Tastes like Fresno

(Photo source: TV Time Capsule)

The craziest damn thing on TV right now is not American Horror Story. It's the funny six-part miniseries The Heart, She Holler, which is airing for six straight nights on Adult Swim until Friday. The Heart, She Holler is the Southern Gothic story of Hurlan Heartshe (Patton Oswalt, looking like a stand-in for Nick Swardson in Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star), a feral man-child who must battle with his poor-white-trash sisters, the devious Hurshe (Kristen Schaal) and the telekinetic Hambrosia (Heather Lawless), for control of Heartshe Holler, the small town that Hurlan inherited from their deceased cult leader father. The inbred yokels who populate Heartshe Holler are so filthy even Cletus from The Simpsons would tell them, "Git yerself a washcloth!"

Because it's from the minds of Wonder Showzen creators Vernon Chatman and John Lee, The Heart, She Holler gets its laughs from nightmarish and meth-y imagery that would cause most of the viewers who made a hit out of Modern Family (a show Schaal once guest-starred on) to puke into their tubs of Häagen-Dazs. A man pulls from an electric outlet intestines that go on forever. Another man French-kisses a glory hole that was carved into the cover of a Bible. If this show had a Baby Lily in its cast, she'd probably be walking around with a rotting piece of roadkill as her dolly.

The Heart, She Holler's nightly miniseries format and Schaal's soapy villainess both remind me of another comedy miniseries that aired over the course of one week 25 Novembers ago: Newhart creator Barry Kemp's not-as-meth-y Fresno. From November 16 to November 20, 1986 on CBS, this spoof of wealth-obsessed '80s CBS nighttime soaps like Falcon Crest and the soon-to-be-revived-on-TNT Dallas followed the nasty power struggle between the Kensington raisin empire, led by matriarch Charlotte Kensington (Carol Burnett), and rival raisin baron Tyler Cane (Dabney Coleman). Caught up in the feud are Charlotte's dickish eldest son Cane (Charles Grodin), his unhappy nympho wife Talon (Teri Garr), Charlotte's demure adopted daughter Tiffany (Valerie Mahaffey), the always shirtless ranch hand Torch (Trapper John, M.D. star Gregory Harrison, poking fun at his '80s himbo persona), gardener-turned-corporate spy Juan (Luis Avalos), country singer Bobbi Jo Bobb (Teresa Ganzel) and her convict husband Billy Joe (Bill Paxton!).

Shot on a bigger budget than The Heart, She Holler (for example, the gowns were designed by a name I became familiar with because I'd see it pop up during so many '70s or '80s opening or closing credits: Bob Mackie of Burnett's Gone with the Wind sketch gown fame), Fresno isn't quite a classic, but it's a fun comedic soap made for viewers like me who avoid actual nighttime soaps like the plague. Maybe if each episode had been 11 minutes long like each installment of The Heart, She Holler or other live-action Adult Swim shows like Childrens Hospital, the current live-action crown jewel of the Adult Swim lineup, and its spinoff NTSF:SD:SUV, Fresno would have been a classic. When I first caught it in reruns on Comedy Central in the '90s--fortunately without the laugh track that CBS reportedly tacked on to the miniseries when it rebroadcast it--Fresno felt like it was several minutes too long at an hour per episode (with commercials).

There are so many reasons to be pissed off at Fox--besides one of its cable channels' unusual definitions of the words "fair," "balanced" and "news"--like the fact that Fox owns the MTM Enterprises library and butchers MTM properties on DVD or Hulu (worst example: the WKRP music clearance fiasco). Fox doesn't take advantage of reintroducing great or good MTM shows like Fresno to younger viewers who'd get a kick out of these shows that were around either before they were born or when they were too young to understand why Dr. Johnny Fever always looks so exhausted. So because of that, YouTube is all we can rely on for little glimpses of Fresno.

As you can see from the YouTube clips of Fresno (hey, it's Kramer), one of the highlights of the miniseries is Mel Brooks film score composer John Morris' original music, from Bobbi Jo's fake country songs ("Just because you're a migrant worker don't mean we got a migrant love") to the main title theme, one of the best obscure TV themes of the '80s. Morris' theme morphs from bullfighting music to Big Country score-style Americana. It's amusingly over-the-top and awesome.

Five favorite expanded score albums or box sets of 2008

5. Superman: The Music (Film Score Monthly)
This staggering eight-disc set compiles the scores from all four Christopher Reeve Superman movies and contains a beautifully designed mini-book filled with exhaustive liner notes. The expanded discs of the Ken Thorne scores from Supermans II and III were probably the main reason why Superman completists dove into savings that they otherwise reserve for their mortgage payments for their Luthor-owned condos in order to pay for this pricey set ($120!). I never liked Thorne's scores (the orchestra budget in II and III was clearly slashed, so Thorne's rearrangements of John Williams' music sounded tinny and undernourished). For me, the real previously unreleased gem of the set was the disc containing Ron Jones' energetic and underrated music from Ruby-Spears' decent '80s Superman animated series. Jones' Superman cues sound like the cues he later wrote for Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Best of Both Worlds" two-parter, which TNG showrunner Rick Berman reportedly disliked because he preferred the music on his show to sound boring.


4. They Live: 20th Anniversary Edition (AHI)
Obey. Consume. This expanded release of the bluesy score from John Carpenter's sharpest and cleverest post-Thing flick is your God.


3. Blazing Saddles (La-La Land)
The only previous times any of the music from Blazing Saddles was made available were when Elektra/Asylum included three songs from Saddles on the 1978 High Anxiety soundtrack LP and when "I'm Tired" made its CD debut on Rhino's 1998 Warner Bros.: 75 Years of Film Music box set. The release of the cues from John Morris' short but fantastic score to the Mel Brooks classic--another one of my favorite movies--was long overdue. All the major cues are on there, including the Count Basie Orchestra's performance of "April in Paris," which is to black cowboy music what Jay-Z's "Roc Boys (and the Winner Is)..." is to black superhero music.


