Romantic Comedy Movies

Only 15 episodes of Moonlighting were produced during season three, down from the previous season's 18. The series' producers and stars made no secret of the fact that the production delays were being caused by backstage personality clashes; indeed, beginning in mid-season, each episode opened with an amusing "explanation" as to why the series was yielding so few new episodes. However, those episodes that were completed remain among the series' best. Highlights include the season opener, in which private eye David Addison (Bruce Willis, who won an Emmy for his work during season three) is uncomfortably reunited with his scapegrace father (Paul Sorvino); an elaborate It's a Wonderful Life takeoff spotlighting David's partner and erstwhile girlfriend Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd), featuring Lionel Stander reprising his role as Max from the earlier detective series Hart to Hart; a hastily assembled "clip" show, produced to fill a huge production gap, in which Pierce Brosnan recreates his earlier TV character Remington Steele, and which also features "commentary" by Cybill Shepherd's former mentor (and lover) Peter Bogdanovich; the increasing prominence of Curtis Armstrong in the role of Herbert Viola, David and Maddie's nebbishy junior partner at the Blue Moon Detective Agency; another thrilling solo "caper" for the agency's flighty receptionist Agnes DiPesto (Allyce Beasley), this one set in a supposedly haunted house; and a four-part story arc in which Maddie is torn between her growing affection for David and the romantic overtures of her new suitor, yuppie Sam Crawford (Mark Harmon). The most memorable of the season's episodes is a riotous spoof of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, replete with faux Elizabethan dialogue. But the biggest event of the entire season occurs at the very end, when after three years of verbal and physical fencing, David and Maddie finally consummate their relationship. ~ Rovi

Although fans were still addicted to the hip, kidding-on-the-square detective series Moonlighting, the series was being eroded from within by profound production problems and internal squabbles. As a result, only 13 new episodes were produced for the series' fourth season, forcing ABC to fill out the rest of the schedule with reruns. Also, tensions between series star Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd, coupled with ongoing arguments between the two leads and the series' producers, culminated with extended absences from the set and lengthy production shutdowns. In one episode, "Here's Living With You, Kid," Willis and Shepherd didn't appear at all, forcing supporting actor Curtis Armstrong, cast as junior detective Herbert Viola (a character who graduated this season from recurring to regular status), to carry the plotline by himself. Fortunately, the old spark roared into flame long enough for some top-rank episodes to be produced during season four. The opener, which occurs shortly after detective-agency partners Maddie Hayes (Shepherd) and David Addison (Willis) have finally slept together, finds the duo separately seeking out advice on their relationship from psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers and singer Ray Charles (this installment also finds time for an elaborate takeoff of The Honeymooners). In later episodes, it is revealed that Maddie is pregnant with David's baby, whereupon she gets married -- not to David, but to a total stranger named Walter Bishop (Dennis Dugan). With the two stars spending so much time on affairs of the heart, it is up to the supporting characters, notably the aforementioned Herbert Viola and detective-agency receptionist Agnes DiPesto (Allyce Beasley), to take care of the "mystery" angle; especially memorable is the episode in which Agnes' mother is inexplicably targeted for elimination after returning from a vacation. ~ Rovi

It is now part of TV folklore that the classic sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show was originally conceived as a starring vehicle for the series' creator, Carl Reiner. In the pilot episode "Head of the Family," filmed in New York in 1959, Reiner played TV comedy writer Rob Petrie (then pronounced "pea-tree"), who divided his time between his job as a head writer on "The Alan Sturdy Show" with co-workers Buddy Sorrell (Morty Gunty) and Sally Rogers (Sylvia Miles) and his home life in New Rochelle with his wife, Laura (Barbara Britton) and son, Ritchie (Gary Morgan). Potential sponsors and networks liked the premise but not the cast...or to be more blunt, no one wanted to buy a series with Carl Reiner as star. Swallowing his pride, Reiner limited himself to the jobs of producer, director, and writer. He retooled "Head of the Family," and recast the property with Dick Van Dyke as Rob, Mary Tyler Moore as Laura, Larry Mathews as Ritchie, Morey Amsterdam as Buddy, and Rose Marie as Sally; the rest, as they say, is history.

Debuting October 3, 1961, on CBS, The Dick Van Dyke Show, as mentioned, top-billed the titular star as Rob Petrie, who was now head writer for "The Alan Brady Show" During the series' first few seasons, Alan Brady (a brash, dictatorial character reportedly inspired by Reiner's former boss and colleague Sid Caesar) was seldom seen -- and when he was, it was only from the back. It was an open secret that Carl Reiner himself played Brady, though he did not take screen billing. Only in the series' fourth season was Brady's face actually seen, and only then was Reiner credited on-screen as the actor playing the part. Other recurring characters included Richard Deacon as Alan Brady's producer (and beleaguered brother-in-law) Mel Cooley, Jerry Paris and Ann Morgan Guilbert as the Petries' next-door neighbors Jerry and Millie Helper (he was a dentist, she was Laura's best friend), future director Bill Idelson as Sally Rogers' erstwhile boyfriend, Herman Glimpshire, and Joan Shawlee as Buddy's ex-showgirl wife, Pickles.

Although the series was distinguished by the high level of wit in its writing and its wonderful physical-comedy set pieces, the strong suit of The Dick Van Dyke Show was the warm rapport among its principal players. Indeed, only a handful of TV sitcoms have been so perfectly cast, making one wonder how the series would have fared with its original cast members. Incredible though it may seem today, The Dick Van Dyke Show was not an instantaneous hit. Indeed, the series fared so poorly opposite its first season competition, Bachelor Father and Laramie, that CBS canceled the show outright, sending out notices to the cast members on the last day of shooting. The series might have been just another one season wonder had not one of its sponsors picked it up for a second season, insisting that CBS find a better time slot than Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. Thus, the show was moved to Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. -- fortuitously right after CBS's biggest success of the 1962-1963 season, The Beverly Hillbillies.

Although The Dick Van Dyke Show's somewhat higher ratings still did not set the world on fire, the series received a great deal of word-of-mouth buzz during its second season, and its audience grew steadily throughout the remainder of its run. The fact that the series picked up several Emmy Awards along the way was the icing on the cake. After five seasons, star Dick Van Dyke and producer Carl Reiner opted to quit while they were ahead -- a rare move in the mid-'60s (and even rarer four decades later). Thus, The Dick Van Dyke Show concluded its nighttime run on September 7, 1966, though reruns continued to air on CBS's daytime schedule until 1969. Thereafter, the series entered off-network syndication, where its has continued to flourish mightily well into the 21st century. And in 2003, the surviving cast members were reunited for a two-hour special, The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The fifth season of Moonlighting is the shortest since season one, with only 12 new episodes produced; it is also the final season, thanks to the ever-increasing backstage squabbles involving stars Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis, and virtually the entire production staff. The opening episode is one of the strangest ever conceived, beginning with an appearance by practically every member of the cast and the production team, assuring viewers that their professional problems are behind them, and promising that season five will be the best ever. The plot proper finds Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd), impregnated the previous season by her detective-agency partner David Addison (Bruce Willis), going into labor -- whereupon the action shifts to Heaven, where Maddie's baby (also played by Bruce Willis) nervously awaits to be born. Alas, it is not to be; Maddie miscarries, and subsequently buries herself in her work as a detective, neglecting not only David but also her nebbishy husband, Walter (Dennis Dugan). As for David, he philosophically moves on in his life, enjoying a brief fling with Maddie's sister Annie (Virginia Madsen). Thereafter, Moonlighting ceases to be about the Maddie-David relationship and devolves into a standard detective show, albeit punctuated every so often by the series' trademarked inside jokes and eccentric deviations from the plotlines. Inevitably, given the fact that everyone knew that this was the series' final season, Moonlighting comes to a halt as the doors of the Blue Moon Detective Agency are permanently closed. ~ Rovi

Can a beautiful and internationally famous American actress find happiness with a frumpy British bookstore clerk? She can -- at least for a while, it seems -- in Notting Hill. William Thacker (played by Hugh Grant) is a bookseller at a shop in the Notting Hill district in West London, who shares a house with an eccentric Welsh friend, Spike (Rhys Ifans). One day, William is minding the store when in strolls Anna Scott (Julia Roberts), a lovely and well-known actress from the United States who is in London working on a film. She buys a book from William, and she is polite and charming in the way a famous actress would be with a star-struck sales clerk. Their relationship would logically end there, if William didn't run out a few minutes later to buy some juice. While dashing back to the shop, he bumps into Anna on the street, spilling juice all over her blouse. Since he lives nearby, William politely offers to let her stop by his house to clean up; since William seems harmless enough, Anna agrees. When Anna has to stop back to pick up a bag she left at William's house, they kiss -- just in time for Spike to show up. A romance slowly blooms as his friends and family (not to mention the world at large) wonder out loud what he's doing dating a movie star. Notting Hill reunites Hugh Grant with producer Duncan Kenworthy and screenwriter Richard Curtis, who previously worked together on the international hit Four Weddings And A Funeral. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The British sitcom A Fine Romance aired for four seasons from 1981-1984 on London Weekend Television and has since been syndicated on PBS in the States. Judi Dench stars as Laura Dalton, a quirky independent woman who meets the equally eccentric Mike Selway, played by Dench's real-life husband Michael Williams. The mismatched pair is introduced by Laura's sister, Helen Dalton-Barker (Susan Penhaligon), and brother-in-law, Phil Barker (Richard Warwick). Laura and Mike humorously suffer through day-to-day turmoils, eventually finding romance. In 1984, Judi Dench won a BAFTA TV award for Best Light Entertainment Performance. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

More than anything else, 13-year old New Jerseyite Josh (David Moscow) wants to be "big". That's the wish he makes at an odd-looking amusement pier fortunetelling machine. The next morning, Josh wakes up-only to discover that he's grown to manhood overnight! (At this point, the part is taken over by Tom Hanks). Still a 13-year-old mentally and emotionally, Josh decides to hide out in New York City until he can figure out what to do next. He lucks into a job with a major toy company run by kid-at-heart McMillan (Robert Loggia). By cannily bringing a child's eye view to McMillan's business, Josh rises to the top-and in process, he falls in love with fellow employee Susan (Elizabeth Perkins). But he's still a kid, and he'd like to go back to his own world and own body. Written by Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg, Big proved a crucial success for budding director Penny Marshall, who'd work harmoniously with Hanks again on the radically different A League of Their Own. The cinematography was by Barry Sonenfeld, who went on to become a director himself with The Addams Family. That Big was heavily reliant upon the input of Tom Hanks and Penny Marshall was proven by the failed attempt to turn the property into a Broadway musical. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Can a cynical lesbian from the Big Apple find happiness with an upbeat blonde from the West Coast? That's the question in this independent bicoastal comedy. Rachel (Helen Lesnick, who also wrote and directed the film) is a native New Yorker who, after an unpleasant breakup with her girlfriend (Michele Greene), decides she needs a change of scenery. Rachel packs her bags and moves to San Diego, where she has a bit of trouble adapting to the laid-back rhythms of the California lifestyle; she also discovers that getting her career as a freelance writer going again is harder than she expected. After several bad dates, Rachel meets Christine (Erica Shaffer), and Rachel thinks she may have finally found love at last. But after her last relationship, Rachel finds that trusting anyone unconditionally no longer comes naturally. A Family Affair was screened at the 2001 L.A. Outfest, a festival devoted to gay and lesbian-themed films. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Miki's life can't get more complicated when her parents come home from vacation and announce that while they were gone, they met another couple who they each fell in love with a member of --so they'll be switching partners! On top of their impending divorce and remarriages, they decide that the two families should all live together, much to Miki's objections. Miki is still reeling from the idea of her family unit imploding when they drop another bomb on her: her new step parents have a son named Yuu, who is cool, funny, and devastatingly handsome. Yuu is calm and nonchelant, even with his own life turned upside down, and Miki finds herself alternately repelled by his teasing, too-cool-for-school attitude, and attracted to his sweet, sensitive side. Miki's romantic feelings for Yuu are almost worse than her frustrations with him, because no 14 year old is prepared to share a house (and a bathroom!) with her crush. Just when things look like they can't get any more complicated, Miki's longtime friend Ginta notices the chemistry between the two, and his jealousy inspires him to confesses that he has romantic feelings for her. Soon the shoujo love-dodecahedron reaches full force, as gradeschool sweehearts, teacher-student affairs and long-lost loves enter the picture. Marmalade Boy lasted for 76 episodes before the love lives of its characters finally reached resolution. The title comes from an early episode in which Miki compares Yuu to a jar of marmalade: partly bitter and partly sweet. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi