A major market newsroom is a hectic place. During breaking news, reporters, producers and editors will be hollerin’ at each other, hectically making phone calls or rushing out the door.

Having said that, I was discussing Smokey and the Bandit the other day with a co-worker in the newsroom because I have my finger on the pulse of pop-culture.

Then another coworker joined the discussion and asked if I’d seen Nothing in Common.

I had not and had a bit of a freak-out, declaring, “You’re tellin’ me there’s a Jackie Gleason-Tom Hanks joint and it wasn’t the highest grossing film ever?!”

He returned the next day with a DVD of the film.

In college, my associates and I [many of the same associates who’d watch Jeopardy, in fact] gathered several times to watch Smokey and the Bandit. When I learned about this Nothing in Common situation, I notified everyone to load it up on Amazon Prime, so we could all watch in unison. I’d live-tweet with the hashtag, #NotAnOldManEvenThoughIIdentifyMoreCloselyWithJackieGleasonThanTomHanks.

I was shocked, however, to learn this wasn’t a hilarious romp by the stars of Big and Smokey and the Bandit. It was a film that made you feel ways about things.

One associated texted he had seen the film before and was a fan, but it never got the love it deserves.

It started out the right way. Jackie Gleason declared that he was divorcing his wife and wanted his son, Tom Hanks, to take him out on the town. How is that not a recipe for shenanigans?!

When Tom Hanks showed up at his dad’s house, he asked Papa Gleason if he and his wife might patch things up. Maybe this was just a misunderstanding.

“A misunderstanding you take the toothbrush, not the blender,” he said. Only Jackie Gleason would make that line funny.

But Gleason spent most of the move looking forlorn.

When Hanks asked where the dog was, Gleason said it didn’t die, it committed suicide.

The two did hit the town, and here is where I started to feel better about this Old Man situation.

Jackie Gleason cut loose at a bar and started with some memorable Smokey and the Bandit-esque one-liners that might not be considered socially acceptable today.

For example, he was put off by women “wearing tight jeans with their name across the ass. When I was a kid, you didn’t need the name. Just the ass.”

The film led a discussion among us associates on whether we’re still too young for a mid-life crisis. We are, but loyal Scaiaholics know I’ve felt becoming an old man would be an easy transition for me.

Now, thanks to the cinema of Jackie Gleason, I’m armed with the appropriate one-liners. He was apparently also notoriously difficult to work with, so I may also adopt some of his quotes.

“I have no use for humility. I am a fellow with an exceptional talent” might look good sprawled across the back of my blue jeans.

I would have preferred, however, seeing one of Jackie Gleason’s last performances end with him explaining what part of his ex-wife’s body he’d barbecue in molasses. Instead, Tom Hanks was pushing Forlorn Jackie Gleason out of a hospital in a wheel chair.

Let this be a lesson to all of us to embrace the crotchety old man inside us before it’s too late.