(Webmaster's Note: A few weeks ago, I got a message from a David Zikovitz, a fellow Pink Lady fan who watched Pink Lady and Jeff and was inspired to write his own review of the show for our viewing benefit. I think you'll find what he has to say mighty interesting.)
DRAGONRAID'S REVIEW OF PINK LADY & JEFF
by David Staley
EPISODE 1: Alrighty. I'm still sort of letting my head clear up. I had a great time watching episode one. I honestly recalled a lot of the show as it came on, much more than I thought. It strangely look very familiar. I guess those images were ingrained within my subconscious all this time just waiting for release? I thought that the self debassing that Jeff did at the beginning was a little overdone, and I almost felt sorry for him. I could feel the awkwardness, especially with the beginning introduction and interaction with Mie and Kei happened.
It wasn't like it was real rough to watch because I knew what I was going to be seeing, in essense that is. I wasn't disappointed. :-) Honestly, I had a hoot! I thought that the guest stars were rather lame on the first episode. I can't remember if they were that popular back at that time, except for maybe Blondie, at least to illicit the type of excitement and draw that being a "guest star" would entail. It was really hard to watch the female wartime scene with Sherman doing a dance number. He was great as George Jefferson, but not as a guest star. Bert Parks did a good job though, and seemed to fit in the roles they gave him to do.
I honestly did think that Altman's Carson skit was pretty funny, and I liked his disco Nixon, that was really good. Especially the line when he was promoting his hits being on tape and then said, "but then all my stuff's on tape." :-) I was sort of disappointed that PL performed, at least it strongly appeared, lip synching, but then was happy when the last number appeared to be live. It seemed on the last number they had more energy to the performance than when it was prerecorded tracks.
The interview with Altman too was priceless. I really laughed at quite a number of his recollections and how he acted them out. He seemed very natural. I wonder if the PL experience prompted him to choose to move out of lights or if it happened to him?
I was only going to watch one episode tonight, but I just have to throw in another, especially after I saw the "ease on down the road" number, and when PL comes out on stage with the dancers and you hear "cheering and clapping", but in the wide shot you see a large portion of the audience and they are ALL motionless!!! Got to love the canned audience loops. I had to watch that scene over about five times. I couldn't believe it! Absolutely motionless.
EPISODE 2: Just finished disc one of the set. Episode two, after the canned over-zeleous applause of the first number got a bit better. I honestly was surprised at the charisma of Donny Osmond, but then I do remember his show with Marie was pretty energetic. At least, I used to watch it every week and loved the "I'm a little bit rock and roll" bit.
Sid Caesar was very funny, IMO. He seemed to just fall into the skits and do what he does best regardless of his surroundings. A true professional. Teddy Pendergrass too did some great numbers. It was nice to see what seemed to be more live performances after that initial number. I think that helped add some energy to the performances and the show overall. I did enjoy Alman's used art salesman bit. I think that he did a good job with that character. Also seeing Jim Varney was cool too. I'm not sure how often he is in the other episodes, but I hope that it is more.
As an outsider, I can say that I would have thought the show poor, as nearly all did. It seems that those on the show seem to do the best they can given the material they are given, but even apart from the lines and skits, the camera work is pretty bad. I noticed on the of the reviews on the special features mentions the out of focus parts. Before I read that, I was wondering if it was me or my television. Also, I'm wondering what Mie is writing during the "letter home" sequence? It would be funny to zoom in on it and translate if it were clear enough. :-)
EPISODE 3: While watching Altman do his standup routines at the beginning of the show, I have had a strange feeling that it looked so familiar. Not that I saw it 25 years ago, but that it just looked like I'd seen it someplace before. It dawned on me that his standup style reminded me of Robert De Niro's performance as the standup comedian Rupert Pupkin in the 1983 film "The King of Comedy", which oddly enough also stared Jerry Lewis. I wonder if Jerry shared his experience on Pink Lady with De Niro or Scorsese in building Pupkin's character?
In Altman's Interview he mentions how he had gone to the producer's of the show and tried to push for the girls to do their own numbers instead of phoeneticly done American hits. It was very cool to hear Pink Lady do UFO. I thought that their energy for the performance was up about 5 notches! It was pretty cool costumes too. I thought it was significant that Altman commented, "That's the real stuff" when they finished. I'm not sure if it was true or not, but it seemed that the sets seemed a bit more intricate on this show than the previous ones.
I was rather impressed with Greg Evigan's performances. He seemed good natured throughout the show and exhibited more talent that I had known him to posees. I thought he was just a BJ, but a quick glance at IMdB shows that he's still active in the industry. The Cheapshot magazine song jingle looked like it was murder on the girls to try to keep up with singing along with. I thought that the Mutal of Tonapah segment was pretty funny. Varney seemed to have been working at not cracking up.
