There are many
famous anecdotes about Courtney Cox’s first forays
into the world of fame. She was the girl pulled from the audience to
dance with The Boss in the video for Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing
In The Dark. She was also the first person to refer to her period on
US television, in an advert for…well, tampons obviously. But her
first major acting role came in this strange and obscure superhero TV
movie, which also spawned a short-lived series.
Billy Hayes and Elvin Lincoln are researching human anomalies at the
Humanidyne company when they stumble across what may well be the most
important discovery of their time – a man, still alive after being
frozen in ice for 50 years. Sadly, their boss is a greedy sort, more
interested in military applications than philanthropy and he swipes the
iceman to use his freezing powers to aid in the development of a deadly
new weapon, the neutron beam. Just to reinforce his villainous status
he sacks the two doctors into the bargain.
Rather than taking him to an industrial tribunal, the enterprising pair
opt for the second most obvious solution to common workplace grievances – they
gather together a bunch of people with unusual abilities and form a superteam
to steal the iceman back.
Among the freaks roped into this noble cause are the laughably naff Johnny
B, a preening bad boy rock guitarist with the ability to throw bolts
of electricity from his fingers, and Courtney’s character, Gloria,
a young lass whose telekinetic powers have pushed her into deliquency.
These powers manifest, in classic Eighties action show style, via the
medium of strobing camera effects and close-ups of Courtney’s face,
all crinkled in concentration. Then people fall over.
Over the course of the pilot movie, Gloria uses her mind powers for such
awesome set pieces as punishing unruly surfers by knocking them off their
board and restraining guards by rotating them on the ceiling while the
rest of the Misfits rescue the iceman. Some hasty character scenes reveal
that Gloria is still riddled with anxiety about her “freak” status,
and she has the hots for Johnny B into the bargain.
Naturally, the climax
of the pilot episode sees Gloria take centre stage as she learns to believe
in herself, a timely development as Billy and Elvin’s boss has
mysteriously graduated from poor management practices to world-dominating
villainy. With the deadly neutron beam mounted on a helicopter, he plans
to kill everyone for no good reason. Luckily, Gloria is on hand with
her pals to stop him. Well, she actually just holds the chopper in place
with
her
telekinesis
while Hayes throws a crash helmet into the rotor blades, basketball-style.
It's not the most orthodox piece of superhero combat you'll ever see,
but it proves surprisingly effective.
The subsequent Misfits of Science series managed to last for just 17
episodes before joining Automan and Manimal in high concept TV hell.
Need to know: The role of Billy Hayes was played by Dean Paul Martin,
son of legendary crooner Dean Martin, while the part of Elvin Lincoln
was played by Kevin Peter Hall, the 7’ 2” actor who lurked
under the latex as the monster in both the original Predator movies,
and as the titular beast of Monster In The Closet (see: Paul
Walker).
Both died tragically early – Martin in a plane crash shortly after
the show aired, while Hall was infected with HIV after a blood transfusion
and passed away in 1991.
Honourable mention: No trawl through Courtney Cox’s early work
would be complete without Masters of the Universe, the film-of-the-cartoon-of-the-toys
in which Dolph Lundgren played He-Man. Cox co-starred as the plucky damsel
from our dimension who got muddled up in the incomprehensible action.
Thankfully for the sanity of viewers everywhere they avoided the love
interest angle, sparing us the sight of tiny Courtney being mauled by
the enormous and glistening Lundgren, and instead suggested that inter-dimensional
doorways could be opened by synthesiser music. Which, when you think
about it, is more plausible than the notion of Cox and Lundgren getting
it on.
Availability: The only official release for Misfits of Science was a
VHS of the original TV movie, now long since out of print in both the
UK and US. Coupled with the show’s cult appeal, this state of affairs
has led to a thriving bootleg market and a quick internet search will
usually yield plenty of DVD collections of dubious origin.
