Birds of Paradise, originally televised as a short series in the late 1980's, is now scheduled for a composite screening by Encore Avenue early next Monday morning. It was created by Playboy Enterprises in 3 or 4 episodes I think of 30 minutes each, and I have never seen it screened again so I was surprised to find it still extant. Presumably the recent financial problems of the Playboy Empire have led to films from their archives being dusted off and again offered to late night TV channels, so perhaps we may find it on offer more than once in the near future and brief comments may be justified..
My wife and I saw the first episode on the Canadian Superchannel movie channel, probably very soon after it was released, and we quite enjoyed it as very light late night entertainment. There was a lot of eye candy in its simple script, and this was a time when women were becoming concerned about exploitation movies, but my wife also enjoyed it and was equally ready to watch the second episode probably a week later. I do not remember whether just one or more episodes followed this, but next Monday's running time is listed at 85 min so there was probably one, which we certainly missed. The very thin story featured three young women in an inherited motor yacht - they were pulchritudinous and their cruising grounds were equally attractive so the viewer could not lose either way despite the nasty young men who tried to prevent them from having fun, but ultimately of course paid an appropriate penalty by being unexpectedly ducked in the sea.
Watching these two episodes was very similar to looking at a magazine in a professional office whilst waiting for an appointment - this helps pass time enjoyably, but one does not expect to remember it a few days later. Whether one picks up a Playboy pictorial or a National Geographical illustrated travelogue matters very little, both provide plenty of interest to look at without becoming demanding. One simply looks for magazines with copious eye candy and not much obtrusive text material, so that it does not matter whether or not the call comes before finishing reading. I have spent over 20 years without any distress from not finding out how this series ended, and am certainly not getting up at 3.30 a.m. to rectify this next Monday (although if I can find an old VHS tape to overwrite I might record it). Perhaps there should be more of this type of harmless ultra-light entertainment on offer, unfortunately this seems unlikely as few budding directors want to sharpen their teeth producing material likely to receive more criticism than praise. Maybe one solution might be a Harlequin division among DVD distributors.
Please note that these comments relate to the televised version with the title "Birds of Paradise". The "Soft Touch" title appears to relate to a VHS cassette version which I have not seen but which I believe provided the candy with better wrapping.
