Patrick Warburton Movies
Squared-jawed beefcake Patrick Warburton leapt into pop culture consciousness as David Puddy, Elaine's on-again, off-again boyfriend on the hit sitcom Seinfeld in 1995, and has since then steadily found his deadpan talents in ever-greater demand. With his squinty eyes and hard-boiled detective's voice, Warburton has become a humorous personality who can generate giggles with almost no effort, whether onscreen or in voice-overs.Warburton was born on November 14, 1964, in Paterson, NJ, and raised in Southern California, a son of little-known television actress Barbara Lord. The future Bugle Boy model studied marine biology at Orange Coast College, where he met his wife, Cathi, before dropping out to pursue modeling and acting at age 19. In his first screen appearance, the 17th century slave film Dragonard (1987), Warburton was subject to what is thought to be the longest onscreen flogging on film, a 100-lash scene that consumes nearly four minutes of screen time. He also appeared in the sequel, Master of Dragonard Hill (1989), before turning his attention to television.
Warburton had guest spots on such shows as Murphy Brown, Designing Women, and Quantum Leap before scoring a recurring role on the short-lived Dave Barry sitcom Dave's World in 1993. But it was not until he appeared in the 1995 episode of Seinfeld entitled "The Fusilli Jerry" that Warburton really started to attract attention. As Puddy, Jerry's lunkhead mechanic who spits out dialogue in macho spurts, notably the catchphrase affirmation "Yeah that's right," Warburton quickly became a popular semi-regular, involved in a running joke about his frequent breakups and reconciliations with Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). He stayed with the show until it finished in 1998, and provided the voice for Superman in a series of commercials starring Seinfeld.
Warburton had another recurring role as unscrupulous businessman Johnny Johnson on News Radio in 1999, then contributed his memorable voice to characters on the animated shows Family Guy, Hercules, and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. By this time the big screen was really beckoning, as Warburton flexed his comic talents as a bodyguard in Scream 3 (2000), then toned them down as an American astronomer in Australia in The Dish (2000). His voice was again called upon, this time by Disney, for the role of a sorceress' thug assistant in The Emperor's New Groove (2000).
Going zanier than on Seinfeld, Warburton signed on as the star of the Fox sitcom The Tick, about a muscle-bound but dimwitted superhero in a blue costume, which premiered in the fall of 2001. High-profile projects in 2002 would include a role in the delayed ensemble farce Big Trouble and as Agent T alongside Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in Men in Black 2. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
An old fable gets a high-tech update in this computer-animated comedy from Walt Disney Pictures. Chicken Little (voice of Zach Braff) is an earnest young fowl living in the town of Oakley Oaks who one day starts a panic when a falling acorn drops on his head, and he warns everyone that the sky has started to collapse. Chicken Little was wrong, of course, much to the embarrassment of his father, Buck Cluck (voice of Garry Marshall), and now the young chicken is struggling to live down the incident. While his best friends Abby Mallard (voice of Joan Cusack), Runt of the Litter (voice of Steve Zahn), and Fish out of Water stand by him, the school's star athlete Foxy Loxy (voice of Amy Sedaris) never passes up an opportunity to make fun of the diminutive chicken. As a result, Chicken Little tends to keep his more recent discoveries to himself, but what's a bird to do when he uncovers pseudo-scientific evidence that suggests the sky really is starting to fall, in large hexagonal chunks? Chicken Little was directed by Mark Dindal, who previously helmed The Emperor's New Groove for Disney. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zach Braff, Steve Zahn, (more)
The voice cast of Disney's 2000 animated hit The Emperor's New Groove returns in this sequel in which newly established restaurateur Kronk attempts to whip his diner into shape before the arrival of his visiting father. Business at his newly opened restaurant just isn't as good as Kronk had hoped, and upon receiving a llama-gram stating that his father is currently en route, the stressed chef and his enchanting partner Yzma begin cooking up a scheme that will give the restaurant the distinct smell of success. When the plan backfires and an enormous cheese explosion leaves Kronk and company scrambling to get back on their feet, it's up to his friends to convince him that the only way he'll ever achieve true happiness is by remaining true to his groove no matter how heavy the odds are stacked against him. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
