Fred Barron Movies
- 1998
When Larry (Garry Shandling) announces that he won't be renewing his contract, the staff begins chomping at the bits to find new jobs. It appears as if Beverly (Penny Johnson), Hank (Jeffrey Tambor), and Artie (Rip Torn) all have prospects for the future, though unfortunately the same thing can't be said for our increasingly troubled host. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1992
A playful female guest puts Larry (Garry Shandling) in hot water with his wife, Jeannie (Megan Gallagher), in the sixth episode of HBO's popular behind-the-scenes late-night talk show satire The Larry Sanders Show. Comely actress Mimi Rogers may have only intended her innocent on-air flirtation with Larry as innocuous fun, but Jeannie begins to suspect that there is more to Mimi and Larry's relationship than a few harmless winks. In addition to Rogers, comic actor Michael Richards also appears as a guest star in this episode. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
John Lithgow sets aside his patented drooling villainy to play the sympathetic title character in Traveling Man. Beset by business and marital problems, salesman Lithgow feels as though he's at the end of his rope. But it's at this point that he avoids the Willy Loman syndrome by realizing that there's more to life than a smile and a shoeshine. Fade-out salvation arrives in the lovely form of Margaret Colin. Jonathan Silverman co-stars as Lithgow's eager-beaver assistant, while John Glover is slime personified as the sales manager. Written for television by David Taylor, Traveling Man debuted June 24, 1989, over the HBO Cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
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
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
- 1987
- R
In this film, based on a true story, convicted criminal Lee Umstetter (Nick Nolte) is sentenced to life in San Quentin prison, with no possibility of parole. Despairing at his interminable sentence, Lee spends his time reading and educating himself. When he writes and performs a play that attracts the notice of a film critic (Rita Taggart), she sets out on a quest to have him paroled. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nick Nolte, Lane Smith, (more)
The relationship between Madeleine Ross (Susan Sarandon), a journalist, and Harris Sloane (David Steinberg), an art theater owner is the focus of this standard love story. Neither protagonist is shown being very active in their respective careers, especially considering how active they are in thinking about and connecting to, or disconnecting from each other. Their relationship is anything but steady, so when Madeleine meets the famous French star Jean-Fidel Mileau (played by the famous French star Jean-Pierre Aumont), he is a potent diversion and catalyst for true love at the same time. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Sarandon, David Steinberg, (more)
- 1977
- R
Director Joan Micklin Silver's follow-up to her acclaimed debut, Hester Street, is a more ambitious film that manages to be both an entertaining comedy and a pointed look at the corrupting power of money on an idealistic enterprise. Writer Fred Barron's characters are all associated with a weekly alternative newspaper in Boston, modeled after the Phoenix. (Silver did once work on the Village Voice, but this enterprise is several rungs below that esteemed paper.) Harry (John Heard) is an ambitious reporter romantically involved with Abbie (Lindsay Crouse), the paper's star photographer. Michael (Stephen Collins) is a writer trying to work on a novel and stay faithful to his loving wife, Laura (Gwen Welles), while Max (Jeff Goldblum), the paper's rock critic, shamelessly uses his job to try to pick up women. Lynn (Jill Eikenberry), a typist who is the paper's mother-hen figure, is also its most principled employee. When a publishing mogul (Lane Smith) buys the paper and promises changes that will compromise its aggressive political stance in favor of more "lifestyle" articles, Lynn resigns, and it's clear to the group that their carefree days are behind them. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Heard, Lindsay Crouse, (more)
