It was warm and killer humid when I got outside (though not so hot as it has been). I didn't trust Mother Nature and ended up taking Uber to work. The one going there was late. I literally got to work at the last second. The one going home arrived in a little over 5 minutes and took no time to get me home. No real trouble either way.
No problems at work, either. We just weren't that busy. Most people are likely waiting for the holiday weekend to do their shopping. I did fall behind on sweeping and carts when I had to help an older lady take 35 bottle packs of water to her car. Otherwise, no trouble. It remained off-and-on sunny and humid, though it never rained.
After I got home, I had lunch while watching The Scooby Doo Show. Mystery Inc ducks into the Smithsonian to avoid a rain storm, but discover "The Spirits of '76" - namely, the ghosts of traitors Benedict Arnold, John Andre, and William Demont are running loose while a locomotive won't stop running. After they get locked in, the kids follow wet footprints and the constantly-running engine to figure out just what these patriotic specters really want.
Spent the rest of the afternoon working on Hilary and the Beasts. The ladies are greeted at the cheery kitchen by Mrs. Fox (Gertie), the cook and housekeeper, who has prepared their breakfast. Bear (Scott) is also there. Betty finds his clumsiness and attempts to help her to be endearing. Hilary is less amused by this oversized ebony Winnie the Pooh flirting with her sister. She demands to know what's going on, and oh yes, Mrs. Fox, you didn't cook my eggs right. Maple drowns her waffles in syrup while asking about Eagle. Mrs. Fox says, as a bird of prey, he catches his own fish and eats in his office.
Troll's (Jeff) roar turns up before the rest of him does. Mrs. Fox scolds him for breaking half the glass in the household by announcing himself like that, and Hilary scolds him for acting like a child. He still wants the other women to leave and Hilary to stay and have dinner with him. Hilary agrees to the dinner if her sisters can stay. Betty certainly won't leave now. Mr. Cat (Mr. Eldridge) mentioned there's a library. Bear offers to take her there, which she turns into a date. Maple claims she wants to explore the house, but she really wants to find Eagle's offices. Troll orders her to leave him alone, as he's doing important work about what's going on in Europe, but she just wants to see him again.
As Hilary leaves to call Pittsburgh City Hall on the phone, she overhears a conversation in the kitchen. Mrs. Fox brusquely reminds Troll that he's never going to break the curse if he keeps treating his wife like that. Ex-wife, Troll grumbles. It's Bear, banished to washing dishes, who finally manages to get out that Hilary is his wife, and she does love him.
Listened to music at first while I worked. I thought records featuring mellow Canadian and Australian songstresses would be right for a romantic fairy tale story. Anne Murray's Greatest Hits collects her best-known songs through 1974. Her lovely "Daydream Believer" is probably my favorite, but we also have "Could I Have This Dance?", "You Needed Me," "Snowbird," and "Shadows In the Moonlight."
Olivia Newton-John's Have You Never Been Mellow? came out a year later and was a very similar mix of heartfelt ballads like the title song and jaunty up-tempo numbers. The former included "I Never Did Sing You a Love Song" and "Please Mr. Please" along with the title ballad. The latter includes " Water Under the Bridge" and "It's So Easy."
Switched to movies after the music ended. Summer Rental is a John Candy vehicle from 1985. He's Jack Chester, an overworked air traffic controller taking his first vacation in 13 years. He and his family end up in Citrus Cove, Florida, but they have problems from the start. On their first night, Jack insults local bigwig Al Pellett (Richard Crenna) at a fancy seafood restaurant. He gets horrible sunburn, then discovers that his family ended up in the wrong house. Theirs is a dilapidated shack on a noisy party beach. Jack's attempt to take his son sailing ends with him injuring his knee and getting stuck at home. He finally turns to Scully (Rip Torn), the crusty owner of a floating seafood restaurant, how to sail.
This proves to be crucial when Pellett buys their rental property and is ready to evict them. Jack tells him if they win the local regatta, they can stay. He recruits Scully and his crew of pirate-like misfits to help refit the Barnacle restaurant for racing. His family eventually joins in, too, turning the regatta into a group affair and proving that the family that works together, kicks snob rear together.
Pretty generic Candy 80's vehicle. His antics and some jokes with Torn and his crew are really all there is to recommend about this one. The regatta finale is even almost identical to the one in One Crazy Summer two years later. Crenna has a few good scenes as the snobbish local, but John Larroquete is underused as the nice father who helps them out. Enjoyable enough time-waster on a summer afternoon if you're a fan of Candy or Torn.
Meatballs Part II from 1984 gets a heck of a lot weirder. Interestingly, Larroquette has a small part in this one, too. He's the assistant to Colonel Jack "Batjack" Hershy (Hamilton Camp), who wants to buy the lake that his military camp currently shares with Camp Sasquatch. Camp Sasquatch owner Coach Giddy (Richard Mulligan) refuses to sell, so he sets out to sabotage the camp. Meanwhile, pretty, innocent Cheryl (Kim Richards) is being pursued by tough-guy CIT Flash Carducci (John Mengnatti) and the campers discover an alien in the woods they dub "Meathead" (voice of Archie Hahn). Meathead proves to be instrumental in saving the camp when he helps Flash with his boxing match against the hulking brute from the military camp.
The original Meatballs wasn't exactly a masterpiece, but this...this is some of the weirdest camp from an era that reveled in sheer weirdness for weirdness' sake. Name a trend from 1982 through 1984 in films, and you'll probably find some reference here, including the big boxing match, the friendly alien, and the snobs-vs-snobs gags. The movie is pretty obviously cheap, the script seems to have been cobbled together from every movie made in 1984, and Camp and Mulligan are the only ones who have any idea of what they're doing. And yet, there's some decent gags, and Camp and Mulligan play surprisingly well off each other. Once again, not a bad way to waste a summer afternoon if you enjoy other equally strange comedies from the mid-80's.
After all that, Match Game '73 during dinner was actually a little less strange. They're on the hilarious week with McLean Stevenson, Robert Vaughn, and Nancy Dussalt. Dussalt's dry wit is so adorable here, I wish she came back before the Too Close for Comfort week on Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour. McLean is even more hilarious, making cracks about Brett not listening and running out and kissing Richard and Gene whenever someone wins.
Finished the night with Hart to Hart after I ate. Jennifer happily says "My Hart Belongs to Daddy" when her father (Ray Milland) invites her and Johnathan to her childhood home in Maryland outside of Washington DC. Their joy at visiting proves to be short-lived when they discover that her father was a spy during World War II and is now the target of a German man whose father was killed by him and his group.
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