Clerks (1994 Film)

''Clerks'' is a 1994 American black-and-white comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith in his feature directorial debut. Starring Smith alongside Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Lisa Spoonauer, Jason Mewes, and Scott Mosier (with whom he also produced and edited the film), it presents a day in the lives of store clerks Dante Hicks (O'Halloran) and Randal Graves (Anderson) as well as their acquaintances. It is the first of Smith's View Askewniverse films, and introduces several recurring characters, notably Jay and Silent Bob (played by Mewes and Smith respectively).

''Clerks'' was initially shot for $27,575 before its film rights were purchased by Miramax Films and $230,000 was spent on music licensing and editing. It was shot in the convenience and video stores where Smith worked in real life. ''Clerks'' was well received by critics upon its theatrical release and grossed over $4 million in theaters, launching his career. In 2006, a sequel was released, followed by a third installment in 2022. Often regarded as a cult classic and a landmark in independent filmmaking, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2019 as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

On his day off, Dante Hicks, a retail clerk at the Quick Stop Groceries convenience store in Leonardo, New Jersey, is instructed by his boss via phone call to cover another employee's morning shift. Dante asks to end early at noon to play a hockey game with friends later that day, with the boss coming in himself. Arriving to find the locks to the security shutters jammed closed with gum, he drapes a sheet over the shutters with "I ASSURE YOU; WE'RE OPEN!" in shoe polish; he repeatedly laments, "I'm not even supposed to be here today."

The first customer of the day is a man who attempts to convince cigarette-buying customers that they should buy Chewlies brand gum instead of cigarettes, displaying a bag containing what he claims is a diseased human lung corroded by tar. A crowd soon gathers around Dante, hostilely blaming him for the ills of cancer because he sells cigarettes at the man's impassioned urging. Dante's girlfriend Veronica Loughran enters, quickly calms the crowd down with a fire extinguisher, and confronts the man, who is revealed to be a Chewlies representative wishing to sell more gum. She then orders him out along with the crowd, chiding them for wasting their lives. Shortly after, Dante and Veronica converse behind the counter regarding Dante's current disposition. She then encounters an old boyfriend of hers, a customer named Willam Black, and admits to Dante that she engaged in snowballing with Black and performed fellatio on 36 other guys before their current relationship. Dante jealously considers her past acts as more severe than his own, which include having sex with twelve different women before her. She then storms out, furious with Dante's insensitivity.

Dante's best friend, wisecracking slacker Randal Graves, soon arrives late for his own workday at the RST Video rental store next door, although he mostly keeps Dante company at the Quick Stop. Dante finds out from him that his unfaithful ex-girlfriend Caitlin Bree, with whom he still secretly communicates, is engaged. Some customers they encounter are angry and demanding, others are clueless and impolite, and still others prove unexpectedly wise. During lunch, Dante and Veronica reconcile their respective sexual pasts. Dante is notified that his boss is vacationing in Vermont, leaving him to run the store. Dante convinces his friends to have their hockey game on the roof, and temporarily closes it down. Twelve minutes in, an irate customer arrives, demanding that Dante open the store and criticizing his playing, and ultimately sabotages the game. After Dante discovers that an ex-girlfriend of his, Julie Dwyer, has died, he and Randal temporarily depart for the memorial service. The visit is disastrous, and the two flee the funeral home; their conversation when they return to the store reveals that Randal accidentally toppled Julie's casket.

Two of Dante's former high school classmates, Rick Derris and Heather Jones, inform him that everyone in their graduating class, except for him, knew of Caitlin's infidelity and that Rick even had sexual intercourse with Caitlin. A health department representative interrupts the conversation and questions Dante about his earlier whereabouts, then fines him $500 for selling cigarettes to a four-year-old, even though Randal actually sold them. Afterwards, Caitlin visits Dante, having ended her engagement. Torn between her and Veronica, he finally pursues a date with Caitlin, returning to his house to prepare. However, an incident in the store bathroom renders her catatonic; in the darkness, she had sex with who she thought was Dante but was really an elderly customer who suffered a fatal heart attack while masturbating to a pornographic magazine Dante provided him earlier. She is carted away in an ambulance along with the corpse.

