Humor
SF Classiques 013
06/12/09 18:20
A Brief (?) History of SF Productions--Part 13
1983, the "Summer of SF", rolls on...
There was a local theater in town--I use the term loosely, as it was housed in a former pet store, with an audience of 40. If you sat in the front row, you were in danger of getting trampled by actors downstage. Anyway, I had been involved with the theater for a few years, and decided it was time for me to direct. My musical review idea was shot down, so I found an obscure (cheap) one act play called "Sociability". When I went to cast it, of course I asked SF members. Sharon, Beth, Mike, and Steve didn't say no quickly enough, and we were off. Another "director" did a second one-act play, and we added a musical number from Lynda (with kibitzing from Eric) to make the whole thing long enough to make a handful of people come to see it.
Meanwhile, another "blockbuster" hit the movie screen--Superman III. If you've seen it, I feel for you. I decided to make a parody of it anyway, and had the brilliant idea of doing it at a local campground--really a way to bribe the team to come do it. Saylor got the title role this time, Mike continued his job as the black guy, and Eric and I kept the team from wandering off to swim. This was the first (and last) production to be recorded in "3D Dolby Doppler Stereo", the result of a faulty tape recorder. You'll hear it in the beginning of the following audio selection.
We packed a lot into one summer--there were concerts, dinners, gaming tournaments both electronic and analog, and political discussions with Beth and Steve on opposing sides. As Eric succinctly put it, we spent the summer "eating, sleeping, and showering". Anyway, let's take a listen to "Superlaughs III - in Trailerscope!"
SF Classiques 012
22/11/09 20:54
A Brief (?) History of SF Productions--Part 12
SF finished 1982 with another political special (Confusion '82), and by this point we apparently decided that Reagan had won the 1980 race, since we spent some time either praising or bashing him. There were some small pre-written bits, which became painfully obvious as the production went on. We ended up spending half the tape doing commercial parodies--Eric, Bill, Steve, Lynda, Mike, Beth, and new member Brenda Bader (Badger) joined in the fun. Brenda lived just two blocks away from me, so I had known her since elementary school. She eventually became the SF Historian--in fact, for this blog, I have been referencing a book she put together for my wedding documenting SF's history. She was involved with SF for several years, but I haven't heard from her for awhile (if you read this Brenda, please e-mail me through the site or find me via FaceBook!).
1983 was known as the "Summer of SF"--we got back together after a year in college, and spent every minute of that summer together. There's enough for two entries here, so let's start with "Return of the Jedi Glasses". Lucas & Co. had the promotional machine going full blast by the time "Episode VI" came out, so we spent much of this production talking about the various tie-ins than the actual storyline. "Jedi Glasses", of course, referred to the Burger King promotional item. Eric, Steve, Mike, Saylor, Sharon, and Brenda came together for our 30th tape.
We also ventured into video for the first time, doing a parody of the sci-fi show "V" (which oddly enough just got a remake) called "Y". We taped it in my basement with zero production values (the ship looked cool, though, thanks Mike), using a rented camcorder, so we had to do it quickly. Eric managed to cut himself on the head by jumping into a ceiling beam, but we persevered and got it done. Unfortunately, this tape disappeared years ago (I do have a beta videotape labelled "Y", but I have no way to play it). Perhaps I'll pull a Jackie Gleason years from now and release it as the "lost production".
This was also the year we got official pictures taken (the pic on this site's homepage came from 1983). The blue golf shirts we're wearing had an SF logo which was laboriously added via a silkscreen device Mike had, and rapidly fell apart since they were really cheap.
Okay, there's more of 1983 to come, but for now, let's go to a galaxy far, far, away...
SF Classiques 011
08/11/09 16:38
A Brief (?) History of SF Productions--Part 11
1982 was a tumultuous year for SF--we graduated from high school, several members joined the team, and we all moved toward our college years.
The last point was a particular concern for me. Sure, it would it be difficult to get the team together to do more tapes, but the main issue was Eric's move to Annapolis and the military. I had no idea if and when I would see him again, and keep in mind I still had the crazy idea we could make a living doing this. How to keep doing SF stuff without, well, F?
