Sync Points #7: The Earth Day Special (1990)
Sync Points #7: The Earth Day Special (1990)
Directed by Wow, it took ten people to direct this thing!
Written by Holy crap, forty-eight writers?!
Sync Point: Pause the special before it starts on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz0HzS1O-ug) and just wait until we do the countdown. We'll tell you when to hit play.
WEE Studios is joined by TV writer Gabe Pulliam to celebrate Earth Day by watching 1990's epic television event "The Earth Day Special," a time capsule of 90s environmentalism starring the biggest TV stars of the day, as well as some huge movie stars and pre-superstardom hip-hop juggernauts. Even more baffling than this forgotten broadcast is its bizarre tonal shifts, going from scary in-your-face documentary style to cheap backlot kids schmaltz to postmodern comedy bits starring Martin Short and actual ghostbusters (sort of) to rueful, melodramatic monologues by Michael Keaton. Are Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams ad libbing or did they memorize a ton of dialogue for a single take? What's part of the show-within-the-show and what isn't? Is it okay to pee in the ocean? All that plus Jack Lemmon winks at the camera, Gabe finds out his crush committed suicide, and the platonic ideal of 90s hunk.