Bea Arthur (1922-2009)

Dorothy or Maude?

Which character do you remember when you think of Bea Arthur?

Either choice is a good one.

Bea Arthur passed away today at age 86. An iconic TV character, she was also a great Broadway actress, appearing in both FIDDLER ON THE ROOF and MAME among many others.

And then there's Maude, running from 1972 to 1978. It was a controversial, yet still memorable sitcom. While that may have been enough of a career for some, she went on to fame with a whole new generation with GOLDEN GIRLS, from 1985 to 1992. It is still popular in reruns and on DVD.



Through it all, she had a great sense of humor, appearing on various Comedy Central roasts in recent years.

She will be missed.

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO: JAY UNDERWOOD

Throughout the 1980’s, the actor who I was most jealous of was probably Jay Underwood. He seemed to play opposite all my favorite actresses of the decade. What a lucky guy, I thought.

While he made his film debut in the critically acclaimed 1986 film DESERT BLOOM, his next film was one of my favorites, THE BOY WHO COULD FLY. Getting to fly around with Lucy Deakins? Being an actor must be fun.

In the next year there was the Meg Ryan / Kiefer Sutherland film PROMISED LAND, the Disney Channel film NOT QUITE HUMAN and the role that would make me even more envious of him. In 1987, he played Amanda Peterson’s boyfriend on the TV series A YEAR IN THE LIFE.


He remained incredibly busy. The lead in THE INVISIBLE KID, Bug in UNCLE BUCK, two sequels to NOT QUITE HUMAN, and countless TV shows.

Not everything was a success. He played the Human Torch in the infamous, unreleased, Roger Corman version of THE FANTASTIC FOUR. And, there were not one but two episodes of the great 80’s career killer MURDER SHE WROTE.

There were some good films along the way. 1995’s A REASON TO BELIEVE, Alan Rudolph’s AFTERGLOW, and the excellent TV film DANCING IN SEPTEMBER. He even played Sonny Bono in a TV biopic AND THE BEAT GOES ON

He still continues to act. I still seem him quite often in an Advil commercial. Which may make you question why I am even covering him here.

Well, he seems to have moved away from acting, at least on a full time basis.


So, What Ever Happened To Him?

In 1995, Jay and his wife, while attending church in Burbank became saved. He began to find that he was losing interest in Hollywood. In 2003, he entered a seminary in California.

Today, Jay Underwood is now Pastor Jay Underwood. He is the Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Weaverville, in Northern California.

If you visit the website, you can even listen to some of his sermons.

He is married with three children.

He continues to act, but in Faith based films. He is starring in the soon to be released NO GREATER LOVE.

Favorite Film Characters of the 1980's

Recently, I was tagged by Film Father for the Favorite Film Chararacters meme.

I’m not much for lists. I take them too seriously and feel I need to rewatch every movie I’ve ever seen before finalizing it. So, I decided to do something a bit different with it.

I narrowed the focus down to Favorite Film Characters of the 1980’s.

So, here we go. And my mind will probably change once I hit PUBLISH.



Eli Cross, THE STUNT MAN



Moody, MY BODYGUARD



Ty Webb CADDYSHACK



Everyone in LOCAL HERO



Dr. Hfuhruhurr, THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS



CLARK GRISWALD (or CLARK GRISWOLD as one of the films call him) NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION, EUROPEAN VACATION, CHRISTMAS VACATION and VEGAS VACATION.



Marty McFly, BACK TO THE FUTURE



John Bender, THE BREAKFAST CLUB



John Matrix, COMMANDO



Gordon Gekko, WALL STREET

NOTE: This post contains YouTube videos. If reading from an outside site, click through to view.

FORGOTTEN FILM: THE TIGER MAKES OUT (1967)

THE TIGER MAKES out is a very rarely shown 1967 film that recently aired on TCM.

The film is about a man, Eli Wallach, who lives alone in the basement / storage room of an apartment building. Angry at the world, and the dumbing down of society around him, he spends his days as a mailman. He finally decides to do something. He ends up kidnapping Anne Jackson, a bored housewife who sees the world as Wallach does.

Directed by Arthur Hiller, it was written by Murray Schisgal (based on his own play). The film's stage roots are evident in a lot of dialogue. Much of the film is made up of Wallach walking the streets of New York, muttering to himself.

There are moments of comedy. One scene, with a suburban family obsessively searching a lawn for crabgrass is near classic. Charles Nelson Reilly has a bit as a college Registrar. But a lot of it, especially its reliance on speeding up the film to make something funny, is a bit dated. Also, once Wallach kidnaps Jackson, the film grinds to a halt.

And, lets be honest. In today’s day and age, is a film about a deranged loner kidnapping women all that funny? It isn't.

This was the film debut of Dustin Hoffman. He only has one scene (and incidentally, Schisgal was an early writer of TOOTSIE before Larry Gelbart).

Released by Columbia, the film is with Sony. Sadly, they have slowed down their DVD output of late. This was its first TCM airing in quite a while so that may be the only way to see it.

