Laughter on the 23rd Floor

Thanks, mercutio-8 for the information that it was based on a play, that helped me to understand that there might have been something to it once... But now there is almost no plot at all, just a couple of scenes with heavy bantering (sometimes somewhat funny) and some very unstructured criticism of the McCarthy era.

There has to be more to be made out of this concept - comedy under the strain of self-imposed (?) censorship during McCarthyism, rivalry and yet comradeship between writers, the actual process of brainstorming, the early TV-market economy demands from media barons vs. artistic freedom. I think there was an ambition to show these different themes - although the director accomplished none of the above.

No shadow should fall on the actors though - they're all top of the line. But when they get such a lousy script to work with, what can they do?

A ring-tailed wonder of a non-stop spritzer with a dynamite cast headed by the incredible Nathan Lane. One of Neil Simon's all-time best, worth seeing over and over. It ranks with the classic comedies of Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges.

We Simply Loved This Movie!!! A number of the reviews here seem to miss the point…this is NOT a comedy per say….it's an homage to the greatest sketch comic to hit TV so far, Sid Caesar.

As a kid I watched "Your Show of Shows" on TV every week and I loved it! I've read about it and watched interviews with all the principles…Particularly good was an HBO (?) Special a few years back that featured most of the writers, plus at the end Sid, sitting on a stage and just discussing what it was like to work with the manic Sid and produce a live one & one half hour comedy show a week!!! The predecessor "To Laughter on the 23rd Floor" was the wonderful "My Favorite Year". In that movie about "The Sid Show"…Joe Bologna did a great job bringing the talented and wonderfully crazed Sid Caesar to life. He had the advantage over Nathan Lane because he looked and was built like Caesar… but the writers bullpen wasn't as the real writers described. When Sid wanted to apologize to someone he would send over some steaks or tires to the offended party.

"Laughter" used the same Director, Richard Benjamin, and the star, Mark Linn-Baker, as "My Favorite Year". Baker played a Young Mel Brooks junior writer in "My Favorite Year" and 20 years later the older Baker played the Head writer in "Laughter". Neil Simon used his history as a "Show of Shows" writer to make "Laughter on the 23rd Floor" feel REAL!…and although short and stumpy... Nathan Lane managed to achieve a poignancy in his interpretation of (large & muscular) Caesar with his genius performance. This movie was about the life of a comedy writers bullpen featuring the greatest group to ever work a TV show…and about their untimely end.

NOTE: The Show of Shows had only one sponsor as did most of the early TV shows and therefore the program was forced to please that sponsor if they wanted to keep working. I believe it was the Hoffman Television Co. that backed Caesar and because they were soooo successful in selling the new TV's... Hoffman couldn't keep up with the demand so they decided advertising was no longer necessary and dropped "The Show of Show's"! Caesar & Company was damned for being tooooo good!!!

To see this film, is to see what television was and to a great degree still remains to be today. Nathan Lane with a wonderful supporting cast shows the audience what "real television" was like. It's a fine story of talent, respect and true friendship amongst a writing team and a proud star of a "Hit Show " as they face the end of an era of Americana, "Good Television Programming".

Lane demonstrates his breadth of talent by showing us the range of human emotion it takes to be a "Top Banana". Good direction and writing in this piece that could have lasted 10 to 20 minutes longer, as it left me wanting more for all the characters. Thank You Mr. Simon, Mr. Lane, et al.

This cable adaptation is a huge improvement over Neil Simon's original play for two reasons. The original was one of Simon's laugh a minute (and you can set your watch by it) plays with a big problem: it was written as an ensemble piece but one character-television comic Max Prince, who's based on stories about Sid Caesar-was so overpowering it threw the ensemble off. For this version, Simon, who got his start writing for Caesar's "Your Show of Shows" and "The Caesar Show," wisely puts more focus on Prince, adding scenes to flesh out the character and incorporate even more of the legends. With Nathan Lane in the role, he can't miss.

This is a very different performance for Lane, one of the industry's most capable farceurs. His Max Prince is as over-the-top as Lane often is, but he also invests the character with a strong serious side (like most great comics, Prince takes himself with an almost desperate seriousness) that gives the role heart. In between temper tantrums and one-liners belted out for all the world to hear, Simon and Lane have crafted some wonderfully subtle moments. He's strongly supported by the actors playing his writing staff-particularly Dan Castellenata and Saul Rubinek. And Richard Benjamin, who directed another Sid Caesar pastiche in "My Favorite Year," keeps the whole thing moving efficiently. I'm going to look for a rerun on Showtime so I can catch this again and can't wait for it to come out on video.