Drug dealers Jay and Silent Bob enter the Quick Stop to shoplift and unsuccessfully invite Dante to party with them after hours. Aware of Dante's problems, Silent Bob tersely reasons that he truly loves Veronica. However, Randal reveals he has already confessed the previous events to her, and she furiously and dramatically dumps Dante. Upset and furious, Dante brawls with Randal, trashing the Quick Stop in the process.

After a brief crucial moment of clarity between them, Dante rants at Randal, blaming him for the day's events before repeating his relent of "I'm not even supposed to be here today!". Randal furiously blows up at Dante, reminding him that he abandoned his post to slack off several times of his own accord, but arrived at work nevertheless and could've left at any point but didn't, and furthermore neither of them are as "advanced" as they think they are, otherwise they wouldn't be stuck with such lowly jobs. The two reconcile and clean up, with Dante planning to take the next day off to visit Caitlin in the hospital and attempt reconciliation with Veronica. Before departing, Randal tosses Dante's shoe-polish sign in his face and declares, "You're closed!"

Cast

Production

Development

When writing the script, writer and director Kevin Smith based the character of Dante Hicks on himself, Randal Graves on his friend Bryan Johnson, who appeared in Smith's subsequent films as Steve-Dave Pulski, and Jay on Jason Mewes, who ended up playing him in the movie.

Casting

Many of Smith's family and friends played roles due to budget constraints. One of them, Walt Flanagan, in addition to creating the character of Silent Bob's Russian metal-head cousin Olaf, plays four roles in this film: The "Woolen Cap Smoker" in the beginning, the famous "Egg Man" (both of which he reprises in '' Clerks III''), the "Offended Customer" during the "jizz mopper" scene, and the "Cat Admiring Bitter Customer", as well as the final RST Video customer in a deleted scene. Smith never intended for Flanagan to play so many roles, but had to as the actors he hired for the roles did not show up, and would often, in jest, refer to Flanagan as "the Lon Chaney of the '90s". Flanagan would also appear in Smith's subsequent films as Walt "The Fanboy" Grover opposite Johnson's Steve-Dave.

Brian O'Halloran, a stage actor local to Kevin Smith, discovered an audition notice for the film that Smith gave to his community theatre. O'Halloran answered the notice and auditioned, unaware that he would be cast as the film's main character Dante; during auditioning, O'Halloran was informed by a friend of Smith's that all of the main characters were already cast.

Smith originally wrote the part of Randal for himself, dryly admitting in the DVD audio commentary to be the reason why he gave Randal his most-liked lines. However, Smith found that writing, directing, working at the store and playing a lead role all simultaneously was too difficult, and he constantly forgot his lines in the process. Consequently, he gave the role of Randal to his friend, Jeff Anderson, while Smith took on the less-demanding role of Silent Bob.

To acquire the funds for the film, Smith sold off a large portion of his extensive comic book collection in 1993, which he later bought back; borrowed $3,000 from his parents; maxed out eight to ten credit cards with $2,000 limits; and spent a portion of funds he got back from his college education, paychecks from working at Quick Stop and RST, and insurance money awarded for property of his lost and/or damaged in a storm-flood, thus adding up the total budget to $27,575.

Filming

''Clerks'' was shot on an Arriflex SR-2 camera, utilizing black-and-white 16mm Kodak Plus X film stock, and roughly edited due to its small budget. The film was shot in 21 days (with two " pick-up" days).

The Quick Stop convenience store, located at 58 Leonard Avenue in Leonardo, New Jersey, where Smith worked, was the primary setting for the film. He was only allowed to film in the store at night while it was closed (from 10:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.), hence the plot point of the shutters being closed due to a vandal having jammed gum in the padlocks. Because Smith was working at Quick Stop during the day and shooting the film at night, he frequently slept no more than an hour a day. By the end of the 21-day shoot, Smith was unable to stay awake while Dante and Randal's fight was shot.

