Before Band Aid, Live Aid, We Are The World and a Chemical Brothers song with the same name, there was mega producer Robert Evans celebrity-centric fight against drugs.
He called it Get High On Yourself and back in 1981 NBC, the least watched network at the time, spent a whole week promoting it.
Twenty seven years after it premiered, we finally decided to write about it.
Robert Evans was big deal in 1970's and early 80s. He had money, cars, women, fame and a load of blockbuster Hollywood films that he produced.
He also had a big coke habit.
In July 1980 he pleaded guilty in a New York federal court for buying cocaine. As penance the Judge ordered Evans not to jail, but to use his power and fame to create an anti-drug message.
He committed $400,000 of his own money and recruited the guy who wrote the "I Love New York" jingle to pen an equally cheesy, yet catchy melody.
Some of never to win a Grammy lyrics were...
You can be somebody
With a plan of your own,
You can say no
And you won't be alone,
You can make yourself
Get higher than you have ever known,
By making up your own mind,
Doing things your own way,
Setting up your own style,
By being yourself.
The glow can come at any time
Keep that space open for love to come inside
And you'll be living when you do
Just keep the clouds from your own sky
And you'll come shining through
Get high on yourself
Get high on yourself
'Cause we're all here to help
You get high on yourself
With his song complete Evans and his co-producer "That's Incredible's" Cathy Lee Crosby, began calling all the celebrities they knew or slept with. They included some of the biggest stars of the day.
Burt Reynolds. Bob Hope. Paul Newman. Henry "Fonz" Winkler, Bruce Jenner. Erik Estrada, Mohammad Ali, Ted Nugent, John Travolta, Cheryl Tiegs, Tracy Austin, Carol Burnett.
Around 55 film, TV and sports stars in all.
These celebs were asked to clear their schedules for half a day, come to an LA sound stage and get high on the jingle while acting happy for the documentary and commercial filming.
To make things seem more positive (yet creepy), the celebs were paired with local kids. The fact that no one could carry a tune didn't matter.
With the camera's rolling they ran through the song a bunch of times, shot a ton of film and everyone left happily ever after.
The film was then delivered to the editor and he had the unenviable task of making this mish-mosh look and sound good. Tough job. One I wouldn't have signed up for.
Leading up to the launch of Get High on Yourself Week, the editor would meet at Evans house every Sunday to review various edits and versions. They'd head to Evans personal screening room, grab a some candy, gum or cigarettes (Evans always had 3 bowls on hand with every kind of candy, gum and smoke brand) and review. The final campaign consisted of one celebrity delivering a personal message and introducing the song. (Like Bruce Jenner did in the spot below)
At least 28 different commercials, versions and promo's were finished in time for the big NBC roll out. NBC promoted the event for weeks and when the big day arrived it aired one Get High On Yourself spot every hour during prime time on NBC for eight days.
Now Get High on Yourself Week kicked off with a half hour special which was "part serious documentary part musical." (Like the Barack Obama infomercial.) 8 days later the event ended with a big Bob Hope special (remember those?) where Bob called on the nation to fight drugs and stay alert.
Then it was finally time for Robert Evans, NBC and everyone involved to pat themselves on the back for a job well done. The rest of the country, meanwhile, went back to getting high on cocaine and a new, cheap, highly addictive drug called crack. (They lyrics of the song are partially to blame for this I think.)
One final note in his film "Kid Stays in the Picture" Robert Evans sighted Get High on Yourself as the high mark of his career. Given that he also produced The Godfather, Chinatown and Popeye, I think he was just shoveling shit.
But why not watch the video and judge for yourself.
Stumble This
Reddit!
I had no idea you could get high on your self. What part do you put in the spoon?
P.S. I had no idea Bruce Jenner used to be a man.
Man, I don't remember this at all. (I was definitely in the target audience.)
I have to admit that I barely even knew who Bruce Jenner was until the recent evil-retarded reality show he's kind of on. Then I googled him because I was curious and I sorta remembered his face from TV when I was a kid.
And is it just me, or is John Travolta wearing entirely too much makeup in that picture?
I find it impossible to look at the pic of the Fonz without internally going 'Heyyyy'.
BTW, Im not a Dr so I don't know if this is true or not, (not that I care), but I heard that some drugs are stored in your fat cells for a considerable period of time so if you loose weight fast enough you kind of get a buzz. Would that qualify as getting high on yourself?
So how many of those 55 celebrities were using drugs? Inquiring minds want to know.
Vicky - "And is it just me, or is John Travolta wearing entirely too much makeup in that picture?"
Are you saying that you look so much like John Travolta that you can't tell?
Ha! Tim, you smarty pants!
But......no, I look nothing like John Travolta. I think I put a picture of my head on Twitter....so you can tell me whether or not I look like JT.
And kbk, I was wondering the same thing.
I would assume most of them were high. Which is why this is even more ridiculous.
Getting high on yourself. They used to try to tell us you'd go blind doing that.
Vicky - great shades.
Thanks.....I'm a Batman nerd =oD
Baier:
That's what I'm thinking at. What do you reckon the over/under on that is? 35? 40?
What are the lyrics again?
Don't do drugs. Hang yourself.
InstEAAAAAAD!
This was in the same time period as 'free to be you and me', I'm guessing....
but I don't remember it at all...guess it didn't get in the way of my Little House on the Prairie viewing (which WAS on NBC, if I remember correctly?)
He must have had some good blackmail material on the actors or their agents for this one to happen (maybe he threatened to turn them in for their drug use)...or maybe they all turned to drugs afterwards to drown out the bad memories....
But Paul Newman? Really? Bob Hope would show up at the opening of a 7-11 if he knew one veteran would be there, so that doesn't surprise me...
Paul Newman had a son who OD'ed on drugs, I believe. Maybe that was part of it.
good thinking E....forgot about that....and he did blame himself...
Free to be was in the early 70s.
The amount of talent amassed on that stage just goes to show the pull Evans had at that time. A few years later, no. But it'd be like Speilberg calling in his favors today. Everyone would show up. Even to blow monkeys for charity.
Yikes! I just caught a little of the vid. (46 sec.) Dayumn. What the hell. Maybe the idea was - this is what you're gonna see when you have a bad acid trip so stay clean and do your homework kids. A couple hours of this and you'll be begging them to send you to a tough-love/scared straight course. Harsh.
If I want to remember the early 80's I'm gonna stick with Fast Times, ya know?
Baier....be careful....Tim is going to think he's getting some, and for a good cause to boot!
("to blow monkeys for charity")
Let's see now..... I see Andy Gibb, oops he died of a heart condition due to years of cocaine and alcohol abuse. Dana Plato, hey now, she died of a drug overdose. Leif Garrett, now he's not dead, but he's a heroin junkie and was probably on the stuff at the time of that Get High On Yourself production.
I've been searching for this on the internet for years and just didn't know the name of it. I was 9 when it aired. I remember being really into it because Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) was in it. Of course, trying to vaguely remember something from almost 29 years ago that I saw only a few times as a child became a small obsession and I idealized what it was. I'm so happy to find it now and I can let it go. Wow that was awful and painful to watch, but I can stop wondering about it now. :)
Well Mark, glad to help you end your quest. Now, go get high on yourself!
Kathie Lee actually started a 'Spirit Team' named Get High on Yourself. It consisted of teen and college age kids who went to High schools and did all day workshops. I was once a member of the Arizona team. Too bad the foundation went bankrupt. It was fun! I wish I could reconnect with my other spirit team members.