Happy 50th Birthday, Kristy McNichol

Here's a post from a few years back, slightly updated. To me, September 11th will always be remembered as Kristy McNichol's birthday. Born 50 years ago today in Los Angeles, Kristy is best known for her roles as tomboy 'Buddy' Lawrence on the ABC drama series FAMILY (1976–80) and later as tomboy-ish Barbara on the NBC sitcom EMPTY NEST.Kristy's first TV series was the CBS drama APPLE'S WAY (1974). The short-lived family series was unfortunately scheduled Sunday evenings at 7:30PM opposite the still-popular THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY on NBC.
Then came FAMILY, the highly acclaimed series for which McNichol won two Best Supporting Actress Emmy Awards. I remember watching this show with my parents, and wishing that my family was more like the Lawrences.

In 1977 and 1978 McNichol appeared on two Carpenters Christmas specials. Following in Karen and Richard's footsteps, Kristy and her brother Jimmy recorded an album, Kristy & Jimmy McNichol, and released a single covering the Chiffons 1963 hit "He's So Fine".
Also in 1978, she starred in the acclaimed NBC TV-movie SUMMER OF MY GERMAN SOLDIER and had a role in the hit Burt Reynolds comedy THE END. I still think THE END was the best film Burt ever starred in.Then came LITTLE DARLINGS. This dirty little 1980 teen comedy co-starred teen rival Tatum O'Neal. Kristy and Tatum played high school girls away at summer camp involved in a contest to lose their virginity to Matt Dillon.
I cannot tell you how much I loved this film when I saw it in high school. I so wanted to be friends with slutty girls like Kristy and Tatum...and boys like Matt.After the success of LITTLE DARLINGS, Kristy appeared with Dennis Quaid and Mark Hamill in THE NIGHT THE LIGHTS WENT OUT IN GEORGIA (1981), based on the wacky Vicki Lawrence song from the early 1970s. From what I recall, the film does not tell the same story as the song.
Later that year, Kristi co-starred with Marsha Mason in Neil Simon's ONLY WHEN I LAUGH and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.
McNichol's next project was the ill-conceived musical THE PIRATE MOVIE, co-starring THE BLUE LAGOON's frequently naked gay icon Christopher Atkins. This film was a crazy Gilbert & Sullivan mash-up that I tried watching about a year ago and it made my head hurt.
Next up came WHITE DOG, a controversial and highly acclaimed 1982 drama directed by Samuel Fuller, based Romain Gary's 1970 novel of the same title. The film depicts the intense struggle of a dog trainer named Keys (Paul Winfield), trying to retrain a dog that is trained to attack any black person. The film carries a powerful anti-racism message, but due to its sensitive subject matter it received very minimal release. It is currently out on dvd as part of The Criterion Collection.
When McNichol stormed off the set of the film JUST THE WAY YOU ARE, rumors of alleged drug use made Kristy a tabloid darling. She was diagnosed with clinical depression, and she eventually completed the film, but her professional reputation was damaged.After taking a few years off, Kristi was ready to work again. In 1988, she was cast in EMPTY NEST, a spin-off from the huge Susan Harris hit, THE GOLDEN GIRLS. Kristi seemed happy, healthy and looked great. But unfortunately her on-set behavior soon became an issue and was she let go from the series 1992 when she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She did return to the series for the final episode in 1995, which became her last screen appearance to date.Since 1995, Kristy has only taken voiceover roles. Her last public statement was in June 2001, when she said: "A lot of people have wondered what I've been up to. I retired from my career after 24 years. My feeling was that it was time to play my biggest part — MYSELF! I must say that it has been the best thing that ever happened to me. So many fans are disappointed that I'm not currently acting, however some may not realize that the process I'm in at this time is necessary and vital for my personal happiness and well-being."

Happy Birthday Kristy, this fan hopes to see you on screen again one day soon.

Just the Way You Are

On New Year's Eve 2010 before I settled in to watch recent comedies THE HANGOVER and BRüNO, I decided to watch a little something called JUST THE WAY YOU ARE (1984, directed by Edouard Molinaro), which tells the age-old story of a woman who has to travel across the globe just to find herself. Kinda.

Susan Berlanger (played by the spunky Kristy McNichol of WHITE DOG) is a professional flautist. Despite her slightly butch appearance, this gal is 100% straight and seemingly always on the prowl.

In fact Susan has to practically beat guys off a stick. You see Susan's engaged to wealthy and handsome Frank (pre-WINGS Tim Daly) and being stalked by a horny answering service operator named Jack (Lance Guest). Her best friend Lisa (Kaki Hunter) is a serious dancer and another horny dude named Sam (Robert Carradine) is after them both. After she Lisa compare notes on their disastrous relationships, we see that Susan is wearing a leg brace! What? She plays the flute so beautifully...how can she be disabled???

Turns out that Susan has been handicapped since a childhood bout with viral encephalitis, but she's so well-adjusted that she even jokes about wearing "Polio by Ralph Lauren" (insert sitcom "wha-wha"). After Jack and her have a almost blind lunch date, his subplot is quickly discarded and Susan hooks up with Sam (that's still Robert Carradine, if you're having trouble keeping track)–who isn't turned off by her bum leg. In fact I think he's turned on by her limp! Things seem to be going along swimmingly but suddenly Richie Rich, I mean Frank, walks in on them! Frank doesn't seem to be alarmed, and still wants to marry her because it's okay if she wants to sleep with other guys, because he does too! Yup, Frank's gay and their pending marriage would have been one of convenience so he could inherit his family's vast fortunes. Susan encourages him to be honest and maybe they'll accept him "just the way you are". Awwww...

