Freaky Friday

Freaky Friday (1976)
Airdate: December 17, 1976

Ellen Andrews (Barbara Harris) and her daughter, Annabel Andrews (Jodie Foster) constantly quarrel. Following a disagreement on Friday the 13th, Annabel leaves to join a friend at a local diner. In sync, Annabel and Ellen (who is in the family home's kitchen) both wish aloud, "I wish I could switch places with her for just one day." Their wish comes true when they switch their bodies and subsequently lives.

Ellen and Annabel continue to live their everyday lives as each other. Annabel remains at home, tending to laundry, car repair, grocery deliveries, carpet cleaners, dry cleaners, her housemaid, and the family Basset Hound. As though Annabel did not have her hands full, Bill Andrews (John Astin) coerces her to cook dinner for twenty-five as his catered dinner party plans fell through. Annabel enlists Boris, a neighbor whom she has harbored a crush, to look after her younger brother and make a chocolate mousse but all three manage to mess everything up, then later saving face by making everything into a smorgasborg.

Ellen attends school as Annabel where she struggles with marching band, destroys her entire typing class's electric typewriters, exposes her photography class's developing film, and leads the school's field hockey team to a loss. However, Ellen does have one bright point, in a US history class where she accurately recounts the Korean War, having lived through the 1950s as a little girl. In an effort to escape school, Ellen (as Annabel) runs to Bill's office. There, she encounters Bill's new attractive, young, and immodestly dressed secretary. Ellen attempts to intimidate the young woman by sharing how frightening "her mother" is. This effort appeared successful as the secretary adopts more modest clothing, glasses, and an unflattering hairstyle. Ellen (as Annabel) asks Bill for access to his credit card in order to make herself over as her braces were scheduled to be removed that afternoon. Bill approves, and chalks up his secretary's awkward appearance to personal problems at home as her son is ill and her husband is unemployed, causing Ellen to scold herself for not trusting her husband.

As the day ends in a comical twist, the mother-daughter pair wish a new request: To return to themselves. This does happen, although in a different manner than before: they are physically transported where Annabel is now behind the wheel of a car with Ben and Boris, none of whom know how to drive and attract the attention of several squad cars. Ellen is suddenly on waterskis while wearing a black dress while as Annabel she was scheduled to participate in an aquacade. Bill, who has prospective clients at the aquacade, fears unemployment as he sees Ellen flail on skis, but her antics amuse the clients that Bill wins the account.

With a new understanding of each other's lives, mother and daughter forgive each other. Following the events of Freaky Friday, Annabel begins dating Boris. Bill is playing cards with Ellen, still trying to understand what happened. Ellen and Bill are fine with Boris taking Annabel to a pizzeria for a date, but not for Ben to tag along, as that would be too late. Ben complains that he never gets to do fun stuff like his dad, who is getting ready for a business trip the following Saturday dirt biking with a Japanese motorcycle firm looking to enter the US market, while Bill says Ben should be more appreciative of a worry-free childhood. Ben remarks he would love to spend one Saturday in his dad's shoes, while Bill says the same about Ben, causing Annabel and Ellen to get nervous and urging Bill and Ben to drop the matter. As they wish to switch their places, Ellen nervously throws her cards into the air.

Freaky Friday (2003)
Airdate: August 6, 2003

Anna Coleman (Lindsay Lohan) is an average teenage rebel whose constant victims of her natural life are her stodgy mother Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) and annoying younger brother Harry (Ryan Malgarini). Sources of irritation include a rock band Anna is in, which Tess hates, and Tess' upcoming wedding to her boyfriend Ryan (Mark Harmon), for which Anna isn't emotionally ready due to her father's death three years ago. Also contributing to Anna's irritation is: her archrival Stacey Hinkhouse (Julie Gonzalo), who never seems to stop torturing her and has convinced Tess that she and Anna are still best friends, and her English teacher, Mr. Elton Bates (Stephen Tobolowsky), who gives her an "F" on every assignment, no matter how hard she tries.

