BOB, CAROL, TED AND ALICE AND CHARLIE (MANSON!)

Sometimes I like to imagine classic films with alternative plot twists, and Paul Mazursky's Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice(1969) has been the most recent of my imagined remakes—one that dares to include serial killer/cult leader Charles Manson to shake things up even more than the original sex comedy already does (at least for the time in which it was made).

Perhaps my narrative reconfiguring comes with some good reason, as the original Mazursky film came out just a month after Charles Manson's "Family" committed those heinous crimes on Cielo Drive, including the epoch-making murders of Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, and others, which upended a decade of hippie dreams and sent them spiralling into the hangover of the 1970s.

Stranger still, in 1968, Manson visited the Esalen Institute in Big Sur—the very institute that inspired the self-discovery retreat Bob (Robert Culp) and Carol (Natalie Wood) attend to address their marital issues in the opening scenes of the film. This famous countercultural institute, which sought to advance ideas about spirituality, personal development, and experimental psychology, was further immortalised when the mysterious Don Draper (Jon Hamm) arrived there seeking his own personal salvation in the final episode of Mad Men. This journey ultimately inspired him (fictionally) to conceive of the "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" advertisement, promoting peace, love, and harmony via the corporate diplomacy of a bottle of Coca-Cola.

So, my thinking is: if Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino can play around with fictional characters in actual history, then why can't I play around with a historical figure (Manson) in movie fiction?

My basic idea is to have Bob and Carol meet Charles Manson (played by Dick Shawn) while they're all involved in an intense group therapy session together at Esalen. Carol becomes seduced by the wild man, who represents the opposite energy of her more relaxed husband, Bob. Late one night, Carol absconds with Charlie, leaving Bob at Esalen, where he is encouraged by a facilitator to deal with her rejection through group sessions. As he processes his wife's departure, we see Carol go on the road with Charlie, becoming increasingly brainwashed by his insane philosophies and megalomaniacal plans to become the leader of the countercultural generation of the 1960s, all the while blasting The Beatles' White Album back at Spahn Ranch.

In fact, Carol becomes so indoctrinated by Charlie that she calls Ted (Elliot Gould) and Alice (Dyan Cannon), inviting them to join her and Manson's "family." Initially reluctant, the more conservative couple shows up (mainly to check on Carol's well-being) at Spahn Ranch to see what Charlie and his ideas are all about. Unimpressed with the squalor of the place, and seeing how easily seduced Ted is by the young women at the ranch, Alice tries to persuade Carol to return to Bob. However, Carol is entirely devoted to Manson and his entourage. In a fit of rage over Ted's sudden infidelity with one of Charlie's young female devotees, Alice drives off to talk to Bob at Esalen.

Bob, struggling with losing Carol, is surprised and happy to find Alice turning up at the institute, and he encourages her to join his bereavement therapy group for his failed marriage with Carol. Alice tells Bob about her concerns regarding Carol and Ted, and as she explains the events, Bob begins to see that she may be the woman he was meant to be with all along. Finally persuaded to join in the group sessions, Bob and Alice illustrate what a perfect marriage might look like, moving their fellow participants to tears.

Driving back to Los Angeles, Bob and Alice are now convinced that fate has brought them together, and they agree to build a new life without Ted and Carol.

I haven't developed the story much further from here (as it's just for fun), but I suspect the finale will involve Carol and Ted being persuaded by Manson to break into their old homes and burn them to the ground as a rejection of their past lives before meeting Charlie. However, on their way to carry out their criminal deeds, they discover Bob and Alice having sex at the house Bob currently shares with Carol. Ted and Carol decide to confront them, forgetting their own hypocrisy regarding marital betrayal. In the midst of the fierce argument, they are suddenly interrupted by the arrival of Matthew, Bob and Carol's young son, who is disturbed by all the shouting.

Suddenly, the quartet experiences a moment of clarity, embarrassed by their midsummer shenanigans at the expense of reality. Having all cheated on one another, they agree they are all fair and square in love and war and decide to return to the way things were originally before the whole Esalen episode.

Meanwhile, an impatient Charlie is waiting back at Spahn Ranch to find out how his new recruits have done with his plan, only to be disappointed when they do not return. He determines to carry out something far more ambitious the following summer.

A year later, in 1969, both couples arrive at Esalen to heal from the trauma of the previous summer and repair what remains of their friendship, fading out to Burt Bacharach's "What the World Needs Now Is Love."

The End