Raybert became BBS with the addition of a new partner, Steve Blauner, and nudged back into the black thanks to Hopper’s pet project Easy Rider (1969), the lowish-budget state-of-the-nation sensation that changed the movie business overnight. “ so audacious,” Rafelson later mused, “that nobody saw the f-g thing.”
Rafelson shrugged: “I thought I would never get to make another movie, so I might as well make 50 to start out with and put them all in the same feature.” Sheer audacity left it a cult film-in-waiting, but upon release it seemed to shake off its own target audience. Two Emmy-winning seasons later, all parties signed off with Head (1968), a full-length farewell/comedown featuring a heavy psychedelic influence – Rafelson’s co-writer was his drug-savvy pal Jack Nicholson – and cameos from Sonny Liston, Frank Zappa and Dennis Hopper. Yet elevated by solid-gold songwriting and Rafelson’s editorial finesse, the prefab four soon topped TV and pop charts. The show’s goofily knowing house style did not arrive instantly – a pilot polled direly in testing.
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