1974: Fifty Years Later / Pray For The Wildcats

1974 was a landmark year for film, a convergence of exciting
international cinema and the original voices of New Hollywood that
still resonates 50 years later. In our new series we invite a
different guest for each episode to choose a 1974 movie to talk
about, ranging from giant blockbusters to minor cult curios and
everything else in between. Anyone familiar with actor Marjoe
Gortner's background as a child evangelist preacher (and his later
milking of said image as depicted in the Oscar-winning 1972
documentary Marjoe) will know he often commanded his congregation
to pray. But is there any prayer that could help the Wildcats?
Anthony King - husband, father, beer leaguer, hockey player and
film writer - is also a huge fan of Marjoe Gortner, and he's here
to discuss the former minister's first full length film, Pray for
the Wildcats, which debuted on ABC in January of 1974. A murderer's
row of television personalities make up the titular squad:
Mayberry's own Andy Griffith, Robert Reed of the Brady Bunch and
William Shatner fresh off the USS Enterprise are joined by Marjoe
on a dirtbike trip to the Baja California desert. Desperate to
impress Griffith's sociopathic business exec, the three ad execs
bring along plenty of personal baggage on a trip fraught with
resentment and failure that ultimately ends in death. It's a
terminally square yet truly strange and somewhat obscure TV movie
that we're glad Anthony unearthed for us to survey. Support our
Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site:
www.thepinksmoke.com Anthony King on X: x.com/akdonelly John Cribbs
on X: x.com/TheLastMachine The Pink Smoke on X: x.com/thepinksmoke
Christopher Funderburg on X: x.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash
the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"