‘Go-Go’s’: instant fame years in making
OK, I found the documentary “The Go-Go’s” (9 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA) way more fun and interesting than I expected. I’ve long considered (and perhaps dismissed) the band as a pretty confection custom-made for MTV in its early days.
The film concentrates on their formative years spent in L.A.’s angry punk scene. The fact that the Go-Go’s would become the first all-female band to score a No. 1 album while playing their own instruments and writing their own songs was hardly the result of some master plan.
Rich in interviews, period footage and interesting use of animation, the film takes its time showing the band evolve from enthusiastic young women who could barely master their instruments to a polished pop sensation.
At first, the punk scene almost demanded amateurism and rage. The band’s path would take them on a U.K. tour with ska bands the Specials and Madness, an itinerary that exposed them to neo-Nazi fans who hated “girls.” Not unlike the teenage Beatles playing Hamburg 20 years earlier, this rather rough foreign experience helped them hone their sound.
Directed by Alison Ellwood (Epix’s “Laurel Canyon”) the film is 138 minutes long, and it’s a good 50 minutes before we even hear about “MTV.” It’s essentially a tale of an overnight sensation that required years of struggle.
On the very cusp of their fame, the Go-Go’s were still broke. The band’s first video was shot for roughly $6,000, funds that were left over from a much more expensive production for the Police. The iconic cover shoot for the hit debut album “Beauty and the Beat” had band members posing in skin cream masks and bath towels. Their manager bought the towels at Macy’s and then rushed back to return them after the shoot. Things were simply that tight.
The last third of the film covers the impact of fame, the early breakups, creative dry spells and falling-outs among a group that had been as close as a sisterhood. But the real revelation, to this viewer at least, is their origin story, as interesting as any in the history of rock and roll.
› The path from punk rock to pop didn’t begin with the Go-Go’s. I remember my shock when I saw Debbie Harry of “Blondie” duet with Kermit the Frog on “The Muppet Show” way back in the 1970s. Jim Henson’s creations return in their umpteenth incarnation in “Muppets Now,” streaming on Disney+.
As always, it’s a bit of a show within a show, this time concentrating on the mechanics of streaming media. Look for special guests including Linda Cardellini, Taye Diggs, RuPaul and Danny Trejo.
› The 2020 fantasy movie “Upside-Down Magic” (8 p.m. and 9:50 p.m., Disney Channel, TV-PG) adapts a popular kids’ book for the small screen. It’s basically Hogwarts for the kind of spunky, precocious Californians who populate Disney movies. It’s no “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (7:30 p.m., Syfy, TV-PG).
› Another supernatural adaptation, “The Umbrella Academy,” begins streaming its second season on Netflix.