The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979)

User Rating:

4.5/10   

Director:

Gilbert Moses

Writers:

David Dashev (story)
Jaison Starkes (writer)

Genre:

Comedy | Sport

Plot:

The Pittsburgh basketball team is hopeless. Maybe with the aid of an astrologer, and some new astrologically compatible players, they can become winners.

Plot Keywords:

Basketball | Astrology | Disco | African American | Pittsburgh Pennsylvania

Cast

Julius Erving	...	Moses Guthrie
Jonathan Winters	...	H.S. / Harvey Tilson
Meadowlark Lemon	...	Rev. Grady Jackson
Jack Kehoe	...	Setshot
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	...	Himself
Margaret Avery	...	Toby Millman
James Bond III	...	Tyrone Millman
Michael V. Gazzo	...	Harry the Trainer
Peter Isacksen	...	Driftwood
Nicholas Pryor	...	George Brockington
M. Emmet Walsh	...	Wally Cantrell
Stockard Channing	...	Mona Mondieu
Flip Wilson	...	Coach 'Jock' Delaney
Marv Albert	...	Himself (as Marvin Albert)
Debbie Allen	...	Ola (as Debra Allen)

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Capital Center - 1100 Capital Center Boulevard, Largo, Maryland, USA

Company:

Lorimar Productions

Trivia:

'Cher' (I) was initially cast as the female lead, but backed out at the last minute due to scheduling conflicts.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The score before the timeout of the last game was Los Angeles 101, Pittsburgh 91, but when the game resumed, the Pisces made well over ten field goals. Their victory should have been by a double-digit margin.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Swimming with Sharks (1994)

I was a teen-age extra!

I was actually an extra in this movie, one of the worst sports movies ever made. I only did one day's worth of work and it was one of the most boring things I've ever experienced. I'm in the scene where someone supposedly puts helium in the basketballs and they float to the top of the Civic Arena. A crane (out of camera range) had thin wires attached to the balls. The director took about 10 takes of the scene. I thought I would lose my mind, trying to act surprised every time the balls "floated." When I saw the film I was shocked at how little screen time the shot got, but not as shocked at how bad the whole movie was. With a cast as good as it has you'd think they could save it, but the script was so bad even the great Stockard Channing couldn't help!