The Young One: Part One

The first of this popular VHS series spotlighting Sarah Young pinpoints how changing technology changed the format of porn. This effort by her husband Sascha Alexander to maximize Sarah's exposure is an interesting case study.

I've watched the hundreds of Sarah performances chronologically backwards, having only discovered her talent during the DVD era. Her currently available classic DVD series THE GODDESS OF LOVE (12 volumes) and PRIVATE FANTASIES (30 volumes) showcase Sarah in uncut, lengthy vignettes typically running anywhere from 20 minutes to 40 minutes long.

For VHS, however, Sascha decided to release his material in traditional movie (on video) form, with semblance of a storyline, and frequent cross-cutting. This is diametrically opposed to the later "intact scene" approach of the 10 years after DVDs.

The difference is reminiscent of the changeover from microfilm to microfiche technology, decades ago. Like a VHS tape, microfilm is linear, with winding, rewinding and fast forward options. Microfiche lets one immediately access the segment information desired, just as a menu on a DVD directs one to a specific chapter.

So ironically, the original, intact footage is what we get on the newer DVDs. The first release YOUNG ONE footage is heavily edited, shortened and inter-cut to a fare-thee-well.

What emerges on Part One of this important series is something of a greatest hits compilation. I enjoyed, in hindsight fashion, seeing the artfully mixed & matched footage, which included fortunately considerable scenes discarded and not appearing on the subsequent DVD issues at all.

Story format is pegged to Sarah and co-star Sean Michaels greeting each other every morning as she prepares coffee, as he's off to work -sort of a comfortable married couple well past the first blush of romance. The fact that Sarah is only about 20 years old is not relevant here.

Between these innocent and unromantic intro scenes we are treated to many vignettes that have since become classics, frequently anthologized on various Sarah DVDs.

First vignette spotlights Mimi Miyagi (billed merely as "Mimi", in this early appearance before she opted for breast enlargement). With her wearing black thigh boots and Sean in green slacks they neck on the couch while Sarah comically barges in (dressed in white suit and orange blouse) and searches the couch around them, finding the misplaced book she's been reading. Her blasé attitude to the incipient sex is an amusing setup.

Back in her bedroom reading, she phones Peter North to come over and service her, which he does, in a familiar (her orange blouse the memory jog) vignette of frenzied lovemaking. Meanwhile, on the couch Mimi and Sean are nude and humping, she keeping her boots on, of course.

As Peter humps Sarah there is an oval iris-out dissolve to a flashback of Sarah's sex scene with Sean. This is among the duo's most famous pairings: she's in bright red undies, black stockings, high heels and black earrings on the bed, as she applies a classic blow job. The full length version spotlighted in THE GODDESS OF LOVE is far superior and more arousing in its unhurried, full-length unfolding; here it is concentrated to fit the feature format. Sascha cross-cuts among the three sex scenes, building to the climaxes, notable for slo-mo footage of Peter's trademark "fountains" of ejaculation.

At the 48-minute mark (55% through the video), Sarah's saying goodbye to Sean in the kitchen again, and we have a familiar threesome of Sarah in a bright green dress with Jake Steed in a light green suit (young with full head of hair) and blond stud Tim Withfield. This troilism footage is cross cut with a new scene of Sean wearing a brown jacket watching lesbian sex between Mimi and tall Rachel Ryan. Not surprisingly, Sean joins them for a threesome, with anal sex for Rachel.

Third area of action is a return to the Sean/Sarah in red vignette from earlier in the video, she riding him now. After matched cum shots, we see Sarah in her red undies in the bedroom making phone calls to invite Nick East and others over for a party.

Next breakfast transition has Sarah in a pink dress mad at Sean. Fade up to her pouring champagne at the party wearing a low-cut green multicolored dress, opposite Nick, Steed and Scott Irish. Their popular foursome antics are cross cut with the conclusion of the Sean/Sarah in red vignette, matching his sweaty ejaculation with the three studs coating Sarah's face copiously.

A solid curtain raiser to THE YOUNG ONE series, and a hint of the uncut splendors of Sarah on DVD years later.