In the beginning, TILL DEATH US DO PART, a British sitcom, unknowingly begot ALL IN THE FAMILY. And it was good. From Archie and Edith did spring a child GLORIA, who became wife to Michael Stivic. And from this family, great tidings of laughter did come. From the tribe of Edith did come MAUDE, who displeased Archie greatly. And from MAUDE did come Florida Evans who traveled to the land of Chicago to find GOOD TIMES. And from the tribe neighboring the Bunkers, THE JEFFERSONS did mark and chide Archie, until Queens they did leave for a deluxe apartment in the sky. THE JEFFERSONS begot CHECKING IN with their servant Florence. And the Lord did smote them, raining low ratings upon the house of CBS. And Lo, ARCHIE BUNKER'S PLACE was a continuation, and lo, 704 HAUSER was a abomination, the purpose was served and the lineage maintained. In Lear's name, Amen.
No words today...just some flashbacks from PBS. Remember any of these? I had forgot about Vegetable Soup until I stumbled across it this afternoon...It had puppets riding around in what looked like a wooden rocket...Anyone?
Nothing like remembering something that was lost for so many years, huh? And for the record, the Villa Alegre theme rocked...
Hi. My Name is Travis and I love bad variety shows from the 1970's. Now let us be clear here - The Carol Burnett Show? Fantastic television. The Donnie and Marie Show? Avocado colored, shag carpeted crap. I love them both, but the monumentally BAD variety show has always struck a chord with me. It's hard enough to tell jokes, put on skits, and do a little song and dance for the audience. However, when it's a train wreck, that makes it even more special. This is the basis of our case study for this evening...
The year is 1980. The television landscape is changing. The era of the variety show has past.
Nobody told this to the President of NBC Fred Silverman though.
Due to Pink Lady's huge success in Japan (no, really...they were HUGE in Japan), the evening news in the states ran a bit about them. Silverman saw it and instantly saw a chance to have a hit on his hands. So, he brought the girls over (translator in tow since neither one of them spoke a lick of English), teamed them up with unfunny funny man Jeff Altman (I guess he is best known for his ground breaking work on THE DUKES OF HAZZARD as misunderstood renaissance man Hughie Hogg), and cashed in every favor he had accumulated in Hollywood in order to get A-list celebrities such as Greg Evigan, Sherman Hemsley, and Florence Henderson to appear. The result? A cringe worthy display that ran for 5 whole weeks. It usually started like this...
The girls would sing a couple of songs and appear in a few skits over the course of the show. Any acting they did had to be scripted to the letter and then set in stone. Knowing very little English, the girls learned their lines and when to say them. Anything else from their end just wasn't going to happen.
Five weeks in and Silverman discovered what America already knew: Pink Lady and Jeff sucked. There is no other way to say it. Sucked, sucked sucked. Jeff Altman went back to his bad comedy (if you look hard enough, you can get him to perform at your corporate gig) and Pink Lady preformed off and on until 2005, when they gave their farewell tour. No tears though. Last year they announced their plans for a comeback.
The retro gods at Rhino have released the whole series on DVD. I dare you to Netflix it...
