Erica Gavin of Russ Meyer's Vixen!
TVC 676.3: Ed and guest co-host Chuck Harter welcome Erica Gavin, the actress known around the world as the star of Vixen! (1968), the satiric sexploitation movie produced, directed, and co-written by Russ Meyer that esteemed critic Roger Ebert once described as "the quintessential Russ Meyer film." Despite numerous attempts at censorship (including one of the first-ever X ratings and twenty-three separate U.S. prosecutions for obscenity), Vixen! became one of the top-grossing movies of 1968, forever changing the face of independent film making while remaining the creative template for Meyer’s unapologetic vision of American cinema. Topics discussed this segment include the various taboo issues that Meyer tackled in Vixen! (nymphomania, racism, communism, draft dodging, lesbianism, and incest) and how the maverick filmmaker was both of his time and ahead of his time. Severin Films has just released Russ Meyer's Vixen!, Russ Meyer’s Supervixens, and Russ Meyer's Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens on Blu-ray for the first time as part of a landmark partnership with the Russ Meyer Trust. The Blu-ray release of Vixen! includes more than three hours of extra features (including a brand-new audio commentary by Erica Gavin, plus archival interviews with Erica Gavin and Harrison Page), while both Supervixens and Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens are likewise chockful of extra features.