Joe Blevins's Blog, page 38

Podcast Tuesday: "Chachi's Mom Has Got It Going On"

Scott Baio and Ellen Travolta on Happy Days.
When Happy Days came back for its ninth season in the fall of 1981, the show's focus had obviously shifted to brash teen lothario Chachi Arcola (played by then-heartthrob Scott Baio). Chachi's off-again, on-again relationship with Joanie Cunningham (Erin Moran) was at the heart of the season-opening two-parter "Home Movies," while the next episode, "Not With My Mother, You Don't" focused on Chachi's sometimes strained relationship with his widowed mother Louisa (Ellen Travolta). By the next episode, "Another Night at Antoine's," the show had already returned to Joanie/Chachi relationship drama. With Richie (Ron Howard) absent and Fonzie (Henry Winkler) getting older and less relatable to kids, Chachi had essentially been promoted to the status of protagonist
Chachi is an irritating character in a whole host of ways and typifies what many viewers dislike about the later seasons of Happy Days. His rise coincides with the show's fall. Having only debuted in Season 5, the wisecracking Arcola boy felt like an interloper, a usurper, a carpetbagger. I'll admit that I'm a Chachi hater myself. I hate his smug face, his arrogant personality, his nasal voice, his very '80s haircut, and that stupid bandana he wears around his leg in most scenes. I especially hate the way he treats Joanie, turning her into a simpering fangirl who forgives him time and again for his indiscretions and his insensitivity. Where's the firebrand Joanie from the early seasons of Happy Days?
This week on These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast , we're reviewing the aforementioned "Not With My Mother, You Don't." Blessedly, this one sidelines Joanie for the most part and turns its attentions to Louisa. Her husband, Chachi's father, has been dead for several years, and she is now gingerly reentering the dating scene. But she is doing so behind Chachi's back, leading some some tense moments. First, Chachi publicly shames his mother in front of the Cunninghams, then he seeks out his mother's boyfriend, a very pleasant obstetrician named Walter Danzig (guest star Michael Byron Taylor). It's all very awkward.
But does it make for a good episode? Find out by listening to the latest installment of These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast!

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Promo Odyssey, Part Nine by Greg Dziawer

They actually do boil; it just takes a while.
The perils of looking for evidence of Ed Wood texts within the vast reaches of 1970s porn are many. I am assuming that there are more texts out there than currently accounted for. As I mentioned here last week, I recently came across two summaries of early '70s adult films that pricked up my ears for a moment and made me wonder if they could have been penned by Eddie. (Check them out here before proceeding, if you haven't already.)
First off, let me say that we have no evidence that Ed wrote box cover summaries for adult videotapes, which is where at least one of these texts comes from.  The IMDb  credits its summary of The Candy Store (1972) to VCX, an early and prolific purveyor of porn videos. The summary for Million Dollar Mona  (1973) is credited only to Anonymous. I'm already surmising—before even getting to the question of Ed's possible authorship—that this synopsis comes from a box cover or perhaps a catalog.
I am confident, though, that Ed did write box cover summaries  for the 8mm loops produced and distributed by Noel Bloom. Noel, you will remember, is the son of Bernie Bloom, Ed's boss at Pendulum/Calga Publishers, where he worked as a staff writer for the better part of the last decade of his life. There is a demonstrable correspondence between Noel's loops and Bernie's magazines, with the latter giving generous press coverage to the former.
VHS arrived in my home in 1981. My dad liked being the "first on the block" with new tech and was an early adopter to the new format. It's worth noting that this was three years after Ed Wood's passing, so it seems on the surface that there's no way Eddie could have written the summaries for The Candy Store and Million Dollar Mona.