Jason Mewes, who plays Jay, is not in any of the photoshoots for ''Clerks''. Miramax Films, who bought the film's distribution rights following its run at the Sundance Film Festival, believed Jay had no commercial appeal, and would scare audiences rather than entice them.

The MPAA originally gave the film an NC-17 rating based purely on the film's explicit dialogue. Despite the rating, the movie contains no violence aside from Dante and Randal's fight near the end, no sex and no clearly depicted nudity. This had serious financial implications, as very few cinemas in the United States screened NC-17 films. Miramax Films hired civil liberties lawyer Alan Dershowitz to appeal the decision. However, the case was ultimately argued by a Miramax Films lawyer. The MPAA relented and re-rated the film with the more commercially viable "R" rating, without any alterations.

Lost scene

The events of Julie Dwyer's wake were written by Smith but were not filmed due to the prohibitive cost of producing the scene. In 2004, the scene was produced in colored animation using the same style of '' Clerks: The Animated Series'', featured O'Halloran and Anderson reprising their roles and Joey Lauren Adams in a cameo as her character Alyssa Jones, who'd later appear in further View Askewniverse films, for the tenth anniversary DVD release. The "lost scene" was also presented in comic-book form of the ''Clerks'' comic book series, with the title of "The Lost Scene".

Original ending

The original ending for the film was meant to continue from when Randal throws the "I Assure You We're Open" sign to Dante. After Randal leaves, Dante proceeds to count out the register and does not notice another person entering the store. Dante at first thinks it's Randal but looks up and informs the person that the store is no longer open. The man then pulls out a gun and shoots Dante, killing him. Afterward, the man puts all the money from the cash register in a bag and walks out of the store. The sequence ends with Dante's dead face looking off past the camera; after the credits roll – the soundtrack over it being a cash register making noises – a customer (played by Smith with his beard shaved off) wearing glasses and in a ponytail and a baseball jersey comes into the store, sees no one around (as Dante is lying dead behind the counter), steals a pack of cigarettes, and runs off.

The depressing ending was criticized by Bob Hawk and John Pierson after its first screening at the Independent Feature Film Market, and under Pierson's advice, Smith cut the ending short, ending with Randal's departure and deleting Dante's death. Fans have since analyzed the death of Dante as an homage to the ending of '' The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980), which is discussed earlier in the film as Dante's favorite '' Star Wars'' movie because "it ended on such a down note". The film's extended cut also implied that, because Randal disconnected the security camera earlier in the day during the roof hockey scene, the killer would never be caught.

Smith has since claimed he concluded ''Clerks'' this way for three reasons. The primary reason was irony, the ending would be the payoff for Dante's repeated claims of "I'm not even supposed to be here today!". Smith also stated that the ending was an homage to the ending of one of his favorite films, Spike Lee's '' Do The Right Thing'' (1989), a comedic film with a dark ending. Lee's name can also be seen in the "special thanks" portion of the credits. Smith also stated that he ended ''Clerks'' with Dante's death because he "didn't know how to end a film". Both versions are available in ''Clerks X'', the tenth-anniversary special edition; the lost ending itself was among the extras on the 1995 LaserDisc and the 1999 DVD release; Smith states in the audio commentary on the 1999 DVD that had he kept the original ending, likely no further View Askewniverse films would have been made. The culprit in question was played by Smith's cousin John Willyung, who went on to appear in Smith's later films (most notably as Cohee Lunden in '' Chasing Amy'' and '' Clerks III'' and as himself in '' Jay and Silent Bob Reboot''). On their movie review show, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert (both of whom had given thumbs-up reviews to the film in 1994) had a special segment on a November 1995 episode that presented and discussed this original ending. Siskel said that having the alternate ending could have worked but it would have to be longer with more build-up to suggest that something like this could happen, while Ebert said he understood Smith's desire to do something memorable/shocking to end the film but concluded "ultimately, I'm glad Smith decided to spare Dante."

