love that guy! Very nostalgic. Thank you
Read his book loved it
I want to know what happened to the series he was in about 10 or so years ago called the family?! That series was AMAZING!!!! He was so excellent in it (of course).
I'm a military brat, and we all proudly called ourselves that.
no we don't. You don't speak for me or anyone else.
So I guess I'm just imaging all of the organizations and reunions that use the word brat in their names?
@@MichelleAlexandria-EM
@@gahriesame
Great video
Thank you
Watching UA-cam videos about the Brat Pack and the movie The Big Chill is excellent comfort food!
Very interesting insights from Andrew.
Weekend at Berine's is one of the funniest movies ever made.
The guy running around trying to kill a dead bernie the whole time cracks me up.
We all, as x gen fans, loved them and they were all of us in one way or another. Why the breakfast club was such a hit. Even at the time
Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy.
Thank you for Mannequin. ❤ looking really good there Switcher, really.😊
One of my favorite "80's teen movie" was 'Class" with Andrew McCarthy, Rob Lowe and a bunch of others (including John Cusack, Alan Ruck - from 'Ferris Bueller' and 'Speed' fame, and Virginia Madsen) many of whom seem to be largely forgotten now. I was 13 when I first saw 'Class' (not ashamed to admit that I was crazy about Jacelyn Bisset as the paragon of hot older woman - the original cougar for many my age cohort!
Being called the Brat Pack didn’t do as much damage to Andrew McCarthys career as what Weekend at Bernie’s did
I had such a crush on Andrew MCarthy back in the day. He was soooo cute. 🙂
As a young dude in the 90's, I always thought he was a healthy middle ground to aspire to. NOT a nerdy stalker, like a Jon Cryer type. But also not so much of a Rob Lowe-typecast "bad boy" that he could ruin his life. Just a perfect "decent guy who can still get the girl". Very nice.
I remember him more for Weekend at Bernie's
I was 21 years old cleaning toilets while commuting to state University for a major I didn’t want to do, but this guy was mislabeled by a media outlet because Emelio Estevez got his break because his dad was famous.
We’ve all got tough lives …
Wow! Andrew Aged well. Homey is healthier and probably looks better NOW than back in the day.
Brat Pack 4ever
Thank you for giving me a great childhood. 80s movies were the best
He’s still such a doll, he was always my favorite- and I’m not even an 80s baby.
The brat pack moniker was to denote overindulgent spoiled narcissists who hadn't put in the work to be where they were ( in some people's eyes). The gen x faction that appreciated the moniker saw it as aspirational in an ever tightening social order that saw the crazy freedom of the 70's slowly dissappearing into the Just Say No 80s.
The real actors became characters and ultimately caricatures of actors. You can see who ran with it, who ran from it, and who railed against it.
Wasn't "dispearing", kids in the 80's just saw the hangover and stupidity of the hippies. Single mothers, drug addict parents, etc. That's why you had the 80's straight edge thing in punk, lots of warnings about safe sex and pregnancy, a more clean cut vibe, etc. Freedom wasn't being "stifled". It was just: young people were learning what did and what did not work in the world of partying. I'm very glad to have been a kid in the 80's. Lots of good wisdom came out of that hangover period. Much now standard advice to youth.
Need to make another weekend at Bernie’s with original cast
Andrews movies are great and love Mannequin!! ❤️
He was my first celebrity crush lol loved him in pretty in pink!!
The "Brat Pack" was taken from Lauran Bacall's coined phrase "Rat Pack".
just remember watching him and robert downy jnr in less than zero, still gives me chills
Jean Sibelius - 'Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic.'
Ironically, it didn't seem to slow Emilio down, who went on to do three Young Guns movies and several Mighty Ducks movies after that.
The best movie with Andrew McCarthy is the 90's Joy Luck Club where he has a smaller role. Great frickin movie.
I loved the brat pack, amazing movies and memories of that era.
Loved this guy in the earlier days ❤
😊 renew exactly why you were called The brat pack and that's why we rebelled against it and loved it....punk rock
His autobiography is one of the absolute best I've ever read.
Really? Surprising. I am glad to know this as I would not hv thought abt reading it.
I agree 100%. I loved his book too
I had such a massive teenage crush on "Blaine" from Pretty In Pink!
Looking healthy Rosenbaum! Dude, I'd love to see you as a squad member in a super dope Star Wars show.
He was hilarious in weekend at bernies. Great movie
Back in 1985, no one outside of New York would have seen that article. I still have never seen it (have not looked for it). We all used the name as a compliment. It was very cool to be compared to the Rat Pack. They were an exclusive group of young stars. Years later, I heard they took offense to the name and never really understood why. 😎
I never read that article or knew anything about the origins of the term, but I always implicitly knew it was derogatory, and always found it rather odd that the media used it so casually as a term of endearment.
The same goes for that genre label "teen angst", which I found belittled and trivialised the stories in films dumped into that genre. Granted, a lot of them were fluff, but a lot of them were also great character studies and examinations of society in general.
Man this guy is cool .weekend at bernie .timeless
For me, the term Brat Pack don't just refer to the cast of Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire...
I'd also use it to refer to all the other TEEN stars and movies in the 80s, starting with 1983's The Outsiders...up to those in 87/8..or John Hughes- related.
Pretty in Pink is still a favorite
Listening to Andrew talk about the animosity regarding the coined term “brat pack”, is a living embodiment of what it was like to be young in the 80s. The dismissive and marginalizing of young adults was imbedded into our growth and development by our elders in homes, school and public institutions. We were a different type of people, we played, we created, we were a thinking generation and empathetic with our inclusivity and not just a little nihilistic; the Sesame Street/Mr Rogers generation. Adults of the day seemed to be really threatened by the social change we represented and they tried their best to snuff it out. Kicking a negative label onto popular young actors of the day, was just another day that ended in y. There’s a nostalgic pride in the term brat pack now, because despite all, young adults succeeded in stamping the 80s with their cultural hallmark, regardless of the efforts by an aging demographic to control the message.
I mean really it's all subversive bs if you understand who runs and operates pop culture lol.
At the end of the day he is an actor/producer/Director and has a passion for his craft and his body of work..He seems stressed every interview refers to him as part of BRAT PACK and lets talk about that in his 50's now..Can your imagine???
Andrew excelled in that geeky awkward looking , boy becoming man phase , he had a charm and innocence about him, that made him perfect for such parts.
He was great in all the films , class was a particular favourite!