Surf’s up, Big Kahuna.
Back to the Beach surfed onto Home Video this week in 1988, after an off-the-lip August 7th, 1987 theatrical trick.
After decades spent deep in midwest suburbia, former beach blanket teeny boppers Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello head back to Los Angeles – only to discover the 80’s happened. A lot.
This totally tubular Frank (Friday the 13th) Mancuso Jr.-produced love letter to campy 60’s beach musicals has been a gnarly guilty pleasure since I first saw it in theaters – yes I was lured by the rad TV spot promising Pee-Wee Herman, Don Adams and Gilligan in one big music-fuelled bodacious beach blowout.
I wasn’t disappointed.
It’s an all-star cast, but Damian (Better Off Dead) Slade stole the show as their Punk son with a mean aversion to peanut Butter (we 80s kids saturated with Annette’s Skippy commercials know exactly what that’s all about) and Connie Stevens, at 49, stole everything else. Including my 14 year old heart.
Like a Stunned Mullet in a coconut shell, this is the perfect nostalgia-laced cocktail.