Alan Sacks Movies

Excerpts from the Jonas Brothers' Burning Up concert tour combine with behind-the-scenes footage, unscripted segments, and plenty of good-natured humor as director Bruce Hendricks (Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert) offers an eye-popping look into the lives of the Grammy-nominated hitmakers. Filmed in Disney Digital 3-D, the Walt Disney Pictures rockumentary allows the viewer to experience the thrill of being surrounded by legions of screaming fans, and features the previously unreleased song "Love Is on Its Way." ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In the tradition of the Not Quite Human series comes the Disney telemovie Pixel Perfect. The film concerns technophile Roscoe and rock musician Samantha, longtime platonic friends. When Samantha's group, The Zettabytes, struggles to gain a following, Roscoe invents a holographic singer, Loretta Modern, to front for the musicians and turn them into an instant smash with hordes of listeners. The ploy works, but Loretta's presence in the band alienates Samantha; meanwhile, Loretta herself grapples with a need to be "real," and Roscoe feels the first stirrings of romantic longing for Samantha and struggles with his need to tell her how he feels. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Ryan Merriman, Katey Sagal and Kevin Kilner star in this comedy from Disney about a single father and his two children who win an unusual prize in a sweepstakes -- a state-of-the-art computer controlled house in which everything can be easily controlled with the touch of a keypad. Directed by LaVar Burton. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Valley boys take on the punk rockers in this teen-age adventure. This time they use skateboards instead of zip guns, knives and fists. The rich Valley kids, "The Ramp Locals," are led by Corey Webster, while the leather-clad, street-wise punks follow Tommy Hook. The trouble begins when Corey falls in love with Tommy's little sister who has come from Indiana for a visit. The rivalry between the gangs culminates during the grueling "LA Massacre," a 20-mile downhill skateboarding race. The winning team will earn a corporate sponsor. For the final race, the filmmakers strapped a camera in front of a skateboard to give viewers a sense of the thrills experienced by the daring "thrashers." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In 1979, The Runaways were scheduled to star in a low-budget comedy about an all-female rock band called "We're All Crazy Now." The group broke up before shooting began, but guitarist and singer Joan Jett agreed to star in the film, with three actresses standing in for her departed bandmates. The plug was pulled on the project halfway through shooting, but in 1984, after Jett had become a major star as a solo act, producers were looking for a way to make use of the footage from the uncompleted film. Alan Sacks, who was a producer and writer for the television shows Welcome Back, Kotter and Chico and the Man, took on the project, and the result was this one-of-a-kind cinematic crazy-quilt. Dubeat-E-O (Ray Sharkey) is a perpetually wired film director who is working on a movie about Joan Jett. However, he's borrowed money from a notorious gangster to finance the project, and now his "investor" has announced Dubeat-E-O must have the final cut of the movie finished in thirty-one hours - or else. Dubeat-E-O holes up in his shabby studio with his editor, Benny (Derf Scratch), and Sharon (Nora Gaye), a woman who happened along by mistake, and we're treated to a mind-bending collage of Dubeat-E-O's rants, still photos, footage of Jett and the fake Runaways (among them Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith), performances by The Mentors and Joanna Went, random images of sex and violence, and much, much more. Meanwhile, Sachs and a group of friends (including El Duce of The Mentors) offer a running commentary on the film in progress. Tex and the Horseheads and Social Distortion are also featured prominently on the soundtrack; Jett would make her proper acting debut in 1987, in the drama Light Of Day. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Mickey Rooney stars in this made-for-TV docudrama as circus clown Jack Thum, who aids his wife (Anne Jackson) in raising dozens of orphans; despite learning he is dying, Jack still struggles to earn money to support his growing brood. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Jill Robinson's Bed-Time-Story, inspired by actual events, was the source for the made-for-TV A Cry for Love. Divorcee Susan Blakely, with no alimony and two kids to support, begins turning to amphetamines. While at her lowest ebb, she meets Powers Boothe, an alcoholic and three-time loser in marriage--who, incredibly, turns out to be the ideal man for her! Joseph Bologna and Renee Taylor were the guiding hands behind the Cry For Love teleplay. The film debuted on October 20, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, 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 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