Everyone knows my infatuation with Michelle Pfeiffer takes many forms and spans all of her eras. To paraphrase Office Space, I celebrate the girl’s entire catalog. While her career ascension years of, say, 1982–1989 and her settling into superstardom during the 1990s are my favorites, I must admit that my heart has a special fondness for the “Baby Pfeiffer” era, circa 1978–1982. Even though Michelle was mostly playing blonde bombshells—roles that offered little in the way of character development but sure had plenty of cheesecake—it was always clear she wasn’t just a dumb blonde.
Although, as I recently covered when I reviewed her work in the 1981 telefilm Callie & Son, Michelle could give good dumb blonde. In Callie & Son, her southern bimbo character Sue Lynn is hot as sin and about as smart as a bag of rocks. In her brief scenes, Michelle gets to play sexy, dumb, and drunk and it’s a hoot. It’s an awful movie, but it features a disheveled, bra-and-panties-clad Baby Pfeiffer sobbing in a sleazy motel room while gripping a bottle of booze she’s clearly been swigging from for a while. That’s not nothing, my pfriends! Like I said, it’s a hoot.
The year before, in 1980, Baby Pfeiffer slipped into some hot pants for a several roles that, while maybe not showcasing her burgeoning acting chops, certainly show off her lovely legs in minuscule Daisy Duke shorts. One was a costarring role in the short-lived series B.A.D. Cats, which I’ve written about a few times before . The second was a two-episode stint on the short-lived (are you sensing a theme?) Dukes of Hazzard spinoff, Enos. While mystifying to imagine today, Dukes was so enormously popular that someone green lit a spinoff starring the goofy deputy Enos Strate and set it in Los Angeles where he was now a member of the LAPD. Suuuure he was. Shocking that the series didn’t last, eh? Anyway, here’s Baby Pfeiffer looking divine in the pilot episode:
Last but not least was Michelle’s first feature film, The Hollywood Knights. I love this silly American Graffiti-inspired romp, and Michelle’s sexy drive-in waitress outfit included—you guessed it—hot pants! As the ethereal, ennui-stricken Suzy Q., who just wants to ditch this no-good job and be an actress, Baby Pfeiffer in those tight white hot pants sure made an existential crisis look hot as hell.
So, clearly, our girl Michelle was firmly in her Baby “Hot Pants” Pfeiffer period during these 1980 roles, and I’m all for it. Hell, in Enos she was another aspiring actress in hot pants named Joy who got tangled up in an LA prostitution ring. Again, all for it. Look, she became an acting legend, turning in some truly spectacular performances throughout the 1980s, which elevated her to the upper echelons of movie stars. These wilderness years, during which Michelle smiles broadly at dopey male characters while wearing very tight clothes and letting her bouncy, flowing blonde locks and luscious, glistening lips do all the heavy lifting, are just plain fun to revisit because of who she grew up to be. This is the same woman who wowed us as Angela DeMarco, Susie Diamond, Selina Kyle over the following decade-plus. From a historical perspective, it’s always fascinating. From a Michelle wearing hot pants perspective, it’s equally fascinating—and drool-worthy!
Let’s face it, back then Michelle was serving up cheesecake by the pound. Cheesecake is my favorite dessert, so you know I’ll happily chow down on what Baby Pfeiffer was serving in 1980.
The Starfire Lounge 