The first episode of 2023 brings us the often unheard of tv pilot for the 80s classic Revenge of the Nerds! This pilot is really something you’d have to watch if you love lost media, once you watch it you’ll immediately know why it never saw the light of day when it was filmed.
Full Pilot: https://youtu.be/P47q1UeuObw
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slash_vision_/?hl=en
Email: Slashvisionpodcast@yahoo.com
The first episode of 2023 brings us the often unheard of tv pilot for the 80s classic Revenge of the Nerds! This pilot is really something you’d have to watch if you love lost media, once you watch it you’ll immediately know why it never saw the light of day when it was filmed.
Full Pilot: https://youtu.be/P47q1UeuObw
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slash_vision_/?hl=en
Email: Slashvisionpodcast@yahoo.com
It is now 2023, and I thought, what better way to kick off the brand new year than, than with something a little weird? And that weird thing is a revenge of the Nerds TV pilot. Now, this was Unaired, so obviously it didn't make it on tv, so I can't play a trailer for you guys. I would play the intro, but it is very tedious and annoying, and you probably don't want to hear any of that jump. But I do remember this whole episode showing its Face on the Revenge of the Nerds DVD V d Pan Rate special edition. That's not a made up name. That is actually the name of this special edition for this movie. And when I was growing up, I do remember watching The Nerds. I, I've loved watching Nerds. Uh, we always used to imitate the laugh. Everybody tried to be booger. You know, I, I've liked to sequels after that. Revenge Nerds Two, you know, nerds and Paradise. I like to part three. Yeah, I like to part four, where Booger actually gets married. Um, the last two were made for TV movies, by the way, and they weren't that bad. Um, they have a little bit of the charm that the first two movies brought, but they're watchable. This UN-Air pilot was filmed in 1991, and not much else is known about it. Uh, I've looked far and wide. I've checked all different types of the internet, and there really isn't much backstory, trivia history, nothing. Uh, I, I kind of feel a little useless doing this episode, but you know what? Honestly, I, I'd like to bring it to people's attention. Now, after watching this a handful of times, and not just for the purpose of recording this episode, I can honestly tell you this show wouldn't have made it past maybe its first episode being shown on national tv. I can tell you why this was Unaired. Uh, I've shown this to people in the past, and they're like, why am I watching this? Sometimes movies that are, uh, I, I guess, recreated for television that they don't make it. Now you have Robocop the series. I remember that there was a cartoon of Robocop that, that actually worked. I was never a big fan of the Ferris Bueller TV show. You can go ahead and Google that bad boy, because that actually exists. And there, there's other shows that that just didn't hit right? Because a lot of times these movies were made to be movies, obviously, right? And when you try to translate them into a TV show, it's not really all that great. You know, everybody's already accustomed to the cast that was put in the, in the original film in the first place, and then trying to recast them or try to get somebody close to what they look like. It, it doesn't work out. That is a point in case in this pilot, none of the cast fits the bill. None of them, uh, I, I know I've made this, uh, comparison before, but it's kind of like that scene on Space Balls where, you know, they thought that they captured all of our heroes, and instead they caught their stunt doubles, which look nothing like them, or it's kind of like, uh, uh, those lifetime movies. Now, I'm not one to watch Lifetime movies, but I have seen the one Saved by the Bell, which I, you know, which I felt like I needed to watch just because I'm a fan of the TV show. None of that cast looked like what they were supposed to. Same thing with the Full House, uh, made for TV movie that they did. None of them looked like what they were supposed to. They were like the generic, cheap, great value brand of actors that they got. And this is where this whole thing fell apart for me. Now, the biggest miscast of this whole entire, uh, episode was Booger Dudley Dawson, which is his real name. And, uh, the only person that I know that could play that part to the T is Curtis Armstrong, the original booger. No one else should play him afterwards, is just one of those things to where he's so connected to that character. There's nobody else that you can see playing him, but they ended up getting Robby wrist. If you've watched the Brady Bunch, and you'll recognize him as Cousin Oliver. Also, if you are a massive Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fan, you're gonna recognize his voice, because he was Michelangelo in the first three original Ninja Turtle movies. But the worst part about it is he did not look like booger, not even close. Like he had long feathered blonde hair. He was, uh, uh, this, he dressed like a divorce mom from the seventies. It, it was real bad. Like, like, like there's nothing redeemable about how he looked or how he acted. You know, booger had a little bit of charm to him where you're like, you know what? I would hang out with this dude, regardless of how disgusting he was. I would hang out with him. This guy, you already know that the fact that within 10 seconds, you already know you're done with him. He, he was gonna be gone. You were like, I, I can't wait for this dude to just completely disappear.
Speaker 2:Whoa. And I thought insurance salesman were pushy.
Speaker 1:It also seems like the on-screen chemistry between Lewis and Gilbert wasn't there. They were both really whiny. Now, Robert Carradine played the original Louis Gonick, and Anthony Edwards was Gilbert. Now the both of'em had two different types of personalities. They were both nerds, but they were both really different. You know, Gilbert was more of a, a skeptic, but he had confidence. And Lewis was more of a, you know, he was a risk taker and he had confidence as well, but they were both just big nerds. But you can tell, like on the original movie, the those two actors meshed really well together. The ones on this TV show didn't, you know, and we don't even get the full cast of characters either. Uh, I think it's only Lewis Gilbert Booger and Wormser, the little 10 year old genius. And that was it. No Un Jefferson, uh, no, Stan Gable, the Alpha Betas are there. Ogre is in here, which, once again, it's one of those things where he looks nothing like Ogre at all. One of the only redeeming characters on this whole pilot was Todd. He was the head of the Alpha Betas, much like Stan Gable was in the original, uh, movie. And he is played by Sean Cannon, which completely, completely blew my mind. Um, you know, Sean Cannon, if, if you've never heard that name before, then you obviously have not seen Karate Kid Three or the last season of Cobra Kai. He was Mike Barnes, the bad boy of Cobra Kai. Now, when I saw him, it took me a little bit of time to recognize him. Cause I'm normally pretty good at remembering faces from other movies and stuff, and I was like, wow, where have I seen this guy? I couldn't, I couldn't put my finger on it, and I had to give in and go to IMDB and find out that that was him. Now, if you haven't seen Karate Kid Three, then you are severely missing out. That movie is underrated and often overlooked. And to me, it's one of the best, actually the best sequel in all the Karate Kid franchise, because it just takes you to places that you never thought that Karate Kid would take you to. And if it wasn't for part three, we wouldn't have gotten this far in the Cobra Kai series as far as like the main characters, uh, like, like villain wise, because, you know, it gave birth to Terry Silver and it brought back Mike Barnes, you know, Cobra Kai. Why we wouldn't, I wouldn't have known her. Cobra Kai wouldn't have been at, had it not been for Karate Kid three, but enough of that, that's just enough. He played this pompous jerk of a, you know, fraternity to the t He was perfect for the role. You know, it, it just was one of those things where it's like, wow, I wanna see more of this guy. Like I, I'd like to see where his character was gonna go, but when you do watch this show, it really didn't look like there was no, like, like there was an end game to any of it. They condensed the entire first movie into 24 minutes. A lot of key scenes are in this pilot. You know, you get your, your nerds first showing up to the school, them meeting the cheerleaders, the Alpha betas, making their own fraternity, getting their own house. And none of it hits the same. Like I said, each one of these, you know, occurrences are like less than five minutes a piece. They just run through the whole first movie like nothing. And there is no really definite outcome. Yeah, sure. At the end of this pilot, the, the nerds get their revenge on the jocks and, you know, everybody has a good time and everybody cheers at the end. None of it was heartfelt. Like the first movie. Now, if you remember the first movie, you know, the Nerds went ahead and, and they did all that, those obstacle courses. Then they had the pep rally at the end where Lewis goes and makes that speech where all the nerds are triumphant and you feel good about yourself. You're like, wow, wow. You know what? These guys can do it. So can I. And here, none of that was, was present. I'll tell you one thing that was extremely present was the laugh tracks in the back. And whoever did those, you had one job, one job to put the laughs where they're supposed to be. In some parts of this episode, people were just having a normal conversation. Then the laugh track goes off, and we're like, what's going on here? Like, there wasn't even a joke. And then you finally get, you get the joke and nobody's laughing, and it's like, okay guys, like if you're gonna try to make this look a little bit legit, the least you could have done was put the laugh tracks after the joke. Or at least a funny scene, funny scenes would happen, and not one sound was made. Somebody walks in and everybody starts laughing, and it's like, wait a minute. Aren't you supposed to be cheering when, when a good character comes in, like on marriage with children? Remember those times where Al Bundy would walk in and it'd be like a five minute cheer, and then finally he'd get to his lines. This time people were cheering and they're still talking. I'm like, wait