The Smiley Smile Message Board

Oh my god.  That's the only words I can come up with.  I think my favorite part is when the Brian Wilson character (who doesn't remotely resemble BW except for the fact that he is a white male) is so messed up that he can't write a song, and the cool and level headed Mike Love character shows up and reluctantly agrees give Brian a song writing lesson ("the first thing you need is a hook").  The result is Good Vibrations, which becomes a big hit, proving that if BW would only just listen to Love's advice they would have had many more hits.  I also like how the legendary tent in BW's dinning room suddenly becomes the WHOLE house, with tent like fabric hanging everywhere.  Maybe this actually is how the whole era looked through the eyes of Mike Love?

This was even worse than Summer Dreams.  Anybody else see that show? Another informative classic.

Kirk Ellis, the writer, is on Facebook; someone should ask him how much influence the individual Beach Boys had on the script/his vision.

I know I'm one of the only ones but I prefer it over Summer Dreams. The reason? It was the thing that got me into the band cause it had actual recordings of the band! And I mean, even if the story is wrong, it's all about the music right? And if that movie gets people interested to explore things further then that's a good thing right? Well, I wouldn't be posting this message if it wasn't for that movie.

OK, agreed.  American Family is better than Summer Dreams.  At least American Family hits on most of the key events.  I was actually surprised that American Family touched on things like the Capitol Records guy looking at mock ups of the Smile album cover.  Clearly the writer had done his homework in some respects.  The problem is in the revisionist history ie BW portrayed as a psychotic drug freak.  I think I actually find value in the film, as I mentioned earlier, in the insight it gives into Mike Love (and other BBs) perspective of the 1966-67 era.  From their perspective it may seem accurate.  But I hesitate in fully buying in to this idea, knowing Mike Love's love for revising the past (such as in the Endless Harmony doc where he is portrayed as an equal partner to BW in the mold of Lennon/McCartney).

It's a movie, though, not an album. :\

I thought part I wasn't half bad. Then things went awry in Part II. Not sure what happened. Even with its faults, I did enjoy it more than Summer Dreams.

What I don't understand is why did Brian participate, providing some solo piano/vocal stuff for the filmmakers, and then in return gets dragged through the mud? My favorite touch was when they drag "Brian" on stage at the end of the film and the camera makes sure to get a quick shot of his hands as he merely pretends to play keyboard, much as he did on his early solo tours. Someone had an ax to grind, it seems.

This movie was very mis-informative but a lot of fun. Favorite moment for me is when "Brian" is walking around his mansion seeing the padlocked fridge and stumbling into his home studio with a band waiting for him to play his two chords over and over on the piano. This is why we have debates over Mr. Love which I try my best to stay out of.

Summer Dreams is a cult classic, i.e. so bad it's quite enjoyable. Favourite moments: when the guys in their early 20s all of a sudden sport gargantuan and visibly artificial beards. It's known as 'the beard movie', actually.
Great: the guy playing Murry. He eerily resembles the real man, and when you see him reflected in the studio booth window, he looks like an angry God hovering over his son Brian. 
Also the SMiLE tapes segment is great.

Recommended for all the wrong reasons, in fact.

I realise that. And yes as a movie it's pretty average and there are a lot of things that are wrong with the film. But I'm just saying that the movie is essentially about a couple of guys who made some beautiful music and I just like the fact that they used the actual recordings most of the time. And my point is, even if a book, movie, documentary, website or anything else gets something wrong in regards to who sang what or what really happened at a certain session etc., in the end if something leads to someone searching out the music then isn't that the most important thing? And if the person is really interested in knowing more about the band then they will seek out more credible information in the end anyway.


Agree with you there! I laughed so hard at certain moments just cause it was so bad in spots!

'They're just pieces Brian.....just.....pieces".  ::)

I personally liked most of the film up to 1965, then it was all downhill and I truly hated the stuff that concerned GV and Smile. Made me very angry. One note that I found interesting was that the boys are bickering over "Wouldn't it Be Nice" and Carl, usually quiet and even-tempered in the film, shouts at them telling them if they have music like the track they are hearing, it's a great oppurtunity and they shouldn't waste it and bicker. If only he did that six or eight months later  ::) ::) ::) ::)

The only times they didn't use the original BB recordings were when Brian was at the Rovells house on the piano, and the "Geronimo Leaps" faux-Smile session.

