Return to Home Page

Jumpsuits in books, movies, and on TV



Television

Star Trek.  I've heard people argue about whether the vision of the future presented by Star Trek TNG is too perfect.  Well, it features an entire spaceship with hundreds of people, all wearing tight jumpsuits all the time.  A bit utopian, yes -- but it seems to be worth dreaming for.

Buck Rogers.  I watched plenty of this show as a kid, and remember little of what happened.  But I remember there was good dose of jumpsuit-wearing, notably by Erin Grey.    Links:  (1)   (2)   (3)

Knight Rider.  I was a big fan when I was about 11 years old.  I saw a re-run of it on cable not too long ago, and it even cornier than I was expected.  But adulthood can't take away my appreciation of Bonnie (Patricia McPherson), the mechanic who did all the maintenance work on KITT.  If I remember right, she was always cool and capable, and had a different beautiful jumpsuit for every episode.  Bonnie was briefly replaced by April, whose jumpsuits were a little bit on the frilly side.  This complemented the fact that April was probably more worried about breaking a nail than fixing KITT.  Fortunately, Bonnie returned to wear more jumpsuits and get KITT's motor running right.

Airwolf.  A more mature successor to Knight Rider, for what that's worth.  Of course, they had to put on those smart-looking jumpsuits when flying the helicopter.  I vaguely recall that the character Marella wore a beautiful white jumpsuit at first, but then she began slacking off and wearing dresses or other clothes.  However, as the show slid downhill, they picked up a female character, Caitlin, who could wear the flight suit and help fly the helicopter.

Mystery Science Theater 3000.  Though I like this show, I don't see it much without cable.  The main character, Mike or Joel , is "just another face in a red jumpsuit".  I have mixed feelings about this, since it does seem to show that jumpsuits don't get no respect.  While watching B movies, the characters can make jokes about jumpsuits, since they are after all the best garments for space travellers and aliens.
(I recently saw a set of pages by an MST3K fan which described all of Mike's different jumpsuits in detail.  The page seems to have disappeared, but I'd like to link to it if anyone can find it.)

The Avengers.  I've never seen the TV show or the recent movie, but it is a well known source of catsuit-wearing.  View a thorough summary of Mrs. Peel's wardrobe .

Charlies Angels.  A friend gives me this report:

I just watched a video of 2 Charlie's Angels episodes, each of which features jumpsuits (the 2nd of the 2 actually features no fewer than 4 jumpsuits). This is cheap: I found it in Tower Records for $9 or so. The tape is called "Angels in Chains" . It's guaranteed to please a jumpsuit lover!

Lost in Space.  Campy sci-fi show from the 1960's.  Links with pictures: (1) (2)



Movies

Cannonball Run.  This was a very bad movie starring Burt Reynolds that I saw on TV when I was a kid.  The only specific memory that I have about it is that Catherine Bach and another woman would appear from time to time wearing these really tight jumpsuits.

Empire Strikes Back.  All of the Star Wars movies had jumpsuits, but easily the most important jumpsuit of the trilogy was the one Leia (Carrie Fisher) wore for most of 'Empire'.  It looked comfortable and very sexy.

Alien.  Sigourney Weaver is very good to see in this film.

PeeWee's Big Adventure.  An excellent film with two notable jumpsuit applications.  The first was that PeeWee's enemy and his wealthy dad always wore monogrammed jumpsuits of the "old man" style, which seems to somehow underscore their decadent and perverse natures.  In the movie-within-the-movie at the end, Morgan Fairchild as Dottie wears an eye-popping blue jumpsuit.

Edward Scissorshands.  Another one from Tim Burton.  The horny housewife who tries to seduce Edward is always wearing a jumpsuit.  I think her husband wore a jumpsuit also.

Batman Returns.  Michelle Pfieffer.  You know.

Batman and Robin.  I wouldn't mention this really awful movie, except to point out that the rubber suits worn by Batman and Robin had very prominent nipples, while Batgirl's had none.  See the 1966 "Batman" movie instead, since it is funny and features nicer jumpsuits.

Trekkies.  A very entertaining documentary about Star Trek fans in which jumpsuits play an important role.

Election.  See it 'cuz it's really good, but get a bonus view of Lisa (Frankie Ingrassia) frequently wearing overalls.

Austin Powers.  In the original Austin Powers movie, Vanessa (Elizabeth Hurley) wears a wonderful black catsuit -- a sort of "Avengers" tribute.  If you want to see men wearing jumpsuits, "The Spy Who Shagged Me" affords many opportunites.  But special catcall goes out to Felicity (Heather Graham) who, when she first appears on screen, is wearing a stunning outfit that defies terminology.  If it had full legs, we would surely call it a "catsuit", but it hardly has any legs at all.  Says Austin (Mike Meyers), "Those are some awfully tight pants, baby"..

    -- Now you can get a sexy jumpsuit identical to Felicity's from this website !

The Phantom Menace.  Various jumpsuits appear in this film, but worthy of note are two women who appear to be massaging Sebulba.  Their white catsuits go well with their blue skin, don't you think?

The Big Lebowski.   It features some unusual situations with men wearing jumpsuits, like The Dude's cable-guy porno hallucination.  Weirdest of all was John Tuturro, as "Jesus", the perverted bowling maestro, wearing that purple monogrammed jumpsuit.

