IVORY BASTARDS

TRIVIA

I'm working on fleshing this section out due to the wealth of IB material surfacing in the wake of the forthcoming DVD release. Stand by.

FUN FACTS

* According to cultural critic Janice DF Doreman, Ivory Bastards has the dubious honor of being the TV series with the highest death toll in history. Its depiction in episode F09 of a universe-splitting psysics accident theoretically results in the death of all life in the universe. It is also believed to be the only children's television depiction of the end of all existence.

* The pilot episode of the first season of Ivory Bastards (which aired as episode one when it was picked up by syndicators) was the most expensive pilot ever shot at the time. Unfortunately, the return on the original syndication deal was nowhere near what the producers had hoped for. The remaining four episodes in season one collectively cost less than the first episode.

* The original director of season one was Gabriel Montoya who later won a TVyNovelas award for his producing of the serial drama, “¡Al Rescate!” (To the Rescue!) about the lives of Mexico City ambulance drivers and how they cope on the job. Adaption rights were purchased by Jack Webb of TV’s “Dragnet”. His production company retooled it as the American show, “Emergency!” which ran from 1972 - 1979.

* Who was Telecine Nacional Mexicano? The executive producers of the Ivory Bastards were no more than a wealthy consortium of investors from the world of Mexican agriculture. They were simply money men who had visions of grandeur beyond their lucrative, yet unglamorous, professions. Known investors came from coffee, cottonseed, raw sugar, cattle and goat ranching. It was their ego and pursestring control that was responsible for the erratic flavor of the first season as each investor altered the scripts to reflect their own political, racial and religious viewpoints. It wasn’t until the departure of director Gabriel Montoya that the producers stood up to the consortium and took back creative direction. Their first moves included eliminating all of the characters and hiring Victor Luis Chavez.

* Telecine Nacional Mexicano enjoyed a good deal of success with other film and television projects. They also captured lucrative government deals producing informational films for both the Mexico Ministries of Health and of Agriculture. They lost their contract in 1976 when the government discovered that they were taking footage intended for sex education/public health films and splicing it into “adult” films that they sold in South America .

* Renaldo de la Bonte, who played the character of El Cojo Mente, was actually a professional wrestler. When hired to star for season two, he weighed a lean but muscular 215 pounds. When the show became a success he neglected his training regimen and lived the high life. By the end of season five, he tipped the scales at well over three hundred pounds. Despite heavy cocaine use, he stayed fat.

* In an interview in 2003 with Semana Del Arte De Ciudad de México (Mexico City Art Week), Hermano Quintas (Cancera) intimated that he was so disgusted with the quality of the Ivory Bastards toward the end of the third season that he rarely showed up on the set. Taking advantage of the fact that his character wore a mask, he had his brother appear as him for the bulk of seasons three and four. His brother never took the mask off even when the camera wasn’t rolling, under the pretense of method acting, so that no one would know of the switch. Hermano used his free time to lay the groundwork for the founding of Teatro Dramático.

* Victor Luis Chavez’s wife, Beatrice Perez, can be seen in episode one of season five as one of the seductresses in the restaurant scene (the dark haired one). Eager for a taste of fame and showbiz, part of her divorce settlement with Victor Luis was that she appear in a supporting role in the show. Unable to direct her scene due to her restraining order, Victor Luis had to leave that work to his assistant director. However, he coordinated with the AD and Gerry Fletcher (Fango Electrico) to do their scene multiple times under the pretense of audio problems. Beatrice was called a “puta” (whore) by Gerry several dozen times before she caught on and stormed off the set and never returned to the series, despite her being contractually able to do so.

* Dr. Jorge Hernandez, D.D.S. was considered to be the glue that held the show together during the last two seasons. In spite of the depressive attributes of his character, Dr. Head, Jorge was actually very level-headed, optimistic and genial. He was able to keep the production on an even keel and calm the personalities of his co-stars and director. He reportedly talked Victor Luis Chavez out of an on-set suicide attempt (legend says that a drugged-out Chavez tried to kill himself by placing his face in an open dictionary and repeatedly slamming it shut) and brought Renaldo de la Bonte (El Cojo Mente) to his first Overeater’s Anonymous meeting.

* Gerry Fletcher (Fango Electrico) returned to Virginia in 1979 after the death of his father. Gerry inherited his father’s tobacco farm but was unable to make a go of it and sold the farm after four unsuccessful years. He tried to get work as a boxing trainer and manager, but his long absence from the sport left him with no viable connections within the industry. He eventually moved to South Gastonia, North Carolina and became an auto mechanic and handyman. He married a local woman, Lucy Grenier, in 1991. Lucy sells pies and preserves at his garage. While generally friendly and tolerant of fans who seek him out of curiosity, he refuses to talk about his work on Ivory Bastards and does not give autographs or pose for pictures.