I highly recommend the movie "Can You Hear The Laughter: The Story of Freddie Prinze. It's available on video. For the people who have seen it though- I have a question. Does anyone know anything about the actor Ira Augustain, who played Freddie? I haven't heard anything about him- before the movie, or since. I think he was terrific.

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Where can you get that on video? I thought it wasnt available.

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GET OUT OF MY GARAGE!!!

Hi Ed Brown Jr. If you can't find it at your local video store, then I would try to check out places online. I know that it is available on video.

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Thanks for the info i will start looking.

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GET OUT OF MY GARAGE!!!

Rob,he played on White Shadow.It also starred Ken Howard.I have a pic of the movie that I had got out of tv guide.It is on my site under recommendations then click on video.The Freddie movie. http://communities.msn.com/freddieprinzesr/

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hillbilly

[This message has been edited by hillbilly (edited 06-25-2001).]

Hey Hillbilly- thanks for your help

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If there is anyone one here who can "review"
or just share their thoughts on the movieCan you hear the laughter,I would love to hear about it. I vaugely remember seeing it on tv,and Iv'e heard some negative things about the movie.I can't decide if I want it or not.
I love anything Freddie but I don't want something that paints a totally negative picture either becausr there was a lot more to his short life than drugs.
I'd love some input.
Thank you rob for your reccomendation,Id like to hear more too

Ed - there always seems to be a copy of Can you hear the Laughter on e-bay. I see one every time I check under Chico and the Man.
Sometimes you have to go farther down under
more items but it's worth looking on e-bay.
One copy went for $4.99 a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks for the info Copycat i will have to go check out that site.

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GET OUT OF MY GARAGE!!!

I HATE that movie. I saw it when it first came out. Ira Augustain did resemble Freddie. They made Freddie out to be obnoxious. Nat (his friend) knows Freddie well! He's the only one who could tell us if that was true but, even if it was I will always love Freddie! A person of 18 is not the person they become when they are 47 years old. When you are that young your body and mind goes through so many changes. I remember when I was 18 - 22 years old. I was obnoxious...... I now have mellowed.....

A big thank-you to Rob and everyone for recommending the movie, "Can You Hear the Laughter". I feel much as Joy and JennyLee22 about this movie. I am really hesitant about seeing it. When it ran on television, I was too upset over Freddie to watch it. I heard the negative things about it and just opted out. However, like most of us here, I want anything and everything relating to Freddie, Sr. So, I am contemplating purchasing a copy of this movie.

As JennyLee commented, he was just a young man. It is unfair to focus on negative aspects of someone at that age. I hope the movie gives a fair and balanced view of him. His age should be taken into consideration when looking at any mistakes he made.

I managed to buy a copy of the video through Amazon.com auctions without having to pay too much. I thought the actor more closely resembled Tony Orlando than Freddie-- ironically except near the end, when he seems to have lost weight for the role and used a very frightened, sometimes wild-looking, facial expression. The makeup used at that point was also convincing, making him look pale and hollow-eyed. Otherwise I felt that the facts were to a great extent misrepresented (I had already read Mrs. Pruetzel's book). Being very fond of Freddie's singing voice I was rattled by the voice used to dub it for the movie--very deep and not very much in tune. Even the costumes for the pilot episode of CATM were not right, and the way Freddie and Kathy met as well as their wedding seemed inaccurate to what I already knew from other sources. The account of the suicide was completely wrong--Freddie is portrayed as having been alone and no phone calls are enacted. It is very disturbing anyway, and left me with the shakes for a long time afterward.

So far, I am quite the minority in my positive opinion of the movie. Oh well, to each his (or her) own I guess.

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I wonder if anyone thought about consulting Maria Pruetzel when they were making the movie. I know that whenever anything is done on John Lennon, Yoko Ono is right in there making sure that John is represented in the way she sees fit. I wonder if Maria got upset at the details of the movie? If anything about John Lennon was portrayed inaccurate, like they did with Freddie, Yoko Ono would have raised hell for sure!!!

Am I mistaken in my memory of seeing the movie?

it seems to me that they had Freddie(Ira)alone and he shot at his reflection in a mirror, is this correct(for the movie,I know it wasn't really correct.) For some reason that sticks in my mind.

Yes Joy, that is correct, he is shown as staring (wild-eyed as I mentioned before--scary!) into a mirror and muttering to himself (I can't remember what he says or if it is even intelligible), then the camera cuts away and I believe you hear the shot. The next scene is of Carol (his secretary)calling someone from a pay phone at the hospital to tell them that Freddie shot himself. I forget who she was calling but I think it was the manager back in New York that he was in the process of suing.

I remember when the movie came out but don't remember if I ever saw it or not... I always thought Ira Augstain looked like Tony Orlando.

I bought a copy of the movie off of E-Bay for around $2.99 & am waiting to get it. I was curious to see it so for that price... I mailed the check to the seller & it never got to them so we had to put a stopper on it & re-send the payment by money order, hence the delay in getting it...

[This message has been edited by Cheryl Harrell (edited 06-27-2001).]

After Freddie passed away. I remember that movie being shown the next year. It was one of those Sunday at 9:00 PM movies. http://www.sitcomsonline.com/ubb/frown.gif

I saw my movie I got yesterday. Saw it last nite. (It's the next day now)... Basic plotline was Poor Puertorican boy wants to be a star, does nite club gigs, get on talk shows, gets on CATM, does standup comdy in Vegas, gets on drugs, marries, has maritial problems, goes mentally buts & ends it all.

It was an interesting movie but not something I'd watch over & every day after day like CATM.

Here were some stuff in the movie that was not correct:

He did not have a smiwwimg pool I don't think he did. His parents were the ones that had one.

