Beginning in the 1980s, mutual funds and institutional investors came into control of large chunks of company stocks and they wanted quick returns. They applied pressure to the corporate boards, who responded by seeking quick fixes from outside talent. These “saviors” were lured by higher and higher compensation as well as the promise of a “golden parachute” should their methods fail.
“Dick and Jane are victims of corporate greed. The ‘little guys’ are the ones who are left with nothing while the upper ranks remain unscathed,” says Parisot. “Ultimately, it becomes Dick and Jane’s job to stand up for those who have gotten the short end of the deal.”
The parallels between Dick and Jane’s thievery and that of Dick’s corporate bosses is not lost on Carrey, who doesn’t justify the character’s actions as retribution for his years of loyalty on his job. “Dick and Jane’s stealing comes from their need to preserve their way of life and as a way of rebelling,” says Carrey. “Jack McCallister steals out of need for world domination, but they’re both different degrees of the same thing. Both are worried about how they’re being perceived by other egos. It’s a need to look like a winner.”
But eventually “it all blows up in their faces,” says Parisot. “And after they have come to their senses, they realize that the best way to get back all they’ve lost is to avenge all the other people Dick worked with who also lost everything they had while their boss got off scot-free, kept his millions and maintained his lavish lifestyle.”
“The vice president stripes Dick got for one day were just something else to have, like a fancy toaster or a new car. In his mind, it defined him,” says Grazer. “It comes as a heavy blow when he loses it but his superiors still come out on top. So he finally decides he’s going to do something about it. And that decision not only helps him get his life and his family back, but does the same for many of his co-workers who got screwed over as well.”
Fun With Dick and Jane was shot entirely in Southern California, beginning on a set in Rancho Palos Verdes where a subdivision of 12 houses was constructed for Dick and Jane’s neighborhood. The location once housed the former Marineland amusement park (which closed in the late 1980s) and the production shot there for six weeks, much of it in the Harper house, which contained a fully functioning interior and backyard with swimming pool. Other locations included a house in Los Angeles’ Hancock Park where Jane’s father lives — which interestingly was also used in Carrey’s very first movie Once Bitten. The health club where Jane “teaches” Tae Bo is 24-Hour Fitness in Woodland Hills in the San Fernando Valley, while Jack McCallister’s posh abode was set high in the hills above Malibu.
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