I thought this was probably one of the funniest send-ups of wannabe actors I've ever seen. If you live in Hollywood, you've seen the self promotion of thousands, but there are truly only a few legends. Angelyne is one who most people see on billboards or driving her hot pink Corvette. Dennis Woodruff is another who has painted both his car and van to say "Hire Dennis Woodruff for your next film," or something to that effect. Both his vehicles are moving dioramas with odds and ends plastered on every available surface. It does get ones' attention, but perhaps not the kind he would want. In any case, Please Watch the Jon Lovitz Show had me and my friends laughing so hard at shameless self promotion set in a theatrical showcase. The premise is that Jon begged, blackmailed and bribed everyone he knew to get them to support his big break. He had to because no one really likes him. And then it all goes awry in the wonderfully comic way that only Jon can carry off. This was made at the time A League of Their Own came out, so Jon continued the baseball genre because he kept the costume and everybody loves baseball. He tries to garner sympathy for his character, a baseball player with a head injury, but is obviously insincere to great comic effect. Everyone who appears with him upstages him, sometimes they do it on purpose, sometimes they're just no good at playing bad. They're all there against their will, even the directors in the audience. There are telephones attached to the seat backs in front of them so that if they see something they can use in their next movie, they can call right away and book Jon. A running gag has Jon breaking character to check the phones and see if they're working, usually when he feels he's really "acting" well. And they do work. Unfortunately the directors never call Jon unless it's for him to pass the phone to someone else on stage. It was all done brilliantly and with the complete selfishness self serving that is Jon's trademark.
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RT Firefly8 April 2008This half hour special (it's title declares it a "show", was this supposed to be a pilot?) was a goof on the Playhouse 90 genre, (i.e.) a play is filmed live on stage and broadcast. The difference being, what with this a Lovitz comedy special, he is lampooning himself and the genre. What would you call this, a mockudrama? At any rate, the episode had a sort of Damn Yankees feel to it. It centered on a baseball player, something about if he slides into home he will die from an old head injury, and, naturally, he must make up his mind at the end of the play whether or not to slide headfirst into home to win the game. He does and I can't remember what happens, which pretty much sums up this show. Which is not to say the show didn't have it's moments. At the top of the show Lovitz tells a row of illustrious directors, Rob Reiner, Ron Underwood, et. al., that if they see anything they like during the play simply pick up the phone in front of them and it would ring a phone on the stage. During dramatic moments Lovitz would gesture to the directors and the phone. When the phone would ring, it was always to offer work to someone other than Lovitz.
The thing was loaded with stars and for the life of me I couldn't figure out who was able to swing that. I remember a gag where Alex Rocco is shot through the glasses ala The Godfather and his last words are "Not the other eye", then they cut away to Duvall and Caan in the audience, high fiving.
The concept was really strange, and I like strange, but this just didn't work. It had it's moments now and then, Lovitz is a funny guy after all, but he strikes out here. Interesting how they list all the actors as themselves. As I recall they almost all played characters in the play. Not worth checking out, but at half an hour, not too painful.