Have you heard of Yeşilçam, the Turkish Hollywood? For three decades from the '50s to the '70s Yeşilçam was thriving, producing relatively big-budget films made locally for a Turkish audience. Then, in the '80s television became more prevalent, the rise of the VCR changed distributors' priorities and things looked bad for Turkey's homegrown cinema. By the '90s Yeşilçam was releasing just two or three films a year before Yeşilçam revitalized in the early '00s. I "know" all of this because I've been "researching" Badi, a Turkish E.T. rip-off from a particularly fallow year of Turkish cinema, 1983. How could such a thing be produced? Why?

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I'm discovering that those questions are actually moot because someone did produce Badi and, with 20/20 hindsight, Badi would be a waaaay cooler alien pet than E.T. was. For one thing, when Badi is threatened he ejaculates smoke. Why not?!

Warning: the volume on some of these clips is unnecessarily loud.

More reasons after the jump!

Badi appreciates the female form. Our earth women are beautiful!

Badi can sing and dance!

The whole thing is available on YouTube if you want to watch it today and spend your three-day weekend absorbing what you have witnessed.