Howard West Movies

The first original cartoon special from the TV Land cable channel, The Alan Brady Show spotlights the fictional star of the series-within-the-series on the classic The Dick Van Dyke Show. Producer/director Carl Reiner lends his voice to a new 3D-animated version of his devilish doppelganger, the egotistical and witheringly sarcastic TV superstar Alan Brady. The premise: With the 50th anniversary of his television debut rapidly approaching, Alan's long-suffering staff of writers is ordered to put together a celebratory special. Although the writers simply want to concentrate on highlights from past Alan Brady Shows, their vainglorious boss insists upon showing that he has kept apace with the times by headlining a new reality series, "Who Wants to Marry Alan Brady?" The comic tone of the proceedings is implicit in the name of Alan's new trophy girlfriend -- she's known simply as Trophy. Familiar Reiner associates Dick Van Dyke and Rose Marie make guest voice appearances, as do Gary Owens and Carol Leifer. The Alan Brady Show first aired August 17, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Comedian Andy Kaufman gave performances that were bizarre and difficult to categorize, in which he might do or say almost anything: show cartoons, impersonate Elvis Presley, play conga drums while singing children's songs, read aloud from The Great Gatsby, or take the audience out for milk and cookies. Written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski and directed by Milos Forman (the team behind The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)), this biopic takes an in-depth look at Kaufman's life and art, with Jim Carrey as Kaufman, who could (and would) be any number of different people onstage: the quiet and childlike man, the little foreign guy, the overbearing showbiz "professional," the violently obnoxious wrestler, or the world's worst lounge singer. As Kaufman rose from comedy clubs to guest appearances on Saturday Night Live and a spot on the TV sitcom Taxi, his performances became more complex and dangerous -- so much so that when word got out in 1984 that he was suffering from lung cancer, many fans and associates thought it was just another bizarre stunt; the disease took his life later that year. Man on the Moon features Danny De Vito as Kaufman's manager George Shapiro, Courtney Love as his girlfriend Lynne Margulies, Paul Giamatti as his friend Bob Zmuda, and David Letterman, Judd Hirsch, Marilu Henner, Carol Kane, and Christopher Lloyd as themselves. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The famous "show about nothing," NBC's Seinfeld is regarded by many fans as the best network sitcom of the 1990s; some go farther than that, hailing it as the best sitcom ever. The series grew from the free-association monologues of comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who in partnership with producer Larry David launched the program in a limited-run format beginning May 31, 1990. Slowly but surely, the series developed a rabid fan following, and by the time the 1993-1994 season rolled around, Seinfeld was America's third most popular program, reaching the number one slot the following year and never dropping below second place for the duration of its run. The eponymous star played "himself," a young, unmarried comedian named Jerry Seinfeld who lived in a medium-sized apartment (well stocked with breakfast cereals) in midtown Manhattan. However, we seldom saw Jerry at work. Most of the time, he hung out with his three best friends: the obnoxiously neurotic and self-absorbed George Costanza (Jason Alexander), who lived with his parents, Estelle and Frank (Estelle Harris, Jerry Stiller), who was for several years employed in the office of New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner (who never appeared on-camera), and who spent much of his spare time kvetching over his miserable love life; Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards), wild-eyed, wild-haired entrepreneur, whose many get-rich-quick schemes had a tendency to backfire disastrously; and Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Jerry's onetime girlfriend, who worked in the publishing industry and was ever on the lookout for a male companion who was truly "sponge-worthy."

A number of memorable supporting characters wandered through the series, including Jerry's acerbic uncle Leo (Len Lesser); his overbearing parents, Helen (Liz Sheridan) and Morty (played first by Phil Bruns, then by Barney Martin); corpulent bête noire, Newman the mail carrier (Wayne Knight); Elaine's lapdog boyfriend David Puddy (Patrick Warburton), her ubiquitous stalker Crazy Joe (Peter Crombie), and her eccentric employer J. Peterman (John O'Hurley); George's fiancée, Susan Biddle Ross (Heidi Swedberg), who in one of the series' most perverse comic twists died on the eve of the marriage after licking too many cheap wedding-invitation envelopes; Kramer's Cochranesque attorney, Jackie Chiles (Phil Morris), and his little-person crony Mickey Abbott (Danny Woodburn); and ulcerated NBC network executive Russell Dalrimple (Bob Balaban), to whom Jerry pitched his series proposal concerning (you guessed it!) a "show about nothing."

It is doubtful that any one sitcom has ever yielded as many memorable catchphrases as Seinfeld. Even non-devotees of the series cannot help but smile knowingly at the invocation of such bon mots as "Not that there's anything wrong with that," "It rhymes with a female body part," "Maybe the dingo ate your baby," "They're real -- and they're spectacular," and the deathless "Are you master of your own domain?" Even those episodes that did not bring forth the above-mentioned catchphrases are forever etched in the collective consciousness of the American viewing public: who could forget the plot convolutions connected with "The Bubble Boy," "The Soup Nazi," "The Puffy Shirt," "The Pez Dispenser," and the classic "backwards" episode, "The Betrayal"? Seinfeld's final first-run episode, telecast May 14, 1998, was the ne plus ultra in the "show about nothing" genre, in which the entire cast faced a stiff jail turn for literally doing nothing -- that is, they neglected to go to the aid of a mugging victim, and in consequence were charged with "criminal indifference"! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Beau Geste, the classic adventure story of a young man's dangerous journeys as part of the French Foreign Legion, becomes the subject of broad parody in this slapstick comedy. The original tale, best known to film lovers from William Wellman's 1939 classic, tells of several brothers who join the Foreign Legion after claiming responsibility for the mysterious disappearance of an invaluable family heirloom. Eventually, brothers Beau and Digby find themselves in conflict with their vicious commander, leading to a potential mutiny. The plot here is similar, with Michael York assuming Gary Cooper's role as Beau, and first-time director Marty Feldman co-starring as Digby. However, following the lead of former collaborator Mel Brooks, Feldman plays strictly for laughs, loading the story with jokes ranging from the satirical to the vulgar. A cast of notables keeps things lively, with Peter Ustinov and Ann-Margret mocking their own images as the sadistic commander and lusty Geste stepmother. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide