#Grease movie production company tv#

Writer Ken Finkleman also scripted and directed the equally underperforming Airplane II: The Sequel (also 1982) before later becoming hugely successful with his George Findley character in various Canadian TV shows. Instead she continued to find success in helming music videos (she directed Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors”) and stage productions. Other competition at the time included Rocky III and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, meaning that, to embrace a cliché, class at Rydell High was soon dismissed.īirch never directed another feature film. As if all this wasn’t enough weight for one production to carry, what thin hopes there were for striking box office gold became decimated when a visitor from 3,000,000 light years upended the motion picture industry: Grease 2 and E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial both opened on June 11, 1982. Louis, who provided original music for the Grease film, was back for the sequel.īehind the scenes, there was pressure on first-time director Patricia Birch, who did the choreography for the first film, and on writer Ken Finkleman to somehow satisfy and exceed the massive expectations that audiences had of the project. Furthermore, the creators of Grease, Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, weren’t involved with the sequel at all. The songs initially weren’t considered as catchy as the original film’s either, a critique that overlooked the fact that Grease’s tunes were a product of the fine-tuned Broadway machine. Well that, and the film’s plot was a rehash that simply placed Pink Lady Stephanie (Michelle Pfeiffer in her first leading role) in the role of cool heroine while Sandy’s British cousin Michael (Maxwell Caulfield) filled the slot of the nerdy exchange student who must change his core self in order to fit in. The biggest reason behind the derision many viewers feel toward Grease 2 -a movie which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year (and has the new Steelbook Blu-ray to prove it)-is that Newton-John and Travolta didn’t return. But then to make that assertion is just as ridiculous as saying that Morrissey and Robert Smith are both shiny happy people.

Then something more mysterious than the identity of a certain Cool Rider happened I started to prefer Grease 2. And while I squandered much of my misspent youth dancing in my bedroom to both “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before” and “The Lovecats,” there was another, perhaps more consequential, pop culture face-off that caused division through the hallways of early-1990s schools everywhere: Grease or Grease 2?Īs an amateur Greaseologist who spent way, way too much time plunked in front of his television watching Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta declaring each other to be the one that the other wants on the rickety floor of the Shake Shack-part of a massive carnival set up in Rydell High’s seemingly boundless stretch of land-I used to think I was firmly in the camp of the original picture.

I’ve been thinking about this theory a lot lately, because it really showcases the sort of things that feel of world-shattering importance when you are a teenager. Looking back now, this is an invented rivalry, as both groups cover much of the same artistic ground and appeal to like-minded fans. When I was in high school there was an unspoken rule that said you were either a superfan of The Cure or The Smiths, but not both.