Zapped! [The Whiz Kid] * (1982, Scott Baio, Willie Aames, Robert Mandan) – Classic Movie Review 7113

Director Robert J Rosenthal’s pretty awful 1982 horror sci-fi fantasy comedy parody Zapped! [aka The Whiz Kid] stars Scott Baio as high school chemistry student Barney Springboro, who has a laboratory accident and uses his new-found psychic powers to rip the clothes off college girls and, to be fair, and he also uses them for revenge on bullies.

The nice actors do their best but this pathetic, shamefully embarrassing non-PC teen comedy is poorly written by Bruce Rubin and Robert J Rosenthal and dismally handled by Rosenthal.

Also in the cast are Willie Aames as Barney’s fun-loving buddy Peyton Nichols, Robert Mandan as Walter J Coolidge, Scatman Crothers, Heather Thomas, Felice Schachter, Roger Bowen, Greg Bradford, Hilary Beane, Sue Ann Langdon, Merrit Butrick and Marya Small.

Robert Mandan’s character is called Walter Coolidge in the film, but the credits call him Walter Johnson.

Zapped! is directed by Robert J Rosenthal, runs 97 minutes, is made by Thunder Associates, Apple/ Rose, City Films, Major Studio Partners, Embassy Pictures and Nelson, is released by Embassy Pictures, is written by Bruce Rubin and Robert J Rosenthal, is shot by Daniel Pearl, is produced by Jeffrey D Apple and scored by Charles Fox.

It was fairly popular, grossing $16,897,000 in the US, and a sequel followed, Zapped Again! (1990).

Robert Mandan stars in Zapped!

Robert Mandan, best known as Chester Tate on Soap (1977 – 81), was born on 2 February 1932 and died on 29 April 2018, aged 86.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7113

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