Michelle Pfeiffer, the Early Years: <i>B.A.D. Cats</i>

Michelle Pfeiffer, the Early Years: B.A.D. Cats

Revisiting—or in a few cases, watching for the first time—and celebrating the work of Michelle Pfeiffer, the best actress of my lifetime.

One of Michelle Pfeiffer's first television gigs was on the aptly named B.A.D. Cats (1980), another late 1970s, early 1980s action drama featuring the era's requisite number of absurd car chase scenes. Think Dukes of Hazzard and Starsky and Hutch, then lower your expectations. Go ahead, keep lowering them. Okay, stop. That's how forgettable this series was.

The two male leads, ex-race car drivers turned LAPD, resemble a second-rate Bo and Luke Duke, one blonde, one brunette, the sort of bland hunks you could find every night of the week on various prime time network fare. For some reason which I can't be bothered to remember now, these two former race car drivers are now LAPD, working for the B.A.D. Cats squad—Burglary Auto Detail, Commercial Auto Thefts. That's a mouthful, I can see why they chose to abbreviate.

Pfeiffer, in only her third role, is officer Samantha Jensen. As Wikipedia puts it, she "would occasionally lend a hand when a more feminine approach was called for." Okaaaay. A baby-faced and barely legal Pfeiffer is pure California sunshine here—Samantha is even nicknamed “Sunshine” for goodness sake. Golden-haired, with blindingly white teeth, she's playing the “token blonde” role again, as in Delta House the year before. This sort of role didn’t require much of our future superstar and world's best actress beyond playing second fiddle to the guys, smiling at their groan-worthy “jokes”, and looking cute. And, because this was 1980 and Dukes of Hazzard was a smash hit, she even sports a pair of Daisy Duke shorts.

She’s all sweetness and light here, almost like a ray of—wait for it—sunshine. Yet, as would happen with all future roles for her, the proceedings on screen are electrified just by her presence in a given scene. In one episode, we're even treated to the surrealist delight of witnessing Pfeiffer and Jimmie Walker (Good Times!) acting ever so briefly in a scene together. It’s one of those absurd moments that completely blows your mind: J.J. and Susie Diamond once shared the screen together. That's crazy talk.

B.A.D. Cats was mercifully cancelled after only ten episodes. It's an early example of how Hollywod would often be unsure of how to utilize Pfeiffer—her otherworldly attractiveness and once-in-a-lifetime beauty has sometimes been all certain (male) producers and directors chose to see about her. Pfeiffer has been clear over the years that after only her first few roles she made a conscious effort to never take any more parts like them again. Smart move, as she obviously had a lot more to offer, and in just a couple of years she would prove that by breaking out in a big way with her first starring role in Grease 2 (1982), followed quickly by an exceptional performance in Scarface (1983). That's where she announced herself as a star in her very first scene of the film, elegantly descending an elevator in that memorable blue dress. After that, Hollywood, and audiences, began to sit up and take notice of not only her looks, but also her extraordinary acting talent.

Comments

Paul SJanuary 6, 2018 at 6:16 AM
I've never seen B.A.D. Cats, but for some inexplicable reason, mention of it always makes me think of Mia Wallace's joke-telling character in tv pilot Fox Force Five.
As for Michelle in those short shorts, I'm almost rendered speechless. I wonder if she wore them for her guest appearance on Dukes of Hazzard spin off Enos.
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