Behind the scenes of City Slickers

Rick Moranis was lined up to play Phil. And Charles Bronson turned down the role of Curly.

City Slickers
(Image credit: (Facebook/City Slickers))

TRAINING TO BE a cowboy for City Slickers brought about a bizarre case of déjà vu. In 1975, my wife, Janice, and I had made our first trip to California. We knew that at some point we might move there, so it was sort of a scouting trip. One day while driving through Joshua Tree National Monument, I pulled over because I was having a strange anxiety attack. The Western landscape suddenly looked very familiar. I had the strongest feeling that I had been there before. Specifically, the feeling was that I'd once been a cowboy and had ridden this same territory, not in a rental car but on horseback. "It's not a pleasant feeling," I said to Janice. "I know this place."

Okay, stop muttering "Bulls---." This is exactly how it happened. It threw me for a few days because, let's be honest, there weren't many Jewish cowboys. Growing up, you never saw Hopalong Chassidy.

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