a number of years. He hired several screenwriters and shopped the screenplay around town. Paramount was attracted to the project but did not like the script. Because Orion Pictures owned the rights to the original AIP "beach party movies", Paramount wanted to make (in the words of one spokesperson) "an entirely original screenplay not based on any prior beach movies. It parodies all beach movies." Writer-director James Komack shared the same agent as Avalon; when he became attached Paramount agreed to finance. Komack stated: I met with Ned Tanen (Paramount's production chief) and we agreed it would be about a middle-age marital life crisis which, through a series of happy events, allows the couple to recapture their youth and renew the relationship. Eventually, they wanted a picture I couldn't deliver. They wanted to camp it up and I felt it wasn't necessary. Eventually Paramount hired Lyndall Hobbs to direct; she had never made a feature before but had directed numerous music videos. Various writers were hired, seventeen in all, including Jeff Buhia & Steve Zacharias, Robert Kaufman, David Obst and Bill Norton Jr. This cost an estimated $2 million in writer's fees. Funicello called it her favourite filmmaking experience since Babes in Toyland. However it was during the making of the movie she first started developing symptoms of MS. Reception Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 76% from 17 reviews. Soundtrack The soundtrack for this film was released in 1987 on CBS Records (CK-40892). Track listing (key performers in parentheses): "Catch a Ride" (Eddie Money) "Pipeline" (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Dick Dale) (This track also appears on the Stevie Ray Vaughan album Solos, Sessions & Encores, and on King of the Surf Guitar: The Best of Dick Dale & The Del-Tones (Rhino 1989).) "Sign of Love" ('Til Tuesday & Aimee Mann) "Absolute Perfection" (Private Domain) "Surfin' Bird" (Pee-wee Herman) "Sun, Sun, Sun, Sun, Sun" (Marti Jones) "Jamaica Ska" (Funicello & Fishbone) "Wipe Out" (Herbie Hancock with Dweezil Zappa and Terry Bozzio) "California Sun" (Avalon) "Wooly Bully" (Dave Edmunds) Two other songs, "We'll Go on Forever", sung by the cast, and "I Hate You" (from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home) are not included on the album. Proposed sequel In her memoirs Funicello wrote that she and Avalon were preparing a sequel where their characters go on safari in Africa, but that her illness meant she pulled out. However