During those heady days, the NBC television network had steadily gained a reputation for foisting an avalanche of truly heinous programming upon an unsuspecting (and probably coked-up) America, and some genius at the network came up with the brilliant idea of giving a primetime variety show to the superstar Japanese pop music duo Pink Lady. Perhaps the quintessential example of the plastic Japanese pop group, Pink Lady was comprised of Mie and Kei, a pair of treacly-cute girls who sang catchy tunes and served as pitchwomen for a myriad of products, and I suppose they may have seemed a sure thing for a network hit in the years when brainless and generally horrid disco dominated the American airwaves. When the girls arrived in the States for their big network show, it was discovered that, to put it kindly, they were not what one would call fluent in English, thus necessitating the presence of an American to keep things moving and serve as their "interpreter," theoretically ensuring that wacky comedy gold could be spun from the straw the network ended up with, and that thankless task fell to standup comic Jeff Altman.
Harbingers of the simultaneous deaths of disco and the American variety show: Pink Lady and Jeff Altman.Much was made of the girls' feeble grasp of the language and the inevitable clash of cultures, and while such elements have been fodder for humor since Day One, the series was about as funny as a burning and occupied children's AIDS ward, and when the gags weren't unceremoniously bombing there were musical performances in which Mei and Kei had to sing in English that they'd memorized but could not comprehend. Assorted guest stars, musical and otherwise, failed to add anything to mix and the show was swiftly canceled, running from March 1 through April 4, 1980 before vanishing into TV immortality as one what is widely considered to be one of the worst shows in American television history, if not the rock bottom worst of all time.
And now I own this cathode ray Chernobyl, and I cannot wait to sit my friends and family through its rampaging terribleness.
The PINK LADY...AND JEFF boxed set: apparently it was totally legal to sell this despite the strict regulation of hazardous materials.
I own a copy of LET MY PUPPETS COME also... It's exactly what you think is. Stick with MEET THE FEEBLES...
ReplyDeleteNow all you need is the complete series dvd's of SUPERTRAIN and THE BIG SHOW and you'll have all of NBC's attempts to lobotomize the American public through their televisions.
ReplyDeleteI just want to point out two important facts:
ReplyDelete1: Pei from Pink Lady went on to be one of the singers for Animetal Lady, a speed-metal band which bases its repertoire entirely on covers of anime themesongs.
2: the audio tapes detailing how to seduce women were something I found in the garbage (originally, the tape set was an attached workbook that likely got left at the office of a S+M porn site my then-roomate worked at) in front of the building next door to my Bed-Stuyish apartment building circa early 2001. The same pile of garbage included the manual for a Sega Dreamcast and three books: THE HISTORY OF WARFARE, THE FOUNTAINHEAD, and GOR.
I get the feeling that the guy who dumped all that stuff was a real charmer.
Pink Lady and Jeff is also credited with killing the variety show on American TV.
ReplyDelete