Benji debuted in his self-titled first film 40 years ago on October 17, 1974. The movie made $39 million on a shoestring budget of $500,000 and spawned a minor phenomenon in the '70s and '80s, inspiring follow-up movies, TV specials and a 1983 TV show. The original Benji was a rescue mutt named Higgins. His daughter Benjean played the role in follow-up stories.

Joe Camp created the "Benji" series in part as a push back against the wide perception that G-rated movies had become unwatchable dreck. Independent filmmakers made relatively wide use of a practice called "four-walling" in the '60s and '70s, which allowed them to keep all the receipts for a movie by paying a flat fee to rent the theater for a few days. With a guaranteed revenue stream, theaters had no incentive to vet the quality of the films, which was generally abysmal family-oriented fare, with the hope that enough kids would beg to see it over a weekend to turn a profit. (There were exceptions, like the hugely successful "The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams," which was distributed the same year as "Benji" using this method.)

Benji-mania has faded now. (An attempt to revive the franchise in 2004 pretty much went to the....no, I can't.) But it left at least one enduring legacy, or so I'm told. It helped inspire the name of your humble correspondent in 1981 (along with the odd biblical patriarch or two). Plus, just look at that face. Go on, look at it. America in 1974 never stood a chance.

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