Shark Bytes

Pink Lady will be remembered more for their lone hit single, "Kiss In The Dark", than for this TV series, which came out at the time disco was becoming a dying fad. Try as it might, "Kiss In The Dark" couldn't quite hold a candle to other similar one-hit wonders like France Joli's "Come To Me", Lipps Inc.'s "Funkytown" or Anita Ward's "Ring My Bell".

I never saw the show but I think I can only lament their inabilitly to speak English very well. Pink Lady was a sensation in the land of the rising sun and I feel that the sentiment of the their native Japan was well-founded. I would like to hear the duo if I can find a DVD of that duo. You can say all you want about Pink Lady but the Del Rubio triplets make the oriental chicks look and sound bigger than Madonna, Mariah Carey, and Hannah Montana all put together.

I voted for "so bad it's good". I remember the episode with a pre-paralized Teddy Pendergrass when he
ended up in the hot tub with the girls.
I also recall the hilarious dancing style of the Pink Lady with the shag hairstyle. She would flail her arms back and forth like she was hitting someone with hammers. Then she'd end up down on one knee. The other would just do a "Whitney Houston", which is a hokey pokey put one foot in front of the other, back and forth, back and forth.
As for the sarcastic attitude of Jeff, I think of him as a desperate man who knew his career was over. My heart went out to him.

Only saw a bit of the show back in 1980, and that was enough. Never cared much for Jeff Altman. If 'Supertrain' didn't kill Fred Silverman's time at NBC, Pink Lady And Jeff certainly did. Strange, though: 1) this show is now on DVD, which I don't wanna get, but 2) I actually spent ten bucks last week for an imported CD of Pink Lady's 'Best,' even though 'Kiss In The Dark' was a mediocre hit single at best, and their version of Left Banke's "Walk Away Renee' is VERY different. I suppose curiosity does strange things to a person...

Here's the thing! Pink Lady and Jeff JTS before episode#1 although it is rare for any Sid and Marty Krofft show to JTS in any case. But the truth is this. The show is treated so badly, it is complete way past innovation and 1,000 years ahead of its time. It was a variety show with nothing but single-takes (to save time and money), no rehearsals, no scripts, and no assigned dance numbers. A show where anything's possible and badly unpredictable. Sid and Marty were created a very innovative, avant-garde approach never been done before! So, give them a lot of credit for fetching this ill-attempted approach to generate a small, alienated audience. But the problem was that America is not a Japanese speaking country (although the Asian population is quickly rising). Pink Lady was popular in their native country and the Kroffts should have done "Pink Lady and Jeff" exclusively in Japan and include Jeff Altman as well. Had they done so, it would have been a hit in Japan. It would probably lasted 6 seasons rather than 6 eps. But as for the states, nobody was ready for it yet. Pink Lady's no Yoko Ono although I would say "Oh No!" right now. Where were the Japanese-to-English translators when you need them? Everyone except Jim 'Ernest' Varney fell into obscurity including Sid and Marty Krofft whose shows such as "Pryor's Place"(1981), "D.C. Follies"(1987), and "The New Land of the Lost"(1991) were not hit makers like H.R Pufnstuf and The Bugaloos were. Wherever Jeff Altman and Pink Lady are, they're both probably touring in Siberia or Iraq by now. Speaking of Pink Lady, where's my Cibo Matto CD?

While I agree this show was a shark stake, or to make a reference to Asian cuisine, the prime ingredient of a bowl of shark-fin soup; pure day one material: here's something to mull over-how many comedians are there out there (let alone funny ones) who also speak fluent Japanese? I suppose that would rather limit one's choices, much as if you were a looking for a (black) date in, say Farmington, Maine-believe me, I've been there, and its as white as Donny and Marie, or quite possibly even their teeth. In other words, while this does not excuse for the show's atrociousness, it should at least be taken into consideration that it was probably take it or leave it.

