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Thank God Its Friday (1978). We'd TGFB (Thank God For a Blu) (1 Viewer)

Kyrsten Brad

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Well here's one that is actually a Academy Award Winner (Best Song "Last Dance" by Donna Summer) but as yet, no blu-ray has been released. Thank God Its Friday ( referred hereon as TGIF and no relation to the 2011 Katy Perry song "Last Friday Night T.G.I.F) did get a 2006 DVD release (28 years after its theatrical run, probably due to music rights) and the DVD transfer was well done. However the DVD was totally lacking in any extras and the menu was about as bare-bones as you could get while including a menu. You'd have no idea that you were looking at TGIF going by the menu.



I remember TGIF as being the second most successful disco-themed movie of all time (second to Saturday Night Fever). In fact IMHO, given a choice of which movie represents the fun side of the disco phenomenon, I'd pick TGIF in a heartbeat. Fair to say that Saturday Night Fever had more "depth" to it but at times was a little on the depressing side.



TGIF on the other hand was more of a disco-themed comedy consisting of several mini-plots all revolving around the big disco hangout in town, the Zoo Disco (Osko's Nightclub owned by Osko Karagashian was portrayed as The Zoo). My favorite two mini-plots were "Dave & Sue" (Dave played by Mark Lonow and Sue played by Princess Diana look-alike Andrea Howard), the young married couple who, over Dave's objections, check out the Zoo Disco and disco tough-guy Gus (Chuck Sacchi) and his mismatched blind computer date Shirley (Hilary Beane).
That and my other favorite character, Marv Gomez (Chuck Vennera), The Leatherman.

And I have to mention Jackie, the space-case disco freak chick who tried to steal upright Dave.
Mews-Small-Thank-God-It's-Friday-245.png



Sony currently holds the rights and it seems that getting music rights together for a blu release shouldn't be a big problem. If Sony doesn't want to go with it, TGIF would be a good Twilight Time candidate (and I have talked with Nick Redman about maybe getting this movie. No updates on that yet). But here's hoping that we can get a Blu for this one to see the scenes inside the Zoo Disco, and Marya Small's freaky outfit (done years before Easter-egg hair coloring became fashionable).


Wiki Article on TGIF

IMDB Entry on TGIF
 

Ethan Riley

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I only saw it when it came out, but I still remember that girl trying to pay the cover charge with a jar full of nickels.
 

Kyrsten Brad

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Ethan Riley said:
I only saw it when it came out, but I still remember that girl trying to pay the cover charge with a jar full of nickels.
Yes, I remember. That by the way was Terri Nunn, later to gain fame as lead singer for "Berlin".
 

ahollis

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Matt Hough said:
I've always loved the song "Last Dance," and I was very happy for its Oscar win, but the best number in the movie was the Leatherman's song and dance in that parking lot. A bravura number to beat the band.
I loved that dance number. Going through the convertible roof was priceless. The opening number THANK GOD ITS FRIDAY had me hooked for the entire movie.
 

Kyrsten Brad

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ahollis said:
I loved that dance number. Going through the convertible roof was priceless. The opening number THANK GOD ITS FRIDAY had me hooked for the entire movie.
Loved that dance number myself. Funny that The Leatherman ended up with not one but two pretty girls (albeit a little under age) at the end of the movie. Happily Chuck Vennera is still with us and I've love to see a interview with him on a TGIF blu. As you may know the DVD release had absolutely no extras.
For that matter, I'd love to see interviews with Debra Winger and Jeff Goldblum as well (who have done quite well in subsequent films).

Now why do I on occasion have the urge to run into a covered parked Porsche in a prime parking spot??
 

TomF

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I also loved The Commodores performing Too Hot To Trot for the big dance contest. After Floyd finally arrived with their instruments. So many genuinely funny moments. Great soundtrack--Casablanca records in their heyday.
 

Kyrsten Brad

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TomF said:
I also loved The Commodores performing Too Hot To Trot for the big dance contest. After Floyd finally arrived with their instruments. So many genuinely funny moments. Great soundtrack--Casablanca records in their heyday.
I made sure to get that song on my iTunes playlist on the iPhone. Actually I didn't even have to buy it as I already had it on the TGIF CD soundtrack, which I had ripped & ported over to digital. Hoping this one is on TT's radar as its a Sony/Columbia title.
 

Kyrsten Brad

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A shameless bump for this thread as the release date for TGIF has come and disc are arriving at home. I unfortunately have to wait till I get home off business travel before I put TGIF Blu up on the 70.

My friend got her copy I bought for her. She’s planning a big family & Friends movie night as she hasn’t seen this film in decades.

RAH my friend, this has an “A Few Words About” review written all over it. Would love your take.
 

MatthewA

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With this movie, Columbia did for disco what they tried to do for rock in the 1950s with films like Don't Knock the Rock and Rock Around the Clock. Those culminated in their bringing Bye Bye Birdie to the screen, but disco was murdered in its prime* before it got anything like that. The only attempts to use it for movie musicals, which this is not in the strictest sense, were not based on stage shows, and the one Broadway show that capitalized on it, Got Tu Go Disco, ran about a week.

There is a melancholy to "Last Dance" beyond the actual text of lyrics: 1978 was the last dance for disco before Disco Demolition Night killed it and replaced it with music that had all the repetition but none of the soul or harmony. Time has taken away both Paul Jabara and Donna Summer and added another layer to it. None of this matters when you are actually listening to the song and taken back to another time and place where none of those things had happened yet.

*After the themes from Dallas and Diff'rent Strokes brought it to TV (and those eventually got de-discofied as they aged), its last signs of life there were the short-lived early 1980s Guiding Light theme and the Israeli version of Sesame Street.
 

RichMurphy

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Sampled the new Blu-Ray the other night.

1. Was disappointed at the lifeless sound mix. Wasn't this an early example of Dolby Stereo? I didn't check my player, but the sound seemed monophonic.

2. On a happier note, the film's ending still strikes me as one of the funniest of all time.
As Bobby Speed packs up his DJ booth singing "Last Dance" to himself, guess who pops into the booth right on cue to finish singing the song? Yup, Ms. Donna herself!
 

MatthewA

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They also screwed up the audio of Hudson Hawk. It was Dolby SR in theaters and 5.1 on DVD, but the Blu-ray was 2.0 mono for some reason.
 

Matt Hough

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I watched the Blu-ray this afternoon. It looked very good, very clean, and the color was not dated (which was my biggest fear). The sound was PCM 2.0 stereo, at least that's what it was on my equipment.

As always for me, the Leatherman's prancing dance in the parking lot is the dance highlight (and I also found him the most appealing character by a country mile), and Donna Summer's Oscar-winning Paul Jabara song "Last Dance" is the song highlight. It's nice to see people like Debra Winger and Jeff Goldblum early in their careers doing what they can with their roles.

Compared to some of the discos I went to during the height of the craze, this one is VERY sedate, but it still brings back LOTS of memories.
 

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