Superdad

Superdad
Directed by	Vincent McEveety
Written by	Joseph L. McEveety Harlan Ware
Produced by	Bill Anderson
Starring	Bob Crane Barbara Rush Kurt Russell Joe Flynn Kathleen Cody
Cinematography	Andrew Jackson
Edited by	Ray de Leuw
Music by	Buddy Baker
Production company	Walt Disney Productions
Distributed by	Buena Vista Distribution
Release date	December 14, 1973 (1973-12-14)
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$7 million (US/Canada rentals)

Superdad is a 1973 American comedy film by Walt Disney Productions and starring Bob Crane, Barbara Rush, Kurt Russell, Joe Flynn, and Kathleen Cody. The film marks the on-screen debut of Bruno Kirby.

This film was an attempt by the Disney company to address the generation gap and the social upheaval of the Vietnam era, but it was a critical and commercial failure. The film received mostly negative reviews and was viewed as the worst Disney film ever to be released.

Plot

Charlie McCready (Bob Crane) tries to wrest his daughter Wendy (Kathleen Cody) from her childhood friends, whom he believes have no ambition. He especially disapproves of her boyfriend, Bart (Kurt Russell). Initially he makes a few attempts to bridge the generation gap, but he fails, especially during the surfing scene, where he falls off the surfboard and get washed up. Late in the summer, Wendy receives a letter informing her that she's won a full scholarship to her parents' alma mater, Huttington College. Unbeknownst to her, the letter is fake; her father has paid the first year's tuition himself, and had a friend at the college send the letter to her. He did this so Wendy would not attend City College with Bart and her other friends.

Charlie later visits Wendy at Huttington, and discovers that the college has changed considerably since he attended there. Wendy later discovers his plot, and joins the campus counterculture as a way of getting even. She inadvertently becomes engaged to a hippie artist named Klutch. Charlie attempts to intervene on her behalf, and ends up in a fistfight with Klutch. Fortunately, Wendy's boyfriend Bart comes to the rescue. At this point, Charlie learns that Bart had turned down a scholarship to Huttingdon so he could be near Wendy. The movie ends with Wendy's marriage to Bart.

Cast

• Bob Crane as Charlie McCready
• Barbara Rush as Sue McCready
• Kurt Russell as Bart
• Joe Flynn as Cyrus Hershberger
• Kathleen Cody as Wendy McCready
• Joby Baker as Klutch
• Dick Van Patten as Ira Kushaw
• Bruno Kirby as Stanley
• Judith Lowry as Mother Barlow
• Ivor Francis as Dr. Skinner on TV
• Jonathan Daly as Rev. Griffith
• Naomi Stevens as Mrs. Levin
• Nicholas Hammond as Roger Rhinehurst
• Jack Manning as Justice of the Peace
• Jim Wakefield as House Manager

Home viewing

After its theatrical release, it appeared on The Wonderful World of Disney. To date it has not been widely released on DVD (made available exclusively to members of the Disney Movie Club in that format), but it did have a limited release on VHS and BETA. It was also released on the digital format.

In other media

Superdad was featured in the biographical film Auto Focus, with Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear) seeing his role as the leading man in this Disney film as a way to revive his career following the retirement of his hit series Hogan's Heroes. Footage of the film is shown where Crane is on water skis (Kinnear in a re-shoot of that scene), along with a voice-over of how Superdad sat on the shelves for a year before flopping at the box office.

See also

• List of American films of 1973

External links

• Official website
• Superdad at IMDb
• Superdad at the TCM Movie Database