HEADLINES: 2001

MARCH 15, 2001: For anyone who never got the chance to watch Pink Lady & Jeff when the show first aired wa-a-a-a-a-a-y back in 1980, fate will soon bless you poor unfirtunates with a second chance. Early last month, I became privy to info that Rhino (www.rhino.com) is scheduled to release PL & J, all six episodes on both VHS and DVD in mid-June! That's right, kids, Mie, Kei and Jeff Altman will soon be comin' at ya in all their glory! To me, this is almost as exciting as watching that very first episode for the very first time two decades ago! And, it'll be a great chance for folks to check out what the Ladies were all about as they peformed for an American audience! As more info on the video release of PL & J becomes available, I'll be sure to let everyone know!

MAY 8, 2001: I swung by the Rhino website on Sunday and learned that the release date for Pink Lady & Jeff has been moved back to June 26th. It looks like all six episodes won't be released at the same time, but on a staggered schedule with volumes 1 & 2 (I'm guessing each volume consists of one episode) coming out on the aforementioned date on VHS while the DVD version will contain both volumes on a single disc. As more news becomes available, I'll let everyone know!

JULY 8, 2001: Well, gang, the wait is over! Pink Lady & Jeff is finally out on video as you can see below:

Depending on where you live, you might have to do some searching to find a store that carrries it. If it's there, it'll be in the television section of your video store, with a selling price of $9.95 before taxes. As for the tapes themselves, the picture and sound quality were very good, even if the show itself wasn't top notch. But who cares? The only thing that matters is that Mie and Kei are back in the public eye here in the States!

Now for the confusing part. At present, I have no idea when episodes three and four are due out, as for the DVD version, it's been pushed back to September 11th, but, according to info from the Rhino website, it'll only consist of the first two episodes instead of the whole six episode run. If you're puzzled by all of this, join the club! I'll do what I can to dig up more info and pass it along to you! But for now, PL & J is out, so go buy it!!!!

AUGUST 31, 2001: Have you ever visited any of the Japanese Pink lady websites but had no idea what you were looking at because the text was incomprehensible? Well, I've got the solution to that, boys and girls! Just type the following address which is for an honest to gosh langauge translation engine:

http://babel.altavista.com/tr

I had found this purely by accident, but the important thing is that it actually works! Once you've typed in that address and it takes you to the main screen for the translation engine, just enter in the address of the site you want translated, say like www.pinklady.net, select "Japanese to English" and the engine does all the work for you, displaying the site you choose with, in most cases, both the original text----and the English version of same! Now, don't be thrown off by what you see when you do this as the interpreatations of what the Japanese write might be just a bit unusual. Case in point, Mie and Kei are called "Pink Ready"! In any event, this is well worth checking out if you wanna know what our friends from across the Pacific have to say about our favorite J-Pop divas!

SEPTEMBER 12, 2001: Regarding the long awaited release of Pink Lady and Jeff on DVD, from what I've learned, it's now due out on October 11th. We're talking about all six episodes on, I'm guessing, a two-disc set. As for any additional features, your guess is a good as mine, though I heard it may include an interview with none ofther than Jeff Altman which should be worth the price of admission itself! So be on the lookout for it!

SEPTEMBER 26, 2001: The good folks over at PL-NET gave me a heads-up on a Pink Lady feature in the October issue of Pulp magazine which is on the stands now. It's a great feature with Mie and Kei on the cover, including interviews with Marty Krofft and Jeff Altman and a insanely hilarious feature where three of the magazine's staffers are subjected to all six hours of Pink Lady and Jeff, non-stop with no breaks! It's like reading an 'R' rated episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000! You have to read this to believe it. Portions of the Pink Lady feature are also up on Pulp's website at www.pulp-mag.com! Check it out!

OCTOBER 28, 2001: Well, folks, if you've been procrastinating about whether or not to buy a DVD player, here's the best reason of them all:

That's right, boys and girls! Pink Lady and Jeff, all six episodes from one of the so-called worst shows in the history of American television is now on sale, either in video stores or through internet retail outlets such as Amazon.com. The box set contains three discs, two episodes per disc along with some interesting additional features on disc one like portions of the Grand Royal article on Pink Lady, memorabilia, press clippings and an interview with Jeff Altman himself who, by the way, introduces each episode while sitting in front of a poster of Mie and Kei. If you never got the chance to see PL & J during it's original run 21 years ago, then don't hesistate to get your hands on this infamous masterpiece. If you have, and you want to relive the magic, here's your chance as as the show, digitally remastered, looks and sounds better than ever! And with DVD players as low as $150.00, there's no excuse not to have one so you can have this in your library. So don't delay, buy your copy today!!!!