Troop Beverly Hills
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Troop Beverly Hills is a 1989 motion picture filmed in the United States by Columbia Pictures. It was directed by Jeff Kanew and starred Shelley Long, Craig T. Nelson, Betty Thomas, Mary Gross, Shelley Morrison, a host of young stars including Tori Spelling, Carla Gugino, Jenny Lewis and Kellie Martin, and numerous celebrities in cameo appearances as themselves.
It was released on March 24, 1989, and grossed around USD $8.5 million over a six-week release. It received poor reviews, and was a financial disappointment. Nevertheless, the movie has gained a cult following through occasional airings on cable television.
[edit] Synopsis
Phyllis Nefler (Long), a Beverly Hills wife going through a divorce with her lawyer-cum-entrepreneur husband Fred (Nelson), decides to deal with it by becoming the leader of the unruly local troop of the Wilderness Girls (an allusion to the real Girl Scouts of the USA), which her daughter, Hannah (Jenny Lewis), is a member of. Her Beverly Hills sensibilities result in a change in the program for the girls in her troop, who are all the children of socialites, to get them more interested in the program.
This runs afoul of another leader, Velda Plendor (Thomas), a traditionalist who runs her troop, the "Red Feathers", like a military unit. Velda sends her assistant troop leader, Annie Herman (Gross), to Troop Beverly Hills to infiltrate it and try to get them disbanded, but she eventually defects when she realizes that despite the fact that the "Red Feathers" are traditional "Wilderness Girls," they are also mean-spirited cheaters who will do whatever it takes to get an edge on their competition. From customized achievement patch classes, to a star-studded cookie sales drive, to dealing with the turmoil of the rich life and trying to maintain it, it all leads to a campout-competition where the girls and their leader have to prove themselves as Wilderness Girls in order to survive as a troop.
[edit] Trivia
- Rosa (Morrison), Phyllis Nefler's maid, makes a play on the Stinking badges pop-culture reference when the troop is stripped of their achievement patches before the cookie sales drive begins. She says, "Patches? We don't need no stinkin' patches!"
- John Kricfalusi, still two years away from breaking out with the series The Ren and Stimpy Show, helped create the animated opening credit sequence for the film. [1] The title song, "Make It Big", is sung by the Beach Boys and appears on their album Still Cruisin'.
