FILM · 1980 · USA
Nine to Five
72 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (72)
- #001
Nine to Five was the first film starring a woman to gross $100 million.
- #002
Nine to Five was Dolly Parton's first film. While preparing for the role of Doralee Rhodes, she committed to memory not only her own part but the parts of every other role in the film. Apparently, when Parton said she believed scenes were shot in the chronological order of a film script, her two experienced co-stars Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda burst into laughter.
- #003
Dolly Parton bought nearly the entire wardrobe she wore in the film and displays all of it in her museum at Dollywood.
- #004
To prepare for the role of Judy Bernly, a middle-aged divorcée entering the workforce, Jane Fonda interviewed numerous women who had entered the workforce late because of divorce or widowhood. They inspired Judy's first-day outfit: a frilly, conservative wardrobe, large glasses, flashy hats and an exaggerated hairstyle.
- #005
A sequel was planned in the 1980s, but no story could be agreed upon, and the plans were cancelled after writer/director Colin Higgins died on 5 August 1988.
- #006
The man who played Doralee's husband was in fact married to a close friend of Dolly Parton and had known Dolly for a long time. He says that was the only reason he was able to kiss her on camera.
- #007
Lily Tomlin stole the porch swing Doralee sits on while describing her fantasy of killing her boss at Doralee's house and hung it in her garden. She did not, however, protect it, and it rotted over the years. Jane Fonda stole the Rid-O-Rat box containing rat poison.
- #008
Dolly Parton's nearly shy and reclusive husband, Carl Dean, never goes out in public with her and never accompanies her to any music concert or other event. This film, Parton's first, was one of the few occasions on which he made an exception. When he walked into the studio, Jane Fonda pointed across the room and said to Lily Tomlin, "Look at that handsome man! I'm calling him, he's mine!" Parton later "spilled the beans" that he was her husband. After chatting with him for a few minutes, Parton broke the news that she was married to him and introduced him to the other actresses. Fonda was extremely and deeply embarrassed when she heard Parton's words, especially after having made a remark to Tomlin as if she were "husband hunting."
- #009
Tinsworthy (Sterling Hayden) looks around a great deal because Hayden needed cue cards to remember his lines.
- #010
Lily Tomlin was nervous because this was her first film, and every day she left her trailer acting as if she were Violet and had been hired to make a film about secretaries.
- #011
The film spawned the highly successful sitcom Nine to Five (1982), which ran for 85 episodes and aired between 1982 and 1988. The first three seasons aired on ABC between Spring 1982 and Fall 1983, while the second and final season aired in syndication between 1986 and 1988. Dolly Parton's younger sister Rachel Parton George took over Parton's role of Doralee Rhodes in the series.
- #012
The film's famous title song, "9 to 5," rose to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and held that position for two non-consecutive weeks (21 February 1981 and then 14 March 1981).
- #013
Lily Tomlin had turned down the role of Violet because she was working on The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981). She eventually softened and arranged for the film's producer to temporarily postpone her acting work so she could take part in this film.
- #014
Dolly Parton recalls that Jane Fonda told her to slow down her eating, because shooting out of sequence meant she would wear the same costume later in the production. She remembers going into a scene in one size and coming out in a larger one. "I look like a little fat canary," Parton says, referring to a scene in which she wears yellow (at about 1 hour 12 minutes).
- #015
This was the second most popular film in the United States and Canada in the 1980s, earning more than $100 million.
- #016
A charity retro premiere of the film, at $150 per ticket, was held in 2003 to benefit the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (GCAPP), founded by Jane Fonda. Asked which was their favorite scene from the film, the three actresses agreed it was tying up the horrible boss Dabney Coleman in S&M-like gear.
- #017
An earlier version of the script showed the trio deliberately trying to kill their boss. Director/co-writer Colin Higgins was the one who turned everything into fantasy sequences.
- #018
Violet's fantasy features Disney-like characters from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) (including Violet as Snow White), Bambi (1942) and Robin Hood (1973). The animated characters resembled Disney characters but, for legal reasons, were explicitly drawn differently. By a twist of fate, the film is now owned by Disney, as were most films made by 20th Century Fox at the time.