The part with Brian playing/singing at the Rovells' house was quite jarring for me...hearing "old" Brian sing while watching "young" Brian was really strange.  I realize that they couldn't have used a studio recording for that, but I didn't think it worked at all. 

I remember watching it a few years ago on some obscure TV station with the wife....and I agree that up to about 1965 its actually pretty good and for the most part doesn't appear to deviate far from the truth (whatever truth is).

However the way SMiLE is handled and subsequent revision of verifiable history is quite reprehensible. I guess the people who made the film did so in good faith, and the agenda wasn't to publicise one person's view of events...but sadly it turned out that way.

However, I'd wager if the Brian biopic ever materialises, it will be centred around his version of events...just like American Family seems to be about Mike's.

From my wife's point of view, she wasn't aware of some of the early history and it was quite informative...and entertaining.

The 'people (or person) who made the film' did so because pressure was brought to bear on them for it to turn out the way it did. Which was, of course, 'to publicise one person's view of events'.

Various people depicted were so offended at how part one turned out that they forced the network to insert a disclaimer prefacing part two saying, in effect, 'this is based on real events but the makers have imparted their own spin'. Further, Van Dyke ensured that in all future airings, his character was renamed "Samuel". When asked about part two, Brian's comment was "it wasn't very nice".

I've seen the film several times now, and I don't remember Van Dyke's charactor ever being called anything other that Van Dyke. Maybe I just haven't paid enough attention to it.

I have two questions about Summer Dreams. I thought about starting another topic, but this seems like an ok spot for it:

1. During the sex scene between Dennis and Karen(I think?), there is a song playing that I can not identify. The "lyrics" to it are something that I can only spell out phonetically: "Bah oooo, mow mow, ba oooo mow mow".  Is this a real song, or is it a fake song, like the one that "Dennis" plays a few times in the film?

2. At the end of the movie, there is a concert depicted where Brian takes the microphone from Mike, and stutters and stumbles his way through an awkward dedication to Dennis. Did this actually happen? When/where was it? Or is it just an example of "weird Brian stuff", and not from one specific show?

1. Fake
2. Fake

whoever casted American Family did a great job, well except for maybe Van Dyke, whose character looked NOTHING like him, when did Van Dyke have blonde hair  :lol

Nick Stabile as Denny was eery in part 1, he could have been his twin; Audree, Murry, Mike's characters looked just like them. Carl, Bruce, Brian and Al, casting didn't do as well a job.  

Between this movie and Summer Dreams, I prefer American Family.  Just can't get past those beards in the other movie to take the plot seriously.

You are out of the band Buckwheat  :lol

Funny but I liked the Van Dyke character in the movie. He was funny and after all most of the dialog is his. As for the drug thing it didn't really make him seem bad there either. After Parks bitched so nastily about Mike after this movie I never gave him the same respect.

Maybe he had reason.

It was ok for the first part, but the second part was just thrown together, and I really hated at the end where Brian comes off like Ozzy Osbourne, if Ozzy had the IQ of a bag of microwave popcorn.

You know it's sad when the movie Walk Hard had a better depiction of Brian. :lol

I think he took it too far and got petty about things. It was unprofessinal to write magazines where Mike gives his side of things and complain like some pissed off fan. Mike didn't write the movie and it didn't always make him look great either. For instance the breakdown scene and where he almost hit Brian didn't make Mike come off well. If Mike has made it clear that Smile wasn't his favorite project, he always spoke of Van Dyke highly.

I'll rephrase that: Van Dyke had reason.

Anything that can be shared?

You've seen the mini-series, you'll know why.  :)

Yes I have seen it and even own an Emmy voter's copy of it too (with the VDP's charatcer's originally aired name intact). I understand why Van was pissed at how he was portrayed, but I don't think others in this thread are convinced.

