In a story told in narrative flashbacks, young TV consultant Eric McMerkin is hired by President Chet Roosevelt of a bankrupt USA to organize a telethon in order to prevent the country from ... Read allIn a story told in narrative flashbacks, young TV consultant Eric McMerkin is hired by President Chet Roosevelt of a bankrupt USA to organize a telethon in order to prevent the country from being repossessed by wealthy Native Americans.In a story told in narrative flashbacks, young TV consultant Eric McMerkin is hired by President Chet Roosevelt of a bankrupt USA to organize a telethon in order to prevent the country from being repossessed by wealthy Native Americans.
- Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination total
- Narrator
- (voice)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAs part of the promotion for this film's release in 1979, Ted Coombs traveled on roller-skates across the USA for a total of 5,193 miles, setting a world record. He is now a technology author, futurist, artist, and scientist.
- GoofsThe movie mentions that people all over the country were watching the telethon, including people from the first gay state, North Dakota. We then see a picture of Mount Rushmore which is in South Dakota
- Quotes
[opening sequence; two dinosaurs fighting]
Jimmy Carter: What you're looking at is downtown Pittsburgh, one million B.C. Those two big guys are fighting for a parking space. This is where our story begins. If they could have just learned to live together like decent human beings, they'd still be around and there never would have been an energy crisis. But they died out, and what was left of them turned into fossil fuel... Oil. See, it's not cute when eleven tons gets cranky. Their problem was they were all teeth and no brain...
[Shot of President Jimmy Carter]
Narrator: ...which brings us to this guy. Jimmy Carter was President of the United States when everybody started to notice we were running out of dead dinosaurs. No more gas to run our cars. Fights at the pump. People getting nozzle-whipped. So what was his solution? He made a speech.
Jimmy Carter: The energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed us. But it will, if we do not act quickly.
Narrator: We didn't. When America finally ran out of gas, an angry mob broke into the White House and lynched him. Along with three or four of his snottier cabinet members.
- SoundtracksIt's A Beautiful Day
Written by Mike Love and Al Jardine
Performed by The Beach Boys
Produced by Bruce Johnston
The movie takes a while to start, mostly to squeeze in some future predictions and hit or miss jokes, but once the telethon does start, it is, yet again, mainly hit or miss jokes (mostly miss, but it did get some laughter out of me). The soundtrack was pretty good though.
Now for the acting: In my opinion, it was one of Harvey Norman's weaker performances, and Zane buzby had a really annoying fake accent (that won her "worst fake female accent" in the Stinkers Awards), but other than those and a few other smaller parts, the acting was pretty average.
Overall, it had average to weak acting, and not that good of a script. Although a neat thing about it is that some of the movie's predictions did come true later on (the collapse of the USSR and cellphones for example). 4/10.
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- Feb 9, 2024
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- 1998 - Die vier Milliarden Dollar Show
- Filming locations
- Bunker Hill, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA(As the Oakwood Gardens housing set: skating and cycling sequences.)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $6,171,763
- Gross worldwide
- $6,171,763
- Runtime1 hour 26 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1