Word: cults
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...ever-growing pervasiveness of the movie/play/movie itself. Like the man-eating plant from outer space it chronicles, Little Shop began in a small, out-of-the-way place, attracting the fascination of all who gazed upon it. As a low-budget 1960 Roger Corman thriller, it was the ultimate cult film, a movie with a premise so unselfconsciously silly it just had to be watched...
After a generation in certified cult status, the concept was brought to the stage in a cutesy-campy off-Broadway musical that quickly spawned spin-off productions in around the country. Big time producer David Geffen found himself drawn to the tale, and hired Muppeteer-turned-director Frank Oz to return it to the screen. Today this absurd story, which once could rate only a black and white exploitation picture, is a multi-million dollar showcase for the insidious Saturday Night Live/SCTV crew that has dominated youth comedy for a decade...
...film Murphy is discovered -- promisingly -- as a tracer of lost children in low-life Los Angeles. But he is immediately hired by an oriental religious cult to find the golden child of the title, their missing messiah who they believe will bring peace to this tired, troubled world. The cult is all serenity and acceptance; Murphy can't get a rise out of them. And it turns out that the evil he is fighting comes from the supernatural agents sent up from Hades to kidnap the child. Hard to trade quips with a bunch of special effects that mostly seem...
Pyongyang's glee at its neighbor's discomfort suggested that North Korea would have had no qualms about mounting a malicious disinformation campaign, although probably not one centering on rumors of its leader's death. Kim has spent nearly four decades creating a cult around his personality and accomplishments that is Pharaonic in its intensity. He has erected larger- than-life statues of himself in virtually every North Korean city, and inspired a school curriculum based on adulation of his teachings. Korea watchers in the U.S. doubt that he would trifle with his self-created legend merely to score...
People's Court, with its busy agenda of disputes over defective products, mischievous pets and nettlesome neighbors, caught on quickly. The show is now watched by more than 18 million viewers on 184 stations, and its presiding jurist, retired California Judge Joseph A. Wapner, has become a cult hero. Its success was followed in 1984 by a revival of the venerable series Divorce Court, now seen on 150 stations. This fall two more TV tribunals have been convened: Superior Court, which re-enacts civil and criminal cases (132 stations), and The Judge, dramatizing disputes in family court (81 stations...