The McCallister Clan is Riding a Shooting Star
November 26, 2022 8:12 AM Subscribe
A family moves their inn from the Earth to outer space in a failed 1979 TV pilot. Obviously inspired by a certain scene Star Wars, "Starstruck," on YouTube (27 minutes), starring Beeson Carroll, Lynne Lipton and Roy Brocksmith, may remind you of a certain holiday special from the year before.
As illustrated by the opening, the McCallister family, through the centuries, sailed over to America with the Pilgrims, settled in Virginia, then the Midwest, then the West Coast, all the while running inns and serving food to hungry travelers. But this failed pilot was developed in 1979, and the world was deep in the throes of Star Wars mania. So the McCallister Midway Inn has moved to a broken-down space station halfway between Earth and Pluto, offering room and apple pie to visiting humans, aliens and robots. This pilot was only aired once, so please forgive the quality of the VHS recording, uploaded by someone who worked on the show. I thought it had been posted before but I couldn't find it, so here it is!
Starstruck,
On IMDB
on the AV Club
On Indiewire
On Reddit (posted by someone who had worked on it, who also uploaded the video to YouTube)
Notes:
* Sadly it comes saddled with that bane of sitcoms from the time, a laugh track
* Also sadly, the costume for the sole black cast member is perhaps questionable
* The robots apparently are shtupping
* The tribble-like pet gets vacuum'd up then forgotten about
* Terrible comedy in spaaaaaace
* The villainous "Orthwaite Frodo"
* Apples died out and now only exist on this space station
* The family patriarch would rather keep the last apples in the universe to themselves so their apple pie will be unique
* The Mos Eisley-inspired bar
* Wilson the Space Assassin, with his visor and gigantic chin
* The spinning space, um, ball, which gets destroyed through the employ of the family shotgun hanging on the wall
* The synth-based version of As Time Goes By under the credits
As illustrated by the opening, the McCallister family, through the centuries, sailed over to America with the Pilgrims, settled in Virginia, then the Midwest, then the West Coast, all the while running inns and serving food to hungry travelers. But this failed pilot was developed in 1979, and the world was deep in the throes of Star Wars mania. So the McCallister Midway Inn has moved to a broken-down space station halfway between Earth and Pluto, offering room and apple pie to visiting humans, aliens and robots. This pilot was only aired once, so please forgive the quality of the VHS recording, uploaded by someone who worked on the show. I thought it had been posted before but I couldn't find it, so here it is!
Starstruck,
On IMDB
on the AV Club
On Indiewire
On Reddit (posted by someone who had worked on it, who also uploaded the video to YouTube)
Notes:
* Sadly it comes saddled with that bane of sitcoms from the time, a laugh track
* Also sadly, the costume for the sole black cast member is perhaps questionable
* The robots apparently are shtupping
* The tribble-like pet gets vacuum'd up then forgotten about
* Terrible comedy in spaaaaaace
* The villainous "Orthwaite Frodo"
* Apples died out and now only exist on this space station
* The family patriarch would rather keep the last apples in the universe to themselves so their apple pie will be unique
* The Mos Eisley-inspired bar
* Wilson the Space Assassin, with his visor and gigantic chin
* The spinning space, um, ball, which gets destroyed through the employ of the family shotgun hanging on the wall
* The synth-based version of As Time Goes By under the credits
I haven't seen the episode but I have a feeling the sfx model was reused somewhere else? It looks familiar.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:02 AM on November 26, 2022
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:02 AM on November 26, 2022
The family sounds American, but the ROBOT servants are Irish and Scottish. Huh? Why?
posted by njohnson23 at 9:29 AM on November 26, 2022
posted by njohnson23 at 9:29 AM on November 26, 2022
* Sadly it comes saddled with that bane of sitcoms from the time, a laugh track
which kicks in as the "family" says their prayer before breakfast. I gotta give it points for that.
posted by philip-random at 9:38 AM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
which kicks in as the "family" says their prayer before breakfast. I gotta give it points for that.
posted by philip-random at 9:38 AM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
* Sadly it comes saddled with that bane of sitcoms from the time, a laugh track
which kicks in as the "family" says their prayer before breakfast. I gotta give it points for that.
Not randomly -- as dad is praying, the kooky daughter steals a bite of breakfast! I laughed and laughed at this witty sight gag!
Let me tell you, younglings, 1979 was a grim time to grow up if you wanted anything interesting to watch on television. I guess Barney Miller and WKRP were doing okay, but that was a grand total of 44 minutes a week on a good week.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:01 AM on November 26, 2022 [3 favorites]
which kicks in as the "family" says their prayer before breakfast. I gotta give it points for that.
Not randomly -- as dad is praying, the kooky daughter steals a bite of breakfast! I laughed and laughed at this witty sight gag!
Let me tell you, younglings, 1979 was a grim time to grow up if you wanted anything interesting to watch on television. I guess Barney Miller and WKRP were doing okay, but that was a grand total of 44 minutes a week on a good week.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:01 AM on November 26, 2022 [3 favorites]
Col. Wilma Deering is looking sternly at you for dismissing all of 1979 television. Hands on hips akimbo, those hips barely covered by skin-tight white stretch fabric. Her gun is bigger than yours.
posted by Nelson at 10:21 AM on November 26, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 10:21 AM on November 26, 2022 [8 favorites]
I made it a couple of minutes before I proclaimed it an atrocity against God. Jail for Alfred Viola! Jail for Alfred Viola for one thousand years!
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:33 AM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:33 AM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
It's interesting in that it's actually very high concept, and with good writing it could've been a kind of Deep Space Nine meets Hitchhiker's Guide. Meets Growing Pains. But that was some lackluster writing, totally dependent on visual gags. The laugh track is indeed awful. I watched an entire five minutes, though.
posted by zardoz at 12:37 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by zardoz at 12:37 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yeah, there was absolutely nothing worthwhile on TV in 1979... Well, there was MASH. And Taxi. And All in the Family. And The Rockford Files. And Soap. And The Muppet Show. And original cast SNL. But other than that, what did 1979 TV ever do for us?!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 2:24 PM on November 26, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by Ursula Hitler at 2:24 PM on November 26, 2022 [8 favorites]
Does it seem like I was dissing 1979 in the post? I only brought it up to remind readers that Star War had just been released and everyone was gaga over it.
posted by JHarris at 2:32 PM on November 26, 2022
posted by JHarris at 2:32 PM on November 26, 2022
For what it's worth, I didn't interpret Ursula's comment as a response to the framing. While I was watching the linked video I had a moment where I thought, wow, we had such staggeringly weird and unredeemingly awful taste back then, maybe we just didn't know better, and Ursula's comment anticipates that reaction. Turns out we did know better and this is just terrible on its own!
posted by mochapickle at 3:33 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by mochapickle at 3:33 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
Roy Brocksmith (orthwaite Frodo) later appeared on Star Trek: The next generation, Deep space Nine, Babylon 5 and Ally McBeal.
posted by clavdivs at 4:37 PM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 4:37 PM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
Somehow I missed this in 1979.
I don't think that's a bad thing.
posted by doctornemo at 4:42 PM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
I don't think that's a bad thing.
posted by doctornemo at 4:42 PM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
At about 6:25 a child actor takes a header and the camera just cuts away. BRUTAL.
posted by phooky at 4:52 PM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by phooky at 4:52 PM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
JHarris, I think UH's comment is about the comments, not about your framing of the post.
I'm really surprised I missed this in 1979. I was mostly likely 8, and in complete Star Wars thrall at the time. I remember some weird space oriented TV shows at the time (what was the garbage barge one?), but I never caught this.
posted by mollweide at 5:13 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
I'm really surprised I missed this in 1979. I was mostly likely 8, and in complete Star Wars thrall at the time. I remember some weird space oriented TV shows at the time (what was the garbage barge one?), but I never caught this.
posted by mollweide at 5:13 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
what was the garbage barge one?
Quark
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 5:33 PM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
Quark
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 5:33 PM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
Yeah, I was responding to ricochet biscuit's comment: "Let me tell you, younglings, 1979 was a grim time to grow up if you wanted anything interesting to watch on television. I guess Barney Miller and WKRP were doing okay, but that was a grand total of 44 minutes a week on a good week."
I meant to copy and paste RB's quote in my comment above, but I was on my phone and it stubbornly refused to cooperate.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:50 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
I meant to copy and paste RB's quote in my comment above, but I was on my phone and it stubbornly refused to cooperate.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:50 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
Quark!
So, I always thought the ship was named Quark. I thought this might be quasi-eponysterical, GCU, but I guess not.
posted by mollweide at 5:59 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
So, I always thought the ship was named Quark. I thought this might be quasi-eponysterical, GCU, but I guess not.
posted by mollweide at 5:59 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
I meant to copy and paste RB's quote in my comment above, but I was on my phone and it stubbornly refused to cooperate.
I would stress the “a grim time to grow up” part. As a prepubescent grade schooler, I wasn’t really in the demographic that The Rockford Files or All In The Family was aimed at. Shows about a struggling, sardonic, falsely convicted ex-con private eye or ironic examinations of the generation gap ‘twixt Greatest Generation/Boomers didn’t set my toes a-tapping. I was more a Battlestar Galactica viewer at that age. And that was not good even to an undiscriminating ten-year-old.
I had forgotten about The Muppet Show, though. Good catch.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:43 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
I would stress the “a grim time to grow up” part. As a prepubescent grade schooler, I wasn’t really in the demographic that The Rockford Files or All In The Family was aimed at. Shows about a struggling, sardonic, falsely convicted ex-con private eye or ironic examinations of the generation gap ‘twixt Greatest Generation/Boomers didn’t set my toes a-tapping. I was more a Battlestar Galactica viewer at that age. And that was not good even to an undiscriminating ten-year-old.
I had forgotten about The Muppet Show, though. Good catch.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:43 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
Maybe I was a weird kid, but I loved both Battlestar Galactica and All in the Family! (Although if memory serves AITF was rapidly going downhill by 79, after Rob Reiner and Sally Strothers left.)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:57 PM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:57 PM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
Top-rated United States television programs of 1979–80: Little House on the Prairie, Eight is Enough, Diff'rent Strokes, Mork & Mindy!
I watched a truly weird amount of Love Boat for a four year old.
posted by mochapickle at 7:03 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
I watched a truly weird amount of Love Boat for a four year old.
posted by mochapickle at 7:03 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
If foop were around, I'm sure he could school us all on TV from that period.
posted by JHarris at 12:19 AM on November 27, 2022
posted by JHarris at 12:19 AM on November 27, 2022
I think this could have been something nice, the premise has stuck with me all this time, but the implementation is really lacking. The person who posted it says it never had a chance and had been cancelled even before it aired. It was created and written by Arthur Kopit, a noted playwright and two-time Pulitzer and three-time Tony nominee, who sadly died just last year.
If you can make it through the whole thing, there are some interesting decisions. Like, the synth-backed version of As Time Goes By at the end during the credits is played straight, and is a thoughtful way to end a sci-fi show about how a family has kept together over centuries and very different circumstances.
posted by JHarris at 4:12 AM on November 27, 2022
If you can make it through the whole thing, there are some interesting decisions. Like, the synth-backed version of As Time Goes By at the end during the credits is played straight, and is a thoughtful way to end a sci-fi show about how a family has kept together over centuries and very different circumstances.
posted by JHarris at 4:12 AM on November 27, 2022
Let me tell you, younglings, 1979 was a grim time to grow up if you wanted anything interesting to watch on television.
Even moreso if like me you spent the late 70s on military installations overseas where you only received AFN. You people with your Battlestar Galactica...
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:53 AM on November 27, 2022
Even moreso if like me you spent the late 70s on military installations overseas where you only received AFN. You people with your Battlestar Galactica...
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:53 AM on November 27, 2022
Top-rated United States television programs of 1979–80: Little House on the Prairie, Eight is Enough, Diff'rent Strokes, Mork & Mindy!
which speaks loudly to my complete lack of nostalgia for those years, which happen to coincide with my being twenty-twenty-one. By 1980, I was living television free*, various situations that lasted well into the decade. And even then, what I mostly ended up watching were video rentals. And I worked in that world a fair bit. "Make TV. Don't watch it." A commonly heard turn of phrase.
* or certainly, no television anywhere in the main room, or if so, said television would be covered with a quilt or something, serving as furniture except for occasional unveiling, usually a hockey game.
posted by philip-random at 9:02 AM on November 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
which speaks loudly to my complete lack of nostalgia for those years, which happen to coincide with my being twenty-twenty-one. By 1980, I was living television free*, various situations that lasted well into the decade. And even then, what I mostly ended up watching were video rentals. And I worked in that world a fair bit. "Make TV. Don't watch it." A commonly heard turn of phrase.
* or certainly, no television anywhere in the main room, or if so, said television would be covered with a quilt or something, serving as furniture except for occasional unveiling, usually a hockey game.
posted by philip-random at 9:02 AM on November 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
I would stress the “a grim time to grow up” part. As a prepubescent grade schooler, I wasn’t really in the demographic that The Rockford Files or All In The Family was aimed at.
Yeah, I was gonna be all "Taxi and M*A*S*H were on the air, what the hell!" but the kid perspective makes all the difference.
posted by chrominance at 9:22 AM on November 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
Yeah, I was gonna be all "Taxi and M*A*S*H were on the air, what the hell!" but the kid perspective makes all the difference.
posted by chrominance at 9:22 AM on November 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
Again, I offer the new Buck Rogers show as the perfect 1979 kid scifi to complement the Starstruck vibe here. Also Wonder Woman ended in 1979. Wilma Deering and Diana Prince made me gay in that way strong women can serve as role models for young gay boys. Dukes of Hazzard also started in 1979, that also made me gay in the "men in tight jeans are very interesting" way.
posted by Nelson at 11:35 AM on November 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Nelson at 11:35 AM on November 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
Col. Wilma Deering is looking sternly at you
"Bidi bidi bidi, I'm feeling all kinds of feelings I don't know how to process at my age, Buck."
posted by Ghidorah at 6:32 PM on November 27, 2022 [8 favorites]
"Bidi bidi bidi, I'm feeling all kinds of feelings I don't know how to process at my age, Buck."
posted by Ghidorah at 6:32 PM on November 27, 2022 [8 favorites]
What was interesting about being a little kid in this era and the years immediately following was that there were so few shows (other than Saturday morning cartoons) really aimed at you that, there you'd be, seven years old, watching Trapper John MD or The Facts of Life or Gimme a Break! or God knows what. And you'd like it! Kids now don't have to find what's relatable to them in shows that aren't really for them, and I'm sure they're happier and more entertained, but I also feel like they're missing out a little on a broader scope of life...well, fake life, imagined by rich people in Hollywood, I guess.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:45 PM on November 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:45 PM on November 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
The mostly white canister-shaped droid and the gold colored humanoid droid sure seem reminiscent of something...
posted by ckape at 8:47 PM on November 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by ckape at 8:47 PM on November 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
I finally got around to watching some of this thing. It didn't seem horrible and I got a nostalgic thrill seeing all the little spaceships made of stuff from the dollar store, hot glue and gumption, but it also didn't quite seem worth a full watch when I've got dishes to do. I skipped to the closing credits and noticed a couple of impressive names. Ve Neill did the creature makeup; she would go on to better things and would eventually become one of the judges on the long-running special effects makeup competition show, Face Off. (Those of you who never watched the show won't care, but those of you who did will be saying, "Wait, Ve did this?") Chris Walas made the robots and played the two-headed alien. He would go on to create the Gremlins and melt the Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Less than a decade after this show, he won an Oscar for his creature effects in The Fly!
I probably would have liked this OK when I was a kid. It does feel like a segment from the Star Wars Holiday Special, except it's almost good.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 1:03 AM on November 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
I probably would have liked this OK when I was a kid. It does feel like a segment from the Star Wars Holiday Special, except it's almost good.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 1:03 AM on November 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
You know how Johnny Appleseed became a beloved folk hero for spreading apples far and wide? Well what if our hero did the opposite of that
posted by ckape at 5:09 AM on November 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by ckape at 5:09 AM on November 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
We made it through the whole episode yesterday and it was just such a hot mess of everything! Oh man!
posted by Calzephyr at 7:38 AM on December 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Calzephyr at 7:38 AM on December 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by Nelson at 8:21 AM on November 26, 2022