I saw a promo for Moonlighting before it ever aired and saw that Cybil took a wonderful pie in the face. You folks weren't around to watch it for me and post it on here in 1985, so I had to watch every episode to make sure I caught it. (VCRs were juuuust becoming popular then and I didn't have one.)
Well, the pie scene didn't happen until the end of the 7th episode. So I watched 7 episodes of Moonlighting to get to it. It was a meh scene until Cybil got nailed. Unfortunately, the show ended 3 seconds later. The good part was that I ended up discovering a GREAT show that I would end up watching every episode of. It had wonderful dialogue, smartly written, fast paced, and witty as hell.
So.... did anyone here discover a show or a movie that they REALLY liked and never would have watched without the WAM draw?
Bozo1 said: I saw a promo for Moonlighting before it ever aired and saw that Cybil took a wonderful pie in the face. You folks weren't around to watch it for me and post it on here in 1985, so I had to watch every episode to make sure I caught it. (VCRs were juuuust becoming popular then and I didn't have one.)
Well, the pie scene didn't happen until the end of the 7th episode. So I watched 7 episodes of Moonlighting to get to it. It was a meh scene until Cybil got nailed. Unfortunately, the show ended 3 seconds later. The good part was that I ended up discovering a GREAT show that I would end up watching every episode of. It had wonderful dialogue, smartly written, fast paced, and witty as hell.
Remember it well, Bozo, but here in the UK it premiered in 1986, if I remember rightly. There were several messy slapstick scenes with Cybil including paint and falling into cement. I actually liked the show. Genuinely funny. Probably Bruce Willis's finest hour.
My answer to your question would be Noel Edmond's Saturday Roadshow and House Party. As entertainment in their own right they were dreadful and - especially with later NHPs - the female gungings were few and far between. NSR's gungings were reliable and predominantly female, initially, and ran to time each week. It then began to go downhill in series 2. By NHP the outstanding memories are very much of wasted hours I'd never get back.
Bozo1 said: You folks weren't around to watch it for me and post it on here in 1985, so I had to watch every episode to make sure I caught it. (VCRs were juuuust becoming popular then and I didn't have one.)
So.... did anyone here discover a show or a movie that they REALLY liked and never would have watched without the WAM draw?
I had a VCR 13 years before 1985. I bought the first home consumer VCR in 1972 when Philips made their 1 inch tape format VTR and then I switched to Betamax machines from 1976-79 before migrating to VHS machines after 1979.
I would say that about 90% of tv shows and movies I have watched are shows that I would never have tuned into if it were not for the Wam scenes in those shows. Let's face it, TISWAS and Noel's Houseparty were not exactly Shakespeare or Masterpiece Theater. You lose a few brain cells any time you watch a tv show or movie that has wam scenes. That is why I try to offset things by watching loads of tv documentaries, science and historical shows and movies that are more stimulating for the mind.
Thank goodness for DVRs and remote controls that have mute buttons and fast forward controls (I think I would go insane if I had to listen to Fran Drescher in "The Nanny" without a mute button) because the way I try to avoid losing too many brain cells is that I have a general policy of "I never watch the full length wam shows that I record.....and I never record those shows that I watch in real time".
The scuttlebutt was that Cybil had to convince Willis (the putative '3Stooges' fan) to do the pie scene (which he opposed)...she would later prove to her fans her love of messy slapstick with several scenes in her self-named show (with Morgan Fairchild, famously).
wamajama said: The scuttlebutt was that Cybil had to convince Willis (the putative '3Stooges' fan) to do the pie scene (which he opposed)...she would later prove to her fans her love of messy slapstick with several scenes in her self-named show (with Morgan Fairchild, famously).
Bozo1 said: I saw a promo for Moonlighting before it ever aired and saw that Cybil took a wonderful pie in the face. You folks weren't around to watch it for me and post it on here in 1985, so I had to watch every episode to make sure I caught it. (VCRs were juuuust becoming popular then and I didn't have one.)
Well, the pie scene didn't happen until the end of the 7th episode. So I watched 7 episodes of Moonlighting to get to it. It was a meh scene until Cybil got nailed. Unfortunately, the show ended 3 seconds later. The good part was that I ended up discovering a GREAT show that I would end up watching every episode of. It had wonderful dialogue, smartly written, fast paced, and witty as hell.
Remember it well, Bozo, but here in the UK it premiered in 1986, if I remember rightly. There were several messy slapstick scenes with Cybil including paint and falling into cement. I actually liked the show. Genuinely funny. Probably Bruce Willis's finest hour.
