On Saturday Night, my wife and I stumbled on ABC Family. They were just getting ready to start "Grease".
Normally, I'm not one to re-watch ANYTHING. It drives my wife crazy, but I generally don't watch reruns, movies twice, etc. There's just too much else that I'll never get to see, but "Grease" was a childhood fave, and I hadn't seen it in at least twenty-five years, so what the heck!
Back in 1978, my Uncle Gene, mom, sister and I went to see it at the General Cinemas in the Wyoming Valley Mall. The grown-ups loved it, because well---they lived it. It was a trip back to high school for them---though admittedly a little different. I loved it for the whole 50's vibe and the high school story. We then saw it at least two more times as the film moved to the other local theaters---Wyoming and then Forty-Fort, if I'm not mistaken. To this day, I don't think I've ever seen any other film in the cinema three times.
So, anyway---thirty years later, here are some thoughts:
1. Most of the leads look far too old to be teenagers.
2. The music during the car race sounded a whole lot more 70's than 50's.
3. My wife noticed this when she saw it as a child---How did Sandy not know where Danny went to school? If they spent the summer together you think she would have asked him that.
4. The songs/sections I didn't like then ("Beauty School Dropout", "Worse Things I Could Do") still didn't cut it.
5. While the content was edited for TV, there were a few bawdy comments that I'm sure I didn't "get" back in 1978.
6. Sandy is still cuter as a good girl.
Also, I just read that...
---Henry Winkler (Fonzie) was considered as Danny, but turned it down because he didn't want to be typecast as a greaser.
---Marie Osmond was considered as Sandy, but turned it down because she didn't want to convey to an audience that you had to be "bad" to get a man.
Would've been a whole different movie, huh?
Still, it's a lot of fun and today's teens seem to love it too.
