I won't bother with excuses as to why it's been several years since my last post (ok but only briefly...a 3 year old son came into the picture and that has certainly curtailed my activity in just about every way); I'm back with a look at July of 1980 and, starting at the top, we have Show Stoppers, hosted by Odd Couple star Tony Randall. I was only able to find a couple numbers from the show, thanks (perpetually) to my friend YouTube and user blah.
At 9:30, the main event, Lee Majors, that ubiquitous face of action televsion through much of the 70's and early 80's, stars in Killer Fish. Killer Fish, I kid you not. When I first saw this title in the guide I thought "...some kind of nature documentary, a la Wild Kingdom etc..." but no, upon further perusal I find it has something to do with a jewel heist and, yes, evil fishes. Piranhas again, to be precise. But this plot is clearly an attempt to hit that 'evil nature' thing somewhat obliquely, with a bit of Oceans 11 or similar thrown in to fatten up the story. To be honest, it wasn't as bad as it could have been...Karen Black is easy to watch, even with some downright silly scripting, and c'mon, everyone loves Mr. Majors...and yes, he is essentially playing the same character he played in The Fall Guy. The plausibility of the deadly fish element is embarrassingly thin, but it keeps the otherwise tired jewel heist trope slightly less stale. The whole thing is draped in cheese provided by a strange mix of slapstick Brazilian setting (the voice acting by the non-american actors appears to be dubbed?) and the Italian crew...the music and aural scenery are strange and jarring frequently. It's clearly a cash-in on the recent spate of nature gone awry films and is a piss-poor one at that, but, as I stated from the outset, it was more view able than I expected and I rather enjoyed it. This is actually my first experience of Majors outside of the Fall Guy/Million Dollar Man circle.
Interesting thing I note here: Killer Fish is THE flick for the day for those subscribing to HBO on this date, the remainder of the short broadcast day is more sports with a special on the greatest heavyweight boxers followed by sign-off. Not precisely mind-blowing quality stuff that distant Tuesday.
At 9:30, the main event, Lee Majors, that ubiquitous face of action televsion through much of the 70's and early 80's, stars in Killer Fish. Killer Fish, I kid you not. When I first saw this title in the guide I thought "...some kind of nature documentary, a la Wild Kingdom etc..." but no, upon further perusal I find it has something to do with a jewel heist and, yes, evil fishes. Piranhas again, to be precise. But this plot is clearly an attempt to hit that 'evil nature' thing somewhat obliquely, with a bit of Oceans 11 or similar thrown in to fatten up the story. To be honest, it wasn't as bad as it could have been...Karen Black is easy to watch, even with some downright silly scripting, and c'mon, everyone loves Mr. Majors...and yes, he is essentially playing the same character he played in The Fall Guy. The plausibility of the deadly fish element is embarrassingly thin, but it keeps the otherwise tired jewel heist trope slightly less stale. The whole thing is draped in cheese provided by a strange mix of slapstick Brazilian setting (the voice acting by the non-american actors appears to be dubbed?) and the Italian crew...the music and aural scenery are strange and jarring frequently. It's clearly a cash-in on the recent spate of nature gone awry films and is a piss-poor one at that, but, as I stated from the outset, it was more view able than I expected and I rather enjoyed it. This is actually my first experience of Majors outside of the Fall Guy/Million Dollar Man circle.
Interesting thing I note here: Killer Fish is THE flick for the day for those subscribing to HBO on this date, the remainder of the short broadcast day is more sports with a special on the greatest heavyweight boxers followed by sign-off. Not precisely mind-blowing quality stuff that distant Tuesday.
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