18th of September 1986. It's the day after in New York and this is entertainment tonight.
The Mets finally clench, but will their video hit number one?
Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go!
Lionel Richie's album hits number one and he heads out on tour.
Leonard Maltin checks out Michael Jackson's Captain EO video.
And Judd Nelson moves from the brat pack into a more mature role.
I am 26. I think it's about time I played 26.
Hi, I'm Lisa Gibbons. And I'm John Tesch.
I'm Mary Hart at Fenway Park in Boston.
And I'll be back shortly with the big news in the East. John?
Dancing on the ceiling, the new LP by Lionel Richie moved up to number one on the Billboard Pop Album Chart release today.
And if that's not enough good news for Richie fans, Bobby Columby tells us about a tour that kicks off tonight in Phoenix, Arizona.
Lionel Richie's tour will visit 60 cities over six months. Quite a feat since the show features 150 tons of equipment and a moveable stage which takes 10 hours just to take apart.
Richie promises there'll be some surprises on stage this time around, both for the audiences and for himself.
When you're speaking of world tour, I've been touring since 1975, 74. And if you want to go back before my professional years with the Jackson 5 starting in 71.
So how do I make this exciting for me? Well, certainly wondering whether I'm going to fall off the ceiling or not is a good way to start.
Richie's video to the title track of his album features some trick photography. He says it may be outrageous, but not impossible to reproduce on stage.
We are going to pull off dancing on the ceiling. Believe it or not.
Bobby Columby Entertainment tonight. What a talent. While Lionel Richie counts his blessings, Disney is getting ready to count the gate.
Michael Jackson's spectacular new video Captain EO opens tomorrow and is expected to pack him in for years at Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida.
Leonard Malton, whose reviews have been known to pack a mighty wallop, checks out Captain EO on his scale of one to 10.
I have seen Captain EO and I liked it. What's not to like? It's a super slick, high tech rock video with state of the art special effects.
Best of all, it's short. Wham, bam, it's over. You're out of the theater and off to Space Mountain.
You put on your 3D glasses and you get a cross between Star Wars, the Muppets and beat it.
Take this to my dungeon. I got it.
You can't see the 3D effects on TV, but you get an idea of the glitz of razzle dazzle and there's a lot of Michael Jackson doing that Michael Jackson type of choreography.
You've seen it all before, but it's fun. Whatever you do, don't think too much about this film. It couldn't stand the strain.
Was Captain EO worth all those millions of dollars? Hey, that's not my business. I didn't pay for it. I just went to see it and I had a good time.
It's not just the film. It's the experience of seeing it in 3D and especially rigged theater where the effects happen live, not just on the screen.
So get yourself to Disneyland or Walt Disney World as soon as you can and see Captain EO. It's well worth a nine.
Of course, that's a short subject nine. I'm Leonard Maltin, Entertainment Tonight.
Wow, Leonard, let's go with a nine. Now that's a big story in itself.
It certainly is. And with a big story back east, here is Mary Hart, right from the cultural heart of Boston.
Mary? This is Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.
Sort of empty and quiet right now, but I tell you, the New Englanders have something to cheer about.
The Sox are ten games ahead with only about two weeks to go in the regular season.
It's been years since Boston's baseball fans have had so much to be ecstatic about.
But the real cheering, of course, was last night in the east at Chase Stadium in New York, home of the Mets.
Beat the Cubs 4-2 to move into the playoffs. Here's the moment described by Steve Zabriskie of WOR-TV.
Ground ball a second. Backman to Hernandez.
The unbelievable season is not over, but the championship is here in New York.
If that isn't exciting enough for you, take a look at the Mets' new video.
And there's more where that came from later on in the show.
Meantime, NBC has released a poll which shows viewers prefer local newscasts to network news programs by a margin of 52 to 45 percent.
That survey also indicates network viewers want more national news and features and less sports.
We've got the message, so back to you from Fenway Park. Liza?
OK, thanks a lot, Mary. The other two networks are in today's news as well.
The FCC has given CBS two weeks to respond to a complaint filed by the group Fairness in Media.
The charge? Lawrence Tisch's acquisition of almost a quarter of CBS's stock, in effect,
illegally switched control of CBS to his Lowe's Corporation.
And Capital Cities, ABC, has agreed to sell its corporate headquarters building in New York to a Japanese firm.
Real estate experts say the property is worth between 165 and 185 million dollars.
By the way, that top dollar figure amounts to about 30 billion yen.
If you have a yen to learn what the Beach Boys have in common with the Mamas and the Papas, stay tuned.
Here's the ET Digest for Thursday, the 18th of September.
New in the record store, Eye of the Zombie from John Fogerty.
And in concert today, Liza Minnelli at the Westbury Music Fair in New York.
Another all-star rock star concert in the works, and a former Beatle says he may hit the road.
Nina Blackwood has a scoop on those stories and more in this week's Rock Report.
Hi, Nina. Thanks, Lisa.
And a one-night concert in the San Francisco Bay area for a Northern California school for handicapped children is turning into an all-star event.
The tentative lineup for the all-acoustic concert includes Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Don Hanley, Robin Williams, and Neil Young.
Neil has a 13-year-old son with cerebral palsy.
The boy's mother is actress Carrie Snodgrass, but it's Young's current wife, Peggy, who's helping put together this October 13th benefit.
And Paul McCartney says he's excited about recording again.
He's gone into the studio and already cut two new tracks with producer Phil Ramone, and he says he wants to tour again.
But if everything works out, Paul and company will start a world tour sometime next spring.
Now, this would be McCartney's first live concert tour in ten years.
Paul is also involved with a new project, Back Home, where a group of pop stars have banded together to sing about one of the biggest problems facing British youth, heroin.
Musicians including the Thompson Twins, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Bonnie Tyler gathered at the Abbey Road Studios in London
to create the song designed to convince teenagers that life is better without heroin.
When all the world looks like a devil in a 3D brain
It's a good life without drugs, if people will listen to that. It's great.
It seemed a really good opportunity to be part of something that was positive and contributed something to our society.
The single called Live in World is due out in late October with a double album set for release this November.
And there is a trio of new home video releases out this month worth noting, all from CBS Fox Video.
The first is a collection of Billy Joel music videos, available to the home market for the first time.
Listen boy, I don't want to see you let a good thing slip away
You know I don't like watching anybody
The second tape is of Wham's historic tour of China.
They were the first western pop group to perform in the People's Republic of China.
It's just a matter of time before my heart is looking for a girl
Yeah, yeah, yeah
The third is the only Bob Dylan concert tape available to the home video market.
It was recorded when Dylan toured with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
When the devil is out, whoa
When the world hates you, whoa
And good news for fans of Blondie, the New York pop punk band that broke up in 81.
Deborah Harry, the lead singer, has a new solo record ready for release, her first in five years.
And we've heard the first single will be out early next month with the provocative title, French Kiss.
Her long-time boyfriend Chris Stein, who was seriously ill a few years ago, is now healthy and can be heard on several tracks of the new LP.
Now cover songs of old hits are all over the radio, Stand By Me, Twist and Shout, Earth Angel.
Can the psychedelic 60s be far behind?
John, Lisa, I think you may have a clue.
Anyway, I'm Nina Blackwood for The Rock Report.
You have any idea what she's talking about?
I just hope they don't come back.
Thanks, Nina.
One of the groups that helped define the California sound of the mid-60s has teamed up with the group that popularized surf music in the early 60s.
The result reports Paula McClure is a mama and papa and beach boy happening.
California, California, dreamin' of such a winter's day.
The mamas and the papas released California Dreamin' in 1966.
Now 20 years later, Michelle and John Phillips are helping the beach boys keep the California dream alive.
We were driving around and we were talking about what the perfect beach boy single might be, a big international kind of a hit single.
And we hit on California Dreamin'.
California Dreamin' on such a winter's day.
Terry, you forgot to mention that we were driving around in your 1935 Model A rumble seat, what do you call this?
That's right.
Roaster.
That's right.
In a beautiful autumn day just like this in Carmel.
All the leaves are brown, the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray.
It's a real dramatic song and it's the right time of the year for it.
It just seems to be everything is perfect.
The song is great, the time of the year is right for it, and it's an emotional dramatic song.
It's neat.
Even though John and Michelle Phillips have small parts in the video, they played the most important part in creating the song.
As I remember it, I was fast asleep and John woke me up in the middle of the night.
And you said, let me sleep, let me sleep.
I said, just let me sleep, John.
He said, now listen, I'm writing a song, listen, how do you like this, listen to this.
He started singing California Dreamin'.
And I said, I think it's wonderful, John, you're a very talented guy and I'm going back to sleep now.
And he said, no, come on Mitch, wake up, help me write this song.
You'll thank me for this someday.
And now, more than ever, I want to thank John Phillips for making me write California Dreamin'.
When we return, on location for a brief visit with Legal Eagle Judd Nelson.
And tomorrow, Patrick Duffy steps out of the shower and back into the primetime ratings war.
Travel arrangements made by Pan American World Airways, which flies to more places in Europe than all other U.S. airlines combined.
Pan Am, you can't beat the experience.
In the morning show ratings race last week, the Today Show once again beat Good Morning America for the win.
The CBS Morning News placed third.
In the daytime ratings race, ABC won the week, two-tenths of a ratings point ahead of CBS and more than a full point ahead of NBC.
Number one show of the week, ABC's General Hospital.
Judd Nelson has decided to start acting his age.
As Peter Kwinhakas reports, Nelson has stepped out of his familiar teenage roles and into a thriller.
You are aware, sir, are you not, that this was the night of Liza Williams' disappearance?
Yes, I am.
Now, do you have any information pertaining to that?
The D. Laurentius film, From the Hip, gives Judd Nelson his first crack at a leading role.
