History Series / PinkLadyAndJeff

As the story goes, in 1980, Creator/{{NBC}} head Fred Silverman saw a Walter Cronkite report on a popular [[JapanesePopMusic Japanese pop]] duo called Pink Lady. Echoing a similar situation with Ed Sullivan and Music/TheBeatles in 1964 (when Sullivan saw the Beatles in a Cronkite report and immediately booked them) Silverman, not-unreasonably, thought that importing a couple of gorgeous, intriguingly exotic young pop stars would be a HUGE success in the United States.

And wouldn't you know it, the show died after five episodes, [[GenreKiller taking the already-dying variety show genre with it.]] It gained a reputation as one of the worst TV shows ever.

* FollowTheLeader: Silverman ordered PL&J to follow in the footsteps of ''Series/DonnyAndMarie''. This led to what TheOtherWiki calls [[DerivativeDifferentiation "...the strangest knockoff of ''Donny & Marie'' ever broadcast."]] See ExecutiveMeddling in the Trivia tab.

As the story goes, in 1980, Creator/{{NBC}} head Fred Silverman saw a Walter Cronkite report on a popular [[JapanesePopMusic Japanese pop]] duo called Pink Lady. Echoing a similar situation with Ed Sullivan and Music/TheBeatles in 1964 (when Sullivan saw the Beatles in a Cronkite report and immediately booked them), Silverman, not-unreasonably, thought that importing a couple of gorgeous, intriguingly exotic young pop stars would be a HUGE success in the United States.

* DropInCharacter: Since the show was already suffering in the beginning, NBC decided to bring in an ensemble cast of comedy players to try and help boost the slumping ratings, including a then-unknown [[RetroactiveRecognition Jim]] [[ErnestPWorrell Varney]].

Well... just for starters, somehow Silverman had managed to book a Japanese pop group for prime-time American television ''without bothering to inquire if they knew any English whatsoever''. Which--surprise!--it turned out they didn't. So the producers brought in then-unknown comedian Jeff Altman (who was under contract to NBC) as a co-host, based solely on the fact that, hey, he was under contract.

* FollowTheLeader: Silverman ordered PL&J to follow in the footsteps of ''Series/DonnyAndMarie''. This led to what TheOtherWiki calls [[DerivativeDifferentiation "...the strangest knockoff of ''Donny And Marie'' ever broadcast."]] See ExecutiveMeddling in the Trivia tab.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: The show was actually called ''Pink Lady'', since the girls' manager demanded that the show be Pink Lady's and Pink Lady's ONLY. Except you wouldn't know it [[http://www.platypuscomix.net/bored/tvguideads5.html from the adverts at the time]], which billed it as ''Pink Lady And Jeff'', and which pissed off the band's manager to the point where he threatened to sue ([[ShortRunner which was a moot point anyway]]). At the same time, Jeff Altman's manager demanded the show be named ''Pink Lady And Jeff'', since he was, for all intents and purposes, the anchor of the show. In the public consciousness, the show is still referred to by the latter name, and was even listed as ''Pink Lady And Jeff'' on the DVD release.

As the story goes, in 1980, Creator/{{NBC}} head Fred Silverman saw a Walter Cronkite report on a popular [[JapanesePopMusic Japanese pop]] duo called Pink Lady. Echoing a similar situation with Ed Sullivan and Music/TheBeatles in 1964 (when Sullivan saw the Beatles in a Cronkite report and immediately booked them), Silverman, not-unreasonably, thought that importing a couple of gorgeous, talented, intriguingly exotic young women would be a HUGE success in the United States.

Well... just for starters, somehow Silverman had booked a Japanese pop group for American television without bothering to inquire if they knew any English whatsoever. Which--surprise!--it turned out they didn't. So the producers brought in then-unknown comedian Jeff Altman (who was under contract to NBC) as a co-host, based solely on the fact that, hey, he was under contract.

As the story goes, in 1980, Creator/{{NBC}} head Fred Silverman saw a Walter Cronkite report on a popular [[JapanesePopMusic Japanese pop]] duo called Pink Lady. Echoing a similar situation with Ed Sullivan and Music/TheBeatles in 1964 (Sullivan saw the Beatles in a Cronkite report and immediately booked them), Silverman thought that Pink Lady would be a HUGE success in the United States.

So he gave the two lovely young members of Pink Lady, Mitsuyo "Mie" Nemoto and Keiko "Kei" Masuda, a variety show (also called ''Pink Lady''), to be helmed by [[Creator/SidAndMartyKrofftProductions Sid and Marty Krofft]], featuring Creator/MarkEvanier as head writer and seasoned variety show director Art Fisher as director.

