1954 is it; television is in its Golden Age, comedy is king, and nostalgia runs chest-deep. The character who prefers this year over all others is a squirrel-cheeked staff writer (Mark Linn-Baker) for a live variety hour, and the guest star one week is his lifelong idol, an Errol Flynn-like actor-carouser (Peter O'Toole). The special relationship between these two is the primary focus, although actor Richard Benjamin, in his debut as a director, is so prone to stand back and let the actors have all the glory, that he neglects to underline visually, or even to notice, the delicate dynamics of that relationship (nothing, for instance, is made of the writer's first sight of his idol until he steps up to deliver an impassioned plea in his behalf). A multitude of peripheral characters crowd around the central pair, most of them coming straight from stock, including one of the most horrible of horrible Jewish households. Laughs, even so, might have come more plentifully if they were not so ardently and arduously sought. With Jessica Harper, Joseph Bologna, Lanie Kazan, and Selma Diamond. (1982) — Duncan Shepherd
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