7 fun facts about ‘The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh’
Welcome the start of the basketball season with Pittsburgh’s only pro basketball team: the fictional Pittsburgh Pisces of the movie “The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh.”
Many of my friends here in Pittsburgh can rattle off player stats and trivia about football, baseball, and hockey—but ask them about basketball, and you may be met with only a shrug. After all, Pittsburgh doesn’t have a professional basketball team.
But for one brief, disco-lit moment in 1979, Pittsburgh did have a national basketball team: at the movies, at least.
That was the year “The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh” hit theaters, a disco-infused sports comedy starring basketball legend Julius Erving about a down-on-its-luck team—the Pittsburgh Pythons—turning to astrology for the answer to success. The team takes the advice of an astrologer, who tells them that if they want to win, the team should be made up entirely of players born under the Zodiac sign of Pisces.
While Pittsburgh’s real-life basketball dreams never came to fruition—every attempt to establish a professional team in Pittsburgh was unsuccessful—the city still has the Pythons (aka the Pittsburgh Pisces) of “The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh.”
The movie is a cult classic with everything there is to love about the 1970s, from over-the-top astrological readings to colorful funky style and hip disco music. Here are more facts about the film, from how it was made to its connections with real Pittsburgh sports.
1. The movie’s Pittsburgh Pythons were inspired in part by the real-life Pittsburgh Pipers, but when the movie debuted, Pittsburgh was no longer home to a professional basketball team.
In real life, Pittsburgh got its own professional basketball team—the Pittsburgh Pipers—with the founding of the American Basketball Association in 1967. The Pipers won the championship that first year, but then moved to Minnesota, moved back a year later as the Pittsburgh Condors, and folded by 1972.
Why didn’t another basketball team ever take its place? This is likely because Pittsburgh is considered a small media market. In fact, the market is so small that a 2013 Business Insider analysis concluded that Pittsburgh actually has one more team than its market can feasibly support.
The rabid fans in the city would likely beg to differ: The Steelers have sold out every single home game since 1972, the Penguins regularly lead the National Hockey League in TV viewership, and Pirates fans are so loyal that their “sell the team” chants targeted toward owner Bob Nutting were loud enough earlier this year that the Pirates’ TV broadcast cut the crowd’s audio.
But perhaps Pittsburgh fans have their hands full bemoaning the three major teams we do have.
2. “The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh” may be quirky, but it was hardly a B movie considering its star-studded cast.
The biggest star of “The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh” wasn’t an actor, but basketball player Julius Erving, considered one of the greatest players of all time and an early expert of the slam dunk. Erving was still playing basketball in 1979 when he portrayed star player Moses Guthrie in the movie; Erving only retired from the sport in 1987. And while Erving depicted a Pisces in the movie, he himself has a birthday of February 22, making him a real-life Pisces.
Meadowlark Lemon, who played with the Harlem Globetrotters for more than two decades, acted in the role of Rev. Grady Jackson. Years later, the basketball player would actually be ordained as a minister.
Several other basketball players can also be seen in the movie, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Most of the pro players in the movie appeared under the name of their team’s city, rather than the team’s name—Abdul-Jabbar, for example, played simply for “Los Angeles” while on screen.
Stockard Channing, who portrayed Rizzo in “Grease,” played the role of astrologer Mona Mondieu. Cher was originally cast for this role but pulled out because of scheduling conflicts.
Other famous names in the film were actor and comedian Jonathan Winters, actress and dancer Debbie Allen, and comedian and actor Flip Wilson in his final movie role.
3. The film was shot entirely in the Pittsburgh area.
Nowadays, movies might be set in a certain city but shot all over the country. “The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh,” however, was filmed entirely on location in Pittsburgh and nearby Moon Township. Climactic scenes were shot at Pittsburgh’s famous Civic Arena—also known as “The Igloo”—that hosted many a hockey game, rally, and concert until it was torn down in 2011. In one scene, the team arrives through the arena’s open dome in a hot air balloon.
4. Initial reviews were mostly negative, but today the movie has a solid cult following.
A New York Times review upon the movie’s release called it “a movie with nothing going on” (as if the hot air balloon with the fish-shaped basket wasn’t right there). “The movie’s big joke would have been funnier a few years ago,” the critic wrote, likely because the astrology craze was at its peak in the mid-70s. (As more than a quarter of adults say they believe in astrology, perhaps the joke would hit even harder today.)
Yet while it wasn’t an Oscar contender, praise for “The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh” has been consistent over the past decades, with more people discovering the basketball movie and naming it as one of their favorites—often with the caveat that though the film is corny, it’s a riot of fun.
5. When the movie was released in 1979, Pittsburgh had just won two national championships.
The release of “The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh”—and the success of the movie’s fictional basketball team—just so happened to coincide with real sports success in the city and the birth of Pittsburgh’s nickname as the “City of Champions.”
By the time the movie came to theaters in November 1979, the Pittsburgh Pirates had won the World Series that October—their last World Series win to date, RIP—and the Pittsburgh Steelers had won their third Super Bowl with the team’s formidable Steel Curtain defensive line the previous January. This was one of the few times a U.S. city has ever won two national championships in one year. (Why not add a fictional basketball championship into the mix?!)
6. The disco- and soul-infused soundtrack deserves repeated listening.
Motown groups The Spinners and The Four Tops recorded tracks for the movie’s soundtrack, and disco group The Sylvers—known for the hit “Boogie Fever”—was also featured. Then up-and-coming Phyllis Hyman recorded a soulful song and country star Loretta Lynn even made an appearance, singing a duet with Seattle musician Frankie Bleu. Most of the music, however, was the work of composer and producer Thom Bell, who wrote, co-wrote, or produced every song on the album.
Remember how initial reviews for the movie generally weren’t positive? That wasn’t the case with its music. The New York Times reviewer mentioned earlier wrote, “The soundtrack music is excellent, but you could listen to that at home.” (She couldn’t know that in the future we would mostly watch new movies at home.)
The soundtrack isn’t available on Spotify, but you can find it on Apple Music and YouTube.
7. You can easily watch “The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh” right now.
Unlike a lot of older movies that have seemingly vanished into the ether since the age of streaming, you can watch “The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh” by renting or buying the movie on a number of different streaming services, including Apple TV, Prime Video, Fandango at Home, YouTube, and Google Play.
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