"International Airport" - Now Boring at Gate 121!

Ha ha! Well, to be honest, I'm usually interested in ANY movie, feature or made-for-TV, that was produced prior to about 1990 and involves an airliner in distress filled with "name" passengers. But even as these things go, the 1985 ABC special presentation, International Airport, is pretty dreary. Let's take a (comparatively) brief foray into the TV-Movie Time Tunnel and check it out.
  

International Airport is actually a pilot for what was intended to be yet another Aaron Spelling produced series in the vein of The Love Boat, Fantasy Island and Hotel, in which a dynamic, caring airport manager is shown week-to-week helping passengers and other airport employees with their various issues. It takes its formulaic lead from the 1970 film Airport, though there is no official relation.

Headlining the affair is Gil Gerard, still handsome and charming after having starred in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, which ended in 1981. He'd been appearing in a half-dozen TV-movies and was ready to star in another series (which he did, the year after this, in the the cop/karate kid show Sidekicks, which somehow lasted 23 episodes.) For his part in the disaster genre, Gerard had a supporting role in Airport '77 (1977.)

At his side as head of public relations is Berlinda Tolbert and her hair. Tolbert was just coming off a decade-long run on The Jeffersons and was eager to work in drama rather than another broad sitcom. She seems in perpetual motion in Airport, as if someone was off-camera shouting, "Move it, move it! Let's go!"

While careening through the airport, Gerard runs into an old grad school roomie of his, The Brady Bunch dad Robert Reed. It's an odd pairing, given Reed's eleven year seniority over Gerard. Reed doesn't seem to want to see Gerard at all, but is backed into agreeing to a lunch meeting later.

Reed is seen in his hotel room with a prostitute, but can't get it up. The way he avoided Gerard and then tearfully looks into his room's mirror with an expression of torment, we feel like we've got this situation all figured out...! But do we?

Next we meet George Kennedy (what's an airport movie without him?! He was Golden Globe-nominated for Airport, 1970, and appeared in all three sequels as well.) Here, he's an airline executive who has his eye on a little orphan boy as a means of soothing his and his wife's loss of their own child. The boy is played by Danny Ponce, who had just come off a gig on Knots Landing and would soon become a regular on Valerie (which morphed into The Hogan Family before ending in 1991.)

Meanwhile, Gerard has delivered a graduation speech for the latest class of flight attendants and has drawn the attention (and affection!) of the instructor Robin Greer. She coils her arms around him seductively and it's up to Tolbert to help get him free.

Up in the control tower, Bill Bixby is running things with an iron fist. At first glance, I thought they were going to try to tell us he was blind (!), but it turns out he just felt like wearing sunglasses for his first scene.

That way he could take them off and wave them in the face of his newest recruit, Connie Selleca. It seems he hired a new air traffic controller named "Dana Fredericks" and is stunned to realize that he is actually a she! There is no way to effectively describe the aggressively sexist and inappropriate way he treats her from moment one on... I recall being shocked by in 1985, but today in 2018 it's jaw-dropping.

But wait, someone in the airport hotel has been busy typing... They've concocted a note that reads: "HONOLULU WOULD HAVE BEEN LOVELY. IT WILL BE A TERRIBLE WAY FOR ALL OF US TO DIE. BUT JUSTICE MUST BE DONE. CONWEST 305 WILL NEVER REACH HAWAII."

The letter is left at the information desk, manned by Katherine Moffat. Moffat had been a guest on many TV series and worked on a short-lived series called Boone prior to this. She later provided voices for animation in addition to more guest roles before departing the biz in 1998.

Gerard meets up with Sellecca to discuss her new job. (He already knows her. It's the type of scenario where he seems to know practically everyone who visits this "international" airport.) Hysterically, paranoid Bixby uses binoculars in the tower to watch them, believing them to be in cahoots against him! In actuality, Sellecca, who was then starring on Hotel, and Gerard were married in real life since 1979 with one son together. This represents the only time they ever acted on-screen with one another.

They divorced in 1987 and she later wed pianist/television host John Tesh in 1992, raising eyebrows with her admission that they courted for two years without any premarital sex. They're still together today. After Hotel ended in 1988, she couldn't get another series to last, but she continued to work until about 2012.