I toyed with the idea of making Lynda a full partner (somewhere I have logos for "SFB" Productions), but it didn't feel right. Then it came to me on vacation in Maine, in a hotel pool. Incorporate SF as a "Bored" of Directors, with each member getting a VP position and supposed "stock" in the "company". I became President of SF, and Eric became Chairman of the Bored. Assigning VP positions would give everyone a sense of ownership in the team, and facilitate members stepping in to Eric's role. That was the idea, anyway--the reality ended up being far more messy. More on this later.
(I know what you're thinking--neurotic much?)
Anyway, we moved into more familiar material with a Star Trek parody (Star Trip II--The Revenge of Mr. Rourke). Trek had been a source of material previous to this, but now we had more people to take the roles, plus better recording equipment. Eric, Sharon, Steve, Saylor, and Mike (who officially became our "token black" member on this tape) joined in, along with new member Beth Guonjian (Pettit). Another refugee from show choir, Beth and I had known each other since elementary school, but I suspect she went along with it because of her friendship with Sharon. Beth went onto to getting her Master of Divinity degree at Harvard and a medical degree in Chicago--making her officially "The Reverend Doctor...". She also officiated at my wedding.
SF also tackled an general movie parody, masked as an ad for the "NBS Movie Cable" channel, and we took a few minutes to return to "Chuck and Diana - 1 Year Later". This tape was mainly significant as the first production without Eric, as he had moved on to Annapolis by that time.
So, let's go where no one (except us) has gone before...
SF Classiques 010
25/10/09 17:19
A Brief (?) History of SF Productions--Part 10
There's a lot to cover here, so take a seat.
We had the inevitable 25th anniversary extravaganza (being the 25th tape), which of course was a clip show. It also includes the only audio evidence of one short-term member of the team. Steve Hall was a British exchange student, and with dreams of Monty Python dancing in my head, I cajoled him into suiting up. It didn't work out--I suppose he considered us to be too strange--and he returned to his homeland (hopefully not due solely to us).
Hall also had a small part on SF's only live performance in front of an audience--at a school talent show. We wrote up a parody of morning news shows ("Good Day USA"), which included some bad impressions (I did a poor Dan Ackroyd as Tom Snyder) and an exploding wastebasket. Bill and I spent more time on the latter than the script as a whole, and the response was tepid. Perhaps if I ever get some comments or traffic on this blog, I'll track down the script and post it.
Good Day USA did introduce two more members--Steve Hunt and Sharon Billey (Mirchandani). Steve moved into town in 10th grade, and I believe I met him through Semanon, the permanent tech crew for the High School auditorium (that's a topic for another day). Steve became a major player in the group, especially during the "we're actually going to do this for a living" era. Sharon was the accompanist for the school choir as well as the show choir where I got to know her. Sharon was always willing to jump into a role in our productions without hesitation.
Now to the main point of this post. As you've surely noticed, SF had a few references to Nazism. I want to make it crystal clear we're were not supporting them--keep in mind SF was founded around the time the Neo-nazis got going in Skokie, Illinois. I think it's safe to say that Eric and I were appalled that this was actually gaining traction, so we made fun of it in the form of Eppi.
Our high school put on the Sound of Music my senior year, and due to the small part I was given, I had plenty of time during rehearsals to ruminate on the storyline. I'm not sure if Eric or I came up with the idea of re-telling the story from a pro-Nazi point of view, making it a very dark comedy. In any case, we began to write alternate lyrics to the songs, and by the end of that year, it all came together. Most of the team was there (Mike declined to participate, stating the he might want to run for public office some day, and that evidence of this could ruin that chance). This was the first (but hardly the last) production we did in Lynda's basement--necessary so Sharon would have a piano to play. Lynda played Maria as a Nazi spy, Saylor played a laid back Georg, Bill made strange noises, Steve joined the chorus, and Eric made sure we didn't wuss out at the end.
And with that (whew), here's our take on a musical classic...
SF Classiques 009
11/10/09 10:41
A Brief (?) History of SF Productions--Part 9
As a palate cleanser post-BOTR, we went back to the old Fall TV preview bit for the next tape--the less said about this the better. Moving on...