First off, you have to give it up to Rhino for putting PL out on DVD—these folks leave no stoned unturned when it comes to TV shows and music! Bless you, Rhino--or damn you, depending on one’s point of view! As for the PL show itself, it never ceases to amaze me that NO ONE involved in it had the balls to say, “This is abysmal!” before it ever aired. Think about it: Dozens of people worked to put this show together—it wasn’t just Fred Silverman, Sid & Marty Krofft, or Jeff Altman or whomever--this was a JOINT effort in one way or another! I realize that desperation on the part of NBC at the time was a contributing factor for PL ever seeing the light of day, but surely more than a few members of the cast and/or crew knew this was a dreadful show from day one. This was the television equivalent of William Shatner and/or Leonard Nimoy “singing” on record albums back in the ‘60s—again, bless/damn Rhino for putting these out on their “Golden Throats” anthology! As for Jeff Altman, I find it amusing that he places most of the blame for the show’s failure on Mie And Kei, yet in his interview on the DVD, Altman gladly takes full credit for many of the shows skits being based his own original characters, which--sorry Jeff--weren't all that damn original! This man was about as funny as a canker sore--he was the 1980 equivalent of Bob Saget--what a tool! The show’s lone saving grace were the Pink Ladies themselves—they were absolute cuties, and seeing them in those slinky dresses and spandex wasn’t hard on one’s eyes! I have to agree with a previous poster, too—their choreography did have an ABBA-esque quality to it! Sadly, unlike ABBA, Pink Lady was better viewed with the sound turned down—mostly because the music they performed seemed outdated, even in 1980. I do give the show points for the Blondie, Cheap Trick and Alice Cooper videos, but the Roy Orbison performance was pure pain because it made him look like such a has-been, and it was sad to watch. Thankfully, Bruce Springsteen and friends made sure that Roy got his due a few years later. As for PL in general, it was a poorly-conceived idea executed at a bad time. But, it does bring a chuckle to one's heart, all the same...

This show was pathetic from the start. The show wasn't funny and who wants to hear Japanese singers sing in English, a language they barely knew. The best part that made this show so bad was that Blondie (twice) and Cheap Trick were called musical guests but they weren't really there. They just showed their videos. This show was just another example of Roy Orbison's bad luck. I believe he did this show not long after his bypass surgery, and the show never aired. Of course, the show even messed his performance up. Why did Oh, Pretty Woman need to be done with dancers that acted like mannequins? I have to say Bert Parks was very good in the skit that he did. Sorry the same could not be said for Jerry Lewis and Sid Caesar, embarrassing bad, both of them.

I saw an episode this past weekend on Trio. Yes, I watched it when it originally aired but forgot how wretched it really was in the last 25 years. The girls trying to lip synch. Jerry Lewis as the special guest star (pain unto itself). Bad unfunny skits (Johnny Carson's replacement, Abe Lincoln's 2nd inaugural). Then the capper - Pink Lady singing "MacArthur Park". Their lack of skill in English was painfully obvious as they sang with no emotion. Worse, the cinematography and costuming looked like it was copied from an ABBA ***** (and not well, either.) I had to turn the channel to ESPN News and watch soccer highlights just to get this out of my brain! Worse, one of the bumpers going into commercial said that Pink Lady had a hit in Japan with a cover of "In The Navy", changing the chorus to "Pink-a-Lady". I don't even want to contemplate that one. To quote Dr. Forrester from MST3K - "Pure 70s, pure pain".

Tonight I watched episode #6 of "Pink Lady" ("Jeff" was never actually in the title), the one episode that never aired on network television, and beheld the spectacle of Bobby Vinton (wearing a sequined jacket and a really poofy hairdo that made him look like Leo Sayer, or maybe Richard Simmons) singing a medley of Rupert Holmes' "Him" and Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode," with Pink Lady performing backup like some sort of Asian version of Dawn to Vinton's Tony Orlando. Positively, and powerfully, painful. This show didn't really jump the shark. The shark had it and swallowed it whole from the opening credits of the first show.

