Remember when you went to the movies to go to the beach?
Is Joan Rivers number one on Burt's hit list?
Did Kenny Rogers leave him dancing on the boats in Miami?
Is Eddie looking for a leading lady?
Entertainment Tonight comes at you in waves for Monday, May 4th, 1987.
That's mystic, absolutely mystic.
Hello everybody, I'm John Tesh in Hollywood.
And hi John, hello everybody, I'm Mary Hart coming to you from world famous Hialeah Park in Florida.
You know today and tomorrow, entertainment tonight will come to you from both coasts with a special look at the stars and events in southern Florida.
Mary, it looks like right now...
Coming up, Burt Reynolds takes on the press and Joan Rivers and gives a warning to Celesta Stallone.
And ahead, Sharon Gless says Chris Cagney's battle with alcoholism may hurt Cagney's image with the fans.
Mary Tyler Moore and Robbie Benson were on Capitol Hill today in Washington testifying against proposed budget cuts in medical research.
Each actor has a personal interest in the proceedings.
Moore suffers from diabetes and Benson was born with a defective heart valve.
I had surgery myself and we're here to make sure that money isn't taken away from research.
And I guess I'm representing the success of what happened to me for everybody out there.
The appearances by the actors created quite a commotion, but the messages they brought with them could not have been more serious.
I appear before you as a taxpayer concerned with the economic drain of diabetes on our economy, estimated to be about $13 billion per year.
And I appear before you as a person with diabetes diagnosed 21 years ago.
What we heard from Senator Inouye is that there will indeed be an increase in funding to the National Institutes of Health, of which diabetes will be the beneficiary.
And we're very glad about that.
Ms. Moore has herself benefited from diabetes research.
She recently underwent a laser therapy which helps prevent blindness in people who have that disease.
Burt Reynolds was raised in South Florida, so it's no surprise that he makes these balmy shores his home away from Hollywood.
He also built a little dinner theater here.
His goal was to create a haven where he and his actor friends could have some fun and play the kinds of roles that Hollywood just didn't offer them.
His little experiment succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.
Over the last eight years, Burt Reynolds' dinner theater has seduced many stars away from Hollywood and New York.
Part of the draw is to work with Reynolds, who has directed six of the productions.
In April, he directed Judd Nelson in Wrestlers.
Most come here to enjoy the work and the weather, and almost every actor leaves his or her star ego at home.
It really does happen almost 90 percent of the time.
There are those rare occasions when you get somebody down here who does bring the baggage.
As a matter of fact, the first three or four years that we had theater, my apprentices were getting so spoiled
that by the time they left here, they thought all actors were like Martin Sheen,
who's close to Christ in terms of how he thinks of people.
Asked Martin Sheen about Hitler, he says, he's a nice painter.
So you have to have somebody that comes in here and is a real jerk so they'll realize that there are some jerks in there.
So I used to hire, I used to say, who is the biggest?
And we used to get that guy, he's very famous actually, I'll tell you later who he is.
And he would come in here and boy they'd go, wow, boy is Martin Sheen ever terrific.
Now come on, tell us who it is.
No, I can't, I can't. Joan Rivers.
You're still feisty about her. How did that whole feud start?
It wasn't a feud, it started, I mean a feud is like two people.
It started by her taking shots at me about fifty times on her, every time she was on the Carson show.
And then in print. I find her to be such a disgusting human being that it's difficult for me to react to her in any other way
other than just to say that I dislike what she does because she's made a career out of hurting other people.
And that's not my idea of an entertainer, you know.
Now if you watch, and who does, but if you watch that show of hers and you analyze the people she picks on,
it's usually people that are kind of wounded, you know.
Why do you get picked on? Why is the press, I mean what has happened in the last few years? I don't understand it.
I don't either. I think part of it comes from the fact that I've been a little too open with people.
And there is that thing of, I had a tremendous amount of success, and I didn't have the success that Salone had,
but I almost, I mean I was number one for ten years, and it's a question of if he slides, it's when.
Nobody stays number one, you know, eventually it will be Tom Cruise or somebody will come along and install a slide.
When it happens, all those people that he said no to, you'll see a major, major, I mean possibly even more than I got.
Because I, I'm thinking he probably made more enemies than I did over that time.
And it doesn't mean that Salone's a worse guy than I am, it just means that he's a more private person than I am.
The only way that the press ever gets along with you totally is if you never talk to them.
I mean if you take someone who absolutely doesn't do any interviews at all, you want to talk about well-loved, well, Redford.
I've never read an unkind word about Redford. Doesn't do interviews. Doesn't talk to anybody.
Well if you had it to do all over again, would you forego doing the interviews?
Um, I don't think I'm that smart. I think I'd probably do it just exactly the same way.
He's plenty smart. Tomorrow we'll have more of that interview with Burt Reynolds.
He'll take on movie critics and I'll tell you, he doesn't pull any punches, John.
Mary, my spies tell me that you had dinner with Burt and Lonnie Anderson. Anything to report?
Well, as a matter of fact, we did. And of course, you know, there's always talk about when are they going to get married.
They're obviously very devoted to one another and Lonnie has sold her house in Los Angeles, so I don't know that that means any specific date has been set, but they're definitely devoted.
Sounds like a scoop to me.
By the way, we'll have more from the Hialeah Park flamingo chorus when we come back.
Alright.
Tomorrow, Philip Michael Thomas. He's made a million dollar investment in a Miami theater complex, but what happens if his show Miami Vice folds?
On Wednesday, Julio Iglesias sings the tale of his life and times at his home in Miami.
Hotel accommodations provided by the elegant Grand Bay Hotel in Coconut Grove, a mobile five-star hotel.
When you think of Florida, white sandy beaches, ocean breezes, and teen romance come to mind. There's a good reason for that.
For the past three decades, Hollywood has churned out beach blanket fantasies where boy meets girl, boy surfs, boy gets girl just the way girl had planned it, and boy surfs some more.
Leonard Malton has the story on how it all began. Sound familiar, Leonard?
It sure does. There was a time when doing a story about beach movies would have started off with Burt Lancaster and Deborah Carr smooching in the surf and from here to eternity.
But then came the 60s and all that changed. The beach movie became a genre all to itself, just like the western or the horror film.
Speaking of horror, they're bringing the beach movie back, but we'll get to that later.
For now, let's kick off our shoes and look back at the movies that started the trend nearly 30 years ago.
Where the boys are
Where the boys are never pretended to be anything other than what it was.
Why don't we all admit it?
Admit what?
We're going to Lauderdale for one reason, to meet boys.
Boys, girls, sun, sand, spring break vacation on the beaches of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The city of Fort Lauderdale is once again under fire from the north.
And what a cast. George Hamilton, Dolores Hart, Paul Apprentice, Jim Hutton, Yvette Mimeur, Frank Gorshin.
That's mystic, absolutely mystic.
And introducing Connie Francis.
Where the boys are was the first teenage beach movie, but it wouldn't be the last, not by a long shot.
I want Frankie to think of me as more than just a girl.
Three years later, Beach Party became a phenomenon, a modestly budgeted picture from American International
that struck gold in the youth market and spawned sequel after sequel.
My secret servant spot is the top of the school.
The Samoan puberty dance all over again.
My secret servant spot will only endure the grimmies and the hood that's never gone.
This sun and sand brand of filmmaking continues to live on.
This summer, Frankie and Annette will wax up their boards once more when Back to the Beach is released.
And Fort Lauderdale will once again be invaded, this time by nerds, in Revenge of the Nerds, Part 2.
We like Florida a lot.
I guess it goes to show you, there is nothing new, especially under the sun.
Almost. I can remember going to see where the boys are when I was 10 years old.
I think I liked it, but I wasn't old enough to see Beach Party when it played
at the local drive-in and
maybe just as well. Now they're both available on videocassette and I guess
you can always take a portable VCR with you to the beach.
Right John? Yeah, now you have people carrying gasoline-powered generators with them to the beach.
More noise on the beach. Good idea. I'm gonna take my generator and go to the beach right now.
Alright, Mary, we'll continue with this. For the past five years the emotional story of
Chris Cagney and Mary Beth Lacey has won rave reviews and loyal viewers.
Both Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly have been honored for their roles as Cagney and Lacey
on the CBS series,
but Gless says her character's latest struggle, that of alcoholism,
may shake Chris Cagney's heroic image. Okay, Pop, breathe.
Breathe. Breathe. Come on, Pop.
Please, Pop. Come on, Pop, don't leave me.
Breathe. Wake up. Help me.
Somebody help me!
It is the death of Chris Cagney's father that is the catalyst for her
alcoholism
progressing to its full extent. Over the past year she has gradually become more
dependent on alcohol.
I think what you see in the last half hour of
the part two in her loft is probably just an extension of scenes we've never
shot before.
You've seen Cagney come in in the morning in a comedic hangover
scene many, many times. Well, what got her that? How did she get in that shape?
I need a partner that I can count on for backup, honey.
I'm not laying my ass on the line for some lush who can't get through the morning
without a little nip of scotch.
Christine Cagney has become, as has Mary Beth Lacey,
not voluntarily really because
role models, we've been called role models. And I realized how upsetting this is going to be
for people who love this character, Christine Cagney,
because they're going to discover that their hero has clay feet.
I think we're going to save a lot of lives with it though. I do.
That's my blues, buster! Give him you son of a bitch!
Stop it! You have no right to do that! Oh yes I have a right!
Christine, I don't even know who you are when you drink like this! Please!
Oh please!
Christine Cagney!
I can help myself!
The first hour of the two-part episode airs this evening on CBS.
¶¶
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded on this day in 1927.
In today's People Postscripts, Oprah Winfrey's list of achievements is long and impressive.
An Academy Award nomination for her debut role in The Color Purple, a top-rated daytime
talk show, a TV network deal to star in a sitcom and TV movie.
Over the weekend, the effervescent hostess added another long-awaited accomplishment
to her growing list.
After years of urging by her father, Oprah returned to Tennessee State University, not
only to deliver the commencement speech, but to finally receive her diploma.
She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in speech, communication, and theater 12 years
after she should have by completing her senior project last year.
Dad said, I was never going to mount anything without the degree.
I can hardly wait to see what's going to happen now, now that I've got it.
Wonder how she did it?
Well, Winfrey's senior project was a compilation of excerpts from her local Chicago talk show.
She was given an A.
Dorothy L'Amour gets an A for the way she wore those skimpy sarongs, but after her first
screen test, she figured Hollywood didn't want her.
That is until movie mogul Adolf Zukor saw the test and knew that L'Amour could go a
long way with a little material, as she recounts for us today in her Hollywood memory.
After I did my test and went back to Denver to meet Herbie Kay's orchestra and sing with
the orchestra again, I thought I would never hear from Hollywood.
And then all of a sudden I received this beautiful telegram from Mr. Adolf Zukor, who said, we've
taken up your option, please come back.
So on the train coming back, I thought of these beautiful clothes and these beautiful
hairdos and jewelry and everything.
And I came back to Paramount and when they told me I was going to be wrapped in a little
piece of cloth, I died because I was very self-conscious of my body and everything else.
And I was very embarrassed about showing it.
So I ended up with no shoes, a piece of cloth around me and my hair down.
What more could you ask for?
God bless that little piece of cloth.
Yes, Mary, but that little piece of cloth is getting smaller and smaller as the years
progress, isn't it?
That is an understatement.
I bet you don't mind a bit, do you, John?
No, it doesn't bother me at all.
That's it for us.
Tomorrow we'll have a unique look at health, diet and exercise with Raquel Welch and our
special host, Connie Selica.
And we want to thank the people here at Hialeah Park.
Our operative phrase today has been cue the flamingos.
Then I'll be traveling south to Key Biscayne and have more of that interview with Burt
Reynolds from his Florida mansion.
Tonight, though, we're going to close with Kenny Rogers singing one of his hits with
the first edition.
It's Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town.
Goodbye, everyone.
Bye, John.
Bye, Mary.
Take care.
The way I know I've heard it slammed a hundred times before.
Next on Channel 8's PM magazine, visit La Costa, a spa resort outside San Diego where you
can pamper yourself with a therapeutic massage.
Be sure to watch for your chance to win a trip to La Costa to spoil yourself rotten.
Then stay tuned for a great Monday night on NBC.
Don't take your loved one.
Oh, Ruby.
God's sakes, turn around.