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[JohnIan101]

Best Buy - February 23rd, 2021


Mulan (2020) (available now)
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Beauty And The Beast (1991) (available now)
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Beauty And The Beast (2017) (available now)
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Men In Black Trilogy: 20th Anniversary Edition (available now)
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Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (available now)
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The Arrival (available now)
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[JohnIan101]

Past Tense - Catch The Blue Wave Part II




Yet more. Excalibur was so cheap in producing these DVD-Rs. The wraparound is quite generic. Above is the front and rear images. WTF? Why did they photo shop Porsche Lynn's face onto that blonde? Unless most of the rear covers have that same body, just insert face on head? Can't say, could be. And the disc is as generic as the cover art, it has a printed bar code on with text.

To be safe, I've blurred out the web and street addresses. Also made sure there was zero nudity in the release montage on the cover. And yeah, those cover images do repeat.

I made an effort to find the original trade ad for "Maxine", no luck. How? I have a collection of "AVN" (Adult Video News) magazines. For those who don't know - it's an industry mag for video stores and adult shops to know what XXX inventory to buy; seeing various reviews and new releases. Turns out my collection misses most of the 1980s, no '88s. It's beyond my reach.

Why bring it up then? I saw something in those old issues from the early 1990s and a bit of the ladder 80s - the advertising. Yes there was nudity, sure. But a good chunk of it was not - made so that video stores could have them out for display, sometimes from behind the counter on the wall, the bolder stores.

These adult ads and subsequent VHS covers have porno chic, glamour. Yes, glamour. They appear like magazine covers - what you would find in "Cosmopolitan", "Vogue", "Allure" or "Elle". These images could be framed as art. They took the time to make them attention getters, elegant. Dressed in sexy lingerie, swimsuits or nude having strategically placed objects WITH accompanied backgrounds and props.

The ad for "Sand Dunes" would make a great poster for framing. It stars Savannah, dressed in a baby-blue one piece, semi-sheer swimsuit, high cut. She's laying down on desert sands, there are various waves in the dunes. It's sexy and graceful. None of that is around today. All about getting in your face, the more blatant the better.

*shakes head*

I can't find it. It's like "Sand Dunes" never existed. True I have the magazine, but I have since put it away back in storage which was a pain to get to - and restore. Not doing it again to scan the ad. I can't find a listing anywhere for that adult vid. It's not for sale on DVD. If I recall proper, this was a Plumb Production porno. It could very well be that Plumb no longer exist and their entire catalog has... evaporated.

When folks talk about The Lost Hollywood, they speak of all the movies and cuts which have been lost to time. Shot on nitrate stock, the masters and copies dusted. Or was not popular enough at the time and was trashed to make room for more marketable flicks. Or was just the victim of a studio that faded - taking away with them all their movies. A ton of lost features and shorts from the 1920s, '30s and '40s. Not even talking about all the silent titles, lost.

What is seldom talked about is the other side of that disappearance - XXX releases. So many blue flicks, more than imagined from the 1970s and 1980s are gone - and early 90s. The stuff from the '70s was NOT shot on video, but on film. These were treated as disposable entertainment and improperly stored. And often shot on discarded stock - to get it cheap. Done by studios which didn't survive the transition from film to video tape. Gone.

You may not care, but it's a part of cinema history. What remains today is still on VHS somewhere in someone's aged collection. Add "Sand Dunes" to that pile - that dead format is the only way to watch. If you care about films, you care about this too. It's sad.

There I go again, sounding like I went to finishing school... on a teamster's scholarship.

- Maxine

*long pause* Okay.

Music here was done by the The Mentors. They were quite metal - poorly crafted heavy metal. You know; you're in the teens and have some band equipment or access and decided to start a band. But nobody can actually sing and all the songs composed are juvenile - that's The Mentors.

Songs used for the production; "Suck It Fu¢k It, Cook & Clean" [sung twice], "Do What You Do", "Sandwich Of Love" [sung twice], "Adultery", "Find Her, Feel Her, Fu¢k Her, Forget Her" and one instrumental.

There were seven actions scenes. The movie has eighteen chapters and a run time of 1:17:06 minutes.



Had to do a zoom on that picture. She 'appears' to be showing a bit of her areola, nope - nothing exposed. The black bra has a lacy trim; the shadow seen was from the lace. But to play it safe, I cropped it out. Anyhow, long story short, yes. Much of this blue flick is cringy. What makes it even worse is few edits were used on Maxine, so Lynn had to do her own stuttering.

And yes, you can see the boom mike in shadows and just about the performers heads. The film concludes with a notice "To Be Continued - Maxine: Head Reporter, Part 2" a part two that didn't happen.

- - -

This needs to be covered since I can imagine so many are in the dark. What was the source of that porn parody?