No, the gargantuan desk above doesn't belong to MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer. It's that of Gerard's secretary (!) Pat Crowley. She's clearly got nothing pertinent to place on it but decor! Moffat gives Crowley the aforementioned threat letter, which is addressed to Gerard. However, as it's marked "Personal," they both think it's from hot-to-trot Greer, so they don't make a point of getting it into his hands. I always liked Crowley during this period in her career. Right after this movie, she went into a brief stint on Dynasty as Emily Fallmont.

When Crowley finally does give the letter to Gerard, he too thinks it must be from Greer and tosses it aside for later reading pleasure!

Now we're getting a look at flight 305. The plane is piloted by Robert Vaughn of The Towering Inferno (1974), who was just coming off the unsuccessful prime-time soap Emerald Point, N.A.S. His navigator is played by Steven Williams, who'd just had a stint on The Equalizer, but would soon take over (dismissed) Frederic Forrest's spot on 21 Jump Street for nearly 100 episodes.

On board the flight is Kennedy and his wife Susan Oliver. She's been bereft since the death of their young son and he's trying to break it to her that he wants another child. In a true moment of screaming hilarity, fifty-three year-old Oliver replies that she's "a little old" to have another baby!! Kennedy has to tenderly explain that he meant adoption... as if her eggs aren't dried up worse than astronaut food by this point!

Oliver, in a singularly unflattering wig that makes her look like Maj Hagman on her worst day or maybe Pat Klous' grandmother, was an accomplished real-life pilot. As a young lady, she'd survived a 30,000 ft drop during a commercial flight that petrified her. After therapy, though, she overcame her fear and began piloting (surviving a crash in a small craft in 1966) and setting several records as a result.

Other passengers (all in first class - or is it the senior citizen section?) include frequent TV guest star Don Knight, busy character actor Jason Wingreen (who'd recurred on All in the Family and appeared in 1980's Airplane!), the always elegant Vera Miles and stage actor George Grizzard, who did several movies, much TV and later played Rue McClanahan's deceased husband George on The Golden Girls.)

Miles, who is a longstanding favorite of ours for both Psycho (1960) and Back Street (1961) and who still looked great, was making the occasional movie, but mostly stuck to plentiful guest roles on television at this time.  She's still with us today, closing in on ninety, though she hasn't acted since about 1995.

Back in the tower, a severely put-upon Sellecca is comforted by a fellow ATC, Kurtwood Smith! Then near the beginning of his on-screen career, he would eventually score a hit with That '70s Show.

Sellecca, in an era where makeup was heavy to begin with, wore more eyeliner and shadow than practically anyone I can think of outside of our Joan Collins, but - like Collins - it seemed to work for her. I, for one, always thought it would have been perfect had she wed Tom Selleck, so that she could go by Connie Sellecca-Selleck.

The airport's chief security officer Cliff Potts has been forced to pick up little Ponce for running around soliciting shoeshines. Potts, along with the aforementioned Wingreen, has the distinction of having also appeared in the brief 1970 TV series San Francisco International Airport! That one has a pilot with Pernell Roberts, but the series starred Lloyd Bridges.

Gerard is still trying to fend off the lascivious advances of Greer. She tries to nail him down for a dinner date, but he's able to flee by car before committing. Greer went from this to a 22 episode stint on Falcon Crest. When her acting career trickled to a halt in the mid-1990s, she contributed about 1/4th of the dishy dirt found in the trashy bestseller "You'll Never Make Love in This Town Again," with her sister and a couple of prostitutes telling all the tales they could think of about Tinseltown and its voracious male residents.

Gerard, worried over his friend Reed's state of mind, contacts his wife and flies her down to the airport for a reunion. You won't believe who the wife is played by...

...The Towering Inferno (1974) and The Concorde: Airport '79's Susan Blakely in an atrocious wig that looks like it is on loan from Linda Evans' stunt double AFTER a tussle in the art studio, lily pond or some other Dynasty location! Having played Frances Farmer in 1983's reasonably acclaimed Will There Really Be a Morning?, prestige projects sort of dissipated for her while she busied herself in guest roles. Blakely did, however, continue plugging along and still works regularly today (recently appearing twice on This is Us.)

Finally, Gerard opens the threat letter that's been on his desk all day. He's stunned at its contents and asks Crowley, who is also shocked to read it, where it came from.

Thus, a conference with the information desk's Moffat, PR chief Tolbert and security chief is called. These four people (plus Crowley) were the folks who would have served as the regular weekly cast had this been sold as a series. With Gerard so similar to the character James Brolin was enacting on Hotel and the others basically just alternate incarnations of the same types on the other Spelling shows of this nature, it must have just been considered too much of a "good thing" to proceed further with it.

