Phil Hartman Movies
Looking more like the CEO of a law firm than a comedian, Canadian actor Phil Hartman has had a successful career playing against his physical appearance with an off-kilter sense of humor. He entered show business as a graphics designer; among his better-known artistic renderings was the official logo for the rock group Crosby, Stills and Nash. In the early '80s, Hartman was a member of a comedy troupe called the Groundlings, where he made the acquaintance of comedian Paul Reubens. In collaboration with Reubens, Hartman helped create the character of child/man Pee-wee Herman, cowriting the screenplay of Reubens' 1985 movie vehicle Pee-wee's Big Adventure and portraying the grimy Kap'n Karl on the Saturday-morning TV series Pee-wee's Playhouse (1986-90). When asked later on if he was bitter over the way Reubens grabbed all the glory for the Pee-wee concept, Hartman characteristically made a self-deprecating joke, though it was decidedly at Reubens' expense. Before signing with NBC's Saturday Night Live, Hartman appeared as part of a comedy ensemble on the 1985 summer replacement series Our Time. Hartman's greatest comic strength lay in his celebrity impersonations, which he trotted out to maximum effect on both SNL and the Fox cartoon series The Simpsons. Hartman claimed that he had 99 celeb voices in his manifest, including a deadly funny impersonation of President Bill Clinton, which became an audience favorite on SNL and Jay Leno's Tonight Show where he often made guest appearances. Hartman remained with Saturday Night Live from 1986 through 1994, sharing a 1989 Emmy for "outstanding writing;" at the time he left the show (making pointed comments about the deteriorated quality of the writing staff), Hartman had set a record for the largest number of appearances (153) as an SNL regular. In 1995, Phil Hartman began a weekly assignment in the role of a pompous, self-centered (much like Ted Knight's character on The Mary Tyler Moore Show) anchorman on the network sitcom Newsradio. When not appearing on the series, Hartman was a successful TVcommercial voiceover artist and pitchman and also occasionally acted in feature films, including Blind Date (1987), Jingle All the Way (1996) and The Second Civil War (1997).In his personal life, Hartman was totally unlike the characters he usually played and was loved and respected for his humbleness, his affability and his generosity; he frequently donated his time to charities. It was therefore a terrible shock when on May 28, 1998, he was shot to death while sleeping in the bedroom of his Encino, California home. His wife Brynn Hartman committed the murder and then shot herself shortly after police removed the couple's two small children from the premises. Later reports stated that despite putting on a good public face as a couple, the two had been trying for years to resolve their difficulties and that drug and alcohol use on the part of Brynn were a factor in the tragedy.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This slapstick farce features Dusty Bottoms (Chevy Chase), Lucky Day (Steve Martin), and Ned Nederlander (Martin Short), as three silent movie cowboy stars who get the axe from their Hollywood studio. Just at that opportune moment, a woman named Carmen (Patrice Martinez) asks them to come to her forgotten little town south of the border and do some work for her, for a tidy sum. The three "stooges" agree, thinking they are going to perform their singing cowboy routine, but instead Carmen wants them to get rid of the nasty El Guapo (Alfonso Arau) who is running roughshod over the good citizens of the town. Not the kind of heroes they appear to be in the movies, they have a difficult time helping out the distressed townsfolk. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, (more)
- 1986
The 13 first-season episodes of Pee-wee's Playhouse have become such beloved classics that it hardly seems necessary to offer an overview, but here goes anyway: In "Ice Cream Soup," the series opener, Pee-Wee (Paul Reubens) introduces us to his friends Miss Yvonne (Lynne Stewart), Cowboy Curtis (yes, that's Laurence Fishburne), Jambi the Genie (John Paragon), Captain Carl (Phil Hartman), and the King of Cartoons (Gilbert Lewis), among many others. He also treats us to the first Secret Word, "door" (and remember to SCREAM REAL LOUD!). "Luau for Two" finds Pee-Wee throwing a luau in the Playhouse, tiki torches and all. Our hero breaks out the paper airplanes and whipped cream when he is cooped up indoors on a "Rainy Day" -- and also makes a prank phone call, much to his everlasting regret. In "Just Another Day," Cowboy Curtis teaches Pee-Wee how to square-dance. "Now You See Me, Now You Don't" is highlighted by Pee-Wee's magic show, which ends up rendering him invisible. Miss Yvonne treats grouchy neighbor Mrs. Steve (Shirley Stoler) to a "Beauty Makeover" in the episode of the same