So, after the broken engagement, Susan wants to see if total strangers would treat her differently if they didn't know she was handicapped, so she dumps Sam and accepts the offer to travel to Europe on a concert tour. So, while in France, she convinces a French doctor to put a cast on her bad leg, and then she heads off to the French Alps and a ski resort! When her room at the inn is double-booked, she quickly and eagerly makes friends with a slutty French woman named Nicole (Catherine Salviat) who instantly becomes her roommate! Nicole is having an affair with a married man, who never shows. Awww...

Soon Susan befriends skier Steve (Patrick Cassidy) and tries to jump his bones, but discovers he has to abstain from sex because it might interfere with his performance on the slopes. Enter Peter Nichols (MAKING LOVE's Michael Ontkean), a handsome and incredibly patient photographer there on assignment and his one-dimensional girlfriend Bobbie (Alexandra Paul). Before you know it, Susan and Peter fall in love, and so Peter dumps tantrum-prone Bobbie for Susan.

But can Susan tell him the truth about her damn leg? You'll just have to watch it to find out! This film is kinda odd. On one hand it's a cheesy 80s romantic comedy, on the other hand it's a "message movie" about how superficial people are.

McNichol makes snarky Susan likable in spite of man-eating ways. In fact if a lesser actress were cast in the lead role of a man-hungry, flippant and smooth operator such as Susan, the viewer might actually loathe her. But lovable Kristy just makes you wanna be on her side. The rest of the cast shows up and does their work, and some of the scenery is quite lovely.

The Billy Joel-less synthesized 80s soundtrack seems a bit too serious and heavy-handed in contrast to the airy romantics goings on, but it's always fun to hear Frida's awesome I Know There's Something Go On. Overall I'd give this Warner Archives gem a 7 outta 10 just because it's premise is so ridiculous, and yet it somehow works. As for Kristy, we'll always love her just the way she is!

WHITE DOG

Today is Kristy McNichol's birthday. Here's a review of perhaps her greatest film performance.As a dog lover and supporter of animal rights, WHITE DOG (1982, directed by the great Sam Fuller) is a film that has always intrigued me. As a birthday tribute to Kristy McNichol, I decided it was time I saw the controversial classic film. The drama starts when actress Julie Sawyer (Kristy) accidentally hits a beautiful stray white German Shepherd with her car. She takes the dog to a local vet and rather than drop him off at the shelter, she decides to take him in until his rightful owners claim him.
The nameless dog seems sweet and protective at first. Julie's boyfriend (Jameson Parker) is glad she's not alone in her Hollywood Hills house any longer. That very night an intruder breaks in Julie's house and tries to rape her. The dog is watching a loud war movie in the other room (seriously) and doesn't hear the criminal. Luckily during a commercial break, the dog finally hears the commotion and leaps to Julie's protection, effectively kicking the shit out of the bad guy.
Days later, the dog–still nameless–wanders off after spotting a rabbit. Julie visits the local animal shelter and in a very powerful scene is disturbed by the conditions there and the use of killing ovens used to put dogs "to sleep". The dog eventually returns her, all bloody from attacking a truck driver. After cleaning him up, Julie takes her boy to work with her and ties him up in the soundstage where she is shooting a scene with an African American actress (Lynne Moody). From out of nowhere the dog brutally attacks her costar, hospitalizing her and sending Julie to a sanctuary for theatrical animals called Noah's Ark to seek help.
Once there she begs Mr. Carruthers (Burl Ives) to help deprogram her attack dog, but he insists it is not possible. Suddenly the dog mauls one of Carruther's workers, an African American man. At this point we learn that the animal is a "white dog" - who was trained from birth to attack people of color! Carruther's top trainer, Keys (the wonderful Paul Winfield) has faced these kinds of dogs before and believes he can break the dog out of it's racist training and takes it on as a personal challenge. Julie agrees to this because she loves the dog, even though she still hasn't given it a name!!!
"Dr. Jekyl" resists Key's training methods at first, and eventually manages to escape from the facility and lives on the streets. In a terrifying scene a small black child is seen playing on a sidewalk while the dog is sifting through garbage just around the corner, luckily the child's mother removes him from harm before the dog is even aware of his existence. An adult churchgoer isn't so lucky as the dog spots him and chases him into the church of St. Francis Assissi, where he rips the man to shreads.
Keys discovers the murdered man and resolves to cure the dog, even though Julie now thinks that "Mr. Hyde" cannot be saved. Keys commits to making headway with the dog, and finally does. (Apparently Mr. Winfield insisted on doing all his own stunts.) Suddenly the dog's original owner shows up a Julie's door, turns out he's an overweight middle-aged man from a trailer park with two freckle-faced little daughters, and he looks very much like Carruthers. In the best scene of the film, Julie lays into guy and calls him just about every name in the book except "racist motherfucker", which is what I would have called him.
When Julie arrives at the compound, she is stunned by the dog's improvement as he is kind with both Keys and another black man. Then there's a shock ending which can be interpreted two ways. SPOILER ALERT!!! After accepting Keys, the dog spots Mr. Carruthers and leaps towards him. Keys shoots the dog dead. So, are we to believe that the dog now hates white people OR does he think Carruthers is his original, abusive owner? I just think the dog is pissed off because he doesn't have a name.
This is a great film. While some of the dialogue is a bit cheesy and Kristy's wardrobe is dated and laughable, the story is as powerful and thought-provoking as it was when it was first made. 10 outta 10. See it.
Pictured: Director Sam Fuller and "White Dog".