Gere, Roberts - And Marshall

While the big story surrounding Runaway Bride is the movie reunion of Pretty Woman co-stars Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, reports CBS This Morning Co-Anchor Mark McEwen, there's a third party involved: director Garry Marshall.

"You get together and make a picture like Pretty Woman, they say, 'Oh, it did well.' They notice those things," Marshall explains. "They don't notice if they liked it so much, but they notice [the money] it made, and they say, 'Let's do it again.'"

Doing it again took longer than one might have guessed, mainly because the major participants had to find the right script.

"It is hard to do a romance, truly," says the director. "So they found a script that everybody liked and they said, 'Let's shoot a lovely summer love story in the dead of winter in Maryland.' So we did that."

In his opinion, why does the chemistry work between Gere and Roberts?

"Well, we never know for sure. We know when it doesn't work," says Marshall. "I've [directed] love scenes whereÂ…we played music, and they were almost naked, and nothing."

"Richard Gere, Julia Roberts - they kind of look at each other, and they touch each other, and there is something that happens that doesn't need music, doesn't need anything. So it's just that thing of seeing the girl across the room at the cocktail party, and it cooks."

But Marshall says he thinks chemistry can be faked.

"It is faked all the time," he explains. "You see movies [with] people [who] didn't talk to each other, and they went and did it. The audience knows unconsciously whether it's cooking or not."

While Marshall praises the script for Runaway Bride, he says much of the movie magic between Gere and Roberts is the result of improvisation. "When it happens," he adds, "it is nice to be there."

Marshall started out in the entertainment industry as a writer for Tonight in 1961, and he has seen many changes in the world of comedy since then. It is quite a leap from the innocence of Happy Days to the raciness of films like American Pie and TV programs like South Park.

"All good, but different," says Marshall. "I just feel we're missing where people watch together....I have kids. I used to go and you would see a Disney thing, a raccoon licking a duck. I'd fall asleep. So I like something where you can watch it with some member of your family."

He says he hopes with Runaway Bride "to get where we have a mother and a daughter could go together. That's nice. It helps the family."

The 64-year-old Marshall has directed other movies as Beaches (1988), Overboard (1987), and The Flamingo Kid (1984). But he is best known to TV fans as the driving force behind such series as The Odd Couple, starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugmn, Mork and Mindy, starring Robin Williams, Happy Days, starring Ron Howard, and Laverne and Shirley, which starred Cindy Williams and Penny Marshall, Garry's sister.

"Penny was always funny," he says. "She was a prankster as a child. She used to run around and get into trouble. My sister Ronni was always the sweet one. I was the sick one with allergies."

In addition to his work behind the camera, Marshall also had a recurring role in the CBS-TV series Murphy Brown.

Marshall was the mastermind behind many TV classics. In his words, here's why they were hits:

• The Odd Couple: "The same chemistry that Julia and Richard have, that overlapping dialogue. They can both talk at once, and you can hear what's going on."
• Happy Days: "Nostaglia. The old days. Some people's best [days] were spent in high school."
• Mork and Mindy: "Genius of Robin Williams, no question. We found the guy."
• Laverne and Shirley: "My sister got a job, and my mother was happy."