Tolbert has to jettison a group of Asian men she's showing around the airport in order to speak to the press.

Meanwhile, the plane has been requested to turn around, though they have no clue if and when a bomb may go off!  (Or even who, if anyone, on board may be there ready to detonate it!) A search is performed, but turns up nothing.

The passengers, alerted to what's happening, begin to panic somewhat. Things aren't improved when fuel is running low and it is decided that the luggage (which also might contain a bomb) needs to be jettisoned over the Pacific Ocean.

Kennedy, who's been assisting with the search of the plane, rips up the carpet and kicks a (sizeable to be safe!) hole in the floor so that he can hurl himself down to the cargo hold.

He and Williams (in what looks otherwise to be a dead-empty space!!) open the door and shove everyone's Samsonite out into the drink...!

Back at the airport, Bixby has had a meltdown and it's up to Gerard and Sellecca to talk the plane back home. (Bixby, despite his frayed nerves, never got upset enough to transform into The Incredible Hulk, his 1978-1982 series character!) After landing, the "bomber" is taken into custody and really all that's been lost is whatever was in the passengers' suitcases!

Finally, after a long grueling day on the job, Gerard pops over to his standing suite at the hotel for some shuteye, but is accosted once more by Greer! (Sometimes it looks like the highest ticket item in the movie's budget must have been hairspray!) She's leaving town the next day and wants to get her lovemaking in beforehand. But dedicated Gerard is far more interested in the airport...

Lame-O as this is, we still live for projects that would put together such Disaster Movie Club participants as Kennedy, Vaughn, Blakely, Gerard and, apparently Fred Sadoff (who played Linarcos in The Poseidon Adventure, 1972, though somehow I missed spotting him.) And Sellecca even earned her wings, of a sort, when she starred as a pilot in 1990's Miracle Landing, based on a true story, alongside Wayne Rogers and Ana Alicia.

Thanks for flying the friendly skies of Poseidon's Underworld! We'll be back before you know it with more fun.

Pop Quiz: Channeling More Movies

Though it may not seem like it from the lack of frequent posts here, I am still very busily preparing more upcoming treats and treasures from the world of vintage celebrities and their projects.  There are several pots boiling at once, but nothing fully cooked yet.  So in the meantime, I am going to throw down another Pop Quiz.  This one is a follow-up to the previous one, which was all about television series that were based on feature films.  Most of the earlier ones were obscure, and many of these are, too, but it's rather fun to discover their very existence!  See if you are surprised by not only some of the shows, but some of the people who starred in them. (Unless specified, the TV show title is the same as the movie that inspired it.) The photo above-left from In the Heat of the Night (1988 - 1995), based on the 1967 movie, is there to prevent the first answer's photo from popping up in capsule announcements for this site.

1.  The year 1982 brought to the screen a rustic one-hour drama based on a classic Hollywood musical from 1954.  The primary star of the show had made a splash on a TV soap opera from 1976 to 1981 before trying to get this series rolling.  It only lasted for one season (and in homage to its cinematic forefather, there was usually one song per episode.)  In 1985, he'd finally have a hit prime-time show that lasted until 1992.  A co-lead in this mystery show was making his on screen debut and in a reverse from the star of the show, would proceed to success on daytime, playing a primary role on Days of Our Lives for more than twenty-five years.  Other regulars included Peter Horton, who later found success on Thirtysomething from 1987 - 1991 and young River Phoenix, making his on screen debut.

2.  A far faster turnaround from movie to series came for our next program.  1987 had seen a smash hit comedy come from the premise of a successful, high-pressure careerwoman whose life is turned upside-down when a long-lost cousin suddenly passes away.  The series was on the air the next year, but wasn't able to gain a foothold, getting taken off after only seven episodes with one more airing six months later.  The series star had already headed the casts of two hit series, but floundered here.  In fact, it could be argued that her career has never been the same since.  The show also contained an outspoken female stand-up comic who later successfully broke into the talk show arena.

3.  A similarly swift transition from the screen to the tube happened with this next show.  A hit science-fiction movie from 1988 was on the air as a TV show in 1989.  Where the film had starred an established movie star, the series had to make due with a far lesser known personality in the lead (though it wound up with a pretty sprawling cast of characters.)  As with many sci-fi shows, a devout following sprang up, but it was cancelled after only one 22 episode season.  The irony was that the show was actually successful, but the fledgling Fox Network simply couldn't afford to continue making it. Later, a series of five TV-movies helped to resolve the storyline.

4.  A staggering comic hit in 1986, one that continues to have a strong following, including catchphrases, inspired a sitcom in 1990 that was only able to run for 13 episodes before being yanked.  The movie made a star out of its lead, who still works steadily today, while the TV series featured a young man named Charlie Schlatter who, while he has continued to enjoy continued work, never gained an ounce of his predecessor's fame.  A female costar (playing the lead's sister) later became a household name thanks to her part in a mega-hit ensemble sitcom.  The television series title was a shortened version of the cinematic one, which described the main character's circumstance at the time of the story.

5.  In 1989, Walt Disney put forth a family comedy that was an astonishing success, making back over twelve times its cost and inspiring two sequels.  After the third movie was produced (which was direct to video), the TV series was aired on The Disney Channel in 1997.  It ran for three seasons and starred Peter Scolari (who was Tom Hanks' costar on Bosom Buddies from 1980 - 1982) as the father who is constantly coming up with new inventions that puts his family in a variety of challenging scenarios.  The television version was called the same thing as the movie, but with ": The TV Show" added to the title.

6.  In 2002, the world was taken by storm thanks to one of the most profitable movies of all time.  The independent film, a romantic comedy made for $5 million saw a 6150% return!!  It raked in $368 million at the box office.  It's star, who'd previously been practically unknown, was suddenly everywhere and the very next year starred in a sitcom based on the extraordinary hit film (with a new, lesser-known, costar.)  Whereas people had flocked to see the movie in droves, the TV show was off the air within 7 episodes.  The series title was the same except for the last word being changed (the film's "event" was now in the past, making the title inappropriate for the series.)  Since this, the star has been seen scarcely, though with the money that was made, there is surely no fiscal need to work ever again!

7.  This next show was based on a 1963 comedy focusing on romance and parental relationships.  The star was an established Hollywood leading man who, in the movie, romanced a series of knockout dames played by Shirley Jones, Stella Stevens and Dina Merrill, all observed by his child, a notable young actor who even then was costarring on a popular series.  The television rendition of this story came along in 1969, running for three seasons.  The star of it had already enjoyed on successful sci-fi sitcom (1963 - 1966) and would later star in a well-received sci-fi drama series (1978 - 1982.)

8.  1980 brought a comic smash to the big screen about a quirky female who finds herself in a major fish-out-of-water scenario.  The film's star wasn't about to return to TV after significant success in the cinema, but the next year in 1981 a series version came about with two of the movie's costars on hand to help bolster the presence of a relative newcomer in the lead.  The TV actress had figured into a hit film in 1980 as well, but not as a primary star.  The series was reasonably successful, lasting until 1983, when one of its Emmy-winning stars was severely injured and forced to leave.  Soon afterwards, it was cancelled.

9.  Another hit comedy (yes, there's a pattern here.  For a while, most any cinematic comedy success was reworked for TV!) that hit screens in 1995 became a television show.  The film starred a young lady who was previously unknown apart from having played an obsessed fourteen year-old two years prior.  She proceeded to a brief, but healthy, movie career.  In 1996, a child actress now grown named Rachel Blanchard took on the primary role in the series version.  ABC prematurely cancelled the series before burning off episodes on a different night where it suddenly became successful!  UPN then picked it up where it limped along until 1999.

10.  In 1976, a Walter Matthau hit comedy led to two sequels (in 1977 and 1978), each with a different male star, but all focusing on a collection of misfits.  In 1979, the concept was brought to television, this time starring Jack Warden.  The show ran for two abbreviated seasons, ending in 1980.  Among its cast were Meeno Peluce, who would later star in Voyagers! with Jon-Erik Hexum, Corey Feldman, who went on to movie success, and Kristoff St. John, who grew up to work successfully on The Young and the Restless.

11.  An early example of a buddy movie was this hit action comedy from 1974 about two San Francisco detectives going up against racketeers and hit men.  Later, in 1980, the concept was reworked into a series starring Tom Mason and Hector Elizondo.  The show was yanked after only 9 episodes never to be seen or heard from again for all practical purposes.

