So why did the studio guy say Fonda made On Golden Pond? Because he was desperate to come up with something, anything, that wouldn’t shake the foundations of what he knew to be true—what kind of film to make. There’s a whole world of subject matter that will never be touched by the major studios. Because the executives know the sort of film that may work. Just like the bright boys in Detroit knew, a while back, that what the American public really wanted was a great big glossy gas-guzzling car. And all that interest that was starting in Japanese cars? Just another nonrecurring phenomenon….
