Bob Saget Movies
Bob Saget offers living proof that it is possible to dramatically (and aggressively) alter one's own show-business image in mid-act. This deceptively clean-cut writer/actor/comedian began his foray into televised entertainment typecast as a "family-oriented" comic actor, and then shocked nearly everyone by emerging as a popular "blue" comedian with raunchy standup gigs, delivered from such venues as Glitter Gulch. Throughout, Saget managed to achieve considerable success in each venue, albeit among radically different demographics.A graduate of Pennsylvania's Temple University, Saget originally planned to pursue medical studies, but a brush with the performing arts convinced him to head in that direction instead. Following a brief appearance as a doctor in the Richard Pryor-Michael Apted medical farce Critical Condition (1986), Saget achieved broad recognition in 1987 when cast as genial family man Danny Tanner, a widower and father of three, on the saccharine sitcom Full House (1987-1995). Two and a half years into that program's run, Saget concurrently turned up on another program, America's Funniest Home Videos, which -- per its title -- featured the comic actor emceeing a seemingly limitless series of humorous amateur video clips sent in by folks around the country -- in a contest that issued cash prizes for the very best. Videos, like Full House, instantly scored with the public when it bowed in January 1990; Saget remained with the series until 1997.
Beginning immediately around the time that Full House wrapped, Saget started branching off into a variety of directions; he helmed several features, including telemovies (For Hope, Jitters) and at least one theatrically released comedy (the 1998 Dirty Work), but placed his strongest emphasis on standup. The performer hosted Saturday Night Live, contributed a routine to Comic Relief, and headlined a series of standup comedy specials on pay cable that were -- as indicated -- definitively for adults. He also contributed a memorably scatological and raunchy routine to longtime friends Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette's standup documentary revue, The Aristocrats (2005). (The routine was prefaced by Saget's ironic admission, "Some people think I have a reputation of being a dirty comedian...," and intercepted by his tongue-in-cheek request to have a copy of the video of the routine, to send it to the kids on Full House.) Saget's 2007 directorial effort Farce of the Penguins (2007) skewered the popular nature documentary March of the Penguins (2007) with raunchy voice-overs (by an all-star cast) placed atop nature footage of penguins in the wild. Meanwhile, beginning in 2005, Saget signed for a voice-only role on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother. He provides the older voice of the lead character, Ted Mosby, as he tells his two children the story of how he came to know their mother, effectively serving as narrator for the show. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- 2008
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A walk down the aisle, unemployment and an unexpected crush factor into the fourth season of this buddy comedy. Viewers continually wonder if Ted's current conquest becomes the titular mom, and this season, it looks like he may have hit pay dirt. The relationship between Ted (Josh Radnor) and Stella (Sarah Chalke) moves forward when she accepts his proposal, made at the end of Season 3. As they get closer to the altar, they trip a few times: They realize they know little about each other after Stella ends up in the ER because of Ted's cooking; she expects him to move in with her after the wedding, but her Garden State address inflames ardent New Jersey-hater Ted; and his pals stage an intervention over their concerns about his nuptials. The wedding itself has a bad vibe. After Stella's sis backs out of her own wedding, Stella and Ted assume her plans, but it all goes south...bad vegan food? no booze? exes on the guest list? Just as frustrating is the employment picture for the gang. Ted, Marshall (Jason Segel) and Robin (Cobie Smulders) find themselves out of jobs. Marshall takes it the hardest (and finds his "underpants radius" expanding), Ted considers striking out on his own, while Robin goes to the ends of the Earth -- literally, Tokyo -- to find work. When that doesn't pan out, she faces deportation...until Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) creates an awesome video resumé for her. The most surprising turn of events is the revelation that Barney has a heart. He admits to Lily (Alyson Hannigan) that he's in love with Robin, and the usually sleazy Barney becomes flustered and jealous around his crush. Oh, but he still beds other women. In other developments: The gang searches for the best burger in NYC with Regis Philbin; the Naked Man offers an offbeat way to "close the deal" on a date; and Barney reveals his secret family. ~ Sue Tuttle, Rovi
- Starring:
- Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, (more)
- 2008
- Add Comic Relief: The Greatest... and the Latest to Queue Add Comic Relief: The Greatest... and the Latest to top of Queue
Comic Relief: The Greatest... and the Latest features a number of performances by some of the most talented comics of their day performing for a charity that collects money for the homeless. Among the performers who appear on this release are Sarah Silverman, Lewis Black, Jon Stewart, and David Cross. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, (more)
Animal Planet aesthetics get infused with blush-inducing blue-humor sensibilities as director Bob Saget teams with an all-star cast of comics including Lewis Black, Tracy Morgan, Jason Alexander, Dane Cook, and Whoopi Goldberg to prove that sometimes penguins aren't as sweet as they appear to be on the silver screen. Film star Samuel L. Jackson narrates as actual footage of penguins going about their business in nature is backed by the kind of twisted voice-over work that could only come from the biggest names in comedy. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Samuel L. Jackson, Bob Saget, (more)
For Full House and America's Funniest Home Videos fans who assumed that amiable television funnyman Bob Saget was as wholesome as his small screen counterparts, this raunchy stand-up performance captured live in New York City and originally aired on HBO proves that everyone's favorite television dad can work blue with the best of them. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bob Saget
The direct to video animated movie Casper's Scare School features the beloved friendly ghost attending a school in the hopes of learning how to frighten people. Although he goes through the classes, he reverts to his benevolent ways when he uncovers an evil plan. The voice cast includes Simpsons regular Dan Castellaneta, Jim Belushi, and Phyllis Diller. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jim Belushi, Bob Saget, (more)
- 2006
Packaged by the same production firm responsible for Deal or No Dea, NBC's weekly, hour-long 1 vs. 100 was based on an internationally popular TV game show originally seen in Holland. The series pitted a single contestant against a "mob" of 100 people, wearing a variety of offbeat costumes and sporting a plethora of colorful "personalities" (some of the 100 were champion players from other game shows). The lone contestant was expected to answer increasingly difficult trivia questions, which of course were also tackled by the "mob." For every correct answer given by the contestant, one or more of those who'd responded incorrectly would be eliminating from the 100 other players. The single player could quit at any time or risk losing all of his accumulated prize money to the remaining "mob" members (catch phrase: "The money--or the mob?"); whatever the case, the grand prize was a cool million dollars. Emceed by the peripatetic Bob Saget, 1 vs. 100 premiered October 13, 2006. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bob Saget
- 2005
Eric and Ari scramble for answers about the Aquaman deal; Turtle mopes over bad luck with women; Vince discovers how pricey his new neighborhood can be. Anthony Anderson and Bob Saget have cameos. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi
"A family walks into a talent agent's office..." So begins "The Aristocrats," a joke kept mostly secret by stand-up comedians for decades. An intentionally "bad" joke, the laughs in The Aristocrats aren't in the punch-line (one of the only elements that's the same every time), but in the set-up, made unique by each comedian who tells it in an attempt to fashion the world's dirtiest joke. The cat was finally let out of the bag by Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza, the seasoned funnymen who gathered together a hundred people to tell a hundred different renditions of the bit. Among those presenting their personal take on The Aristocrats in this film of the same name are Jason Alexander, Robin Williams, Gilbert Gottfried, Jon Stewart, Emo Philips, and Chris Rock. The Aristocrats premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
Marking their first theatrical-release feature since 1995's It Takes Two, the Olsen twins bring their adventures back to the big screen with New York Minute. Billed as a sort of Ferris Bueller's Day Off for tweens, the plot involves the escapades of two enterprising Long Island girls, Roxy (Mary-Kate Olsen) and Jane (Ashley Olsen), as they decide to dupe their parents and spend a day on the island of Manhattan. It seems the high-minded Jane has a speech to give to a scholarship committee, while the punky Roxy wants to meet her favorite rock band. When Jane's planner gets swiped, however, the girls find themselves embroiled in a political scandal involving a high-powered senator (Andrea Martin), as their high school's truant officer (Eugene Levy) doggedly pursues them. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ashley Olsen, Mary-Kate Olsen, (more)
- 2001
The title character in this WB Network sitcom was Matt Stewart, played by Full House graduate Bob Saget. A widower, Matt used wisecracks and wry comments to shoulder the responsibilities inherent in raising his two daughters, Sarah (Kat Dennings) and Emily (Brie Larson). Sound familiar? But here's the clincher: Daddy Matt was an English teacher -- in the same high school attended by Sarah and virtually all of her would-be boyfriends. Dispensing the usual sage grandfatherly advice was Matt's own live-in dad, Sam Stewart (Jerry Adler). Part of a Friday-night WB comedy block, Raising Dad (working titles: In Your Dreams and Wake Up Dad) debuted on October 5, 2001, its original September 14 premiere date preempted by continuing coverage of the World Trade Center tragedy. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bob Saget, Kat Dennings, (more)
- 2000
In this made-for-TV movie, shown on the E! network, Richard Breggs (Harland Williams) is a super-swell guy. An aspiring actor, he drives a taxi so that he can afford to buy his girlfriend Maggie (Elizabeth Berkley) a set of window shades for their apartment. All is dandy until Richard's friend Nick informs him that his niceness is the source of his career problems, and that he'll only be able to get ahead as an actor if he becomes a class-A jerk. Richard decides to give Nick's advice a try, and four years later he wakes up with amnesia to discover that he's the star of a monstrously popular TV show called, appropriately enough, "Dick." Living in a mansion, he is informed by his butler Edward (Robert Wagner) that yes, he has become a bonafide schmuck. This news horrifies Richard, who sets about trying to find Maggie and mend his wicked ways. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- Starring:
- Harland Williams, Robert Wagner, (more)
Returning from a food run, kindly kindergarten teacher Kenny (Harland Williams) makes the mistake of feeding a massive amount of junk food to a tired-looking, diabetic NYPD horse, which drops dead. Tossed in jail, Kenny relies on his totally stoned roommates (Dave Chappelle, Guillermo Diaz, Jim Breuer) to devise a way to raise the 100,000-dollar bail. Their solution? Sell marijuana stolen from a government research lab. Cameos in this comedy include Stephen Wright, Janeane Garofalo, Stephen Baldwin, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Willie Nelson, and Jon Stewart. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dave Chappelle, Guillermo Diaz, (more)
Shortly after leaving the "Weekend Update" anchor slot on Saturday Night Live, Norm Macdonald resurfaced in this comedy about smart-aleck Mitch Weaver who teams with buddy Sam McKenna (Artie Lange of Mad TV). They open a revenge-for-hire business (Dirty Work Inc.) in order to raise $50,000 so Sam's father (Jack Warden) can get a heart transplant. After they bring down a dictatorial movie theater manager (Don Rickles), they next hire prostitutes to pose as dead bodies during an auto dealer's live TV commercial. Millionaire real-estate developer Travis Cole (Christopher McDonald) is bothered when Mitch and Sam interfere with his plan to wipe a woman's home out of existence. Cole hires Dirty Work to trash a building, so he can have it condemned. However, Cole doesn't own the building, and problems arise, mainly since the grandmother of Mitch's girlfriend lives in the building. The feud escalates. Cameos by Chevy Chase, the late Chris Farley, former child star Gary Coleman, Adam Sandler, and John Goodman. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Norm MacDonald, Jack Warden, (more)
- 1997
The closer she gets to her wedding day, the more a bride-to-be suffers from the title afflictions. Though she has loved her future husband for years, she is afraid that becoming a wife will cause an identity crisis. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joely Fisher, Brian Wimmer, (more)
- 1996
Comic actor Bob Saget served as producer and director of this made-for-TV film, inspired by the true story of Saget's sister Gay, who died in 1994 at the age of 47. Despite the pressures of single motherhood, schoolteacher Hope Altman (Dana Delany) seems to have her life in order until she is diagnosed with scleroderma, a disfiguring skin disease that causes her body's connective tissues to stiffen and atrophy, and will eventually paralyze her while eating away at her vital organs. There is no cure for scleroderma, and the survival rate is tragically low--and worse, neither the medical community nor the general public has a firm grasp on understanding the disease and its many victims (500,000, mostly female, in the United States alone). The film chronicles the manner in which Hope and her family handle the nightmarish situation, often with what Saget described as "irreverence and dark humor" (At one point, Hope's brother Alan--a comedy writer--quips that scleroderma sounds like "a deli entrée"). Sharon Monsky, who at the time ran one of the most prominent organizations for those suffering from scleroderma, appears briefly as herself. For Hope originally aired over the ABC network on November 17, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1995
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