The Best of Times (1981)

Here's the lives of 7 teenage friends in 1981, singing, dancing and breaking the 4th wall.

Director:

Don Mischer

Writers:

Bob Arnott, Carol Hatfield (as Carol Hatfield Sarasohn)

Stars:

Crispin Glover, Jill Schoelen, Nicolas Cage

Cast

Cast overview:
Crispin Glover	...	Crispin
Jill Schoelen	...	Jill
Nicolas Cage	...	Nicholas (as Nicolas Coppola)
Julie Piekarski	...	Julie
Kevin Cortes	...	Kevin
Lisa Hope Ross	...	Lisa
David Rambo	...	David
Janet Robin	...	Janet
Jackie Mason	...	Mr. O'Reilly
Marc Copage	...	Band Leader
Tiana Pierce	...	Saleslady
Betty Glover	...	Crispin's Mother
Gloria Heilman	...	Beach Lady
Anita Mann	...	Jogger

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 well in a Saturday morning slot, but alas, it was put up with the big guys and was swallowed up before it even had a chance. Bummer!.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Crispin Glover's Televison 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.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1981 (USA)

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1