name. "The Restaurant" is what Pee-Wee calls his own kitchen when Captain Carl shows up for a peanut-butter sandwich. Everyone has "Ants in Your Pants" when the denizens of Pee-Wee's animated ant farm make good their escape. A one-eyed "Monster in the Playhouse" soon finds Pee-Wee surrounded by a whole bunch of new friends. A nervous Cowboy Curtis stages a dress rehearsal of his date with Miss Yvonne in "Cowboy and the Countess." Rascally Randy suffers mightily when he consumes the "Stolen Apples" from Mrs. Steve's backyard. Pee-Wee is rescued from a mousehole by his kiddie pals (including at least one overgrown "ringer") in "The Gang's All Here." And it's nonstop fun for everyone, including the usually reserved Reba the Mail Lady (S. Epatha Merkerson) in the aptly titled "Party." It was during this maiden season of Pee-Wee's Playhouse that the series won the first of its many Emmy awards, one for Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Outstanding Achievement in Videotape Editing. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Reubens
George Lollar (Charles Grodin) overrides his wife's judgment and takes his family for a vacation on a sunny Caribbean island that just happens to be on the verge of a revolution. Their hotel is not the usual Hilton on the beach but a pick-up joint for singles where the main activities are sex, sex, and sex. In that order. As the horrified father watches almost helplessly, his wife becomes liberated, his daughter falls for a Frenchman who is actually a guerrilla, one of his sons loses his virginity to a buxom, worldly-wise woman, and his other son burns down the mini-camp he was forced to attend. But that's hardly the worst of it -- there is that small matter of a political overthrow about to explode on the scene. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Grodin, Robin Pearson Rose, (more)
Co-written by Paul Reubens and Phil Hartman, Pee Wee's Big Adventure marks the debut of director Tim Burton, who stamps the entire film with his quirky trademark style. The premise: Pee Wee (Reubens), an overgrown pre-pubescent boy sporting a molded Princeton cut, blush, lipstick, and a shrunken gray flannel suit, lives an idyllic life in his bizarre home (some have compared the remarkable set design to the expressionistic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) until someone nabs his most prized possession: a fire engine-red customized bicycle. He then embarks on an epic cross-country search to find his lost love, not to mention more than a little adventure. Along the way, he makes friends with various oddball characters, visits the Alamo, endures various hallucinatory nightmares, and has a supernatural run-in with a spectral trucker. In this reprisal of his popular standup routine, Reubens is wonderful as the nerdy man child; he plays it silly, yet he manages to imbue the role with some sensitivity without ever seeming maudlin. The score by Danny Elfman is terrific -- as is the case in nearly every film Burton has directed -- and the script is fresh and inventive. Some of the most memorable moments: the opening sequence involving Pee Wee's morning activities is a stroke of genius (note the bunny slippers and talking breakfast), as are the scenes at the truck stop, and the "Hollywood" version of Pee Wee's story at the end (starring James Brolin and Morgan Fairchild in surprise cameos). In all, Pee Wee's Big Adventure is a delightful film, enjoyable for children as well as adults. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, (more)
In this light, standard comedy about four sailors (D.W. Brown, Peter Ellenstein, Patrick Houser and Chip McAllister) out for a fun weekend in Los Angeles, the men have several misadventures in Watts, at Venice Beach, and at a strip bar before they start to meet a few women who actually find them interesting. The former gang member (McAllister) meets an jazzercise instructor, the class clown (Brown) meets his distaff parallel, the nerd (Ellenstein) meets a thinking young woman, and the sports hero (Houser) meets his counterpart. The fun and interest lie in the telling, and so most of the time is spent on the way to the final pairing off. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- D.W. Brown, Peter Ellenstein, (more)
Paul Reubens' Pee-Wee Herman character first attracted widespread notice as a result of this HBO special, which preceded both the Tim Burton-directed film Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and the Peabody Award-winning children's series Pee-Wee's Playhouse. A filmed document of Herman's nightclub show, the performance is an obvious precursor to the later kids' TV series, and features many of the same characters, including Captain Carl (Phil Hartman) and Jombi the Genie (John Paragon); still, the humor is considerably more risqué and adult than the later Herman projects. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