Release

Originally playing to an empty theater on the closing day of the 1993 Independent Feature Film Market (IFFM) in New York, ''Clerks'' was discovered and rescued by legendary producer/consultant Bob Hawk, who helped to shepherd the film to its 1994 Sundance Film Festival premiere. At Sundance, it was picked up by Miramax Films and released in theaters. It also became a surprise hit, grossing over $3 million in the United States despite never playing on more than 100 theater screens in the United States at the same time. It grossed $1.3 million internationally for a worldwide gross of $4.4 million.

Reception

''Clerks'' was well received by critics and developed a cult following. On Rotten Tomatoes, it currently has an approval rating of 90% based on 61 reviews, with an average rating of 7.60/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "With its quirky characters and clever, quotable dialogue, ''Clerks'' is the ultimate clarion call for slackers everywhere to unite, and, uh, do something, we guess?" On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of a possible four, praising it for interestingly depicting a full day of "utterly authentic" middle-class life, adding: "Within the limitations of his bare-bones production, Smith shows great invention, a natural feel for human comedy, and a knack for writing weird, sometimes brilliant, dialogue." Peter Travers gave the film four out of four stars, calling attention to Anderson's "deadpan comic brilliance" and writing that "Smith nails the obsessive verbal wrangling of smart, stalled twentysomethings who can't figure out how to get their ideas into motion."

Year-end lists

* 8th – Yardena Arar, '' Los Angeles Daily News''
* 10th – Todd Anthony, '' Miami New Times''
* 11th – Peter Travers, ''Rolling Stone''
* Top 10 (listed alphabetically, not ranked) – Bob Ross, '' The Tampa Tribune''
* Top 10 (listed alphabetically, not ranked) – Jeff Simon, '' The Buffalo News''
* Top 10 (not ranked) – Betsy Pickle, '' Knoxville News-Sentinel''
* Top 10 runners-up (not ranked) – Janet Maslin, ''The New York Times''
* Honorable mention – Dan Webster, '' The Spokesman-Review''
* Honorable mention – Michael MacCambridge, '' Austin American-Statesman''

Legacy

When released, the film was noted for its realism and memorable characters. ''Clerks'' won the "Award of the Youth" and the "Mercedes-Benz Award" at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, tied with '' Fresh'' for the "Filmmakers Trophy" at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards (Best First Feature, Best First Screenplay and Jeff Anderson for Best Debut Performance). In 2000, readers of '' Total Film'' voted ''Clerks'' the 16th-greatest comedy film of all time and in 2006, ''Empire'' listed ''Clerks'' as the fourth greatest independent film. The film is also No. 33 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies. In 2008, ''Entertainment Weekly'' ranked it 13th on "The Cult 25: The Essential Left-Field Movie Hits Since '83" and 21st on "The Comedy 25: The Funniest Movies of the Past 25 Years". Also in 2008, ''Empire'' named it one of their "500 Greatest Movies of All-Time", placing it 361st on the list. The film was also one of the 500 films nominated for a spot on AFI's 100 Years…100 Laughs but failed to make the top 100. The film was also included in the book '' 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die''.

In 2019, ''Clerks'' was among 25 films chosen to be added to the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.

''Clerks'' was re-released on October 18 and 19, 2024 in select Cineplex theaters for its 30th anniversary.

Home media

''Clerks'' was first released on VHS on May 23, 1995. This was followed by a LaserDisc version on August 30, 1995, and a DVD on June 29, 1999. The laserdisc and DVD versions feature the original letterboxed version of the film, audio commentary by Smith and various cast and crew members, seven deleted scenes from the film, a theatrical trailer, and a music video for Soul Asylum's "Can't Even Tell" directed by Smith which features him, Mewes, Anderson and O'Halloran reprising their roles from the film.

The film was released on UMD (playable on PlayStation Portable) on November 15, 2005. Special features include "Clerks: The Lost Scene", "The Flying Car", and original cast auditions. In the fall of 2006, a new edition of the ''Clerks'' DVD appeared in Canada, dubbed the ''Clerks: Snowball Edition''. This release is the 1999 DVD with a new slipcover with a photo of a bikini-clad model, made to resemble one of the porn videos Randal mentions in the film. Smith was not involved in, nor was aware of this release.

Outside the United States, Clerks was distributed in the United Kingdom by Artificial Eye with Fox Video through Fox Guild Home Entertainment handling rental sales, and in Canada by Alliance Atlantis. Since 2020, DVD and Blu-Ray distribution has been handled by Paramount Home Entertainment following Paramount Global's acquisition of 49% of Miramax.

2004 ''Clerks X'' special edition

On September 7, 2004, ''Clerks X'' was released to celebrate the film's tenth anniversary. This three-disc set includes, among other things, the features from the initial 1999 DVD, the aforementioned ''Lost Scene'', an unrestored ''First Cut'' featuring the deleted scenes and original ending intact, original cast auditions, a new making-of documentary entitled ''The Snowball Effect'', a '' Tonight Show'' short film starring Dante and Randal entitled '' The Flying Car'', Smith and Mosier's student film ''Mae Day'', eight MTV spots with Jay and Silent Bob, deleted scenes from ''The Snowball Effect'', still galleries, a 10 year anniversary Q&A with Smith, Mosier, Mewes, O'Halloran, Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, and cinematographer David Klein, and eight articles and reviews. Many of these features feature new video introductions from Smith and Mosier. All these features were carried over to the 15th Anniversary Blu-ray on November 17, 2009, along with a new documentary, '' Oh, What a Lovely Tea Party''—originally made for Smith's 2001 film '' Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back''. Unlike the initial 1999 DVD, ''Clerks X'' is currently out of print.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on October 11, 1994 by Columbia Records under their Chaos imprint. It was composed of various new and previously released songs by alternative rock, grunge and punk rock artists such as Bad Religion, Love Among Freaks, Alice in Chains and Soul Asylum. The soundtrack also featured various sound clips from the film. It has been noted that ''Clerks'' is one of the very few films in which the cost of obtaining the rights to the music used was a great portion of the production costs for the entire film.

The Soul Asylum song "Can't Even Tell", which was played over the film's end credits and featured on the soundtrack, peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1994. The music video for the song was directed by Smith and was filmed in the same locations as the film. The video featured Smith, Jason Mewes, Jeff Anderson and Brian O'Halloran reprising their roles from ''Clerks''.

Another song which appeared on the soundtrack was " Got Me Wrong" by Alice in Chains, which had previously been released on the band's extended play '' Sap'' (1992). The song was issued as a single in late 1994, due to renewed radio interest from the song's appearance in ''Clerks''. The song peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks and #22 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks in early 1995.

Franchise

Although not direct sequels in terms of addressing the original film's storyline, characters from the original ''Clerks'' – primarily Jay and Silent Bob – appeared in the films '' Mallrats'' (1995), '' Chasing Amy'' (1997), '' Dogma'' (1999), '' Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back'' (2001) and '' Jay and Silent Bob Reboot'' (2019), all of which take place in the same continuity as ''Clerks''. Dante and Randal also reprised their roles in ''Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back'', which was originally promoted as the finale to the series, but an official sequel to ''Clerks'' was announced a few years later.

Sequels

''Clerks II''

The live-action, feature film sequel to ''Clerks'' was released on July 21, 2006. The working title was ''The Passion of the Clerks'', though the film was released under the title ''Clerks II''. The credits for '' Dogma'' stated: "Jay and Silent Bob will return in ''Clerks 2: Hardly Clerkin ''"; however, that project "evolved" into ''Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back''. The sequel features O'Halloran, Anderson, Mewes and Smith (in addition to returning as writer, director and editor) reprising their roles as Dante, Randal, Jay and Silent Bob. The former two now work at a Mooby's restaurant after Randal accidentally destroys the Quick Stop and RST Video while the latter two, having sobered up after six months in rehab, continue their drug selling antics in the parking lot of the restaurant.