Altman's Nixon was good, but only at a distance, up close it is rather grotesque to look at. It was the only real segment that I enjoyed Heffner in, which did look, as Jeff had mentioned in the lead in, that he looked like he was "pretty much blank through the whole thing". I liked Varney's line at the party "Hi, my name is Ron, you can call me Ronny for short." I know many of the jokes are like of lame, but those kind I find rather funny. Although it was via video, it was cool seeing the Cheap Trick song. In 1980, seeing videos was still a cool novelty!
EPISODE 4: Well, the first thing from this episode that caught my attention was the Prison radio show. I thought it was mildly humorous. I did think that Altman did seem to have a good radio voice. I wonder if he ever checked into that? The busing of the lemonade stand was funny too. I thought it was pretty well done. You know, there are a number of segments, or at least parts of those segments that were not all that bad, but they mostly all seemed just a bit underdeveloped.
One thing that I have to say is that the female regulars on the show, seemed to overact many times. That wasn't the only thing wrong with the sketches, but for me, many times they became distracting. Varney though was very good, and usually helped to stabalize the scenes he was in, and of course, Sid Caesar in this episode was great. He sure has good timing.
It was sad seeing Boomer on the show. It just reminded me of the interview with the head writer of the show on the Pink Lady America site about how nobody wanted to do the show and the usually had to book very close to the show. But then again, how can I critique too much on some of these unique moments from a quarter of a century ago? If it weren't for this show, Boomer would have just been a forgotten dog, but now he is preserved. Maybe some could contest that nothing is gained by being reminded of a dog or lower ranked stars from yesterday, but I beg to differ.
Blondie's song "Eat to the Beat" was one I never was a fan of, but again, it was cool to see a quirky video of the group, albeit all wigged out. The silent short was a little drawn out for me. It just reminded me how much I detest laugh tracks. Every time when the girls came on I always hoped that they would be singing one of their original songs. Bummer.
EPISODE 5: Episode five is by far my favorite. There are a number of reasons for this. First, is because of all the shows, this one had certain segments that were embedded in my memory so that nearly 25 years later I could remember distinct images from it. This ultimately helped me in searching out the name of the show which, up until recently, I couldn't remember. I knew I wasn't crazy! I'm so glad that I finally found the missing pieces that lead me to show's title and to the faithful online following for it.
Another reason this is one of my favorites is because of the guests on the show, namely Jerry Lewis and Alice Cooper. I also think that the production quality of this show seems to be some of the best. The openning scene with the song, is it called "Monster"?, the girls perform is great! It is sung in Japanese and the costumes are pretty elaborate, even for the dancers. It's a fun and energetic song. It makes me want to hear more of their original work. The Carson Replacement Game was a sort of funny segment.
It's sort of nostalgic in more ways than one to see this, since Carson is now no more. Altman does a pretty decent impression of a Lewisesque goofball. In fact, I don't know if his comment that "How do I look in color" was a reference to the similar characters Jerry Lewis used to play back on the Martin & Lewis shows? Of course, seeing Altman's Carson impression was fun too. The bit with Red Buttons and the girls talking about coming up with a trademark. This is the primary scene that I remembered for all these years. I always thought that it was Red Skelton, but...well, it was the revelation that it was Red Buttons was the key that lead me to rediscover the show!
Art Nuvo's Culture City bit was funny. I don't know why, but I always think that these segments are rather humorous. The used pacemaker was funny as was the radar dish. "I've only got one left." Simple, but funny. I think it was funny too that the implied mishaps with the elephant were left in the scene and not cut out or redone. The Abraham Lincoln Roast was pretty good too. I was a bit amazed that they got away with some of the jokes for the segment due to their racist content. I'm sure that the nature of the skit, being that of a roast may have been justification for the nature of the jokes. It was overall pretty funny, good one-liners.
The transition from the Roast to the duet with Mie & Kei was rather strange. Of course, so are the lyrics to the song. I had heard it before, but I guess I never paid attention to the lyrics, but did the girls really sing. Well, Jerry Lewis' segment with Altman and the girls was probably, in my opinion, the most classic of all the Pink Lady moments. It might help that I'm a huge Jerry Lewis fan, but I can watch that segment over and over, and not get tired of it. Lewis runs the scene and Altman is helpless in the wake. It is also hilarious to see Kei cracking up at all the antics.
I especially get a kick out of Lewis "checking" inside his jacket lining for Altman's name. The laughter of the girls in this segment was so natural, it was fun to see them caught off guard by the humor and seeming to be in the moment and enjoying themselves. It's nice to see Lewis at a time when he stil was in absolute top form. Lewis solo segments were pretty decent, but not filled with the energy of the live segment with Altman and the girls. And of course, I personally enjoyed watching Alice Cooper. It would have been great if he could have been an actual guest on the show and included in some of the skits. Still, cool to see a Cooper clip from 1980.
