Those of you who also cling to memories of childhood television may remember Kathy Santoni as D.J. Tanner’s friend but sometimes rival on Full House. Kathy started out as a mentioned-but-unseen character in the style of Maris Crane from Frasier, but she eventually appeared on the show. This fact actually lost me a bet once in college, because these were the things we discussed in college and because I also completely forgot about the episode where D.J. starts going to junior high and realized that she is a stupid baby because she doesn’t wear make-up and doesn’t have yabbos like Kathy Santoni, who blossomed into womanhood over the summer break and now dresses like dancer from The Grind.
Here’s a photo if you, like me, need your memory jogged:
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this is what reads as hot on abc family tv in 1989. feel weird about it. |
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i will never get tired of posting this, btw |
The movie exists. Based on this page, either the title was Pyramid in the Distance: Legend of the White Lion or that is just a literal translation of the Japanese title. (In Japan, the video game Ghost Lion was titled Legend of the White Lion.) It doesn’t appear the movie was ever released in the U.S., even though it was filmed in English and featured American audience-friendly Anne Marie McEvoy in the lead role of Maria, the girl who ventures through Egypt on some search for her parents that may or may not involve a white lion. The movie doesn’t show up on her IMDb page, but nonetheless, yeah — the girl with lime green stretch pants and stripper hair on the box art of the video game is, kinda sorta, Anne Marie McEvoy, or at least a version of her, which means she has the unique honor of doing something that only major action film stars and professional athletes ever get a chance to do: play as herself in a video game. And that’s pretty good for an actress whose second-best role after Kathy Santoni on four episodes of Full House is a supporting turn in Children of the Corn.
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kathy santoni again, in a sense — via |
I don’t know why there’s so little information about the film online — or at least on the English internet. But even without anything further, I’m pretty stoked on this as being a means of making Kathy Santoni relevant, if just for a moment. Middling reviews of the video game Ghost Lion notwithstanding, I’d be curious to see how the game plays. I’d also be curious to know how Andrea Barber feels about Anne Marie McEvoy getting to be playable in a video game so long before Kimmie Gibbler made her eight-bit debut. Surely, some me-minded game programmer can make that happen, no?
Video games footnotes, previously:
- The video game with a Peter Gabriel-composed theme song
- The video game that made you chose between the princess and the lurpy gay old man
- The video game that featured a really offensive version of Jim from Huckleberry Finn
- The video game that inspired an Owen Pallett song
- The video game where the princess dies at the end
- The video game called Oh Shit!
- The video game starring the Nintendo heroine no one talks about
Nice article! This reminded me of another movie/game situation called Tasmania Story. The film was Japan-only but made in Australia. Yet for some reason we still got the video game for it here in the US: http://obscurevideogames.tumblr.com/post/53042357696/tasmania-story-pony-canyon-game-boy-1990
ReplyDeleteWhoa. That may be worth a follow-up post. How very, very odd.
DeleteIn a later episode in the series, Kathy Santoni gets pregnant.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I'd completely blocked that out. But I checked the Full House wiki -- which, of course, exists -- and you are correct. That is more "real" than I would have expected, given my memories of FUll House.
DeleteHilarious! Thanks for continuing to bring such curiously bizarre details to our attention, Drew :)
ReplyDeleteIt's my job, apparently.
DeleteAs weird as the girl on the box art looks, don't you think she's dressed a little like "sexy" Kathy Santoni in that screengrab?
ReplyDeleteThey do look a little similar. How funny.
DeleteThere doesn't seem to be much of anything on it in Japanese either. I only found 2 reviews on Yahoo's Japanese movie page. One person said that they watched it many times and enjoyed it, while the other person said that they didn't understand why the director made the film because it was terrible. Both agreed that most people probably do not remember that film.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think that "Beyond the Pyramids" would be a better translation. It sounds more like a movie title to me.
I just can't wrap my head around the expense and effort that would have been needed for such an international movie shoot and to then have no trace of it today.
DeleteI can confirm what Godaigamer wrote: not much info in Japanese, "Beyond the Pyramids" is a better translation.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Deleteピラミッドの彼方に - beyond the pyramid?
ReplyDeleteホワイト・ライオン伝説 - white lion legend?
Thanks!
DeleteI think I remember Ghost Lion getting a brief blurb in Nintendo Power, and the screenshot they gave looking a lot like Dragon Quest. I don't think I'd heard of it since then until you mentioned it on your blog.
ReplyDeleteI do not remember that, though I'm sure I got the Nintendo Power that would have featured it. But yeah, it's maybe not so surprising that you didn't hear about it between NP and now.
DeleteI have a few more images from the movie from a box my mom dug out of the garage. And you might find it funny to know that Kimmy Gibbler (Andrea Barber) and I were just chatting earlier today. I can send them to you if you'd like.
ReplyDeleteHi. I most certainly would be interested in the images from the movie. If you email me back at dmackie@kcet.org, I'd be happy to send you all necessary info.
DeleteI'm curious about actually seeing this movie. Is there a place where it could be obtained?
ReplyDelete