12.  This one should be quite a surprise, I should think.  In 1944, one of America's most revered singers won acclaim for his role in a movie (the highest grossing picture of that year, in fact.)  In 1962, one of America's most revered dancers starred in a series based upon that film.  The show only lasted for one season, ending in 1963 and its star never worked in television again except for two miniseries appearances and the obligatory (in this case, two-part) episode of The Love Boat.

13.  1973 brought a monster hit comedy, set about forty years in the past.  The very next year in 1974, a version was developed for television.  The star of the TV series had once played the brother of the actor who starred in the movie from 1964 to 1969 when they'd costarred on a prime-time series together.  The TV version of the smash film was unable to find an audience and was cancelled after just 13 episodes.  One of the stars, however, went on to considerable Oscar glory.

14.  Another buddy movie, this one from 1980 (and the second of four that the stars made together, all unrelated), had been a terrific success and spawned a television rendition.  The 1985 series was a flop almost from the start.  The pilot had included Polly Holliday (Flo of Alice), but she was fired and replaced with a younger, sexier actress after testing the pilot with audiences.  It was pulled after six episodes, then brought back briefly, barely lasting into 1986.  One star, Joe Guzaldo, kept working and still does, but remains unknown.  The other, Larry Riley, proceeded to a stint on Knots Landing from 1988 - 1992, but died from AIDS at only age thirty-nine.

15.  Our final TV series in this quiz was based on a modest hit comedy from 1986 about culture clashes in the automobile industry.  Beating a path to television airwaves, a series debuted that very same year!  The movie had starred a comic actor who scored several hits in the 1980s and maintained a leading man career into the 1990s, but the series starred a total newcomer.  The newcomer later scored two sci-fi TV success (one from 1989 - 1993 and another from 2001 - 2005) as well as several movies.  This show, however, was off the air after just nine episodes.

And now, here come the answers!  (Photographic was easier to come by for some of these shows than for others, hence a few of them only have one picture to represent them.)

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1.  Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was based on Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and starred Richard Dean Anderson (of General Hospital and, later, MacGuyver fame.)  Drake Hogestyn proceeded to play Roman Brady/John Black on Days of Our Lives.

2.  Baby Boom was based on Baby Boom and starred Kate Jackson of Charlie's Angels and The Scarecrow and Mrs. King.  The View's Joy Behar played her nanny in one of her earliest acting gigs.

3.  Alien Nation was based on Alien Nation.  The movie starred James Caan (and Mandy Patinkin) while the series starred Gary Graham.

4.  Ferris Beuller was based on Ferris Beuller's Day Off, which starred Matthew Broderick.  Costarring on the series with Schlatter was a young Jennifer Aniston (of Friends) in one of her earliest jobs.

5.  Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show was inspired by Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.  Rick Moranis had played the lead in the original.

6.  My Big Fat Greek Life was based on Nia Vardalos' My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  Film star John Corbett was replaced in the series due to his unavailability by Steven Eckholdt.

7.  The Courtship of Eddie's Father was based on The Courtship of Eddie's Father.  Glenn Ford starred in the movie with Ronny Howard, while Bill Bixby (of My Favorite Martian and The Incredible Hulk) and Brandon Cruz starred in the series.

8.  Private Benjamin was based on Private Benjamin, which starred Goldie Hawn.  Lorna Patterson of Airplane! starred in the TV version along with the film's costars Eileen Brennan and Hall Williams.  Brennan's accidental run-in with a moving car sadly put her life and career on hold for three years.

9.  Clueless was based on Clueless, which starred Alicia Silverstone.

10.  The Bad News Bears was based on The Bad News Bears.  The sequels had starred Tony Curtis and William Devane as the coaches of a little league baseball team.

11.  Freebie and the Bean was based on Freebie and the Bean, which starred James Caan and Alan Arkin in the title roles.

12.  Going My Way was based on Going My Way.  Bing Crosby won an Oscar for the movie while Gene Kelly played the part of Father O'Malley on the small screen.

13.  Paper Moon was based on Paper Moon.  The movie starred real-life father-daughter team Ryan O'Neal and Tatum O'Neal while the TV show starred Christopher Connelly and Jodie Foster.  Connelly and O'Neal had played brothers on Peyton Place.  Foster went on to win two Best Actress Oscars as an adult.

14.  Stir Crazy was based on Stir Crazy, a Gene Wilder-Richard Pryor comedy.

15.  Gung Ho was based on Gung Ho.  Michael Keaton starred in the movie while the series starred Scott Bakula (of Quantum Leap and Enterprise.)