The Pom Pom Girls. In fact, the soundtrack album for The Van credits group member Michael Lloyd with "Musical Supervision" and the LP was released by Warner/Curb Records, in which Lloyd was an executive and producing chart hits by Shaun Cassidy and Debby Boone that same year. Critique The film shows stereotypical teenage boys whose social lives revolve around getting high, drag racing, and pursuing girls. The film features music from Sammy Johns (most notably the song Chevy Van), and is representative of its time. It exemplifies the free sex of an era before herpes and AIDS awareness, and celebrates the cultural tropes of the time, such as the heavily accessorized van that provides the film's title and the van's 8-track player. The film is an early example of a relatively new type of teen comedy, which featured sexual situations, nudity and substance abuse, very different from the Beach Party films of the early 1960s, with their no-nudity, drug-free plots. The Van was one of a set of four Crown International Pictures releases (the others being The Pom Pom Girls, Malibu Beach and Van Nuys Blvd.) that helped herald a form that would be exemplified by 1980 with The Hollywood Knights and later with the Porky's series. The film is referenced in every single episode of the Grindbin Podcast, a podcast dedicated to the discussion of exploitation films. The Van was the subject of the very first episode. This led to a running gag where at the end of every subsequent episode, the hosts would imagine absurd scenarios wherein Bobby and Andy (DeVito's character) would cross over to the universe of whatever film they were discussing. Reception In six days over the July 4 holiday, the film grossed $2.5 million from 360 theaters, a record for Crown at the time. References External links 1977 films 1970s sex comedy films American independent films American screwball comedy films American sex comedy films American teen comedy films Films set in Los Angeles Crown International Pictures films Vansploitation films 1970s screwball comedy films 1977 comedy films 1970s English-language films 1977 independent films 1970s American films