Sargent Shriver meets Jackie Cooper and cast of "Superman III"

Last week American politician and humanitarian Sargent Shriver passed away at the age of 95.(ABC News | People) He and his late wife Eunice (sister of John F. Kennedy)  often  hosted special charity benefits for the Special Olympics, and in 1983, the entire cast of Superman III was invited (source: a 1983 documentary on the making of Superman III, which you can watch here or below in this post) .

Sargent Shriver loved
Jackie Cooper

In the first few minutes of this special, you can see the Shrivers greet producer Alexander Salkind (Shriver calls him the "original Superman" ha ha), director Richard Lester, Richard Pryor and Jackie Cooper, whom Shriver is ecstatic to meet. He tells the former 1930s child star that he's been a fan of his since his earliest movies.

Though many critics will argue the film itself is less than super, this documentary I think is interesting (I'm a sucker for any "making of" film).

More about Sargent Shriver at http://www.sargentshriver.org/

The Muppet Movie (1979) and Muppets from Space (1999)

I love how this movie attempts to tells the story of how the Muppet characters first "met".  We first meet Kermit the Frog who leaves his swamp and heads to Hollywood on a road trip, uniting him with the other puppets from the show along the way. And also along the way we see a number of celebrity cameos: Orson Welles, Mel Brooks, Milton Berle, Bob Hope, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, and more. Also making an appearance (final film role) is Edgar Bergen, who was a pioneering puppeteer/ventriloquist famous for performing the "Charlie McCarthy" dummy in vaudeville, radio, film, and television, as well as an inspiration for Henson and his puppeteers. Most modern audiences will probably only know him from this film, but he was pretty popular decades earlier.

There's a subplot involving greedy restaurant entrepreneur Charles Durning who wants to exploit Kermit's talent for his frog-leg restaurant chain. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film three and half stars and called it "magical". I really enjoyed watching this again on its twentieth anniversary year in September of 1999, the same year that Muppets from Space came out in theaters, which I went to see. It was OK, but lacked the excitement of the original.

The Wiz (1979)

This movie I remember seeing many years ago and enjoying, it's a modern update (at least for the 70s) of The Wizard of Oz featuring an all black cast and urban setting, catchy songs and memorable scenes. I will never forget Lena Horne as Glinda the Good Witch. Humorous is Richard Pryor as the wizard.

An impressive adaptation of the hit Broadway musical directed by Sidney Lumet and music by Quincy Jones. Diana Ross is Dorothy, and Michael Jackson is the Scarecrow, in his only film acting role.

MJ could have gone down the route of other singers, and made bad some bad films but he never did, to his credit.

B