| This
film's 'gimmick' was to bring back big TV stars from past programs
such as "Gilligan's Island", "Leave it to Beaver"
and "Dobie Gillis" and team them together with teen stars
from current hit TV programs such as "Family
Ties", "Different Strokes" and "The Facts
of Life".
Crispin
Glover, who portrays Archie Feld, also appeared in an episode
of "Family Ties" and played
Michael J. Fox's father in
Back to the Future.
Michael
Zorek, who portrays Chuckie Dimple, also appeared in two episodes
of "Family Ties".
--------
This movie apparently did well and was recast so that a new pilot
could be made to hopefully sell as a series. According to Stephen
at BTTF.com
it aired on 5/26/84 with Ben Marley playing JJ Manners, but was
obviously not picked up for a series.
Dean Cameron was to play the role of Archie Feld. On his website,
he has this to say about his experiences with this film - contains
harsh language: (I would have included a link to this page, but
it's on a pop-up with no URL visible)
High School USA (T.V. Pilot) (1984)
This was an all star TV Movie with stars of NBC series in 1983;
Michael Fox, Nancy McKeon, Dana Plato, Todd Bridges, etc.
The hook was that old TV Stars played the parents of new TV stars.
It was fucking awful. It was also very popular, so they decided
to make a pilot out of it. Obviously, all of the stars were busy
doing their own shows, so they recast all the leads.
Crispin Glover had played the part of Archie, half of a comic
duo. The other half was a guy named Michael Zorek. Crispin didn't
want to do a TV series so they recast those two parts with me
in the role of Archie, and an actor named Googy Gress got the
part of Chucky.
I had gotten a lead in a TV Series! All was good. A couple of
months before this, my dad had "the talk" with me about
being in L.A. for four years and having not made it yet and it
how I should start thinking about going to college and all that.
Here was proof that he was wrong!!!
It was weird. There was a lot of whispering and stuff going on.
On the third day of shooting, Googy and I got fired. The network
wanted what Crispin was doing and, obviously, I wasn't doing it.
I was doing something sort of like that but it was me and not
Crispin. They paid him what at that time was an unheard of amount
of $35,000 to come back and do a guest starring role. He wasn't
tied to do the actual show. They just wanted him in the pilot.
When I showed up that day, I was going to my dressing room and
they had changed the name to Crispin already. I tried to go in
and the A.D. was really nervous and weird and told me the producer
wanted to talk to me and Googy.
She told us. I was devastated. Googy, being the professional he
is, simply asked "We still get paid, right?" She said
"Yes", he turned to me "Let's get the fuck outta
here." And we left..
It was the day Marvin Gaye Jr's dad killed him.
Crispin Glover turned in the nuttiest performance they had ever
seen as his final "Fuck You" to television. Genius.
Because of this and Eye of the Hawk, I am always really, really
nervous the first three days of any job I get. It's a horrible
feeling.
High Points: Getting a lead in a T.V. Pilot.
Low Points: Getting shitcanned from a T.V. Pilot, getting shitcanned
from my job parking cars the next day for not showing up because
I forgot to let them know that I was doing a T.V. Pilot.
Written
1/03/02
Updated 4/28/02
|