If you've been listening intently so far (which I highly discourage), you may have noticed that any female voices have been coming from guys doing falsetto. We were about to tackle the second Superman movie, and we needed a Lois Lane. So I went in search for a female that would be willing to go into a bedroom with some guys--think clean thoughts, my bedroom was the SF "studio".
We were able to get Lynda Bowman (now Lynda Meyer) to agree to this ridiculous request. Lynda was in both the school show choir--okay, so was I--and marching band. She was the drum major, if I remember the term correctly. So, she definitely knew how to perform--but would be able to keep up with my crack band (cough) of comics? As you will hear, she had no problems fitting in, throwing in quips as if she had been there from the start.
We held onto the Superman II plot line for dear life, which kept the coherency up. Mike joins in, we consider Saylor's divinity, and Eppi makes another cameo. There's also a veiled reference to the Sound of Music, which was the school musical that year--it's also the subject of our next entry, and the reason none of us can ever go into politics. (How's that for a teaser?)
Meanwhile, let's listen to how a distaff member affects the team...
SF Classiques 005
16/08/09 11:59
A Brief (?) History of SF Productions--Part 5
I've always been fascinated by the hoopla surrounding Presidential election coverage at the news networks. All the unnecessary gadgetry--it's like the IT dept got a blank check. So, when SF covered the 1980 election, we introduced the "NBS Election Computer", aka various handheld electronic games of the era blooping and bleeping.
We also introduced Mark Saylor to the team. I met the other Mark in high school--he had gone to Catholic school until then--and it was quickly clear to me that he would fit into SF very well. Mark would grab onto a character and start ad-libbing furiously--it's sometimes hard to rein him back in and get back to the storyline, but the ride is always fun. Bill returned as well, starting a long string of appearances.
Due to questionable election rulings, John Anderson was elected 40th President of the United States (hey, I was Anderson campaign chairman in my town--at age 16--so sue me).
Next, we made the dubious decision to tackle a major literary work--J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, which we called Bored of the Rings. Eric and I both enjoyed the books immensely, and I figured it would keep us busy for awhile. We'll have plenty of time to talk about BotR in the next few entries, so I will just mention that Mike Harrison joined the team on BotR #1.
Mike is my oldest friend--we met when we were 6 years old; his mother babysat me when my mom went back to work. We ended up at different schools when I moved across town, and I didn't see him again until 7th grade. Mike became indispensible to SF, both creatively and from an equipment perspective. He really brought up our game, created most of our music, and ended up hosting many SF events and tapings in his basement. He also had his own production company (there was a whole tangled web of deluded kids in my hometown--more about that later).
Up next--more on Bored of the Rings.
Meanwhile, here's the NBS election team in (in)action.
SF Classiques 004
26/07/09 21:17
A Brief (?) History of SF Productions--Part 4
Moving from 1979 into 1980--Eric and I both enjoyed Star Trek, and so the first movie was a big event. Our parody (Star Trip) included special effects--like holding down extra buttons on the recorder so we sounded like we were on helium.
I've always been a fan of the Olympics--the only sports stuff I'm really into. So, we took a shot at the 1980 Winter Olympics (good thing we did, since the US boycotted the summer games). We spent most of the time doing the "close up and personal" segments, and the Atari got another workout. The event ended with all the athletes being killed--a group unhappy about not getting medals pulls out their machine guns--leaving rows of coffins for the closing ceremony. Kinda dark, huh?
1980 was also the first time I was following Presidential politics (I was the official John Anderson campaign coordinator for my town, which gives you an idea of how desperate they were), and I always enjoy watching silly media events, so we "visited" the Independent National Convention. In order to get "into character" of being on the convention floor, I fashioned a clunky headset from a broken pair of headphones, a CB radio mike, and various cables. Both Eppi and Martha Hick made appearances. We then pulled the old chestnut of the "clip show" for our 13th tape.
