The Smiley Smile Message Board

Information is trickling in on the upcoming BBs documentary. I found this tidbit in a story about manager Jerry Schilling:

https://www.actionnews5.com/2023/04/27/tenn-legislature-honors-memphis-jerry-schilling-friend-elvis-manager-beach-boys/

TENN. LEGISLATURE HONORS MEMPHIS’ JERRY SCHILLING, FRIEND OF ELVIS, MANAGER OF THE BEACH BOYS

"Schilling, now 81, is now a consulting producer on a soon-to-be-released documentary on The Beach Boys."

Hopefully soon and hopefully it gets a decent release platform.

Weren't Disney allegedly involved in this?

Looking forward to seeing this. As I mentioned elsewhere, I hope they use/are able to use lots of the beautiful and rare footage that has shown up during the years, be it live footage or interviews etc. For example the interview of the Boys including Glenn Campbell from 1965 or the Ida Blackburn footage. Of course they would need to find a way to include this in a way that makes sense. I would inmagine that when it comes to the Beach Boys there must be much more existing. So hopefully it won't be the same old Hawaii '67 footage overdubbed with a slowed down Live in London GOK.

I don't know a super ton about this, but from what I have heard, I would just say... it might be worth tempering your expectations. A Beach Boys "Beatles Anthology" this will not be, as far as I can tell.

I think we'll be lucky if this ends up being a longer (and/or more up to date) "Endless Harmony." And I say that with the utmost respect and gratitude for the EH documentary existing. It's as good, no, *better*, than anything could possibly be under the constraints it was made (the main constraints being run time and its authorized nature). And I think "Endless Harmony" had genuine pathos; again, not easy under those constraints. How it frames Brian giving up on "Smile", how it deals with the Mike/Van Dyke stuff, how it frames the Landy era, it's all done with a deft touch.

I fear the new doc, even if longer and covering the post-1998 era, will appear shinier and slicker by virtue of being a more modern production, but it might lack as much pathos and soul as we might like.

But if it can end up on Disney+ or Hulu (the two likely results considering Disney's involvement), that will certainly boost the band's visibility.

I want to see David Oppenheim's Smile-sessions footage.  ;)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nancyberk/2023/09/15/mike-love-shares-beatles-inspiration-and-why-the-beach-boys-are-going-country/?sh=53f3b81a4591

The Future

Might there be a future collaboration with the group’s surviving co-founders Brian Wilson and Al Jardine (Dennis Wilson died in 1983. Carl Wilson died in 1998.)?

“There is a documentary coming out on the Beach Boys. I don't know when it's set to air. But we're definitely getting together for that. And that will be pretty nice because, you know, my cousin Brian and I go back to childhood and young adulthood— teenage years and everything. So, he went to high school with Alan Jardine.”

I agree that expectations for documentary are low-I said on the other board that either they need to scour the world for interesting, unseen footage or they need to seriously dig into all the subjects fans want to know more about. But I believe neither thing will happen and it will be more talking heads saying that Brian is a genius and the aging band members reciting the Same canned responses we’ve heard too often

This documentary will probably be awful but it makes me happy they're getting together

That's exactly what I'm afraid of and honestly it is also the most likely way it will be because it has always been. You can't necessarily blame the guys for it as they only answer questions. It would need a different approach from the makers of the film.




I would love that, though. Through the years a lot of footage has come to light. Having the edited Hawaii 1967 footage half heartedly synched with a slowed down "Live in London" GOK from "An american Band" again would just blow badly. Surely there is more exciting - unseen - footage from their 60s heydays to the 70s comeback.

There may be…things thought lost keep popping up on YouTube.  So are things thought erased actually erased or just sitting in a vault gathering dust. Example-the BBs appeared twice on the Joey Bishop show. Those two appearances have never been booted but I don’t have proof that they don’t exist. But to find out is really a job for the BBs management or Iconic-they have the clout to look in ABC tv’s vaults. But that would take time and money and they’d have to license that footage. It’s undoubtedly easier to use footage from Sullivan or Red Skelton that’s all ready remastered and cleaned up….but it would be cooler to use the unseen footage! Of course some of the footage on YouTube may be poor quality video taped by a fan off the TV and maybe some footage isn’t in the vaults. When writing my book a guy told me that he’d seen footage of the BBs at the Silver Spade in 1970 on Australian TV…it would be cool to find that footage. It’s known that New Zealand TV filmed a 1978 concert but the footage we usually see is from the show in Melbourne a week later.

Update: Apparently they did get together for the documentary, according to a recent interview with Mike Love. Relevant info in the quote box, taken from what looks to be another clickbait story on the BBs playing with Jimmy Page, but with some new info towards the end.

Source: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/mike-love-beach-boys-jimmy-page/

MIKE LOVE RECALLS AMAZING PERFORMANCES WITH ‘MARTIAN’ JIMMY PAGE


Here's the link to the AL.com story cited above:
https://www.al.com/life/2023/10/mike-love-talks-beach-boys-jimmy-buffett-jamming-with-jimmy-page.html

Now that's great. Probably "Surfer Girl".

Would have loved to have heard this acapella performed with just the boys and no cameras or audience. Wonder how Brian sounded without all of the distractions around him.