...YES! I have a marvelous little memory of THE VAN. Back in 1978, the Warner Amex cable system in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, added its first premium channel, StarChannel (which turned into The Movie Channel the following January). The first film it showed was THE VAN, at 9:30 on Saturday morning, the 2nd of September. But there was a slight complication -- the decision to add the channel was made at the last minute, and non-subscribers had to be blocked in those days by dropping a plug into the router box out by the telephone pole. They ran out of plugs a few days before the channel was to be added, so Warner Amex simply allowed everybody subscribing to get the channel for that first month. Consequently, I can just imagine how many kids were flipping around on their TV sets without Mommy or Daddy looking on, and all of a sudden they see Connie Lisa Marie's bare breasts as she's about to lay a long kiss on Stuart Getz. Were I one of those kids, my inclination would be to say, "The Hell with Bugs Bunny this morning" ;-) ...

...oh, and the '75 hit single "Chevy Van" by Sammy Johns was used repeatedly on the soundtrack -- but the film is about a DODGE...

...and, on top of all that, it features one of my all-time favourite comic actresses, Marcie Barkin, in a supporting role. She had enough work for a few years, but grew tired of the stuff she was being offered (probably the best film she was cast in was the '80 Dennis Christopher vehicle FADE TO BLACK, in which she played the best friend of Marilyn Monroe-lookalike Linda Kerridge). So she told Hollywood goodbye, moved to Massachusetts to study computer technology at MIT, and today -- http://www.axisboulder.com/mbgbio.htm -- she runs her own software consultancy in Boulder, Colorado...
 

Wow, Zardoz and Rollerball at the Ken, and Tunnelvision and A Boy and His Dog at the Strand! Cult movie heaven! At the Plaza downtown, Super Swinging Playmates and Secrets of Sweet Sixteen were screening with the mainstream Beatty blockbuster Shampoo as the third/bottom feature, not even worth listing in the display ad - they sher knew their audience! I'm not familiar with the Bay indoor theater in Nat'l City, but how cool that they were showing Ten Commandments with Spanish subtitles --- and can you imagine all the pot smoke filling up the College theater for a laser light show???

But WTF kind of dumbass billing was the Broadway thinking, to pair the kidflick Bad News Bears with a yawnfest like The Way We Were?!

Fascinating comment, too - Fade to Black is one of my all-time favorite obscure movies, so it's a treat to get this lead on one of the performers and what she's up to today ---