Paul Benedict Movies

In her efforts to "understand" a New Yorker cartoon, Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) takes up cartooning herself -- but her boss, Peterman (John O'Hurley), knows a Ziggy rip-off when he sees one. Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) is aghast when performance artist Sally Weaver (Kathy Griffin) puts on her latest one-woman show: "Jerry Seinfeld -- The Devil." George (Jason Alexander) likes his girlfriend, but for the life of him can't figure out why (can it be that she looks like Jerry?). And looming over all this is the brutal honesty of Kramer (Michael Richards) -- which benefits no one, himself included. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This made-for-cable remake of the cult favorite 1957 film of the same name is updated with an even more feminist slant and has a more thoughtful (and clever) script. Nancy Archer (Darryl Hannah) is a rich but troubled young woman married to a cheating lowlife who only stays with her for her money. She is driving home by herself one night when an alien spaceship lands on the road. She is irradiated by the ship and over the next few days starts to grow taller and taller, until she reaches a height of 50 feet. She uses her newfound height (and power) to take revenge on those who have wronged her -- especially husband Harry (Daniel Baldwin) and the trashy, gold-digging bimbo (Christi Conaway) he has taken up with. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide

Inspired more by the 1960s TV series than by the original Charles Addams New Yorker cartoons, The Addams Family proved to be one of the more successful of the TV shows-turned-movies of the 1990s. The film opens on a recreation of the magazine cartoon wherein the ghoulish Addamses prepare to pour hot oil upon a group of merry Christmas carolers. After a series of vignettes which establish the characters of Gomez (Raul Julia), Morticia (Anjelica Huston), Wednesday (Christina Ricci), Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) and family servants Lurch (Carel Struycken) and Thing (Christopher Hart), the plot proper gets under way. A stranger, played by Christopher Lloyd, shows up on the Addams doorstep, claiming to be long-lost Uncle Fester. It appears, however, that Lloyd is a ringer, in cahoots with attorney Tully Alford (Dan Hedaya) to strip the Addamses of their fortune. In their usual against-the-grain fashion, the Addams Family seems to delight in the possibility that they're being hoodwinked-indeed, not even kidnapping or death threats dampen the Addams clan's joy of living (or should we say dying?). The Addams Family served as the directorial debut of cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this farcical comedy, Matthew Broderick plays Clark Kellogg, an aspiring director who arrives in New York City to attend film school. However, moments after he arrives in the city, he's robbed by Victor Ray (Bruno Kirby), leaving him no money for the $700 in books required by his instructor, Arthur Fleeber (Paul Benedict). A few days later, Clark runs into Victor and demands his money back, but Victor has already lost it (on a horse race in which he wasn't entirely sure the animal he bet on was a horse). Instead, he offers to fix Clark up with a job with his boss, an "importer and exporter" named Carmone Sabatini (Marlon Brando), who bears a stunning resemblance to Don Corleone in The Godfather. Clark's adventures with Sabatini are just beginning when he's instructed to pick up a package from the airport. Clark is expecting it to be contraband, and he's right, but not in the way he figured -- it turns out he's accepting delivery of a komodo dragon, which is to be served at a "gourmet club" specializing in dishes prepared from endangered species. Marlon Brando's hilarious comic variation on one of his best-known roles is the highlight of this film, but Bruno Kirby and Paul Benedict also deliver fine comic turns, and Matthew Broderick copes nobly with his role as the film's lone normal person. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this supernatural prison drama, a correctional facility is reopened after being closed for over twenty years. It was shut down after a terrible uprising culminated with the execution of the brutal warden in the electric chair. The new leader was the late warden's assistant and has vivid memories of it all. Like his predecessor, he is a rigid ruler with no tolerance for infractions. This causes all kinds of problems for the prison psychiatrist who seems to be a liberal on the side of the inmates. Unfortunately, things are not always as they appear; especially when the ghost of the old warden mysteriously reappears. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this sequel to the 1981 hit comedy Arthur, the story picks up where it left off with the bibulous millionaire hero (Dudley Moore) marrying poverty-stricken Linda Marolla (Liza Minnelli) instead of going through with a prearranged wealthy marriage. The vengeful father (Stephen Elliott) of the justifiably jilted bride begins pulling a few crooked strings, and before long, Arthur is broke. Worse still, Linda is pregnant. Will Arthur crawl back into a bottle, or will he save the day? John Gielgud makes a cameo appearance as the ghost of the family-retainer character he played in the first Arthur, while Dudley Moore's real-life wife Brogan Lane shows up in a minor role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Having finished her first art-class oil paintings, Louise (Isabel Sanford) proudly shows them off to her friends and family. Though they agree that the paintings are (too put it mildly) hideous, they try to spare Louise's feelings by overpraising her work to the skies. When the misguided Louise announces her plans to enter a high-class art show, George is forced to resort to yet another deception -- this one involving a so-called "critic." Danny Wells makes his final series appearance as Charlie the bartender. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Largely improvised by director Rob Reiner and his cast, This Is Spinal Tap looks and sounds like a "real" documentary, with Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Christopher Guest as David St. Hubbins, Derek Smalls, and Nigel Tufnel, the key members of a going-nowhere British heavy metal band called Spinal Tap. The "group" started as an informal skiffle band, eventually maturing into an R&B act called the Thamesmen (their hit was "Gimme Some Money"). After going through a psychedelic period with "Listen to the Flower People," the band mutated into Spinal Tap, a hard rock outfit responsible for such albums as "Intravenous DeMilo," "The Sun Never Sweats," and "Bent for the Rent." This Is Spinal Tap finds them in the midst of their first American tour in years as they support their new LP Smell the Glove, with filmmaker Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner), who specializes in TV commercials, on hand to document the occasion. Just about anything that can go wrong does: shows get canceled, stage props go wrong, wireless guitar pickups start broadcasting air-traffic reports, no one shows up for in-store appearances, David's girlfriend tries to take over the band, they wind up billed second to a puppet show at an amusement park, and the group teeters on the verge of breakup. After the film's initial release, McKean, Guest, and Shearer did a short club tour as Spinal Tap; the "band" reunited in 1992 for a new album, Break Like the Wind, followed by a full-fledged tour and TV special, The Return of Spinal Tap. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Season ten of The Jeffersons was marked by a pronounced drop-off in ratings. Ranking 12th in the list of most popular American TV series during its ninth season, the series didn't even make it to the top 25 the following year. This can be attributed to a problem that has plagued scores of long-running network programs: After so many years on the air, the actors were obviously wearying of their roles and merely going through the motions. One of the few bright spots of the tenth season was the return of Paul Benedict as the Jeffersons' goofy British neighbor Harry Bentley. Having left the show in 1981 (it was explained that Bentley, a UN functionary, had been transferred to the former Soviet Union), Benedict returned with all of his delightful eccentricities intact. In a related development, former Saturday Night Live regular Garrett Morris, introduced the previous season as the Jeffersons' wheeler-dealer "foster son" Jimmy Townsend, made a handful of welcome guest appearances. And in another attempt to bolster ratings, the series began to accommodate celebrity guests, beginning with Sammy Davis Jr. and Sister Sledge. (Billy Dee Williams had made an appearance as "himself" during an earlier season, but this hardly constituted the inauguration of a trend.) Alas, these refreshing additions did little to compensate for the complete absence of the Jeffersons' son Lionel (Mike Evans) and Lionel's estranged wife, Jenny (Berlinda Tolbert). Fans who had been brought back into the fold when Lionel and Jenny's daughter Jessica was born in 1980 were understandably disappointed that these characters had apparently dropped from the face of the earth. Clearly, however, the producers realized their error in virtually writing off the grandchild of George and Louise Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford), inasmuch as the character would return full force for the series' 11th (and final) season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After several seasons in the ratings doldrums, The Jeffersons had enjoyed an incredible upsurge in viewership during its sixth season, due in no small part to the decision by CBS to move the series to Sunday night, traditionally the "best" TV evening of the week. Thus, it was no surprise that the series would retain its Sunday slot when it entered its seventh season in the fall of 1980; indeed, Sunday would remain "Jeffersons" night until December 1984. Perhaps because the series had finally found its bearings, there were no cast changes or additions during season eight. Clearly, audiences were happy that Mike Evans, the original Lionel Jefferson, had returned to the fold during the previous season after a four-year absence. Jessica Jefferson, newborn daughter of Lionel and Jenny Jefferson (Berlinda Tolbert), was more talked about than seen. A few uncredited infant "actors" appeared as Jessica during season eight, but otherwise the character was conveyed via prerecorded crying sounds. Early in 1981, Marla Gibbs, who had been playing The Jeffersons' sassy housekeeper Florence Johnston since 1975, was given the opportunity to essay the same character on a series of her own. The final two seventh-season Jeffersons episodes were designed as a one-hour pilot for the new Gibbs series, Checking In, in which Florence was promoted to executive housekeeper at the ritzy St. Frederick Hotel. Debuting April 9, 1981, Checking In ultimately checked out after a mere four episodes. Because of a lengthy Hollywood writers' strike in 1980, fewer Jeffersons episodes were produced that year than in previous seasons. Only 20 new half-hours were seen during season seven, though a "stockpile" of 1980-1981 episodes would spill over into season eight. The paucity of first-run episodes did not affect the series' popularity in the least: By April 1981, The Jeffersons was the sixth highest-rated network program. And as a bonus, Isabel Sanford (Louise Jefferson) had won an Emmy Award as outstanding lead actress in a comedy series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Billy in the Lowlands stars Henry Tomaszewski as a wild youth who spends the better part of his time in the Massachussetts penal system. Billy busts out of jail, wanders through the streets of Boston, and does his best to re-establish a relationship with his aloof father. The film was produced independently in hopes of finding a major distributor via the film-festival circuit. The Theatre Company of Boston picked up the production tab and provided most of the acting talent. Director Jan Egleson followed up Billy in the Lowlands with the like-themed 1981 Dark End of the Street, which was also filmed in Boston and also featured Henry Tomaszewski. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Even though its ratings had dropped precipitously since its January 1975 debut, The Jeffersons remained on the CBS prime time schedule during the 1977-1978 season, if for no other reason than the "clout" of series producer Norman Lear. Having been moved all over the map during its third season, from Saturday evenings to Wednesdays and finally Mondays, the series launched season four by returning to Saturdays, albeit in a later time slot than it had occupied in previous years. The cast of characters remained the same as before, with the notable and tragic exception of Zara Cully as the imperious Mother Jefferson. Having been too ill to appear in anything but "guest-star" assignments since the end of season two, Cully died in January 1978. Meanwhile, a new recurring character had been added to the fold in the form of Ernest Harden Jr. as Marcus Garvey Henderson, a street-smart young employee of dry-cleaning entrepreneur George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley). Marcus was one of several characters introduced when George's wife Louise (Isabel Sanford), in concert with best friend Helen Willis (Roxie Roker) and the Jeffersons' housekeeper Florence (Marla Gibbs), began volunteering her services at the Help Center, an outreach organization designed to assist inner-city youngsters. The series' move back to Saturdays evidently helped not at all. The Jeffersons dropped even lower on the ratings scale, not even appearing on the Top 30 programs of the year. Clearly, another time slot change was in order; thus in June 1978, The Jeffersons hopped back to Mondays, where it would remain until returning to Wednesdays for its fifth-season debut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide