1984: Guiding Light's Springfield celebrated Founders Day.
1985: Gh's Anna & Robert plotted to get the Aztec jewels.
1986: Another World's Felicia spoke at Zane's funeral.
1991: Days of our Lives' "Roman" reunited with Marlena."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into different and unexpected images."
― Anselm Kiefer
"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.
On this date in...
1977: On Guiding Light, Eve Stapleton (Janet Grey) was released from Cedars Hospital.
1979: On The Edge of Night, Elliott couldn't (Lee Godart) resist Raven (Sharon Gabet) even though he was aghast she left the baby alone.
1980: On Guiding Light, Nola (Lisa Brown) gave Morgan (Kristen Vigard) someone else's I.
1985: Gh's Anna & Robert plotted to get the Aztec jewels.
1986: Another World's Felicia spoke at Zane's funeral.
1991: Days of our Lives' "Roman" reunited with Marlena."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into different and unexpected images."
― Anselm Kiefer
"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.
On this date in...
1977: On Guiding Light, Eve Stapleton (Janet Grey) was released from Cedars Hospital.
1979: On The Edge of Night, Elliott couldn't (Lee Godart) resist Raven (Sharon Gabet) even though he was aghast she left the baby alone.
1980: On Guiding Light, Nola (Lisa Brown) gave Morgan (Kristen Vigard) someone else's I.
- 8/15/2019
- by Roger Newcomb
- We Love Soaps
1984: Guiding Light's Springfield celebrated Founders Day.
1985: Gh's Anna & Robert plotted to get the Aztec jewels.
1986: Another World's Felicia spoke at Zane's funeral.
1991: Days of our Lives' "Roman" reunited with Marlena."The best prophet of the future is the past."
― Lord Byron
"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.
On this date in...
1977: On Guiding Light, Eve Stapleton (Janet Grey) was released from Cedars Hospital.
1979: On The Edge of Night, Elliott couldn't (Lee Godart) resist Raven (Sharon Gabet) even though he was aghast she left the baby alone.
1980: On Guiding Light, Nola (Lisa Brown) gave Morgan (Kristen Vigard) someone else's I.D. so Morgan could get birth control pills.
1985: Gh's Anna & Robert plotted to get the Aztec jewels.
1986: Another World's Felicia spoke at Zane's funeral.
1991: Days of our Lives' "Roman" reunited with Marlena."The best prophet of the future is the past."
― Lord Byron
"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.
On this date in...
1977: On Guiding Light, Eve Stapleton (Janet Grey) was released from Cedars Hospital.
1979: On The Edge of Night, Elliott couldn't (Lee Godart) resist Raven (Sharon Gabet) even though he was aghast she left the baby alone.
1980: On Guiding Light, Nola (Lisa Brown) gave Morgan (Kristen Vigard) someone else's I.D. so Morgan could get birth control pills.
- 8/15/2018
- by Roger Newcomb
- We Love Soaps
Overall a mild amusement but not so well-crafted that it will achieve the cult status its makers long for, "Hijacking Hollywood" is a $150,000 satire of moviemaking co-starring, produced, directed and co-written by Neil Mandt, an Emmy-winning videomaker and veteran of TV news.
Starring Henry Thomas ("Legends of the Fall") as a showbiz-family runt from Detroit who starts at the bottom when he arrives in town, Mandt's self-released "Hijacking" surfaced briefly last month and returns Friday for a run at the UA Warner Center in Woodland Hills.
While many of the jokes are only slight exaggerations of the madness surrounding a big-budget project, and the details of a lowly production assistant's job provide comic possibilities, uneven performances and Mandt's lackluster direction undermine this good-natured lark shot in 16 days.
Kevin (Thomas), the nephew of a big producer's ex-wife, is thrown into the fray surrounding the making of "Moby Dick 2", a megaproduction that features a ludicrous premise ("Ahab survived") and expensive in-camera special effects. Yelled at by the mogul (Mark Metcalf) reluctantly meeting a family obligation and by the video game-playing production coordinator (Scott Thompson), Kevin makes all the usual mistakes the first day on the job.
Rooming with a slick college dropout (Mandt) who is barely navigating the backwaters of filmdom, Kevin is unwittingly seduced by the producer's wife (Nicole Gian), a tryst he takes little pleasure in. That makes him fear his career is over before he's had a chance to pitch his pet project, a socially responsible drama titled "Three Days in a Salt Mine".
Although he appears to be developing into a rebel with a desperate plan, it takes Mandt's schemer to push Kevin into swiping dailies of an $18 million effects sequence shot in Hawaii and holding the footage ransom for a relatively nominal fee. Other escapades include a lame late-night adventure with the producer's cracked wife, mother, brother and dead pet dog that is hardly the zany interlude intended.
While Mandt and Thompson ("The Larry Sanders Show") do well, Thomas and Metcalf ("The Stupids") are disappointing. The former flounders badly in finding the right combination of a wide-eyed bumbler with charisma to contemplate such a risky scam, and the latter is suitably bombastic but otherwise unconvincing.
Mandt is to be applauded for pulling off such an ambitious ruse on a budget equivalent to "Moby Dick 2"'s weekly Fed Ex bills, but in subsequent endeavors, he might consider moving the camera and taking more care in the casting process.
HIJACKING HOLLYWOOD
Broken Twig Prods.
Producer-director Neil Mandt
Screenwriters Neil Mandt, Jim Rossow
Executive producer Ann Mandt
Director of photography Anton Floquet
Production designer Todd Cherniawsky
Editor Charlie Webber
Music Erik Lundmark
Color/stereo
Cast:
Kevin Henry Thomas
Russell Scott Thompson
Michael Mark Metcalf
Tad Neil Mandt
Sarah Nicole Gian
Running time -- 93 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Starring Henry Thomas ("Legends of the Fall") as a showbiz-family runt from Detroit who starts at the bottom when he arrives in town, Mandt's self-released "Hijacking" surfaced briefly last month and returns Friday for a run at the UA Warner Center in Woodland Hills.
While many of the jokes are only slight exaggerations of the madness surrounding a big-budget project, and the details of a lowly production assistant's job provide comic possibilities, uneven performances and Mandt's lackluster direction undermine this good-natured lark shot in 16 days.
Kevin (Thomas), the nephew of a big producer's ex-wife, is thrown into the fray surrounding the making of "Moby Dick 2", a megaproduction that features a ludicrous premise ("Ahab survived") and expensive in-camera special effects. Yelled at by the mogul (Mark Metcalf) reluctantly meeting a family obligation and by the video game-playing production coordinator (Scott Thompson), Kevin makes all the usual mistakes the first day on the job.
Rooming with a slick college dropout (Mandt) who is barely navigating the backwaters of filmdom, Kevin is unwittingly seduced by the producer's wife (Nicole Gian), a tryst he takes little pleasure in. That makes him fear his career is over before he's had a chance to pitch his pet project, a socially responsible drama titled "Three Days in a Salt Mine".
Although he appears to be developing into a rebel with a desperate plan, it takes Mandt's schemer to push Kevin into swiping dailies of an $18 million effects sequence shot in Hawaii and holding the footage ransom for a relatively nominal fee. Other escapades include a lame late-night adventure with the producer's cracked wife, mother, brother and dead pet dog that is hardly the zany interlude intended.
While Mandt and Thompson ("The Larry Sanders Show") do well, Thomas and Metcalf ("The Stupids") are disappointing. The former flounders badly in finding the right combination of a wide-eyed bumbler with charisma to contemplate such a risky scam, and the latter is suitably bombastic but otherwise unconvincing.
Mandt is to be applauded for pulling off such an ambitious ruse on a budget equivalent to "Moby Dick 2"'s weekly Fed Ex bills, but in subsequent endeavors, he might consider moving the camera and taking more care in the casting process.
HIJACKING HOLLYWOOD
Broken Twig Prods.
Producer-director Neil Mandt
Screenwriters Neil Mandt, Jim Rossow
Executive producer Ann Mandt
Director of photography Anton Floquet
Production designer Todd Cherniawsky
Editor Charlie Webber
Music Erik Lundmark
Color/stereo
Cast:
Kevin Henry Thomas
Russell Scott Thompson
Michael Mark Metcalf
Tad Neil Mandt
Sarah Nicole Gian
Running time -- 93 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 7/17/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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