Pink Lady & Jeff, short lived 1980 variety show, airing on Trio July 21-26

[Pavan]

Trio TV will air all 6 episodes of Pink Lady & Jeff part of a special week on July 21-26:

DIRECTOR QUENTIN TARANTINO AND COLUMNIST JOEL STEIN TO CURATE MY TR!O

Pink Lady & Jeff, Battle of the Network Stars, and My Mother The Car -- Premiere On TR!O July 20-27

Writer/Director Quentin Tarantino and Time magazine columnist Joel Stein have been commissioned for the first two quarterly editions of MY TR!O, where guest programmers schedule the network's primetime line-up for one week, it was announced by Lauren Zalaznick, President, TR!O.

"We're taking our pop culture mission one step further by hiring the icons and arbiters of pop culture to program TR!O for a week at a time, " said Ms. Zalaznick. "Whether it's film, television, comedy or anything else, TR!O will be obsessed with whatever cultural artifacts our curators are obsessed with."

"MY TR!O: Joel Stein Week" kicks off on Sunday, July 20 at 9:00 p.m., ET/PT with the premiere of My TR!O: Joel Stein, a half-hour special that explains the curator's unusual programming choices for the week. The special features clips from the upcoming week's shows as well as phone interviews with Welcome Back, Kotter's Gabe Kaplan (who appeared on Battle of the Network Stars), Jeff Altman (Pink Lady & Jeff) and Greg Fitzsimmons (Idiot Savants).

The first episode of TR!O's limited original series Good Clean Porn, follows at 9:30 p.m., ET/PT. This three-edition series spotlights the subtlety of the acting and the complex narrative storylines of four classic porn films, without any of those distracting sex scenes. The films Debbie Does Dallas, The Devil in Miss Jones, Through the Looking Glass, and I Dream of Jenna are each the subject of their own episode.

Among Joel's hand-selected acquired series will be five episodes (from 1976, 77, 78, 79 and 80) of the reality show "Battle of the Network Stars" (1976-1988) which featured teams from the three major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) who compete against each other in physical challenges. Stars include Billy Crystal (Soap), David Letterman (Mary), Robin Williams (Mork and Mindy), Farrah Fawcett (Charlie's Angels), Penny Marshall (Laverne & Shirley), Ron Howard (Happy Days), Rob Reiner (All in the Family) and many more. The series premieres on TR!O on Sunday, July 20 at 10:00 p.m., ET/PT (re-airs 1:00AM ET/PT) and airs Monday through Friday that week (July 21-25) at 7:00 p.m., ET/4:00 p.m., PT (re-airs 11:00PM ET and 8:00PM PT). (All five episodes from that week will re-air on Sunday, July 27 in a marathon)

Additionally, the weeknight primetime schedule will include the camp favorite "Pink Lady and Jeff," a short-lived 1980 NBC drama series featuring a female Japanese rock duo (Pink Lady) and comedian Jeff Altman, airing Monday to Friday that week (July 21-25) at 10:00 p.m., ET/7:00 p.m., PT (re-airs 1:00AM ET/10:00PM PT). Guests include Sherman Hemsley, Larry Hagman, Sid Caesar, Donny Osmond, Florence "Mrs. Brady" Henderson, and Hugh Heffner ans his Playboy Playmates. All 6 episodes will re-air throughout the day on Saturday, July 26.

In keeping with the camp theme are the first five episodes of the Jerry Van Dyke classic "My Mother the Car" (1965-66), a comedy about a mother who was re-incarnated as 1928 automobile. Dave (Van Dyke), her son, was the only one who could hear her speak. This series airs Monday to Friday at 9:30 p.m., ET/6:30 p.m., PT (re-airs 1:30AM ET/10:30PM PT). Episodes will re-air throughout the day on Saturday, July 26 as well.

Idiot Savants -- another personal favorite of Joel's -- is a 1996-97 MTV quiz show in which four college-age contestants were asked pop culture questions by wiseguy host Greg Fitzsimmons. An episode featuring a younger Joel Stein as a contestant premieres on Monday, July 21 at 9:00 p.m., ET/6:00 p.m., PT.

To celebrate Joel's birthday on July 23, Late Night with David Letterman, airing during MY TR!O week in the special time period of 6:00 p.m., ET/3:00 p.m., PT, will feature the episode in which the talk show host reads a letter written by Joel Stein when he was a child.

"MY TR!O: Quentin Tarantino Week" premieres Sunday, October 5 and airs through Monday, October 13 (Columbus Day). The acclaimed director's eagerly-anticipated film Kill Bill starring Uma Thurman is slated to premiere in October. Details for this and future editions of "MY TR!O", hosted and programmed by other industry luminaries, will be announced shortly.

[Impressions]

Thanks for posting, Pav.

I definately will be watching this block, I'm glad they will be airing all episodes of Pink Lady & Jeff.

[JT]

WOW! Trio is getting better and better. I remember before they added "Laugh-In" I thought it was the most boring channel out there. I'm glad they're airing reruns of network shows now. So let's see, first they add "Laugh-In," then they started airing "East Side/West Side," "The Famous Teddy Z," "The PJs," not mention a special about "Amos N Andy," and now "Battle of the Network Stars"!!! from my number one favorite era of TV! I wish they would have chosen an episode from 1981 that has two of the stars of "Flamingo Road," Mark Harmon and Morgan Fairchild, on it. Anyway, I know I'm going to enjoy that! I guess I'll give "Highway to Heaven" a break since BOTNS is going to air opposite it, and the HTH next day repeats air opposite "All My Children." I guess I'll try "Pink Lady & Jeff," even though it seems weird. I guess any show that has Larry Hagman and Sherman Helmsley must be good! Another thing I'm excited about is "My Mother the Car!" I never ever thought I'd see that one! Oh and the "Good Clean Porn" sounds HILARIOUS! I'm going to definatly watch the "Debbie Does Dallas" episode LOL I'm gonna try "Idiot Savants" too I guess. I'm going to try it all LOL!! I just hope Tarentino picks some good shows...coughKNOTS LANDINGcough

[Sitcomwriter]

This sucks! I want Trio so badly!

[Pavan]

More Pink Lady & Jeff for a week in June, 2004:

TRIO’s June “Flops!” primetime schedule features films and series within the following themes:

· “Just Plain Cancelled”: Taking a cue from TRIO’s “Brilliant But Cancelled” programming block, this “Flops” version features television series from the “what were they thinking?” category, or shows that deserved to be cancelled. Each night during the week from June 1-4, TRIO airs episodes of Cop Rock, the musical police drama by Steven Bochco, at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT, followed by back-to-back episodes of the sitcom My Mother the Car at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT. and the variety series Pink Lady and Jeff at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

[Dean Winchester]

I always wanted to see Pink Lady And Jeff after seeing the special VH1 had on it