This film has recently made it on to YouTube, and I have to say that it's probably more entertaining now than it was at the time of it's release. In 1978, when big-budget star-studded musical extravaganzas like Grease were all the rage, this must have looked like a glorified home movie by comparison. The only person in it who had any showbiz credentials at all (at the time) is the wood-shop teacher, played by well known singer/songwriter Dave Frischberg.
The dialog, the acting, the singing and the dancing are all ridiculously amateurish, but there are two things this movie has in it's favor that make it quite watchable: Many of the songs are actually quite good (surprising for something that was made during the height of the disco craze), and the fact that the entire cast appears to be in on the joke. They all instinctively realized that the best way to suddenly break into silly song and dance routines about shop class, jockstraps and training bras, is to maintain completely deadpan expressions on their faces, leaving it to the audience to provide the laugh track.
Filmed over the summer of 1977 at John Muir Jr. High in Burbank California (not Van Nuys Jr. High as is often mistakenly reported), the kids were all ages 13-15 at the time of filming, and considering that this appears to be the sole movie credit for most of them, one can only marvel at the energy they put into a project that was obviously not their chosen vocation.
The dialog, the acting, the singing and the dancing are all ridiculously amateurish, but there are two things this movie has in it's favor that make it quite watchable: Many of the songs are actually quite good (surprising for something that was made during the height of the disco craze), and the fact that the entire cast appears to be in on the joke. They all instinctively realized that the best way to suddenly break into silly song and dance routines about shop class, jockstraps and training bras, is to maintain completely deadpan expressions on their faces, leaving it to the audience to provide the laugh track.
Filmed over the summer of 1977 at John Muir Jr. High in Burbank California (not Van Nuys Jr. High as is often mistakenly reported), the kids were all ages 13-15 at the time of filming, and considering that this appears to be the sole movie credit for most of them, one can only marvel at the energy they put into a project that was obviously not their chosen vocation.