After the song Altman shows some skill on the drums before Mie and Kei goes into a disco medley, starting off with Rod Stewart's classic "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?". Then they slide into ABBA's "Dancing Queen" which they do pretty well. They wrap it up with a goofy rendention of "If you could see me now". The hot tub scene was a bit different this week. The show ended with the girls saying "Good night, see you next week". Little did I know back then that this was the last show I was going to be seeing for the next 25 years. I had become hooked on the show, and each week sat inches from the screen soaking it all in.
I was only 12 when the shows aired, so needless to say, I was probably interested more in the girls than concerned with the quality (or lack thereof) of the show. To me, it was fun, goofy, and for one that was raised on Sid and Marty Kroft productions, this wasn't too out of range for their quality. Just watch a couple tapes of The World of Sid and Marty Kroft. Fact is, although I wasn't aware of their involvement at the time, their style of show is probably one of the factors that made this appealing to me too. Who knows?
I'm thankful that for whatever reason, I paid particular attention to this episode. Or else, I may not have carried those seconds of show in my memory that would bug me on those rare occassions, and eventually lead me down the right investigative trail. Perfect timing too. I know I would have hated to find out about the show and not have had access to watch it, but thanks to Rhino, well, now Pink Lady and Jeff can grace my screen as they did 25 years ago.
EPISODE 6: To me, it was fun to watch the "lost episode". While it is cool that such a short lived series has an unaired episode that has survived, let alone that has been all released on DVD. However, I think that by ending the airing of the show with episode 5, at least they ended it with the best show. While episode 6 keeps pace with the series, I see why it is a "lost" episode.
The opening number was rather lackluster. I personally think that having the girls sing one of their original numbers would have been better than any cover tune. Oh well. The opening dialogue between Altman and the girls had its moments, because it had some jokes about the language barriers. And well, considering the situation of the shows stars, well, that's just plain funny. I personally just didn't get into the televangelist segment. I know at the time it was sort of a hot topic, but I guess now it's been so played out I don't think it's funny anymore. Plus, I think that the jokes are so obvious, there is no subtlety in the humor. It just sort of plods along with the obvious laugh tracks.
Bobby Vinton did a nice medley of songs and seemed to be in good spirits. I often wonder what a celebrity who was once huge in the industry must feel when, like Vinton does here, sings an abridgement of their claim to fame in less then five minutes. It's like it's all over. The Art Nuvo's Culture City was interesting. Going out of business. Kind of ironic, I wonder if it was done intentionally since the show was actually ending? I did get a kick out of them looking for the van Gogh. I personally would have bought one of the Thinker statues for ten bucks! That's one of my favorite sculptures. I liked how he had a name tag on his undershirt.
The Sid Caesar bit, with him as the girl's father was a bit lengthy, yet short of humor. I had found some of the past skits to be a bit humorous, but this one was rather tedious to watch. I just kept thinking when I watched the skit how, in my opinion, the female American regulars on the show just didn't seem to have much timing for comedy and mostly seemed to bog the scene down. And boy, did Byron Allen's standup routine stink. Then again, I remember reading an interview with a writer of the show and how he said many of the guests were booked the day of the filming. I wonder if that was the case for Allen?
Perhaps his standup routine was one where he showed up, dressed, and went on and just wung it. It sure feels that way to me. Man, if he was on the gong show he would have been gonged in a heartbeat! At least for this routine. I don't know if it is just my knowledge was that the show was doomed to end, that this show was unaired, and that it was the last of them anyway. I wonder if it was just thrown together to fulfill some contractual agreements? To me, it has sort of an unfinished feel to it, as if it were just thrown together. Some may argue that point for the rest of the series, but this one, well, it just takes that cake.
The Beverly Hills Police Department skit had the premise to be a very funny skit, but it just stagnated and flopped. Roy Orbison did a good bit. I often wonder if fans of some of the stars of the show stumble onto it just to see them? The little cowboy/karate skit was short, but kept it simple enough to work decently. The exchange before the next guest between Altman and the girls makes me really wonder if they knew this episode wouldn't air, and therefore left it more raw than the other shows? This little exchange is nice, but I can't help but think that it just seems too out of place with the rest of the series. In fact, this whole episode has that feel to it in comparison with the rest of the shows. Just makes me wonder?
I just shook my head when I heard them take the stage with the song "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". I guess, at least they chose a contemporary song for them to do. But with the vegas/show tune style music backing them it just sounded corny. I don't know why they even had that number because their song with Vinton worked pretty good, and they would have been fine to just lead their set with that song. The girls seem to have a nice stage presence for that first song with Vinton. Then they ripped into "Johnny B. Goode". It was pretty decent. It worked better with another singer than if they would have done it alone. The superimposed images of "Go, Go, Go" was sort of funny.
The hot tub scene was again, corny as usual. Again, kind of ironic, or planned? with the selling of the hot tub. "The show goes with the hot tub". Hmmmm, it sure does. No more hot tub, no more show. Then there is Jeff's comment about the Sumo actor, "I think he quit...yeah, you see, at this point we're on kind of a limited budget, if you know what I'm talking about". Then the standard farewells, and the lights dim. And it is over, at least for 25 years.