A man hoping to make his way back to the big time starts by heading back to middle school in this comedy. Roy McCormick (Martin Lawrence) is one of the most successful coaches in college basketball, but he's just as famous for his hair-trigger temper as he is for molding winning teams. When an outburst of anger during a game escalates into an embarrassing public indecent, McCormick loses his job and is banned from college sports. Looking for a way to rehabilitate his image, McCormick takes a job coaching the basketball team at the middle school he used to attend, only to discover his players are a handful of misfits and losers with no skill on the court. Can McCormick mold the kids into a winning team -- and make himself into a better man along the way? Rebound also stars Wendy R. Robinson, Breckin Meyer, Horatio Sanz, Megan Mullally, and Patrick Warburton. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Lawrence, Wendy Raquel Robinson, (more)
Chris Burgard's The Ruining begins as two couples set out to climb a mountain. What they do not realize is that 30 years before, a village located in the mountains was accidentally poisoned. Those who became sick either died or became zombies. These two worlds collide, leading to some gruesome confrontations. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
UPN's first prime-time CGI-animated comedy series, Game Over dealt with the Smashenberns, a family of computerized video game characters. Mom Raquel Smashenbern (voiced by Lucy Liu) was a dead ringer for Lara Croft, dad Rip Smashenbern (voiced by Patrick Warburton) would not be out of place as a Grand Prix racer, and 13-year-old Billy and 14-year old Alice spent most of their time figuring out just what game they'd be best suited for (you know those teenagers; they never feel like they quite belong). Also in the cast was the family's 300-pound pet, Turbo, one of those amorphous, unrecognizable blobs that tended show up in real video games if the player forgot to defrag. The Smashenburns' nutty neighbors were the Changs, a clan of battling Shaolin Monks. Living in the alternate "afterworld" of Game Over, the main characters struggled to fulfill their strenuous video game duties while trying to maintain a semblance of normality in their private lives. In several instances, genuine video game characters showed up in guest roles. Debuting March 10, 2004, Game Over, produced by the same people responsible for 3rd Rock From the Sun and That '70s Show, lasted a scant six half-hour episodes, only five of which were seen before it was canceled by UPN. The network also briefly maintained an online PC game to be played in conjunction with the program. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- E.G. Daily, Rachel Dratch, (more)
Disney presents the animated musical Western Home on the Range, featuring an original musical score by Alan Menken. The Little Piece of Heaven family farm is about to go under and outlaw cattle rustler Alameda Slim (voice of Randy Quaid) sets his sights on it. Three dairy cows -- tough Maggie (voice of Roseanne), leader Mrs. Calloway (voice of Judi Dench), and naïve Grace (voice of Jennifer Tilly) -- team up to save the farm. Along with ambitious stallion Buck (voice of Cuba Gooding Jr.), helpful rabbit Lucky Jack (voice of Charles Haid), and other helpful barnyard friends, the cows set out to capture Alameda Slim and collect the reward money. However, a vicious bounty hunter (voice of Charles Dennis) is also after Slim. The film features vocal performances by Bonnie Raitt, k.d. lang, and Tim McGraw. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roseanne, Judi Dench, (more)
