The Ratings Game

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.

I had heard about this movie on an episode of Nostalgia Critic. He had been critical of some of DeVito's directorial efforts with the exception of The War of the Roses but did positively re-review some and this was included. This is technically DeVito's directorial debut but since it premiered on Showtime cable network Throw Momma from the Train has been mostly regarded as his first directorial effort as that got a theatrical release.

This was three years prior and while DeVito made better films as director including the aforementioned and Matilda this still shows he had a natural filmmaking and acting quality along with Woody Allen, Charlie Chaplin and Clint Eastwood.

The story may seem slight to some but DeVito brings a lot of freshness and humor to the story that makes it feel very original and very funny.

Because they were married in real life he always had good chemistry with Rhea Perlman he did here and then over a decade later in Matilda.

Here however there is a genuinely sweet and funny romance to their characters which was more dysfunctional in Matilda but here it works really well.

Great cameos by Jerry Seinfeld, (still a rising star) Seinfeld's co-star Michael Richards, George Wendt the recently deceased and Perlman's Cheers co-star, Steve Allen and many other great character actors.

DeVito did get better as a filmmaker in subsequent efforts with a little more meat to his stories but this first effort is anything but boring nor is it badly acted. It's very much the opposite.

I really enjoyed this film and any DeVito or Hollywood insider fan should give this a stream.

Again not his finest directorial effort but still a great start nonetheless and a charming, fun little comedy with good dialogue, wit and performances.

Veteran actor Danny DeVito here does a creditable job of directing what is a pretty clever skewering of the television industry. Vic De Salvo (DeVito) has had tremendous success in the trucking business, only now he's moved to L.A., and he has his heart set on attaining fame and fortune as a T.V. producer / star. His truly awful sitcom idea ends up becoming a huge hit after he's conspired with his girlfriend (played by DeVito's real-life significant other, Rhea Perlman) to manipulate the ratings system.

For this viewer, 'The Ratings Game' didn't necessarily generate any true belly laughs, but it's still an intelligent, amusing piece of work. DeVito displays his typical comic energy playing this shameless, unapologetic scoundrel, and milks the Jim Mulholland / Michael Barrie script for everything that it's worth. What's more, the romance between Vic and Francine is actually quite appealing, with the two stars unsurprisingly showing off real chemistry. (Francine is a notable contrast to Carla Tortelli, Ms. Perlmans' best-known TV character.). And Vic is the kind of guy whom you can't help but like, despite his shadiness. The phoney sitcoms he has devised are a hoot in their tackiness; to be fair, they probably wouldn't be much worse than some actual sitcoms that have made it to air in real life. DeVito's storytelling skills are solid, as well as his pacing. At no point do you feel that he's just marking time.

What's truly impressive is the cast that DeVito and casting director Marci Liroff assembled for this thing. There's a non-stop parade of familiar faces: established stars, stars-to-be, and many top character actors.

This landmark TV movie (one of the earliest made for cable TV) doesn't seem to be that well-remembered 36 years later, but discerning viewers will find it to be well worth their time.

Eight out of 10.

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 stage curtains open ...

I stumbled across this one the other night and decided to give it a go. For a 1984 made-for-cable-tv movie, it wasn't half bad. I researched this one a little bit and found out that not only was it Danny DeVito's directorial debut, it was also the first original movie produced by Showtime. DeVito also starred, and starring along with him, was his real-life wife of two years, Rhea Perlman.

Vic DeSalvo (DeVito) has aspirations of making it big in Hollywood. He has written the script for what he believes will be a knock out winning sitcom called, "Sittin' Pretty" - where a college boy gets to room with two blonde bombshells while they are at school. However, the pilot show went so horribly bad, that the station director decides to run his show in the same time slot as the World Series so that it has no shot of becoming a regular on-the-air show. DeSalvo's new squeeze, Francine Kester (Perlman), works with a ratings agency and shows him how to beat the system.

This was a fun and clever comedy film with a good enough plot and acting to keep you engaged and smiling. It is made-for-tv, so the production value isn't anything spectacular, but it was good for its time. DeVito and Perlman showed great chemistry, no doubt a roll over from their marriage to each other, and were characters you can grow to care about. This was only maybe the 2nd movie I've seen them in together, besides "Matilda", and they were very enjoyable.

This isn't a big recommend, but I would still recommend it to anyone who needs a nice little escape to yesteryear with a fun little comedy long forgotten. Like I said, I found it by accident and I'm glad I took a chance on it. Worth the time spent. It gets a strong 6 stars out of 10 from me.