My Favorite Year
Encyclopedia
My Favorite Year is a 1982 American comedy film
directed by Richard Benjamin
which tells the story of a young comedy writer. It stars Peter O'Toole
, Mark Linn-Baker
, Jessica Harper
, Joseph Bologna
, Lou Jacobi
, Bill Macy
, Lainie Kazan
, Selma Diamond
, Cameron Mitchell
, and Gloria Stuart
. O'Toole was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor
. The film was adapted into an unsuccessful 1992 Broadway
musical
of the same name
.
), the narrator, tells of the summer he met his idol, swashbuckling actor Alan Swann (Peter O'Toole
). In the early days of television
, Benjy works as a junior comedy writer for a variety show starring Stan "King" Kaiser (Joseph Bologna
). As a special upcoming guest, they get the still famous (though largely washed-up) Swann. However, when he shows up, they realize that he is a roaring drunk. Kaiser is ready to dump him, until Benjy intervenes and promises to keep him sober during the week leading up to the show.
As Benjy watches out for Swann (or at least tries to keep up with him), they learn a lot about each other, including the fact that they both have family they try to hide from the rest of the world. In Benjy's case, it's his Jewish mother (Lainie Kazan
), who is married to a Filipino
former bantamweight
boxer
, Rookie Carroca (Ramon Sison), and Benjy's embarrassing relatives, such as uncouth Uncle Morty (Lou Jacobi
). For Swann, it is his young daughter, Tess (Katie McClain
), who has been raised entirely by her mother, one of his many ex-wives. He stays away, but admires her from afar and continues to keep tabs on her secretly, frustrated that he cannot muster the courage to re-connect with her.
During the week of rehearsals, Kaiser is threatened by corrupt union boss, Karl Rojeck (Cameron Mitchell
), who doesn't appreciate being parodied on the show. "Accidents" start happening during rehearsals when Kaiser refuses to stop performing the "Boss Hijack" sketches.
In a subplot, Benjy tries, clumsily and over-enthusiastically, to win the affections of co-worker K. C. Downing (Jessica Harper
). Swann advises him on the right approach, which includes crashing a party at the home of K.C.'s affluent parents.
The night of the show finally arrives, but minutes away from going on-air, Swann suffers a panic attack when Benjy informs him that the show is broadcast live. (He is accustomed to getting many takes to get his lines right, crying - with a line which brought the house down when O'Toole appeared and showed a clip on The Tonight Show
- "I'm not an actor, I'm a movie star!"). Swann gets drunk, and bolts from the studio, but is confronted by Benjy, who angrily tells him that he always thought of Swann as the swashbuckling hero he saw on the big screen, and that deep down, Swann possesses those qualities as a person. As Benjy puts it, "Nobody's that good an actor!"
As the "Boss Hijack" sketch gets underway, Rojeck's men show up backstage and begin beating up Kaiser. The fight spills onto the stage during the live broadcast (with the audience thinking that it is part of the comedy sketch). Swann and Benjy observe the melee from a balcony above stage, when the audience suddenly notices Swann and breaks into enthusiastic applause. Swann grabs a rope and swings into action (dressed as a Musketeer
for a later skit), saving Kaiser in front of an appreciative if still clueless audience.
Benjy narrates the epilogue
, relating that Swann, his confidence bolstered, finally gets up the nerve to visit his daughter the next day and the two apparently have a heartfelt reunion. The camera fades as Swann stands in front of a still applauding audience, taking a bow.
, executive producer of the film, was a writer for the Sid Caesar
variety program Your Show of Shows
, early in his career. Movie swashbuckler Errol Flynn
was a guest on one episode, and this real-life occurrence inspired Dennis Palumbo's largely fictional screenplay. Swann was obviously based on Flynn, while Benjy Stone is loosely based on both Brooks and Woody Allen
, who also wrote for Caesar.
According to Brooks, the character of Rookie Carroca also was based on a real person, a Filipino sailor in the U. S. Navy who was his neighbor in Brooklyn. Much like Alan Brady
on The Dick Van Dyke Show
, King Kaiser represented Sid Caesar ("Kaiser" is the German equivalent of the Roman title Caesar). Selma Diamond
, another former Your Show of Shows writer (who inspired Rose Marie
's 'Sally Rogers' character on The Dick Van Dyke Show), appears as a costume mistress.
Other writers from Your Show of Shows
had already made their own use of their experiences. The comic play, Laughter on the 23rd Floor
, by Neil Simon
included thinly disguised versions of Sid Caesar and his staff, as did The Dick Van Dyke Show
, which was created by Brooks' friend and colleague, Carl Reiner
(who would later star in Van Dyke's show as Alan Brady).
Brooks acknowledges that most of the movie's plot was fabricated. He says that Flynn's appearance on Your Show of Shows was uneventful, that none of the writers got much of a chance to talk to Flynn, let alone become his friend or take him home to dinner.
The film was the first directing effort for actor Richard Benjamin
.
It is one of the few movies that holds a 100% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
directed by Richard Benjamin
Richard Benjamin
Richard Benjamin is an American actor and film director. He has starred in a number of productions, including Goodbye, Columbus , based on the novella by Philip Roth, and Westworld .-Life and career:...
which tells the story of a young comedy writer. It stars Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
, Mark Linn-Baker
Mark Linn-Baker
Mark Linn-Baker is an American actor and director famous for his role as Larry Appleton on the television sitcom Perfect Strangers.-Early life and career:...
, Jessica Harper
Jessica Harper
Jessica Harper is an American actress and producer, as well as a singer and author of children's music and books.-Early life:...
, Joseph Bologna
Joseph Bologna
Joseph Bologna is an American actor.-Life and career:Bologna was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Brown University, where he majored in art history. After a hitch with the marines, Bologna was hired to produce and direct Manhattan-based TV commercials.The actor has a long history in film...
, Lou Jacobi
Lou Jacobi
Louis Harold "Lou" Jacobi was a Canadian character actor.-Life and career:Jacobi was born Louis Harold Jacobovitch in Toronto, Ontario to Joseph and Fay Jacobivitch...
, Bill Macy
Bill Macy
Bill Macy is an American television and stage actor.Macy was born in Revere, Massachusetts, to Mollie and Michael Garber, a manufacturer...
, Lainie Kazan
Lainie Kazan
Lainie Kazan is an American actress and singer.-Personal life:Kazan was born Lanie Levine in Brooklyn, New York City, the daughter of a Russian Ashkenazi Jewish father who worked as a bookie and a Turkish Sephardic Jewish mother, Carole, whom Kazan has described as "neurotic, fragile and...
, Selma Diamond
Selma Diamond
Selma Diamond was a Canadian-born American comic actress and radio and television writer, and is known for her high-range, raspy voice and her portrayal of Selma Hacker on the first two seasons of the NBC television comedy series Night Court.-Life and career:Diamond was born in Montreal, Quebec,...
, Cameron Mitchell
Cameron Mitchell (actor)
Cameron Mitchell was an American film, television and Broadway actor with close ties to one of Canada's most successful families, and considered, by Lee Strasberg, to be one of the founding members of The Actor's Studio in New York City.-Early life and career:Born Cameron MacDowell Mitzel in...
, and Gloria Stuart
Gloria Stuart
Gloria Frances Stuart was an American actress, activist, painter, bonsai artist and fine printer. Over a Hollywood career which spanned, with a long break in the middle, from 1932 until 2004, she appeared on stage, television, and film, for which she was best-known...
. O'Toole was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
. The film was adapted into an unsuccessful 1992 Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
of the same name
My Favorite Year (musical)
My Favorite Year is a musical with a book by Joseph Dougherty, music by Stephen Flaherty, and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. It is based on the film of the same name.-Production history:...
.
Plot
Benjy Stone (Mark Linn-BakerMark Linn-Baker
Mark Linn-Baker is an American actor and director famous for his role as Larry Appleton on the television sitcom Perfect Strangers.-Early life and career:...
), the narrator, tells of the summer he met his idol, swashbuckling actor Alan Swann (Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
). In the early days of television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, Benjy works as a junior comedy writer for a variety show starring Stan "King" Kaiser (Joseph Bologna
Joseph Bologna
Joseph Bologna is an American actor.-Life and career:Bologna was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Brown University, where he majored in art history. After a hitch with the marines, Bologna was hired to produce and direct Manhattan-based TV commercials.The actor has a long history in film...
). As a special upcoming guest, they get the still famous (though largely washed-up) Swann. However, when he shows up, they realize that he is a roaring drunk. Kaiser is ready to dump him, until Benjy intervenes and promises to keep him sober during the week leading up to the show.
As Benjy watches out for Swann (or at least tries to keep up with him), they learn a lot about each other, including the fact that they both have family they try to hide from the rest of the world. In Benjy's case, it's his Jewish mother (Lainie Kazan
Lainie Kazan
Lainie Kazan is an American actress and singer.-Personal life:Kazan was born Lanie Levine in Brooklyn, New York City, the daughter of a Russian Ashkenazi Jewish father who worked as a bookie and a Turkish Sephardic Jewish mother, Carole, whom Kazan has described as "neurotic, fragile and...
), who is married to a Filipino
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
former bantamweight
Bantamweight
Bantamweight is usually a class in boxing for boxers who weigh above 115 pounds and up to 118 pounds . However, in Mixed Martial Arts it is 134-136 pounds . Wrestling also has similar weight classes including bantamweight...
boxer
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
, Rookie Carroca (Ramon Sison), and Benjy's embarrassing relatives, such as uncouth Uncle Morty (Lou Jacobi
Lou Jacobi
Louis Harold "Lou" Jacobi was a Canadian character actor.-Life and career:Jacobi was born Louis Harold Jacobovitch in Toronto, Ontario to Joseph and Fay Jacobivitch...
). For Swann, it is his young daughter, Tess (Katie McClain
Cady McClain
Cady McClain is an American actress, singer, and author.-Early career:McClain's professional acting career began in 1979 at the age of 10, when she was featured in a commercial for Band-Aid bandages....
), who has been raised entirely by her mother, one of his many ex-wives. He stays away, but admires her from afar and continues to keep tabs on her secretly, frustrated that he cannot muster the courage to re-connect with her.
During the week of rehearsals, Kaiser is threatened by corrupt union boss, Karl Rojeck (Cameron Mitchell
Cameron Mitchell (actor)
Cameron Mitchell was an American film, television and Broadway actor with close ties to one of Canada's most successful families, and considered, by Lee Strasberg, to be one of the founding members of The Actor's Studio in New York City.-Early life and career:Born Cameron MacDowell Mitzel in...
), who doesn't appreciate being parodied on the show. "Accidents" start happening during rehearsals when Kaiser refuses to stop performing the "Boss Hijack" sketches.
In a subplot, Benjy tries, clumsily and over-enthusiastically, to win the affections of co-worker K. C. Downing (Jessica Harper
Jessica Harper
Jessica Harper is an American actress and producer, as well as a singer and author of children's music and books.-Early life:...
). Swann advises him on the right approach, which includes crashing a party at the home of K.C.'s affluent parents.
The night of the show finally arrives, but minutes away from going on-air, Swann suffers a panic attack when Benjy informs him that the show is broadcast live. (He is accustomed to getting many takes to get his lines right, crying - with a line which brought the house down when O'Toole appeared and showed a clip on The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
- "I'm not an actor, I'm a movie star!"). Swann gets drunk, and bolts from the studio, but is confronted by Benjy, who angrily tells him that he always thought of Swann as the swashbuckling hero he saw on the big screen, and that deep down, Swann possesses those qualities as a person. As Benjy puts it, "Nobody's that good an actor!"
As the "Boss Hijack" sketch gets underway, Rojeck's men show up backstage and begin beating up Kaiser. The fight spills onto the stage during the live broadcast (with the audience thinking that it is part of the comedy sketch). Swann and Benjy observe the melee from a balcony above stage, when the audience suddenly notices Swann and breaks into enthusiastic applause. Swann grabs a rope and swings into action (dressed as a Musketeer
The Three Musketeers
The Three Musketeers is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, first serialized in March–July 1844. Set in the 17th century, it recounts the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan after he leaves home to travel to Paris, to join the Musketeers of the Guard...
for a later skit), saving Kaiser in front of an appreciative if still clueless audience.
Benjy narrates the epilogue
Epilogue
An epilogue, epilog or afterword is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature or drama, usually used to bring closure to the work...
, relating that Swann, his confidence bolstered, finally gets up the nerve to visit his daughter the next day and the two apparently have a heartfelt reunion. The camera fades as Swann stands in front of a still applauding audience, taking a bow.
Cast
- Peter O'ToolePeter O'ToolePeter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
as Alan Swann - Mark Linn-BakerMark Linn-BakerMark Linn-Baker is an American actor and director famous for his role as Larry Appleton on the television sitcom Perfect Strangers.-Early life and career:...
as Benjy Stone - Jessica HarperJessica HarperJessica Harper is an American actress and producer, as well as a singer and author of children's music and books.-Early life:...
as K.C. Downing - Joseph BolognaJoseph BolognaJoseph Bologna is an American actor.-Life and career:Bologna was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Brown University, where he majored in art history. After a hitch with the marines, Bologna was hired to produce and direct Manhattan-based TV commercials.The actor has a long history in film...
as Stan "King" Kaiser - Bill MacyBill MacyBill Macy is an American television and stage actor.Macy was born in Revere, Massachusetts, to Mollie and Michael Garber, a manufacturer...
as Sy Benson - Ramon Sison as Rookie Carroca
- Lainie KazanLainie KazanLainie Kazan is an American actress and singer.-Personal life:Kazan was born Lanie Levine in Brooklyn, New York City, the daughter of a Russian Ashkenazi Jewish father who worked as a bookie and a Turkish Sephardic Jewish mother, Carole, whom Kazan has described as "neurotic, fragile and...
as Belle Carroca - Lou JacobiLou JacobiLouis Harold "Lou" Jacobi was a Canadian character actor.-Life and career:Jacobi was born Louis Harold Jacobovitch in Toronto, Ontario to Joseph and Fay Jacobivitch...
as Uncle Morty - Adolph GreenAdolph GreenAdolph Green was an American lyricist and playwright who, with long-time collaborator Betty Comden, penned the screenplays and songs for some of the most beloved movie musicals, particularly as part of Arthur Freed's production unit at MGM, during the genre's heyday...
as Leo Silver - Annie De Salvo as Alice Miller
- George WynerGeorge WynerGeorge Wyner is an American film and television actor. He is probably best known for his role as ADA Bernstein on the series Hill Street Blues. Wyner graduated from Syracuse University in 1968 as a drama major, and was an in-demand character actor by the early 1970s. To date, Wyner has made guest...
as Myron Fein - Cameron MitchellCameron Mitchell (actor)Cameron Mitchell was an American film, television and Broadway actor with close ties to one of Canada's most successful families, and considered, by Lee Strasberg, to be one of the founding members of The Actor's Studio in New York City.-Early life and career:Born Cameron MacDowell Mitzel in...
as Karl Rojeck - Selma DiamondSelma DiamondSelma Diamond was a Canadian-born American comic actress and radio and television writer, and is known for her high-range, raspy voice and her portrayal of Selma Hacker on the first two seasons of the NBC television comedy series Night Court.-Life and career:Diamond was born in Montreal, Quebec,...
as Lil - Corrine Bohrer as Bonnie
- Gloria StuartGloria StuartGloria Frances Stuart was an American actress, activist, painter, bonsai artist and fine printer. Over a Hollywood career which spanned, with a long break in the middle, from 1932 until 2004, she appeared on stage, television, and film, for which she was best-known...
