Best of Times (TV 1981)

This ABC pilot starred 7 teenagers in a 80's style Laugh-In. It told the light and dark side of teenage thoughts with dancing and singing added in for color. It would have done wee in a ... See full summary »

Director:

Don Mischer

Writers:

Bob Arnott, Carol Hatfield Sarasohn,

Stars:

Crispin Glover, Julie Piekarski, Jill Schoelen

Cast

Credited cast:
Crispin Glover	...	Crispin
Julie Piekarski	...	Julie
Jill Schoelen	...	Jill
Nicolas Cage	...	Nicholas
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Marc Copage	...	Bandleader
Kevin Cortes	...	Kevin
Betty Glover	...	Crispin's Mother
Anita Mann	...	Jogger
Jackie Mason	...	Mr. O'Reilly
Tiana Pierce	...	Saleslady
David Rambo	...	David
Janet Robin	...	Janet
Lisa Hope Ross	...	Lisa

Storyline

This ABC pilot starred 7 teenagers in a 80's style Laugh-In. It told the light and dark side of teenage thoughts with dancing and singing added in for color. It would have done wee in a Saturday morning slot( think saved by the bell), But, alas, it was put up with the big guys and was swallowed up before it even had a chance. Bummer!.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

'Nicholas Cage''s TV debut.

User Reviews

This is the one of the best TV shows ever.

For Crispin Glover fans, this is the must-see to end all must-sees. Crispin plays "Crispin," as well as narrator. That's right--Crispin officially breaks the fourth wall, and he does so repeatedly, talking directly to us.

Every word coming out of his mouth is pure gold. Crispin has rarely been funnier. In many ways, the humor stems from our knowledge of Crispin that comes from films he's appeared in after THE BEST OF TIMES. He is quite young in this picture. Watching him attempting to shoehorn his persona into a sitcom/variety/musical made for TV is one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life.

Nicolas Cage is also unreal. Definitely his funniest performance ever, for similar reasons.

Jackie Mason also appears. I'm not a big fan of his, but I'm sure fans of his would really like this as well.

This is probably not for you if you are neither a Crispin Glover fan nor a Nicolas Cage fan nor a Jackie Mason fan, unless you just like really, really bad TV. As really bad TV goes--and by "really bad TV" I mean TV so bad it's gone past bad and back to good--this is absolutely the cream of the crop. Never have I laughed so hard at anything that was intended for a television audience.

Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to find a copy of this. Someone, please, for the good of humanity, put this on a DVD.