Well-Wishing

So on Saturday night, I found myself here:


This, my friends, is far from where I usually find myself. But, I was at a dinner party and it was a fun one, so it was a win. Our journey was a bit like that of Penelope's husband, with an A train excursion to the very tip of Manhattan, then a stroll down Broadway (it looked just like our Broadway! Well, not really), then a hop on to the 1 train for an elevated ride a few stops. We had to do this trek just so because of the incident at 180th Street, where Chicken Little proved herself right and the ceiling caved right in. I certainly amortized the heck out of my Unlimited Rides.

A few hours and miles later as I was recounting our journey to Paul, our discussion of the cave-in prompted him to recall the plight of Baby Jessica. A quick swipe of the smart phone later (Google IS making us stupid), we settled a bet and learned this particular event happened in 1987. We were in the presence of a foreigner, and pretty much fell over ourselves explaining to him this rather American tragedy of a baby falling into a well for a day and a half - complete with happy ending and made-for-TV movie.

It's the M-4-TV flick that got me the most excited, and sent me down the internet rabbit-hole. Patty Duke! Beau Bridges! And a young Will Oldham, a/k/a the dark prince of pop, Bonnie Prince Billy. I especially enjoyed the helpful warning on IMDB - "spoiler alert!" Unless you're foreign, you know what happened.

Here's the teaser:



Here's some other bits I learned from the internet. Turns out young Jessica is all growned up and married now. She still has some pain and effects from her little trip down the well, but then I saw this.


I'm ashamed to say it was someone else that pointed out the howler of the pun in there. Saucy wikipedians!

This bit here made me pause. I bet Beau B. won't be clamoring to star in the sequel.

Anyway, that's my little trip down memory lane. I can't quite believe that this all happened twenty years ago, or that I missed such a great pun, or really, that I was as far north as I was on Saturday night. And especially, that I haven't seen a musical adaption yet. Calling LuPone!