I had been disappointed that we got together too late to make fun of the first Star Wars movie when it first came out (yeah, I know, it was really Chapter 4--A New Hope). We got another chance when Empire Strikes Back hit the theaters, so we gave that a shot (Star Laughs II) with Luke as a druggie (how he gets the Force--hey, that sounds like midachlorians! Let's add Mr. Lucas to the royalty demand list). We followed that up with our second NBS Fall Schedule preview.
Up next--the cast grows just in time to tackle Tolkien.
Meanwhile, here's a special report showing how the world reacts when SF disappears.
SF Classiques 003
19/07/09 18:54
A Brief (?) History of SF Productions--Part 3
We're now in 1979, as the history of SF Productions rolls on. I was a voracious TV watcher--listen to the "Vast Wasteland" podcast for evidence of this. So, the announcement of the Fall TV schedule was a big event to me--I was always on the lookout for the TV Guide Fall Preview issue at the checkout. (I still have a collection of TV Guide Fall Previews going back to this time). So, I took the schedule and wrote up the names on big sheets of paper ala the network grids, and Eric and I came up with show concepts based on the names alone. I also decided we needed a fake network, and so I took the N fron NBC, the B from ABC, and the S from CBS, making the NBS Network. (A quick Google check shows an NBS TV network in Japan, and the name was used on the "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" series a few years ago--still waiting for my royalty check, Mr. Sorkin).
We also had an episode of "The Eppi Show"--a politically incorrect "rally" with us making crowd noises. Eppi would continue to make appearances, and even made some future SF members hesitate when I wanted to schedule a taping. More on this later.
We then launched "The Eric Fenton Talk Show", where Eric just talked. Some of it was music, some of it was diatribe, and some of it suggested I remove all sharp objects from the room. We followed that up with a rather lame recording at a Halloween party I hosted. However, this tape is significant in that it's the first time we hear from other people--a future "Bored" member (Bill Bagley) and another who later drifted away (Russ Holmes). I met Bill in 8th grade Spanish class, and he ended up as the best man at my wedding. Russ was very much into military history, and we both built WW2 ship and plane models. No idea what happened to Russ.
Up next--Star Trek, Star Wars, the Olympics, politics, and a clip show.
Meanwhile, here's some bad impressions from Mark Saylor and myself.
SF Classiques 002
05/07/09 19:41
A Brief (?) History of SF Productions--Part 2
When I last blogged, it was 1978 (not when I last blogged, but that's when we are in the story), and I was just about to see if Eric Fenton was the right person to make strange noises with me into my tape recorder. I had received an Atari 2600 as a Christmas present, and something told me that it would be great audio to record us playing it while doing bad impersonations--hence the first SF Productions tape, "Celebrity Video Games", on June 20, 1978 (now known as SF Anniversary Day). We also did the old "Man in the Street Interview" bit, where a long running character was born--Martha Hick. Okay, it was just me doing a bad impression of Jonathon Winters' "Maude Frickert" character. It was clear that Eric "got" what I wanted to do--and he even put up with it! We tried it again on "Mark Schmidbauer's Flying Circus" (as you can tell, not a lot of originality in the early days).
Our first real inspiration came about when "Superman: The Movie" hit the screen. This was the first movie I remember waiting in line for in order to see the first showing--I had and still have a big interest in comic books (listen to the "How I Got My Wife to Read Comics" podcast if you're interested as well). I talked Eric into tackling this as our third tape. "Superlaughs" wasn't ground breaking, but at least it was fairly coherent, as we could hang our bits on the movie plot.
Following that, we did a Star Trek parody (from the original TV series--this was before the movies and sequel TV series came out). On the same tape, Eric introduced a character named Eppi. She was named for the "table lunchroom wiper-offer" at the Junior High--she was crabby and had short black hair. Eric decided she must be Hitler's Mom, and we produced a short documentary on her. We then took a second shot at what we did in the first tape, and something called the "Natural Causes Telethon"--I assume Labor Day and the Jerry Lewis telethon was the inspiration for that.
Next time--NBS is born, Eric goes insane, and our cast begins to expand.
Meanwhile, here's something from the early 80's, where myself, Mike Harrison, and Bill Bagley (more about them later) took a portable recorder to a local fair. I like to think of it as early-Lettermanesque. Enjoy!