The Ratings Game (1984)

Wow! Such a good movie.

Excellent but underrated film

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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.

Even though this cable-TV movie is a satire on 80's television, it's still funny today. In fact, it begs a remake. Network TV is much, much worse now than it ever was in the Eighties so there would be more to satirize - like so-called reality TV. What I like about this movie is it's fast and funny, makes its points, scores its laughs and then it's over in a tight 90 minutes or so. DeVito's direction is smooth, especially considering it was his first effort in feature-length comedy. (And the humor is much more pointed and sophisticated than his other TV satire, 'Death To Smoochy.') DeVito's performance is also outstanding as the ethics-challenged Vic. The ugly duckling love story between DeVito and Perlman also works, and is surprisingly touching. Of course, the highlight of the whole thing is the hilariously mocking take-off on a typical 'affiliates meeting' when a network trots out its Fall shows, in this case three dogs titled, 'Hot Bods and Levar,' 'Whacked Out,' and 'The Dawn Patrol,' a pretentious drama about inner city garbage men and their 'hopes, dreams and fears.' Add to this a once-in-a-lifetime cast - Steve Allen, Ronny Graham, Huntz Hall, John Megna, Gerrit Graham, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Richards, Jerry Seinfeld, the Voice of Selma Diamond - and you've got a real winner. So why isn't this on DVD?

Hilarious movie reminiscent of Mad TV and SNL mock TV shows. First saw this on cable in the 80s and fell off my chair laughing. This is the kind of stuff Danny Devito does best. Dark, sarcastic humor.Struggling producer Vic de Salvo (Devito) hatches a scheme to become a big TV star by creating and staring in his own shows and selling them to a struggling network. When he meets and falls in love with Francine, (Rhea Perlman) a woman who works for the Neilson Ratings Beaureau, he uses her knowledge to kidnap the Neilson families and send his mobster crew to "house-sit" for them and tune into his shows.The mock shows are hilarious and I swear some of them are actually templates for shows that were minor hits later on. This reminds me a little of "Stay Tuned". Well worth a look, though slightly dated. Future "Cheers" stars, Perlman and George Wendt and an early look at Michael Richards ("Seinfeld"'s Kramer).

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.