2. Shaft Anthology: His Big Score and More! (Film Score Monthly)
FSM's Shaft set marked a couple of milestones: the first-ever release of the film versions of Isaac Hayes and J.J. Johnson's score cues from the first Shaft installment (the 1971 Enterprise/Stax soundtrack album was a re-recording) and the CD debut of Gordon Parks' Shaft's Big Score soundtrack. Though the release was actually sent to the pressing plant for manufacturing three weeks before Hayes' death, it ended up being the illest way to honor his memory.


1. Batman: The Animated Series (La-La Land)
Unlike previous superhero cartoon shows, B:TAS didn't recycle the same four or five score cues or repurpose creaky old library music. Shirley Walker, one of the few female composers in the business, and her B:TAS team composed an original score for every episode. Their use of a full orchestra made other animated action shows look like that pathetic El Mariachi musician character who prefers a synthesizer over bandmates. Sadly, Walker didn't live to see the release of her lovingly crafted music from B:TAS (before her death in 2006, only her score from the Mask of the Phantasm spinoff movie was released). She would have been thrilled about La-La Land's two-disc set, which is dedicated to her and compiles scores from 10 B:TAS eps, including Harley Quinn's debut ep, "Joker's Favor" (pictured above). I've been a fan of B:TAS since its 1992 premiere, so I've waited 16 years for a release like this. I never said thank you, La-La Land. And then La-La Land will probably say the following in that Batrasp that sounds like a cross between a whitened-up Keak da Sneak and a Muppet: "And you'll never have to."

"AFOS A-Go-Go" 09/30/08-10/06/08 playlist

1. Cleavon Little, "I Get a Kick Out of You," Blazing Saddles, La-La Land
2. Frankie Laine, "Signature/Main Title," Blazing Saddles, La-La Land
3. Dave Grusin Trio, "The Long Goodbye," Fitzwilly/The Long Goodbye, Varèse Sarabande
4. Roy Budd, "Jazz It Up (MC/M4)," The Marseille Contract, Castle Music
5. Donald Byrd, "Wilford's Gone" (from Cornbread, Earl & Me), Do You Pick Your Feet in Poughkeepsie?, Paul Nice
6. Joseph Koo, "The Killing Fight" (from The Big Boss), Do You Pick Your Feet in Poughkeepsie?, Paul Nice
7. Danny Elfman, "The Little Things," Wanted, Lakeshore(*)
8. Buffy, Spike, Sweet, Giles, Xander, Anya, Tara and Willow, "Walk Through the Fire," Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, With Feeling, Rounder
9. Ennio Morricone, "Il Giardino Delle Delizie" (from The Garden of Delights), The Ennio Morricone Anthology: A Fistful of Film Music, Rhino
10. Isaac Hayes, "Source No. 3 (Caffe Reggio)" (from Shaft), Shaft Anthology: His Big Score and More!, Film Score Monthly
11. Quincy Jones, "Theme from The Anderson Tapes," The Reel Quincy Jones, Hip-O
12. Quincy Jones, "Money Runner" (from $), The Reel Quincy Jones, Hip-O
13. Bear McCreary, "The Mask of Fargo" (from the Eureka episode "Noche de Sueños"), Eureka, La-La Land
14. Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, "Aggressive Expansion," The Dark Knight, Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.
15. Thomas Newman, "Jazira Maroun (End Title)," Towelhead, Lakeshore
16. John Morris, "Noble Farewell/Finale," Blazing Saddles, La-La Land

17. Lalo Schifrin, "End Title," Cool Hand Luke, Aleph

(*) An interesting L.A. Times column from June about the recording of "The Little Things" can be found here. It mentions that Elfman recorded an alternate version of "The Little Things" with Russian lyrics for Wanted's Russian release.

A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series returns to the channel schedule next Tuesday.

"AFOS A-Go-Go" 09/23/08-09/29/08 playlist

1. David Holmes, "Not Their Fight," Ocean's Thirteen, Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.
2. John Carpenter and Alan Howarth, "The Bank Robbery," Escape from New York, Silva Screen
3. Lalo Schifrin, "Omega Team," Spooks, Aleph
4. Carter Burwell, "How Is This Possible?," Burn After Reading, Lakeshore
5. Roy Budd, "Theme to Mr. Rose," Rebirth of the Budd, Sequel
6. Quincy Jones, "Main Title," The Hot Rock, Prophecy
7. John Morris, "Voodoo You Do/The Big Fight/The French Mistake," Blazing Saddles, La-La Land
8. George Shaw, "Carol of Death" (from Marcus), J-ok'el/Marcus, MovieScore Media
9. Bear McCreary, "Fight Night" (from the Battlestar Galactica episode "Unfinished Business"), Battlestar Galactica: Season 3, La-La Land
10. Bear McCreary, "Sheriff Carter's Theme," Eureka, La-La Land
11. Ennio Morricone, "Terrazza Vuota" (from Metti Una Sera a Cena), More Mondo Morricone, Colosseum
12. Tangerine Dream, "Love on a Real Train (Risky Business)" (from Risky Business), Rare Requests, Vol. III, Liquid 8
13. Roy Budd, "The Car Chase" (from Fear Is the Key), Buddism, Cinephile
14. Neil Patrick Harris, "Everything You Ever," Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Mutant Enemy Productions
15. Jed Whedon, "Horrible Credits," Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Mutant Enemy Productions
16. Rose Royce, "Car Wash," Car Wash, MCA

"AFOS A-Go-Go" airs every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday in September on the Fistful of Soundtracks channel.