''Superdad'' is a 1973 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 1 ...

starring

Bob Crane Robert Edward Crane (July 13, 1928 – June 29, 1978) was an American actor, drummer, radio personality, and disc jockey known for starring in the CBS situation comedy '' Hogan's Heroes''. Crane was a drummer from age 11, and he began his en ...

Barbara Rush Barbara Rush (born January 4, 1927) is an American actress. In 1954, Rush won the Golden Globe Award as most promising female newcomer for her role in the 1953 American science-fiction film ''It Came from Outer Space''.Warren 1982, pp. 151–63 ...

Kurt Russell Kurt Vogel Russell (born March 17, 1951) is an American actor. He began acting on television at the age of 12 in the western series ''The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters'' (1963–1964). In the late 1960s, he signed a ten-year contract with The ...

, Joe Flynn, and Kathleen Cody. Directed by

Vincent McEveety Vincent Michael McEveety (August 10, 1929 – May 19, 2018) was an American film and television director and producer. Career Vince McEveety directed numerous Emmy Award-winning television series, including ''The Untouchables'', '' Gunsmoke ...

, the film marks the motion picture debut of

Bruno Kirby Bruno Kirby (born Bruno Giovanni Quidaciolu Jr.; April 28, 1949 – August 14, 2006) was an American actor. He was known for his roles in ''City Slickers'', '' When Harry Met Sally...'', '' Good Morning, Vietnam'', ''The Godfather Part II'', and ...

Plot

Charlie McCready (

) tries to wrest his daughter Wendy ( Kathleen Cody) from her childhood friends, whom he believes have no ambition. He especially disapproves of her boyfriend, Bart (

). Initially he makes a few attempts to bridge the generation gap, but to no avail. For instance, he attempts to impress his daughter's friends by trying his hand at beach volleyball and water skiing, but both attempts result in humiliating accidents. Late in the summer, Wendy receives a letter informing her that she's won a full scholarship to her parents' alma mater, Huntington College. Unbeknownst to her, the letter is fake; her father has paid the first year's tuition himself, and had a friend at the college send the letter to her. He did this so Wendy would not attend City College with Bart and her other friends. Charlie later visits Wendy at Huntington, and discovers that the college has changed considerably since he attended there. Wendy later discovers his plot, and joins the campus counterculture as a way of getting even. She inadvertently becomes engaged to a hippie artist named Klutch. Charlie attempts to intervene on her behalf, and ends up in a fistfight with Klutch. Wendy's boyfriend Bart comes to the rescue. At this point, Charlie learns that Bart had turned down a scholarship to Huntington College so he could be near Wendy who he believed (correctly) had not been awarded a scholarship there. The movie ends with Wendy's marriage to Bart.

Cast

as Charlie McCready *

as Sue McCready *

as Bart * Joe Flynn as Cyrus Hershberger * Kathleen Cody as Wendy McCready *

Joby Baker Joseph N. "Joby" Baker (born March 26, 1934) is a Canadian-born actor and painter. Career Baker was born in Montreal, Quebec. An early role in his career was in a 1958 episode of ''The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show'', "Ronnie Makes A Recor ...

as Klutch *

Dick Van Patten Richard Vincent Van Patten (December 9, 1928 – June 23, 2015) was an American actor, comedian, businessman, and animal welfare advocate, whose career spanned seven decades of television. He was best known for his role as patriarch Tom Brad ...

as Ira Kushaw *

as Stanley Schlimmer * Judith Lowry as Mother Barlow * Ivor Francis as Dr. Skinner on TV *

Jonathan Daly Jonathan Daly (born January 14, 1942) is an American actor who is known in America for his roles in ''Petticoat Junction'', ''The Jimmy Stewart Show'', and '' C.P.O. Sharkey'', and best known in Australia for being in the comedy duo " Delo & D ...

as Rev. Griffith * Naomi Stevens as Mrs. Levin *

Nicholas Hammond Nicholas Hammond (born May 15, 1950) is an American-born Australian actor and writer who is best known for his roles as Friedrich von Trapp in the film ''The Sound of Music'' and as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the 1970s television series '' The A ...

as Roger Rhinehurst * Jack Manning as Justice of the Peace * Jim Wakefield as House Manager * Ed McCready as Cab Driver * Larry Gelman as Mr. Schlimmer * Stephen Dunne as TV Moderator * Allison McKay as Secretary *

Leon Belasco Leon Belasco (born Leonid Simeonovich Berladsky; 11 October 1902 – 1 June 1988) was a Russian-American actor and musician who had a 60-year career in film and television from the 1920s to the 1980s, appearing in more than 100 films. Musi ...

as Limousine Driver * Sarah Fankboner as Scout Girl * Christina Anderson as Gang *

Ed Begley Jr. Edward James Begley Jr. (born September 16, 1949) is an American actor and environmental activist. Begley has appeared in hundreds of films, television shows, and stage performances. He played Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the television series ''St. E ...

as Gang * Don Carter as Gang * Joy Ellison as Gang * Ann Marshall as Gang *

Michael Rupert Michael John Rupert (born October 23, 1951, Denver, Colorado) is an American actor, singer, director and composer. In 1968 he made his Broadway debut in ''The Happy Time'' as Bibi Bonnard for which he received a Tony Award nomination and the ...

as Gang

Television

The film appeared on an episode of ''

The Wonderful World of Disney The Walt Disney Company has produced an anthology television series since 1954 under several titles and formats. The program's current title, ''The Wonderful World of Disney'', was used from 1969 to 1979 and again from 1991 to the present. The pr ...

''.

Home media

The film was released on the VHS and

Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, as in its logo) is a consumer-level analog recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video, commonly known as a video cassette recorder. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10, 1975, ...

formats during the 1980s. It was released on DVD exclusively to members of the Disney Movie Club on June 1, 2008. It has also been released on the

digital format Digital data, in information theory and information systems, is information represented as a string of discrete symbols each of which can take on one of only a finite number of values from some alphabet, such as letters or digits. An example is ...

In other media

A poster for ''Superdad'' can be seen in a subway car in the original 1974 version of the film ''

Death Wish Death Wish or Deathwish may refer to: Common meanings *Suicidal ideation, term for thoughts about killing oneself *Death drive, term in Freudian psychiatry Arts and entertainment Radio *"Death Wish", a 1957 episode of the radio series ''X Minus ...

.'' ''Superdad'' was featured in the biographical film ''

Auto Focus ''Auto Focus'' is a 2002 American biographical drama film directed by Paul Schrader and starring Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe. The screenplay by Michael Gerbosi is based on Robert Graysmith's book ''The Murder of Bob Crane'' (1993). ''Auto Focus ...

'', with

(

Greg Kinnear Gregory Buck Kinnear (born June 17, 1963) is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in ''As Good as It Gets'' (1997). Kinnear has appeared in many popular films, including '' Sabrina'' (19 ...

) seeing his role as the leading man in this Disney film as a way to revive his career following the retirement of his hit series ''

Hogan's Heroes ''Hogan's Heroes'' is an American television sitcom set in a Nazi German prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during World War II. It ran for 168 episodes (six seasons) from September 17, 1965, to April 4, 1971, on the CBS network, the longest broadcast ...

.'' Footage of the film is shown where Crane is on water skis (Kinnear in a re-shoot of that scene), along with a voice-over of how ''Superdad'' sat on the shelves for a year before flopping at the box office.

References

External links

* * * * {{Vincent McEveety 1973 films American comedy films 1973 comedy films 1970s English-language films Walt Disney Pictures films Films directed by Vincent McEveety Films scored by Buddy Baker (composer) 1970s American films