Our regular review of Check It Out! will not be posted tonight so that we might bring you this special program….

My retro television reviews will return next week.  For now, we present you with The Gymnast, a short film from 1980 about a teenage girl named Jenny who wants to be the best gymnast in the world but who is going to have to learn some important lessons about hard work and humility beforehand.  I could relate to this film because I was the same way about dancing when I was a teen.  Of course, I never learned any lessons about hard work or humility and I’m all the better for it.

That said, this isn’t a bad little film.  Zina Bethune gives a good performance as the hard-pushing coach and there’s plenty of gymnastic action as well.  I’m going to guess this was probably made to appeal to teens who would presumably have found a bunch of new heroes watching the 1980 Summer Olympics.  Jimmy Carter, however, had other plans.

Now, without any further ado, here is …. The Gymnast!