Barry Sonnenfeld directs this kissing cousin of his own 1995 hit Get Shorty, a comic caper adapted by Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone from the novel by newspaper humorist Dave Barry. When two New Jersey hitmen (Dennis Farina and Jack Kehler) show up in Miami to whack crooked businessman Arthur Herk (Stanley Tucci), they happen to creep into his backyard at the same time as Matt (Ben Foster), a high school kid with his own assassination plans. Only, Matt plans to use nothing heavier than a squirt gun on Jenny (Zooey Deschanel), Arthur's daughter, as part of a school-wide game of "killer." When the plans collide, mayhem ensues, and Matt's struggling ex-columnist dad (Tim Allen, loosely modeled on Barry), Arthur's bored wife (Rene Russo), and two confused police officers (Janeane Garofalo and Patrick Warburton) are also called to the scene. Shift to the next day and there's more craziness to follow. Two dimwitted petty criminals (Tom Sizemore and Johnny Knoxville) choose the exact moment Arthur is transacting a nuclear arms deal to hold up the dive bar where they're regulars, which is actually a front for the Russian mob. Soon the whole motley cast -- including an agreeable drifter (Jason Lee), a buxom maid (Sofia Vergara), and a pair of ruthless FBI agents (Heavy D and Omar Epps) -- are caught up in a hostage scenario in which the weapon accidentally gets brought aboard a hijacked plan. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Allen, Rene Russo, (more)
- 2002
This weekly animated series revolved around a feisty high school girl named Kim Possible. The daughter of research scientists, Kim did her best to lead a normal teenaged life, going to class, attending proms, and the like. Unfortunately, the world was full pesky master criminals and megalomaniacal supervillains, compelling the high-flying, martial arts savvy Kim to kick butt on occasion in the interests of humanity and the American Way. Acting as Kim's erstwhile sidekick was her nerdish school chum, Ron Stoppable, while teen stud-muffin Josh Manley provided the romantic interest (at least, that's what Kim hoped). Kim Possible debuted June 7, 2002, on the Disney Channel, posting the highest opening-night ratings in that cable channel's history. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christy Romano
Otherworldly villains are on the loose again, and it's up to Earth's interstellar police force to bring them to justice in this sequel to the sci-fi comedy blockbuster Men in Black. Agent Jay (Will Smith) has become a high-ranking member of the Men in Black, the secret government task force designed to deal with unruly visitors from other worlds, while his former cohort, Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones), had his memory wiped clean and now lives a simple but contented life as a mailman. However, an especially nasty alien threat has reared its not-so-ugly head; Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle) is a shape-shifting Kylothian alien who is in pursuit of another escaped visitor who holds the key to powers that would allow her to destroy the world. Making Serleena all the more dangerous is the fact she's taken on the appearance of a lingerie model, making her irresistible to most men. When the rampaging Serleena takes control of the MIB offices, Jay is forced to turn to the only man who can help him save the world -- the former Agent Kay. After restoring Kay's memory, the two remaining Men in Black set out to conquer Serleena with a motley band of friendly aliens, including a handful of worm creatures and a talking dog named Frank (voice of Tim Blaney). Jay, meanwhile, has his head turned by Laura (Rosario Dawson), an attractive waitress who was an unwitting witness to an alien attack. Men in Black 2 also features Rip Torn, Tony Shalhoub, David Cross, Patrick Warburton, and Johnny Knoxville. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, (more)
- 2001
- R
Home is where the kidnap victim is in this darkly comic farce. Scooter (Trace Fraim) and Junior (Michael Covert) are a pair of exceptionally dim-witted brothers from West Texas who are left high and dry when their mother passes away. The brothers aren't much good at taking care of themselves (and they know it), so they set out to find a woman who will take mom's place in their house. The hapless pair start by approaching a prostitute (Jennifer Tilly), who after taking $35 from the boys leaves them just where they started, and after a few similarly disastrous attempts at finding a new maternal figure, Scooter and Junior decide to take a more aggressive approach. They abduct a woman named DeDe (Tara Chocol) from the parking lot of the supermarket where she works, but as it turns out, DeDe doesn't really mind -- the dumb but good-natured brothers are actually a pleasant change of pace compared to her husband, a violent and ill-tempered Texas Ranger named Vincent (Patrick Warburton). DeDe agrees to be the brothers' new "mom," but on one condition -- they have to help retrieve her baby daughter. Scooter and Junior are willing, but Vincent isn't willing to let DeDe go, and the brothers soon find that Vincent is not a good man to have on one's bad side. Dirt was directed by Michael Covert and Trace Fraim, who also star as Junior and Scooter; it's the second feature as director for Covert, who also wrote the screenplay, and Fraim's debut behind the camera. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Covert, Tracy Fraim, (more)
Following their television series Home Improvement and the features The Santa Clause (1994) and Jungle 2 Jungle (1997), the actor/director team of Tim Allen and John Pasquin collaborate once again on this high-concept comedy. Allen stars as Joe Scheffer, a nice guy video specialist for a Minneapolis pharmaceutical company who's plodding through both his thankless job and an unhappy divorce from his ex-wife Callie (Kelly Lynch). When Joe brings his daughter Natalie (Hayden Panettiere) to the office with him on Take Our Kids to Work Day, he's humiliated in a spat with company bully Mark McKinney (Patrick Warburton) over a parking space. It's the last straw for the mild-mannered Joe, who challenges McKinney to a rematch, hires a has-been action movie star (Jim Belushi) to instruct him in martial arts, and pays a stylist to make over his wardrobe and hair. As Joe's image improves and the big day approaches, he finds his new self-respecting stance has positive effects in both the workplace, as he lands a long-overdue promotion, and in his romantic life, as both Callie and a cute "wellness coordinator" (Julie Bowen) start warming up to him. The levelheaded Natalie, however, seems to prefer the previously non-confrontational dad she already loved. Joe Somebody (2001) is the feature debut of screenwriter John Scott Shepherd, who actually worked as a corporate filmmaker in Minneapolis. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Allen, Julie Bowen, (more)
A veteran detective and his novice assistant find some very unexpected mysteries in this offbeat comedy. Jack Potter (Leslie Nielsen) is a hard-boiled but absent-minded private detective who thinks it might be a good idea to retire soon. Potter is approached by Marty MacKenzie (Lochlyn Munro), a small-time actor wanting to research a role as a detective (while making some much-needed pocket money at the same time). Potter hires MacKenzie as a leg man and has him stake out a beautiful woman from Beaver Ridge, OR, whose husband is convinced she's cheating on him. Things quickly get far more complicated than Potter expected, and he has to rescue MacKenzie from Beaver Ridge, which is populated by freaks, lunatics, and two-headed livestock; it doesn't help that MacKenzie has also fallen in love with Cindy Davies (Vanessa Angel), the woman he was supposed to be watching. Camouflage also stars William Forsythe and Patrick Warburton. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Nielsen, Lochlyn Munro, (more)
A ruler learns how the other half lives -- the animal half, that is -- in this animated comedy-adventure from the Walt Disney Studios. Kuzco (voice of David Spade) is the young emperor of an Inca nation who takes a self-centered joy in the troubles of others. Not surprisingly, Kuzco's attitudes have earned the enmity of many of his subjects, including Yzma (voice of Eartha Kitt), a sorceress who wants to seize power away from the emperor after he relieved her of her royal duties, declaring she was too old and unattractive to do the job. Yzma and her musclebound assistant Kronk (voice of Patrick Warburton) hatch a plan to poison Kuzco and take the throne, but thanks to a mistake on Kronk's part, Kuzco isn't killed -- he's instead turned into a talking llama. Kronk can't bring himself to kill the llama, and instead sends the former emperor into the jungle to fend for himself. Kuzco doesn't do too well as a llama until he runs into Pacha (voice of John Goodman), a poor farmer whose property Kuzco once planned to take over for a vacation home. Soft-hearted Pacha agrees to help the emperor-turned-llama find his way back home where, hopefully, another sorcerer can reverse the spell, but once they hit the road, they discover Yzma and Kronk are looking for them, with Yzma determined to finish the assassination she started. Pop star Sting composed several original songs for The Emperor's New Groove, which during its long and troubled production had previously been announced as Kingdom in the Sun and Kingdom of the Sun. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Spade, John Goodman, (more)
