'The Santa Clause' celebrates it's 30th anniversary this year.
Everything You Don't Know About 'The Santa Clause' in Celebration of the Movie's 30th Anniversary
Tim Allen became the face of the North Pole 30 years ago in his role as Scott Calvin, a regular Joe who magically becomes Santa when he accidentally makes the real guy in the red suit fall off his roof on Christmas Eve in The Santa Clause!
The 1994 holiday comedy is a staple around this time of year — but like things going on behind the scenes at the North Pole, the film was originally much different from the heart tugging story it became. Originally titled Such a Clatter, it nearly had a darker storyline with Santa involved in a grisly, violent death — being shot to death by Calvin!
Tim Allen became the face of the North Pole 30 years ago in his role as Scott Calvin in 'The Santa Clause.'
Surrounding Allen was a strong cast that included Judge Reinhold, Wendy Crewson, David Krumholtz and Peter Boyle. Child actor Eric Lloyd plays Calvin's young son Charlie. At first, producers didn’t think Allen, known for his hit TV series Home Improvement, could carry the movie and were looking at the likes of Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks and Bill Murray to play Calvin. Producers reportedly claimed Allen “can’t open a movie, he’s a TV star.”
In addition, Walt Disney Pictures produced the film and has a “no hiring of ex-cons policy,” but made an exception for Allen, who served more than two years in federal prison on drug charges.
Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks and Bill Murray were considered for the role of Scott Calvin.
No doubt Allen felt imprisoned in the makeup, prosthetics and fat suit that took four to five hours to apply as The Santa Clause was shot during a sweltering summer. The latex in the costume also gave him rashes and scratches.
Allen recalled, “You can’t describe how maddening the process is.”
But the result was so realistic that the dozens of children who played elves thought Allen was the real Santa! “I didn’t want to disappoint them,” Allen said. “I had to stay in character all the time, so I couldn’t swear or get mad. The elves would gaze at me all day long and ask me ridiculous questions about Christmas.”
Tim Allen called the process of getting into costume 'maddening.'
Producers also faced the bitter tooth about young Lloyd, who was eight at the time — he kept losing teeth! “My bottom two teeth throughout the whole film are all fake teeth, because my bottom two teeth fell out naturally at the beginning of the film,” Lloyd remembered. In addition to Easter eggs giving nods to Disney’s tradition of including Mickey Mouse ears in productions and to Home Improvement, there is a reference to the Clement Clarke Moore poem The Night Before Christmas.
The ladder Scott and Charlie use to get to the roof was made by the “Rose Suchak Ladder Co.,” a take on the poem’s line, “There arose such a clatter.” Disney did get in a little hot water over Scott’s sarcastic remark about the number “1-800 SPANK-ME.” It turned out to be a real phone s-- line and parents were complaining about huge phone bills racked up by curious kids calling the number. Disney ended up removing the reference in future releases and bought the phone s-- line so they could disconnect the service.
Eric Lloyd kept losing teeth on set of 'The Santa Clause.'
The Santa Clause box office take was like Christmas morning for Disney. The movie raked in nearly $200 million at theaters and millions more on VHS and DVDs — earning 10 times more than its $22 million budget. It also launched two successful sequels, The Santa Clause 2 and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause.
And for one week in November 1994, it was Allen on top. He had the No. 1 movie (The Santa Clause), the No. 1 TV show (Home Improvement) and the No. 1 New York Times best-selling book (Don’t Stand Too Close to a Naked Man).
