Something safe for children to see

Tito, Vic and Joey. You can say anything you want about this comic trio, but the fact remains that they’ve become institutions in the field of entertainment.

Individually, each one of them is also accomplished. Former senator Tito Sotto soared high in the area of politics. Joey de Leon must be the one celebrity with the most media exposure. (Who else can boast of having half a dozen TV shows that run regularly – and all doing swimmingly well in the ratings game?)

In the case of Vic Sotto, he is in himself also a success story. Generations today may know him as the Eat, Bulaga! host and Daddy Kool in Daddy Di Do Du. This amiable multi-media personality, however, has been around for more than 30 years and he gets better through the decades.

The TV-viewing public first became aware of Vic Sotto sometime in 1973 when he appeared along with Tito and Joey and – believe it or not – one-time fierce rival APO Hiking Society in the gag show Okay Lang.

In time, he and Tito and Joey were able to form their own trio and they appeared as regulars in Discorama. (On the side, they also hosted with Charo Santos a youth-oriented show called Friends.) The three, however, became major stars when they were given their own noontime show – Eat, Bulaga!.

Alongside Eat, Bulaga!, they also starred in their own sitcom Iskul Bukol where Tito and Joey were cast as the notorius Escalera brothers. And Vic? He was the good boy Ungasis, the campus scholar. He was also a Mama’s boy – to Dely Atay-atayan, who spoke with a Binangonan accent.

In the movies, Tito, Vic and Joey also appeared as a group and later, individually. While Joey de Leon appeared as She-man, Barbie, Starzan, etc. Vic had his own characters.

But the one character that will forever be identified with Vic Sotto – and the one that he should always be proud of – is Enteng Kabisote.

Enteng Kabisote, of course, is from Okay Ka, Fairy Ko, a fantasy series that began in late 1987 on Channel 13, moved to ABS-CBN and eventually to GMA 7.

Okay Ka, Fairy Ko was a top-rater from its very first episode. The show was so successful that it made a lot of showbiz people very famous: Ruby Rodriguez, Jinky Oda and Alice Dixson, a former Bb. Pilipinas-International, who first made waves via the Palmolive soap commercial. (Tweety de Leon, who took over Alice’s Faye role, also became popular through this sitcom, except that this professional model was never really that keen on a showbiz career.)

The late Larry Silva, who played Pipoy in the show, was already an old hand in show business when he joined the program. But in spite of the fact that he already played the lead role in one forgettable film – I only remember it because of its exploitative title, Capt. Logan – he never really made a mark in showbiz until he joined the cast of Okay Ka, Fairy Ko and, later, even became a politician.

On the part of the late Charito Solis, the drama empress was able to make a career shift in comedy and was also successful at it – thanks to Okay Ka, Fairy Ko.

But Vic Sotto, of course, will always be the one you will always associate with Okay Ka, Fairy Ko.

Actually, it was in this sitcom where Vic matured as a comedian. It was also here where he became a more responsible showbiz figure to his viewers – and I think this is greatly in part due to the influence of best friend and favorite writer Bibeth Orteza, who churned out the weekly scripts of Okay Ka, Fairy Ko when it was still on the air.

In the past, Vic was always accused of resorting to toilet humor in his acts. But when he began playing Enteng Kabisote in Okay Ka, Fairy Ko, he became more aware of his responsibility to the young audience. Through the character of Aiza Seguerra, Enteng’s adopted child in the series, Vic was often able to inject moral values in the series.

Next to Dolphy’s John Puruntong, it is already Vic Sotto’s Enteng Kabisote that could pass as the Filipino male’s top role model on TV and even on the big screen.

This responsibility to the young was evident through Vic’s Enteng Kabisote character in the first two Okay Ka, Fairy Ko excursions in the movies (1990 and 1991).

Last year, we saw this again in the Metro Manila Film Festival entry Enteng Kabisote: Okay Ka, Fairy Ko… The Legend Continues.

I have yet to watch this year’s Enteng Kabisote (which I intend to – especially since my good friend Toni Rose Gayda is there) and therefore cannot judge its quality as of yet. But based on Okay Ka, Fairy Ko’s good track record when it comes to promoting positive values, I guess it’s safe to bring children to this film.