Paul Benedict Movies

Determing that Lewis (Ryan Stiles) and Oswald (Diedrich Bader) don't like her because she's too good to be true, Kellie (Cynthia Watros) goes to great lengths to prove that she's "one of the guys", stealing a life-size cutout of Cleveland Indians player Jim Thome)--and becoming a fugitive from justice in the process. Lewis and Oswald join Kellie in her flight from the Law, which ends with a shootout between the police...and the cut-out! Meanwhile, Drew (Drew Carey) spends $3000 booking a chapel for his wedding, even though he isn't engaged to anyone yet. And in his efforts to re-enter the workplace, Mr. Wick (Craig Ferguson) comes up with a million-dollar idea: genuine poker-playing dogs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Reducing to borrowing from her own tuition money to pay the rent, Whitley (Jasmine Guy) must go looking for a job. After several setbacks, she tries to raise the necessary funds by throwing a good old-fashioned rent party, organized by Ron (Darryl M. Bell)--who suffers mightily as a result. Meanwhile, Col. Taylor's son Terrence (Cory Tyler) has decided to become a Muslim. . .and never mind that he knows next to nothing about the religion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When Cabot Cove resident Beverly Garrett is electrocuted in her own bathtub in a locked bathroom, Sheriff Amos Tupper (Tom Bosley) is willing to write the tragedy off as an accident; Tupper, you see, is thinking about retirement, and has already hand-picked his successor. But Jessica (Angela Lansbury) can't shake the belief that Beverly was murdered, prompting the long-suffering Tupper to dare Jessica to prove it! Adding to the intrigue is a controversial land sale, a vicious poison-pen campaign that has spread throughout town, and Jessica's mounting frustration over playing hostess to a visiting travel writer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

By the time The Jeffersons set forth upon its eleventh season in the fall of 1984, the series had been out of the Top 25 programs for nearly two years. In fine sitcom tradition, the producers tried to remedy the situation by first changing the time slot (from Sundays to Tuesdays, beginning in January 1985) and then introducing a new character -- though this one was not "new" at all, merely remodelled. In the spring of 1980, George and Louise Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford) had become grandparents when their son Lionel (Mike Evans) and daughter-in-law Jenny (Berlinda Tolbert) brought forth a baby daughter, Jessica. This character had been virtually written out when both Evans and Tolbert left the series, and viewers were clearly unhappy. There was nothing to do but to bring Jessica back. Ebonie Smith was cast as Jessica, who through the magic of network television had grown into a healthy eight-year-old within a mere four-year span. While Jessica was a welcome addition, The Jeffersons itself was clearly tired and played out (as evidenced by its wearisome reliance upon celebrity guest stars in several episodes). Still, the cast assumed that the show would be renewed for a 12th season, and accordingly did not bother with taping a "grand finale," closing out the season with a standard, open-ended story line. But CBS had other plans, and with the telecast of the 253rd episode on June 26, 1985, the 11-year saga of The Jeffersons came to an abrupt end. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This strange movie is about a roller skating fanatic who leaves home, goes to San Francisco to pursue his passion, and then comes up against a troublesome relationship. Andy Steigler (Steve Tracy) gets a low-level job at a large roller rink to be close to his sport. He makes friends with some other employees as well as his landlady, Dottie Butz (Isabel Sanford), but after he meets Olivia (Dana Handler) things go downhill. His feelings are intentionally either mocked or encouraged by the mean-spirited Olivia and before he can resolve what is happening to him, he has a few odd sessions with Dr. Boxer (Christopher Lee), a man who is knowledgeable about dominating relationships. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The biggest news attending The Jeffersons' sixth season was the return of Mike Evans as Lionel Jefferson, the role he'd created on the series' parent program, All in the Family, way back in 1971. Having been replaced by Damon Evans (no relation) from 1975 to 1979, Mike Evans stepped back into Lionel's shoes with remarkable smoothness, almost as if he'd never been gone. The other "big event" during season six was the birth of Jessica Jefferson, the daughter of Lionel and his wife, Jenny Willis Jefferson (Berlinda Tolbert). As was usually the case in sitcomland, Jessica's arrival was served up in a hectic two-part episode, replete with frantic chases to the hospital and an abundance of waiting-room tension. Since Jessica was the interracial daughter of an interracial couple, Lionel's highly opinionated dad, George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley), found he had struck a whole new mother lode of sarcastic humor. Having occupied a new Sunday-night slot since June 1979, The Jeffersons enjoyed the best ratings it had seen in years. The program not only returned to the Top Ten, but had attained the coveted number eight ratings slot, surpassing even its source series, All in the Family. Perhaps this viewer upsurge was due to its new Sunday berth, or maybe the return of Mike Evans and the introduction of baby Jessica did the trick. Whatever the case, The Jeffersons was assured a renewal for an seventh season in the fall of 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When The Jeffersons entered its fifth season in the fall of 1978, the series still enjoyed an ardent fan following, but its Top Ten ratings status was a thing of the past. Having been shifted all over the CBS prime-time schedule during its past two seasons -- Saturdays to Wednesdays, Wednesdays to Mondays, Mondays back to Saturdays, then back to Mondays again -- the series showed up on Wednesdays yet again, this time opposite ABC's popular Eight is Enough. Of the cast of regulars, Ernest Harden Jr., introduced in season four as George Jefferson's (Sherman Hemsley) streetwise employee Marcus Garvey Henderson, disappeared with little fanfare. New to the series was Jay Hammer as Alan Willis, the long-estranged son of interracial couple Tom and Helen Willis (Franklin Cover, Roxie Roker). Hammer, too, would be gone within a year. Meanwhile, though Damon Evans (as Lionel Jefferson) would continue to receive opening-credits billing, he was conspicuously absent. In truth, Damon Evans had left the series; Lionel would return full-time during season six in the person of Mike Evans (no relation), the actor who originated the role on All in the Family way back in 1971. Surprisingly, The Jeffersons remained on Wednesdays throughout most of the 1978-1979 season, though the time slot varied between 8:00-8:30 p.m. and 9:30-10:00 p.m. The series' ratings, which had progressively weakened since its 1975 debut, seemed to have leveled off; there was no way to go but up or out. And with an advantageous move to a brand-new Sunday-night slot in June 1979, the direction proved to be up -- way, way up. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Still in its regular Saturday-night time slot, The Jeffersons entered its third season on CBS. Although the cast had not undergone any radical changes since season two, there were a few differences. For one, Marla Gibbs, who'd been seen in the recurring role of the Jeffersons' sassy maid Florence since the series' debut in 1975, graduated to full "regular" status when she became the family's live-in housekeeper. For another, Zara Cully, the inimitable (and intimidating) Mother Jefferson, was unable to appear on a weekly basis due to advancing age and illness. She did, however, make a handful of token appearances toward the end of the season. The romance between Lionel Jefferson (Damon Evans) and Jenny Willis (Berlinda Tolbert) culminated in marriage on the Christmas 1976 episode. The union of the Jefferson and Willis clans would result in a softening of George Jefferson's (Sherman Hemsley) "race" jokes aimed at interracial couple Tom and Helen Willis (Franklin Cover, Roxie Roker), though George still seldom spared the Willises his wicked wit. As for Louise Jefferson (Isabel Sanford), her efforts to broaden her knowledge and interests would increase during season three, usually with a devastatingly comic effort on husband George. Unable to regain the high ratings it had enjoyed during its first season, The Jeffersons began changing its time slot with dizzying frequency. The series moved from Saturdays to Wednesdays in November 1976, then from Wednesdays to Mondays in January 1977. This hopscotching had little effect on the series' ratings; in fact, since The Jeffersons dropped from 21st to 24th place during season three, its chaotic reshuffling probably did more harm than good. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second Norman Lear-produced TV series to be spun off from All in the Family (Maude was the first), The Jeffersons grew out of a character who appeared on the very first episode of Family -- college student Lionel Jefferson (originally played by Mike Evans), the young African-American friend of Mike Stivic, son-in-law of super-bigot Archie Bunker. To Archie's horror, Lionel's entire family moved across the street from the Bunker home in the spring of 1971, and over the next few weeks, viewers were introduced to Lionel's mother Louise Jefferson (Isabel Sanford), who became the best friend and closest confidante of Archie's wife Edith. Later on, two more Jeffersons made their first appearances: Henry Jefferson (Mel Stewart), Lionel's uncle, who was in many ways as racially prejudiced as Archie Bunker; and, finally, Lionel's father and Louise's husband George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley), bombastic owner of a string of dry-cleaning establishments. Ultimately Henry Jefferson was written out of All in the Family, whereupon George "inherited" most of Henry's anti-white attitudes.
