Junior Meets the BEAR Patrol: All Kinds of Action for All Kinds of Men, Part 1

By Josh Eliot

“All Kinds of Action for All Kinds of Men”

A slogan Catalina used in advertising for many years may not have been the initial business plan when Catalina Video was developed and named by founder William Higgins, but it quickly moved in that direction once Higgins stepped back from the company. As early as my first couple of shoots for Catalina back in 1987, we were filming Black Magic with Joe Simmons and Gene LaMar. I barely remember much about Joe Simmons other than the fact that he was a stunning presence on the set and so sweet and professional. We shot Black Force in 1988, which starred Randy Cochran. The movie used the same nighttime woods set we constructed for Mike Henson and Doug Niles in My Best Buddy and also shared the interior shower sets from The Young Cadets, with slight modifications changing them from a military base to a prison farm. Unfortunately, the movie Black Force was pulled shortly after release. There was nothing out of the ordinary in it, other than the fact that it was interracial. It was pulled because a movie called Taxi from In Hand Video was involved in a Georgia lawsuit to determine if it was obscene, due to a gang bang. Things eventually worked out, and I’m happy to say that I see Black Force back for sale on DVD again! Catalina’s Black Gold Series actually started under Higgins with Black Attack and Black Attack II, but really came into fruition in the 1990’s and continued being successful through the 2000’s. A major reason for its success was the fantastic pool of models in the L.A. area elevating the productions. Hot stars like Bobby Blake, Rick Pantera, Jack Simmons, Flex Gamble, Andre Bolla and Bo Stallion. The Black Gold Series was still in production all the way up until we stopped shooting movies altogether in 2006.

Joe Simmons returned to our set for Black Alley: South of the Border in 1991 for director Chet Thomas. This time, we cast Black actors with Latino actors and made some really hot releases! It wasn’t until years later, in 1995 when I heard about his passing, that I discovered Simmons' notoriety. Joe Simmons was featured in Robert Mapplethorpe’s controversial Black Book series. From that point on, we started our Baja Bay Series, with movies focused on showcasing hot, uncut Latino studs. In the mid 90’s, Catalina was looking to diversify even further when we started our Leather Series with A Taste of Leather (1996) and our Furry Features Series with Big BEAR Lake (1997). My follow-up blog will focus more on our Latino and Leather series and movies from Furry Features.

Diversity kept expanding in 1997 when we developed the Far East Features Series, which pretty much came about for one reason and one reason only: Brandon Lee. Chi Chi LaRue introduced us to Brandon Lee who (now age 44) was a hot, super hung Asian superstar. The beautiful thing about Brandon is that he fit seamlessly in any movie; for example, the opening group orgy in Big Guns 2, as well as Harley’s Crew and Dial S for Sex. But having Brandon grace the box covers of our Far East Features Series made them an instant success. Brandon starred in the movies Asian Persuasion (1997), Fortune Nookie (1998) and Chew Manchu (2000), and started the ball rolling for other productions like Crème of Sum Yung Gai (2004) and With Sex You Get Eggroll (1999).

Very early on after the millennium, we started Freshman Features (we were on a roll), which was basically a twink-based series with a young collegiate cast. The Rascal Series of movies was born and were made with a continuing storyline from 2001-2003. 100% clarity: the name of the Rascal movies just so happened to also be the same name as Chi Chi LaRue’s new company, Rascal Video, but it was all just a coincidence! Though she didn’t think so. The Rascal Series was going to be a school-based series like Beverly Hills 90210 meets Netflix’s Elite. The lead character was Ricky Haskell, a character based on Eddie Haskell from Leave it to Beaver, as the Rascal.

Of course, I wouldn't dream of making a school-themed movie without casting Sharon Kane in a non-sexual role as the dean, Ms. Narkwurst! She was a hot, if not somewhat crazy, head of the academy with a strong European accent. Her character was based on The Ilsa series from the 1970’s, played by Dyanne Thorne. (Ilsa Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks - 1976, Ilsa The Tigress of Siberia - 1977, Ilsa The Wicked Warden - 1977). Needless to say, Sharon’s accent and performance had us all in stitches. We shot her scenes for the first three movies all in one day, following one of the sex scenes. My spouse Tony Fontana played Coach Collins, who was instrumental in the Rascal’s growth while at the academy.

The Rascal was played by Brandon Weber from El Paso, Texas. We wanted a newcomer or an underexposed performer to take on the role. Brandon had a few scenes under his belt, but for a low profile company, so the fact that we offered him a six picture deal after completing the initial Rascal movie was kind of unheard of. He had this little bratty edge to him that was perfect for the role, but it also got on my nerves a bit. The series was an instant hit and had five follow-up features: The Rascal Joins the Wrestling Team, The Rascal Stows Away, The Rascal vs The Spoiled Brat, The Rascal Goes to Bootcamp and The Rascal’s Graduation Gang Bang. After directing The Rascal vs The Spoiled Brat, I was, as they say, out of there! I'd had quite enough of “The Rascal.” I finished off Ms. Narkwurst’s character by making her go blind after she moved during a Lasik surgery because she had an itch. I handed off the last two features to Brad Austin and Peter Romero to write and direct. Looking back on things, I wish I would have finished the series myself, but I was way over it. For the record, The Spoiled Brat was going to be a spin off, but that fell flat. The Rascal was now past tense and I came up with “Junior,” continuing for Freshman Features with Junior’s Nude Cleaning Service (2003). It happened that while in post-production for Junior in 2003, I stumbled onto an idea for a new series. In Junior’s Nude Cleaning Service, it just coincidentally happened that the young twink cleaners at Junior’s company were servicing older men like Ray Harley and Maxime Cannon. It didn’t really hit me until I was editing the movie that the combination of older and younger was something we could fine tune, casting and story-wise, to create a new series. I brought it up to the GM, and the Generation Gap Series was born. This new series was to pair older guys with young twinks. We had a good stable of hot guys from our Leather Series and this gave us an opportunity to give them more work opposite the young'uns. Now, I know these types of matchings had occurred in the past successfully, like Chad Douglas and Kevin Wiles in Big Guns, but this series would really focus on pairing those couples with storylines to match the idea. Daddy’s Teen-Age Turn On (2003) was the first, and this new, deliberate “hungry daddy eats the innocent” idea was really working out. Features like Daddy’s Reform School Playmate (2004), Junior Meets the BEAR Patrol (2004) and Daddy’s Bubble Butt Boys (2005) were in full swing with more on the way up until Catalina stopped shooting new productions in 2006.

The Generation Gap theme seems to be going extra strong these days with companies like Mormon Boyz, Bang Me Daddy, Say Uncle, Family Dick, Dad Perv, Creep Dad, Dad Creepy, Family Cest and Family Values all putting out new content to a very receptive audience...

Bio of Josh Eliot:

At the age of 25 in 1987, Josh Eliot was hired by Catalina Video by John Travis (Brentwood Video) and Scott Masters (Nova Video). Travis trained Eliot on his style of videography and mentored him on the art of directing. Josh directed his first movie, Runaways, in 1987. By 2009 when Josh parted ways with Catalina Video, he'd produced and directed hundreds of features and won numerous awards for Best Screenplay, Videography, Editing, and Directing. He was entered into the GayVN Hall of fame in 2002.