Back to the Beach
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| Back to the Beach | |
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| Directed by | Lyndall Hobbs |
| Produced by | Frank Mancuso Jr. |
| Written by | James Komach Bill L. Norton |
| Starring | Frankie Avalon Annette Funicello Lori Loughlin Connie Stevens Demian Slade |
| Music by | Steve Dorff |
| Cinematography | Bruce Surtees |
| Editing by | David Finter |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  August 7, 1987 |
| Running time | 92 mins. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Back to the Beach is a 1987 comedy film starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, directed by Lyndall Hobbs. The original music score is composed by Steve Dorff. The film generated a total domestic gross of $13,110,903. It received a "two thumbs up" rating from Siskel and Ebert.
The film is an open parody of the beach movies popular in the 1960s, especially those in which Avalon and Funicello had appeared. The plot is merely the means of connecting the various sight gags, homages and in-jokes. All character names are taken from those earlier films.
Tagline: Fasten your seatbelts and get ready for a totally NEW WAVE motion picture experience.
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[edit] Plot summary
Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello are husband and wife living in Ohio — far from the surf and sand of their earlier lives together. Heading to California to visit their daughter Sandi (Lori Loughlin), Frankie and Annette are appalled to learn that she has been making time with surfer Michael (Tommy Hinkley). In time-honored fashion, our hero and heroine set about to make the beach safe for fun-lovers everywhere by driving out Michael's unsavory friends.
Along the way, Frankie faces a challenge to his title from the younger surfers, and nearly ruins his marriage by dallying with Connie Stevens — one of several pop-culture icons appearing in the film, including Fishbone, Don Adams, Bob Denver, Alan Hale, Jr., Edd Byrnes, Jerry Mathers, Tony Dow, Dick Dale, Stevie Ray Vaughan, O.J. Simpson, and Pee-wee Herman.
In the end, of course, The Big Kahuna proves that he is the king of surfers, and his title is safe.
[edit] Main cast
- Frankie Avalon - Frankie
- Annette Funicello - Annette
- Connie Stevens - Connie
- Lori Loughlin - Sandi
- Demian Slade - Bobby
- Tommy Hinkley - Michael
- Paul Reubens - Pee-wee Herman
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello served as co-executive producers.
- The film was also known as "Malibu Beach Girls".[citation needed]
- Kirk R. Thatcher's punk song "I Hate You" was borrowed from fellow Paramount production Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).[citation needed]
- Throughout the movie, Frankie Avalon's character is only referred to as "The Big Kahuna", and never once is called by his first name. He is listed as "Annette's Husband" in the end credits. The name "Frankie" could not be used anywhere in the film, because Avalon played "Frankie" in the 1960s American International Beach Party films and legal issues were involved since this film was made by a different studio (Paramount Pictures). "The Big Kahuna," however, was not a character from the Beach Party series, but was a Hawaiian title used by characters in other beach movies of the same period.
- After filming was completed, Annette Funicello was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. During filming, as a result of fatigue from long hours shooting the film, she had noticed an increase in the frequency and severity of minor MS symptoms that she had experienced off-and-on for several years, and requested that her husband tell no one on the set.
- In one scene, Annette puts two new jars of Skippy peanut butter into a cabinet already filled with Skippy. At the time, Funicello was the brand's real-life spokesperson.
