Customer Reviews

Pink Lady ...And Jeff

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I know, I know, I know...This series is regularly regarded as one of the worst (if not THE worst) television series in US history (yada, yada, yada). If you are looking at this page, then you know that's *not* true!

Sure, this is one of the most bizarre TV shows ever made, but it's highly watchable! The comedy skits aren't very funny, but you will find yourself laughing at the disco-era outfits and the Ed Wood-like atmosphere that permeates the entire production. You'll be wondering *why* NBC and the Krofft brothers made this show, but glad that they did!

The bonus materials are pretty sparse. While the recent interview with Jeff Altman is insightful, it would have been a treat to catch up with Mie and Kei themselves. (Maybe they're finally learned some English over the years since the show was made!)

The picture quality is good for a 20+ year old videotaped show. The DVD transfers aren't that bad, and it's almost like being tuned in to NBC for those magical few weeks back in 1980! (Now, all we need are DVDs of "Supertrain" and "The Big Show" to truly re-live the "glory" days of NBC! And while we're at it, how about DVDs of David Letterman's morning show, which premiered a few months after Pink Lady!)

There's not much to be said about this set except that it is truly awful and worth every penny. The skits can be ignored, but the musical numbers are sheer brilliance. The disco version of '42nd Street' done by Donny Osmond and the girls is captivating. The best part of it all is the canned applause: shouts of approval and deafening clapping are heard, but, mysteriously, the audience in view is sitting quite still. It doesn't get better than that. Maybe it does when Bert Parks forgets to start lip-synching with a number from 'Mack and Mabel.' This is too good for words. Buy it and make everyone you know watch it. Learn from it. Embrace it.

A wonderful, 3 DVD boxed set containing the complete 6 Pink Lady variety shows from 1980. Easily the most exciting DVD release of the year.The image quality and sound quality are average for an early 80s television show. However, be warned: Oddly, the discs' chapter stops are spaced mainly to give the viewer easy access to the terrible comedy skits. To find the brilliant musical numbers, you'll have to scan past the skits to locate the musical numbers. The included index card doesn't even list the song titles. But rest assured- the discs do contain the complete shows, with all musical numbers intact.One of the most exciting moments of the entire series was guest star Greg Evigan's solo number, "People I Know", in which he not only sings but plays saxaphone. He later duets with Mie and Kei in the same episode.The bonus interview with Jeff Altman is entertaining. However, as was the case in 1980, he's easier on the eyes than on the ears. It's wonderful to see him shirtless in the hot-tub sequences at the end of several shows. If only he'd have done the skits that way...Other bonus features fail to show Pink Lady to their best advantage. There are seveal websites devoted to Pink Lady which offer more interesting information.However, this set remains an incredible value. No fan will be dissapointed. Place your order at once!Craig

Have all of the skits on Saturday Night Live been funny? NO. Have all of the musical numbers on SNL been great? NO. Okay so here was a show with skits that weren't always funny and musical numbers that weren't always great. But when Pink Lady and Jeff was good it was VERY good.

It seems as if Jeff Altman was paid money to say bad things about the show on the DVD intros like it was important to distance himself from this "disaster" as he put it. Whatever Jeff. Unless you did those intros for free, you were paid to say negative things as if everything was tongue in cheek like you were smart enough to think at the time that you were doing a bad show. Again, I refer to SNL. I can't tell you how many of the sketches in the early years when the show was supposed to be "cutting edge" that were not funny in the least. At least Pink Lady and Jeff was fun to watch at all times. Jerry Lewis was funny. Red Buttons was funny. Jim Varney and Anna Mathias were funny. Sid Caesar was funny. Roy Orbison performing Live....what a treat. Yeah, the show missed the mark a few times but did anyone see that stupid episode of Seinfeld that wasn't funny. Which one? Yeah...my point exactly. Too many unfunny episodes of Seinfeld to name but THAT was named the best comedy ever. The Pink Lady and Jeff DVD will have you in stitches... irrespective of what Jeff says in his paid intros. You would think he would be smart enough to embrace the show. If you buy the DVD's go past Jeff's intros. He contributes nothing of value.

Mie and Kei were VERY GOOD at singing corny American songs like Macarthur Park and Yesterday. But they are even better at singing their own songs. Especially UFO. The studio audience goes nuts at the end of that one. This DVD will be a collector's item soon. Buy it now, keep it in good condition and make those fools who don't have it now pay out the nose for it later. I have 3 copies.

I've always heard that words couldn't describe how awful this show was. Curiousity got the better of me and I decided to subject myself to all six episodes in this set.

There's no doubt about it that this is hands down one of the worst variety shows ever made. It make the Brady Bunch Variety Hour look like an Emmy award-winning masterpiece.

One thing that makes this a nice period piece is the guest stars. Where else but on an early 1980s variety show could you see Donny Osmond, Larry Hagman, Boomer the dog, Hugh Hefner, Sherman Hemsley and others?