''Clerks III''

During interviews for ''Clerks II'', Smith briefly discussed the possibility of a ''Clerks III''. Stating that "if there's ever gonna be a ''Clerks III'', it would be somewhere down the road in my 40s or 50s, when it might be interesting to check back in on Dante and Randal. But I don't know about Jay and Bob so much, 'cause at 45, leaning on a wall in front of a convenience store might be a little sad." Smith repeated this sentiment on one of the audio commentary tracks on the ''Clerks II'' DVD, to which Anderson jokingly replied, "Oh, don't get me started", referring to Anderson's well known doubts about making ''Clerks II'' when first approached by Smith.

On March 29, 2012, Smith expressed his interest in producing ''Clerks III'' as a Broadway play after seeing the Theresa Rebeck comedy ''Seminar'' starring Alan Rickman, with whom Smith had previously worked on '' Dogma''.

On December 10, 2012, Smith released a special '' Hollywood Babble-On'' episode, ''Hollywood Babble-On #000: GIANT SIZED ANNUAL # 1: CLERKS III, AUDIENCE 0'', in which he revealed greater details on his plans for ''Clerks III''. Smith stated that an ongoing audit over residuals from ''Clerks II'' with The Weinstein Company was causing a delay in several key ''Clerks III'' cast and crew members, including Anderson and Mosier, from coming on board until the audit was resolved. Smith also revealed that he would like to crowdsource ''Clerks III'', either through Kickstarter or Indiegogo, with contributors receiving anything from DVDs, posters and even roles as extras in the film. On June 5, 2013, he changed his mind on crowdsourcing, stating: "I've got access to money. And worst-case scenario, I can put up my house."

Smith worked on a script for ''Clerks III'' from March to May 2013, stating when he completed it that it was "'' The Empire Strikes Back''" of the series. In July 2013, Mewes stated that they were now just waiting to hear back from The Weinstein Company about funding.

On September 26, 2014, Smith stated on his '' Hollywood Babble-On'' podcast, that he was glad that he made ''Tusk'', stating: "Everything in my life would suck right now if I hadn't made that movie. I'm back in movies now. I've got three lined up, and this is the fucking grand news. ''Tusk'' was the absolute bridge to ''Clerks III''. Because of ''Tusk'', I got my financing for ''Clerks III''". Smith continued: "A year and change ago, I was trying to fucking desperately get ''Clerks III'' made for the 20th anniversary. And that desperation, I must have reeked of it, because I couldn't fucking find money and shit. But it was ''Tusk'', it was people going 'Holy fuck! What else do you have?' And I was like, ''Clerks III'', done. So everybody that's like, 'He failed, he failed', thank you – I failed into ''Clerks III''. So, never trust anybody when they tell you how your story goes, man. You know your story. You write your own story.”

There were plans to start shooting ''Clerks III'' in May 2015, but these were put on hold to film another sequel, ''Mallrats 2''. However, by June 2016, the plans for a ''Mallrats'' sequel had been turned into plans for a ''Mallrats'' TV series.

In July 2019, Smith announced that he would do a live reading of ''Clerks III'' at the First Avenue Playhouse in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. The reading was held on August 3, 2019. That same month, Smith revealed at San Diego Comic-Con that he was writing a new script for ''Clerks III'' and promised to make the film.

On October 1, 2019, Smith confirmed on Instagram that ''Clerks III'' was happening and that Jeff Anderson agreed to reprise his role as Randal. "It'll be a movie that concludes a saga. It'll be a movie about how you're never too old to completely change your life. It’ll be a movie about how a decades-spanning friendship finally confronts the future. It'll be a movie that brings us back to the beginning—a return to the cradle of civilization in the great state of #newjersey. It’ll be a movie that stars Jeff and @briancohalloran, with me and Jay in supporting roles. And it'll be a movie called CLERKS III!" The new script will follow Randal, after surviving a heart attack, and Dante making a movie about their lives at the store, a plot initially conceived as a film adaptation of '' Clerks: The Animated Series'' titled ''Clerks: Sell Out''.

Principal photography began on August 2, 2021, in Red Bank, New Jersey. Filming wrapped on August 31, 2021.

''Clerks III'' had its world premiere on September 4, 2022, at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, New Jersey and was released on September 13, 2022, by Lionsgate and Fathom Events.

