The Righteous Apples (1980–1981) User Reviews

The Righteous Apples

[[e-mail] · 7/10 · 16 February 2008]

Hello

My name is Cathy Olson. In 1980, I had a boyfriend, His name was Mario Fisher. He was at the end of the show. He and others skated at the end of the program. Sadly Mario has passed away. I was wondering if there was a way, that I could obtain a copy of this episode. I could revisit, the past, with hearing and seeing both Mario, and the Apples. I remember the night before he went to go be filmed in the Righteous. He decided he wanted to straighten his hair. So I applied this for Mario. I had to run a errand By the time I came back he had left it on for too long When he went to wash it out, it all came out! So in the middle of the night, In the pouring rain he found someone to give him a buzz. In 1980s the buzz was not in! So when our family gathered together, to watch Rightoues Apples, we all loved the show, but could not hold in the laughter seeing our Mario and his funny Buzz cut!

Music and Messages

[hillari · 14 April 2004]

This comedy drama ran on PBS stations during the early 1980's. Elizabeth Daily (the voice of Buttercup on "The Powerpuff Girls") was one of the members of a multi-cultural teenage pop band who dealt with and attempted to solve social problems. One episode had the band expose a racist doctor who was sterilizing the African-American women who came to his office without their knowledge. I believe Ms. Daily stayed on this short-lived show to the end, but their were cast changes among the other band members. This wasn't a bad show, just a little heavy handed sometimes in driving their messages across. I do remember that some of the songs they did were not originals. However, Ms. Daily did have a nice singing voice. PBS seemed to run quite a few shows similar to this during the late 1970s and early 1980s ("Up and Coming" and "Watch Your Mouth!" were two of the others), with youthful casts. I wish some of these obscure shows were appear somewhere on video or DVD.

A Favorite PBS Show for its Time

[lambiepie-2 · 10/10 · 29 November 2008]

This was one of my favorite programs on PBS because, at the time, it was highly original - looking at life through a group of multi-cultural high school kids who formed ... a band and wanted to be...famous. Of course, there were lessons to be learned, and most lessons were dead on to the bridge between childhood and real-life situations.

The people I do remember from this series are Elizabeth Daily (E. G. Daily), Mikel T. Williamson (Mykelti Williamson), Phillip Michael Thomas (as a bad music producer!), Kutee, Dominique Dunne, and the Carews of course. The "thing" about Elizabeth was that you knew this teen lead singer was going to go further in music - and she did. I couldn't wait for her to get a recording contract and "shoot the moon". She got quite a bit of music/soundtrack credits (i.e. - pay attention to the 80's Al Pacino's "Scarface", yes that is HER voice in one of those songs!) as well as film Her vocal talents were obvious, and (just my view) WAY ahead of the Mariah Carey explosion to come a decade later. Elizabeth had the octaves, and the range, and this was featured nicely on this program.

Whatever was going on at the time, the Righteous Apples seemed to be a part of. It was about more than the "music", it was about music and life. Today it may seem dated, and most things were wrapped up in 22 minutes. (Such as the one program I remember that chokes me up still today featured Dominique Dunne.) The musical numbers? Short but sweet, done by the actors and actresses themselves (to my memory)...and were written to fit into the theme of the episode. A song the Carews did write was "Poverty" (used in the same episode as Ms. Dunn) and sung by Ms. Daliy which displayed her gritty to high octave range.

Doing something like this today would take putting a program together with socially conscious themes that later aged teenagers (17-19) who are on the brink of adulthood would have to deal with. Wasn't always rosy, but there was always...hope. I liked the angle that these teens were "like me", that they were not "rich", that they did not get booked at "famous places", although that was the goal and that the people they met, had a reflection on them.

In addition to PBS, in 1980 this program had a second run as well on the Showtime Cable Network. At that time, Showtime ran a lot of educational movies and programming during the day (too bad, it was a programming thought!) and they still might have the licensing as well as PBS in Boston.

Hopefully this will come out out on DVD and folks can get to see this.

Righteous Apples

[hawk12233 · 6/10 · 30 May 2006]

I remember watching this show when I was younger growing up in Chicago. Up and Coming was another one that would come on either before or after Righteous Apples. This was a PBS show as well. I wanted to join the band. This show took place in an urban setting somewhere on the east coast (I can't remember) and I remember that it came out in the early eighties or late seventies (like 1979). It wasn't as good as Up and Coming, but it was a good show nonetheless. I don't know if either show is out on DVD, but it wouldn't hurt to find out. I would recommend each show if you have young children. Overall, it was a good show. It could be a bit preachy and the cast changed every so often, but it was a good show.