| abstract
| - Troop Beverly Hills is a 1989 film starring Shelley Long as Phyllis Neffler, a ditzy but good-hearted Beverly Hills Socialite with a marriage on the rocks, her husband seeking divorce over her profligate spending habits and inability to follow through with anything. Phyllis' most recent project is to take over as troop leader of the Girl Scout-esque "Wilderness Girls" of the Beverly Hills chapter, which is a paltry eight-girl ensemble including Phyllis' own daughter Hannah and other girls of wealthy Beverly Hills backgrounds. Her contributions include taking the troop out "roughing it" in a hotel suite rather than a campground (to avoid all the bugs and a lack of electrical outlets), taking the traditional uniform to a fashion designer for improvements, and awarding her charges patches for skills such as "jewelery appraisal" and "Gardening with glamor". All of this earns her the ire of Wilderness Girls district leader Velda Plendor, who takes the "wilderness" aspect very seriously and sees Phyllis as an affront to everything the group stands for. Velda pulls out all the stops to get Phyllis discredited and fired, but even in situations her money can't buy her out of, Phyllis perseveres through a little ingenuity and sheer pluck. It all leads to a showdown at the annual jamboree, where Troop Beverly Hills will compete against Velda's Culver City Red Feathers, trekking through actual wilderness in a race to the finish where the winners will be the Wilderness Girls' poster troop for the year...
* Animated Credits Opening: The film's opening was animated by Spumco, John K's independent studio.
* Anticipatory Breath Spray: The officer who demonstrates CPR on Phyllis.
* Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: Uses of the word "bitches" and "shit".
* Becoming the Mask: Annie, who does a Heel Face Turn from being The Mole into a genuine friend of the troop.
* Bland-Name Product: The Wilderness Girls is a common fiction stand in for the Girl Scouts.
* Boomerang Comeback
* The Cameo: By a bunch of Real Life people who lived in Beverly Hills at the time.
* Cruella to Animals: Velda actually kills a wild skunk, and then wears it as a hat, for indirectly making her troop lose the first competition.
* Dartboard of Hate: Velda gets one for Phyllis.
* Divorce Is Temporary: Fred sees Phyllis's dedication to the scout troop, and realizes she is not so "flighty" after all.
* The Eighties: Tail end of it -- in fact, the competition is to be the poster troop of 1990.
* Expy: The parents of the other girls in the titular troop include a retired boxer, two out-of-work actors and an exiled dictator. You can probably make some guesses as to exactly whom each one represents.
* Faux Horrific: Phyllis's story about getting an awful perm.
* Frothy Mugs of Water: Done deliberately and played for laughs in the scene where Phyllis is apparently "drunk" on Evian water.
* Heel Face Turn: Annie.
* Hypocritical Humor: "The parents in this neighborhood are so self-involved... oh shit, I Broke a Nail!"
* Idle Rich
* Indecisive Parody: Roger Ebert's review paints it as such with regards to Beverly Hills sensibilities. It could be seen as an Affectionate Parody, though.
* I Resemble That Remark:
* Ironic Echo: Velda threatens Annie over her having to go back working at K Mart if she doesn't cooperate. Then Velda is forced to work there after she gets fired from the Wilderness Girls, including saying the very line she threatened Annie with.
* It Came From Beverly Hills
* Merit Badges for Everything: Phyllis does come up with many merit badges for her troop to earn, such as "gardening with glamor" and "jewelry appraisal," but they are actually stripped of them for being "illicit" and having "nothing to do with wilderness ways as [Velda] knows them or anyone else in their right mind knows them".
* The Mole: Annie starts as one, but her sympathies shift to the side she's "spying" on when it becomes clear to her that Velda's dislike for Phyllis is rooted in spiteful, petty competitiveness.
* Parental Abandonment: Cheeka's parents, who not only can't make it to the patch ceremony but forget her birthday to take a trip to Monte Carlo.
* Plucky Girl: In spades.
* Pretty in Mink: Phyllis wears a white mink coat to her troop's first outing. It does get dirtied by rain and mud.
* Reasonable Authority Figure: Velda's superior is this trope through and through, in stark contrast to Velda herself.
* Rich in Dollars, Poor In Sense
* Road Sign Reversal: The Red Feathers pull this one at the jamboree.
* Serious Business: Fashion! Cookies! SHOPPING!
* She Cleans Up Nicely: Annie, even with Values Dissonance making it look silly today.
* Shout-Out: "Patches... we don't need no stinking' patches!"
* Shrinking Violet: Annie.
* Smug Snake: Velda.
* Spoiled Sweet: Phyllis and all her girls, saving perhaps Cheeka.
* Start My Own: Velda's angry rant at the end.
* The Stinger: Velda working at K-Mart at the end. See Ironic Echo.
