Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss is a 1988 American made-for-television comedy film written by Jean Shepherd and directed by Dick Bartlett, based on the 1968 short story by Shepherd. A satire of <!-- not necessarily his - he says so below --> childhood recollections of annual family vacations, it follows the Parker family (of A Christmas Story) as they travel to a Michigan lakeside camp, the eponymous Haven. It was a co-production of The Disney Channel and PBS, and aired in that order, and was released on video.
Plot
The blue-collar working world of 1950s Indiana, with period-style footage and clips from Fritz Lang's Metropolis, is accompanied by Shepherd's voiceover narration as the adult Ralph. The fourteen-year-old Ralph and friends, Flick and Schwartz, endure bureaucratic "terminal official boredom", to get their "working papers", to be able to apply for their first summer jobs.
The next day at breakfast, Ralph announces that he, Flick, and Schwartz have job interviews, and Mom notices that the family dog, Fuzzhead (Shepherd's dog Daphne
Story and early screenplay
Shepherd originally wrote the story, upon which the film is based, in 1968 as one of a series for Playboy Magazine between 1966 and 1970. The stories were later published in Shepherd's collection Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories in 1971. Shepherd later described his stories as not based literally on childhood memories: "People are always trying to make me sound like I'm just writing what happened to me. You know, I'm a humorist and a filmmaker. I don't think my stuff is any more autobiographical than, say, Woody Allen's is - or anybody who is involved in making serious films."
Production
The film was a co-production of "Disney, public TV's American Playhouse and Boston public TV station WGBH", funded by Disney, under the terms, according to Shepherd, that "they would have nothing to do with production."
It was produced from Shepherd's studio in Florida, and exterior scenes were shot in several locations around Dallas, Texas, to stand in for the film's "Hohman, Indiana".
Releases
The film originally aired numerous times on the Disney Channel beginning August 6, 1988, then shortly thereafter on PBS nationwide, and was released by Walt Disney Home Video on VHS in 1993.
Recognition
The film was nominated for a Cable ACE Award<!-- using its name at the time--> for "Best Movie or Miniseries" in 1988.
Reception
Reviews ranged from mildly negative to positive. Upon its inaugural airing on the Disney Channel in 1988, The Lexington Herald-Leader called the film "pleasant", but thought the beginning of the film might seem too similar to National Lampoon's Vacation to viewers unfamiliar with Shepherd's work. Daniel Ruth of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars, described it as "cute", and a "wistful, yet chaotic drive down memory lane", and stated, Shepherd "never loses" his "ability to see the world through a child's eyes".
In 1989, prior to the film's broadcast on PBS, Irv Letovsky of the Los Angeles Times was blasé, calling the film, "a lot of cute", but "though cute, this is sort of a compendium of how things used to be", also noting that "some of the older generation might enjoy the diversion." New Jersey Star-Ledger reviewer Jerry Krupnick found the film "hilarious" and "super fun", but declared that the role Shepherd took on for himself in the first 30 minutes of the film only stretched a "nifty 90-minute comedy" to two hours, and made it "cluttered". Time magazine listed Ollie Hopnoodle as a "Critic's Choice" for viewers in 1989.
Sequels
Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss was the last film of the Parker Family film series to be produced and distributed for television. By this time, Shepherd was making far more money from the reruns and home video sales from A Christmas Story and decided to focus on producing another feature film.