Peter Frampton, The Bee Gees & George Burns in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)

Bloated? Yes. Insipid? Decidedly. But if you have a soft spot for the seventies, then all of that can be overlooked when delving into this overproduced, hubristic spectacle of titanic proportions. The film features more of a manifesto than a plot. It deals with the grand issues of commercialism, selling out, good and evil in rock opera style featuring an endless array of the stars of the day including Aerosmith, Steve Martin, Alice Cooper and Earth Wind and Fire, among others. The story, told by the only speaking character, the mayor of Heartland, Mr. Kite (Burns) is about Sgt. Pepper's grandson, Billy Shears (Frampton) who re-forms his grandfathers band with the Henderson brothers (The Bee Gees). They become an instant success and set off for fame and fortune in La La land. Meanwhile, mean Mr. Mustard (Frankie Howerd) sets his sights on Heartland and the magical musical instruments left to it by Sgt. Pepper. Will the boys be able to resist the lure of fame and fortune long enough to save their town?

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This film signaled the beginning of the end of the epic rock musical, with most of the subsequent examples of the form appearing as animated films. If you can set aside its silliness, there are some flashes of fun to be had, including Steve Martin's rendition of Maxwell's Silver Hammer, Aerosmith's cover of Come Together the inspired cover of Got to Get You Into My Life by Earth Wind and Fire and the beautiful cinematography of Owen Roizman. Also appearing in the film are Donald Pleasence and a panoply of stars singing the reprise of the title song at the end of the film, including Carol Channing, Peter Allen, Tina Turner, Connie Stevens and Dame Edna Everage.

You can find this film on DVD and it's available in full on YouTube. I suggest watching it in its best possible format, however, because one of its only redeeming qualities is it's physical beauty. Above is the trailer for it, uploaded to YouTube by throthelens.

Obscurity factor: 3 (somewhat notorious, available on DVD & YouTube)

Carol Channing in The Carol Channing Show (1966)

So often when I run across pilots of sitcoms from the 60's that didn't make it I'm disappointed. It seems like such a raw deal that we didn't get to see what The Decorator would have been like as a full series. The year after Bette Davis filmed that, Carol Channing put a pilot together too. In it we follow small town Carol as she figures out how to break into show business and make her way in New York. It was produced by Desi Arnaz after his split with Lucy and is featured as a bonus on The Mothers In Law DVD. While it's not a brilliant concept, it beautifully showcases Carol in all her darling quirkiness, though I'm not sure how suited to situation comedy she was. It also features Richard Deacon and Jane Dulo as the couple who take a destitute (but remarkably well dressed) Carol in. The theme song is just wonderful and its no wonder - it was written by Jerry Herman.

This is only available in full on The Mothers In Law series DVD as a bonus feature. The opening sequence is above, uploaded to Photobucket by PhiladelphiaSon.

Obscurity factor: 10 (never aired, never screened, only available as a DVD extra)