The Wonders Make It--And Break It

That tune you never get tired of--well, I never get tired of it. In That Thing You Do, the Wonders reach the top with an appearance on a mythical West Coast version of the Ed Sullivan Show--a coast-to-coast network showcase.  The TV studio camera direction scenes are an obvious homage to A Hard Day's Night (and not the first time that film is suggested.)  The "careful girls-- he's engaged" super mirrors the "he's married" under John Lennon's name on the Sullivan show, although in this case it's not quite true.

Also intercut are scenes of Shades' (the drummer, whose story this mostly is) family watching back in Erie: his previously dismissive father and hostile sister and passively accepting mother, plus the guy he replaced as drummer who still wears a cast on his broken arm.  They are (finally) wild with excitement,  Because: he's on TV!

This turns out to be not only the high point for the Wonders but the beginning of a quick end.  Already their bass player has disappeared (off with Marine buddies at Disneyland) and is replaced for this show by a studio musician.  By the end of the day, the band has completely dissolved, and all the romances end.  But of course, another one--the one that we all know shouldn't have happened in the first place--begins.  And they all lived happily ever after, more or less.