IMDb > "Pink Lady" (1980) > Reviews & Ratings - IMDb

Reviews & Ratings for
 "Pink Lady" More at IMDbPro »

Filter: Hide Spoilers:
Page 1 of 2:[1] [2] [Next]
Index 16 reviews in total 

7 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Oh, dear!, 14 April 2006
Author: Kenneth Anderson (efitness2@yahoo.com) from Los Angeles

I rented the DVD collection in hopes of getting a bit of a fun '80s flashback with this near-legendary bomb of a TV series. However, I was not at all prepared for how truly embarrassing and awful it is. Like the films "Myra Breckinridge," "Xanadu" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band," "Pink Lady and Jeff" is one of those pop culture misfires that surpasses its reputation; it's even worse than you were told it was.

Everything you've heard about it is true. This cross-cultural nightmare occurred during that awkward period when disco was wearing out its welcome and variety shows had sunk into a tired routine of endlessly replicating the Donny & Marie / Sonny and Cher format. On "Pink Lady" it went like this: If Cher began every show crooning in mid close up only to peel off her wrap and reveal a ridiculous glitter-festooned outfit as the music tempo picked up, then indeed Mei and Kei started every episode in kimonos that they whipped off to reveal twin icky, Bob Mackie-esqe creations (a-la Donny and Marie or The Captain & Tennille – remember that stinker of a variety show?). If Tony Orlando and Dawn followed the first song with a lame series of gags in which one member of Dawn was the sweet one and the other sarcastic, then "Pink Lady" did them one better by having the girls deliver their lines without a clue as to what they were saying and co-star Jeff Altman (who is unfunny in any language) creating a black hole of nothingness in the center of the screen. There were the flat comedy skits, the lame medleys and the clubfooted dance routines by, in this case, a chorus line of chubby legged girls with too much permed hair and apparently not enough rehearsal time.

Every variety show had a gimmick back then as well as their own troupe of dancers and comedians. Donny & Marie had an ice rink, The Brady Bunch Variety hour had a swimming pool, "Pink Lady" had a hot tub. Sonny and Cher had Steve Martin and Teri Garr, Mary Tyler Moore's variety show had David Letterman, Pink Lady had Jim (Ernest) Varney! Yikes!

Every poorly chosen song, all the cheesy choreography, the throw-a-name-in-a-hat lineup of "guests" who all look like they'd rather be anywhere else, and the groan inducing skits all make for a surreal experience unsurpassed by anything on "The Twilight Zone"

For a clue as to the level of delusion that must have played a huge part in the making of "Pink Lady & Jeff" listen to the special features interview with Jeff Altman. While fast to poke fun at the show and himself, he goes beyond diplomacy when he describes the writing staff as "talented" and his sanity is called into question when he waxes on about the comic versatility of the late Jim Varney while using as an example, a character that Varney created that was…now get this…a hillbilly! How's that for versatility? Altman also gives himself "credit" for bringing his own stand-up act material to the show and launches into an abysmal Nixon impersonation that makes it obvious that he STILL has no idea of how unfunny he is!

What's apparent is that nobody would have thought the show was crap if it was a hit. Honestly, everything Sid and Mart Krofft did was crap, some of it was just more successful crap than the others. "Pink Lady and Jeff" is just a sterling example of the former.

Was the above review useful to you?

5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
One of the most astonishing shows I've ever seen..., 25 June 1999
Author: heckles from St. Albans, VT

...for if TV is indeed a vast wasteland, this was the show found at the lowest elevation near the stagnant alkaline pool. We had world hunger and want in 1980, and NBC could have spent money to solve it, but inexplicably used the funds to put this show on the air for five episodes instead.

Did Fred Silverman ever notice that the ability of Keiko and Mituyo to handle English was minimal at best? Heavily padded out with guest spots to cover this rather blatant shortcoming. (The first show featured as guest star...Sherman Hemsley. Be still my beating heart.)

Not to mention Silverman's failure to consider America was not exactly a massive market for Japanese "idol music," whose appeal to the Japanese is that it is entirely predictable. And yes, Jeff Altman -- with the exception of his own routine in the first show of a certain U.S. President trying to boogie -- is scathingly unfunny.

I watched it out of the car-wreck syndrome, in other words it was so terrible I couldn't stop watching. And oh yes, if you stayed until the end of the show, a bikinied Keiko and Mitsuyo got into a hot tub with Jeff Altman. I guess I was easily bribed back then.

Was the above review useful to you?

7 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
The horror ... the horror, 28 December 2002
Author: Miranda Prince (Randi-5) from USA

Pink Lady and Jeff is widely considered one of the worst shows ever made for

television. I didn't think anything could be worse than "That 80s Show," but Pink Lady is.

The sketches are horrendous; as we sat around watching the DVDs (a gag gift

my friend gave his brother), we argued about whether they had actual writers, or the performers made it up as they went along. My best guess is that the writers had a big bottle of tequila and a bunch of funny cigarettes in the writing room.

File this one under "so bad it's funny." I can't imagine watching it alone, but if you're with a bunch of friends who want to make fun of it, the DVD's worth a

view.

Was the above review useful to you?

3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
simply the worst TV series ever,.., 13 March 2006
Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

This series should be watched ONLY to either torture detainees at Guantanimo OR if you want to see something so bad that it's funny in a horrific way (sort of like PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE). Be warned, though, as I have never been able to get anyone to watch more than about 10 seconds of the show--they get up and leave and invariably ask me "why are you watching this #&#@^!".

I've got to tell you the basic concept for the show. It will convince you that the programming people were either nuts or totally stoned. Jeff Altman is a horribly unfunny comedian. His timing, delivery and presence are less enjoyable than cancer. So, some network bigwigs thought they should give this terribly unfunny guy a series! BUT, to spice it up, it should also star a Japanese pop duo who speak almost no English!!! And, these Japanese ladies should also sing REALLY inane songs. Perhaps they were more popular than Pokemon in Japan, but they just couldn't make the transition to America--their music, to the average American, sounded as attractive as cats in heat. Well, the recipe for disaster was NOT yet complete. Nope---the show wasn't yet bad enough! So, they gave them a cast of supporting regulars who were even less talented than Altman! You KNOW you're in trouble when the standout star among these supporting "actors" is Jim Varney!!! Then, wrap all this together and "VOILA"--total dreck!! I do advise you, if possible, to see an episode (one episode was about all I could take)--just so you can see how bad it really was. The problem, though, is that this show was being re-broadcast on TRIO and this channel has recently dropped off the cable lineup throughout the country and is now a broad-band channel. So, if you don't get a chance to see it, I recommend you try to closely approximate the experience. First, find a family that doesn't speak any English and which has an annoying young child who thinks they can sing or tell jokes. Get a translator to tell the child to entertain you--that they should really give it their all. Then, when he or she begins, stab yourself in the head with a fork repeatedly throughout the performance. Then, remember that this is STILL better than watching PINK LADY AND JEFF!! "Know what I mean"?

Was the above review useful to you?

3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Utterly Brutal!!, 19 February 2004
Author: goleafs84 from Seattle, Washington

This was from the period when NBC was horrible and Fred Silverman was running the show (no pun intended). This from the man who help develop gems like "Three's Company" and "Laverne and Shirley" for ABC and beauties like "All in the Family" and "M*A*S*H" for CBS.

It baffled me that he went to NBC and came up with crap like this. How could you give a show to 2 women or anyone for that matter who could barely speak English??? I still remember both Kei Masuda and Mei Niemoto at the beginning of the show tell the audience who that night's guests will be. You could barely make out what they were saying and it was very painful to listen.

Jeff Altman as well; This had to set his career back 2-3 steps. I like his comedy, but even he couldn't save this show.