Pink Lady are actually a very interesting piece of Japanese pop culture but NBC failed when they brought them to the American television audience. Instead of letting the girls do what they do best-singing in Japanese and dancing with cloned robotic precision, the writers tried to give Mie and Kei distinct personalities and made them sing mostly in English. Add in the fact that they were paired with unfunny supporting actors and that the girls could barely speak English and you have a recipe for disaster.

NBC could've truly had an usual cult show if they would've created a different format for Pink Lady. They could've shown it late at night (perhaps in the timeslot for SNL or David Letterman) and had a Neo-Tokyo Anime style set. Mie and Kei could've spoken in Japanese with subtitles (like Kaga in early episode of "Iron Chef") or with a futuristic robotic translator. The real show featured some early video clips from Blondie and Cheap Trick. Perhaps if Pink Lady had introduced video clips instead of guest stars, MTV (which didn't even exist when this show was aired) would be very different today.

As you watch these episodes, try to image what could've been. If you want to minimize your exposure to Pink Lady, check out Episode 3. It has Mie and Kei singing their Japanese hit "UFO" with great dance moves and it has Greg Evigan from "BJ and the Bear" performing a halfway decent song.

Audio commentary from Sid and Marty Krofft and Jeff Altman should've been a MUST on this set. I'd love to hear their explanations for putting this on the air and how they would've reacted after having to view these shows after 20 years. A "Behind the Music" style documentary could've helped U.S. viewers to see how popular Pink Lady were in Japan and presented a different side to them from their variety show.

The extras in the set are minimal. Jeff Altman introduces each show and there is a small gallery of TV print ads. The box promises the history of Pink Lady as one of the extras but some of the text pages seemed to be missing when I viewed them.

There only 2 episodes on each disc and the box is very bulky; it's thicker than some VHS cases. There are also no captions. Sometimes Mie and Kei are hard to understand and subtitles would've helped. Chapters for each Pink Lady song would've been useful also.

The curious who wish to watch this are warned to take it in small doses. If you are looking for something to clear out a room of partygoers that have overstayed their welcome, this is the DVD for you.

is Pink Lady as bad as everyone says? YES!!! is it as good as everyone doesn't want to admit? YES!!! This series only ran 6 episodes in 1980, but it was such a wacky idea that it actually worked.

Mie and Kei were both good performers, and while you could tell they didn't seem too comfortable performing in English, you could still see how fun they could be.

Jeff Altman wasn't as unfunny as people say, I thought they guy had a few funny sketches, the problem was, awful writing.

I was only a few months old when this series ran in 1980, but I caught episodes on Trio a few months ago, and the side of me that appreciates camp had to buy this. And what a purchase it was. I find the show amusing and cringeworthy at the same time. There were some good guest-stars but you just know they don't consider it part of their resume. Did you know a pre-Ernest Jim Varney was a "featured player" here?

Also, fans of the early video movement (pre-MTV) will enjoy this because of the vintage Blondie (Shayla and Eat To The Beat), Alice Cooper (Clones) and Cheap Trick (Dream Police) music videos on here. I know Blondie has released a Greatest Hits DVD, but I don't think either Shayla or Eat To The Beat is on there.

If you appreciate camp as well as disco music, you will love this mostly-forgotten artifact from 1980.

The "comedy" skits are really, really bad for the most part. They're made all the more difficult because of Kei's mangling of English beyond recognition (Mie's English is better). But if you're a fan of Red Buttons or Sid Caesar, this one's for you.

The best part about this series is the performances by Pink Lady. Whether their garbled version of "Knock On Wood," or a good rendition of "If My Friends Could See Me Now" surrounded by pink-wigged puppet-like dancers, the girls do exude a real charm. Pink Lady was first and foremost a disco group in Japan. And most of their songs in this 1980 series are disco hits from the two years previous: "Le Freak," "Shame," "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy," "How Deep Is Your Love," "MacArthur Park," and "Last Dance" are among those performed.

Liking disco music, and appreciating the bizarre and campy in television, I really have enjoyed this series! With better comedy writers, and if Pink Lady were kept out of the skits and if Jeff Altman were funny, this show could have worked in the longer term.

It's hard to describe what a BIG deal Pink Lady was in Japan - For almost five years, everyone followed what they did, ate, wore... and they bought guidebooks on how to do the steps for each of their songs. During the opening of "Pink Lady and Jeff" you see them perched on convertibles in a huge stadium packed with frenzied fans. Even now in Japan there are commercials referring to some of their most famous songs.

This show was just a travesty - they'd had a surprisingly successful show in Vegas, so Sid and Marty thought, "Well maybe..." But at the same time, Pink Lady's popularity was slipping - they'd overstepped some boundaries and the Japanese public felt that Pink Lady were getting too big for their satin mini-britches.

