John Sebastian Movies

For about a year after the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969, it seemed as though everyone wanted to stage a rock festival. However, The Rolling Stones' disastrous Altamont free concert (documented in the film Gimme Shelter) forever tarnished the image of the rock festival in the U.S., while in Europe, the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival was fortunately less deadly than Altamont, but nearly as controversial. Staged by two men with greater ambitions than practical experience (not unlike Woodstock), the festival was held on a small island off the British coast, where some of the finest rock talent of the day -- Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Who, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Donovan, Jethro Tull, Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen, and Kris Kristofferson, among many others -- were scheduled to play over the course of five days. But while at Woodstock no one had given much thought about keeping gatecrashers out, at the Isle of Wight those without tickets were greeted with corrugated steel fences that sealed off the festival grounds. Huge numbers of visitors simply camped on hills surrounding the grounds, while others broke down the fences by force after refusing to pay the three pounds admission. This led to heated conflicts between the promoters (who railed bitterly against the audience from the stage), the festival's security staff (who had to deal with the many gatecrashers), the concert-goers (who were upset with both the admission price and the site's facilities, one spectator calling it "a psychedelic concentration camp"), and the performers (who had to deal with unruly audiences and the prospect of not being paid). It was estimated that 600,000 people attended the festival, but less than 50,000 actually paid to get in, spelling financial ruin for the promoters. American documentary filmmaker Murray Lerner brought a crew to record the festival on film, but thanks to the festival's bad publicity and uneven reviews, he was not able to obtain completion funds for the project until 1995, hence the presence of many musicians who had since passed away, such as Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Miles Davis. Message to Love: The Isle of Wight Festival examines the concert both on-stage and behind-the-scenes, capturing performances from many of the artists who appeared. We see Joni Mitchell and Kris Kristofferson angrily confronting the rowdy crowd, and The Who at the peak of their form (their full set was released as a separate film), alongside the numerous catastrophes and conflicts that dominated the festival's five days. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Also known as "Married. . .With Children: The Musical", this episode gets under way when a financially strapped Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) wins a first-class plane ticket to Hawaii in a shoe-selling contest. Quick to cash in on this windfall, the Bundys convert the ticket into four standbys and spend most of their "vacation" disguised as rock stars (it's "Axel" Bundy, dammit!) and lollygagging around in the airport's VIP lodge with several veteran musicians. Appearing as themselves are John Sebastian of The Lovin' Spoonful, Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits, Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders, Robbie Krieger of The Doors, and Richie Havens and Spencer Davis. Song: "Old Aid". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This concert release captures respected musician David Bromberg performing a 1987 show at Iowa State University. The setlist includes renditions of "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down," "I'm a Demon in Disguise," "Dust My Broom," and "Chump Man Blues." ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Learn to Play Autoharp features Lovin' Spoonful frontman John Sebastian offering a series of tips on how to begin playing the instrument. Viewers will learn fingerpicking and proper fingering while learning to play a variety of traditional songs. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Navin Johnson, the consummate idiot, returns in this remake of Steve Martin's popular 1979 film The Jerk. As in the first, Johnson, the lily white adoptee of a black sharecropper sets out across the country in search of true love. This version was designed as a pilot for a TV series that never materialized. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The struggle of a has-been singer to work his way back up the charts is the focus of this drama by Robert M. Young with screenplay and music by Paul Simon. Simon plays Jonah, a once-popular singer who now opens for punk rock bands. In the ten years since he had a hit song, Jonah's wife has divorced him, but he still sees his young son as often as he can. With his record company on his back to come up with something that sells, Jonah begins to compromise his own talent when he listens to the advice of a trendy producer. Whether or not he can straighten out his personal life and steer his own ship may depend on his ability to trust his own judgment and adjust to the changing times. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

As Season Three of Welcome Back, Kotter gets under way, Julie Kotter (Marcia Strassman), the wife of Buchanan High School's funniest teacher Gabe Kotter (Gabriel Kaplan), gives birth to twin daughters. Before long, the babies are being hugged and coddled by the four prankish-but-lovable remedial students in Gabe's home room, better known as the "sweathogs": Vinnie Barbarino (John Travolta, Juan Epstein (Robert Hegyes), Horshack (Ron Palillo) and Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs). This situation leads to one of the season's funnier episodes, in which Gabe peers into the future when his twin daughters are grown up and he and the sweathogs are all doddering oldsters! Joining the cast halfway through the season is Melonie Haller as Angie Globagoski, a defiant underachiever whose goal in life is to be the first "female sweathog." Evidently she doesn't meet that goal, inasmuch as she has been written out the show by season's end. Another recurring character appears in the form of Murray (Bob Harcum), a remedial student from another school who frequently matches wits (such as they are) with Buchanan's sweathogs. By the end of Season Three, both Murray and his pal Carvelli (Charles Fleischer) will have transferred to Buchanan, possibly as means of "cast insurance" should costar John Travolta, whose star was ascending rapidly via such films as Carrie and Saturday Night Fever), decide to break his contract and quit the show (PS: He didn't). Ironically, although it was Travolta's character Vinnie who was expected to exit at any moment, it is Gabe Kotter who considers "dropping out" of Buchanan to pursue a career as a stand-up comic (with material supplied by his students) in the two-part episode "There's No Business Like Show Business". Other third-season episodes worth mentioning are a brace of Welcome Back Kotter "specials", "The Sweathogs Back-to-School Special" and "The Sweathogs Christmas Special", both of which consist primarily of highlights from earlier seasons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The opening episode of Welcome Back Kotter's second season finds Buchanan High School teacher Gabe Kotter (Gabe Kaplan) considering the idea of giving up his "sweathog" class to accept a job with a Japanese inventor, played by Pat Morita. Other noteworthy guest stars appearing this year are John Astin as a ghoulish museum curator who convinces Kotter's students that they're being stalked by a mummy; Valerie Curtin as a student teacher who has her hands full with the sweathogs until Gabe comes to her rescue; veteran western star Scott Brady as an ill-tempered gym teacher who punches remedial student Vinnie Barbarino (John Travolta) right in front of a group of his female admirers; Harold J. Stone as Kotter's hyper-judgemental; George Carlin and Fred Grandy (what a combo!) in an episode wherein Kotter's student Epstein (Robert Hegyes) becomes a popular radio DJ; and Ellen Travolta, the sister of series costar John Travolta, in the first of several appearances as "Mrs. O'Hara", this time in a two-parter in which the nerdish Horshack (Ron Palillo) thinks about quitting school to support his family. In addition to the aforementioned "regular" sweathogs (plus Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs as Freddie "Boom-Boom" Washington), Charles Fleischer, future voice of cartoon star Roger Rabbit, makes his intial appearance this season as Carvelli, Barbarino's tough-guy rival from another school; by the end of Season Three, Carvelli will have transferred into Kotter's class at Buchanan High. Season Two ends with the news that Gabe's ever-lovin' wife Julie (Marcia Strassman) is pregnant with twins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The pilot episode of Welcome Back Kotter finds history and social studies teacher Gabe Kotter (Gabriel Kaplan) taking charge of the remedial class at Brooklyn's James Buchanan High School, some ten years after he had graduated from the same class. Despite his status as a former "Sweathog", Gabe has a lot of trouble riding herd over such "unteachable" 10th graders as Barbarino (John Travolta, Horshack (Ron Palillo), Epstein (Robert Hegyes) and Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), and by the end of the first day he is sadly informing his wife Julie (Marica Strassman) that he intends to quit. Gabe is prevented from doing so when the "Sweathogs" tell him how much they really like and appreciate him--much to dismay of our hero's longtime nemesis, Buchanan's scowling vice-principal Woodman (John Sylvester White). Incredibly, this pilot show was NOT the debut episode of Welcome Back, Kotter's first season: Instead it was shown third, after episodes in which the sweathogs match wits with a snotty debate team, and in which Washington contemplates dropping out to become a basketball star. Though audiences of the time were probably confused by the chronological mixup, they quickly picked up on the comic rhythm of the show, especially those scenes in which Kotter's charges indulge in their pet hobb of "ranking"--that is, topping each other's insults. Before long, all of America was rooting for Kotter's sweathogs and booing the efforts of Mr. Woodman to undermine Kotter--which including finding an academic loophole forcing Gabe to retake his high school finals! Among the first season's best episodes are "Whodunit", in which student Rosalie "Hotsy" Totzie gets even with the sweathogs for underservedly tagging her with a "fast" reputation; "No More Mr. Nice Guy", in which Kotter and Woodman unexpectedly exchange personalities when Woodman takes over teaching the class one day; "Arriverdci Arnold", wherein the nerdy Horshack is promoted to a "smart" class--and hate it); "Follow the Leader", a two-part power struggle with Barbarino and Washington vying for the unofficial position of class leader; and "Dr. Epstein, I Presume", in which Epstein displays a hitherto unsuspected talent as a veterinarian. In addition to the actors mentioned above, Season One features a number of recurring characters: Vernee Jean Williams (Vernee Watson), who in one installment is talked out of marrying Washington by his pals; supersmart Judy Borden (Helaine Lembeck), whom Barbarino despises until she helps him improve his grades; and Todd (Dennis Bowen) and Maria (Catarina Cellino). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The men of Adam-12 have quite a full case load in this episode. One of the challenges facing mobile officers Reed (Kent McCord) and Malloy (Martin Milner) is to locate a young runaway named Diane (played by Ronne Troup, the daughter of future Emergency! costar Bobby Troup). There's also the little matter of a supermarket robbery. But these cases are mere routine compared to the officers' biggest job of the day: to find a plane that has been stolen from an airport runway. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide