Summer of '89: When Harry Shagged Weird Al...

How'd you like your own TV show?

The Summer of '89 was filled to the brim with film franchise entries. This week brings a rare trio of original, standalone stories.

A note: The next entry in Contemporary Cult will run next Monday while Summer of '89 takes the week off. We'll be back the week after with two of your favorite slasher bad guys...

When Harry Met Sally… (1989)

During their travel from Chicago to New York, Harry and Sally debate whether or not sex ruins a friendship between a man and a woman. Eleven years later, and they’re still no closer to finding the answer.

July 21, 1989

Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher, Bruno Kirby, Steven Ford, Lisa Jane Persky
cinematography by Barry Sonnenfeld
music by Marc Shaiman, Harry Connick Jr.
screenplay by Nora Ephron
produced by Rob Reiner, Andrew Scheinman
directed by Rob Reiner

Some movies just feel like specific seasons. Jaws is a summer movie. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is a winter movie. Fantasic Mr. Fox is a fall movie. Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a late spring/early summer movie.

When Harry Met Sally..., despite taking place in a variety of seasons across multiple years, is an autumn movie. I don't make the rules, but I do agree with them. Last year, Salon called it "the perfect fall movie" and Refinery29 said it was "full of fall fashion inspo." You could maybe call it a New Year's Eve movie because of its wonderful climax, but nobody does that. It's a fall movie.

It's weird to think that it was released in the middle of July 1989. That's just what happens, studios have to plan so far in advance, scheduling this and planning that, that artistic intention doesn't always matter. And if it's got blockbuster (or just reasonable box office) potential, it's either summer or Christmas. Gremlins came out in June. Die Hard came out in July. Hocus Pocus came out in July. There's nothing we can do about it.