The '90s McDonald's Ad Steven Spielberg Wanted Turned Into A Film

There are only a few championship games that unite the world like the Super Bowl. Whether you are watching it for the game because you are rooting for or against a team, gathering for the opportunity to eat ultimate game day nachos and drink beer, or just to watch the commercials, this competition is about experiencing greatness together. It apparently can also lead to Steven Spielberg seeing a commercial and wanting to turn it into a movie. During Super Bowl XXVI in 1992, which pitted Washington against Buffalo, a commercial for McDonald's aired, which became the inspiration for the 1994 movie "Little Giants." 

Per the Baltimore Sun, when Spielberg saw the tribute to Pee Wee football wrapped in a fast food commercial, he instantly knew he wanted to make it a movie. Why? It did something unique. It followed teams of little boys prepping and playing games — rubbing mud on their uniforms, getting distracted by seeing a grasshopper, dads serving as the goal posts, and practice in the rain. But it wasn't the winning or losing that mattered, and it didn't focus on McDonald's Big Mac or iconic Happy Meal. Rather, it focused on where they gathered afterward to break bread to celebrate their "perfect" season. The commercial was also different because it was 90 seconds long, whereas most are in the 30-to-60-second range. This allowed the men behind the ad, Jim Ferguson and Bob Shallcross, to really tell a story.

So, what happened after Steven Spielberg saw the commercial? He had his assistant track down Jim Ferguson and Bob Shallcross, who were then working as creative directors at Leo Burnett. Ferguson went to Los Angeles, where Spielberg offered the opportunity to turn the 90-second McDonald's commercial into a 90-minute movie. Neither Ferguson nor Shallcross had a screenwriting background, but they were game. The NFL decided to help finance it, a scriptwriter was brought in to revise it, and Rick Moranis and Ed O'Neill were cast to star in it. 

"Little Giants" is the perfect movie about kids who don't get picked but find acceptance and friendship through football. If you haven't seen the movie, it's worth watching with a McFlurry and an order of fries. But with that in mind, the real question that might be eating at you is whether or not Spielberg likes McDonald's. The answer is yes. He has been a fan of McDonald's since at least the 1980s, maybe longer. During the filming of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" — the first "Indiana Jones" movie — he apparently was noshing on Egg McMuffins on set while Harrison Ford asked for a double ham and cheese.