A baseball player stuck in a losing streak gets some heavenly help in the second sequel to Disney's 1994 hit Angels in the Outfield. Eddie Everett (Patrick Warburton) is a pitcher with the Anaheim Angels who has been in a slump ever since a bungled play helped his team lose the pennant a year ago. Depressed, Eddie has lost confidence in his abilities; his marriage to Claire (Rebecca Jenkins) is on the rocks, and when Claire decides to move on, she leaves it to Eddie to watch over their 13-year-old daughter Laurel (Brittney Irvin). Laurel loves her father, but they're all but strangers to each other, and she isn't sure what she can do to help him. One night, Laurel prays for help for her dad, and her prayer is answered in the form of a guardian angel, Bob "Bungler" Bugler (David Alan Grier). Bob was a singularly unimpressive ball player who died ten years earlier, and has been trying to earn his wings ever since; Bob hopes that by helping Laurel, he can prove his worth to St. Peter, and by helping Eddie, he might get one last change to play in the big leagues. Angels in the Infield also features Kurt Fuller as Simon, Eddie's agent, and Colin Fox as The Devil, who has plans of his own regarding Eddie's career. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Warburton, Brittney Irvin, (more)
Twenty-one new, non sequitur-laden episodes are dished up by series creator Seth MacFarlane for the third and final Fox network season of the cartoon weekly Family Guy. Things start off with the series' first two-parter, in which the Griffins' pet dog, Brian, runs away from home and ends up in Hollywood directing porn movies. Later, a hurricane in Quahog brings a new British Invasion in its wake; Mr. Death, who'd been a special guest star the previous season, makes a return appearance with his mother in tow (not to mention Peter Frampton); and Meg gets a TV job forcing her to work with über-nerd Neil, but at least gets to rub caricatured shoulders with Hugh Downs and Abe Vigoda. In another story development, Peter loses his job when his boss dies in a freak accident (choking to death on a dinner roll), allowing our hero to pursue his life's ambition as a knight in a Renaissance fair -- and when that fails to pan out, he comes up with a new life's ambition and goes fishing. Elsewhere, malevolent infant Stewie tries to cook up yet another foolproof murder scheme when Peter and Lois decide to have another baby; a case of mistaken identity thrusts the Griffins into both the Witness Protection Program and a Civil War reenactment; a session with a local baseball team transforms Peter into a rara avis -- a black white man; paraplegic policeman Joe gets some unexpected assistance when he enters the Special Olympics; Stewie throws a tantrum and ends up winning a theater audition, just as sister Meg begins dating a nudist; and as another of the family's impulsive trips to Europe is sidetracked to Saudi Arabia, mom Lois reveals a long-ago liaison with KISS lead singer Gene Simmons. In the series finale, the Griffins respond to viewer mail by staging their own iconoclastic versions of The Little Rascals and a certain mutant-superhero movie blockbuster (An additional episode, "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein," was never telecast on Fox due to its "controversial" nature, and remained unseen until it was shown on cable's Cartoon Network two years after it was filmed). Despite the anguished moans of the series' millions of fans, Fox decided to pull the plug on Family Guy at the end of season three. However, the series was due for a spectacular rebirth that would put a phoenix to shame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Seth MacFarlane
In this comedy, as American astronauts prepare to make one giant leap for mankind, a small Australian town stumbles through its own small steps to help. In the summer of 1969, Cliff Buxton (Sam Neill) leads a team of scientists overseeing the operations of one of the world's largest radio telescope dishes, nestled in a New South Wales community of sheep farmers. As NASA prepares for Apollo 11, the first manned voyage to the moon, Buxton and his crew are asked if they will allow their telescope's dish to be used as a backup receiver for the television transmission from the moon, should the main receiver in California fail. Buxton and his men are more than happy to help, and the village is agog as they gear up for their own small part in one of the world's greatest adventures. Mayor McIntyre (Roy Billing) and his wife May (Genevieve Mooy) are thrilled to be greeting a small but steady stream of important visitors, though many of the locals are not especially good with etiquette, and several members of Buxton's team, most notably high-strung Mitch (Kevin Harrington), are less than enthusiastic about Al Burnett (Patrick Warburton), the know-it-all NASA technician brought in to oversee the Australian operations. When a change in Apollo 11's schedule means the Australian dish will have to pick up the vital broadcast from the moon, Cliff, Mitch, and Al must put aside their differences to pull the show together. Though played for laughs, The Dish was inspired by actual events. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Neill, Kevin Harrington, (more)
- 2000
- G
- Add Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins to QueueAdd Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins to top of Queue
Buzz Lightyear, the plastic spaceman who helped conquer the toy box in the wildly popular Toy Story films, returns in this animated adventure. Buzz (voice of Tim Allen) and his partner Agent Z (voice of Diedrich Bader) have devoted themselves to keeping Gamma Quadrant in Deep Space free of evildoers, but when Agent Z is lost in battle, Buzz is determined that from now on, he has to go it alone. However, after the evil Emperor Zurg (voice of Wayne Knight) kidnaps Buzz's allies, the LGM -- aka Little Green Men (voice of Patrick Warburton) -- Commander Nebula (voice of Adam Carolla) orders Buzz to bring along reinforcements as he flies into battle. With the help of female Space Ranger Mira Nova (voice of Nicole Sullivan), LGM-designed android XR (voice of Larry Miller), and janitor/aspiring Space Ranger Booster (voice of Stephen Furst), Buzz sets out to defeat Zurg's minions and bring back the LGM safe and sound. Unlike the first two Toy Story features, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins was created using traditional cel animation rather than digital computer animation techniques, though computer animation was used for the film's prologue. The film's theme song is sung by another noted space voyager, William Shatner. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Allen, Wayne Knight, (more)
Wes Craven's Scream (1996) was a half-parody/half-tribute to the first wave of slasher films of the 1970s and 1980s, and since most of them spawned a large number of sequels, it's only appropriate that Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson produced a third installment of their Scream franchise. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), traumatized by the brutal murders of her friends, has left her hometown of Woodsboro and is working in California as a crisis intervention counselor. Meanwhile, "Stab," the novel by Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox Arquette), is spawning a series of successful horror films, and as Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro is being filmed in Los Angeles, a lunatic has gotten his hands on a copy of the script, and is murdering the characters in the same order that they die in the movie. But predicting who will die next is not as simple as it might seem, since the producers have circulated three different screenplays, with different endings. In addition to Campbell and Cox-Arquette, David Arquette returns from the first two films as less-than-bright "Dewey" Riley; new members of the cast include Parker Posey, Patrick Dempsey, Scott Foley, and Jenny McCarthy. Kevin Williamson wrote the original story, but the screenplay was penned by Ehren Kruger. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Arquette, Neve Campbell, (more)
- 1999
Originally given a special telecast just after Super Bowl XXXIII on January 31, 1999, the debut episode of the iconoclastic animated series Family Guy immediately staked out its territory with a warm, life-affirming plotline in which one-year-old Stewie Griffin constructs a roomful of death traps to murder his mother, Lois, while his dad, Peter, accidentally "bombs" a football stadium with the world's largest (and least deserved) welfare check. Nor did the series revert to traditionalism when season one proper began its six-episode run four months later. In episode two, "I Never Met the Dead Man," Peter is driven to the edge of madness when denied television, Stewie builds a weather-controlling device, and a caricatured Erik Estrada reprises his Ponch character from CHiPs. But series creator Seth MacFarlane is only getting warmed up. Subsequent episodes include "Chitty Chitty Death Bang," wherein Peter and Lois' teenage daughter, Meg, joins a Moonielike cult and Waylon Jennings pops up out of nowhere; "Mind Over Murder," in which Peter, placed under house arrest for accidentally punching out a woman, establishes a neighborhood bar in his restaurant; "A Hero Sits Next Door," an irreverent showcase for the Griffins' neighbor, paraplegic police officer Joe; and "The Son Also Draws," which finds the family making a wrong turn into an Indian casino and digging up their Native American roots. Wrapping up season one is "Brian: Portrait of a Dog," in which the Griffin's talking, booze-guzzling pet hound, Brian, strikes a blow for canine civil rights, only to end up a "dead dog walking" at the local pound. (And how does Dick Van Patten figure into all of this?) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Seth MacFarlane
- 1999
Robinson Devor directed this film noir parody about a used car salesman obsessed with writing and directing his dream project: a maudlin tale called The Man Who Got Away about a trucker who runs over a little girl. Richard Hudson (Seinfeld regular Patrick Warburton) works at a used car lot during a scalding hot summer in L.A. during the 1950s. The atmosphere, or perhaps the heat, begins to lead his drifting mind to the glamour of showbiz. After moving in with his floozy of a mom (she even flirts with him), he learns that her new husband is a has-been filmmaker. This starts Hudson's gears turning, and soon nothing daunts the salesman from pursuing his dream. The Woman Chaser was screened at the 1999 New York Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Warburton, Eugene Roche, (more)
- 1999
Although the first season of the doggedly irreverent animated half-hour Family Guy didn't exactly set the ratings on fire, the series' devoted fan following was sufficient for Fox to order 21 new episodes for a second season. The opener finds the dysfunctional Griffin family developing even worse financial sense than normal when they inherit a mansion. Later on, Peter Griffin is forced to kidnap Pope John Paul II to prove something to his hyper-judgmental dad (voiced by Charles Durning); New Years Day of 2000 proves to be an apocalyptic experience as the Griffins rummage through the ruins of a bombed-out Quahog, RI -- and end up crossing paths with Randy Newman and the cast of Dallas; a quickie European vacation awakens the carnal lust in Brian the dog; and Norm MacDonald provides the voice of Mr. Death, who proves to be a crabby house guest when he breaks his skeletal leg in the Griffin living room (this is the one where Peter develops a "fatty corpuscle"). Also: Lois Griffin directs a community production of The King and I which devolves into a garish "leg show" and an obscene example of egos run amok; Murphy Brown's Candice Bergen and Faith Ford provide voices for an episode in which Peter gets in touch with his feminine side; daughter Meg's slumber party morphs into the new 24-hour TV reality series "The Real Griffins" (even though the "real Griffins" are replaced by celebrity actors); Brian and malevolent infant Stewie Griffin go into Hope-Crosby mode on "Road to Rhode Island"; Peter poses as a high school student, basking in the popularity he'd never enjoyed during his actual teen years; the Mob makes the family an offer they can't refuse (or make sense of) in an episode featuring the voice of The Shield's Michael Chiklis; son Chris needs liposuction, but it's Peter who gets the treatment, much to the jealous Lois' dismay; and Luke Perry sues Peter for defamation of character and bad writing. Topping off the season, father-and-son day for Peter and Chris turns sour when Peter chooses someone else's son! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Seth MacFarlane
- 1998
In the concluding half of Seinfeld's controversial series finale, Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), George (Jason Alexander), Kramer (Michael Richards), and Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) find themselves stranded in Latham, MA -- and even worse, they are facing arrest for violating the town's new Good Samaritan law (it seems there was this mugging...). Hoping to beat the rap -- and make it to California in time for Jerry to sell his proposed sitcom "about nothing" -- the gang engages the services of flamboyant lawyer Jackie Chiles (Phil Morris). Alas, the prosecution has managed to round up a daunting array of witnesses to bolster their case against the foursome, including Sidra (Teri Hatcher) of "they're real and they're spectacular" fame, the Soup Nazi (Larry Thomas), Marla the Virgin (Jane Leeves), and the Bubble Boy (Jon Hayman) -- while the sour-faced judge (Stanley Anderson) with the familiar-sounding name fumes, and a vengeful Newman (Wayne Knight) chuckles from the sidelines. As for the now-legendary final scene...haven't we had this conversation before? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