a minute, I can't hear over this laugh track. Why are, why are people laughing? Uh, it, a lot of it, like I said, this whole pilot was a complete mess. Now, I can go over scene by scene by scene with you, but it's basically the first movie without an ending, and it didn't hit on any of the cylinders that it was supposed to. Would I have watched the series had it had been picked up for maybe a few more episodes? Yeah. Would it have made a decent mini-series? Maybe a four parter, maybe, you know, kind of like the, like, like the, like the prime directive movies for Robocop. Um, yeah, sure, I, I, I would've seen that. But the fact that the cast minus Todd and, you know, know the, the timing of the laugh tracks and the jokes, you know what, some of the jokes were actually kind of funny. There was a few times where I did chuckle and I'm like, you know what? This isn't, uh, this isn't too bad. I'm gonna give you a couple of the good jokes right here.<laugh>,
Speaker 3:You want to be Tri Lambs, you wanna be trial lambed, okay? Line up size places. Now, trail lambs are lean trial lambs are mean. We stand this one till the job is done, alright, Fox stomach get just out<laugh>, you call that a chest<laugh>.
Speaker 4:Well, actually, it's just a place to hang my nipples.
Speaker 3:<laugh>
Speaker 5:<laugh>,
Speaker 1:If you recognize the voice from that military style scene, that is the voice of Richard Gant, who played one of my favorite characters in any of the Rocky movies, George Washington Duke. Now, if you watch Rocky Five, you know exactly who I'm talking about. He managed Tommy Gunn. He tried to be, I guess he tried to do like his best, you know, uh, Don King impression, and you know what? He succeeded. I love that dude. And everything he does is actually really funny. Uh, other than I, I believe he was on Jason goes to hell because, uh, I think he was the coroner who ate Jason's heart, uh, in the hospital scene, which obviously that's where the coroner's at. But he's al he's always a memorable character. He is like the un Jefferson of this fraternity, of the Lambda Lambda Lambdas. He, his name is PT Turner in this. And, you know, he's one of the, you know what, honestly, next to Todd, he's one of the redeemable characters.
Speaker 3:We've got Bush,
Speaker 1:If you like, saved by the Bell and, and TV shows similar to that, then you're probably gonna enjoy this pilot if you're a revenge of the Nerds fan. I don't know so much the fact that we've already been accustomed to, to the, the original cast being those characters and then the watching this generic version, eh, you know what? It really doesn't hit the same. I think I've said that quite a few times. And the reason I, I likened this, if that's even a word, two saved by the bell, is the settings. Now you get three settings in this. Now the school, I guess, has a small cafeteria to the dorm room and then the fraternity house. And you don't go any further than any, any, anywhere where those doors are. Where you see those doors is as far as you can get. It's kind of like on, like I said, on say by the bell, where you either get Zack's room, the max, some part of the school, that's it, and on say by the bell, remember they even taught drivers Ed in the same class that they had, like biology and math and everything else, which was just odd. And I felt like this show was gonna go down that same route. Had it had stayed around however long it, it might have, it would've went down that route. Like, you know, you would've just had a couple scenes, everything was very cheap, but you owe it to yourself to watch this. I, I love going out and finding these lost TV pilots or the Unaired versions, and it's just kinda like, you know what, this is a, it's fun to watch it, it's fun to look back and see what could have been and what shouldn't have been. And this lies right along the side, more so towards what shouldn't have been. Uh, like I said, being a massive fan of the Revenge of the Nerds movies, I was more like, Ugh, this is not for me. But being a fan of cheesy TV shows and movies, the other side of me was like, huh, you know what? This was watchable and unwatchable at the exact same time. I am making no sense here because that, that's, that's exactly how I felt. I was very indifferent after watching it. I tried showing this to the wife who I gauge all of my content on, uh, to see if she likes it. Now, I know a lot of times like, uh, you know, I'll show her some a movie and if she likes it, I know other people outside of this household will, and then I can go and talk about it. Cuz a lot of times I go out and I talk about some of these movies and these TV shows, and everybody just looks at me like, like, like, like, they have no idea what language I'm speaking. And they're just there smiling and nodding, thinking, while this guy's an idiot, and much like what you guys are probably thinking right now. So when I showed her this, she naturally was like, I don't like any of