* Vanity Is Feminine: Generally used in a "positive" sense, such as Annie's Heel Face Turn being accompanied by a new, more flattering wardrobe. Phyllis and her girls are vain and sympathetic, while Velda is masculine and has her unattractiveness made fun of.
* Worst Aid: Phyllis grabs the first aid instructor when he uses her to demonstrate mouth-to-mouth. Textbook straight play of "romantic CPR".
- Phyllis Nefler (Shelley Long) is a Beverly Hills wife recently separated from her husband, Freddy (Craig T. Nelson), a wealthy owner of an auto shop chain. Freddy feels Phyllis has become a self-absorbed "shopaholic" who never follows through on her commitments, and that she has drifted from the caring, imaginative personality that made him marry her. To prove him wrong, Phyllis decides to become the new den mother of their daughter, Hannah (Jenny Lewis)'s unruly, leaderless local girl scout troop, the Wilderness Girls. While Phyllis is boutique-hopping along Rodeo Drive, the council is overlooking her application, then approving it as they believe Phyllis has the makings of an excellent den leader. Although she severely lacks the skills found in most troop leaders, Phyllis resolves to teach the girls how to survive in "the wilds of Beverly Hills," even customizing new merit badges for her troop. One campout results in the troop getting caught in the rain which makes Phyllis and the girls flee to the Beverly Hills Hotel. Despite her unorthodox ways, Phyllis demonstrates an unwavering commitment to the girls' well-being and acts as a surrogate mother/friend to the girls, who are often neglected by their own wealthy and distracted parents. However, during an award ceremony on a yacht , Fred's girlfriend gets knocked overboard and asks for a life saver and Phyllis responds which flavor. Fred remarks he was hoping to see Hannah learn a few outdoors and civil defense skills (such as first aid) and he is unsure about that under Phyllis' mentorship. Phyllis' unorthodox methods also run afoul of another scout leader, Velda Plendor (Betty Thomas), a mean-spirited, retired army nurse who runs her troop, the Culver City (also known as the "Red Feathers") like a military unit. Velda's daughter, Cleo (Dinah Lacey) is a member of the Red Feathers. Because Velda has considerable pull at the regional council level, she declares Phyllis' customized merit badges ineligible and sends her assistant troop leader, Annie Herman (Mary Gross) to infiltrate Troop Beverly Hills. Much to Velda's dismay, Troop Beverly Hills can gain recognition by passing a series of tests at an upcoming Jamboree. However, in order to qualify for the Jamboree, and to show up Velda, the troop needs to sell cookies, and a lot of them. To prevent this from happening, Velda sabotages Troop Beverly Hills by selling cookies in their own neighborhood. Seeing this, as well as realizing Phyllis' true personality, Annie becomes Phyllis' assistant for real, offering her abilities to get the girls recognized merit badges. The parents of the girls (appreciative of Phyllis and Annie's leadership) offer to buy the cookies themselves in order to go to the jamboree, but Phyllis suggests another idea both to beat Velda at her own game and teach the girls salesmanship: a series of star-studded cookie sales in an untapped district. This proves fruitful as the girls sell over 4,000 boxes of cookies, way more than enough to qualify for the Jamboree. Then, Phyllis is then hit with a one-two punch: even though Freddy has broken up with his new girlfriend, he wants to proceed with the divorce, including joint custody of Hannah. After Velda tries to talk Phyllis out of attending the Jamboree, she sinks into a deep depression & finally decides to disband the troop, but Hannah and the other girls talk her out of it. During the Jamboree, the Red Feathers try to get ahead of Troop Beverly Hills by misdirecting them into a snake-infested swamp which causes the troop to lose vital radio contact with Annie, but a skunk scares Phyllis and the girls into running through a shortcut, making them first in the qualifying event. In the final run, Velda takes charge of the Red Feathers herself and cuts down a rope bridge, but this also fails. However, when Velda cheats a final time by going into a restricted area used only for hunting, she breaks her ankle on a bear trap. The Red Feathers (especially Cleo) leave her behind for the sake of winning. Troop Beverly Hills finds her, barefoot and bitter and reluctantly carries her to the finish, but only after Phyllis reminds the girls that they have to be considerate to those in need, even if they are adversaries. The Red Feathers cross the finish line first but are disqualified because council law stipulates the leader must be with the troop. Although Cleo runs off with the trophy, Troop Beverly Hills is declared the winners of the Jamboree and are validated as true Wilderness Girls. Francis Temple, the regional leader, fires Velda from the Wilderness Girls Organization for cheating on the trail and for putting the Troop Beverly Hills girls in potential danger. In turn, Velda hurls insults at the councilwomen for recognizing Troop Beverly Hills. The girls' families show up moments later and are very proud of them. Freddy, impressed by Phyllis' complete turnaround, decides to call off the divorce and they reconcile. The end of the film shows Troop Beverly Hills as the new poster troop while Velda is shown working at K-Mart (a final fate that she had threatened Annie with), announcing a "Blue Light Special" on cookies.
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