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The Goodbye Girl

 The Goodbye Girl
type
TVTItem
 The Goodbye Girl
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The Goodbye Girl
 The Goodbye Girl
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TheGoodbyeGirl
 The Goodbye Girl
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The Goodbye Girl is a 1977 Romantic Comedy film directed by Herbert Ross and written by Neil Simon, starring Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason.Paula McFadden (Mason), a 33-year-old semi-retired dancer and divorcée with a ten-year-old daughter named Lucy (Quinn Cummings), has to become un-retired when her married, actor boyfriend Tony leaves town, breaking up with her via a "Dear John" note. Even worse is that their shared New York City apartment was leased under Tony's name, and he has sub-let it to another actor, Elliot Garfield (Dreyfuss), who's arrived from Chicago to star in a play. Paula is horrified to have a stranger moving into her apartment—and another actor, at that!—but Elliot has a lease and a key, so they grudgingly work out an arrangement in which they will share the apartment.Naturally, romantic sparks fly.One of the rare films for which Neil Simon wrote an original screenplay, The Goodbye Girl received five Academy Award nominations, with Richard Dreyfuss becoming the youngest person to win Best Actor up to that time (since broken by Adrien Brody for The Pianist). Remade in 2004 as a Made-for-TV Movie directed by Richard Benjamin and starring Jeff Daniels and Patricia Heaton.
 The Goodbye Girl
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2023-11-19T10:14:14Z
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2023-11-19T10:14:14Z
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DBTropes
 The Goodbye Girl / int_15395adc
type
The Mistress
 The Goodbye Girl / int_15395adc
comment
The Mistress: Paula was this for Tony, who hadn't gotten around to divorcing his wife. She's embarrassed over this.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_1b65dfad
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The Cameo
 The Goodbye Girl / int_1b65dfad
comment
The Cameo: Nicol Williamson makes an uncredited appearance as the film director who offers Elliot a leading role in his next movie.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_1ba17583
type
The Ghost
 The Goodbye Girl / int_1ba17583
comment
The Ghost: Tony, who is already gone when the film starts, but he is frequently discussed, his pictures are up on the wall, and Paula and Lucy read his letter.
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Adorably Precocious Child
 The Goodbye Girl / int_1d2605eb
comment
Adorably Precocious Child: Lucy, who is ten but has a very adult outlook on life, and isn't nearly as bothered about Paula shacking up with a married man as Paula is.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_2bdb6280
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The Big Rotten Apple
 The Goodbye Girl / int_2bdb6280
comment
The Big Rotten Apple: Paula is mugged in broad daylight outside a liquor store, losing her purse and all her money.
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The Goodbye Girl / int_2bdb6280
 The Goodbye Girl / int_2f36d97
type
Older Than They Look
 The Goodbye Girl / int_2f36d97
comment
Older Than They Look: Elliot claims to be 63 years old, though he's almost certainly being facetious.
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The Goodbye Girl / int_2f36d97
 The Goodbye Girl / int_37065c74
type
Hangover Sensitivity
 The Goodbye Girl / int_37065c74
comment
Hangover Sensitivity: Elliot is much the worse for wear the morning after drowning his sorrows. When he sees Paula and Lucy for the first time, he asks which of them Scotch taped his tongue to the roof of his mouth.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_389b0e
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Title Theme Tune
 The Goodbye Girl / int_389b0e
comment
Title Theme Tune: Written and performed by David Gates, it reached #15 on the Billboard chart.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_415b3315
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Stylistic Suck
 The Goodbye Girl / int_415b3315
comment
Stylistic Suck: Elliot's performance of Richard III, not because he's a bad actor, but because of the director's absurd premise of portraying Richard as a stereotypically effeminate Camp Gay.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_52488c54
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Drowning My Sorrows
 The Goodbye Girl / int_52488c54
comment
Drowning My Sorrows: Elliot gets very drunk after reading the brutal reviews of both the Richard III show and his performance.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_5313c266
type
Bookends
 The Goodbye Girl / int_5313c266
comment
Book Ends: In Elliot and Paula's first scene, he arrives at the apartment, then has to call her from a phone booth during a torrential thuderstorm after she tells him to go away. In their last scene, he leaves, but then calls her again from the phone booth, during a torrential thunderstorm.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_614a4e11
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Do You Want to Copulate?
 The Goodbye Girl / int_614a4e11
comment
Do You Want to Copulate?: Paula has been shy and hesitant in the face of Elliot's advances, but after he stages a rooftop dinner date for the two of them, she goes straight to "Are we going to sleep with each other tonight?"
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_70f9a879
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Family-Friendly Stripper
 The Goodbye Girl / int_70f9a879
comment
Family-Friendly Stripper: Elliot hands out fliers outside a strip club where the girls keep bikinis on.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_722b3319
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Camp Gay
 The Goodbye Girl / int_722b3319
comment
Camp Gay: How Elliot is instructed to play Richard III, much to his horror.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_73d4b01a
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In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It
 The Goodbye Girl / int_73d4b01a
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In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It: The credit in the opening titles is "Neil Simon's The Goodbye Girl".