this. Why am I even watching this? But she made one comparison. She thought that the original intro for this was very similar to the Big Bang Theories intro. Now, when you actually do watch it, the, the, the scenes are kind of, you know, obviously it's 1991, you're not gonna get the cool graphics that the Big Bang Theory had in theirs. But the, the, the concept is there, who knows where I, if this was an inspiration for, which I highly doubt it was, but you know, it was there. Another piece of Lost Media that I wish I could see was whatever they had filmed for the Revenge of the Nerds remake that started in October of 2006. Now, Fox Studios had made a smaller low budget indie label named Fox Atomic, which they were gonna release this on. They figured, hey, you know, American Pie was pretty popular, brought back the teen comedies. Let's go ahead and let's try to capitalize on this with Revenge of the Nerds. Well, the movie filmed for just about a month or so, and then it got immediately canceled due to a whole bunch of, you know, how do I say this? Set issues. They couldn't lock down the school, the school that they were supposed to film at saw the script and said No, and everything just fell apart from there. Then in 2020, Seth McFarland and the writers who did, uh, the 21 Jump Street movies, the Lucas Brothers decided that they were going to reimagine Revenge of the Nerds. Now, I did like the 21 Jump Street movies, both of them. I thought they were extremely hilarious. And you know, that when Seth McFarland is involved, there's probably gonna be quite a bit over the top, which could match up to the original movie. Now, what could pose as a problem is the fact that everybody wants to cancel everything these days. Uh, in recent years, there have been articles out there depicting Lewis as very rapey in the first revenge of the Nerds movie. Uh, honestly, everybody gets offended by everything these days. The internet is a cesspool of people asking for money and crying about something that happened 30, 40 years ago. When it comes to TV and movies, come on, you know, you're really gonna be upset over a movie that didn't bother you last year or the year before or the year before that you want to cancel it. You want to say, okay, well what is canceling a movie these days or a TV show? How do you cancel it? What are you gonna do? You know, you're just not gonna watch it, which you, which is something you should have done in the first place, or is a crazy concept. You're watching a movie or a TV show and you don't like the content that's that's being shown to you. You don't agree with some of it, and that's fine, but what about Hear Me Out going and turning it off and going about your life? How much of an easy concept is that? Jesus, these people just want to complain about everything. Now listen to me. I'm complaining about the complainers, eh, oh, well, because all they want to do is they go online, they hashtag junk, they rally up the troops, they write articles about canceling something that's like 30, 40, 50, 60 years old, because it bothers them today because it doesn't fit into their lifestyle today. Geez. What, what world do we live in? You know, I feel like their day is like going good up until a certain point, and then all of a sudden the memory kicks in. Uh, I can imagine like, oh, I'm having such a good day. Ah, you know what, what a great lunch work is going fine. And then boom, you know what? I, I can't, I have to go home from work. Sorry, I, I gotta leave because, uh, that one scene in Revenge of the Nerds, it's bothering me way too much. That one unforgivable act that Louis Schick did to get back at the bully is just bothering me way too much. I I just can't live like this. I, I need to go home and write about it. That's how I feel that whoever started this whole cancel revenge of nerds thing, I felt like that's how their day went. You know, the internet has turned into nothing but crybabies. They cry about things that they're not gonna care about. By lunchtime. I mean, let's be real here. How many times have you gone on social media and on any one of these platforms when something major happens out in the real world and you see hashtag prayers, hashtag justice, my heart hurts. I won't stop until justice is served. And then by lunchtime, they're taking pictures of their food, tagging them to their friends somewhere, saying, having great drinks and laughs with the family, whatever, because they don't care. E everything. E even these cancellations are just a flash in the pan. And I, I think you guys have heard enough of me today. So the whole pilot is going to be linked into show notes, in the show's description, whatever you'd like to call it. So is my social media, and I hope you guys have a great 2023. I'll see you guys next time.
Speaker 6:Are you ready for the, are you ready? Right, right. Ultra They rule in your house, take up their own clothes top They know they are you ready for the Pony Girls to Ride?