Shangri-La Plaza (TV 1990)

A musical-comedy unsold pilot made by CBS in 1990. Macho Ira and sensitive George are two polar-opposite brothers who own an auto-repair shop in Southern California. Both men quickly fall ... See full summary »

Director:

Nick Castle

Writers:

Nick Castle, Mark Mueller,

Stars:

Terrence Mann, Jeff Yagher, Melora Hardin

Cast

Credited cast:
Terrence Mann	...	Ira Bondo
Jeff Yagher	...	George Bondo
Melora Hardin	...	Amy
Savion Glover	...	Chili
Carmen Lundy	...	Geneva
Allison Mack	...	Jenny - Amy's daughter
Chris Sarandon	...	Victorio - The Landlord
Hilary Shepard	...	Veronica (theme song only)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Barry Bernal	...	Chili's Backup Dancer
Glen Chin	...	Customer 3
Mark David	...	Customer 1
Travis Payne	...	Chili's Backup Dancer
Victoria Stevens	...	Customer 2
Lee Wilkof	...	Swabodian

Storyline

A musical-comedy unsold pilot made by CBS in 1990. Macho Ira and sensitive George are two polar-opposite brothers who own an auto-repair shop in Southern California. Both men quickly fall for Amy, a beautiful widow who has inherited the local donut shop previously owned by her no-good estranged husband. Amy plans to sell the place and move with her daughter Jenny to Paris, only to find that her ex-husband had "hocked the place up down to the powdered sugar", forcing her to put off her dreams and run the place herself. Geneva was the sassy waitress at the coffee shop, and Chili the rapper-narrator-dancer on crutches. Some of the pilot's extremely memorable numbers include "Donut Hole" (Geneva, Jenny and the Customers), "Don't Tell Me I Can Really Care" (George and Ira) and "Ain't It Always the Way" (Amy, George, Ira and Geneva).

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Plot Keywords:

donut | coffee | strip mall | auto mechanic | unsold tv series pilot

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Genres:

Comedy | Musical

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 July 1990 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

CBS Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The theme song, "Shangri-La Plaza", is sung by all nine credited cast members. However, only seven of them appear in the actual episode that follows. Only one episode was ever produced.

User Reviews

I'm I the only one (aside from Nick Castle) who remembers this?

I remember this pilot. There was something odd about a half hour musical set in a mini mall. The set was a sick little place that still exists to this day. It is at the corner of Vineland and Burbank Blvd. The trivia section says this only aired once but I do recall seeing the pilot sometime later on CBS very late at night. It was an odd time for TV. CBS was, at that time, renewing TV series not on Season contracts but six month commitments. I'm almost happy this didn't get picked up because it would have been a true struggle between the creators and network. I hope Nick decides to revise it as a cable series. It could actually work this time around.