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_75d6bf40
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Belligerent Sexual Tension
 The Goodbye Girl / int_75d6bf40
comment
Belligerent Sexual Tension: Right off the bat, as Elliot notes Paula's "shapely fanny" during their first and rather hostile meeting.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_7ad2c23d
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ShoutOutToShakespeare
 The Goodbye Girl / int_7ad2c23d
comment
Shout-Out to Shakespeare: Elliot has come to New York to star in an "off-off-off Broadway" presentation of Richard III. It is terrible.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_7df83695
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Walking Out on the Show
 The Goodbye Girl / int_7df83695
comment
Walking Out on the Show: By the time Richmond is being hailed as King Henry VII of England at the end of the disastrous production of Richard III, nearly a third of the audience members have had enough and walked out. Paula and Lucy only stay to support Elliot.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_96cc4848
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"Dear John" Letter
 The Goodbye Girl / int_96cc4848
comment
"Dear John" Letter: The film opens with Paula finding a letter from Tony on the mantel, announcing that they are not going to California for his TV-movie role, but instead that he is breaking up with her and going to Europe to play in a Bernardo Bertolucci film. He does not mention that he sublet the apartment.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_99244825
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Screen-to-Stage Adaptation
 The Goodbye Girl / int_99244825
comment
Screen-to-Stage Adaptation: Simon adapted the movie into a musical that premiered on Broadway in 1993, starring Bernadette Peters and Martin Short.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_9e0c3153
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Punctuated! For! Emphasis!
 The Goodbye Girl / int_9e0c3153
comment
Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: As the first rule in his pushback against Paula trying to dictate the ground rules in their apartment sharing agreement, Elliot marches into the bathroom, where several pairs of Paula's underwear are drying on the curtain rod. Elliot announces that he likes to take showers every morning, "And I don't! Like! The panties! Drying! On! The Rod!" - grabbing one pair for each exclamation point before dumping the whole pile into Paula's arms.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_a58e5ad7
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Naked People Are Funny
 The Goodbye Girl / int_a58e5ad7
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Naked People Are Funny: Elliot Sleeps in the Nude, and when he can't sleep, he plays his guitar.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_a82ff02f
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Meet Cute
 The Goodbye Girl / int_a82ff02f
comment
Meet Cute: Elliot arrives at his new apartment dripping wet from the rain, fishes out his key, opens the door—and finds the chain on the hook. Someone is living there.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_ae3d6438
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Deadpan Snarker
 The Goodbye Girl / int_ae3d6438
comment
Deadpan Snarker: Lucy gets the best lines, like in the scene where they're watching Elliot play a gay Richard III.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_bc00493f
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Precision F-Strike
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Precision F-Strike: Lucy has been told that Tony sublet their apartment.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_cbe3d017
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Damned by Faint Praise
 The Goodbye Girl / int_cbe3d017
comment
Damned by Faint Praise: After the horrific first (and, as it turns out, last) performance of Richard III, even director Mark Bodine's own mother can only tell him that it was "very interesting" (which Mark misinterprets to mean that she loved it).
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_d1affec1
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That Came Out Wrong
 The Goodbye Girl / int_d1affec1
comment
That Came Out Wrong: While Elliot is calling Paula from a payphone in the pouring rain to explain his side of Tony not telling Paula he was subletting the apartment to Elliot and not telling Elliot that Paula was still living there, he chooses his words poorly:
 The Goodbye Girl / int_d1affec1
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Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job
 The Goodbye Girl / int_d67e900a
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Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: After his disastrous Richard III closes, Elliot winds up as a sidewalk barker outside a strip club.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_e3cee2e7
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Empathic Environment
 The Goodbye Girl / int_e3cee2e7
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Empathic Environment: A thunderstorm drenches New York as an enraged Paula is tearing down Tony's pictures after finding out he sublet the apartment.
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 The Goodbye Girl / int_f3d84bc4
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Giftedly Bad
 The Goodbye Girl / int_f3d84bc4
comment
Giftedly Bad: Director Mark Bodine thinks his idea of portraying the title character in Richard III as an outrageously flamboyant Camp Gay stereotype is a stroke of genius, and nothing, including constant pushback from Elliot, will persuade him otherwise. After the first performance, during which a third of the audience members walk out in disgust, Mark's own mother is clearly trying to let him down gently by saying she thought it was "interesting", and he reacts as if a top critic has just given him a glowing review.
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The Lady's Favour
 The Goodbye Girl / int_fcacf08e
comment
The Lady's Favour: Gender-swapped. As Elliot is leaving the apartment to go film a movie, just like Tony did, Paula is terrified that he'll never come back as Tony didn't—until she realizes he left his guitar, which he would never willingly give up, in the apartment. Then she knows he's coming back to her.
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The Goodbye Girl

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 The Goodbye Girl
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AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions / int_b2e3fc16
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"Dear John" Letter / int_b2e3fc16
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Do You Want to Copulate? / int_b2e3fc16
 The Goodbye Girl
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 The Goodbye Girl
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Family-Friendly Stripper / int_b2e3fc16
 The Goodbye Girl
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Giftedly Bad / int_b2e3fc16
 The Goodbye Girl
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Naked People Are Funny / int_b2e3fc16
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Romantic Comedy / int_b2e3fc16
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Screen-to-Stage Adaptation / int_b2e3fc16
 The Goodbye Girl
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Sleeps in the Nude / int_b2e3fc16
 The Goodbye Girl
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The Lady's Favour / int_b2e3fc16
 The Goodbye Girl
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Walking Out on the Show / int_b2e3fc16