When the entire family with Ryan eats out in Pei-Pei's Chinese restaurant, Anna and Tess quickly start fighting again: Anna wishes to participate with the rest of her band in an audition, however the show is the same Friday night as Tess' wedding rehearsal, and Tess forbids her to go. Hearing the argument, Pei-Pei's mother meddles in by offering Tess and Anna both fortune cookies. Upon opening them, there is a short earthquake which only they can feel.

The next day, after the stroke of midnight, Tess wakes up and somehow discovers that she and Anna are in each other's bodies. Confused and unable to work out on how to swap back on their own, they decide to go back to the restaurant to find out what happened. Since Anna has an important test and Tess must go to work, the two are forced into each other's roles.

At school, Tess not only realizes Anna was right about Stacey, but is also given an "F" from Mr. Bates while he was quizzing them on Shakespeare's Hamlet, even though she got all the answers correct. She realizes that Mr. Bates was her former classmate, whom she had turned down when he had asked her to a school prom; so he is taking it out on Anna. Tess confronts Mr. Bates over this in front of Anna's friends, humiliating him. Tess warns him to stop his abusive treatment of her (Anna), or he'll be reported to the school board.

After work, with Anna primarily forced to feign her way through most of Tess' appointments, apart from a case involving a mother's concerns over her daughter, Anna gives Tess's body a makeover, including new clothes, a haircut and an ear piercing. Then, the two go to the restaurant again and speak to Pei-Pei, the daughter of the woman that gave them the fortune cookies. Furious at her mother's meddling, but unable to directly help them, Pei-Pei advises them to read the fortunes in the cookies, as when the fortunes come true, they will swap back.

In the afternoon, Anna attends Harry's parent-teacher conference, where she reads a composition he wrote about how much Harry admires Anna, but provoked fights so that she would pay attention to him. When Tess takes Anna's test, Stacey writes a note and places it on her desk for her to read, but then makes it look like she was cheating, landing her in detention. Tess is able to finish the test later with the help of Jake, an older student that Anna has a crush on. She also gets revenge on Stacey by erasing all of the answers she had on her test paper and writing "I'M STUPID!" on it.

Meanwhile, Ryan surprises Anna with an interview on a talk show to discuss her new psychology book. She is unable to discuss the meaning of the book, which she has not read, so she improvises by turning the show into a wild romp while angering Tess, who sees the interview on TV, in the process while in the school's teacher's lounge. Afterwards, Anna sees Jake at a coffee shop and bonds with him over similar musical interests. Jake then begins to fall for Tess, when he notices all the characteristics he likes about Anna.

At the wedding rehearsal that evening, Tess and Anna, while still in each other's bodies, read the fortunes, stating that "What you see is what you lack, then selfless love will change you back," but leaves them overly confused. Anna's bandmates come to try to convince Tess to go to the audition, but ultimately decide to use force. However, the bandmates are caught by security, but Ryan surprises Tess and Anna when he gives her permission to go. He also tells Anna that he wanted her to accept him into the family on her own and that he wants Tess to go watch Anna. Seeing Ryan in a new light, Anna leaves to watch her band perform.

At the audition, Tess is unable to play the guitar solo so Anna unplugs it and plays another guitar backstage while Tess mimes along. The band does a great job, and for the first time, Tess realizes how much fun Anna has playing in her band. Back at the wedding rehearsal, Tess asks Anna to have Ryan postpone the wedding, so that Anna will not have to go through marrying him in her mother's body. Instead, Anna proposes a toast where she finally accepts Ryan by realizing how happy he makes Tess. There is a second earthquake that the whole crowd feels, plus Tess and Anna switch back into their own bodies. On the wedding day, Tess and Ryan marry, and Anna and Jake meet and while dancing they share a kiss. By the end of the film, Anna shares a song named "Ultimate."

Harry and Grandpa have an argument and Pei-Pei's mother shows up and offers them the cookies, but flees after seeing Pei-Pei watching her; Pei-Pei then starts running and tackles Harry and Grandpa to the ground and confiscates the fortune cookies before saying "OK" hysterically.