rosaliez

Funnier than the average family; the charm of this show is that you can easily take a lot of the plot twists, sum them up for the cable guide listings and not have them sound more radical than the average sitcom. "When the dogs misbehave in the house, Sharon calls in a pet therapist--much to the dismay of Ozzy." "When Kelly gets a tatoo, the vastly decorated Ozzy discovers he lives by a double standard." It is outrageous yet familiar at the same time. The unaware who stumble across this show may wonder if they are watching a Spinal Tap spinoff or a PBS comedy gone awry. If the sight of the Osbourne's fluffy grey cat curled up next to Ozzy on the couch does not warm your heart, you are a stone.

IMBD reviewers may have little recognition of this classic, since it was carried on superstation WWOR; unless you had a cable system that carried it or lived in the New York City vicinity, you may have only heard about it. In many ways this was far superior to the later CBS Saturday night syndicated show. Social commentary was mixed with satire--the hypocrisy of a real-life priest accused of exploiting the teenage boys in the shelter he ran was immortalized in a spoof of a K-tel type commercial. It parodied songs such as Ringo Starr's "Photograph" with "I like to take boys and make photographs...I can't believe that people think I'm so nice." A politically incorrect classic. Who can forget loveable Stuttering John getting berated by baseball legend Ted Williams--for asking him if he ever broke wind in the catcher's face! It was a little rough around the edges, like an upscale public access show, but the obvious low budget and cheesy set only added to its mystique. But do not be fooled; a lot of hard work and funny writing went into this. As the radio show gained more exposure over the years through syndication, there are probably many newer fans who are even unaware of the existence of the "Channel 9 show," as it was often called. They deserve a chance to witness it for the first time, and the rest of us deserve to savor it again.

If you are going to go through all the trouble of making a movie, how much more of an effort is it to make it somewhat clever, or at the very least moderately fun? This looks like a quickie vehicle slapped together to capitalize on Rick Springfield's 80s popularity. It was his era; he could have belched the alphabet and it would have gone gold. Expanding on that theory, we have "Hard To Hold" as the cramp-producing result.The woman he is pursuing is all wrong for him; you cannot possibly get what he sees in her. She is totally unsympathetic, unlikeable and miserable, seemingly in a chronic PMS state for the majority of the movie. Someone should have given Patti Hansen more to do, as her character lends the only semblance of crediblity to this career-squelching morass of mediocrity.