''Back to the Beach'' is a 1987 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

starring

Frankie Avalon Francis Thomas Avallone (born September 18, 1940), better known as Frankie Avalon, is an American actor, singer, and former teen idol. He had 31 charting U.S. ''Billboard'' singles from 1958 to late 1962, including number one hits, "Venus" an ...

and

Annette Funicello Annette Joanne Funicello (October 22, 1942 – April 8, 2013) was an American actress and singer. Funicello began her professional career as a child performer at the age of twelve. She was one of the most popular Mouseketeers on the orig ...

, directed by Lyndall Hobbs. The original music score is composed by

Steve Dorff Stephen Hartley Dorff (born April 21, 1949) is an American songwriter and composer whose work is mainly in the field of country music. Career Dorff has written several songs for other artists, including " Hypnotize the Moon" and " My Heart W ...

. The film generated a total domestic gross of $13,110,903. It received a "two thumbs up" rating from Siskel and Ebert. The film is an open parody of the beach party films made popular in the 1960s, especially those in which Avalon and Funicello had appeared. The plot is merely the means of connecting the various sight gags, homages and in-jokes. All character names are taken from those earlier films. The film's soundtrack included covers of several well-known beach tunes, along with new songs by such artists as

Aimee Mann Aimee Elizabeth Mann (born September 8, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter. Over the course of four decades, she has released more than a dozen albums as a solo artist and with other musicians. She is noted for her sardonic and literate lyr ...

and Private Domain.

Plot

Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello are a husband and wife living in

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

— far from the surf and sand of their earlier lives together. Frankie is a stressed out car salesman and former "Big Kahuna" of the surf scene in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

while Annette bottles her own sense of angst up in a bevy of shopping. Together they are raising a son, Bobby, who is in the throes of rebellion against his seemingly square folks. One day, the family decides to take a vacation to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. Deciding to stop in California to visit their daughter Sandi (

Lori Loughlin Lori Anne Loughlin (; born July 28, 1964) is an American actress. From 1988 to 1995, she played Rebecca Donaldson Katsopolis on the ABC sitcom '' Full House'', and reprised the role for its Netflix sequel '' Fuller House'' (2016–2018). Loughl ...

), Frankie and Annette are appalled to learn that she has been living with surfer Michael (

Tommy Hinkley Hiram Thomas Hinkley (born May 31, 1960) is an American actor. He made his feature film debut in the comedy ''Back to the Beach'' (1987), and subsequently appeared in the Academy Award-winning short film ''Ray's Male Heterosexual Dance Hall'' (al ...

). The family misses their flight to Hawaii, and ultimately end up staying in California, much to the chagrin of Frankie. Frankie and Annette get caught up with the lives of their old friends and their old beach, and thus their last beach adventure begins. Along the way, Frankie must work together with a new generation of younger surfers while nearly ruining his marriage by dallying with

Connie Stevens Connie Stevens (born Concetta Rosalie Ann Ingolia; August 8, 1938) is an American actress and singer. Born in Brooklyn, New York City to musician parents, Stevens was raised there until age 12, when she was sent to live with family friends in r ...

— one of several pop-culture icons appearing in the film, including

Fishbone Fishbone is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1979, that plays a fusion of ska, punk, funk, metal, reggae, and soul. AllMusic has described the group as "one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative rock bands of the lat ...

Don Adams Donald James Yarmy (April 13, 1923 – September 25, 2005), known professionally as Don Adams, was an American actor. In his five decades on television, he was best known as Maxwell Smart (Agent 86) in the television situation comedy '' G ...

Bob Denver Robert Osbourne Denver (January 9, 1935 – September 2, 2005) was an American comedic actor who portrayed Gilligan on the 1964–1967 television series ''Gilligan's Island'', and beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on the 1959–1963 series ''The Ma ...

Alan Hale Jr. Alan Hale Jr. (born Alan Hale MacKahan; (March 8, 1921 - January 2, 1990) was an American actor and restaurateur. He was the son of actor Alan Hale Sr. His television career spanned four decades, but he was best known for his secondary lead role ...

Edd Byrnes Edward Byrne Breitenberger (July 30, 1932 – January 8, 2020), known professionally as Edd Byrnes, was an American actor, best known for his starring role in the television series '' 77 Sunset Strip.'' He also was featured in the 1978 film '' Gr ...

Jerry Mathers Gerald Patrick Mathers (born June 2, 1948) is an American actor best known for his role in the television sitcom '' Leave It to Beaver'', originally broadcast from 1957 to 1963, in which he played the protagonist Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver, the y ...

Tony Dow Anthony Lee Dow (April 13, 1945 – July 27, 2022) was an American actor, film producer, director and sculptor. He portrayed Wally Cleaver in the iconic television sitcom '' Leave It to Beaver'' from 1957 to 1963. From 1983 to 1989, Dow repr ...

Barbara Billingsley Barbara Billingsley (born Barbara Lillian Combes; December 22, 1915 – October 16, 2010) was an American actress. She began her career with uncredited roles in ''Three Guys Named Mike'' (1951), '' The Bad and the Beautiful'' (1952), and '' Inv ...

