Line #10 Series/PinkLadyAndJeff


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pinkladyandjeff_1354.jpg]]
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4	An American VarietyShow starring [[JapanesePopMusic Japanese pop]] duo Pink Lady (Mitsuyo "Mie" Nemoto and Keiko "Kei" Masuda) and comedian Jeff Altman.
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6	Pink Lady were superstars in their native country with a string of million-selling singles stretching back to 1976. In 1979, they made a serious run at the American market, appearing on a Creator/LeifGarrett TV special and releasing an English-language album, which included a minor U.S. Top 40 hit, "Kiss in the Dark" (the first song by a Japanese act to hit the North American charts since 1963). [[note]](They also hosted ''The Chance!'', a Japanese version of ''Series/ThePriceIsRight''. Clips can be seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDuA-jyUZ3g here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQhMyQxmbrU here]]. And they were the subjects of a biographical TV anime series, though due to scheduling conflicts they did not voice themselves ''or'' sing the theme songs.)[[/note]] For a time, Pink Lady's record sales in Japan ''alone'' surpassed the global record sales of ''every other pop group'', including Music/{{ABBA}}.
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8	In 1980, Creator/{{NBC}} head Fred Silverman saw a Walter Cronkite report about the duo. 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 greenlit their own variety show. It was helmed by [[Creator/SidAndMartyKrofftProductions Sid and Marty Krofft]], featuring Creator/MarkEvanier as head writer and seasoned variety show veteran Art Fisher as director.
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10	Mie and Kei did not speak English (the songs on their earlier U.S. album were recorded phonetically), so the producers brought in then-unknown comedian Jeff Altman to co-host the program, as he was under contract to NBC. The girls learned their few English lines phonetically, making improvisation or even much interaction with Jeff impossible. Plus, they weren't allowed to sing the songs that made them popular in Japan, instead being forced to sing covers of American disco hits [[DiscoSucks as the genre was rapidly losing its popularity]].
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12	The show was canceled after five episodes, [[GenreKiller taking the already-dying variety show genre with it.]] A sixth episode never aired. Pink Lady ended up disbanding less than a year later (though they have reunited a few times in the years since).
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14	!!''Pink Lady and Jeff'' contains examples of:
15	* 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 [[Film/ErnestPWorrell Jim Varney]].
16	* {{Fanservice}}: Each show ended with Mie and Kei luring a tuxedoed Jeff into a hot tub. Jeff tried to convince the writers to do away with the segment, but he was shot down in favor of what was basically an excuse to see [[AuthorAppeal two attractive Japanese women in bikinis]].
17	* FauxFluency: 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...
18	* HotterAndSexier: The show was a spicier take on the VarietyShow format to make it palatable for the more jaded tastes of the post-Watergate era. It would become a key example of why the first wave of {{Jiggle Show}}s didn't get past 1980.
19	* 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.
20	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: A running gag was about how little the girls knew or understood about American culture. Which made sense, considering they didn't even fluently speak the language of the country their show aired in.
21	* SexSells: Pretty much the reason for the RunningGag with Pink Lady stripping down to bikinis for "Hot Tub Time" at the end of every episode.
22	** Not only that, but one episode's guest stars were Hugh Hefner and some of the then-current Playmates.
23	* ShortRunner: Six episodes, of which only five made it to air before cancellation.

Context Series / PinkLadyAndJeff