The Story Behind "Vice Academy"
by Rick Sloane
(from the Vice Academy Fan Club Newsletter, 1991. When written, Vice 4 &5 had not been conceived.)
"Vice Academy" was originaly conceived in 1988. Most viewers of the series think it was inspired by the Police Academy films, but it was not. The concept was derived from the Charlie's Angels television show. The Angels were constantly going undercover as hookers and porn queens, always invading all sorts of sleazy operations. "Vice Academy" would be a racier version of Charlies Angels, as if it had been made for the Playboy Channel. Of course, in "Vice Academy", when the women pose as stippers and porn queens, they never make the arrests in time and have to go through with their covers, something the Angels never had to worry about.
I imagined the training school where they would have learned all these techniques. The classroom where they'd practice their hooker make-up, then target practice which they'd never be good at, and finally thir first assignments, full of humiliation and degradation. It would be an uphill battle for them all the way.
Casting was important to these films. Scream Queen Linnea Quigley was my first choice to play the ditsy Didi. She read the script and liked it so much, that she immediatley agreed to play the character. Over two hundred and fifty other actresses auditioned for the other two leads. Ex-adult film star, Ginger Lynn, impressed me the most to play the spoiled brat, police cheif's daughter, Holly. Karen Russell rounded out the cast as Didi's best friend Shawnee, another trainee barley able to graduate the academy. Stand-up comedienne, Jayne Hamil, played thier stuck-in-1963 insructor, Miss Devonshire. We were on our way.
The overall look and feeling of the Vice pictures was established on the first one, with both sequels trying closley to match it. The humor was broad, the colors bright and garish, the villans way over the edge, the reality of life completley distorted. Other influences that crept into the films were Archie Comics, The Brady Bunch, Batman(the TV series) and "Married with Children."
Linnea and Ginger's characters were a seedy variation on Betty and Veronica, the two girls who chased after Archie for years. Their constant rivalry, both chasing after the same man(Petrilino in Vice2 ), and both being supervised by Miss Devonshire, (inspired by Miss Grundy).
The "no threat of any real problems" was borrowed from The Brady Bunch. Lots of boys versus girls issues were prevalent,( "What's that about women on the force?" "They're not good for nothing." "That's anything; and you're wrong!") And think about the nightmare scene from Vice 2,( taken off the force, taken off the force, taken off the force).
There is no real crime in the Vice pictures, the villans are more annoyances than actual threats. Similar to the villans from Batman, the Vice Villans are variations on the sexual demeanor and campiness of Catwoman. More concerned with their names and appearences, Queen Bee, Spanish Fly and Malathion all create a rampage only the Vice Girls can stop.
"Married with Children" gave the dark humor and cynical dialouge of characters living together in misery. Devonshire and the Comissioner put each other down as much as Peg and Al Bundy. The characters enjoy their miserable lives and never do anything to try and change.
Last but not least is the overall bizarreness of everything from the character's names to the places they go. We've encountered the Vicerama, a porn queen named Cherry Pop, a prison gang called the Rotten Apples, a Professor Kaufinger, a hooker with a "Will work for food" sign, a bogus earth-day celebration and a psuedo-porn flick called "Chafed Raw." The villans have never understood the concept of committing a crime in a vehicle that isn't exteremley easy to recognize. But, being seen is everything to them, that's why the police station is usually the first target for their crime spree.
From the first installment, the Vicew Academy pictures were hits. The films were distributed domestically through Prism Entertainment. Part one was their second highest shipping film of 1998, only surpasses by an early film of Kevin Costner's that had resurfaced. Playboy Channel bought the television premeir rights before the film was even in stores. It debuted in 1989 on Playboy, right as they ran an article in their magazine on B-Movie Bimbos, which featured both Linnea and Ginger (July 1989 issue). USA Network began screening it a month later, then went on to pick up part 2 and show them back to back. They are currently planning a marathon of the entire trilogy during the summer of 1992.
And what next? Linnea graduated out opf the academy at the end of Vice 2,( and in the truest Charlie's Angels fashion), and her younger sister Candy, (Elizabeth Kaitan), joined the cast in Part 3. Ginger went undercover in prison in Vice 2, only to be reinstated back on the force in Part 3. Is ther a Part 4 in the works? Well, not at this time, but you never know what might happen. When Pat one was released, it ended with a card reading, "The Class Most Likley to Get A Sequel," which was only a joke at the time. No one realized it would turn into a long running series of pictures!
About Rick Sloane
Rick Sloane is the brains behind the Vice trilogy (now a series of 5). From the earliest script stages to the final product, his hands are on the film throughout. Rick has always had an obsessive personality, and the Vice pictures aare a good outlet for him to utilize it.
Rick never attended a formal university for film making. In a hurry to try to make it in the industry as quickly as he could, he directed his first feature at 21 years old, only to be followed by one a year to date. "Vice 3" is his eighth feature film. His other credits include "The Visitants," "Hobgoblins," "Marked for Murder," and "Mind Body and Soul." He enjoys directing the comedies the best, any one who likes the Vice films would probably enjoy The Visitants the best of his other films.
Rick lives in the Hollywood Hills, in a home full of props and costumes left from all his films."There are times I'd like to invite the actors over, dress them up, and make them act out a scene in front of an old set, but I don't. That's what I do for a living."
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