Podcast Tuesday: "8MM"

Erin Moran on Happy Days.
Happy Days is not usually thought of as an innovative or experimental series. And for good reason: it's a very safe, predictable, mainstream show, meant to appeal to the widest possible audience. Many of its viewers were young children who simply wanted to see their hero, ace mechanic and ladies' man Fonzie (Henry Winkler), in action. Producer Garry Marshall was not really interested in pushing the limits of the prime time sitcom, at least not this time around. (He and director Jerry Paris had both previously worked on the more daring The Dick Van Dyke Show.) The only way Happy Days truly stands out from its competitors is that it's set in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Over on CBS, meanwhile, M*A*S*H (the other big 1950s-set show of the era) was constantly testing the boundaries of the sitcom genre. The very subject matter, i.e. the Korean War, meant that violence and bloodshed were major elements of the series. The plots freely mixed comedy with drama, sometimes veering into outright tragedy. Stories didn't necessarily come to a tidy resolution after 30 minutes. And the producers were even experimenting with the very form of the half-hour comedy, sometimes formatting episodes as pseudo-documentaries or dream sequences. Aesthetically, Happy Days and M*A*S*H were polar opposites.
But Happy Days did occasionally break out of its rut and do something unusual. There are the history episodes, for instance, like "The First Thanksgiving" and "The Roaring Twenties," where we get to see what the characters would look and act like if they'd lived in other times. There are musical episodes like "Be My Valentine" and "American Musical," in which the actors get to show off their singing and dancing skills. And then there's "Home Movies," the two-part episode that starts Season 9. Not only does this one have a rare multi-story format, it's all presented as a home movie that Joanie (Erin Moran) is sending to Richie (the absent Ron Howard). It's about as M*A*S*H-like as Happy Days ever gets.
But does that mean it's any good? Find out on the latest installment of These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast .

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Promo Odyssey, Part Eight by Greg Dziawer

Wood fans, it's time to put your knowledge to the test!
Ed's type of gal? Candy Samples in fur.I often opine about this or that chunk of text and wonder aloud if it could have been written by Edward D. Wood, Jr. The endeavor is predicated, of course, upon the notion that there are works by Ed out there yet to be attributed to him. The challenges inherent in this are many, and it is easy to lose my way.
When I make such surmises in articles like this one, I often ask rhetorically, "What do you think?" This week, however, I really do want to know what you think.
A few months back, I was looking through the  of adult superstar Candy Samples (who had cameos in Drop Out Wife and The Cocktail Hostesses ) when I found a couple of intriguing summaries of her early 1970s films. One such summary was credited to the video company VCX, the other simply to "Anonymous." In both cases, the promo copy had just enough panache to make me scratch my head and wonder aloud if Ed could have written it. Apart from more details about the provenance of these summaries, which I'll share next week, I'd like to truly hear your thoughts and share them here.
First up, the summary for 1972's The Candy Store :

Seldom seen Candy Samples plays a bordello madam who loves to show her ladies how to please her customers. Candy's fans will be delighted by this full-length feature film, which showcases both the mature beauty and remarkably erotic personality of the legendary bust queen. Her "house" features a bevy of stunning young girls, trained by Candy Samples herself to perform feats of sexual magic with their hot, luscious bodies and moist, hungry mouths. The non-stop hardcore action encompasses a wide spectrum of adult sexuality, from the traditional to the bizarre. 'Madam' Candy sees it as her duty to personally instruct and even assist her lovely girls in satisfying the many exotic demands of her clientèle. Bust lovers will thrill to the stiff-nippled antics of Candy and her girls. The oral interludes are bountiful and intense, especially when Candy demonstrates her own personal sperm-simmering techniques. The buxom superstar even wields a whip in the interest of maintaining house discipline! Variations to please every sexual taste are contained within this hard-hitting Candy bonanza.—VCX

Next up, we have 1973's Million Dollar Mona :

The reporter Jimmy Ryan is pleasured under his blanket by his lover when his angry editor calls to break his day off. Jimmy is told to report why does famous Mona von Groana hide in a hotel. Going there, her maid Nympho Mania casually jumps to his arms before sending him to Mona's bedroom. Mona herself is even more harassing. Eventually she exposes her buxom figure to make him forget his interview. She then ties him up in bed until he leaves. Mona then goes to her bathtub, where her maid gives her a breast massage which leads to bed. Mona tells her maid she wants to peep on her with Jimmy if he returns. Her wish comes true when Jimmy's editor angrily sends him back. But as Mona hides due to stealing her husband's inheritance, his men break in and kill the maid and her. Jimmy, who hides in Mona's clothing, gets fired but finds the money. He can therefore finally have his lover pleasure him under his blanket without interruptions.—Anonymous

