The actual release date for this movie is under some debate: director Robert Altman — yes, the same one who did Nashville — shot the film in 1983; it was copyrighted in 1985, then shelved until it got a small theatrical release in 1987 and 1988.

The reason for the 1983–1988 delay was simple: MGM had no idea what it was. They expected a raunchy, commercial hit like Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Instead, they got a weird, satirical, jazz-infused art film about teens. They test-marketed it, audiences were baffled and the studio orphaned it until a change in management led to the tiny 1987 theatrical run.

While it might seem weird that the man who gave us M*A*S*H* tackled National Lampoon, Altman was actually in a career exile at the time. After the failure of Popeye, he worked on smaller budgets and experimental formats. Now, we could debate whether he was the right person to shoot it, but I kind of like this movie, which has a ramshackle, all-over-the-place feel.

Loosely based on stories written by Ted Mann and Tod Carroll. O.C. and Stiggs were recurring characters in the magazine, with the entire October 1982 issue being about “The Utterly Monstrous Mind-Roasting Summer of O.C. and Stiggs.” One of the big differences is that the print versions of the characters are destructive, while their film versions are a little more socially redeemable.

O.C., which means Oliver Cromwell Oglivie (Daniel H. Jenkins), and Stiggs (Neill Barry) are two Arizona teens whose idea of a great night is driving their car, the Gila Monster, to pick up girls, get booze from Wino Bob (Melvin van Peebles) and pick up some ladies. And oh yeah, drive the Schwab family — Randall (Paul Dooley), Elinore (Jane Curtin), Randall Jr. (Jon Cryer) and Lenore (Laura Urstein) — nuts.

Even in a teen comedy, Altman used his signature multi-track recording system. If the movie feels “all over the place,” it’s because characters are often talking over each other in a way that Animal House never attempted. To capture the feel down right, Altman encouraged the young actors to live in the house that served as the O.C. and Stiggs home during production to create authentic clutter and chemistry.

Altman’s argument is that, while audiences saw his take on Porky’s, he saw through the fake outrage in those movies and was delivering satire. But yeah. No one else wanted that. As the director himself said, “It was a satire of teen sex comedies, gosh darn it, not an example of that dubious breed!”

The film features King Sunny Adé and his African Beats. Altman was obsessed with Juju music at the time and shoehorned a massive musical performance into the film, which was wildly out of place for a 1980s teen flick, but adds to that mind-roasting vibe.

But hey! Ray Walston is great as always as Gramps, and it’s kinda inspiring to get Dennis Hopper in one of these movies. He even flies his helicopter so Mark can woo Cynthia Nixon.

It’s kind of fascinating to me that this movie was even made, and that’s pretty much the charm of it. It’s a $7 million middle finger to the studio system. It’s not funny because of the jokes. It’s funny because it feels like it was directed by someone who had never met a teenager but had read a lot of Hunter S. Thompson.