The travesty is that they weren't allowed to draw on their strongest point - the fact that they did everything in perfect unison, like disco fembots. The producers forced them to take on different personalities - one sweet and ditzy, the other sharp-tongued, and they were very uncomfortable. Plus, they were singing English disco songs which were already a couple years old in America. In the very last episode they sang some of their Japanese hits - the relief is palpable when you watch them.

There were worse shows at the time - I just saw Paul Lynde's 1976 Halloween Special, and believe me, Pink Lady and Jeff is Shakespeare compared to that!

I do recommend seeing this, but try to trick one of your friends into buying this, then watch it together. Read more about Pink Lady in the wonderful "Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture" which is where I first learned about them!

I have a tape I made of this series from the old Trio Network, which broadcast a whole set of television flops, and yes, Virginia, this is absolutely the worst TV show ever - it makes the Brady Kids etc. specials look like Citizen Kane. The two girls can't speak English and just look bewildered most of the time as they mouth some of the most tiresome "jokes" from some of the chessiest hack writers of all time, and it has all sorts of racists imagery including some fat Japanese guy dressed up like a Samauri running around threatening Jeff with a sword (oh ha ha). Jeff, of course, was the guy they brought in to speak English, and he is - if it is possible - even chessier than the absurd jokes the girls are forced to "deliver." His stupid ridiculous etc. Nixon impressions were probably great hits in some lounge in Grand Rapids, Michigan, full of drunk Rotatarians, but they don't even evoke a groan, just an eye-roll that any human being could possibly, at any time ever, find them entertaining. The dancers are fifth rate, not too attractive, and obviously going through the motions of some of the most absurd 70s chirography possible (and they are rarely even together). The guests are people like Hugh Hefner, who wanders around in a bathrobe (sorry, "dressing gown,") with braindead playmates hinting about all the sex he is supposedly having and that you are not. Jim Varney had talent as we all know, but is swamped by such utterly bad material that even he has trouble taking it seriously. The "guest" musical acts are just cheap videos put on to make the thing relevant - Blondie's ain't bad.. And, of course, everyone is dressed in third-rate costumes put together by some designer who got drunk in Vegas and caught Elvis a couple of times.

Everytime I begin to bitch about how bad television is today, I just put this on, and suddenly I am so glad that some thirty years separate myself from this radioactive excrement that smells so badly I have to put on a DVD of "My Mother the Car" to clean the place up.

Now with all that said, why am I buying the DVD set? Because this is a treasure that represents the depths of mediocrity to which the human imagination can plunge, and I just love it. P.S. Also my wife thinks it's great (it was a shotgun wedding lol).

Pink Lady and Jeff, if this title conjures up memories of uncomfortable gags and a miserable pan-Pacific attempt at variety, then congratulation, you DO remember it correctly!

In 1980 before NBC had discovered shows like Cosby or Cheers they were desperate to try anything. The president got wind of Pink Lady the hottest pop duo in Japan and signed them to host a prime time variety show. It was only after they were signed and `delivered' to the US did anyone bother to ask if the ladies actually spoke English. In short, the answer was...no.

Yup, NBC had sunk big bucks into a show that was going to be hosted by two beautiful, talented women who were completely unintelligible to their target audience. In an attempt to salvage the mess the network hired Jeff Altman an up and coming stand up comic to act as host to step in as the person who would explain America to the ladies from the east.

The effect was like trying to save the Titanic with duct tape. Pink Lady was talented and these women truly worked at it. They would learn jokes and dialogue phonetically so they could look like they were interacting with Jeff but since they didn't really understand what they were saying and couldn't relearn new routines quickly, there was no chance for re-writes or improv. Also in a misguided attempt at political correctness the network tried to give each woman a distinctive personality. One was bubbly the other was waspish, "see they're not all alike," I'm sure someone said. Unfortunately Pink Lady's act was that they moved and sang interchangeably so this well intentioned act only served to further throw off the timing of the shows "star's" from their usual routine.

I think the ultimate blame for this train wreck of a program falls on the saggy shoulders of Jeff Altman. Sure he was asked to step up and salvage a situation almost beyond repair from the start. But if you watch some of the acts with some of the guests they DO work. Sid Caesar spewing gibberish as the over protective samurai father of the girls preparing for their first date or a song and dance routine with Donnie Osmond work, brilliantly! It played to the strengths of Pink Lady and you could see why they were stars in Japan. The problem is these gems make the bulk of the interaction with Jeff Altman all the more painful because you've seen how well it CAN work and what the vision of the producer was. If Pink Lady shined in a comedy bit with Sid Caesar and was just painful in a comedy bit with Jeff Altman, then you have to ask, what was different?

There are great bits in this series but to get to them you have to sit through some painfully unfunny bits. Even a rabid Japan-o-phile is going to have trouble hanging in here. If you're really interested, buy one of the Pink Lady CD's. That gives more talent and less pain for the pop.