Anyone Remember "Camp Cucamonga"?
The Disney Channel aired Camp Rock over the weekend, a sorta next-High School Musical event starring the Jonas Brothers. Do you remember the days (circa-1985) when all the hit sitcom stars banded together to make some made-for-TV movies (in between stints on Circus of the Stars and Battle of the Network Stars) like Crash Course, a drivers'-ed movie starring Alyssa Milano, Jackee, Harvey Korman and Brian Bloom--speaking of "Whatever happened to," you can currently see him driving an Escalade in one of those Cadillac commercials. But that's another blog.), and Dance 'til Dawn, that awesome prom movie with Milano, Tracey Gold, Bloom (again), Christina Applegate, and Tempestt Bledsoe (with Kelsey Grammer as the disapproving dad!).
But no other cheesy all-star TV movie is closer to my heart than Camp Cucamonga, which aired in 1990 and starred Candace Cameron (Full House) and Chad Allen (My Two Dads) as camp sweethearts, Danica McKellar (Wonder Years) as the rebel who turns into the star, Jaleel White (yes, Urkel) as the hip-hoppy best friend, Josh Saviano (also from the Wonder Years) as--you guessed it-- the geek, John Ratzenberger as the camp director, and Head of the Class-star-turned-director Brian Robbins and a then-unknown Jennifer Aniston (whose sole credit was the short-lived Ferris Bueller sitcom) as camp counselors. (You can see Aniston in the clip below helping a camp student serve a volleyball.)
Camp Rock is akin to Camp Cucamonga in that they both featured a song-and-dance number. Cucamonga was not a musical, but it found some reason to film a rap video as part of a campaign to save the camp. It was basically an excuse for these kids to show off their awesome dance moves (you know, when two people get in the middle of a circle and do their running mans in sync). But what the hey, here's a flashback to the finished music video. -- Ellen
Spanno on June 23, 2008 at 11:41 AM
I wonder if Young MC got any money for that horrid "Bust a Move" rip-off.