Jim J. Bullock Movies

Born as a series of three-minute chucklers on Icebox.com (and aired later on the Showtime pay-cable network), veteran Simpsons-producer Mike Reiss' giddily irreverent tale of a homosexual duck (voiced by Jim J. Bullock) determined to re-define his sexual orientation comes flaming to life on the big screen courtesy of director/animator Xeth Feinberg. With special appearances by Conan O' Brien, Mark Hammill, David Duchovny, Tim Curry, Bruce Vilanch, and Billy West, this lightning fast collection of gags, pop-culture riffs, and catchy tunes follows the web-footed, unlucky-in-love fowl as he navigates the sometimes perilous gay scene. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A woman searching for the perfect man instead discovers the perfect woman in this romantic comedy. Jessica Stein (Jennifer Westfeldt) is a woman with a solid career as a copy editor, but her love life isn't much to write home about; she's been through a long series of disastrous first dates that refuse to evolve into second dates, and the well-intended advice of her best friend Joan (Jackie Hoffman) and former boyfriend Josh (Scott Cohen) isn't helping a bit. One day, Jessica is scanning personal ads in the newspaper with her friends, and she sees one with a quote from her favorite poet. Jessica reads on to discover that she has a lot in common with the person who placed the ad -- too much so, since it turns out the notice is from a woman, Helen Cooper (Heather Juergensen), who manages an art gallery. Jessica figures it would at least be nice to hang out with someone who shares her interests, and she gives Helen a call. Jessica and Helen quickly strike up a close friendship that evolves into something more intimate, though neither of them has ever been involved with another woman ... and Helen is a bit more avid about her new romantic horizons than Jessica. As their relationship progresses, Jessica finds herself struggling with her feelings about her new sexual outlook, and she isn't sure how to break the news about her relationship to her mother (Tovah Feldshuh) as she tries to decide if she should bring Helen along to her brother's wedding. Kissing Jessica Stein was based on the off-Broadway play Lipschtick, which was written by Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen, who starred in the original stage production as well as this film adaptation; the film won both the Critics' Special Jury Award and the Audience Award at the 2001 Los Angeles Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Eric and Phil are an affluent Beverly Hills couple who want to adopt a child, preferably a baby or a toddler. However, they end up with a foul-mouthed 12-year-old and his younger brother. Dumped on Eric and Phil by a caseworker, the kids soon become permanent houseguests. Phil is quickly won over, but Eric proves a harder nut to crack, especially when the kids' mother, an alcoholic prostitute, moves in. Get Your Stuff premiered at the 2000 San Francisco Lesbian & Gay Festival. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

Ellen Barkin stars in this mystical comedy about a detestable male chauvinist temporarily reincarnated into the body of a woman. Steve Brooks (Perry King) foolishly accepts an invite for an evening of debauchery from three former girlfriends, and thinks he's got it made when he shows up to find them waiting for him in a hot tub. Eager to exact revenge on the scoundrel, the women proceed to drown him, and Steve is cast into a purgatory in which two unseen voices are deciding whether to send him to heaven or hell. Steve is given one chance to save himself from damnation -- if he can find a woman alive who actually liked him. To complicate his task and teach him a lesson, Steve is reincarnated as a sexy woman (Barkin), just the type who would have been the target of his cheesy advances. Sloppily adjusting to his new body, Steve (now Barkin) tells people he is the sister of the missing Steve Brooks, and begins working at his old advertising agency as a means toward completing his arduous task. As Steve's sister, he also enlists the help of his best friend, Walter (Jimmy Smits), despite the complication that Walter is noticeably attracted to the woman he has become. Steve's homophobia -- and several of his other hateful traits -- are put to the test. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide

Now that his wife has left him, Willie's younger brother Neal (JM J. Bullock) is spending all his time with the Tanners. This puts ALF in the awkward situation of remaining under cover so that Neal will not suspect his presence. Ultimately, ALF has had enough of being a "shadow alien", and prepares to meet Neal face to face--with surprising results. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After another run-in with the Tanners, ALF runs away from home. He is offered a place to stay by Willie's brother Neal (JM J. Bullock), who quickly learns to regret his hospitality. If ever a TV series episode can be described as an out-of-this-world version of The Odd Couple", this is it--and just guess which character is Felix and which is Oscar? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A space bum helps rescue a princess from an evil overlord with the help of a benevolent elder in this Star Wars send-up written and directed by Mel Brooks. Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and his half-man, half-dog co-pilot, Barf the Mawg (John Candy), are content to scour the galaxy living the easy life. But they reluctantly come to the rescue when Druish Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) is threatened by the evil Lord Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis), who wants to steal all of the air from her planet, Druidia. Trapped on a harsh desert world with Vespa and her robot chaperone, Dot Matrix (voice of Joan Rivers), Lone Starr and Barf are helpless to prevent Helmet from kidnapping the girl. But assistance arrives in the form of Yogurt (Brooks), a wizard who turns Lone Starr on to a mysterious power known as The Schwartz. Catching up with Helmet just as he's transforming his spaceship into a giant vacuum cleaner in orbit around Druidia, the reluctant heroes stage a dramatic showdown. Although it borrows most of its plot from the Star Wars series, Spaceballs also pokes fun at Star Trek, Snow White, and Planet of the Apes -- as well as the entire videocassette and movie marketing industries. The large supporting cast includes Dick Van Patten, Jim J. Bullock, and the voice of Dom DeLuise. John Hurt makes a cameo in a parody of the exploding chest scene he played in Alien. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Despite its cancellation by ABC at the end of the 1982-1983 TV season, the Britain-inspired sitcom Too Close for Comfort proved immensely successful when it was retooled as a first-run syndicated program and sold to individual stations and sponsors rather than telecast by a single network. As a result, the series was renewed for another season's worth of "syndie" episodes -- and that still wasn't the end of the story. The basic premise remains as ever: a conservative newspaper cartoonist named Henry Rush agonizes over the well-being of his toothsome daughters Jackie and Sara, who live in the lower apartment in the townhouse owned by Henry and his wife Muriel. Also, the familiar cast remains intact: Ted Knight as Henry, Nancy Dussault as Muriel, Deborah Van Valkenburgh as Jackie, Lydia Cornell as Sara, Joshua Goodwin as the Rushes' youngest child Andrew, and Audrey Meadows as Henry's termagant mother-in-law Iris, who now resides in the attic apartment above Henry and Muriel. With the announcement that series regulars Deborah Van Valkenburgh and Lydia Cornell would exit the series at the end of its second syndicated season (and fifth year on the air), the climactic episodes of Too Close for Comfort work overtime to prepare audiences for the series' major format change, coming up the following year. As the result of the cancellation of Henry's comic strip "Cosmic Cow," he and Muriel will soon forsake San Francisco, along with their longtime "house guest" Monroe Ficus (Jim J. Bullock), and move to Marin County, where Henry is destined to assume co-ownership of a small weekly newspaper. Armed with this premise, Too Close for Comfort would reemerge as The Ted Knight Show, beginning in April of 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season two of the ABC sitcom Too Close for Comfort climaxed with Muriel Rush (Nancy Dussault), 42-year-old wife of ultraconservative newspaper cartoonist Henry Rush (Ted Knight), giving birth to her third child, a son named Andrew. Season three finds Andrew old enough to be played by actual child actors instead of anonymous infants. In this case, the role is shared by twins William Thomas Cannon and Michael Philip Cannon) (though the baby "talks" with the voice of an adult actor in those scenes wherein the audience is made privy to Andrew's innermost thoughts). Now the neurotic Henry is given another child to fret over in addition to his pretty college-age daughters Jackie (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) and Sara (Lydia Cornell), who are still living in the apartment below Henry and Muriel's. The fact that the nursing Muriel needs extra help around the house permits the writers to beef up the character of Muriel's domineering mother Iris, played by Audrey Meadows. Once again, this addition is made to heap more frustration upon Henry, inasmuch as he and Iris are constitutionally incapable of seeing eye-to-eye on anything. Addtionally, viewers see more and more of Jackie's policeman fiancé Brad Turner (Jordan Suffin during season three. The season finale, "Family Business", rather curiously downplays the presence of Henry, Muriel et al. to concentrate on the characters played by guest stars Jimmy Baio, George Del Hoyo, and Hillary Bailey Smith. On second glance, however, maybe it isn't so curious: whenever an episode of this nature shows up on an established series, it's a sure bet that the episode is the pilot for a spinoff show (which was true in this case, though the spinoff never spun off anywhere, except into oblivion). Having moved from its high-rated Tuesday night slot to a Thursday berth, and suffering from a general drop of interest in sexy sitcoms that promised much but delivered little, Too Close for Comfort plummetted in the ratings during its third season. However, the show still boasted enough of a following to warrant two additional seasons, produced for first-run syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A mere eleven months after the ITV debut of the British sitcom Keep It in the Family, the American version of the series, Too Close for Comfort, made its bow on ABC. Actually, the latter series might have arrived on the scene even earlier but an actors' strike delayed the start of the 1980-1981 TV season by two months.

Ted Knight starred as Henry Rush, a San Francisco-based cartoonist and creator of the popular comic strip "Cosmic Cow." Prudish and conservative, Henry was extremely overprotective of his gorgeous college-age daughters, brunette Jackie (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) and blonde Sara (Lydia Cornell). Henry's wife, Muriel, who prior to her marriage had led a freewheeling (but respectable) existence as a band singer, now worked as a freelance photographer. Less strict and strait-laced than Henry, Muriel tended to allow her daughters a freer reign, though she still made sure that they didn't make too many mistakes. Season one began as Jackie and Sara moved into the downstairs apartment of dad Henry's two-apartment town house, recently vacated by the death of tenant Mr. Rafkin (who, much to Henry's dismay, turned out to be a transvestite). Having reluctantly agreed to this arrangement, Henry agonized over what might have been going on in the lower apartment, especially considering the steady stream of attractive young men who paid regular visits to his darling daughters. (He had nothing to worry about, of course, but that didn't stop him from doing so.) During the series' first 19 episodes, Jackie worked at a bank while Sara attended college -- where she met and befriended that walking mass of neuroses and insecurities known as Monroe Ficus (J.M. J Bullock), who from episode four onward was a more or less permanent house guest of Henry and Muriel. A handful of other recurring characters were introduced during the series' maiden season. Among these were Mr. Wainwright (Hamilton Camp), Hamilton's short-statured, dictatorial publisher; Mildred Rafkin (Selma Diamond), the abrasive and insulting sister of Henry's deceased tenant; and Henry's libidinous 75-year-old father Huey Rush (Ray Middleton). Also given prominence was another "character," the Cosmic Cow hand puppet with whom Henry "consulted" in moments of crisis. Scheduled as part of ABC's virtually unbeatable Tuesday-night sitcom lineup (which in 1980 included Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, and Three's Company), Too Close for Comfort emerged from its inaugural season as America's 15th most-watched program, with a Nielsen rating of 20.8. ~ All Movie Guide