It’s ironic that the man who created the perennial holiday classic A CHRISTMAS STORY should also be credited with jump-starting two of the most popular subgenres in the history of low-budget filmmaking.

In 1974, Bob Clark directed BLACK CHRISTMAS which is the forefather of all slasher movies that followed. Setting up all the cliches that many imitated and in some cases like John Carpenter’s 1978 classic HALLOWEEN, actually improved upon. In 1982, Clark was also the genius behind PORKY’S, a low-budget teen sex comedy that pretty much began an onslaught of poorly conceived teenage exploitation pictures and of course seventeen years later was ripped off almost wholesale by the AMERICAN PIE franchise.

Although never considered critic darlings, PORKY’S was a mega boxoffice hit in 1982 raking in over $100 million dollars (that’s PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN good for the time and if you adjust for inflation) and which set the stage for lesser-sequels PORKY’S 2: THE NEXT DAY and PORKY’S REVENGE. Looking back on the films all these years later, the first two (directed by Bob Clark) even mixed some interesting social commentary within the sexcapades of its horny leads.

Now, 20th Century Fox is giving the PORKY’S trilogy a boxoffice set dubbed PORKY’S: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION and finally brings the third film to DVD for the first time.

As is par for the course for these types of collections, the first movie gets all the bonus features, while the sequels are bonus-free.

You’d think since they were shelling out money to get the filmmakers to talk about the original film, they could have at least ponied up some extra cash to finish off the discussion on the subsequent films, but no dice.

Nonetheless, PORKY’S: THE ONE SIZE FITS ALL EDITION has a great audio commentary by the late Clark, a special featurette of Clark looking back on the original film and its origins, the original PORKY’S video game pitch (very, very strange, but it makes you want to hunt down a copy of the old Atari game nonetheless) and a strange featurette called PORKY’S - A COMEDY CLASSIC which features two comedians riffing on the good and the bad points of the film.

Sadly missing is a comprehensive documentary from the original cast which would have been more than entertaining considering most of the them didn’t go on to have the types of award-winning careers that say the careers of the actors from FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH had. Only supporting player Kim Cattrall from the original PORKY’S (as the infamous Lassie) enjoyed any consistent amount of fame (but aside from 1987’s MANNEQUIN, it wasn’t until SEX AND THE CITY did she really become a hot commodity).

As for revisiting the three films, PORKY’S still holds up as the best of the three. At the time of seeing the movie as a young kid still in junior high school, I still remember being perplexed by many of the film’s raunchier gags that went over my very young head at the time, but looking back on the film it’s a much more thoughtful entry in the teen sex comedy genre that could fit snugly alongside other above-average entries of the era including 1983’s VALLEY GIRL, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH and THE LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN.

Set in the ‘50s at Angel Beach High, writer-director Clark spins a tale of his high school days searching for sex in all the wrong places and the outrageous practical jokes teenagers play on each other.

There’s an escalation of the film’s set pieces including the infamous shower scene and Catrall as "Lassie." But there’s also an innocence as well. Where most ‘80s sex comedies had an abundance of nudity and sex, this film is essentially about wanting sex, searching for sex, but not getting any. Porky’s of course stands for the strip club on the outskirts of town that the kids try to sneak in and after being humiliated and bullied by it’s proprietor, they decide to enact revenge.

Casual conversation and a sprite cast that have a strong rapport throughout, comes off as a the dirtier version of Barry Levinson’s DINER which was released a year later. Whereas both films are essentially about kids hanging out, cracking jokes and finding themselves, there’s also a candid-ness and natural-ness about both films. While Levinson’s is still by far a more exceptional film, it’s doubtful DINER would have been made as quickly without PORKY’S being such a huge success.

While my memory of PORKY’S 2: THE NEXT DAY was being better than original, in retrospect, it doesn’t hold up as well. Not only is it missing Porky from the film, the jokes aren’t as rapid-fire and there’s not nearly enough sexual escapades. Once again Clark (here co-writing with Alan Ormsby and Roger E. Swaybill) try to graft on some heavy hot-button racial issues in the midst of mindless teen antics. As the kids face their Shakespeare play being shut down by a purient preacher, they decide to get revenge on all those trying to stop them from free speech. It’s an odd little movie, filled with some mildly amusing set pieces and one really hilarious sequence set in a graveyard that’s just as funny as it was when the movie first came out.

Also surprising is one of the best character moments in the entire franchise which happens between Pee Wee and Wendy (Dan Monahan and Kaki Hunter). The two of them go all the way at the end of the first movie, which translates to a tender scene where Pee Wee is now upset that her reputation as "easy" is so common place with everyone at school. Since the two of them are now an item, the scene is deftly handled as it brings up issues of school reputations and reality vs. gossip that still permeates regular high school angst to this day.

Finally PORKY’S REVENGE, although more a true sequel to PORKY’S in that there’s more nudity and raunchiness and it brings back Porky, it’s also lacking Clark as a writer and director. It also ignores large portions of THE NEXT DAY, although it pays off many dangling plot threads from the original film. The tired story involves the Angel Beach High teens having to throw their basketball game because their coach is being threatened by Porky who now has a riverboat version of his club circling nearby waters.

By 1985, the teen sex comedy had set up many rules and guidelines that were being constantly rehashed movie after movie, month after month and PORKY’S REVENGE tried to adhere to many of them while not truly succeeding. There aren’t any laugh-out-loud moments during the duration of the film and aside from the great soundtrack produced by Dave Edmunds (he provides the kick-ass end title song "High School Nights"), the movie never amounts to much. Perhaps it was the social commentary that made the first two film’s watchable or maybe it was a one-joke movie, but PORKY’S REVENGE, though revered by many, is not a very good movie (and to make matters worse, most of the cast look like they’re long out of college although they’re still supposed to be in high school).

And another big head-scratching question is why there’s more male full-frontal nudity in all three films versus female nudity (but that’s left for an entirely different discussion).

Still, there’s a strange sort of innocence to the PORKY'S franchise, much in the same way Clark’s A CHRISTMAS STORY (also released in 1983) possessed. While his original film may not stack up as a qualified classic, it did prove he was a very talented and versatile filmmaker that could traffic between horror, R-rated comedy and enduring kid’s films. It’s a shame he passed away when his other work was finally getting the respect that it deserved, but at least the PORKY special edition was completed with his involvement so long-time fans can find some laughter in light of the recent tragedy revolving around his death.