Well, just for starters, somehow Silverman had booked a Japanese pop group for American television without bothering to inquire if they knew any English whatsoever. Which--surprise!--it turned out they didn't. So the producers brought in then-unknown comedian Jeff Altman (who was under contract to NBC) as a co-host, based solely on the fact that, hey, he was under contract.

[-[[caption-width-right:350: [[SarcasmMode At least the got the 'pink' part right...]]]]-]

So he gave the members of Pink Lady, Mitsuyo "Mie" Nemoto and Keiko "Kei" Masuda, a variety show (also called ''Pink Lady''), to be helmed by [[Creator/SidAndMartyKrofftProductions Sid and Marty Krofft]], featuring Creator/MarkEvanier as head writer and seasoned variety show director Art Fisher as director.

[-[[caption-width-right:350: [[SarcasmMode Television at its finest]].]]-]

So he gave the two members of Pink Lady, Mitsuyo "Mie" Nemoto and Keiko "Kei" Masuda, a variety show (also called ''Pink Lady''), to be helmed by [[Creator/SidAndMartyKrofftProductions Sid and Marty Krofft]], featuring Creator/MarkEvanier as head writer and seasoned variety show director Art Fisher as director.

Well, right from the beginning, the show was destined for failure. Somehow, Silverman had booked a Japanese pop group for American television without bothering to inquire if they knew any English whatsoever. Which--surprise!--it turned out they didn't. So the producers brought in then-unknown comedian Jeff Altman (who was under contract to NBC) as a co-host, based solely on the fact that, well hey, he was under contract.

Then came ''Pink Lady And Jeff''.

Mie and Kei were assigned cliched American-style "personalities" (basically, one was cute and sassy, the other cute and shy) and learned their few English lines phonetically, making improvisation or even much interaction with Jeff impossible. Plus, the girls weren't allowed to sing the songs that made them popular in Japan; instead they were forced to sing covers of American disco hits. Which, if you recall your music history, [[DeaderThanDisco wasn't a good thing in 1980.]]

Mie and Kei were assigned cliched American-style "personalities" (basically, one was cute and sassy, the other cute and shy) and learned their few English lines phonetically, making improvisation or even much interaction with Jeff impossible. Plus, the girls weren't allowed to sing the songs that made them popular in Japan, and were only allowed to sing covers of American disco hits. Which, if you recall your music history, [[DeaderThanDisco wasn't a good thing in 1980.]]

Well, right from the beginning, the show was destined for failure. Somehow, Silverman had booked a Japanese pop group for American television without bothering to inquire if they knew any English whatsoever, which--surprise!--it turned out they didn't. So the producers brought in then-unknown comedian Jeff Altman (who was under contract to NBC) as a co-host, based solely on the fact that, well hey, he was under contract.

Ah, the VarietyShow. A quirky mish-mash of musical acts and comedy sketches. Definitely the highlight of television entertainment in TheSeventies.

Well, right from the beginning, the show was destined for failure. Somehow, Silverman had booked a Japanese pop group without bothering to inquire if they knew any English whatsoever, which--surprise!--it turned out they didn't. So the producers brought in then-unknown comedian Jeff Altman (who was under contract to NBC) as a co-host, based solely on the fact that, well hey, he was under contract.

Well, right from the beginning, the show was destined for failure. Mie and Kei didn't know a word of English, so the producers brought in comedian Jeff Altman (who was under contract to NBC) as a co-host. Mie and Kei learned their few English lines phonetically.

Plus, the girls weren't allowed to sing the songs that made them popular in Japan, and were only allowed to sing covers of American disco hits. Which, if you recall your music history, [[DeaderThanDisco wasn't a good thing in 1980.]]

So he gave the two members of Pink Lady, Mitsuyo "Mie" Nemoto and Keiko "Kei" Masuda, a variety show (also called ''Pink Lady''), to be helmed by [[SidAndMartyKrofftProductions Sid and Marty Krofft]], featuring Creator/MarkEvanier as head writer and seasoned variety show director Art Fisher as director.

* {{Faux Fluency}}: Part of the reason why the skits featured in each episode were so unfunny was because Mie and Kei could not speak a word of English. All their lines were learned phonetically, making improvisation impossible. Also, they were unintelligible half of the time anyway...