- #019
Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston turned down the role of Chairman of the Board Russell Tinsworthy.
- #020
Maria Delgado is fired after Roz overhears her comparing her salary to Mr. Hart's. This was actually illegal under the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, which prohibits companies from carrying out such retaliatory actions.
- #021
The trio of workers calls their extremely irritable boss, Franklin M. Hart, Jr. (Dabney Coleman), a "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot." The phrase was used when the 25th Anniversary Special Edition DVD release was titled the "Sexist, Egotistical, Lying, Hypocritical Bigot Edition." The phrase is listed on the paper slips in the DVD along with other films.
- #022
The company's name, "Consolidated Companies, Inc.," is the same as the company Jack Lemmon works for in The Apartment (1960).
- #023
According to an article in Variety Magazine, Jane Fonda was the driving force behind this film. It was the third production (out of six companies) for her production company IPC Films.
- #024
Lily Tomlin delivered an improvised explanation that Judy's (Jane Fonda) large hat needed its own closet at the workplace. She claims this was the only improvisation she did, but the reactions of others suggest that may not have been the case.
- #025
All three women eventually begin acting out their fantasies of getting rid of Mr. Hart: Judy tries to shoot him in his office (and misses), Doralee lassos him and ties him up in his office, and Violet (accidentally) puts rat poison in his coffee.
- #026
The company's name was "Consolidated Companies, Inc." Much of the film consists of the workplace interiors shot on Sound Stage 6 at 20th Century Fox in Hollywood. A two-level set costing about one million dollars was built to display the interiors of two floors of a contemporary office complex. Franklin Hart's house is located at 10431 Bellagio Road in Bel Air, Los Angeles. According to the commentary included on the film's DVD release, the house at the time belonged to the Chandler family, then publishers of the Los Angeles Times. The Consolidated offices were probably at the Pacific Financial Center at 800 W 6th Street on South Flower Street in Los Angeles. Although the story appears to take place in Los Angeles, the opening credits montage featuring the title song consists mostly of footage shot in downtown San Francisco. These shots include an electric MUNI bus outfitted with a KFOG 104.5 FM advertisement, the Ferry Building clock, and a brief glimpse of San Francisco twins Marion and Vivian Brown. Other locations included the Southern California cities of Glendale, Montrose and Bel Air, as well as downtown Los Angeles.
- #027
The VHS cassette was originally scheduled to be released on the same date as the film's theatrical release. However, due to complaints from movie theater owners and the many letters they received from across North America, the video's release was delayed by three months.
- #028
Although the film received mixed reviews from critics during its initial release, it has since been reevaluated for its commentary on sexism in the workplace and the gender pay gap. In a 2018 review for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw wrote: "Thirty-eight years on, this story of misogyny, kidnapping and typewriters is a boldly progressive piece of film-making." The film's cultural legacy, the road to production and its impact on the women's labor movement are examined in the 2022 documentary Still Work 9 to 5 (2022).
- #029
This film ranks seventy-fourth on the American Film Institute's "America's 100 Funniest Movies" list. When it was released in the United States and Canada, it placed among the top three films.
- #030
When Judy (Jane Fonda) first meets the boss (Dabney Coleman) in his office, Mr. Hart actually farts, and Lily Tomlin and Fonda look at each other as if to say, shall we continue? A short scene. A simple review shows that this comment is completely false. After Violet leaves the office, she makes a clearly scripted and prepared joke about his name being F Hart.
- #031
The house where they hide their captive boss is the "Chandler House," the longtime home of the family that owned the Los Angeles Times newspaper. It has since changed hands several times and has frequently been rented out for film and TV productions.
- #032
Charlie's Bar was located at 507 West 6th Street. Although the building's exterior has changed significantly, the interior still retains the same floor plan (though redecorated) and currently houses the Water Grill restaurant.
- #033
Critics complained that although the film's first act, which explores topical issues such as pay discrimination and harassment, is cool, dark and edgy, the second act turns into a sitcom-like comedy. This is probably because the original screenplay was much darker. In the original screenplay, the women actually try to kill the boss. Then everything goes wrong and they are forced to kidnap their would-be murder victim. This causes all kinds of chaos and maintains the dark, edgy momentum of the beginning. However, it was probably decided that this was too tense, and it was softened by turning it into a comedy of errors to make it acceptable to mainstream audiences. Critics initially panned the ending, but it didn't matter. The film became both a box-office and a cult hit and is known as one of the funniest films ever made.
- #034
The musical version of this film opened on Broadway on Thursday, April 30, 2009. The opening cast included Allison Janney, Stephanie J. Block, Megan Hilty and Marc Kudisch. On Sunday, September 6, 2009, it closed after 148 performances and 24 previews, running for a total of 130 consecutive days.
- #035
It ranked 74th on the American Film Institute's 2000 list of the 100 Funniest American Films.
- #036
Co-writer Patricia Resnick researched the theme by going undercover as a secretary at a large insurance brokerage firm.
- #037
Dabney Coleman, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton appeared in The Beverly Hillbillies (1993), the big-screen adaptation of the original show. Both films were released by 20th Century Fox.
- #038
If Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton had not been available, co-producer Jane Fonda's backup casting choices would have been Carol Burnett as Violet and Ann-Margret as Doralee.
- #039
This film is said to have been inspired by Preston Sturges's classic screwball comedy Unfaithfully Yours (1948), and a few years later it was remade under the title Unfaithfully Yours (1984).
- #040
In the opening title sequence, when Jane Fonda's name appears, the hand shown hitting the alarm clock actually belongs to Dolly Parton (look at the fingernails). When Parton's name appears in the credits, Fonda's hand is turning off the alarm clock, recognizable by the glasses her character wears sitting on the bedside table.
- #041
Dabney Coleman plays Franklin Hart, the villain whose scheming threatens the script: a 'sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot' boss. This is probably the part Coleman was most associated with over the years. Coleman was a character type, and after this role he spent years playing heels in Hollywood, from the abusive director Ron in Tootsie (1982) to Buffalo Bill in his own TV series of the same name (1983). He later played the racist Fred Tanner on Diff'rent Strokes (1978) and the bumbling Lieutenant Mckittrick in WarGames (1983). The only roles Coleman played that were not bullies came around the time he played both the imaginary spy Jack Flack and the father Hal Osborne in Cloak & Dagger (1984) and Bill Ray in On Golden Pond (1981).
- #042
When Violet, Judy and Doralee plot to send Roz to the Aspen Language Center in Colorado to learn French, a TWA 747 is shown taking off. TWA Flight 800 exploded over the Atlantic Ocean just south of Long Island on 17 July 1996, shortly after taking off from JFK International Airport, killing all passengers and crew on board.
- #043
Violet Newstead (Lily Tomlin) drives a light blue 1969 Buick Skylark Custom two-door hardtop.
- #044
The song "9 to 5" ranked 78th on the American Film Institute's 2004 list of the 100 Best American Movie Songs.
- #045
Rita Moreno played Violet in Nine to Five (1982), and Jeffrey Tambor played Hart. Sally Struthers also had a recurring role (as Marsha Shrimpton, a character not in the original film).
- #046
Charles Fox composed the score for this film, as he had for Colin Higgins's previous film Foul Play (1978). Because of a musicians' strike in Hollywood at the time, the music had to be recorded in Berlin, conducted by Ken Thorne (the only one of Fox's 100 film and TV scores that Fox himself did not conduct). The musicians in Germany struggled to play some of the trickier cues, so those cues were re-recorded for the soundtrack album at Evergreen Studios in Burbank under Fox's direction after the strike ended. Fox also composed the theme songs for Laverne & Shirley (1976) and Happy Days (1974), among other projects.
- #047
Most critics considered Mike Nichols's feminist office comedy Working Girl (1988) to be a product of this film in many respects. So were The Devil Wears Prada (2006), The Associate (1996), Horrible Bosses (2011), Horrible Bosses 2 (2014) and Clockwatchers (1997).
- #048
In April 2024, Variety announced that Jennifer Aniston and her Echo Films partner Kristin Hahn would produce a reimagined 9 to 5 (1980) for 20th Century Studios.
- #049
Dabney Coleman (Mr. Hart) and Marian Mercer (Mrs. Hart) were a familiar couple to fans of the comedy series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976) and its spin-off Forever Fernwood (1977), in which they played Mayor Merle Jeeter and his wife Wanda.
- #050
Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin also starred together in Grace and Frankie (2015).
- #051
Peggy Pope was the only person to appear in both the film and Nine to Five (1982). For some reason, however, her character, Margaret Foster in the film, was renamed Betty; in the series she is also no longer pregnant.
- #052
The names of the three main characters were largely based on each actress's own name. Jane Fonda's character was Judy Bernly, Dolly Parton's was Doralee Rhodes and Lily Tomlin's was Violet Newstead.
- #053
Co-writer Patricia Resnick also co-wrote Straight Talk (1992), which starred Dolly Parton.
- #054
Marian Mercer and Dabney Coleman had previously worked together as husband and wife in Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976).
- #055
It was the first film to premiere on the Encore network (now Starz Encore), on 1 April 1991.
- #056
Sally Struthers played one of the secretaries in Nine to Five (1982). She also played Roz for several years in one of the off-Broadway versions of the musical.
- #057
One of Hollywood's most popular subgenres is the workplace comedy. Films such as The Front Page (1931) and its remake His Girl Friday (1940); Desk Set (1957); The Hudsucker Proxy (1994); Clerks (1994); and Working Girl (1988) are all prime examples of the genre. In addition to these films, Colin Higgins's 9 to 5 (1980) is definitely considered one of the best and is still regarded today as a groundbreaking feminist film.
- #058
The epilogue features American Graffiti-style character storyboard updates that tell us what happened to each character.
- #059
The garage door opener that Franklin Hart Jr. keeps is a Genie, identified by its remote transmitter, when Doralee activates it as she is about to be attacked.
- #060
In an interview with Democracy Now! released after Dolly's death, Jane Fonda said that after seeing Lily's one-woman show, in which Lily played 16 different characters, she wanted Lily Tomlin in 9 to 5. She wanted Dolly for the film because the first song she heard on the radio after watching Lily's show was Dolly's "Two Doors Down."
- #061
Richard Stahl (Meade) and Marian Mercer (Missy Hart) went on to play adversaries who were married in It's a Living (1980).
- #062
This was Elisabeth Fraser's last film in which she did not appear in a leading role.
- #063
This is one of several films Dabney Coleman made for or that were distributed by 20th Century Fox in the early to mid-1980s. His other films were Modern Problems (1981) and The Man with One Red Shoe (1985).
- #064
At the beginning of the film, Doralee calls Hart's wife "Mrs. Hart," and at the end she calls her "Missy."
- #065
The MPAA's Motion Picture Production Code number for this film is 25951, meaning the film's identity literally comes from 9 to 5.
- #066
Dabney Coleman also plays Jane Fonda's boyfriend in On Golden Pond.
- #067
In the Skinny and Sweet box fan, Cathy Rigby's silhouette was used in the gymnastic pose she made for the mattress advertisement.
- #068
Screenwriter Phil Alden Robinson's first two screenplays were for films both released in 1984. They were for two comedies: Rhinestone (1984), in which Dolly Parton shared the lead, and All of Me (1984), in which Lily Tomlin shared the lead. Both Parton and Tomlin had appeared together about four years earlier in the comedy 9 to 5 (1980).
- #069
Jane Fonda was given the nickname "Hanoi Jane" because of a photograph taken during a 1972 visit to Hanoi in which she sat on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun. Lawrence Pressman, who plays Fonda's ex-husband Dick, would later play POW Colonel Cathcart in The Hanoi Hilton (1987).
- #070
Marian Mercer playing the wife of the bad boss Dabney Coleman is perfect. Throughout It's a Living, she had become famous for playing another bad boss (albeit a comical one) in the working-women comedy.
- #071
Earl Boen would later appear in the Terminator 1, 2 and 3 series.
- #072
Mr. Hart's dizzy effect was achieved with a dummy and Dabney Coleman shaking his head back and forth. The final shot is a loop of the shot in which Dabney Coleman's head turns and the dummy's head turns, with a quick cut at the moment the dummy's head turns toward the camera and then another cut to the dummy as the face turns the other way.
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