Pink Lady and Jeff

1 9 8 0 (USA)

Take one incredibly unfunny guy and add a Japanese pop duo who sing really inane songs and you have Pink Lady and Jeff.

Pink Lady is widely considered one of the worst shows ever made.

The critics hated the show, and the only English that the Japanese Pink Lady duo (Mie and Kei) could speak was what was written phonetically on the teleprompter.

At home in Japan, their concerts filled baseball stadiums and they were all over TV doing pitches for everything from insecticides to underwear, with their image marketed on over 300 Pink Lady products.

On American television, however, the sexy young ladies were depicted in comedy sketches as trying to learn about American customs, assisted by Jeff Altman as their guide and interpreter.

Guest stars included Deborah Harry, Donny Osmond, Sid Caesar, Larry Hagman, Hugh Hefner, Florence Henderson, Lorne Greene, Red Buttons, Alice Cooper, Jerry Lewis, Bobby Vinton and Roy Orbison.

Every episode ended with Mei and Kei removing their kimonos to reveal swimsuits underneath and then dragging Jeff fully dressed into a hot tub.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the 20-something duo had two (male) managers – Kazuhiko Soma who discovered and groomed them, and Paul Drew, who guided their invasion of the US.

Apparently, the DVD (yes, there is one!) is now used to torture detainees at Guantanamo . . .

Mitsuyo Nemoto (Mie)
Keiko Masuda (Kei)
Jeff Altman

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