Isacksen Talks Fish That Saved Pittsburgh – Observer Dispatch

Peter Isacksen had a blast appearing in the 1979 United Artists release of The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh.

Hockey has Slap Shot. Baseball has Major League. Football has The Replacements. Well, in the basketball world, now you get where The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh is coming from.

SOURCE: https://www.uticaod.com/story/news/columns/2018/04/01/isacksen-talks-fish-that-saved/12850282007/

Greg

Movies like this are why I miss video stores. In the streaming era, you have to know what you want to watch and search for it, or rely on “the algorithm” to suggest something to you. The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh is a film you had to see on the shelf at Blockbuster and say “wuuut? Dr. J in a movie?” Of course I rented it, and loved it.

Bill V

This movie brings back the happiest of memories. If you know you know…this is the best hoops movie ever and the soundtrack should have won an Oscar. In honor of the “Queen of Country Music” Loretta Lynn’s 90th birthday today (April 14, 2022), a reminder that she is an underrated part of that soundtrack. She showed her great talent and versatility in singing “Is It Love, Must Be Love” with Frankie Bleu. But the theme song from that movie is IMO “Listen to your heart, never fear, and follow every dream…” Thanks for this website.

Jeanette

I saw this movie with my Dad as a kid! LOVED IT! I brought the album AND I have the movie! Truly underrated ! I think I developed my love for basketball with that movie, so many basketball cameo! It was IS everything a good sports movie should be!

Vincent Schmitt

I was at the Civic Arena for one long, long night of filming.

My family and I were there the night the roof of the arena was to be opened. I had never seen it retracted and no one knew anyone who had. Could it open? Was it urban legend…we had to know.

Jonathan Winters did some standup for the crowd at one point to probably keep people from leaving. The crowd thinned out dramatically from early to late evening.

Had lots of fun that night chanting swish swish to the fish fish and mighty mighty pisces.

I’m in several crowd scenes and if there’s a widescreen release I’ll be in like four more.

From Laz

mos def! i fucking LOVED this movie. i’ve been trying to find it for years, i see you have a link to the dvd on amazon. as soon as i can afford it, i will be getting it!

everything you say about it, i agree. great music… check! great players…check! great teamwork…check! low production values… who gives a shit?

glad to find this site, man.

BULLET BAINES

Bullet BainesBullet bullet bullet, oh lord have mercy you so fine, so fine. 52 oh number 52 52.

So screams Ola from the stands when she sees the one of a kind, Bullet Baines, who speaks volumes with his hands.

The team’s point guard, the floor general, who loves to play, and his fellow teammates. He doesn’t get angry often, but when Moses pleads with him to rise to the challenge watch out!

Bullet is perfectly played by Malek Abdul-Mansour.

TOP 10 REASONS WHY THE FISH THAT SAVED PITTSBURGH IS THE BEST BASKETBALL MOVIE EVER!

The Fish That Saved PittsburghI know, you think I’m crazy. The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh is the greatest basketball movie ever? Are you serious? The one with the hokey characters and the poor productions values? Are you on drugs bro? No I’m not, I’m of sound mind and even sounder body and I’m gonna show you just why I stand behind my proclamation that The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh IS, without question, the BEST BASKETBALL MOVIE OF ALL TIME!!!

Here we go, in no particular order:

  1. The Music, you Jive Turkeys – I challenge any of you to watch this movie, listen to the fabulous music by groups such as the Spinners, the Sylvers and others,and not get juiced. For me personally, when I see the scene in that first game when the team is playing together for the first time, and the theme song comes on by Bell & James, I get chills every time. EVERY SINGLE TIME!!! I challenge you not to feel the same.
  2. The One and ONLY Dr. J – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. You suckers have not seen the real Dr. J unless you saw him in the much-missed REAL ABA (not the current joke version that is a disgrace to the memory of the real ABA). The original ABA was NOT a minor league basketball league. The only thing it had in common with the current abomination is some of the owners were ill-prepared to run teams, just like 99% of the teams in minor league basketball today. No money. But talent-wise, it was a real threat to the NBA and no one exemplified that better, and was the primary reason the NBA wanted a merger, than the incredible Julius Erving, my favorite player of all time, the Doctor. When the merger happened, the Nets were forced to sell the Doctor to the 76ers to cope with the hateful merger fee and other nonsense fees the NBA put on them. The Doctor joined a team of all-stars and, as unselfish as he was, toned down his game for them. Until they needed them, like in the final against Portland. Or in the All Star game when he showed what’s what. But even then, his knees were shot, you still didn’t see the real Doc. That’s right! The Doctor, who made that reverse layup against one of the NBA’s greatest players ever, the giant Kareem Abdul Jabbar, was not at his peak. Like he was in the ABA and I had the good fortune to see him play for my beloved Nets. the REAL Nets! So if you want a taste of what he was like,watch this movie. Moses Guthrie is ABA Dr. J.
  3. The Team Concept – TEAM, are you sh!tt!ng me? Have you seen movies like Hoosiers? I’ll get to that overrated movie later, but yes TEAM. Let me explain. The whole movie is predicated on chemistry. That talent alone is not enough, you need to mesh together. So they got rid of the entire team but Moses, bonafide “league” players. And held an open tryout for Pisces people to be the new team. And so they get the most motley group of players the world has seen and wouldn’t you know it, they gell because DESPITE their differences, they work great together. CHEMISTRY made a star, a short slow white carnival trick-shot artist, an angry muslim, a preacher, an indian, a former white college star who is a space cadet, a dj, identical twins, and on and on come together united in purpose. And love each other. Don’t believe me? Watch the scene where the beat-up Setshot is being helped to the free throw line by who? That previously mentioned muslim, The Truth! Beautiful man, simply beautiful!
  4. The Players – As I mentioned in the previous point, the players are just frikkin awesome! CLICK HERE for more details on the players but again, how could you not love the kind of guys this team is composed o?
  5. The Children – Perhaps the most important message the movie presents is, the children matter most. Something the pro leagues of today seem to forget, though they make superficial claims otherwise. Whether it’s listening to the super-wise beyond his years ballboy, Tyrone and his HUGE dreams, or an owner that never forgot to stay a child on the inside, sports is supposed to be for the kid in all of us. FUN, laughter and even balloons.
  6. The Owner – H.S. Tilson is the owner all sports team should have. Sweet, child-like, always focusing on fun, and willing to listen to anyone. Money topics bore him, he’d rather give everyone a balloon. He just wants everyone to laugh and be silly and enjoy the game. He also NEVER interferes with the coaches or players, letting them do their job.
  7. The Coach and Trainer – Sometimes the best thing a coach can do is give support to his players, be positive, and stay out of the way. Unlike coach-centered movies, it’s all about the players and coach knows it. And Harry the trainer is the kind of guy that the corporatey NBA just doesn’t have use for anymore. Cigarette in his mouth, suffering no fools, and he’ll help anyone despite his gruff exterior.
  8. What It’s Not – You can keep your yawn inducing, extremely overrated trash like Hoosiers, a movie that over-controlling coaches want to marry and have babies with. That movie is BORING, something the Fish is not!!! It and others of it’s kind are ALWAYS about the coaches and the players are secondary, again something the fish is not! This movie is all about how much FUN playing basketball is and how great it is when you just have fun playing together with your friends. That’s it, that’s what it is. No pretentious nonsense, no patronizing wise coaches teaching dem poor black folk. No, this is all about you and your boys!
  9. The Basketball – Oh the glorious slam dunks by the Doc, the brilliance of Meadowlark Lemon and his high post passing, it’s just so much fun to watch. Oh crap, there’s that word again, fun.
  10. Production Values – We end where we started, the much-maligned poor production values. Not a weakness but a strength and part of what makes this movie so awesome. From the fact that they couldn’t say NBA and had to call it “the league”, to the stock-footage of the cheering crowds interspersed with real life shots of empty seats because I assume they couldn’t afford the extras. Makes no sense, how it could be both full and empty at the same time. But I love it. What they lacked in production excellence, they made up for it in spirit. And that’s the fact jack!

MALIK JAMAL TRUTH

the-truth1One of my favorite actors of all time played the part of Malik Jamal Truth and that’s the truth! Julius Carry, who passed away way too young, did a great job playing the angriest man on the team and was perfect in the role. Butting heads at first with the Reverend, he eventually embraced the team and it’s concept of unity.

Julius Carry also played one of my favorite movie characters of all time, in the movie the last Dragon. The Shogun of Harlem, the baddest mofo no doubt around this town, ShoNuff. And that’s Mr. Nuff to you. Every time i watch either movie, I miss him all over again.

Rest in Peace Mr. Nuff

More on Julius on Wikipedia by CLICKING HERE

SETSHOT BUFORD

Setshot BufordPlayed by the talented actor Jack Kehoe, Setshot Buford is the guy who represents us regular guys. All the ones playing for fun in the gym, who live, eat and breathe basketball, too slow or too short to make it in the bigs.

Setshot is a trick shot artist, specializing in the super-long distance shot. Tough, loyal, he’ll take a pounding for the team. He’s also the league’s best free throw shooter in my opinion. He’s all business on the court.

Learn more about Jack Kehoe on Wikipedia by CLICKING HERE!