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: The show was actually called ''Pink Lady'', since the girls' manager demanded that the show be Pink Lady's and Pink Lady's ONLY. Except you wouldn't know it [[http://www.platypuscomix.net/bored/tvguideads5.html from the adverts at the time]], which billed it as ''Pink Lady And Jeff'', and which pissed off the band's manager to the point where he threatened to sue ([[ShortRunner which was a moot point anyway]]). In the public consciousness, the show is still referred to by the latter name, and was even listed as ''Pink Lady And Jeff'' on the DVD release.
** At the same time, Jeff Altman's manager demanded the show be named ''Pink Lady And Jeff'', since he was, for all intents and purposes, the anchor of the show.

* SexSells: Pretty much the reason the RunningGag with Pink Lady stripping down to bikinis for, "Hot Tub Time," at the end of every episode.

* {{Faux Fluency}}: Part of the reason why the skits featured in each episode were so unfunny are because Mie and Kei could not speak a word of English. All their lines were learned phonetically, making improvisation impossible. Also, they were unintelligible half of the time anyway...

* FollowTheLeader: Silverman ordered PL&J to follow in the footsteps of ''Series/DonnyAndMarie''. This led to what TheOtherWiki calls [[DerivativeDifferentiation "...the strangest knockoff of ''Donny And Marie'' ever broadcast."]] See ExecutiveMeddling above.

* OldShame: Even Marty Krofft is aware (and pretty much agrees) that this was one of the worst shows ever made in the history of television, and has acknowledged that ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' has even done a spoof of it once.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Big time. Basically, NBC just up and had Sid & Marty Krofft make this show for them (and lied to them in the process when Marty asked if the girls knew how to speak English). Secondly, Sid outlined the entire show, coming up with the idea that the entire show would play out of a Japanese music box... which NBC shot down in favor of a ''DonnyAndMarie'' clone (seriously, [[WordOfGod Marty Krofft actually said in an interview that NBC refused Sid's proposal/pitch, and told them, point-blank, "No, let's just do ''Donny and Marie'']]). Lastly, see DropInCharacter above. This eventually lead to its premature, yet well-timed cancelation.

* FollowTheLeader: Silverman ordered PL&J to follow in the footsteps of ''Series/DonnyAndMarie''. This led to what TheOtherWiki calls [[DerivativeDifferentiation "...the strangest knockoff of ''Donny And Marie'' ever broadcast."]]

* FollowTheLeader: Silverman ordered PL&J to follow in the footsteps of ''DonnyAndMarie''. This led to what TheOtherWiki calls [[DerivativeDifferentiation "...the strangest knockoff of ''Donny And Marie'' ever broadcast."]]
* FridayNightDeathSlot: NBC put it there presumably as a mercy kill.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Averted for a short time. Rhino Entertainment briefly released the entire series onto DVD in 2001. Right now, the DVD set is out of print, but it can fetch a pretty penny on eBay--sets routinely sell for over $100, and have even reached as high as $175!

* GenreKiller: Though it definitely wasn't the last, PL&J's failure convinced programmers that the VarietyShow genre was no longer viable.

* StarDerailingRole: Pink Lady's popularity in Japan had peaked in 1978, and by 1980 they had been rocked by a few scandals that had pushed their Japanese record sales into decline. So they shifted their focus to the United States, and ultimately gambled on PL&J [[CareerResurrection reviving their careers]]. Except [[CaptainObvious it didn't work out]], and they disbanded a year later.
* WriterRevolt: Art Fisher HATED directing this show, which he was required to do since he was under contract. This led to some behind-the-scenes tension.

[[caption-width-right:350:Television at its finest.]]

As the story goes, in 1980, Creator/{{NBC}} head Fred Silverman saw a Walter Cronkite report on a popular [[JapanesePopMusic Japanese pop]] duo called Pink Lady. Echoing a similar situation with Ed Sullivan and TheBeatles in 1964 (Sullivan saw the Beatles in a Cronkite report and immediately booked them), Silverman thought that Pink Lady would be a HUGE success in the United States.

So he gave the two members of Pink Lady, Mitsuyo "Mie" Nemoto and Keiko "Kei" Masuda, a variety show (also called ''Pink Lady''), to be helmed by [[SidAndMartyKrofftProductions Sid and Marty Krofft]], featuring MarkEvanier as head writer and seasoned variety show director Art Fisher as director.

As the story goes, in 1980, NBC head Fred Silverman saw a Walter Cronkite report on a popular [[JapanesePopMusic Japanese pop]] duo called Pink Lady. Echoing a similar situation with Ed Sullivan and TheBeatles in 1964 (Sullivan saw the Beatles in a Cronkite report and immediately booked them), Silverman thought that Pink Lady would be a HUGE success in the United States.