Beach party movies were an American subgenre of feature films produced and released between 1963 and 1968, created by American International Pictures (AIP), beginning with their surprise hit, Beach Party in July 1963. With this film, AIP is credited with creating the genre. In addition to the AIP films, several contributions to the genre were produced and released by major and independent studios alike. According to various sources, the genre comprises over 30 films, with the lower-budget AIP films being the most profitable.

Generally comedies, the core elements of the AIP films consisted of a group of teenage and/or college-age characters as heroes; non-parental adult characters as villains and/or comic relief; simple, silly storylines that avoided any sober social consciousness; teen trends and interests (such as dancing, surfing, drag racing, custom cars, etc.); simple romantic arcs, original songs (presented in both the “Musical” genre style and as ”source music”); teen-oriented musical acts (frequently performing as themselves); and a tongue-in-cheek attitude toward the target audience.

The earliest films by AIP, as well as those by other studios, focused on surfing and beach culture. Although the genre is termed “beach party film”, several subsequent films that appeared later in the genre, while keeping most of the core elements mentioned above, do not actually include surfing—or even scenes on a beach.

The complete AIP series

American International Pictures produced a series of twelve films that fall into the genre. With the exception of Sergeant Deadhead, Fireball 500 and Thunder Alley, all were related by recurring characters. For example, much of the cast in Bikini Beach appear in the follow-up Pajama Party, albeit with different names – however, biker Erich von Zipper appears in the film, along with his gang of “Rats,” playing the same characters as in two previous films. In addition, Ski Party would appear unrelated, except that the characters of Todd and Craig also appear in the later Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, which is also linked to How to Stuff a Wild Bikini by the appearance of Erich von Zipper and Annette Funicello.

The only film not to have an appearance of some kind by either Avalon or Funicello is The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (early promos for the film had announced that the two would appear, but it didn’t happen); Funicello does not appear in Avalon’s Sergeant Deadhead and Avalon does not appear in Funicello’s Thunder Alley.

Film	Release date	Director	Writer(s)	Score
Beach Party	7 August 1963	William Asher	Lou Rusoff, William Asher, Robert Dillon	Les Baxter
Bikini Beach	22 July 1964	William Asher	William Asher, Robert Dillon, Leo Townsend	Les Baxter
Pajama Party	11 November 1964	Don Weis	Louis M. Heyward	Les Baxter
Beach Blanket Bingo	14 April 1965	William Asher	Leo Townsend, Sher Townsend, William Asher	Les Baxter
Ski Party	30 June 1965	Alan Rafkin	Robert Kaufman	Guy Hemric & Jerry Styner
How to Stuff a Wild Bikini	14 July 1965	William Asher	William Asher, Leo Townsend	Les Baxter
Sergeant Deadhead	18 August 1965	Norman Taurog	Louis M. Heyward	Les Baxter
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine	6 November 1965	Norman Taurog	James Hartford, Robert Kaufman	Les Baxter
Ghost in the Invisible Bikini	6 April 1966	Don Weis	Louis M. Heyward, Elwood Ullman	Les Baxter
Fireball 500	7 June 1966	William Asher	William Asher, Leo Townsend, Burt Topper	Les Baxter
Thunder Alley	22 March 1967	Richard Rush	Sy Salkowitz	Mike Curb

Buster Keaton!

A few offshoot films.