My answer to your question would be Noel Edmond's Saturday Roadshow and House Party. As entertainment in their own right they were dreadful and - especially with later NHPs - the female gungings were few and far between. NSR's gungings were reliable and predominantly female, initially, and ran to time each week. It then began to go downhill in series 2. By NHP the outstanding memories are very much of wasted hours I'd never get back.
I recall the paint scene, but not the cement. And didn't they fall into a pool or something?
I recall the paint scene, but not the cement. And didn't they fall into a pool or something?
The cement scene is brief but she steps backwards into a pool of setting sidewalk, plants her back side in it and then gets up and leaves her heels behind as she clambers out. I saw it again years later and of course it was nowhere near as impactful as the memory of first time around. But nice.
I remember a scene where Bruce Willis had the firehose and sprayed Cybill Shepherd in her white shirt and white pants. I use to watch the show, I liked it.
There are some interesting parallels between Moonlighting and Remington Steele. Both shows were on at the same time and had the same style of light action comedy, and both shows contained lots of wet and messy scenes, so were alway a good source for wam entertainment. Interestingly both shows starred male and female actors who hated each other in real life....and in both cases the male actors went onto to become major Hollywood superstars while the female leads only had minor tv careers. Perhaps that is why both the females hated their male co stars, because they had some resentment to their meteoric rise in Hollywood while their careers did not take off the same way.
The 80's were great for light entertainment tv shows like Moonlighting and Remington Steele and always had lots slapstick moments....it's a shame they don't make shows like this any more.
A similar style show at that time was "Hart to Hart" and in that show the male and female lead actors were already well established movie stars long before they made tv series, so in that case the 2 stars were equal in stature to each other and got along with each other really well on the set....so that show had genuine chemistry....while Moonlighting and Remington Steele only had a false chemistry because you could sense the tension that the 2 lead actors did not like each other.
I am not familiar with any WAM on Remington Steele. But I am certainly interested because I always thought Stephanie Zimbalist was gorgeous. Moreso than Cybill, who wasn't bad. Any links?
Bozo1 said: I am not familiar with any WAM on Remington Steele. But I am certainly interested because I always thought Stephanie Zimbalist was gorgeous. Moreso than Cybill, who wasn't bad. Any links?
Mostly wet scenes, but she did do one pie scene and one mud fight scene...
From my wam database
MK36 REMINGTON STEELE 1986 USA STEPHANIE STEPHANIE FALLS OVER WATERFALL AND IS ZIMBALIST RESCUED 1301 REMINGTON STEELE 1985 USA STEPHANIE STEPHANIE GETS A PIE IN THE FACE ZIMBALIST MK36 REMINGTON STEELE 1986 USA STEPHANIE STEPHANIE DIVES INTO A POOL TO CAPTURE A ZIMBALIST SUSPECT MK37 REMINGTON STEELE 1985 USA STEPHANIE STEPHANIE IN WET JEANS IN A CAR IN A ZIMBALIST LAKE MK74 REMINGTON STEELE 1985 USA STEPHANIE STEPHANIE RISING FROM SEA IN WET BLOUSE ZIMBALIST & PANTS MK96 REMINGTON STEELE 1984 USA STEPHANIE STEPHANIE IN JEANS IN THE SHOWER ZIMBALIST MK134 REMINGTON STEELE 1986 USA STEPHANIE STEPHANIE IN JEANS IN THE RIVER ZIMBALIST 0107 REMINGTON STEELE 1988 USA STEPHANIE STEPHANIE TACKLES A MAN IN THE MUD ZIMBALIST MK184 REMINGTON STEELE 1988 USA STEPHANIE STEPHANIE IN PINK JEANS & BLOUSE IN THE ZIMBALIST SEA MK246 REMINGTON STEELE 1986 USA STEPANIE STEPHANIE IN BLACK JEANS IN A FLOODED ZIMBALIST ROOM MK246 REMINGTON STEELE 1986 USA ANN DUSENBERRY ANN IN A PURPLE DRESS, KNOCKED INTO THE POOL MK251 REMINGTON STEELE 1984 USA STEPHANIE STEPHANIE IN WET JEANS UNDER THE SHOWER ZIMBALIST 0401 REMINGTON STEELE (5301) 1986 USA STEPHANIE STEPHANIE UNDERWATER WITH SNAKES, FULLY ZIMBALIST CLOTHED MK78 REMINGTON STEELE (TV MOVIE) 1988 USA STEPHANIE STEPHANIE IN A BLUE DRESS IN RIVER ZIMBALIST RAPIDS
Stephanie is the same as Donna Mills.....i.e. great looking and never been married...but don't get your hopes up because they have never had long term boyfriends and prefer to live alone with their pet dogs. Personally, Donna Mills looks better today at 77 than Stephanie does at 61. But then look at how Raquel Welch looks today at 78.....wow.
Bozo1 said: I am not familiar with any WAM on Remington Steele. But I am certainly interested because I always thought Stephanie Zimbalist was gorgeous. Moreso than Cybill, who wasn't bad. Any links?
There was a whole episode about a couple of singing telegram girls that inadvertently hit a murderer (John Larroquette) with a giant pie.
I remember that Stephanie pie from many (many MANY) cliptapes. Apparently you weren't allowed to trade a cliptape with WAMTEC Mark unless you had either this scene or The Great Race.
This would've been a classic scene... if the other actress had made even the TINIEST effort to nail her well. As is, it's an off-center hit and one of those "missed opportunity" scenes, along with Kim Whatshername from Wings.
wamtec said: There are some interesting parallels between Moonlighting and Remington Steele. Interestingly both shows starred male and female actors who hated each other in real life....and in both cases the male actors went onto to become major Hollywood superstars while the female leads only had minor tv careers. Perhaps that is why both the females hated their male co stars, because they had some resentment to their meteoric rise in Hollywood while their careers did not take off the same way.
I feel like you're selling Cybill Shepherd short here. By the time Moonlighting started, she was already 15 years into her career and Moonlighting was definitely a "comeback" role for her. Willis had done nothing before it and it definitely catapulted him into Hollywood stardom, but Shepherd went on to have steady TV work from this point forward, which back then (and even now) is probably the best an actress in her 40s can hope for.
Also, if we're talking quality of work here, Cybill has just as many top-notch films (Last Picture Show and Taxi Driver) as Willis (Die Hard and Pulp Fiction). Let's also point out that Willis has made TONS of shitty movies, some of which were so bad (Hudson Hawk, Bonfire of The Vanities) that Pulp Fiction was already a "comeback role" for him.... barely 7 years after Die Hard! Shepherd, by contrast, made a couple bad movies in the late 70s and basically never got decent Hollywood roles again.
Anyway, enough about gender inequality.... Back to talking about actresses getting nailed with pies! (And yeah, Cybill's is one of the best TV pieings EVER.... just needs more aftermath!)
SStuff said: I feel like you're selling Cybill Shepherd short here. By the time Moonlighting started, she was already 15 years into her career and Moonlighting was definitely a "comeback" role for her. Willis had done nothing before it and it definitely catapulted him into Hollywood stardom, but Shepherd went on to have steady TV work from this point forward, which back then (and even now) is probably the best an actress in her 40s can hope for.
Also, if we're talking quality of work here, Cybill has just as many top-notch films (Last Picture Show and Taxi Driver) as Willis (Die Hard and Pulp Fiction). Let's also point out that Willis has made TONS of shitty movies, some of which were so bad (Hudson Hawk, Bonfire of The Vanities) that Pulp Fiction was already a "comeback role" for him.... barely 7 years after Die Hard! Shepherd, by contrast, made a couple bad movies in the late 70s and basically never got decent Hollywood roles again.
Anyway, enough about gender inequality.... Back to talking about actresses getting nailed with pies! (And yeah, Cybill's is one of the best TV pieings EVER.... just needs more aftermath!)
I think you hit the nail on the head as to why Cybill hated Bruce so much....gender inequality . Cybill was never a leading lady or headliner in her career, She was a former model who always had supporting actress roles. As you say, Bruce came from nowhere and had a meteoric rise to become a lead actor (so did Pierce Brosnan) and Cybill has stated in interviews the resentment she had that the male actors could grow old and still be offered the leading roles in movies while few women over the age of 30 could get the plumb roles in movies (and if they did....all those roles went to Meryl Streep),
It does not matter whether Bruce Willis made great movies or whether they were turkeys.....so long as the box office ticket sales were good, then Bruce got paid millions. I recently watched Bruce''s latest film, a remake of the Charles Bronson film "Death Wish".....and the film is crap compared to the original and Bruce Willis seems to be cruising his way thru the film in order to collect his 10 million dollar pay check, The filmmakers and Willis don't care that the film sucks and Willis appears to be acting as if he sleeping much of the time. All they care about is the that film cost 30 million to make and has made almost 50 million at the box office so it has made a 20 million dollar profit, and so Bruce is content with his 10 million dollar paycheck.