It's a thriller about the legal system, while supported by the likes of John Hurt, Elizabeth Perkins, Darren McGavin, Ray Walston, and Nelson in the role of attorney Robin Weathers, who takes exception when his client is not allowed to say the word ass in court.
The word is worthy of Shakespeare, Dickens, Hemingway, and George Bernard Shaw.
He is a first-year lawyer who is losing his mind researching proofreading and filing.
He wants to get into the courtroom. He wants to object and be sustained.
He wants to wave his arms around. He wants to play a lawyer as well as be a lawyer.
It's the first time he's ever portrayed an attorney, but the role comes to Nelson a bit more naturally than you might think.
Well, my father is an attorney, so I guess since I didn't grow up to become an attorney, the closest I could get would be to play an attorney in a movie.
And while Nelson in no way begrudges the fame he's won playing youngsters in the Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire, he enjoys finally being able to move on to an older role.
It's a great thing to be able to do to play your own age. I am 26. I think it's about time I played 26, which is not saying that I wouldn't play younger or wouldn't play older, but it's nice to be able to play my own age.
He comes well prepared on the set. His lines are solid. He's got a very firm idea of what he wants to do with the role, and it's very refreshing.
From the Hip is due for release next spring. In Wilmington, North Carolina, Peter Quinhacus, Entertainment Tonight.
Our interview scheduled for today with Perry King, who talks about life on a deserted island with Lonnie Anderson, will be seen tomorrow.
And when we come back, while players with a beat, more of the New York Mets action-packed music video.
Celebrating birthdays today, Fred Willard is 47, Frankie Avalon, also 47, Robert Blake, 53, Jack Warden, 66, Rosanna Brazi, 70, and Greta Garbo is 81.
In today's People Post scripts, Ruth Salisbury, the mother of actors James Arness and Peter Graves, died at her Santa Barbara home. She was 87.
And jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, recovering from open heart surgery, has been released from the hospital in Los Angeles.
And it was announced today that actress Rosanna Arquette married composer and record producer James Newton Howard, Saturday, in Big Sur, California.
If there are wires leading from the back of your television set to a VCR machine, pay attention. Here's what's new on video from the sometimes colorful Eric Burns.
Young Sherlock Holmes is out on cassette this week. It was produced by Steven Spielberg's company, and it's about, well, young Sherlock Holmes and young Watson.
Your name is James Watson. You're from the north of England. Your father is a doctor. You spend a considerable amount of leisure time writing, and you have a particular fondness for custard tarts. Am I correct?
My name isn't James, it's John.
Gung Ho is out this week. It's a comedy about the Japanese taking over an automobile manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania and taking their lumps on the base pads.
Crossroads is out this week. It's about a white kid from Long Island who plays the blues.
Wait up. Wait up. Hey, you know what song it was? Robert Johnson didn't record that day.
Of course I do. I was with Robert when he made it up. Memphis, summer 1936.
Head is out this week. It's the first and only feature film ever made by the Monkees. It's from 1968, and it should have stayed there.
With the exception of Head, all of these movies have interesting premises, but they don't live up to them.
I don't know, it's been said before many times, of course, but they just don't make movies the way they used to.
Remember when they were black and white and coherent and un-gimmicky?
I'm gonna win ten grand in one night.
The Hustler is new to the video stores this week, a classic film about the pool hustler's life, starring Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, and George C. Scott.
Your Honor, everybody in this court is being tried except Frederick Manion.
Now listen, this is a cross-examination. Murder case. It's not a high school debate.
Also out this week, Anatomy of a Murder, with James Stewart in a brilliant courtroom drama, produced and directed by Otto Preminger.
The two old movies are by far the best in what is otherwise rather a colorless week.
Back with more next week.
Eric Burns, Entertainment Tonight.
I always wanted to be able to do that, you know?
We've got to catch up with Eric, see if he can teach us. He's got it all right there.
Looks like he's practicing at home, huh?
We hope you'll come back tomorrow, everybody.
Catch up on all the latest entertainment news and features, including visits with Marcia Mason, Patrick Duffy, and that interview with Perry King,
where he talks about being on the deserted island with Lonnie Anderson. Tough job.
It is, but somebody's got to do it.
Thanks a lot for watching. There are no shouts of joy here on the West Coast in Dodgerland, but they're chanting up a storm in New York,
where the Mets have clinched a playoff berth.
What's coming up next is in honor of all of that. Have a good day.
We'll see you tomorrow.
Come on!
We got the teamwork to make the dream work. Let's go. We're going to make it this time. We're going to take it home. Let's go.
Let's do it. Let's go. Let's go. Make it happen. Let's go. Let's go. Where there's a Met man, you'll find a Mets fan. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. This is a Mets here for all your Mets here. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
Do it. Bring it home. Do it. Bring it home. Do it. Bring it home now. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
Let's go!
Do it!
Let's go!
Do it!
Let's go!
Make it happen!
Let's go!
There's no stopping us now
We're gonna do it again
It's not a question of how
It's just a matter
It's just a matter of a way
Let's go!