The Feminist and the Fuzz

If you're looking for the state-of-the-art of TV movies from this time period, look no further. Everything about this movie is serviceable and familiar. Just a bit more memorable than some TV movies, if only for the fact that it has more than its share of well-known players and some above average (if somewhat overblown) writing. Puts a comic spin on its battle-of-the-sexes/mores clash premise and churns out a mildly entertaining, ever-so-slightly provocative and risque (for the time) look at the relationship between a supposed feminist activist and her police officer roommate. It certainly does not go out of its way to make any statements for the ages. Formula from beginning to end...nary a plot twist in sight!!

There are certainly better uses of your time, but if you're home sick, and it's on, it could be an amusing way to pass the time.

When I watched The Feminist and the Fuzz, I did not own a VCR. Later I thought I could purchase it, but it seems that it never came out on VCR or DVD. I often record a movie while I watch it, and so I hope that someone did that when it was shown in 1971 (?). I would be happy to buy a copy even if the quality is poor, as long as it can be seen. I tried for many years to find a copy of the PBS movie She Loves Me and had just about given up when someone saw one of my many posted requests and directed me to someone who had recorded it and offered to sell me a copy. I bring it out at Christmas time for the sheer joy of experiencing the wonderful music and happy story again. Even though it first came out as The Shop Around the Corner with Jimmy Stewart and The Good Old Summer Time and You've Got Mail, I still treasure She Loves Me over all of them. I thank you for any help you can offer for The Feminist and the Fuzz.

The cop is 'the fuzz', not a chauvinist. Eden's character is more of a confused feminist, case in point, an actual fem would snap at a guy for opening a door for her.

The actors in this thing is a who's who from the late 70s, it was a joy to see so many in one movie.

Barbara's role was pretty hilarious, I can tell she got a kick out of her character.

A guy like the cop would not actually have a playboy bunny as a girlfriend, however it was a kick seeing farrah playing that character.

It was fun watching this

Just watched this made-for-TV movie starring Barbara Eden-her first after her TV series "I Dream of Jeannie" was canceled-and David Hartman-years before gaining fame as the first host of "Good Morning, America". She's a doctor who mostly believes in the women's liberation movement while he's a cop who's puzzled by some of their stances. After some haggling, they reluctantly agree to share an apartment since one works in the morning and the other at night. They are also initially seeing someone else-Ms. Eden has a liberal lawyer who lives with his mother played by Herb Edelman and Hartman's occasionally with a Playboy bunny played by young Farrah Fawcett. Others in the supporting cast include Jo Anne Worley as the head of WAM-Women Against Men-who has no hesitation of using her karate chop, Julie Newmar as an aspirational X-rated actress, and Harry Morgan as Ms. Eden's dad. Look also for Penny Marshall in some scenes. Anyway, I found the whole thing a little silly but funny enough for my tastes. And with the short running time meant to fill a 90-minute slot, The Feminist and the Fuzz should go down easy as the fluff it was meant to be.

As someone must have said by now, this is a 1970s movie. Its subject is confrontations between bewildered, sympathetic or bemused feminists of the period and bewildered, sympathetic or bemused males of the period. It is a comedy with elements of satire, meaning the viewer know things should turn out fine, although it just does not seem so during the earlier stages. This made-for-TV classic of its sort has a likable and fine cast, a witty script and more fun per minute than almost any other film on the same topic. It is a look at the bad position women have been placed in in the U.S., at 1970, and since 1770. and what some people wanted to do about that problem; it is also about persons who do not have all the answers but are trying to negotiate a way of restating the questions. The chosen story-line pits two "natural" antagonists, a nice-guy police officer played by David Hartman who is not anti-feminine just not pro 'women's lib" and about as confused as anyone is on the topic, and Barbara Eden, a young woman who is sure she is pro-feminine but not certain how she ought to proceed. Each gets bad advice from their friends, in Eden's case JoAnn Worley and in Hartman's case just about everyone. Eden has a fiancée, nice-guy Herb Edelman, who is sympathetic but gormless; and there is a hitch...because there are so few apartments in San Francisco, Hartman and Eden cannot have the apartment they love and need except by sharing it. Since their schedules do not clash, they agree to try a mutual occupation arrangement. But not until after she has harassed him and he has frisked her, in the line of duty; by this time we viewers have had demonstrated several facts--that they annoy one another and are attracted to one another; but that he is not ready to admit she needs more rights and she is not ready to admit some in the movement have overdone their protests. The clever script omits nothing--bra burning, enlisting prostitutes who agree with the idea of liberation to the point of sometimes overdoing lack of controls, her father's spending time with Julie Newmar, a charming lady of the streets, Worley and Edelman getting together and deciding that if she wants to dominate he really wants her to do so, and the principals overcoming their differences and falling in love. A message in this film? Hardly. It is about the need for non-acrimonious communication, confronting 70's issues and the fun provided by the script's author, James S. Henerson. Jerry Paris, TV veteran actor and director, kept the events moving fluidly. In addition to the good actors already named, the cast included TV veterans Arthur Batanides, Harry Morgan as Eden's father, John McGiver, Farrah Fawcett, Roger Perry, Sheila James and Penny Marshall, among others. Cinematography was by Emil Oster, good and suitably-comedic original music by Jack Elliott and Allyn Ferguson. Theladies take up karate, the men take to worrying, but in the end this pleasant film's creators, a film very much imitated by never duplicated since, comes down on the side not of compromise but of tolerant understanding and individual choices--surely a welcome alternative to preaching, maintaining a rightless status quo for females or compounding a bad situation with more bad ideas. Give it a try; this film is funny and occasionally wise. As most who have seen it would say, this is memorable and balanced.