25th Anniversary Special 03/1987

[stillwell]

I didn't want this month to slip away without mentioning the Beach Boys' 25th anniversary special that aired on ABC in March of 1987--35 years ago. The special itself was a throwaway in the eyes of most BB fans, but at the tender age of 12, it was my first real introduction to the Beach Boys. (I had a friend who owned an Endless Summer cassette and had let me borrow it a few months prior, but this really sealed the deal!) Side note: I remember watching the member introductions at the start of the special and wondering if Brian Wilson and Carl Wilson were related.

[37!ws]

Throwaway? Pfeh. A bunch of friends and I found it to be a drinking game.

Take a drink:
- every time Glen Campbell tries to fix his butt wedgie
- every time Belinda Carlisle pulls her dress up
- every time someone flashes a "hang loose" sign
- when Brian mindlessly meanders the stage (double if his shirt is off)
- every time someone in the band says the phrase "Twenty-five YEARS!" in mock(?) disbelief
- drink the entire bottle when Brian is behind Mike, squinting, and mouthing along with him from the cue card

[stillwell]

Add another category for any time someone waves at Ray Charles!

[37!ws]

Oh. For that, you might as well just stick an IV into your arm from a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

[Rocky Raccoon]

That “concert” was such an embarrassing and overblown spectacle in retrospect, and whoever came up with the idea for Joe Piscopo (who was already a few years past his SNL prime at that point) to do multiple comedy interludes, I sincerely hope they were fired.

[Tony S]

I had almost forgotten about the Piscopo appearances at his born in the u.s.a. parody which was atrocious. The only thing that made me forget that was all the bad lip syncing that was going on voice wise and instrument wise. This was such a sad 25th Anniversary Special

[Pretty Funky]

Thank you all for highlighting why doing some kind of Beach Boys 60 TV Special is such a bad idea. 😩😩😩

[Shane]

I was 8 years old at the time. Competing with it on TV that night was a David Copperfield magic special, and there was something to the effect that he only did a special every ten years.  My Dad wanted to watch the Beach Boys.  I wanted to watch magic.  "But he only does this once every ten years!"  I told my Dad.  "Well, the Beach Boys only do this every twenty five years!" he replied.

We mostly watched the Beach Boys.  It's one of those childhood memories that sticks out in my mind for absolutely no reason at all.

[Awesoman]

It's awesomely bad in all the best ways.  But having Ray Charles perform "Sail On, Sailor" was a stroke of genius. 

[Emdeeh]

But having Ray Charles perform "Sail On, Sailor" was a stroke of genius. 

Easily the high point of the show, all around.

[Tony S]

I thought Carl singing Heaven and dedicating it to Dennis, was the high point of the show to me...but yes, other than that and Ray Charles, lots of down moments...especially the whole Piscopo thing.

[Ian]

As I’ve said before it is atrocious but almost all the BBs tv appearances in that period were heavy on the cheese factor-like that horrible version of Little old Lady From Pasadena or their endless summer TV series from 1989 (only redeemed by the great campfire segments). Opinions vary on the Full House appearances but I am not a fan

[CenturyDeprived]

I thought Carl singing Heaven and dedicating it to Dennis, was the high point of the show to me...but yes, other than that and Ray Charles, lots of down moments...especially the whole Piscopo thing.

Was this the final performance of Heaven? I'm wondering if that song, or any other Carl solo songs for that matter, were ever performed live post 1987.

[Tony S]

I don't know the answer to the post 1987 question regarding the performances of heaven and Carls solo songs but I can not recall ever hearing either that one or any of the others after 1987 live and I've seen them a lot up to till Carl's passing

[phirnis]

I kind of enjoy this everytime I see it. Brian looks absolutely great here. My tolerance for cheese is high with these guys and I see this appearance as an attempt to learn from the many mistakes of the 20th anniversary concert in 1981 and act more professional, although "professional" of course means "80s professional" here.

[HeyJude]

As I’ve said before it is atrocious but almost all the BBs tv appearances in that period were heavy on the cheese factor-like that horrible version of Little old Lady From Pasadena or their endless summer TV series from 1989 (only redeemed by the great campfire segments). Opinions vary on the Full House appearances but I am not a fan

Pretty much the only non-cringe TV appearances the band made by this point or after were the cases where TV shows just showed some live concert footage, like the "Endless Summer" TV show, or those A&E and "ABC In Concert" shows (and I wouldn't say even those shows caught exactly peak live BBs either, but at least in those cases it was usually just the band up there doing the song with no gimmicks).

[HeyJude]

I kind of enjoy this everytime I see it. Brian looks absolutely great here. My tolerance for cheese is high with these guys and I see this appearance as an attempt to learn from the many mistakes of the 20th anniversary concert in 1981 and act more professional, although "professional" of course means "80s professional" here.

In fairness, they never really did a televised "20th Anniversary" concert. The Queen Mary '81 show was televised, but that wasn't a "20th Anniversary" gig. They did do a "20th Anniversary" gig at the end of 1981 at the Forum in LA, but that show wasn't televised. There was also a syndicated "20th Anniversary" TV special (aired in late 1981 and/or early 1982) that had some brief new interview clips with some of the BBs, and then a mixture of old TV and film footage and songs from the Knebworth 1980 show.

The "Wilson Project" book about Brian's work with Gary Usher probably has the most insight into the 25th Anniversary special in Hawaii. It depicts the pre-show studio recording sessions (the show was basically pre-recorded, and then they sang some live vocals on top of that), and some of the turmoil behind the scenes with the show's producer, etc. It was very much a big TV network "SPECIAL!" with a loud, brash TV producer stressing out and yelling and trying to slap the thing together.

Clearly at the conceptual stage someone decided the show should have guest stars and be more a "presentation" than a live show. Perhaps just filming a live concert and airing that wasn't appealing enough for a US network to air the thing in prime time. So the thing ended up being essentially a variety show that just happened to be filmed outdoors to mimic what a "live concert" might be like.

[HeyJude]

I thought Carl singing Heaven and dedicating it to Dennis, was the high point of the show to me...but yes, other than that and Ray Charles, lots of down moments...especially the whole Piscopo thing.

Was this the final performance of Heaven? I'm wondering if that song, or any other Carl solo songs for that matter, were ever performed live post 1987.

The last documented performance on the setlist.fm website indicates a peformance after the December 1986 Hawaii gig, in July 1987 at their Wembley gig.

"Heaven" seemed to most commonly be found in the 1984 setlist, and then just sporadically for a few years after.

Carl of course in 1988 briefly revived singing "Forever" as a tribute to Dennis.

[Lonely Summer]

The Beach Boys: 25 Years Together was prime time television, no way was it going to be just a straight concert. It had to be big and flashy with lots of guest stars, and be thankful we got Ray Charles, the Everly Brothers, we got Carl singing "Heaven", we got Brian singing "The Spirit of Rock and Roll" over the credits. I thought Two Dog Night did a nice version of "Darlin"; and Brian looked fantastic, like a surfer! The worst aspect was the guys reading their lines off the teleprompter - they never were good actors.
I enjoyed the Endless Summer series for all the live footage and the campfire segments. The guest artists were all just straight lip synch performances.

[Love Thang]

That concert provided- imo- the funniest moment in BB history: Brian Wilson waving at Ray Charles.