Back in the mid 1970's television had all kind of variety shows and since there wasn't a slew of stations to pick from as there is now, these variety shows actually had a variety of acts, as is evident in The Paul Lynde Halloween Special. Paul Lynde, who was riding high on his fame from his appearance as the center block on Hollywood Squares, hosted this special which was shown only once on October 29, 1976 on ABC.
The guests on this special were Margaret Hamilton, Billie Hayes (Witchie-Poo from H.R. Pufnstuff), Billy Barty, Tim Conway, Roz "Pinky Tuscadero" Kelly, Florence Henderson, Betty White, Donny and Marie Osmond, and KISS in their first TV appearance. Donny and Marie make only a very brief appearance in one skit. I can only assume, they were trying to promote their own weekly variety show by dropping in for this one skit. Florence Henderson sings a disco version of "That Old Black Magic" during a disco skit. If you think that would be pretty bad, you're exactly right. Kiss perform three songs during the show "Detroit Rock City", "Beth", and "King of The Night Time World" and interact briefly with Paul Lynde after they are introduced to him by the Wicked Witch of The West (Margaret Hamilton). One more musical number closes out the show, "Disco Baby" performed by Lynde and "Pinky Tuscadero" Kelly . This is so bad, it made me decide Florence Henderson's performance wasn't that bad after all.
I hear a lot of people bemoaning the fact that they just don't make TV shows like they used to, and The Paul Lynde Halloween Special is a prime example of why that's probably a good thing. Personally, I enjoyed the bad jokes and appreciated the appearance of all these "stars", more in 2013 than I would have in 1976. The camp factor is so high here, it's almost off the charts...I mean Florence Henderson singing disco, Paul Lynde mincing his way through skits with Tim Conway, Florence Henderson, and Pinky Tuscadero from Happy Days, and then add in KISS showing up for their first TV appearance, what more could you want out of a TV special! While The Paul Lynde Halloween Special is in print on DVD, it is also available for free on YouTube.
Imagine an episode of "The 70s Show" that lasts 95 minutes. Now imagine that this episode wasn't written very good and the acting was below standard. What you have just imagined is Detroit Rock City. There's only a couple of good elements in this movie and I'll get to them in just a little bit.
The plot: Four guys who are in a KISS cover band have tickets to see KISS in Detroit. The overly religious mother of one of the band members finds the tickets and burns them. Then one of the guys is able to win some tickets from a radio station, but alas, he hangs up too soon and doesn't give them all of his information and so the radio station gives the tickets to someone else. Are their hopes dashed? Will they ever get to see their heroes? If you've seen more than a few movies and/or TV shows in your lifetime, you should be able to figure out the answer to that question. If you can't answer the question, then there's a good chance you'll enjoy Detroit Rock City a lot more than I did.
All four of the lead actors (Giuseppe Andrews, James DeBello, Edward Furlong, Sam Huntington) aren't really bad, they just aren't that good. James DeBello does a pretty good job of copying Jason Mewes "Jay" character from the Kevin Smith movies. The other three actors just didn't seem, to me, to be that much into their parts. Two female actors did stand out in Detroit Rock City: Melanie Lynskey(Two and a Half Men), whose character is named Beth (get it) and has a crush on Edward Furlong and Natasha Lyonne, who plays Christine, a Disco Music lover. Both of them shine in their roles in Detroit Rock City.
The second best thing about Detroit Rock City is the soundtrack songs. The majority of these songs are placed in the soundtrack so that the lyrics fit with the action that was appearing in the movie at the time. Whoever was responsible for this did an excellent job.
The best thing about Detroit Rock City is when the four guys finally get to see KISS. Even if it is only one song, KISS' performance is the highlight of the movie and will blow you away (and I'm not even a KISS fan). In a way, just as the four main protagonists are rewarded for all of the troubles they have faced and overcome on the way to the concert, I felt I finally got rewarded for sitting through the other 90 minutes of Detroit Rock City.
I watched a VHS copy of Detroit Rock City and I see that the DVD version has a commentary by Gene Simmons and telephone interviews on the same commentary track with Peter Criss, Paul Stanley, and Ace Frehley. While I'm not hankering to watch this movie again anytime soon, when and if I do, it will definitely be the DVD version.