as Mrs. Horn - Katie McClainCady McClainCady McClain is an American actress, singer, and author.-Early career:McClain's professional acting career began in 1979 at the age of 10, when she was featured in a commercial for Band-Aid bandages....
as Tess Swann
Relationship to real life
Mel BrooksMel Brooks
Mel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
, executive producer of the film, was a writer for the Sid Caesar
Sid Caesar
Isaac Sidney "Sid" Caesar is an Emmy award winning American comic actor and writer known as the leading man on the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, and to younger generations as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2.- Early life :Caesar was born in Yonkers, New York,...
variety program Your Show of Shows
Your Show of Shows
Your Show of Shows is a live 90-minute variety show that appeared weekly in the United States on NBC , from February 25, 1950, until June 5, 1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca....
, early in his career. Movie swashbuckler Errol Flynn
Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:...
was a guest on one episode, and this real-life occurrence inspired Dennis Palumbo's largely fictional screenplay. Swann was obviously based on Flynn, while Benjy Stone is loosely based on both Brooks and Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
, who also wrote for Caesar.
According to Brooks, the character of Rookie Carroca also was based on a real person, a Filipino sailor in the U. S. Navy who was his neighbor in Brooklyn. Much like Alan Brady
Alan Brady
Alan Brady was a rugby league player for the Western Suburbs and Canterbury clubs, as well as the New South Wales rugby league team.- Club career :...
on The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom that initially aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from October 3, 1961, until June 1, 1966. The show was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. It was produced by Reiner with Bill Persky and Sam Denoff....
, King Kaiser represented Sid Caesar ("Kaiser" is the German equivalent of the Roman title Caesar). Selma Diamond
Selma Diamond
Selma Diamond was a Canadian-born American comic actress and radio and television writer, and is known for her high-range, raspy voice and her portrayal of Selma Hacker on the first two seasons of the NBC television comedy series Night Court.-Life and career:Diamond was born in Montreal, Quebec,...
, another former Your Show of Shows writer (who inspired Rose Marie
Rose Marie
Rose Marie is an American actress. As a child performer she had a successful singing career as Baby Rose Marie....
's 'Sally Rogers' character on The Dick Van Dyke Show), appears as a costume mistress.
Other writers from Your Show of Shows
Your Show of Shows
Your Show of Shows is a live 90-minute variety show that appeared weekly in the United States on NBC , from February 25, 1950, until June 5, 1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca....
had already made their own use of their experiences. The comic play, Laughter on the 23rd Floor
Laughter on the 23rd Floor
Laughter on the 23rd Floor is a play by Neil Simon.Inspired by Simon's early career experience as a junior jokesmith for Your Show of Shows, the play focuses on Sid Caesar/Jackie Gleason-like Max Prince, the star of a weekly comedy-variety show circa 1953, and his staff, including Simon's...
, by Neil Simon
Neil Simon
Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...
included thinly disguised versions of Sid Caesar and his staff, as did The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom that initially aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from October 3, 1961, until June 1, 1966. The show was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. It was produced by Reiner with Bill Persky and Sam Denoff....
, which was created by Brooks' friend and colleague, Carl Reiner
Carl Reiner
Carl Reiner is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during this career...
(who would later star in Van Dyke's show as Alan Brady).
Brooks acknowledges that most of the movie's plot was fabricated. He says that Flynn's appearance on Your Show of Shows was uneventful, that none of the writers got much of a chance to talk to Flynn, let alone become his friend or take him home to dinner.
The film was the first directing effort for actor Richard Benjamin
Richard Benjamin
Richard Benjamin is an American actor and film director. He has starred in a number of productions, including Goodbye, Columbus , based on the novella by Philip Roth, and Westworld .-Life and career:...
.
Release
My Favorite Year opened in 714 North American theaters on October 1, 1982 to $2,400,696 (#3, behind An Officer and a Gentlemens eleventh weekend and E.T.: The Extra Terrestrials eighteenth.It is one of the few movies that holds a 100% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.