Dick Dale Richard Anthony Monsour (May 4, 1937 – March 16, 2019), known professionally as Dick Dale, was an American rock guitarist. He was a pioneer of surf music, drawing on Middle Eastern music scales and experimenting with reverb. Dale was known a ...

Stevie Ray Vaughan Stephen Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Although his mainstream career spanned only seven years, ...

, O. J. Simpson, and

Pee-wee Herman Pee-wee Herman is a comic fictional character created and portrayed by American comedian Paul Reubens. He is best known for his films and television series during the 1980s. The childlike Pee-wee Herman character developed as a stage act that q ...

. In the end ''The Big Kahuna'' overcomes his own fears and proves that he is still the king of the surfers, as he takes back his title and saves the beach from a gang of beach punks led by Zed (Joe Holland).

Cast

Production

The film was the idea of Frankie Avalon and was in development for a number of years. He hired several screenwriters and shopped the screenplay around town. Paramount was attracted to the project but did not like the script. Because

Orion Pictures Orion Pictures (legal name Orion Releasing, LLC) is an American film production and distribution company owned by Amazon through its Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) subsidiary. In its original operating period, the company produced and released films ...

owned the rights to the original AIP "beach party movies", Paramount wanted to make (in the words of one spokesperson) "an entirely original screenplay not based on any prior beach movies. It parodies all beach movies." Writer-director

James Komack James Komack (August 3, 1924 – December 24, 1997) was an American television producer, director, screenwriter, and actor. He is best known for producing several hit television series, including ''The Courtship of Eddie's Father'', '' Chico and ...

shared the same agent as Avalon; when he became attached Paramount agreed to finance. Komack stated:

I met with
Ned Tanen Ned Stone Tanen (c. September 20, 1931 – January 5, 2009) was an American film studio executive. The films he produced were some of the most popular films of the 1970s and 1980s, including the 2 key Brat Pack films ''The Breakfast Club'' and ' ...
(Paramount's production chief) and we agreed it would be about a middle-age marital life crisis which, through a series of happy events, allows the couple to recapture their youth and renew the relationship. Eventually, they wanted a picture I couldn't deliver. They wanted to camp it up and I felt it wasn't necessary.

Eventually Paramount hired Lyndall Hobbs to direct; she had never made a feature before but had directed numerous music videos. Various writers were hired, seventeen in all, including Jeff Buhia & Steve Zacharias, Robert Kaufman, David Obst and Bill Norton Jr. This cost an estimated $2 million in writer's fees. Funicello called it her favourite filmmaking experience since '' Babes in Toyland''. However it was during the making of the movie she first started developing symptoms of MS.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

gives the film a rating of 76% from 17 reviews.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for this film was released in 1987 on CBS Records (CK-40892). Track listing (key performers in parentheses): # "Catch a Ride" (

Eddie Money Edward Joseph Mahoney (March 21, 1949 – September 13, 2019), known professionally as Eddie Money, was an American singer and songwriter who, in the 1970s and 1980s, had eleven Top 40 songs, including "Baby Hold On", " Two Tickets to Par ...

) # " Pipeline" (

) (This track also appears on the Stevie Ray Vaughan album ''Solos, Sessions & Encores'', and on ''King of the Surf Guitar: The Best of Dick Dale & The Del-Tones'' (Rhino 1989).) # "Sign of Love" (

'Til Tuesday Til Tuesday (often stylized as til tuesday) was an American new wave band formed in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The band, consisting of Aimee Mann (lead vocals, bass), Robert Holmes (guitar), Joey Pesce (keyboards), and Michael Haus ...

) # "Absolute Perfection" ( Private Domain) # " Surfin' Bird" (

) # "Sun, Sun, Sun, Sun, Sun" (Marti Jones) # "Jamaica Ska" (Funicello &

) # " Wipe Out" (

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he hel ...

with

Dweezil Zappa Dweezil Zappa (born Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa; September 5, 1969) is an American rock guitarist and occasional actor. He is the son of musical composer and performer Frank Zappa. Exposed to the music industry from an early age, Dweezil deve ...

and

Terry Bozzio Terry John Bozzio (born December 27, 1950) is an American drummer best known for his work with Missing Persons and Frank Zappa. He has been featured on nine solo or collaborative albums, 26 albums with Zappa and seven albums with Missing Perso ...

) # "California Sun" (Avalon) # "

Wooly Bully "Wooly Bully" is a song originally recorded by novelty rock and roll band Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs in 1964. Based on a standard 12-bar blues progression, it was written by the band's frontman, Domingo "Sam" Samudio. It was released as a sin ...

" (Dave Edmunds) Two other songs, "We'll Go on Forever", sung by the cast, and "I Hate You" (from '' Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'') are not included on the album.

Proposed sequel

In her memoirs Funicello wrote that she and Avalon were preparing a sequel where their characters go on safari in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, but that her illness meant she pulled out. However she did agree to go on a "Back to the Beach" tour with Avalon on stage.Funicello p 202-203

References

External links

* * * * {{Beach Party series 1987 films 1980s musical comedy films 1980s sports comedy films American musical comedy films Beach party films Films directed by Lyndall Hobbs Films scored by Steve Dorff Films set in California Films set in Ohio Paramount Pictures films Pee-wee Herman Films with screenplays by Peter Krikes Films with screenplays by Steve Meerson American surfing films 1987 directorial debut films 1987 comedy films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films