{"id":28097,"date":"2018-05-18T07:48:12","date_gmt":"2018-05-18T11:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=28097"},"modified":"2018-05-18T08:01:03","modified_gmt":"2018-05-18T12:01:03","slug":"the-bootleg-files-the-donna-summer-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/18\/the-bootleg-files-the-donna-summer-special\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: The Donna Summer Special"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 638:<\/strong> \u201cThe Donna Summer Special\u201d (1980 television special starring The Queen of Disco).<\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> On YouTube.
\n
\nAMERICAN HOME VIDEO: <\/strong>None.
\n
\nREASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> Clearing music rights have prevented its reissue.<\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> Slim to non-existent.<\/p>\n

By January 1980, Donna Summer was at the peak of her career. Dubbed \u201cThe Queen of Disco\u201d by the entertainment media, her songs were in constant play on the radio and the music industry had showered her with awards. Her performance in the 1978 film \u201cThank God It\u2019s Friday\u201d elevated that forgettable B-movie to pop culture immortality with her rendition of the song \u201cLast Dance,\u201d which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
\n<\/p>\n

With the dawn of the 80s, ABC contracted Summer for a one-off television special. It would be a thrill to report that \u201cThe Donna Summer Special\u201d fell in line with the loopy, campy specials that polluted television during that significantly less-than-sophisticated era. However, the program is a mild endeavor that never fully plumbs the star\u2019s considerable talents.<\/p>\n

The production opens with Summer in a very tight close-up, reciting a fable in a too-serious manner. \u201cOnce upon a time in the land of never-never, when all things real are unavailable, there lived a little girl who believe all her hopes and dreams could someday come true.\u201d Of course, that little girl was none other than Summer, who is then initially shown as a humble singer in a church choir. That quickly segues into a concert sequence, with the glammed-up Summer blithely announcing to a cheering crowd that she enjoyed being with \u201c17,000 of my closest friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those who never saw Summer in her prime or barely recall her glory days, \u201cThe Donna Summer Special\u201d is invaluable in recalling her charisma as a live performer. Unlike today\u2019s self-described divas who require multiple costume changes and a small army of dancers gyrating through pyrotechnic displays, Summer had the ability to command attention and devotion through a sheer force of vocal power and force of personality. Looking back, it seems like Summer was the last of the true superstars who commanded a stage through talent and not through costume design, distractions or vulgar shtick. <\/p>\n

Had \u201cThe Donna Summer Special\u201d focused solely on a concert performance, the production might have been destined for classic status. Sadly, it opted to go in satisfactory directions that never truly showed its central attraction at her best. There is a sticky-icky segment with Summer singing a bedtime lullaby to her daughter Mimi \u2013 the child is shown with her adolescent peers replicating her mom\u2019s concert act \u2013 and there is also a tacky sequence where Summer rips through \u201cBad Girls\u201d supported by a weird back-up consisting of the paper-thin 1960s model Twiggy, the zaftig underground film icon Pat Ast and \u201cMary Hartman, Mary Hartman\u201d actress Debralee Scott. The guest star parade is capped when Robert Guillaume from the ABC sitcom \u201cBenson\u201d appears as an angel, reminding Summer that \u201cup in Heaven we love men and women equally!\u201d Summer looks at him askew and declares, \u201cWell, I got some friends here in Hollywood that feel the same way.\u201d After a trick photography sequence with Guillaume playing all five Temptations in a cover of \u201cThe Way You Do the Things You Do,\u201d he joins Summer in a glorious version of the Simon and Garfunkel standard \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two set pieces are included that seem more focused on camera versatility and production design rather than Summer\u2019s vocal versatility: the tune \u201cSunset People\u201d is filmed with B-movie gritty-chic along Hollywood\u2019s Sunset Boulevard, while a riff on \u201cI Got It Bad and That Ain\u2019t Good\u201d takes place in an Art Deco nightclub with Summer dolled up in retro fashions. Both segments are lethargically staged and edited and Summer\u2019s somnambulist acting does not represent her finest moments on camera.<\/p>\n

Instead, the best is left for last: a Hollywood Bowl concert where Summer rips into \u201cLast Dance\u201d while inviting audience members to join her on stage for a triumphant dance. When she is being herself in the midst of a high-energy concert environment, Summer is a vibrant, kinetic bolt of brilliance \u2013 her audience loves her and she returns the love tenfold with a dynamic vibe that made the moment seem like the ultimate party. <\/p>\n

ABC aired \u201cThe Donna Summer Special\u201d on January 27, 1980, and the show gained two Emmy Award nominations in technical categories. For Summer, however, it was end of a glorious reign at the top of the charts and beginning of a slow career decline: shortly after the special aired, she parted ways with Casablanca Records, which turned out her 70s disco hits, and signed with Geffen Records, which never truly gave her the material and support she required. Complicating matters was the evaporation of disco\u2019s popularity \u2013 what was considered cutting edge in the late 70s was viewed as antiquated in the early 80s. By the time her hit song \u201cShe Works Hard for the Money\u201d came out in 1983, Summer\u2019s star had waned so dramatically that many saw the tune as a comeback. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Donna Summer Special\u201d was mostly forgotten until duped copies began to emerge on YouTube<\/a> in the past few years. To date, there has been no effort to bring the production to an official home entertainment release \u2013 the costs of clearing the music rights and doing a proper digital restoration are obviously too prohibitive for consideration. Mercifully, the unauthorized postings online are pristine enough to warrant viewing without generating eye fatigue. And for Summer\u2019s fans, this nostalgic visit is a pleasant distraction.
\n
\nListen to \u201cThe Online Movie Show with Phil Hall<\/a>\u201d on SoundCloud, with new episodes every Monday.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 638: \u201cThe Donna Summer Special\u201d (1980 television special starring The Queen of Disco). LAST SEEN: On YouTube. AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None. REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Clearing music rights have prevented its reissue. CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Slim to non-existent. By January 1980, Donna Summer was at the peak of her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":28098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1513],"tags":[289,1991,1992,1958],"class_list":["post-28097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bootleg-files","tag-disco","tag-donna-summer","tag-musical-variety","tag-television-special"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28097"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28101,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28097\/revisions\/28101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}