Americathon

Americathon (1979)

The ultimate spectacle is now a movie.

In a story told in narrative flashbacks, a young TV consultant is hired by the President of a bankrupt USA to organize a telethon in order to prevent the country from being repossessed by wealthy Native Americans.

Date of release
1979-08-10
TMDB
3.6 / 10 (15)
Runtime
1h 24m
Genres
Comedy
Director
Neal Israel

Casting

Interesting facts

Americathon is a 1979 American science fiction comedy film directed by Neal Israel and starring John Ritter, Fred Willard, Peter Riegert, Harvey Korman, and Nancy Morgan, with narration by George Carlin. It is based on a play by Firesign Theatre members Phil Proctor and Peter Bergman. The movie includes appearances by Jay Leno, Meat Loaf, Tommy Lasorda, and Chief Dan George, with a musical performance by Elvis Costello.

Production

John Carradine was cast as "Uncle Sam", but his scenes did not make the final cut.

The soundtrack album, released August 18, 1979, features "It's a Beautiful Day" by The Beach Boys, "Crawling to the USA" by Elvis Costello and "Get a Move On" by Eddie Money.

In a scene that features a song by Vietnamese singer Mouling Jackson (Zane Buzby, better known as a TV director and philanthropist), a large poster of actor Burt Kwouk can be seen. The photo is actually taken from the 1968 film The Shoes of the Fisherman, in which Kwouk played Chinese leader Chairman Peng.

In a scene where Eric McMerkin is reading a list of "Government Approved" performers, the names of "Proctor & Bergman" (the co-authors of the original play) can be seen fifth on the list, credited as "Comics." Peter Bergman and Phil Proctor were members of the satirical comedy performance group Firesign Theatre.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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