JERICHO, N.Y., February 26, 2002 – AMC celebrates the decade of big hair, big shoulders and big movies when it presents the "Hits of the 80s" festival on Saturday, March 2, and Sunday, March 3. Starting at 9:30 AM (ET) on Saturday and continuing through 2:30 PM (ET) on Sunday, the festival showcases six blockbusters of the 1980s, including the Oscar®-winners AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, starring Debra Winger and Richard Gere, ON GOLDEN POND, with Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn, PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED, starring Kathleen Turner and Nicholas Cage, and URBAN COWBOY, with John Travolta. The festival also turns the spotlight on the making of two other 80s hits in BACKSTORY: DIE HARD and BACKSTORY: SOPHIE'S CHOICE.
AMC's "Hits of the 80s" festival starts on Saturday, March 2, at 9:30 AM (ET) with the stirring biographical drama FRANCES (1982). Jessica Lange earned an Oscar® nomination for her portrayal of actress Frances Farmer, a popular leading lady on the 1930s and 40s who became a symbol of the dark side of success. When she refuses to play the Hollywood game, her mother – Kim Stanley, in an Oscar®-nominated performance – has her declared mentally incompetent and committed to an institution.
Following, at 11:55 AM (ET), Debra Winger is a factory worker seeking a better life and Richard Gere is a rebellious Naval officer candidate in the Academy Award®-winning romance AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN (1982). Louis Gossett Jr. garnered the Best Supporting Actor Oscar® as Gere's overbearing drill instructor. Nominated for a total of six Academy Awards®, including Winger for Best Actress, the film also won for Best Song for the pop hit "Up Where We Belong." (Also at 10:30 PM.)
In the Oscar®-winning drama, ON GOLDEN POND (1981), airing at 2:05 PM (ET), Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda star as an aged couple who come to terms with their troubled relationship with their daughter, Jane Fonda, when they spend the summer caring for her stepson. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards®, including Best Picture and Jane Fonda for best Supporting Actress, the film won three, including Hepburn for Best Actress and Henry Fonda for Best Actor. (Also at 1:15 AM.) , Next, at 3:55 PM (ET), Brooke Shields stars as an innocent teenager whose first love turns into an obsession, with tragic results, in Franco Zeffirelli's ENDLESS LOVE (1981). Martin Hewitt and James Spader co-star. The hit title song by Lionel Ritchie earned an Academy Award® nomination.
Kathleen Turner and Nicolas Cage are high school sweethearts on the verge of divorce in Francis Ford Coppola's romantic comedy PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED (1987), airing at 6:10 PM (ET). At their 20-year high school reunion, Turner faints and, in a time-travel twist, awakens in her senior year with the chance to do it all differently. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards®, including Turner for Best Actress.
Following, at 8:00 PM (ET), Debra Winger and John Travolta two-step their way into each other's lives in URBAN COWBOY (1980). Filmed on location in the famed Texas nightclub Gilley's and featuring a rousing country music soundtrack, the film captured the decade's affection for all things country-Western and launched Winger's career. Scott Glenn and Barry Corbin co-star, and Bonnie Raitt and Charlie Daniels make musical cameos. (Also at 3:45 AM.)
Rounding out the "Hits of the 80s" line-up on Saturday, March 3, two episodes of BACKSTORY, AMC's critically acclaimed series that captures the moment in time in which a movie was created, offer a provocative and in-depth look behind the scenes of two successful 80s films.
In BACKSTORY: DIE HARD, airing at 12:45 AM (ET), actors Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia and Alan Rickman, producer Joel Silver, director John McTiernan and cinematographer Jan de Bont discuss how cast and crew overcame endless skepticism and difficult production challenges to create the 1988 action thriller. At 3:15 AM (ET), BACKSTORY: SOPHIE'S CHOICE features an interview with actress Meryl Streep, who won her second Academy Award® for her portrayal of a holocaust survivor in the1982 film based on William Styron's novel.
The festival continues on Sunday, March 3, with encore presentations of AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN at 6:10 AM (ET), ON GOLDEN POND at 8:30 AM (ET), ENDLESS LOVE at 10:30 AM (ET) and PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED at 12:30 PM (ET). A complete schedule of films and airtimes is attached.
American Movie Classics (AMC) is a premiere 24-hour movie network dedicated to the world of American film. With one of the finest, most comprehensive libraries of popular films, and a diverse blend of original series, documentaries and interstitials, AMC offers an elegant and contemporary entertainment destination. AMC is a fully distributed network reaching over 82,000,000 U.S. homes (as of Jan. 2002) and ranking #16 in size among all 55 networks.
Since its launch in 1984, AMC has been dedicated to deepening the movie experience for its viewers, featuring film-loving celebrity hosts and an increasingly visible, critically-acclaimed slate of original programming. AMC has more than doubled its original programming over the past 3 years and garnered many of the industry's highest honors, including five Emmy awards.
AMC is owned and managed by Rainbow Media Holdings, Inc. A subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE:CVC) and NBC, Rainbow manages American Movie Classics, WE: Women's Entertainment, Bravo, The Independent Film Channel, MuchMusic USA, Rainbow Sports, News 12 Networks and MetroChannels as well as the Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation and Rainbow Network Communications. In addition, Rainbow is a fifty-percent partner in FOX Sports Net. AMC is one of the assets included in a new series of Cablevision common stock — Rainbow Media Group tracking stock (NYSE: RMG) — which began trading on the NYSE on March 30th. MGM (NYSE: MGM) owns a 20 percent stake in four of Rainbow's national networks – AMC, Bravo, IFC and WE: Women's Entertainment.
Saturday, March 2 – Sunday, March 3, 2002
| Saturday, March 2, 2002 | |
| 9:30 AM | FRANCES (1982) |
| 11:40 AM | AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN (1982) |
| 1:55 PM | ON GOLDEN POND (1981) |
| 3:55 PM | ENDLESS LOVE (1981) |
| 6:00 PM | PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED (1987) |
| 8:00 PM | URBAN COWBOY (1980) |
| 10:30 PM | AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN (1982) |
| 12:45 AM | BACKSTORY: DIE HARD (2002) |
| 1:15 AM | ON GOLDEN POND (1981) |
| 3:15 AM | BACKSTORY: SOPHIE'S CHOICE (2002) |
| 3:45 AM | URBAN COWBOY (1980) |
| Sunday, March 3, 2002 | |
| 6:10 AM | AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN (1982) |
| 8:30 AM | ON GOLDEN POND (1981) |
| 10:30 AM | ENDLESS LOVE (1981) |
| 12:30 PM | PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED (1987) |