Every episode would always end with Mie and Kei say something to Jeff you couldn't understand, then they would remove their kimonos revealing the swimsuits they were wearing under it and would drag him fully dressed into the hot tub. It was one of the few funny things I can remember, but they did that every week and it got old fast.

Clearly, not one of television's best moments.

Was the above review useful to you?

3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
More painful than a root canal, 9 August 2003
Author: Monika-5 from United States

I was only a baby when this show aired. When I grew up, I borrowed the DVD set from my boss. Next to My Big Fat Greek Life, this is the worst TV show I have ever seen. Unfunny sketches, Mie and Kei singing in badly broken English to bad disco songs, Jeff Altman royally embarrassing himself...need I say more? It was fun to see a young Jim Varney (later of "Ernest" fame) in the sketches, he was the best part of the show. The DVD set should be used for revenge/torture purposes only!

Was the above review useful to you?

2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Bakabakashii no terebi desu..., 11 June 2004
Author: Rick Payne (macross_sd) from Los Angeles, CA

I caught a showing of this variety show over on Trio, and cannot say I'm overwhelmed by this relic of the Carter Years. The idea was certainly original enough: Take a popular (and actually pretty talented) idol-singer duo from Japan, team them up with a second-banana American singer and craft a variety show around it. Nice idea, lousy execution. Where to begin...

1. The writing is rivaled only by those apocryphal monkeys trying to write Shakespeare, an sad fact as Mark Evanier is easily capable of much better than this dreck (look at his consistently funny co-writing work on "Groo the Wanderer")

2. Mei and Kei are talented enough singers, and probably were talented actresses in Japan, but they didn't have enough of a command of the English language to grasp the right comic timing for the language.

3. Jeff Altman DOES have enough of a command of the English language, and he couldn't make a man being tickled to death laugh.

Was the above review useful to you?

3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
This is on DVD? This is a joke right? No? Oh,no!, 4 December 2005
1/10
Author: happipuppi13 from Phx. Arizona ("Arizona Smells Funny"!- Homer Simpson)

I honestly cannot believe this show actually made it to DVD! Aaaaaagh! What next??? "Hello,Larry?" "Supertrain"? I saw this when I was 11 and even though they say kids will laugh at anything,that's not necessarily true.

I watched Pink & Jeff go through their cue card read shtick but I sat there as blank faced & confused as Bart & Lisa Simpson when they don'tunderstand their parents. Un-funny! Those girls could not sing at all but yet,managed to squeak into the bottom American top 40 with,"Kiss In The Dark".

The worst thing ever perpetrated on this show...They said Cheap trick was the musical guest one night,so I tune in and guess what? It's nothing more than the video for "Dream Police"!!! What a rip-off! Cool that I saw the video but that's just false advertising. No stars for this joke! A bad one at that! 5 weeks was 4 too many!

Was the above review useful to you?

5 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
So bad, 18 August 2003
Author: Starch from Seattle

This show was so bad it went right past "so bad it's good," and wound up as bad again. Really bad.

It's painful to watch this and consider that the people involved probably had families who loved them and thought highly of them, only to be confronted with the reality of this tragic show.

No one should be forced or permitted to watch this show, even by accident.

Was the above review useful to you?

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
I thought I was the only one..., 30 August 2000
Author: Michael from Boston, MA

There's a special place in my heart for the "summer replacement series" and Pink Lady always springs to mind. ALL of the people I know think I'm making it up when I tell them about this marvel of programming. I didn't even remember Jeff Altman on the show, just the two girls. My favorite part was the "Letter to Home" segment near the end of the program, where they "read" their letter in phonetic English. It haunts me...

Was the above review useful to you?
Page 1 of 2:[1] [2] [Next]

Add another review

Related Links

Amazon.com summary Ratings External reviews
Official site Plot keywords Main details
Your user reviews Your vote history