Here Peter narrates the whole concept of this "unshot scene" with Charlton Heston.
Below: Trimmed-down yet effective introduction to Vasaria Cable, Connecticut and PUBLIC XS's main players. With Laura Arcery as Lee Rossie, DavidCoughlin as Six-Pack, Joyce Vandernoot as Joyce Stark and Denis Lybe as Norman Vincent Arbogast.
PM says: I think it begins well enough (clearly I'm big on introductions foreshadowing what's to come and hinting what's happened before) but then gets a bit bogged-down by some third-rate effects intended as a band-aid to disguise a few gaps created by some unfortunate missed looping sessions and pick-ups . . . and the occasional bad stock video-tape. Sorry to say, it's all too obvious, somewhat choppy and doesn't fool anyone. However, Joyce and Denis look great on introduction -- David and Laura inhabit their roles. You can't win 'em all . . . but still there's something here that works if you squint your eyes. I've taken some bows, I'll take the blame for not quite "hitting the high note," to quote Ralph Kramden. I can't help but laugh remembering poor Denis could barely see the typewriter in front of him with all the smoke being blown at him in an enclosed room flooded with red lights.
What is Public XS?
A Note From Peter:
"I’m told there is always some confusion about much of my past work having no budget. Apparently that means different things to different people but it is never quite taken literally. So, I’ve been asked to explain what no budget really means.
It means zero, not a single penny – and no one, cast or crew, was ever paid after-the-fact.
I happened to own two inexpensive 8mm home video cameras (remember those?); there were a few tripods (everyone's best man, Jim Ryan, providing the best); a couple of semi-high intensity lamps that hadn’t blown out yet; spare blank tape sitting in my closet; a bit of make-up; enough gas money to get me to wherever the shoot was (the sets were real locations and free permission was given: thank you J. David Goldin; Mauro's; overseers of the Tarrywile mansion and castle; untold others) I did, I must admit, occasionally supply chips and dip.
The “working budget” was just whatever my ideas, scripts or concepts were at the time, along with my own entertainment skills (good or bad) but brought to life, really, by the many people I found who believed in me, the work and whose own talents were not essentially low budget and could be developed.
Perhaps you're unaware it's not considered de ri·gueur to disclose your actual budget and common practice to claim the costs were at least double what they really were. Crazy? You're looking for sanity in the entertainment business? Their thought is it's a better selling point to state a HUGE budget on a tiny project that may actually work than to say "Look what we did with nothing." It ain't the work, it's the wampum.
Therefore, I am somewhat aware (however immodest) that these projects shouldn’t have worked or even given the slightest appearance that they worked at all with what was available . . . so any success here (if any) is not because of one man alone.
Of course, if anyone thinks the end-product is worth real money now then forget all that crap I just said – I played all the parts, was behind the camera when I was also in front doing love scenes where I was required to kiss myself while panning slowly to the right and at the same time come in for a tight yet soft close-up."
~ Peter Michaels
Below:
Original pre-credit sequence for PUBLIC XS that lays out the ground-work for all that followed. Note the inclusion of author Robert Bloch from Peter's actual answering machine. It was the late author's humorous yet accurate one-liner about life in Hollywood that eventually became the title for the first episode: ARKHAM WAS NEVER LIKE THIS. It may be an esoteric reference to some, but for purists it screams Robert Bloch.
I AM CURIOUS JELL-O or ISN'T THAT SWEDE OF YOU
Below is a very short scene intro which bends reality and "borrows" from vaudeville, with Helene Maslansky. According to Peter, "I soon realized I was becoming the Bill Shatner of my own creation (hey, he's said it himself): the only real love interest (whether won or lost) within the episodes shot. So this was to set-up the obvious as played out before and then blow it to pieces."
Below:
SIX-PACK & FATHER FRANK HAVE LEFT THE BUILDING
"The Dissin' Blues"
With Denis Lybe, Laura Arcery, DavidCoughlin, Frank Weddell &
The Father Frank Blues Band.
In this, our hero takes in yet another candidate for their own access show: with Marielle Jensen. Peter: "Here the trick was yet again to go from a somewhat normal reality-based scene (a schmuck constantly talking to himself . . . which is, of course, me on my best day) and be transformed into the world of the bizarre -- part Ingmar Bergman, part 70's bad-print porn (I'm told bad-print porn used to look like this, really). And if God doesn't strike me dead for that then I'll probably live forever."
Below is PUBLIC XS at it's most XNtric, with John Gatto. This is perhaps one of the most defining sequences in XS which shatters ego while at heart remaining true. Breaking the fourth wall is generally a softner, here it's the biting edge of reality.
Below:
Quasi love scene juxtaposed with the really hysterical recurring character, Father Frank. I love the way in the opening B&W scene how Peter elicits a genuine reaction out of Joyce. (NOTE: Peter says I got it wrong when I forwarded this description and it was JOYCE herself who got a genuine reaction out of Joyce ... he's a more than fair player.) The shifting of reality in the same episode from what appears to be a romantic story into a surreal vision (a human Mr Bill), with semi-serious nods to the classic "The Hitch-hiker" (and maybe a touch of "The Omega Man") is hysterical. Also a very clever use of visual direction going from hand-held camera to unexpected (Peter hoped) effects fest. The almost "non-punch-line" of the sequence stems from the absence of the next scene which returns to the serious and questions whether what we just saw actually happened.
With Joyce Vandernoot as Joyce Stark and Frank Weddell as his alter ego, Father Frank. Oh, Peter also says there's much more work of Joyce Vandernoot & Frank Weddell coming soon that tops this taster. Also, Peter begs your pardon for the rushed narration and will go deeper into both his co-stars talents with the new material.
(petermichaels.us formerly dreamworldpro.com)
A show created about Peter Michaels, BY Peter Michaels in which he turns everything around on himself. Take a look at the videos and you'll see what I mean.
Peter says of Below: "Nothing Earth-Shattering here, just a
credit-roll intro of the premise. But thank God for Bing."
Below is a rough-cut scene: Denis Lybe plays Norman Vincent Arbogast, General Manager for Vasaria, CT cable station and Peter Michaels is his failed ex-Hollywood chip-on-the-shoulder head of Public Access unit. In this scene, Michaels runs into Arbogast at a local pub/eatery when he should be at the office working. Arbogast has long despised Michaels for talking him into sinking $43,000 into a movie many years before that was so bad it was unreleasable.
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Petermichaels.us (formerly Dreamworldpro.com) is owned, operated and managed by friends and followers of Peter Michaels. All Things Peter Michaels: Writer, Actor, Director - A Good Man
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