I think what Cybill objects to is that middle aged male actors often get offered leading roles and collect big paychecks for making bad films.....while middle aged female actors never get those same offers.....but it all boils down to ticket sales.....i.e.most of Willis' films make a profit, regardless of whether they are good or bad.
wamtec said: .but it all boils down to ticket sales.....i.e.most of Willis' films make a profit, regardless of whether they are good or bad.
Huh. The film you just mentioned (Death Wish) only shows a profit of $34 million and a cost of $30 million.... and anyone who knows how films are promoted (AKA, the promotional budget is usually 1/2 the cost of the movie up to the entire cost) could tell you this one has actually LOST money. Now, maybe $50 million is worldwide? Still, it's barely breaking even. I have to think the studio is regretting paying Willis $10 mil (if that's what he got).... as he clearly didn't help the BO, and a $20 mil genre picture would've been profitable.
But yes, the studios don't care if the movies get bad reviews IF they make money. That's why we're up to 6 Die Hards now. But again, the movies I mentioned (Hudson Hawk and Bonfire) were famously financial DISASTERS for the studios involved. Bonfire cost $47 mil and lost $32 mil (not counting promo costs), Hudson Hawk coast $65 mil and lost $48 mil!!
Frankly, between Die Hard and Pulp Fiction, Willis only had one major success (Die Hard 2) if you don't count his voice in the talking baby movies (Look Who's Talking 1 & 2). And several outright flops that lost millions. He's had a nice long career, but his presence is FAR from a guarantee that the movie will turn a profit.
wamtec said: .but it all boils down to ticket sales.....i.e.most of Willis' films make a profit, regardless of whether they are good or bad.
Huh. The film you just mentioned (Death Wish) only shows a profit of $34 million and a cost of $30 million.... and anyone who knows how films are promoted (AKA, the promotional budget is usually 1/2 the cost of the movie up to the entire cost) could tell you this one has actually LOST money. Now, maybe $50 million is worldwide? Still, it's barely breaking even. I have to think the studio is regretting paying Willis $10 mil (if that's what he got).... as he clearly didn't help the BO, and a $20 mil genre picture would've been profitable.
But yes, the studios don't care if the movies get bad reviews IF they make money. That's why we're up to 6 Die Hards now. But again, the movies I mentioned (Hudson Hawk and Bonfire) were famously financial DISASTERS for the studios involved. Bonfire cost $47 mil and lost $32 mil (not counting promo costs), Hudson Hawk coast $65 mil and lost $48 mil!!
Frankly, between Die Hard and Pulp Fiction, Willis only had one major success (Die Hard 2) if you don't count his voice in the talking baby movies (Look Who's Talking 1 & 2). And several outright flops that lost millions. He's had a nice long career, but his presence is FAR from a guarantee that the movie will turn a profit.
Wait a minute, Bruce Willis is almost a B actor these days, and Death Wish is the only movie that got a theatrical release in his recent history. I doubt he even got paid 10m now. He made lots of direct to vod since 2012. I think his last big hit was Expendables 2, and he's not even the big star there. The numbers of DW are not valid for the argument about his career and Cybill's carreer. Most of your argument about Willis is dated. Today only Pratt or Tom Cruise or The Rock are seen as guarantee of profit. We live in Marvel and youtubers world, not in 2000 anymore!
Pinhead said: Wait a minute, Bruce Willis is almost a B actor these days, and Death Wish is the only movie that got a theatrical release in his recent history. I doubt he even got paid 10m now.
Yeah, I have no idea where WAMTEC got that "10 million" number. Seemed like a figure Willis only got for Die Hard sequels, and only a long long time ago.
Didn't mean to derail an already-silly thread.... but the whole argument portraying Cybill Shepherd as the villain... especially compared to Bruce Willis?? Just... NO. Especially since she's one of maybe 5 actresses, lifetime, who not only seem to NOT hate messy scenes.... but actually have fun doing them.
You're perhaps forgetting Sixth Sense, 12 Monkeys, 5th Element (the 'number films')...all of which were well done (for their genre), well written and acted and earned good money (i believe)...solidifying his star power (in those prime years)...am not using google for these claims!