Television series

Following ''Clerks'', Smith set several more films in the same "world", which he calls the View Askewniverse of overlapping characters and stories. Of all of Smith's films, however, ''Clerks'' is the one with the most direct spin-off products.

''Clerks: The TV Show''

A pilot for a live-action television series was produced in 1995. It was produced by Touchstone Television and was to be developed by Richard Day. The pilot only referenced the character names and starred none of the cast from the original film, contained no foul language (except words suitable enough for a TV-PG rating) and did not feature Silent Bob. The character of Jay was featured, prompting Smith to point out that he owned the character rights to both Jay and Silent Bob (for the purposes of featuring them in separate films). The producers' solution was to change the character's name to Ray. Smith was unaware of the production of the series until casting was underway. Smith, as well as Mosier and Mewes, had been knee-deep with the production of '' Mallrats'' at the time and attempted to become involved in the series, but became disheartened quickly as an episode he had written for the series was shot down to be used as a potential B-plot. He would later use the script for an episode of '' Clerks: The Animated Series''.

O'Halloran and Anderson both auditioned to reprise their roles of Dante and Randal from the film but were replaced by Andrew Lowery and future ''Saturday Night Live'' performer Jim Breuer. After seeing the result, Smith, Mosier, Mewes, O'Halloran and Anderson all said that it was terrible, with O'Halloran and Anderson further stating they were both glad they weren't involved.

''Clerks: The Animated Series''

Touchstone Television (with Miramax Films) also produced ''Clerks: The Animated Series'' a short-lived six-episode animated television series featuring the same characters and cast of the original film. Two episodes aired on ABC in late May/early June 2000 before being pulled from the lineup. The full six episodes were released on DVD in 2001 before being run on Comedy Central in 2004 and Adult Swim from 2008 to 2010. In a trailer for (but not in) '' Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back'', Randal, referencing the series, says to Dante: "If you were funnier than that, ABC would've never cancelled us."

Other media

''Clerks: The Comics''

''Clerks.'' is a series of comics written by Smith featuring characters from the film. In the series are ''Clerks: The Comic Book'', ''Clerks: Holiday Special'', and ''Clerks: The Lost Scene''. Smith has discussed plans for ''Clerks 1.5'', a comic that would bridge the gap between the original film and its sequel, to be included in a reprint of the ''Clerks.'' trade paperback. The story ultimately was printed in the 2006 ''Tales from the Clerks'' collection, which also included the other ''Clerks'' comics with additional View Askewniverse material. Smith received the Harvey Award for Best New Talent in 1999.

''Shooting Clerks''

''Shooting Clerks'' is a 2021 biographical comedy-drama film about the making of ''Clerks''. The film stars many of the original film's stars, including O'Halloran, Ghigliotti, Mewes and Smith himself. The film had a special fine cut screening at San Diego Comic-Con on July 20, 2019, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the original film's release.

See also

* List of cult films
* List of films featuring fictional films

References

Bibliography

* Muir, John Kenneth (2002). ''An Askew View : The Films of Kevin Smith''. Applause Books.
* Smith, Kevin (1997). ''Clerks and Chasing Amy : Two Screenplays''. Miramax Books.

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clerks
1994 films
1994 directorial debut films
1994 independent films
1994 black comedy films
1990s buddy comedy films
American black-and-white films
American black comedy films
American buddy comedy films
Films about criticism and refusal of work
Obscenity controversies in film
Rating controversies in film
Films about friendship
Films adapted into comics
Films adapted into television shows
Films directed by Kevin Smith
Films produced by Scott Mosier
Films set in New Jersey
Films with screenplays by Kevin Smith
Miramax films
Films about necrophilia
Sundance Film Festival award–winning films
United States National Film Registry films
View Askewniverse films
View Askew Productions films
Workplace comedy films
Films shot in 16 mm film
Fictional clerks
New Jersey culture
1990s English-language films
1990s American films
American independent films
English-language black comedy films
English-language independent films
English-language buddy comedy films