Switching Channels
Encyclopedia
Switching Channels not to be confused with channel surfing
is a 1988 American comedy film remake of The Front Page
(also more famously remade as His Girl Friday
in 1940). It stars Kathleen Turner
as Christy Colleran, Burt Reynolds
as John L. Sullivan IV, Christopher Reeve
as Blaine Bingham, Ned Beatty
as Roy Ridnitz, Henry Gibson
as Ike Roscoe, and George Newbern
as Sigenthaler. The film was notorious for its harsh infighting between Reynolds and Turner during filming, and the film was seen as a failure, commercially and critically.
It is available on DVD in Regions
2 and 4. It is also available as a DVD-R in Region 1 through the Warner Archive MOD program.
from the play is used in the film.
Sullivan (Reynolds) is a cable TV
news mogul. He tries to prevent the impending marriage of Colleran (Turner), his best reporter and ex-wife, by keeping her on the job during the critical news coverage of an upcoming execution
and prison break.
- Christopher Reeve
, who starred in the four Superman films made between 1978 and 1987
, and George Newbern
, who would provide the voice of Superman for Bruce Timm
's Justice League
series. Ned Beatty
, who played "Otis" in the two first Superman films, also appears; he and Reeve had also worked together on the 1978 film Gray Lady Down
.
Filmed primarily in Canada with a Canadian director (Ted Kotcheff
), Switching Channels features many popular Canadian character actors in supporting roles: Al Waxman
as Berger, the station manager, Ken James
as Warden Terwilliger, Barry Flatman
and Anthony Sherwood
as television reporters Zaks and Carvalho, Joe Silver
as newswriter Mordsini, Tony Rosato
, Jackie Richardson
, Philip Akin
, Laura Robinson (from Night Heat
), Fiona Reid
(who co-starred with Waxman on King of Kensington
) and Jack Duffy
. It also co-stars Charles Kimbrough
as the hapless Governor, just before he began his popular role of anchorman Jim Dale on Murphy Brown
.
was positive about the film and liked how the film did overall; however, Siskel
expressed strong disappointment in the film and gave Switching Channels a thumbs down. Rotten Tomatoes
currently lists Switching Channels with a 56% rating.
Reeve, who played against type as the hapless fiancé, later expressed regret in making the film, believing he "made a fool of himself" and that he had only taken the project as a distraction from depression following a divorce. He also reportedly had to act as "referee", as costars Turner and Reynolds feuded with each other during filming.
The film was nominated for two Razzie Awards including Worst Actor for Burt Reynolds
and Worst Supporting Actor for Christopher Reeve
.
Channel surfing
Channel surfing is the practice of quickly scanning through different television channels or radio frequencies in order to find something interesting to watch or listen to. Modern viewers, who may have cable or satellite services beaming down dozens if not hundreds or thousands of channels, are...
is a 1988 American comedy film remake of The Front Page
The Front Page
The Front Page is a hit Broadway comedy about tabloid newspaper reporters on the police beat, written by one-time Chicago reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur which was first produced in 1928.-Synopsis:...
(also more famously remade as His Girl Friday
His Girl Friday
His Girl Friday is a 1940 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, an adaptation by Charles Lederer, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur of the play The Front Page by Hecht and MacArthur...
in 1940). It stars Kathleen Turner
Kathleen Turner
Mary Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in the Hollywood films Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Prizzi's Honor...
as Christy Colleran, Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds
Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...
as John L. Sullivan IV, Christopher Reeve
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist...
as Blaine Bingham, Ned Beatty
Ned Beatty
Ned Thomas Beatty is an American actor who has appeared in more than 100 films and has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain and a Golden Globe Award; won a Drama Desk Award....
as Roy Ridnitz, Henry Gibson
Henry Gibson
Henry Gibson was an American actor and songwriter, best known as a cast member of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and for his recurring role as Judge Clark Brown on Boston Legal.-Early life:...
as Ike Roscoe, and George Newbern
George Newbern
George Young Newbern is an American television and film actor best known for his roles as Bryan MacKenzie in Father of the Bride and its sequel Father of the Bride Part II as well as Danny in Friends...
as Sigenthaler. The film was notorious for its harsh infighting between Reynolds and Turner during filming, and the film was seen as a failure, commercially and critically.
It is available on DVD in Regions
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
2 and 4. It is also available as a DVD-R in Region 1 through the Warner Archive MOD program.
Plot
The film uses only the basic premise of The Front Page and His Girl Friday. All of the characters' names are changed, the story is modernized to the present day, and none of the dialogueDialogue
Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....
from the play is used in the film.
Sullivan (Reynolds) is a cable TV
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
news mogul. He tries to prevent the impending marriage of Colleran (Turner), his best reporter and ex-wife, by keeping her on the job during the critical news coverage of an upcoming execution
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
and prison break.
Cast
The film features two actors who have portrayed SupermanSuperman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
- Christopher Reeve
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist...
, who starred in the four Superman films made between 1978 and 1987
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace is a 1987 superhero film directed by Sidney J. Furie. It is the fourth film in the Superman film series and the last installment to star Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel. It is the first film in the series not to be produced by Alexander and Ilya Salkind, but...
, and George Newbern
George Newbern
George Young Newbern is an American television and film actor best known for his roles as Bryan MacKenzie in Father of the Bride and its sequel Father of the Bride Part II as well as Danny in Friends...
, who would provide the voice of Superman for Bruce Timm
Bruce Timm
Bruce Walter Timm is an American character designer, animator and producer. He is also a writer and artist working in comics, and is known for his contributions building the modern DC Comics animated franchise, the DC animated universe.-Animation:Timm's early career in animation was varied; he...
's Justice League
Justice League (TV series)
Justice League is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes which ran from 2001 to 2004 on Cartoon Network. The show was produced by Warner Bros. Animation. It is based on the Justice League of America and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics...
series. Ned Beatty
Ned Beatty
Ned Thomas Beatty is an American actor who has appeared in more than 100 films and has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain and a Golden Globe Award; won a Drama Desk Award....
, who played "Otis" in the two first Superman films, also appears; he and Reeve had also worked together on the 1978 film Gray Lady Down
Gray Lady Down
Gray Lady Down is a 1978 disaster film by Universal Studios starring Charlton Heston, David Carradine, Stacy Keach, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox, and features the first film role for a young Christopher Reeve...
.
Filmed primarily in Canada with a Canadian director (Ted Kotcheff
Ted Kotcheff
Ted Kotcheff , sometimes credited as William Kotcheff or William T. Kotcheff, is a Canadian film and television director, who is well known for his work on several high-profile British television productions and as a director of films such as First Blood.-Early life:Kotcheff was born William...
), Switching Channels features many popular Canadian character actors in supporting roles: Al Waxman
Al Waxman
Albert Samuel Waxman, CM, O.Ont was a Canadian actor and director of over 1000 productions on radio, television, film, and stage...
as Berger, the station manager, Ken James
Ken James
Ken James may refer to:* Ken James , played Tony Wild in The Box and later played Mike O'Brien in Sons and Daughters...
as Warden Terwilliger, Barry Flatman
Barry Flatman
Barry Flatman is a Canadian actor. He has appeared in many film and television roles such as Rideau Hall in which he plays a fictional Prime Minister of Canada. His other works include My Name is Tanino, The Company, Saw 3, Just Friends, H2O, and most recently in the 2008 A&E's miniseries The...
and Anthony Sherwood
Anthony Sherwood
Anthony Sherwood is an award-winning Canadian actor, producer and director.-Biography:Sherwood's mother was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and his father was born in Kingston, Jamaica. Anthony’s mother was a fifth generation Canadian whose ancestors escaped to Canada using the "underground railroad"...
as television reporters Zaks and Carvalho, Joe Silver
Joe Silver
Joe Silver was an American stage, television, film and radio actor. His distinctive deep voice was once described as "the lowest voice in show business; so low that when he speaks, he unties your shoelaces."Silver made his Broadway debut in 1942 in a revival of Tobacco Road...
as newswriter Mordsini, Tony Rosato
Tony Rosato
Tony Rosato is an Italian-Canadian animated voice actor who has appeared in television and movies in both Canada and the United States....
, Jackie Richardson
Jackie Richardson
Jackie Richardson is a Canadian singer and actress.She is known for her screen roles in The Gospel According to the Blues, The Doodlebops, and Sins of the Father....
, Philip Akin
Philip Akin
Philip Akin is a Canadian actor who has been active for over thirty years in stage, film, and television. He has had featured roles in major American films such as The Sum of All Fears, S.W.A.T., and Get Rich or Die Tryin’...
, Laura Robinson (from Night Heat
Night Heat
Night Heat is a Canadian police drama series, which aired on CTV from 1985 to 1991. The show also aired on CBS in the United States from 1987 to 1993 and was the first Canadian-produced drama series to air on an American network...
), Fiona Reid
Fiona Reid
Fiona Reid, CM is a Canadian television, film and stage actress. She is best known for her role as Cathy on the TV series King of Kensington....
(who co-starred with Waxman on King of Kensington
King of Kensington
King of Kensington was a Canadian television sitcom which aired on CBC Television from 1975 to 1980.The show starred Al Waxman as Larry King, a convenience store owner in Toronto's Kensington Market who was known for helping friends and neighbours solve problems. His multicultural group of friends...
) and Jack Duffy
Jack Duffy
Jack Duffy was a Canadian singer, comedian and actor.-Biography:Born in Montreal, Duffy grew up in Toronto, dropping out of Central Technical School to become a singer...
. It also co-stars Charles Kimbrough
Charles Kimbrough
Charles Kimbrough is an American character actor known for playing the straight-faced anchorman Jim Dial on Murphy Brown. In 1990, his performance in the role earned him a nomination for an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series".-Biography:Born in St. Paul, Minnesota,...
as the hapless Governor, just before he began his popular role of anchorman Jim Dale on Murphy Brown
Murphy Brown
Murphy Brown is an American situation comedy which aired on CBS from November 14, 1988, to May 18, 1998, for a total of 247 episodes. The program starred Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, a famous investigative journalist and news anchor for FYI, a fictional CBS television...
.
Critical response
Siskel & Ebert gave Switching Channels mixed results: EbertRoger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
was positive about the film and liked how the film did overall; however, Siskel
Gene Siskel
Eugene Kal "Gene" Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted the popular review show Siskel & Ebert At the Movies from 1975 until his death....
expressed strong disappointment in the film and gave Switching Channels a thumbs down. Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
currently lists Switching Channels with a 56% rating.
Reeve, who played against type as the hapless fiancé, later expressed regret in making the film, believing he "made a fool of himself" and that he had only taken the project as a distraction from depression following a divorce. He also reportedly had to act as "referee", as costars Turner and Reynolds feuded with each other during filming.
The film was nominated for two Razzie Awards including Worst Actor for Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds
Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...
and Worst Supporting Actor for Christopher Reeve
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist...
.