In the middle of All in the Family's fifth season, the Jeffersons had accumulated enough wealth to move out of Archie Bunker's blue-collar Queens neighborhood and into a "dee-luxe" high-rise apartment on New York's fashionable East Side. This was the status quo when The Jeffersons debuted Saturday, January 18, 1975, as a mid-season replacement for the failed CBS sitcom Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers (ironically, All in the Family had also premiered as a mid-season replacement). In short order, viewers were introduced to the Jefferson's new neighbors: book editor Tom Willis (Franklin Cover), his wife Helen (Roxie Roker), their daughter Jenny (Berlinda Tolbert), and eccentric Englishman Harry Bentley (Paul Benedict), a translator at the UN. The fact that the Willises were an interracial couple (he was white, she was black) served as grist for the mill of George Jefferson's bigotry and wisecracking humor; meanwhile, Lionel fell in love with the Willises' daughter Jenny, much to the dismay of George but to the delight of everyone else. Other recurring characters included George Jefferson's diminutive but overbearing mother (Zara Cully), who made no secret of her disdain for Louise; Ralph Hart (Ned Wertimer), the doorman of the Jeffersons' luxury apartment building, whose hand was ever outstretched for the tip that George habitually denied him; and Florence Johnston (Marla Gibbs), the Jeffersons' sassy maid, who seldom worked any harder than she had to and whose never-ending battle of wits with the irascible George was one of the series' highlights. (Florence was not a "regular" during season one, and in fact would not graduate to that status for several seasons to come.) Despite its late start, The Jeffersons closed out its first season as the fourth highest-rated program on network television, posting a whopping 27.6 audience share (even higher than that enjoyed by M*A*S*H). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As indicated by its title, this episode of All in the Family served as the pilot for the spin-off series The Jeffersons. The Bunkers appear at the beginning of the episode to bid goodbye as the nouveau riche Jefferson family leave their middle-class Bronx neighborhood in favorite of a "dee-luxe" apartment on New York's fashionable East Side. Helen Willis and Franklin Cover make their first appearances as the Jeffersons' new neighbors, a "mixed" married couple named Helen and Tom Willis. Written by Lloyd Turner and Gordon Mitchell, "The Jeffersons Move Up" originally aired on January 11, 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of Terrence Malick's early screenwriting efforts, this loosely-structured road movie finds a questionably sane long-distance trucker named Cooper (Alan Arkin) winding his way through the heart of America. An employee of a questionable hauling outfit who has been assigned to drive a newly hijacked rig to an as-of-yet undisclosed-location, Cooper quickly ditches his partner and points his eighteen-wheeler westward. Picking-up a hitchhiker (Paul Benedict) for some company in the cab, the unstable trucker's journey westward grows increasingly surreal as he runs into numerous eccentric characters, portrayed in cameo roles by such noted names as Ida Lupino, George Raft, Charles Durning, Loretta Swit, Richard Kiel and future director John Milius. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The inner workings of the U.S. government are spoofed by members from Chicago's Second City comedy troupe. Set in the future, the largely improvised film centers on president Fillard Millmore who finds himself a pawn in a battle between self-serving cabinet members. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The city of Blaine, Missouri is celebrating its sesquicentennial, and what better reason could there be to put on a show? Corky St. Claire (Christopher Guest), current leader of Blaine's community theater group and creator of a stage musical version of Backdraft that led to the unfortunate destruction of the theater, has been commissioned to put together a musical about the city's noble history, "Red, White and Blaine," which stars a variety of the town's theatrical talent. Corky's cast includes Ron and Sheila Albertson (Fred Willard and Catherine O'Hara), a pair of married travel agents that Corky calls "the Lunts of Blaine;" Allan Pearl (Eugene Levy), a dentist who insists that he wasn't the class clown in high school but did sit next to him; Libby Mae Brown (Parker Posey), a sweet young thing who lives for her job at the Dairy Queen; and Clifford Wooley (Lewis Arquette), an "Old Blainian" who makes gun racks from deer hooves. Somehow, Corky has persuaded a major theatrical producer in New York to send a representative to look at the show -- is it possible that "Red, White and Blaine" could be headed to Broadway? Christopher Guest directed and co-wrote this very funny mock-documentary, in addition to playing the flamboyant Corky; Guests's partners from This Is Spinal Tap, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, helped write the memorable songs for "Red, White and Blaine." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide