“The Best of Times” (1981) with Crispin Glover and Nicolas Coppola (Cage)

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Dave's Strange World

“The Best of Times” is a truly awful television pilot from 1981 that only aired once (to the best of my knowledge) and never continued past its first episode. Co-produced by “Laugh-In”‘s George Schlatter, “Times” (I imagine) was supposed to be a lighthearted, albeit sensitive look at the struggles of being a teenager, though it’s executed in the most ass-backwards, tasteless early 1980s corporate TV manner. It’s a truly weird WTF hybrid of lowest common denominator sitcom humor, occasional drama, and … yes … musical numbers. Imagine “Freaks & Geeks” had it been produced by Sid & Marty Krofft and you’ll get the picture.

So why am I even talking about this? Yes this is partly due to “Times” being truly one of those god-awful train wrecks that’s worth watching for its sheer cluelessness. But mainly because the stars are Crispin Glover and Nicolas Cage … sorry Coppola … before they became famous. And they’re playing characters called Crispin and Nicholas, respectively.

I don’t feel too bad ripping on this because I’m sure Glover and Cage would gleefully agree this is not their finest hour. But what makes this particularly an odd watch is seeing a 17-year old Glover struggling to play a “normal” early 1980s-era sitcom teenager. It’s simultaneously painful and fascinating to watch and arguably stranger than Glover’s legendary appearances in “River’s Edge” and “Wild at Heart.”

Now here’s the really weird part … I totally remember watching this when I was 11 years old. While my tastes back then were not as evolved as they are now, I remember being totally baffled by “Times” … and not in a good way. This was so memorably bizarre that I actually thought about the show the other day, but not remembering the title or who was in it. Thanks to Glover’s appearance on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast today, I looked the show up on YouTube and much to my shock, I realized “So, THIS was that odd and terrible show I remember seeing when I was 11!”

If you have a strong stomach, are a fan of really bad TV pilots, or want to see what certain stars did before they became famous, “Times” is a must-watch.

Crispin Glover’s appearance on “Late Night With David Letterman” July 28, 1997

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Dave's Strange World

Here is Crispin Glover’s infamous interview with David Letterman on “Late Night With David Letterman.” Despite Glover’s bizarre behavior here, he later admitted he was trying to do a tribute to some of the brilliantly demented appearances Andy Kaufman had on Letterman’s from the early 1980s. The only problem with Glover’s tribute was that Letterman wasn’t in on it. And Letterman was clearly disturbed by what went down, as evidenced in Letterman’s commentary after Glover “left” the show. This may seem relatively tame these days, but back in the day, this appearance, along with Glover’s performance in the brilliant film “River’s Edge” and a demented Spin Magazine profile from around the same time, created a mini-cult amongst my friends for Glover for many, many years.

The Warhol Party Scene from “The Doors” (1991) dir. Oliver Stone

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Dave's Strange World

Drug freakout scenes are one of my favorite cliches in movies. My all-time favorite drug freakout scene (with the exception of Helen Hunt trying to fly in the 1982 CBS TV-movie “Desperate Lives”) is this scene from Oliver Stone’s “The Doors.” With the Velvet Underground’s “Venus in Furs” and “Heroin” playing in the background, Val Kilmer’s Jim Morrison takes a walk on the wild side with all kinds of Andy Warhol characters from Tom Baker (played by Michael Madsen), Warhol (played by Crispin Glover), Nico (played by Christina Fulton), and some unnamed Warhol assistant (played by Oscar winning 70s singer/songwriter Paul Williams). Seeing this on home video doesn’t compare to seeing this film on a huge screen with booming stereo sound back in the day. The wobbly, boat-in-a-tsunami camera movements are much more intense and caused me to have a major headache when I saw this in a theater.

Crispin Glover and Dennis Hopper in “River’s Edge” (1987) dir. Tim Hunter

Video

If there was ever a better argument for pot legalization than this scene from the creepy 1987 cult movie “River’s Edge,” I have yet to see it. This is probably the scariest … and funniest … variation of the “buying pot from the weird older guy” scenario that many of you may or may not have experienced in your wayward youth. By the way, that’s Keanu Reeves in the background.