Pink Lady and Jeff Jumped from the minute this poor excuse for a show ever aired. I watched it last night on Trio I figured how bad could it be, well it was worse then you could imagine. You now that old saying it was like a car wreck you just had to look, well this show would be like watching a 100 hundred car pile up. I grew up in that time period when it was first run but I don’t remember ever watching it unless it was that traumatic and I erased it from my memory. Anyway after staring at the TV for a mere three minutes I felt myself start to turn to stone, could PL&J be the equivalent of Medusa? Any way the opening monologue produced zero laughs even for back then it was painful. Jeff’s jokes were so lame, his big joke was and I am paraphrasing here “All of us have a little comedienne inside of us”. He then proceeds to pull out a Ken doll dressed like him “See” he says to the audience. His other joke was something about the Pink Lady’s being impressed with is round eyes. Terrible, I mean can words even explain how pathetic those jokes are. Continuing he then introduces Pink Lady, two semi attractive Japanese woman, whose lip-syncing was so bad so utterly cringe inducing it made me nauseous. Secondly they looked like the two women who were in the old Godzilla movies who were kept in that box. The two big guest stars were Sherman “George Jefferson” Hemsley and Bert “There she is, Ms. America” Parks, by the way Guest and Star should never be said with those two names. The musical guest was Blondie, I give them points for that but please they must have been high or real drunk when they agreed to do that show. The skits was horrid, unfunny and stale, I am sure the laugh track guy was working over time. The one thing that seems to bother me about this show is when they were rehearsing it and saw that the two women's lip syncing was so bad why even have them do it. Hell they would of been better off letting them sing in Japanese. If you think I’m lying I urge you all to watch just one episode. I can’t believe a show like this ever got produced and was given a time slot in primetime. I think back over all the lame shows I have seen over the years I think in all honesty nothing will ever come close to this show, I mean this quite possibly is the worst show that ever aired.

I didn't really remember this show when it was on in the early 80s, but I saw that it's available on DVD. So I rented it. This is easily the worst show I've ever seen. Ever! Watching this or almost any show from the 70s and early 80s, I have the feeling that people were doing a lot of drugs during that period.

This show was so god awful!!! You would think a variety show would have some homegrown talent rather than having to rely on the few special guests who brought the talent level up to zero. The ladies couldn't sing, couldn't act, couldn't dance, couldn't tell jokes and l was giving them the benefit of the doubt because their English was terrible. And seeing them trying to do slapstick was embarrassing. Jeff Altman is one of the funniest comedians ever, and Mei and Kei were dragging him down. And on top of that, l blame these two for giving me Yellow Fever. l can not see a hot looking 0riental lady and not think about getting in a hot tub with them. Maybe this was Japan's retaliation for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Unfortunately, this particular show was doomed from the start. The sad fact, it didn't have to be that way. Not only could it have introduced middle America to REAL Japanese culture (and no, I'm not talking about the borderline-racist appearance of Sid Caesar as "Papa-San") but it probably could have introduced Middle America to other Asian acts as well. But in true "Fred Silverman-era, force-a-square-peg-into-a-round-hole" fashion, NBC took these two Japanese Idol singers (who barely spoke english, which should have been a red flag right there) trotted out every 'Variety Show" cliche known to man, and basically hammered the final nail in the coffin of the "Variety Show" era (not to mention any chance Pink Lady had of western crossover success...their career in Japan was pretty much over with by the time the show hit the airwaves) However, there are two moments from the show that I liked: the hot tub sequence (Mei and Kei in bikinis, DAAAAMMMMMMNNNN, them ladies were hotties) and Alice Cooper performing "Clones". He took a show that was the antithesis of "rock" and for that 2 minutes 30 seconds he was on, MADE it ROCK! (ditto for Blondie, even though it was a ***** and NOT an actual performance)

Like listening to people talk about how very good "Spiderman" was as a movie [ What movie were they watching ] it's similar to hearing people jump on the bandwagon to say how "bad" Pink Lady and Jeff was as a show. Even Jeff Altman figures he gets more mileage out of saying the show was bad. The show was introduced at a time when the variety show was basically dead. It doesn't mean the show was not good. What it was at the time was good clean fun. I was extremely disappointed when NBC cancelled the show. I watched every single episode when it came on TV. Back then, shows weren't given a chance to "find" an audience. It either hit or it got pulled. It was funny. Mie and Kei were easy to look at. The show was simply a great of television. I actually have enough sense of my own not to agree with all the bullshit that's been written and rewritten. I have seen episodes of "Friends" I am STILL waiting to laugh at one. Friends will go down in history as being popular. Not GOOD but popular. People do things because other people do them. To quote a line from Men in Black regarding "people" and how they are. " A person is smart. PEOPLE are dumb." People in fact are DUMB enough to think that Pink Lady and Jeff wasn't a good show. However, I am a smart enough person to realize that it was great TV!