DVD REVIEW
\nBefore there was Puffy AmiYumi, there was…
\nPINK LADY…… AND JEFF
\nby Lyle Sylvander<\/p>\n
Few Japanese pop groups have matched the success of the pop duo Pink Lady.\u00a0 In 1976, Mitsuyo Nemoto and Keiko Masuda performed
\non the TV show Star Tanjo and won the chance to become professional stars.\u00a0 They were renamed Mie and Kei and collectively
\nrechristened\u00a0 Pink Lady.\u00a0 A string of hits followed: \u201cPepper Keibu\u201d, \u201cBlame it on the Bubbles\u201d, \u201cSurf Riding Pirates\u201d and \u201cPink Typhoon\u201d (a
\ncover of the Village People\u2019s \u201cIn the Navy\u201d \u2013 \u201cPink-A-La-Dy\u201d) all filled the Japanese airwaves for two years.\u00a0 When \u201cKiss in the Dark\u201d
\nreached #37 on the Billboard charts in 1979, it seemed that they were ready to become a crossover success in the U.S.\u00a0 NBC
\nprogramming executive Fred Silverman sought to anticipate their popularity by signing them to his network.\u00a0 Pink Lady had appeared
\nin a number of televised concert specials and commercials in Japan and Silverman decided they were ready for a prime time variety
\nshow.\u00a0 Comedian Jeff Altman was hired as co-host and Pink Lady\u2026 And Jeff debuted on March 1, 1980.<\/p>\n
The result was a resounding disaster \u2013 the show went off the air after only six episodes and is now routinely considered by many to be
\namong the worst shows in television history.\u00a0 Fred Silverman lost his job after the debacle and Pink Lady returned to Japan, where they
\nnever regained the popularity they once enjoyed.\u00a0 The series has been released by Rhino as a 3-DVD set and it appeared on the cable
\nnetwork Trio last summer.\u00a0\u00a0 For those of you wondering why anyone would want to see Pink Lady \u2026 And Jeff, the answer is simple: it\u2019s so
\nbad, it\u2019s good.\u00a0 It appeals to the schadenfreude in all of us: in the entertainment world, the prospect of watching people fail in front of
\nmillions is, to be honest, fun.\u00a0 Plus Pink Lady is bad in a unique way.\u00a0 There\u2019s a specific stylistic badness that can only be called Pink
\nLady…And Jeff-ism.\u00a0 While sitting through the DVD, the question perpetually popping into one\u2019s head is \u201cWhat were they thinking?\u201d<\/p>\n
Pink Lady\u2026And Jeff may have the distinction of being the only American variety show hosted by non-English speakers.\u00a0 Mie and Kie
\nphonetically read their lines from cue cards, devoid of much emotion.\u00a0 The spectacularly untalented Jeff Altman (his most impressive
\ncredit was guest host of Solid Gold) bombs with every one of his jokes.\u00a0 (\u201cI use a stage name.\u00a0 Someone in show biz already had the
\nname I was born with: Sex Pistols!\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0 Interspersed throughout the show are comic routines, musical numbers featuring Mie and Kie
\nand interviews with such disparate guests as Hugh Hefner, Jerry Lewis and Alice Cooper.\u00a0 The opening ten minutes of the first episode,
\nfeaturing Mie and Kie singing \u201cBoogie Wonderland\u201d with a chorus of dancers dressed in peacock feathers really sets the low
\nstandard.\u00a0 Along the way, we are treated to Altman\u2019s bad impersonations of Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon and Johnny Carson, Florence
\nHenderson (\u201cMrs. Brady\u201d) singing \u201cMy Old Kentucky Home\u201d and Sid Caesar playing a samurai.<\/p>\n
Jeff Altman introduces each episode but doesn\u2019t reveal many interesting anecdotes.\u00a0 He acknowledges the show\u2019s badness and
\nseems to shrug the whole thing off as a bad dream.\u00a0 The show\u2019s baffling concept made little sense to him or anyone else at the time.\u00a0\u00a0 It
\nmay never be known why Fred Silverman thought an unknown stand-up comic and a Japanese pop duo would make a good prime time
\npair.\u00a0 The other problem is that, like the Spice Girls, Pink Lady was, from the beginning, a product created and marketed by the music
\nindustry.\u00a0 Their flashy routines and good looks were more style than substance and they did not have enough musical talent to sustain
\ntheir success.\u00a0 Like all fads, they eventually faded from public view.\u00a0 In Japan, their real popularity only lasted from 1976-1980.\u00a0 They do,
\nhowever, have a cult following, as evidenced by the presence of this site on the Web: www.pinkladyamerica.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DVD REVIEW Before there was Puffy AmiYumi, there was… PINK LADY…… AND JEFF by Lyle Sylvander Few Japanese pop groups have matched the success of the pop duo Pink Lady.\u00a0 In 1976, Mitsuyo Nemoto and Keiko Masuda performed on the TV show Star Tanjo and won the chance to become professional stars.\u00a0 They were renamed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":59,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-361","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PkZ7m-5P","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/361\/revisions\/363"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}