It’s hard to imagine the comedy classic being called anything but Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
The 2006 NASCAR film poking fun at the sport and the culture around it is widely considered to be one of the best comedy films of all time. The all-star cast of Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Gary Cole, and Jane Lynch (and more) brought a zany, stock-car-racing world to the big screen, and provided quotable moments that will likely stand the test of time.
Some for reference:
- “If you ain’t first, you’re last.”
- “I wanna go fast.”
- “Shake and bake!”
- “I don’t know what to do with my hands.”
- “I found a whole rat in my Cobb salad.”
That last one isn’t used as much as the others… but it’s one of my personal favorites. Simply put, Talladega Nights provides non-stop laughs, and it’s one of the more re-watchable movies out there. Oh, and I actually talk about the history of the world in pre-Talladega-Nights and post-Talladega-Nights terms… that’s how important and hilarious the comedy film is in my eyes.
And what if I told you that the movie was very, very close to being named something entirely different?
I’m actually not the one that’s telling you. I’m just passing along the message that Talladega Nights star Grayson Russell delivered on a recent episode of the Like A Farmer podcast. Russell played the iconic “Texas Ranger” in the film, which was one of Ricky Bobby’s sons (the other obviously being named “Walker”). Texas Ranger is the one who yelled at his grandfather, Chip, during the memorable dinner table scene saying:
“Chip, I’m gonna come at you like a spider monkey… I’m all jacked up on Mountain Dew!”
And frankly, I’m a little jacked up myself (no Mountain Dew necessary) hearing that Talladega Nights was almost called something else. I’m sure the movie would have still worked, but it’s strange to think of it being titled anything but what it was. According to Russell, there were two titles that the film was going with before the production switched relatively last minute to the name of the comedy that we all know today:
“Talladega Nights was not the original title. It was originally, to my knowledge, it was ‘Red, White and Racing.’ And then they changed it. My script for Talladega Nights was (titled) ‘High, Wide and Handsome.’ That’s what it was called. So all of our chair backs – those little director chairs you sit in – all had ‘High, Wide and Handsome’ on it. There was not a singular piece of merch, letterhead, anything from that film that said Talladega Nights.”
Can you believe it?
According to Russell, the switch happened so late into the game that anything that was branded for the movie while they were shooting it read “High, Wide and Handsome.” And to be clear, it’s not like those others working names were bad by any means. But it certainly feels like they landed on the right one with Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
Oh, and it’s also important to note that Grayson Russell grew up to be one heck of a musician. He’s still acting (his last movie was 2020’s Greyhound), but the Talladega Nights star has really started exploring a career as an artist. Russell leans into the southern rock and country genre, and he’s quite talented, as you can see in the video below:
