Showing posts with label Joanie Loves Chachi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joanie Loves Chachi. Show all posts

Sunday, January 9, 2011

FOXES

Here's a post back from the days when I had time to really write about movie's I watched. Ah, the days of sweet, sweet unemployment. :)FOXES is a movie I was forbidden to see in high school because some parent in the neighborhood told all the parents that it was about teen prostitutes. Well, FOXES (1980, directed by Adrian Lyne) has been sitting on my dvr for about six months - and I think I'm finally old enough to see this so-called "teen hooker" movie. As Donna Summer's "On the Air" plays, we see the foxes in their natural habit - bed. They are so NOT teen prostitutes. Whores maybe, but not hookers. Jodie Foster is Jeanie - the sensible one; Cherie Currie is Annie - the wild one with a dad who's a cop; Kandice Stroh is Deidre, who looks like she's 40; Marilyn Kagan is chubby virginal Madge, who we later learn is dating a older guy named Jay (future trouble-magnet Randy Quaid). These four Valley girls are the focus of the film, but we soon meet some of their posse including their younger skate-boarding friend Brad (Scott Baio) who thinks of himself as quite the ladies man and is always coming on to Annie. The foxes all think that school sucks and the boys in their lives are all punks (like Robert Romanus, who was Snake on FACTS OF LIFE, and Speed on DAYS OF OUR LIVES).Their parents are all self-centered and living in their our worlds. Jeanie's parents are divorced - her mother (Sally Kellerman) is having an affair with a married man and her dad manages a glam rock band named Angel. (Angel performs the theme song "20th Century Foxes").Let me point out that the film's Giorgio Moroder produced soundtrack features an array of artists on the Casablanca record label, including Cher, who's "Bad Love" is used as recurring background music. Various imagery of the band KISS is also seen.After Madge loses her virginity, the girls celebrate with a dinner party at her boyfriend's that eventually turns into a brawl - and the foxes wind up behind bars. After she's bailed out Sally and Jodie go at it - touching upon all their dysfunctions as a mother and daughter. Randy Quaid then yells at his 16 year old girlfriend Madge for trashing his place - "What are you gonna do, be a waitress at Denny's?!" He wants her to come back so he can beat her.Jodie hangs out with Scott Baio for day and they bond over all sorts of teen stuff. When they get back to her house, Annie calls - she's loaded!!! Jodie and Scott rescue her from the crowd of tough druggies that she's fallen in with. They attempt to sober her up - but she's on pills! Annie decides she's going to Oregon. Jodie shows her some "tough love" - but freaks out when she sees a patrol car she thinks it's her over-protective dad looking for her again.Annie's wandering around in a drugged out stupor when her pill-popping friends show up. Scott manages to distract them with his crowd-pleasing skateboard antics, but Annie ends up at Tony's Bar. She tries calling Jodie on a pay phone, but Jodie's busy driving her pick-up truck around Mulholland Drive calling "Annie!".A couple of drunken swingers named Daryl and his wife Bert pick her up and want to have their way with her–but they crash into a moving truck. As the ER doctors attempt to save her life, the entire cast shows up at the hospital, only to find out that "We've lost her." beep...beep...beep....flatlineThen Madge marries creepy Randy Quaid outside the ugliest church ever filmed and Jodie tells mom Sally Kellerman that she loves her as "On the Radio" plays once more and Jodie visits Annie's grave with the flowers from Madge's wedding. The End.

I wish it really was about teen hookers.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Fonzie for President

Dozens of die-hard HAPPY DAYS fans lined the Milwaukee River on Tuesday to cheer the unveiling of a bronze statue of The Fonz. Henry Winkler was there, joined by Tom Bosley, Marion Ross and the show's creator Garry Marshall, along with Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams from the spin-off LAVERNE & SHIRLEY. This reminds me of the time a ten year old named Doug wrote Mr. Winkler a fan letter, and all he got back was a order form from "Thumbs Up Productions" for a Fonzie t-shirt. Very sad.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

TV tie-in merchandise that makes you say "Huh?"

Joanie does love Chachi...
...but apparently does NOT love wearing a bra.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Who needs The Olympics?

Well, 30 years ago NBC apparently didn't, because they broadcast their own international sporting event - US AGAINST THE WORLD II (The first edition ran the previous season).
Taking a cue from ABC's very sucessfull BATTLE OF THE NETWORK STARS and CBS's CELEBRITY BATTLE OF THE SEXES, the peacock network mounted what they hoped be an annual "event". Imagine an celebrity athletic show hosted by Gabe (WELCOME BAK KOTTER) Kaplan! Among the stars participating - Ed (TONIGHT SHOW) McMahon, Dick (AMERICAN BANDSTAND) Clark, Dan (GRIZZLY ADAMS) Haggerty, Scott (JOANIE LOVES CHACHI) Baio, Jimmie (J.J. on GOOD TIMES) Walker, Gavin (LOVE BOAT) MacLeod, Melissa (LITTLE HOUSE) Gilbert, Ted (MARY TYLER MOORE) Knight, Cloris (PHYLLIS) Leachman, Kristy (FAMILY) McNichol, Connie (ABC MOVIE OF THE WEEK) Stevens, William (STAR TREK) Shatner, Rich (talk show guest) Little, Bo (WALKING TALL) Svenson, LeVar (ROOTS) Burton, Britt (trophy wife) Ekland, Barbara (VALLEY OF THE DOLLS!!!) Perkins, Victoria (DALLAS) Principal, Fionnula (HOW THE WEST WAS WON) Flannigan and Dick (EIGHT IS ENOUGH) Van Patton! Whew!

Wow! All those big stars! All that sweat! I wonder what celebrities the "international" teams featured? I also wonder who looked the better in a Speedo - Dan Haggerty or Dick Van Patten? Well - we know Dick was in good shape because he had just modeled for this great EIGHT IS ENOUGH tie-in product:
I mean, you really have to be in peak athletic condition to A) Fly a kite B) Keep youngest son Adam Rich away from the drug pushers (pictured in the rear) and C) outrun the family of kite-loving bears that you are taunting with your yellow kite. Priceless.

I guess US AGAINST THE WORLD II didn't take off in the ratings because we didn't see a third edition, which is sad because imagine if the show was still on today. Who would be representing the USA in an all-star competition? Cast members of THE HILLS? Hulk Hogan's family? The Kardashians? Maybe we're better off.