Now that you've read these summaries, do you have a guess? You can message me privately on Facebook (I'm Greg Dziawer there) and let me know what you think and why. You can also tell me if you'd like me to credit your conclusions or share them anonymously.
Join us next week, and I'll share your thoughts as well as mine!

Podcast Tuesday: "The Immigrant Song(s)"

Scott Baio and Erin Moran on Happy Days.
The eighth season of Happy Days was not a disaster. That, in and of itself, is a minor miracle. Most lighthearted family sitcoms of this caliber would be running on fumes after 160+ episodes. Besides, two of the show's stars, Ron Howard and Don Most, had left the cast when their contracts expired, and even the writers seemed to be tiring of the nostalgia gimmick that had originally driven the series. But ABC and creator Garry Marshall seemed determined to keep the saga of the wholesome Cunningham family of Milwaukee, Wisconsin going. And keep it going they did. For the (strike-shortened) 1980-81 season, Happy Days did decent if not spectacular Nielsen numbers, and the overall quality of the show did not plummet precipitously.
When I look back on the 22 episodes that constitute Season 8 of Happy Days, I see a few real gems, a couple of well-intended misfires, and the usual assortment of middling efforts. That's very typical for this show. Yes, Ron Howard and Don Most are sorely missed, and Anson Williams and Lynda Goodfriend seem stranded with little to do, but Ted McGinley and especially Cathy Silvers make welcome additions to the cast. I'm not sure about the new gang of quasi-Sweathogs (including Denis Mandel and Harris Kal) who now attend Jefferson High, but they're growing on me, week by week.
Happy Days ended its eighth season on ABC with a truly oddball episode called "American Musical." As the title suggests, this is a full-fledged musical with lots of singing, dancing, and costume changes. The subject is immigration, a topic that would be handled very differently today. At the time, Neil Diamond was rocketing up the charts with his patriotic, pro-immigration anthem "America." ("Everywhere around the world/They're coming to America/Everywhere that flag's unfurled/They're coming to America!") I guess Happy Days got caught up in the spirit. Reagan had just been inaugurated. It was a very optimistic time.
What did we think of "American Musical"? Find out by listening to the latest installment of These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast .

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Young Marrieds Odyssey, Part 8 by Greg Dziawer

Let's revisit Ed Wood's final feature, The Young Marrieds.
The XX Series.I was scanning through screen captures of 1970s adult loops over the weekend when the thumbnails from one particular movie caught my eye. Although they were in black & white—8mm shorts were commonly sold in either color or black & white—I immediately recognized them as being from Ed Wood's final known feature as a director, The Young Marrieds (1972). Specifically, these images came from a sex scene early in the film in which protagonist Ben, an unsatisfied husband, picks up a strange woman outside of a strip club.

There was a time when The Young Marrieds was essentially unknown. In Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1992), author Rudolph Grey briefly mentions the title but seems unsure if it's a distinct film. On page 192, he writes:

The Only House appears to be the plot of Wood's 1971 film Necromania. At the same time, Wood also made the film The Young Marrieds, which may also be known as The Only House.

Today, we know that The Only House in Town (1971), Necromania (1971), and The Young Marrieds are three separate films. Decades after Grey's book, two different versions of The Young Marrieds would turn up on disc. And then came the realization that it had been released in the UK on tape way back in 1981 and that an 8mm short of this very scene was sold in the UK via mail order around the same time. What other iterations derived from The Young Marrieds may still be out there, waiting to be discovered?
For the record, the loop I mentioned at the beginning of the article turned up with the title Nymphomaniac on The XX Series label, a lengthy series of shorts connected to producer Noel Bloom and carrying a 1972 copyright. We discussed one loop in the series previously here , and you can learn more at the indispensable Adult Loop Database here and here .
In many of these articles, I merely speculate that Ed Wood may have the directed the loop discussed. In this case, however, it's s a sure thing!

