In the late 1970's Americans of all backgrounds sure had plenty to say about President Jimmy Carter. In the short span from 1977 to 1979, President Carter painted a picture of America's future featuring triple-digit inflation, $10 a gallon gasoline, national debt out of control and the Federal bankruptcy.

To fight back against all the doom and gloom, a 1979 comedy movie told a story about America in the far-off year of 1998 called, "Americathon".

The United States needs cash, and lots of it, so John Ritter as the future President holds a national telethon to raise big money.

I'm sorry, did I say "Americathon" is a comedy? 

According to Siskel and Ebert, it was the worst movie of the year.

My dad has a shirt from that movie. He was an extra in it, but the scene was cut. After my parents told me about the movie I watched it online. All the paralles between today's world and the one in the movie are mentioned in this Cracked article. There are also some mentioned on the movie's wikipeida page.

One of the benefits I took full advantage of in 1979 was ignoring all the vocal reactions to Jimmy Carter's predictions of the future facing us in the 1980's. I was a young man with no time to dwell in doom and gloom.

But as usual, "Americathon" tells a story about the future with elements that mesh nicely with the 21st century. Meaning it's an interesting premise that got the timing wrong.

In my opinion, "Americathon" was tripped up by a low budget, television-quality, production that did not meet the standards for theater quality presentation. The plot has a natural focal point - the Telethon. But when the movie gets to the telethon, what should be the high point of the story just looks like hastily thrown together ideas, as if no one ever actually planed the telethon event before production began. 

Interesting ideas die when there's no money for quality work, just like Patty Duke as the first woman President of the United States in, "Hail to the Chief", from 1985: