Leachman also had an Academy Award in her trophy cabinet. She won two of her eight primetime Emmy Awards for playing the catty Phyllis Lindstrom, who would later get her own spin-off, "Phyllis." Her acting career began when she landed in New York and got in with the Actors Studio, but she wouldn't come to national attention until she debuted on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" some 20 years later. She dropped out before she could graduate and took an unconventional route to Hollywood that included an appearance at the 1946 Miss America pageant. His track "History Can't Be Stopped" was released the day after he died.Ī native of Iowa, Leachman moved to neighboring Illinois to study theater at Northwestern University. The Los Angeles native was still making music and actively promoting his songs at the time of his death. In 2009, he told RadarOnline that he was awaiting surgery after "over 10 episodes of heart failure in the last eight months alone." Doctors identified a problem with his aorta, which was "the same thing that killed John Ritter," Thompson said. Thompson had been dealing with heart issues for over a decade. "Since the first day I met him on the set of 'ER,' he absolutely made me feel at home and welcomed. "What a special spirit we have all lost," Thompson's former castmate Mekhi Phifer said in an Instagram tribute message. He made his "ER" bow the following year, beginning a near-200 episode run on the NBC hit. He went on to land roles in the hip hop mockumentary "Fear of a Black Hat" and the N.W.A parody picture "CB4," both released in 1993.
Oh, and one more thing: I thought the Vanilla Ice reference in the 1989 sequence didn't fit since I remember him not even emerging until the following year.Thompson made his first feature film appearance in 1991's "Cool as Ice," the critically panned movie debut of Vanilla Ice. All in all, despite some adult humor, 17 Again was an enjoyable comedy that should be enjoyable enough for parents and offspring alike. Oh, and there's a little touching pro-abstinence speech here as well (though it still is acknowledged that not all teens will feel that way). With them, I also saw a little "Big Bang Theory" vibe.
Now, parts of the plot and characterizations were a little uneven but despite that there were plenty of scenes that were hilarious especially those between Lennon and Hardin.
I did not realize until the cast credits that the bearded janitor at the high school was Brian Doyle-Murray, Bill's brother. I also recognized Matthew Perry and Nicole Sullivan. With elements of Big and 13 Going on 30, not to mention It's a Wonderful Life and Back to the Future, 17 Again is a pretty enjoyable meshing of those movies considering the cast which has Zac Efron, Michelle Trachtenberg, Leslie Mann, Margaret Cho, Thomas Lennon, and Melora Hardin. This is another movie I watched with my friend who works at a movie theatre.