Before you say; no - this show existed BEFORE the role playing book game, "Cyberpunk" existed. That happened in 1988, the series came out in 1987. Max and "Blade Runner" (1982) inspired that playable universe.



The series took place - "Twenty Minutes Into The Futue", a world dying - pure dystopia. A world covered in rampant poverty run by corporations. Few tech is new, most are repurposed, mods, retrofitted to function. Like using old typewriter keyboards as computer keys. Or having a tiny monitor using a big magnifying glass to see. Unlike "Blade Runner" no flying cars. Among the many big businesses which rule is network television. TV shows and channels are sold and bought on their stock market.

We follow the exploits of tele-journalist, Edison Carter (Matt Frewer), his hit show, "What I Want To Know". The pilot was remake of the Channel Four program. Working on a story, he uncovers a conspiracy involving his boss at Network 23, Ned Grosburg (Charles Rocket). They've been experimenting with a new kind of commercial to pack more ads per program. The problem is it's killing some viewers. He sets out to expose it, but is caught. It's decided to kill him, but he's on the most popular show they have. Their tech supervisor, Bryce Lynch (Chris Young) has an idea - create a virtual copy of Carter, have it continue to do the show.

Edison's brain is scanned into their massive mainframe and generated, but it's a mess. He was in a motorcycle accident trying to flee his abduction. The last thing he saw before blacking out was being thrown off his bike and flying into border rail - "Maximum Headroom" - Max Headroom. To their shock, Max's A.I. have weaved itself into their entire network. You can't take him out unless you pull the plug on everything - killing their company. They attempt to use a virus hunter to eradicate Max, but he's jumping in and out of airing program and nodes to evading their efforts.

For the adult parody; its a hotel room - our reporter is reading the sign outside the door before being taken; "Room 12 Maximum Bedroom Occupancy 4 Adults".

Max IS Carter's alter ego and has no buffer. Think of him as a comedic commentator with a dark streak. Edison is dropped, left for dead for organ harvesters - legal here; mainstream venders that take in bodies, no real questions asked ("Nightingale's Body Bank"). He is rescued and nursed back to health by his Controler, Theora Jones (Amanda Pays).

Controller?

This was before Suri; Jones' job is to guide Edison to various places, avoiding dangers - scanning metropolitan blueprints and hacking secrurty cams that litter the city. Few places had privacy. She guides him and provides computer skills as needed.

Edison has the damning footage in his camcorder, those big units from the '80s, but can't get it out of the busted camera. He can still exposed the scheme, wanting to know if he can - or truly get himself and Jones killed, contacts their network vice president, Ben Cheviot (George Coe) hoping he's not part of it.

The loss public trust and revenue would be massive, but Cheviot agrees. You see - Max isn't just video on a screen, he can see through any TV he's on. And televisions are everywhere. In fact - later in the series, it's revealed that having an off button on a television is life time prison sentence. You put something over the box to cover the screen and lower the volume, never off.

They use Max to watch the footage that Edison recorded, broadcasting it to the world. Grosburg is fired and arrested, Cheviot is installed as network president. Max can't be undone and having him proves to be a postive thing as he comments on the shows they air = more viewers, higher ratings. And he talks to viewers, one on one conversations.

This is a whole messed up world to explore and the series ran with it. One of the things that set it so apart, besides the visuals is the writing; they wanted it to be memorable. True - at times the show feels dated with obsolete tech, the dialog remains fresh. The more I think on it, Edison Carter was a video blogger for Network 23.

[JohnIan101]

Past Tense - Catch The Blue Wave Part III




Among my "Max" stuff is this book based on the original program. Man, "Max Headroom" had a long road to become an iconic part of the 1980s.

20 minutes into the future, television is the only growth industry as the networks grapple with one another in an unrelenting ratings battle. Network 23 has become the top station due to the creative genius of its manipulative producers, who have developed the mind-blowing Blipverts. But Edison Carter, crack reporter, aims to expose the deadly side effects of Blipverts. Follow Edison through his nightmare journey to the truth and into his future as the world's first computer-generated TV host, Max Headroom.

- back cover

This book was published twice. First for the United Kingdom market from Corgi Book in 1985, the source nation. And later in America by Random House, Inc. in 1986. I own that; retailed for $5.95.



From left to right; Max on screen, Edison Carter (Frewer), Bryce Lynch (Young), Theora Jones (Amanda Pays), Murray (Carter's TV producer; actor Jeffrey Tambor) and Network 23 President Ben Cheviot (Coe).

For the TV series, Bryce was made an unwitting victim of Grosburg who redeems himself. In the original program, Bryce (Paul Spurrier) he was just as wicked as his boss and was arrested too.

The road...

This whole thing started as a telefilm (well one hour long with commericals) in England on Channel Four; aired April 4th, 1985 (fifty-seven minutes long). This was so different and popular at the time, an original. Naturally it would come to America. The cable channel, Cinemax bought the U.S. rights and ordered more footage - twenty-six minutes of new scenes were added, bringing to mostly feature length at eighty-three minutes.

