What the Hell Happened to John Travolta & Sylvester Stallone?

http://lebeauleblog.com/2012/09/02/what-the-hell-happened-to-john-trav olta/3/

In 1983, Travolta decided to give audiences what they seemed to want. He danced his way through a sequel to Saturday Night Fever called Staying Alive.

A sequel to Saturday Night Fever was a tricky proposition. For one thing, there really wasn’t any more story to the character of Tony Manero. Creatively, there was no reason for a sequel to exist.

Worse still, the original movie was best known for ushering in the Age of Disco and the Bee Gees. But in 1983, there was a huge backlash against all things disco. So Saturday Night Fever would have to be a sequel that didn’t remind people of the original.

Towards this end, Paramount made some odd choices. First, they decided that Tony Manero would move on from disco and try to make it on Broadway. Second, they decided to hire Sylvester Stallone to do everything but cater the thing. Stallone co-wrote, directed and produced the sequel which resulted in weirdness like this:

Stallone even made an uncredited cameo at the end of the movie. And of course his brother Frank sang the original song, “Far From Over”.

As bizarre as the decision to let Stallone direct a Saturday Night Fever sequel seems today, it made a certain kind of sense at the time. Stallone was the top dog in Hollywood in the early 80s. He had just written, directed in starred in two successful Rocky sequels. He was Paramont’s go-to guy.

Unfortunately, Stallone drained all the grit that had made Saturday Night Fever a success in the first place. Instead, he delivered the Broadway equivalent of Rocky 3 1/2.

The critics had a field day with Staying Alive which is viewed today as one of the worst sequels ever made. Although it turned a profit at the box office, it was a disappointment compared to Travolta’s earlier successes.

In 1983, Stallone signed on to write and direct the sequel to Saturday Night Fever (he also had a brief cameo in it as well, doubtlessly so he could get his acting fee for the year).

The film was titled Staying Alive and yes you now have that song stuck in your head. And no, Stallone did not have John Travolta‘s Tony Manero try his hand at boxing or shooting up a disco because other people implied he had no dancing skills. No, this one had Tony trying his luck on Broadway.

Problem was, by 1983, disco and its associated tropes were starting to seem passe. The fact that the film was weakly scripted did not help matters at all. While Saturday Night Fever is commonly regarded as a classic by much of the general public, Staying Alive now frequently makes its way on to lists of the worst sequels of all-time, an assessment I’m inclined to agree with.

So having failed in his attempt at creating his own Saturday Night Fever, Stallone decided to try his hand at making his own Urban Cowboy.

Staying Alive was nominated for four Golden Raspberries including Worst Actor for Travolta. But nothing for Stallone.