T.V. - Total verrückt

THE RATINGS GAME is one of the funniest and well written movies of all time. Its the TV industry making fun of itself. The plot is unique and clever, the love story with DeVito and Perlman is very well done and touching, and there are cameos by many great stars and stars to be. Basically its a spoof of really bad sit-coms where the lead character fraudulently manipulates the ratings to make his patently bad show beat the World Series in ratings. Brilliant movie, probably not easy to find. There are very few comedies that get me. This one is side-splitting and a real bulls-eye insightful satire of the Hollywood TV industry and scene. Bravo.

The stage curtains open ...

I stumbled across this one the other night and decided to give it a go. For a 1984 made-for-cable-tv movie, it wasn't half bad. I researched this one a little bit and found out that not only was it Danny DeVito's directorial debut, it was also the first original movie produced by Showtime. DeVito also starred, and starring along with him, was his real-life wife of two years, Rhea Perlman.

Vic DeSalvo (DeVito) has aspirations of making it big in Hollywood. He has written the script for what he believes will be a knock out winning sitcom called, "Sittin' Pretty" - where a college boy gets to room with two blonde bombshells while they are at school. However, the pilot show went so horribly bad, that the station director decides to run his show in the same time slot as the World Series so that it has no shot of becoming a regular on-the-air show. DeSalvo's new squeeze, Francine Kester (Perlman), works with a ratings agency and shows him how to beat the system.

This was a fun and clever comedy film with a good enough plot and acting to keep you engaged and smiling. It is made-for-tv, so the production value isn't anything spectacular, but it was good for its time. DeVito and Perlman showed great chemistry, no doubt a roll over from their marriage to each other, and were characters you can grow to care about. This was only maybe the 2nd movie I've seen them in together, besides "Matilda", and they were very enjoyable.

This isn't a big recommend, but I would still recommend it to anyone who needs a nice little escape to yesteryear with a fun little comedy long forgotten. Like I said, I found it by accident and I'm glad I took a chance on it. Worth the time spent. It gets a strong 6 stars out of 10 from me.

This satire on the TV industry is too much of it, with mountains of cheesy plot-driven dialog set to the accompaniment of hyper-cheesy music. But mixed in are some great gags--one of the best is a sight gag, when Gerrit Graham walks back on stage at the MBC confab, to continue plumping his network's new shows against a devilishly appropriate freeze-frame from one of them. Much of the value now is to have fun seeing all kinds of talent before, between, or after the high points of their careers. Casting wise, this show could pick 'em.

The strongest element here is the apt satire. Alas, the laughs are not frequent enough, or intense enough, to really sustain the effort. The movie in the end is a cheese dog, but the stars play it cute, and it's fun. Five stars for wide and deep star power, far transcending the script.

I just watched this for the first time in 2022, and I think this was one of those movies people saw but then forgot about, or never saw to begin with (ironic, considering the plot), because it's a very good movie.

Actually, it's a great movie, but I won't spoil it.

I think this is a movie that a lot of people will still want to watch even today, though, especially considering the cast (Danny DeVito, etc.).

Just watch it.

It's fun to see each person do their best. None of the acting is bad. The story is a little, well, seeing it once is good enough. I watched it while I was doing some of the work and we enjoyed a couple bits. I'm much happier that I watched it then if I didn't.