Cinemax didn't air it as a movie; they broke it into four episodes. These parts aired on October 16th, 23rd and 30th with the last on November 6th of 1986.



No joking this was highly popular - viewers didn't know how it was done. It''s an actor with a glued on foam head with vinyl, partial, two part - business suit top, above. That arm isn't his. That's the make-up person, sealing up the seam, material on their hand. As you can see, the top hasn't been cleaned up yet. Add to this simple effect was the moving, CGI multi-colored wireframe in the background (added in post, a blue screen) to complete with reflective contact lenses. His speech and motion were jumbled, like losing a video connection on your mobile.

After the program aired in England in 1985; Max was given his first show - a music video program where he was the virutal host who would interrupt and jump into various videos giving his commentary. This ran two seasons on Channel Four, a total of nineteen episodes. For the second season, Max interviewed artists and bands, a precursor to his later talk show. Sadly, it appears all those episodes were lost.

The second show happened in 1986 and it happened again, but this time, some episodes survived, some. Max's talk show was co-produced by Channel Four and Cinemax and aired on both. It ran for two seasons with a Christmas special; eighteen shows.



Something I discovered while researching - when "Max Headroom: The Original Story" was released in American from Lorimar Home Video (VHS, Betamax and LD - above left) in 1986 it wasn't the expanded version. But the original fifty-seven minute program. As far as I can tell in my research it was never given a home video treatment. Yes - that Shout Factory box set, does not include the original program. The laser disc above had a price tag of $24.95, CLV single side. I have that LD. The same version was also released on laser disc in Japan in 1987 from TDK Super Video (above right), CLV too - sold for 9800 JPY.

Those old VHS and Betamax copies had a gate folded box; it opened up to show scenes from the program.

What remains of this talk show was released exclusively on laser disc in Japan, a few episodes each on four three. Plus a 'Best Of' from those episode pool.

1986 was the year of Max. He reached media awareness with a series of national commeircals for Coca Cola, the virtual personality became their cyber spokes person. His catch phrase, "Catch The Wave, Coke". This was for "New Coke". Many of these commericals can be found on YouTube.

Then comes 1987 and ABC aired the sci-fi show, expanding the universe. The show was so ahead of the curve. It predicted the internet, crypto-currency, terrorists become reality TV stars even had an episode with a rival network trying to create a false flag for ratings. It had something else, the instant ratings on media, plus for profit news. And of couse 'reality TV'.

There was a short return - one more time; 2007, four commercials on Channel Four; an elderly Max telling folks about the upcoming switch to digital only TV broadcasts. Somewhat bitter he's been left being when he was on the forefront of the video revolution.

There is something that I discovered while researching. There were three scripts made before the plug was pulled on the show. The entire cast is still alive. Why not just animate it? Could be life-like CGI or flat like "Archer". "Theora's Tale"...

As a corporate shooting war breaks out in Antartica between Zik Zak and Zlin, Theora is missing and Murray tries to calm Edison and get him aboard a special Air Corridor shuttle to cover the story. Theora has, in fact, been kidnapped by mercenaries of the Video Freedom Alliance who have found out about Theora's true identity and are demanding a huge ransom for her release.

- internet synopsis

I would love to see that.



He was so popular even appeared on the cover of "Mad Magazine", their March 1987 issue ($1.35).

- - - - - - - - - -

Footnotes.

For the 1989 Adult Video Awards - the XXX version of the Oscars. "Maxine" was nominated for six awards. But won just one, "Best Art Direction".

It was nominated for "Best Actress for Shot-On-Video Feature" - Porsche Lynn; "Best Actor for Shot-On-Video Feature" - Robert Bullock; "Best Suporting Actress for Shot-On-Video Feature" - Sharon Mitchell; "Best Shot-On-Video Feature" and "Best Video Editing".

The feature was directed by Joseph F. Robertson a.k.a. Adele Robbins with a story by Arthur King; written by King and Steve Sayer.

Why was a shot on film movie, nominated for Video Editing? All the 'Maxine' footage was pre-recorded on cassette to play with the actors to interact with. Plus the complex editing done for the SexVerts. But to be honest, the flick is so amateur, shouldn't gotten any noms, let alone wins.



Well this was different - an exclusive for a porno, what a time to be alive. And yeah, she doesn't wear those sunglasses in the movie. In a couple of scenes you can see early Apple computer products. On the desk of Packard is an early Macintosh computer. And the trailer of "Sex Wars" is every porn cliché wrapped in a poorly produced sci-fi package. Back in the day - was anybody convinced? Roger Corman had better production values. *nods* Come back here on March 11th, 2021 for something different - not another Past Tense, but a cinematic comparison. Been wanting to do that for a long time.