Podcast Tuesday: "This Strange and Mournful Day"

Henry Winkler and Jains Paige on Happy Days.
Some TV producers plan entire seasons of their shows in advance. They have grand, long-term plans in mind for their characters from the moment they dream those characters up. I don't think Garry Marshall was ever that way with his sitcoms. Especially with Happy Days (1974-84), he and his writers seem to be winging it completely, making it up week by week with very little thought toward the future. 
As a result, the show has a reckless, haphazard quality to it as it lurches through 11 seasons of stories. Yes, there are long-term developments in the characters' lives, but these changes happen largely by accident. Continuity is wobbly at best. (Chuck Cunningham, anyone?) Serialization is not really a priority here, except for the occasional two-parter or three-parter. Generally, Happy Days is meant to be enjoyed in individual, half-hour chunks. The episodes are self-contained. You don't really have to watch them in any particular order. ABC often showed them out of production order.
Let us consider the the fraught emotional background of the show's (eventual) main character, Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler). Over the course of several seasons, we ultimately learn that Fonzie was abandoned by both his mother and his father at an early age and was basically raised by his grandmother. But the details of this story keep shifting around, as if the writers never found a version that suited them. 
So why was this "orphan" element added to the character in the first place? I think it was to make him more sympathetic. Fonzie is depicted on Happy Days as being a more-or-less invulnerable tough guy with quasi-supernatural powers, so this tragic backstory gives him some much-needed vulnerability. He's a tough guy, sure, but he has some weaknesses, too.

A crucial episode in the series is "Mother and Child Reunion" from Season 8. As the title suggests, Fonzie meets his long-lost mother Angela (showbiz veteran Janis Paige), now a world-weary waitress at a disreputable diner. He doesn't set out to meet Angela; it just sort of happens by chance. And Angela might not even be Fonzie's mom. The script leaves this open to interpretation. And even this story is self-contained: Angela is never seen or heard from again.
So what did we think of "Mother and Child Reunion"? Find out by downloading the latest installment of These Days are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast .

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Loop Odyssey, Part 26 by Greg Dziawer

A familiar-looking young lass appears in Virgin on the Ropes.
In my eternal search for the work of Ed Wood, I keep returning to the short 8mm loops produced by Noel Bloom. Noel began releasing pornographic loops under the Cinema Classics label in the early 1970s, eventually branching out to many other series during the first half of the decade. 
The sheer scope of these loops is mind-boggling. As I periodically scan through these films, it occurs to me again and again just how many loops we're potentially dealing with here. At the very least, it is hundreds upon hundreds. Could it even surpass a thousand? The promise of Ed Wood's involvement -- whether it's writing subtitles and box cover summaries or taking more instrumental roles in production or post-production -- is always lurking at the edges.

