Space Jam Series, Part 1: Hare Jordan
On the Super Bowl commercial that inspired the classic movie..
Welcome to The Wake Up’s “Space Jam Series.” With the sequel starring LeBron James finally releasing this July, we thought it would be fun to look back on the making of the original, recounting some legendary, slept-on stories from the set and how the classic film ultimately came together. We’ll be dropping several pieces over the next few weeks. Special thanks to Nate Bellamy and Nigel Miguel for their help.
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PART 1: Hare Jordan
By Alex Squadron:
For Nate Bellamy, the story of Space Jam really begins in the summer of 1991, when he was hired to work on a commercial for Slice orange soda starring Magic Johnson. Bellamy had gradually built a reputation in Hollywood as both an extra and a stand-in; he had served as the latter for Kevin Peter Hall in the 1990 movie Predator 2. The commercial was being shot at Venice Beach and directed by Joe Pytka, a prominent figure in the industry. The premise: Sitting beside a Slice vending machine, a group of kids are watching Magic in a pick-up game when he suddenly turns, launches a quarter and sinks it into the machine’s slot, popping out a soda. “That’s Magic!”
Nigel Miguel, a former UCLA basketball player who had transitioned into a career in the film world, was also involved in the production as a technical advisor. Miguel had been a longtime friend of Michael Jordan’s, dating back to when the two were roommates at the 1981 McDonald’s All-American Game. This particular project in Venice Beach marked the first time that Miguel, Bellamy and Pytka had all joined forces, setting the stage for further collaborations. And sure enough, not long after that day, they would reunite at Culver Studios to shoot the spot that eventually sparked Space Jam.
Jim Riswold—then creative director for the ad agency Wieden+Kennedy—actually came up with the idea. Why not combine two of the most recognizable figures on the planet—one a star athlete, the other a beloved cartoon rabbit—for Nike’s latest campaign? They had more in common than people realized. "I thought it was so cool that they paired Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny,” says Miguel. “The cool thing about that is both of them are from Brooklyn. At that point, no one really knew. We all thought Mike was from North Carolina. I found out during the shooting of that commercial. Being a big Bugs Bunny fan, I always thought that was really cool. It didn't even have to go past that and to me, that would have been an iconic connection.
“The guy who came up with the campaign was Jim Riswold,” Miguel continues. “I know this word gets thrown around a lot, but that dude is truly a genius. If you look back at his resume, he came up with the 'I Am Tiger Woods' campaign as well. Some iconic Nike stuff. But I can remember him talking about this while we were shooting it and just the excitement and what he believed this thing was or could be and eventually ended up becoming.”
Riswold was a huge Bugs Bunny fan and would later say that the commercial, dubbed “Hare Jordan,” was his excuse to finally “meet” the iconic character. Slated to debut during Super Bowl XXVI (1992) to promote the red-and-white Jordan VIIs, the ad was a revival for the Looney Tunes, capitalizing on the reach of MJ and tapping into the power of nostalgia. Bellamy, who had signed on as Mike’s stand-in, couldn’t believe his eyes when he strolled on set. To his knowledge, they occupied the biggest sound stage on the entire lot. The space had been built out to resemble a court in New York City—virtually to scale—and the attention to detail was striking. In the one-minute clip, “Hare Jordan” and “Air Jordan” team up to defeat a squad of bullies in dramatic fashion. "I always thought that these commercials were movies in themselves,” Miguel says. “The amount of production value that you received and that was put into it, it was like you were making a mini movie. Nike and Wieden+Kennedy always did these great things.” According to a piece from the Los Angeles Times, “Hare Jordan” cost nearly $1 million to make (excluding Jordan’s salary)—about four times the normal budget for a television spot in 1992. It required 3,000 separate illustrations hand drawn by roughly 25 different artists.
It was early September, 1991. Representatives from Warner Bros. were on hand to observe the shoot. This was their introduction to Joe Pytka and his unique style, which became evident immediately. “If you know anything about Joe, he loves playing basketball,” explains Bellamy. “Wherever he goes, if there's not a basketball court, he brings his own hoop with him. Of course, we had half of a gym, so he didn't have to bring it. But what he does is, when all of us had arrived—the people who were a part of the commercial—he takes a couple of his crew guys, he tells them to turn the music on, blast it loud, and for three hours while they were setting everything up, we played basketball—on a Sunday where we were getting paid double time [laughs]. And these executives are looking at themselves going, 'What the hell is he doing?'”
When Jordan finally arrived, he and Bellamy, who had never crossed paths before, clicked right away. During breaks in the action, they chopped it up about MJ’s apparent friction with Isiah Thomas, which was a major news topic amid rumors regarding the assembly of the Dream Team. “We were sitting down on set and I started talking to Mike about that situation [with Isiah],” Bellamy remembers. “I told him, 'Man, it doesn't look good. Here we have two young Black men, both champions, and both hate each other. That's not a good look for us as people. You're both successful but y'all can't stand each other. What's that all about?' Mike was trying to explain to me that it wasn't on him. He said, 'Look, every time I played them and I lost, I would shake their hands…’ And all of this. He was trying to tell me that he really didn't have anything to do with Isiah not being on the Dream Team. We hit it off right away, to the point where Mike got so comfortable and relaxed that Joe Pytka came to me and said, ‘Nate, how long have you known Mike?’ I said, 'Man, I just met him.’”
That was also when Bellamy discovered that Jordan’s listed height, 6’6’’, was very generous. When they stood back-to-back for comparison, it was clear that Mike was no taller than him at 6’5’’. So yeah, if you were looking for more reasons to be impressed by the dominance of His Airness, there you go.
The shoot lasted for three long days (19 hours on day two alone). Given the introduction of animation, the process was much more painstaking than Mike’s usual spots, but the vibe was laidback and fun. MJ helped pull off a prank on one of the other actors—a guy named Gary Maloncon, who, like Miguel, had hooped at UCLA (see video below). For being such a good sport about it, Maloncon later received a $2,000 Silver Tag Heuer watch as a gift.
At one point, Dawan Scott, another member of the crew known for his work in Harry and the Hendersons, facilitated a meeting between Jordan and Michael Jackson, who happened to be on the lot recording his “Black or White” music video with Macaulay Culkin. Bellamy recalls the story: "So we walked up the lot to this sound stage where Michael Jackson was shooting. We walked in there and this was my first time ever seeing Michael Jackson, right? And this is the new Michael Jackson. When I laid eyes on him, I'm like, Man, I don't even know who that dude is. Who is that? Michael Jackson was real quiet, real soft spoken, and was shaking people's hands. I kind of got out of the way where I didn't shake his hand because there was no way I wasn't going to be staring at him, and I didn't want to have that awkward moment. So him and Mike had a conversation and then we left. We're walking back down to our sound stage and for a minute there was this big quiet, right? Nobody was saying anything. And we all kind of looked at each other, and then Mike said, 'Man, was that weird?' [laughs] Like, 'Yeah, dude, that was mad weird!' But the reason that Michael Jackson wanted to meet with Mike is that he wanted Mike to be in that ‘Jam’ video. That was when he asked Mike to be in it.”
The filming of “Hare Jordan” wrapped up on September 12 and the commercial aired January 26, 1992 to the massive Super Bowl XXVI audience. Unsurprisingly, it was an enormous hit with viewers, prompting Nike and Wieden+Kennedy to continue expanding the campaign (Nike signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros. for the use of all of its Looney Tunes characters).
As Bugs, walking beside Jordan on that elaborately constructed sound stage at Culver Studios, declares at the end of their first marriage (a line inspired by Casablanca): “This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship…”
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Nigel Miguel is currently the film commissioner for Belize. Visit filmbelize.org to support young creatives.
Follow Irv Roland and Alex Squadron on Twitter. Videos via Nate Bellamy. Logo by Oliver Baltay.
Stay tuned for part 2 of the Space Jam Series.