Let's Switch!

Old-fashioned ABC-TV movie-of-the-week, made back in the day when ex-sitcom stars could still garner a juicy comedy (if not at the cinema then at least on television, where this flick got big ratings and was rerun for a few years). The nifty premise has two grown women, tired of their lives, switching places. Fast and friendly, with lots of '70s slang and familiar faces in supporting roles. Fans of "I Dream of Jeannie"'s Barbara Eden and "Get Smart"'s Barbara Feldon will no doubt enjoy this; the ladies look great and have a fun scene together getting drunk. Penny Marshall shows incredible polish as a pessimistic secretary, the men wisely stay out of the way, and the movie has something to say at the end of it all. It's a delicious switcheroo!

i thought the comedy premise of two women, one housewife and the other a single magazine editor switching their lives among one another was not only comedic, but cute and chaotic clean fun. a plus for a home video recommendation! the chemistry between the two barbara's, eden and feldon were absolutely superb. too bad no other vehicles have featured them together. in my book, they could have been the thelma and louise of the seventies.

I noticed that there is another review for this film and they score it a 10. To me, that's like giving a velvet Elvis painting space in the Louvre...it just doesn't make any sense. The plot is ridiculous and so full of clichés that I cannot recommend it unless you are a glutton for punishment.

The film begins with a high-powered exec (Barbara Feldon) working at a kooky magazine. The folks working there are mostly caricatures...one-dimensional idiots who couldn't get a job doing ANYTHING let alone work for a big magazine. With all these kooky people around her, she naturally is suck of this job. At the same time, a housewife (Barbara Eden) is tired of being a mommy and wants some excitement in her life.

Well, the two ladies are good friends and when they meet for lunch and BOTH complain about their lives, they decide an experiment...to trade lives for a week. The results are pretty much like what you'd see in a terrible Disney film of the era...with people who are not like ANY human beings on the planet and the film is less believable and fun that a crappy sit-com! Badly written, the two leads simply could NOT be good because of the material. Much of this is because like MANY early 70s films about feminism (such as "The Feminist and the Fuzz"...also starring Barbara Eden), it really makes feminism seem cartoonish and a bit stupid.