First things first, it's a matter of ID-ing a loop in the "early 1970s Noel Bloom/Ed Wood" target zone. As I recognize more commonly-used set decorations, in particular, that task becomes easier.
A good example of the kind of film I'm looking for is Virgin on the Ropes. I first came across this one a few years back. As the title card came up, I immediately recognized the very same little pegboard with the same white plastic letters that were used to spell out the titles of other loops I've discussed in this series. Because some of the set decorations in those loops correspond with others indubitably at Hal Guthu's studio on Santa Monica Blvd, I had my first clue that Virgin on the Ropes was also shot there.
Fittingly, the pegboard appears against a cross hatching of rope. Yes, this is going to be a bondage scenario. The rope prop, it turns out, will be central to the loop. When I first screened Virgin on the Ropes, though, I had not previously seen it (or so I thought.)
(left) Virgin on the Ropes main title; (right) A rope prop in Western Lust.
The familiar Cinema Classics logo appears at the end of the loop, solidifying that this was not only shot at Guthu's studio, but that it was without question a loop produced by Noel Bloom.
In between, a couple engage in bondage and sexplay. The camera pans and setups are highly similar to those we see in other Bloom-family series like Danish International Films or the earliest Swedish Erotica loops. We even get curtain wipe edits to transition us into and out of the action at the beginning and end.
Speaking of the Swedish Erotica series, I was recently watching the fourth loop in that series, Western Lust, and lo and behold, there it was during the interior sex scene: the rope prop. It is only partially visible for brief flashes at the left edge of the screen, so I had neglected to notice it before. The Virgin on the Ropes loop had planted the image in my head, though, so now I was really seeing it for the first time.
It made me want to revisit Virgin on the Ropes. Upon doing so, I had to scratch my head a few times as I watched. The lead female performer sure looked an awful lot like Madame Heles in Ed Wood's 1971 feature Necromania, which was shot in that same little space on Santa Monica Blvd! I had not noticed her elsewhere before, outside of Necromania (or so I thought).
Possibly the same actress in (left) Virgin on the Ropes and (right) Necromania.
What's it all mean? I'm never quite sure myself, but I suppose that remaining vigilant and seeing things with a fresh set of eyes will reveal more of the story. Just what were Ed's roles in the making of the loops, and how extensively was he involved? While we're never likely to fully know that answer—minus any documentation and all these years later—we can make some educated surmises along the way.
Virgin on the Ropes lacks subtitles, generally a sign that it predates even the earliest subtitled series like Pussycat . The pegboard also seems to be a hallmark of the earlier films, as the later ones move to optically-generated title cards. Ed was at Hal Guthu's studio directing both Necromania and The Young Marrieds in the latter half of 1971, and the timeline seems to fit here. The loop Prisoner's Lovemaking  , in which Ed himself appears, actually features the very same CC (for Cinema Classics) logo at the end.
Could Ed Wood have directed the 8mm short Virgin on the Ropes? I say that he sure could have, and perhaps someday we'll know for sure.

Podcast Tuesday: "How to Cheat at Bowling"

Tom Bosley and Patricia Carr on Happy Days.
Toward the end of its fifth season in the spring of 1978, Happy Days went on hiatus for a couple of months. In March and April of that year, only one semi-new episode aired -- a rather modest clip show called "Richie's Girl Exposes the Cunninghams" -- and even this was scheduled in an out-of-the-way Friday night time slot rather than the sitcom's usual Tuesday night berth. The reason for the popular sitcom's mysterious, weeks-long disappearance was a sad one. Jean Eliot, wife of actor and Happy Days patriarch Tom Bosley, had died. Trouper that he is, though, Tom came back to finish out Season 5 and was his usual, jovial self on-camera. Viewers may never have even suspected anything was wrong.
There's a happy coda to the story, though. Two and a half years later, Tom married a Los Angeles actress named Patricia Carr, and the two stayed together until Tom's death in 2010. Patti even guest starred on a Season 8 episode of Happy Days called "Howard's Bowling Buddy." As you may have guessed, Patti plays the title role: a ten-pin temptress who tries to steal Howard Cunningham (Tom) away from his wife Marion (Marion Ross). 
Does she succeed? Is the episode any good? Find out when we review "Howard's Bowling Buddy" in the latest installment of These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast .

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Ed Wood Summit Podcast #27 by Greg Dziawer

Did you know that Ed Wood wrote a short story about Thor, the God of Thunder?
This week, I am once again joined on The Ed Wood Summit Podcast by blogger Joe Blevins. He's here to discuss two extraordinary Ed Wood pieces from the May/June 1973 issue of Goddess from Gallery Press: a short story called "Thor and His Magic Hammer" and a nonfiction article called "Girls Who Have to Watch Their Periods as Well as Their Commas." Ed proudly penned the first under his own name and the second under his commonly-used "Dick Trent" pseudonym. Under any name, these are real finds! (Thanks to Rob Huffman for supplying them.)