Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

This film is an ensemble piece that aired on television when made for television movies aired in the seventies and eighties. The almost entire cast is full of television actors and actresses familiar to audiences. Cast members like Jeff Conaway (Taxi), Bonnie Franklin ( One Day at a Time), David Ogden Stiers (M*A*S*H), and others would get hiatus breaks to film these projects and a break from their series characters. In those days, the three major networks rewarded their stars with projects in order to keep them happy. This film has a serious undertone at times while trying to point out the seriousness of the divorce epidemic; alcoholism; tragedy; and relationships among themselves is not so easy. When one gets a Malibu beach house, he invites his newly separated and divorced friends there. Billy Crystal plays a likable character as does Ted Bessell too. Robert Conrad is fine but the script isn't solid too.