They have his old girlfriend Ann Nani Sadler depected as a Puerto-Rican girl named Rosie. In his moms book she didn't look Puerto-Rican.

He wears a white suit to get married in. On the internet I found some pics of his wedding & he wore a dark tux for it.

They show where a girl he was with threw out some cociane or pot he had & he chews her out over it forgetting that he had told her to do it. I think I read somewhere where that episode occurred with a ma=le friend of his who was a comic, I think.

After Kathy divorces him he gets an apartment he doesn't like. Actually he moved into a hotel after she divorced him.

They depict him as having contact with Nanni (Called Rosie)after Kathy divorces him.

I think when Kathy divorced him he cried his heart out. He doesn't act that way in the movie.

Some stuff they didn't show in it:

His faith in God his mom wirte about-- him reading the Bible & praying & going to church

Him being sweet to the baby & calling him Pie.

His really funny side. We never see in the movie how funny he really was.

His sweet side is missing. Thank God for folks like Wheeeone & De-De who showed us what he was really like...

His mom said in her book he cried easy. We never see that. I think only coupla a times does he look in the movie like he's about to cry.

Tony Orlando & Freddie's folks are never shown in the movie...


Some other stuff about the movie:

Ira Augustain looks too much like Tony Orlando. He could easily play him in a movie. I see him & think of him as the WHITE SHADOW guy & not Freddie.

I didn't look at this & go Freddie is cute they way you would as CATM as it's not him.

Also the Movie went way to fast & skipped over stuff. I know it has to fit 9-11 PM but they could've made it 8-11 PM or a 2 parter...

Also they show Freddie & Jack filming the first CATM. Not only is Freddie dressed wrong, but he & Jack are not funny there. Whoever they got to play Jack was no Jack Albertson. He was not funny at all.

I tried to get my hubby Mike to watch it with me. He watched the first few minutes of it but quit & went back to watching Jay Leno cuz he said he saw it when it was origionally on tv & didn't like it cuz it wasn't really Freddie in it. He thought it swasn't a good movie. It wasn't as good a movie as it should've been. They should've based it on his Moms book instead of the PLAYBOY article. Still it was interesting...


[This message has been edited by Cheryl Harrell (edited 06-30-2001).]

Also something really weird happened to me while I was watching the CAN YOU HEAR THE LAUGHTER movie...

The electricity had gone out earlier for an hr & came back on...

At the end of the movie when he died, it upset me & I went all to pieces & had to get a hanky.

Mike comes in & sees me going all to pieces & asks me if I'm okay, being concerned about me. I was bawling my head off going Boo-Hoo He died, He died Boo-Hoo, I was crying so hard. Mike told me I was acting as if a relative had died & it was someone I didn't even know. He asked me if I was gonna be okay being concerned about me. I told him yeah. He said that he'd never seen me cry like that over Arlo. I told him Arlo was alive & not dead like Freddie was but that if Arlo were ever to die, believe me I'd be like that. Mike talked like he was concerned the movie & Freddies death might upset me so much that I might get emotional problems from it. I told him it wouldn't make me that way, it just made me so sad. Mike was just being concerned about me which was sweet.

Well, there I was sobbing in my hanky having a good old fashioned bawl fest while the credits were rolling on the screen. Freddie's name comes up on the screen while I'm doing the sobbing in a hanky thing & this is weird...

Suddenly the electricity goes out. Weird... It stayed off for a little while before coming back on... Weird... I wonder if Freddie had anything to do with this?

This might sound dumb but later I talked to a picture of Freddie hoping he'd hear it & know that someone cared.

[This message has been edited by Cheryl Harrell (edited 06-30-2001).]

Cheryl, I had to write to tell you that you are not weird or dumb. You are not losing your marbles. Freddie does that to me, too.
And I was watching him being funny on CATM and I still cried cause it was on his birthday when I was watching it. I have been debating watching "Can you hear the Laughter". Mariposa has the movie and said I could watch it, but now I'm not so sure I want to. I did see it when it first came out years ago and all I can remember is I didn't like it then. I doubt much will have changed that opinion, but since this sudden interest in it, I was curious to watch it again. They say that curiosity killed the cat, and I think that it might be the death of me if I do watch it. You saw from my group hug thread how I went to pieces over watching CATM on his birthday! This might send me over the edge. And my husband is NOT as understanding about all of this as yours seems to be. He likes CATM but he is becoming suspicious of my interest in Freddie again these days! I was glad he was out of the house a lot on Freddie's birthday so he didn't see me bawling! Thank you for sharing all you did about the movie and your experience watching it!

PS: The only way I would watch it now would be with Mariposa and I don't want to ruin our visit by getting us both depressed!

[This message has been edited by Luckymama58 (edited 06-30-2001).]

Cheryl, thank-you so much for your review and feelings on the movie. I am afraid that I will feel the same as you do about it.

You are not weird. I cry alot over Freddie also. I talk to his picture and cry when watching CATM sometimes. I can be going about my day just fine, and his death will hit me all over again and I will find tears welling up in my eyes.

You have a heart and you care. There is nothing wrong with that. You miss him and have feelings about this loss.

Regarding the electricity thing, don't discount it. A very good friend at this site and I discuss this kind of thing alot. We have had things like this happen as well. It could be coincidence or have some logical explanation -- but we just smile and wonder...

Thanks to you and Luckymama for sharing such dear feelings.

FREDDIE FOREVER!

As I have said before, this movie is ALL negative and was nothing like the real Freddie.....He did have his problems and he probably had his attitudes just like anyone else,but this movie really seems to make him seem like a real loser....I have the movie,and I have watched it 3 or 4 times and every time I watch it I find more discrepancies(SP)... Anyway I would not recommend this movie at all....