It’s never easy pulling off a pop-culture spoof, which can either sink under its own weighty pretentions or swim with that just-right ironic touch eliciting a knowing smile.
So count me as smiling at IFC’s “The Spoils of Babylon,” which succeeds on almost every satiric level in lampooning those bloated, overwrought ’70s miniseries (“Rich Man, Poor Man,” “The Thorn Birds”) that people of a certain age will remember with some nostalgic fondness. An all-star cast including Tobey Maguire, Kristen Wiig, Tim Robbins and Michael Sheen (“Masters of Sex”) — and a theme song crooned by Steve Lawrence (!) — helps steer the ship to its humorous port of call.
The six-part “Spoils,” premiering Thursday night, is executive-produced by Will Ferrell, who also introduces each episode in the guise of onetime best-selling author Eric Jonrosh who, thirty years earlier, spent three years (and his life savings) turning his wildly popular book, “The Spoils of Babylon,” into a 22-hour movie. For reasons Jonrosh couldn’t fathom, the TV networks passed on his labor of love.
Now, three decades later, he’s presenting to the world the watered-down version of his masterpiece, in all its cheesy glory, as a miniseries. The years haven’t been kind to Jonrosh; he’s a bearded, overweight, fedora-wearing alcoholic hack who introduces each episode of “Spoils” from a seedy restaurant booth. For those who remember — and for those who don’t — he’s Ferrell’s homage to the late-’70s version of a growling Orson Welles in those Paul Masson Wine commercials (“We will sell no wine before its time”).
I won’t elaborate on the plotline of a spoof like “Spoils of Babylon” — that would ruin the fun — but suffice it to say that it encompasses the sweeping, majestic story of the Morehouse family.
The story opens with a nod to “Double Indemnity,” as family scion Devon Morehouse (Maguire) — shot during an argument — stumbles into his office, turns on a reel-to-reel tape machine (hey, it’s the ’70s) and starts dictating his family’s story. It begins in 1931, when Devon is adopted by dirt-poor, West Texas wildcatter Jonas Morehouse (Robbins), who finally strikes oil on his dusty homestead and almost overnight becomes a captain of industry, overseeing a vast, Howard Hughes-like business empire.
From there the story veers into the familiar, “Dallas”-type arc of dysfnctional family melodram and unrequited love — including the “forbidden” feelings kindled between the adopted Devon and his sister, Cynthia (Wiig, who’s perfect for the part).
The most fun, though, is watching the soused Jonrosh as he recalls sleeping with every cast member during the three years it took to shoot his movie — and lets us know that he and his ex-wife, who played Cynthia in “Spoils,” “often would hold up shooting to take pleasure of each other’s flesh in front of everyone.”
It’s reminiscent of those old “Saturday Night Live” skits in which Ferrell and Rachel Dratch — as tactile college professors Roger and Virginia Klarvin — spouted pseudo-poetic romantic nonsense to each other (as their horrified friends and neighbors looked on).
Mostly everything about Jonrosh’s “Spoils” miniseries is cleverly third-rate, right down to its obviously fake exteriors and its shots of cars (tiny models pulled by visible wires). There’s even a nod to slipshod editing (Robbins, as the British actor playing Jonas, lets his accent slip several times).
It’s all in good fun, lets us in on the joke and — save for one dumb plot device — is well done and believable in its contextual universe.
Rock on, Eric Jonrosh.