January 21, 2005

MY NEW PREOCCUPATION WITH

"HELLO LARRY": 

CABIN FEVER, BOREDOM OR SIMPLY DECENT INTO MADNESS?

I don't know if I have just been bored these last few days or if my attempt to stay inside and away from the below zero temperatures has made me go insane.  Over the last four days I have gained the strangest obsession.  I have downloaded and viewed the opening credits of "Hello Larry" at least fifty times.  I am serious!  So what is, you might ask, "Hello Larry"?  I asked myself that a few days ago because, quite frankly, I had never heard of the show.  "Hello Larry" was a very short lived sit-com from the end of the seventies featuring former MASH actor McLean Stevenson as a radio talk show host (like Frasier), who was also raising two teenage girls by himself in Portland, Oregon.  Apparently the show wasn't very good (TV Guide rated it at #12 on the "Worst 50 Shoes of All Time" list) but it crossed over a few times with "Different Strokes" - or something (not that that’s necessarily a good thing or anything).  Anyhow, I've never seen the show, nor had I even heard of it, until I stumbled across Hello Larry Online in a search for information on deceased "child star gone bad" Dana Plato over the weekend.  Always in search for expanding my pop culture knowledge I spent a lot of time on this site.  However, the real fun for me, for some reason, is downloading the opening video links for the opening theme which you can watch for yourself by clicking season one and season two.  The theme song is rather catchy and spunky and great late seventies type opening credits.  They just don't make them like this anymore.  Oh how I miss opening credits like that.  Anyway, I can't stop watching them, I don't know why.  Perhaps this could be one of my new favorite TV theme songs of all time!  Perhaps I need some help.

And look at the cast!  Besides McLean Stevenson, I was amused to find character actor George Memmoli in the cast, although, it is sad to see how obese he got later in life.  Memmoli played Swan's right hand thug Philbin in "The Phantom of the Paradise", possibly one of my favorite movies of the 1970's.  He also has a memorable walk on in the first "Rocky" as the ice rink attendant that opens the rink to Rocky and Adrian for their first date. 

Now, do you recognize the little blonde girl in the long braided pig tails?  That was an early crush of mine and most kids my age, but I bet you all forgot about her.  That's Kim Richards who started her career on "Nanny and the Professor, and then stared in the mondo creepy Walt Disney live features "Escape to Witch Mountain" and "Return From Witch Mountain" that freaked us all out when we were kids!  However, I was also amused to find out she was one of the blonde girls that appeared with Erik Estarada in his "Barcelona Jeans" ad that appeared on the show CHiP's in the early 1980's.  Estrada's "Barcelona Jeans" ad is easily one of my favorite moments in pop culture history and you can download that clip here.  I seriously suggest you take the time to see Erik and Kim dance the tango over Erik's bad assed black jeans.  This is possibly one of my favorite moments of the 1970's.  Heh heh heh.

Okay.  Take a look at the brunette girl to the left of McLean Stevenson!  I can't believe I didn't recognize her sooner!  That's none other than Donna Wilkes, better remembered as the original Angel in the trashy 80's film of the same name!  Perhaps you remember the premise.  Donna Wilkes plays a fifteen year old honor student by day who works the streets as a Hollywood hooker by night.  She ends up getting involved in an investigation for a serial killer who kidnaps and kills two girls and has sex with their dead bodies.  This film has gained a bit of a cult status in recent years and was recently released as a part of a three disk box set (with the two sequels not featuring Donna Wilkes) last Christmas.  It’s pretty tasteless, complete with bad story and terrible acting but, believe it or not, not nearly as offensive as it might sound.  Anyhow, "Angel" was probably the film that defined Donna Wilkes in pop culture history and she will likely be most remembered for it, especially considering that according to the "Internet Movie Database", her career dried up by 1988 in the Linda Blair/Tab Hunter horror film "Grotesque".  However, my search for information on Donna Wilkes proved some other strange facts.  When she was playing sixteen year old Diane Alder on "Hello Larry" she was, in fact, twenty years old!  By the time she played fifteen year old Angel in 1984 she was twenty five!  Wow!  Obviously she was drinking the same water as Dick Clark, or had caught that disease from Gary Coleman during the Drummond clans visits to the set of "Hello Larry" or something!

But Donna Wilkes’ oddness doesn't end there!  Donna Wilkes was replaced after the first season of "Hello Larry" in a Darren Stevens switcharoo with prettier actress Krista Errickson.  Why was Donna Wilkes recast?  Well according to Lisa Welchel during an 1998 interview on then Jenny Jones Show, Donna Wilkes had a drug problem.  This lead to trash films, such as "Angel," and perhaps is a clue to what was to become.  Donna Wilkes has completely disappeared.  "Hello Larry Online" creator Todd Fuller, who seems to be in the know on these kinds of things, has a message to anyone reading his site to please contact him for any information on Donna Wilkes’ whereabouts.  I did my own quick search with little to no luck on Donna Wilkes.  Her last appearance anywhere was in an episode of "FBI: the Untold Stories" in 1991.  I mean, if you check out Donna Wilkes’ acting credits she did do a number of things.  Strange that she'd just disappear like that. Or is it?  Did Donna suffer the typical Hollywood fate of drug overdoses and broken dreams?  I'd like to hope not.   I second that plea for information than - if anybody does know anything of Donna Wilkes' where abouts please give me a shout.  Please prove me wrong!

Sigh.  I have a feeling "Hello Larry" isn't going to be released on DVD in my lifetime and the chances of reruns are slight (apparently, according to "Hello Larry Online" the last time the series was rerun was in Brazil in 1998).  So my desire for a "Hello Larry" fix will have to probably wait forever.  To think I'll most likely never see this obscure television series - the shame.  I do, once again, encourage you to visit Hello Larry Online.  It’s a great little site with tons of information.  Kudos to Todd Fuller who put this little site together.  This Pop Culture Addict thanks you. 

Yeah, so for the love of god and everything sacred I hope spring gets here soon.  Why?  Cause my preoccupation with "Hello Larry" has started to worry me about my current sanity.  If this keeps up I'll be calling the local asylum  Now excuse me while I once again watch the opening credits to "Hello Larry”.

“Well, Hello Larry (Hello Larry..)
You talk to people all day for a living (Hello Larry..)
But all those easy answers you are giving..
Are you really living your life that way?
Portland is a long way from L.A. (A long way)"

(POP CULTURE ADDICT UPDATE:  "Hello Larry" footage is now available on DVD!  The three hour long crossovers with the Drummond clan are available on "Differn't Strokes Seasons One and Two" available at your better DVD stores.  Don't miss this opportunity to discover this television oddity!)

(ANOTHER POP CULTURE ADDICT UPDATE NOVEMBER 2007}:  Good news pop culture fans!  I can now offer you the chance to see "Hello Larry" for yourself thanks to the fine people at YouTube.   Join the Hello Larry gang and the Drummond clan as Differ'nt Strokes and Hello Larry get together for a special one hour Thanksgiving special.  What happens when Mr. Drummond doesn't help Larry finance a TV station?  They spend the next hour being assholes to each other!  Bad acting, terrible puns and the obligatory "whatchoo talkin' 'bout Willis" is all yours to enjoy in this special holiday story!  Take time to get your "Hello Larry" fix right here via the Pop Culture Addict and YouTube.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Larry Bonus Clip - Larry explains the meaning of love to Ruthie from an episode of Hello Larry!.

 

Now lets all hold our breaths until the "Hello Larry" DVD sets come out.  First one to pass out wins!)