The way VDP was portrayed pissed me off but to be honest I tend to side with Van Dyke on things...he's just cool that way. ;D

You know, I had the same thought when seeing this recently. If they really wanted to show the disintegration of Smile and compile it down to one scene, they could have just depicted the session of "Cabinessence" rather than Brian playing the "Geronimo Leaps" for the others in his house (or whatever it was supposed to be... kind of sounded like "I Love to Say Dada"). The scene in the Walk Hard movie over the song "Black Sheep" was probably a lot more true to life.  hehe

This is true. What WALK HARD captured in addition to the wackiness was the sheer ambition of what Brian was attempting with SMiLE (very smart to hire Van Dyke to write and arrange the song used). In both of the Beach Boys TV bio films, this period is treated like a few months of slovenly, wasteful noodling and sound effects recording; as if Brian wished to follow up "Good Vibrations" by releasing the sound of dust accumulating (or dogs barking "Jingle Bells" - then again, that idea would have been a hit!).

There's a reason they couldn't use "Cabin Essence"... and the "Geronimo Leaps" sequence was in the studio. There's a full version of it, btw.  :-D

Let's see...

What's Good About This Movie
-Production values are great.
-Concert scenes are superb
-All-in-all, the writing's pretty good
-The use of the original Beach Boys versions of the songs (trust me, when you hear what they got in Summer Dreams, this is a big deal)
-I've never seen a better celebrity impersonation than Matt Letscher as Mike Love.
-The little bits here and there that they didn't necessarily have to include, but in doing so they up the quality exponentially (Two Step Side Step, the original Good Vibrations demo, Murry Wilson soundbites peppered throughout the dialogue, etc.)

Everything Else
-They could've had Nick Drake ride in on a unicycle shitting nickels and it would've been more convincing than Fred Weller as Brian Wilson.
-Same goes for the guy who played Bruce Johnston.
-For that matter, most of the cast besides Matt Letscher.
-The unabashed Mike bias.
-The way they flanderize Brian from troubled genius to ridiculous drug-addled spaz.
-The way they flanderize Van Dyke Parks from intelligent hipster to pretentious jerk.
-That the actor for said part didn't bother to dye his hair black.
-The fact that they could license everything except some original Smile tapes.
-The lack of Blondie Chaplin or Rickie Fataar.
-The various other historical inaccuracies.
-FUCKING FRED WELLER!

Question: everyone knows that Mike Love oversaw the writing of this movie, and the proof is in the pudding, but if that's the case, how come he didn't have the whole illegitimate daughter thing taken out?

All you need to know about that movie, and what must have transpired, is there in the scene where Mike finds out his new wife smokes.

For someone to have included that scene at all, meant the original script was heavily researched.  For it to have played out the way it did onscreen, meant the script was heavily edited and toned down.

Always loved Jon Stebbins' memory of the day we visited the set of "An American Family"
http://thejonstebbins.com/family.html

You're not alone; An American Family is best left forgotten, but it was miles better than the awful Summer Dreams.  The latter movie had Dennis composing music he didn't even write! 

Thought I should mention that my 'Santa Monica offices' that Jon mentions in the story, (the reception area of which is in the photo with Stabile, with the surfboards behind me), was my state-of-the-art editing facility, Digital Universe.  Look  at the credits for "Endless Harmony", as Alan Boyd set up residency with us for about six months and edited his film there!

The part about you "butting in" during a scene is brilliant.  ;D

You know, Jay, I guess it must have happened like that, but I don't remember doing that...  However, one of my favorite Brian moments was when he told me that the reason Dennis loved me so much was because of the way I reminded him of their Dad, the way I burst into a room & took things over.
Years later, I remember them both relating a similar story to Loren Michaels about Murry, only Dennis finished Brian's story of Murry blasting in & saying, "Hey, Hi, how are ya'",  by saying that he would then beat everybody up!  Now, that was hardly ever my way...

Excuse me for fishing this one out, but:

Van Dyke Parks accompanied Lowell George's daughter Inara on her 2009 tour in Europe. You must know that VDP saw Inara grow up from childhood, he'd been a house friend, esp. since the passing away of Lowell. During the The Hague show, he said in between songs: 'Ladies And Gentlemen, Inara George! Actually, She Know Me Already When I Was A Brunette...'.

Not only proof that VDP wasn't blond, but also of his off-beat humour, I think...

So um has Jon ever told this particular story in the mean time? :)

Cheers