Bottle Rocket.  An excellently wacky movie with wacky but oddly realistic characters.  They never exactly explain why the whole gang is wearing bright yellow coveralls in the big heist at the movie's climax.  Maybe they all agreed with Anthony (Luke Wilson) who says "You gotta get me one of those jumpsuits!"

A Christmas Story.  The little boy's mom forces him to wear a pink bunny suit that he got for Christmas.

The Spy Who Loved Me.  The villian's henchmen wear some very sharp red jumpsuits with zippers on the chest pockets.  These have to be some of the most stylish jumpsuits for men that I've ever seen.  The very lovely Barbara Bach appears to be wearing a very sleek, dark blue jumpsuit when she and Bond fall into the bad guy's clutches.  When the bad guy spirits her away with him (to force her to become his loving wife, I guess) he dresses her up in something more revealing, but not a jumpsuit.  What a loser!

Home of the Brave.  I haven't seen this, but a friend sent this description:

Laurie Anderson is a media/ performance artist. I know she's made a least one concert video: Home of the Brave. In it, half the time she has her hair in a short pixie cut and white coveralls

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I didn't see this movie either, but a friend tells me:

in t.m.n.t april o neil was a sexy brunette news reporter who hung out with the turtles..she always wore these yellow coveralls.
I searched the internet, but I seemed to find pictures of April wearing anything but the coveralls!  :(

Stop Making Sense.  I hope you saw the recent re-release of this Talking Heads concert film in the theater.  It was mighty nice.  During the first few songs, Tina Weymouth wears a khaki jumpsuit with luxuriously flared hips.

Galaxy Quest .  This Star Trek spoof was silly and fairly amusing.  Also, it was very nearly a jumpsuit overload.  Sigourney Weaver gets lots of screen time in an elastic jumpsuit, and the innocent aliens wear some very nice black suits.  And how about the engineer guy getting it on with the squid-woman?  How about that!  Read a tongue-in-cheek review of Galaxy Quest contributed by a friend.

Girl on a Motorcycle .  I only know about this from the web page linked here.  Looks interesting.

Ghostbusters.  A comedy staple of my childhood.  On the job, the ghostbusters wore tan-colored coveralls with a little name label.

Halloween.  Yow--Were there really seven of them?  A correspondent tells me:

You may not be a horror movie type person, but any true fan of the genre would insist that you include the fact that Michael Myers (from the Halloween 1-7 movie series) always wore a nice blue utility coverall jumpsuit...Even deranged serial killers deserve to be well dressed...
Waiting for Guffman.  This movie contained some amusing jumpsuits, though none that I would consider really sexy.  During one rehearsal, Corky wears a very loose jumpsuit with a scarf, looking...well, gay .  In contrast, the young mechanic character who catches Corky's eye was wearing grubby mechanics coveralls.  Also, during the song about "Working", all of the cast members are wearing white protective coveralls.

Fantastic Voyage.  Haven't seen it, but see pictures of Raquel Welch in a jumpsuit .

The Angry Red Planet.  A classic bad movie. See pictures here .

            Another friend wrote to me with this:

I like seeing women in clothes with big buttons on them (e.g. jumpsuits)....

Fun with Dick and Jane.  In one scene near the start, Jane Fonda is wearing a big-buttoned denim jumpsuit

Death Race 2000  has women wearing big-buttoned jumpsuits

Future World.  Blythe Danner wearing a front-buttoned jumpsuit



Books

Even Cowgirls get the Blues by Tom Robbins.  This is a classic drugged-up story about feminism, free love, and counter-cultural etc etc.  Robbins explains early on that Sissy may have been "responsible for the jumpsuit interest that seized Western womanhood in the late sixties", and "Zippered jumpsuits were, in fact, the only garb Sissy could wear — because she hadn't the facility to button her clothes."  Well, that's not so sad, is it?  Is this a technical detail that was inevitable, or is Robbins letting out a jumpsuit fetish of his own?  Anyway, he spends a lot more time dwelling on the overpowering beauty of Sissy's thumbs, which are incomprehensibly huge.
In his previous book, Another Roadside Attraction, it is sometimes mentioned that Amanda is wearing a jumpsuit.  In one very memorable scene, John Paul ravishes a pregnant, jumpsuited Amanda.
I imagine the movie of "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" featured some jumpsuit-wearing by Uma Thurman.  However, I've never seen the movie, and I heard it was really bad.  Not surprising, since Robbins' books aren't the least bit cinematic.

Friday by Robert Heinlein.  Another example of what happens when feminism collides with some rather demented male fantasy.  The number of passages elaborating on jumpsuits make me wonder if Heinlein had a bit of a fetish for them.  Good for him...even if he was some kind of sicko.

1984 by George Orwell.  It's been a long time since I read it, so maybe I'm getting this wrong.  I recall that the party uniform that people in this totalitarian society wore very plain "overall".  This presented a strange picture in my mind, since I understood it to mean "bib overalls".  But now I've learned that "overall" means to some people what I would call a "coverall" or "jumpsuit".  Anyway, the overalls were supposed to be part of the ugly colorlessness of life in this dystopian world.  It's supposed to be a wonderful thing when the girl wears something else.  It would indeed be a nightmare world if it made one dislike jumpsuits.  The cover artwork of the novel shows a very interesting conception of the party overall.
 
 

Return to Home Page

email: jumpsuitguy(AT)yahoo.com