a stupendous sort of sequel

VIEW ALL THE PICTURES HERE

LISTEN TO THE SKETCHES: REALAUDIO

Demonic Possession and You
Mucho Man Interview
A Very Wonderful Cast Update

Watch the KILL and TELLYCHUBBIES sketches
(3.16 MB Realvideo)

EXPLODING SEQUEL:
"DR FRED STRIKES" AGAIN

(a previously-unpublished article from the vaults of Masuk High School's "Masuk Free Press")

Masuk's yearly Expo brings out the creative best in every department, from music to computer-aided drafting. But those who wandered into the art room at last year's Expo were privy to something rather odd. Dozens gathered about a small television set for a full hour and 25 minutes to watch an original motion picture created by and starring Masuk students. "Dr. Fred's Amazing Exploding Cow Show" blended live-action with puppets and experimental techniques to create pure sketch comedy madness. For this year's Expo, the crew reunited to produce a sequel, "Dr. Fred Strikes Back." Shortly before the big premiere, we spoke to director Garrett Gilchrist about the new feature, and discovered that it wasn't finished yet. "I'm very sorry," he said with a peculiar smile. "It's about half-done. We'll have fifty minutes to show, certainly, but it'll be a preview, not a premiere." This, Gilchrist says, is just a symptom of his natural creative laziness.

"It's a great picture. It's all done, we've shot everything we were going to shoot. The editing's the tricky part. The first show took three, four months to edit halfway properly. I've got two days." Gilchrist also helmed the first "Dr. Fred," expanding a 45-minute rough cut to feature length with "a lot of puppets and padding - a wonderfully low-budget bit of work." For the sequel, original star David Ashe has taken a more active role as producer. "He wrote it, the first bit of it. I didn't want to do it. The first Fred had been so impossible for me to ever get done. It was wonderful but I was glad it was over. There he was, saying let's do a sequel. I said no, I didn't want to write it. So he comes back, and he's written a script. He says this is what it's about, it's about violence in board games, and Atticus Finch action figures, it's about us. And from that moment on I was completely committed. He's a great producer, really. He does everything I can't. And the taping went like a dream. I must have forty hours of footage at home. That's why the editing's so hard." Returning are David Brown and Justin Bielawa, who also contributes written material, as well as Ben Sipprell (who starred in and produced another Gilchrist picture, "1381"), Mrs. Odell's 6th-period Drama class, Tal Pearson, Greg Nicolett, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and a cast of hundreds.

"The whole thing about the first Fred was that there was no pay involved, so we just got together our friends, basically, people who'd never acted before. And now we've spent two, three years doing this, and you couldn't ask for a better, funnier, more professional group of actors. It's a learning experience. Everyone's learned but me." That smile again. Inbetween the two productions, David Ashe took to the stage, starring in "You Can't Take It With You" and "Peter Pan." Gilchrist has continued to write, creating a semi-serious play, "Easier Than Thinking," with John Hunsucker. "I think the material's gotten darker. Even Fred II is a slower picture, even though it's still such silly stuff. You get wrapped up in what you think is the story, then at the end of the day you realize it's still about cows exploding and Spider-man songs. I'm proud to say I'm still not taking myself seriously, and I hope I never have to."

When asked what the new film is about, Gilchrist simply says "It isn't about anything. About violence, maybe, or about sequels. It's about the same thing the first show was about, whatever that was. I will say that the first show cost us all less than forty dollars, and the new one's costing over a thousand, because we had to get a new camera. But it still looks like we spent nothing on it, so don't worry. It's still endearingly poor. I'm worrying about the editing now, because everyone's got different ideas about what the sequel should be, and I keep throwing in stuff in the final cut that later I think, well that's pretty bad isn't it? I shouldn't have done that. But it's the final cut, you can't change it. It's just ... stuff. A lot of stuff." He smiles again. "I think they're getting another Dr. Fred show."

SOUND CLIPS: WAV
Perhaps you've never thought of your breakfast cereal as a threat to national security.
Art thou bored? Dive into a Dim Jim!
Fyrpesha, fyrpesha.
Fyrpesha here ...
Fyrpesha!
Hey man, how's about a nice Hawaiian ...
Isn't that what movies are all about?
... to bring you "A Minute in the Life of a Tree."
What a silly bit. And now, here's another!
And Magical Princess Mumblebee never returned from the land of the wobbly gumdrops.
I have no taste.
Help control the viewing population: have yourself spayed or neutered. Goodnight.

SOUND CLIPS: REALAUDIO
They say a cow is the sum of his experiences ...
Monologue from "The Snowman" [art film]

"Dr. Fred's Amazing Exploding Cow Show Episode II: Dr. Fred Strikes Back" was an Orange Cow Production produced by David Ashe and directed by Garrett Gilchrist. Reload this page to cycle through 52 different randomly-selected photos from the movie, or VIEW ALL THE PICTURES HERE.

Selected scenes from "Dr. Fred Strikes Back" were seen on the Dr. Fred cable access show. If you'd like a tape of this old stuff, send $10.00 to our street address, or pay with credit card using Paypal below.

Dr. Fred's Amazing Exploding Cow Show volume 1 VHS video [NTSC] - 2 hours Starring David Ashe, Garrett Gilchrist, Justin Bielawa, David Brown The no-budget sketch comedy series (shot in Garrett's basement) that started it all. Episodes 1-4 from the reedited cable access series. Contains material from both "Dr. Fred's Amazing Exploding Cow Show" and "Dr. Fred Strikes Back." more ordering info

Send orders, until may 2002, to: Garrett Gilchrist 2637 Severence St. Apt #303 Los Angeles, CA 90007 Remember, this address expires may 2002. All proceeds go to a good cause -- they become the budget of Orange Cow's next movie.

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