STARLOG (1976-2009)

Back in the 1980's, there were few, if any movie magazines. There was no ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY. There wasn't even PREMIERE. FILM COMMENT and CINEASTE, if they were around, couldn't be found at your local drugstore.

That left STARLOG. It was, along with its sister publication, the horror film magazine FANGORIA, one of the few magazines writing about film.

Granted, STARLOG was about science fiction and fantasy films, which I wasn't THAT much of a fan of. But this was in the era where BACK TO THE FUTURE and STAR WARS were popular, so I read it regularly.

They had a lot of special issues. I remember they had posters for films like RETURN OF THE JEDI and V. In one issue (the one posted above), they had an interview with an actress who would become one of my favorites.

STARLOG has announced that they will be switching to a web only model. That is said, although to be honest, I haven't seen an issue since the 1980's.

For a while though, I never missed it.

Easter Commercials of the 1980's

Anyone remember these commercials from the 1980’s?

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO: SARAH HOLCOMB

You may not know the name Sarah Holcomb, but I can just about guarantee that you have seen 50% of her filmography.

She appeared in four films, and only acted for two years. Yet two of these films were among the most popular of the past fifty years.

And then she disappeared.

Sarah made her film debut as Clorette DePasto, the Mayor’s daughter in NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE. It was a huge hit, as I’m sure everyone knows.

She would follow that up in 1979, starring in WALK PROUD with Robby Benson. The same year, she also made a brief appearance in the SNL spin off / special / film MR MIKE’S MONDO VIDEO.


1980’s HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEMINI was a film adaptation of the Broadway play. Sarah starred opposite Madeline Kahn and Rita Moreno.


That same year, she played Maggie, Danny Noonan’s Irish girlfriend in CADDYSHACK. She wasn’t Irish.

And then, in 1980, she gave up acting. She never appeared in another film.

So, What Ever Happened To Her?

As many of the books on the scene surrounding CADDYSHACK tell you, it wasn’t exactly a healthy set. Much of the cast was involved in drugs. Some claim this was a reason for her leaving the industry.

But the real reasons may be found in a little known film from 2004 called STATESIDE.

The writer and director of this film, Reverge Anselmo, claims the film is based on his relationship with an actress who starred in four films, two of them big hits. He also states that the brother of the actress appears in the film. An actor by the name David Holcomb appears in the film, and in the credits, there is a thank you to a “S.H.”

In the film, Rachael Leigh Cook appears as an actress, first seen in a film trying to do an Irish accent. She runs off the set of the film. It turns out that she is schizophrenic.

Sent to a mental hospital in Connecticut, she befriends a Marine. The two fall in love.

How accurate the film is, I don’t know. It opens with a “Based on a true story”, but the character is said to star in a big buddy movie, which Sarah never did. And, the film sort of just ends in the mid 80's. There is no crawl at the end to say what happens to the characters later.

Here is an excellent story about someone meeting Sarah, and how STATESIDE may be quite accurate.

According to one report, Sarah now lives under an assumed name, hidden away from the Hollywood spotlight.

I wish her the best, wherever she is.

To only star in four films in such a short period, and two of them being CADDYSHACK and ANIMAL HOUSE, she had a better career than some who work for decades.

FORGOTTEN FILM: ZERO TO SIXTY (1978)

1978’s ZERO TO SIXTY starred Darren McGavin (who also co-wrote it using a pseudonym). He and teenaged Denise Nickerson team up as repo men, reposessing cars. Joan Collins also starred along with Dick Martin, Sylvia Miles and the Hudson brothers.

What I remember most about the film is the theme song. That isn’t it in the trailer below, but it was a funky little number. Very catchy. I also remember Nickerson was seen reading Mad Magazine in the film, which I was also a big reader of at the time I saw the film



Depending on your favorite genre, co-star Denise Nickerson was best known as either a star of the soap opera DARK SHADOWS, one of the “Short Circus” on ELECTRIC COMPANY, or as Violet Beauregarde in WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. She retired from acting after ZERO TO SIXTY. To do a mini “What Ever Happened To Her” story, she would, according to one report, go into nursing, then accounting, before now being a single mother.

Director Don Weis had a long career in Hollywood, with over 100 credits, mostly in TV work. He directed episodes of THE JACK BENNY PROGRAM, THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, BATMAN, IRONSIDE, McGavin’s series KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER, M*A*S*H, FANTASY ISLAND and REMINGTON STEELE. ZERO TO SIXTY was one of his few feature films.

I don't know who owns the rights to the film today. It was released theatrically by First Artists. Most of those films wound up at Warner Home Video. Yet, it was on Home Video via Samuel Godwyn, and many of their films have turned up at MGM.

The film itself was frequently on cable in the earliest days. It was released on VHS, but never DVD. I believe I have seen it on cable on one of the more obscure movie channels (Flix possibly).

David Letterman and the Today Show in 1985

Back in 1985, THE TODAY SHOW (then hosted by Bryant Gumbel and Jane Pauley) was doing a live, prime time special. It was so heavily hyped, even I was watching.

During one of the segments, they were interrupted by some noise in the background.

Here is what it was.



I can't believe it has been almost 24 years.