Roll, Freddy, Roll!

After all these years, I've finally found someone else who remembers "Roll Freddy Roll". Maybe we are the only two demented minds to have reacted similarly when it was viewed, but it has been an ongoing project to obtain a copy of this movie in any form as a means of either validating the absolute comic genius of this movie; or to finally denigrate my ability to assess what is funny. As I read the previous comment, I kept saying "YESSS!!!" after each sentence as if it came from my keyboard. All I can say is if Disney, Persky, Conway, or anyone else with access to this movie can make it available to the public, they have a confirmed customer in me.

The last regular season of "The ABC Movie of the Week" was very weak. Apart from a few surprise hits (such as "Trilogy of Terror"), too many of the films in 1974-75 were incredibly lame...such as "Let's Switch" and this movie, "Roll, Freddy, Roll".

When the film begins, you learn that Freddy Danton (Tim Conway) is a divorced father of a young son. The son, however, seems to really admire his new step-dad and Freddy is worried he'll lose his son's love and respect. So, when a chance accident occurs and the skating rink loses his shoes, he decides to keep the skates and try to brake an endurance record for how long someone keeps their skates on without taking them off. This movie was filled with a LOT of kooky and incredibly stupid situations but it was interesting see just to actually see Conway performing his own stunts. But that was it when it came to why to see the movie. Apart from seeing Conway skate about and fall a lot, the plot is filled with stupid writing and made me annoyed the more I watched....and the ending was REALLY stupid. A huge mistake of a film that I hope never to see again.

I remember seeing "Roll, Freddy, Roll" when it first aired on December 17, 1974; I had just begun junior high school in Lansing, Michigan.

Seeing this film again would bring back many great memories; unfortunately, the last time I saw "Roll, Freddy, Roll" was in 1987 when an independent station here in Detroit ran it. Naturally, the station cut the film in order to fit the time slot (without commercials, "Roll, Freddy, Roll" ran about an hour and 40 minutes).

I discovered Disney now owns "Roll, Freddy, Roll;" in mid-1995 they purchased ABC, whose former ABC Circle Films division produced the film (ABC Circle Films was later responsible for "Moonlighting").

In unity there is strength, and the more requests Disney receives about "Roll, Freddy, Roll," the quicker they'll dig into their vaults, unearth it, and put it on DVD!

(Postscript, May 12, 2020: I discovered about five years ago *MGM* now owns the rights to "Roll, Freddy, Roll." It's part of an ABC Films portfolio MGM distributes for all media including such other ABC Circle Films made-for-TV movies as "Can Ellen Be Saved?" and "The Day After," as well as such ABC Motion Pictures theatrical films as "Silkwood." So all I can suggest now is to try contacting MGM and/or Universal Studios Home Entertainment, who now distributes all MGM product - with the exception of the pre-June 1986 MGM films, which are owned by Warner Bros. - on DVD. If either or both companies are hounded enough, then hopefully they'll put "Freddy" on DVD.)

Even when I first saw "Roll, Freddy, Roll" as an 11-year-old fan of anything starring Tim Conway, something puzzled me. Sure, I enjoyed Tim as always. And the climax where he's rolling through the streets like "Bullitt" on roller skates is amazing. But I just couldn't figure out the ex-wife and kid. I mean, Freddy's rival for his son's attention is a car dealer during an oil crisis ... while Freddy designs mainframe computers before anyone even knows what they are! So it's pretty obvious who the cool dad really is. If the ex and the kid are really that shallow, we need a sequel to set things straight - one where Freddy's a billionaire with a half-dozen IPOs under his belt, preferably roller blading with his third trophy wife.

It has been years since I even thought of this movie. When I first saw this I laughed my ass off. I had always known that Tim Conway was funny. Some of his best stuff was on the Carol Burnett Show, where his improvisation was second to none. Conway was also a very understated comedian playing a bumbling ensign on McHale's navy. In Roll Freddy Roll, he is at his physical comedy best as a dad trying to impress his son by getting into the world record book. The situations he gets into as a man who wearing his roller skates everywhere to break a record is great. The story is simple and very funny. The supporting cast is also very credible and play off Conway's physical humor very well. If you ever get a chance to watch this movie do so, and with the whole family, they will love it.As a comedian Conway has always been underrated and in some area underappreciated. Roll Freddy Roll, shows you why Conway was so funny. Yes, this isn't the Bard, but this little made-for-t.v. movie is very funny and entertaining. I just sorry they didn't do some kind of sequal or follow up to it.