Americathon

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Americathon (also known as Amercathon 1998) is a 1979 comedy starring John Ritter, Fred Willard, Peter Riegert and Harvey Korman, based on a play by Firesign Theatre alumni Phil Proctor and Peter Bergman.

The premise of the film was that, sometime in the then-near future (actually 1998), the USA has run out of oil, and many Americans are literally living in their (now stationary) cars and either jog or ride bicycles to travel. The federal government, housed in "The Western White House" (a sub-leased condo in Marina del Rey, California), is near bankruptcy and in danger of being foreclosed by a cartel of Native Americans in control of Nike Inc. (which has been renamed "National Indian Knitting Enterprises"). President Chet Roosevelt, played by Ritter, decides that the only way he can raise money to prevent this from happening is to run a telethon.

The soundtrack feautered It's A Beautiful Day by The Beach Boys.

[edit] Trivia

Among the unintentionally prophetic elements in the story are:

• The People's Republic of China embracing capitalism and becoming a global economic superpower.
• Cliques of Native Americans becoming wealthy (although in reality much of their wealth would come from the gaming industry, mostly from tribal casinos).
• Vietnam becoming a major tourist attraction among Asia's wealthy and powerful.

An oddly unique commentary on American society is that, no matter how difficult situations became, Americans steadfastly refused to give up watching television.

John Carradine was to have played "Uncle Sam" in this film, but his scenes were edited.

Dorothy Stratten appears, uncredited, as one of the stage dancers.

To promote the movie, in 1979 Ted Coombs roller skated across the United States and back and gained a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.