The Ratings Game
The Ratings Game is a 1984 comedy cable television film directed by Danny DeVito and produced by David Jablin. The Showtime comedy stars DeVito and Rhea Perlman, and features Huntz Hall, Michael Richards, George Wendt and Jerry Seinfeld.
| The Ratings Game | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Comedy Romance |
| Written by | Michael Barrie Jim Mulholland |
| Directed by | Danny DeVito |
| Starring | Danny DeVito Rhea Perlman Huntz Hall Kevin McCarthy Michael Richards Vincent Schiavelli |
| Theme music composer | David Spear |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Producers | David Jablin Lee Biondi (associate producer) Alain Silver (associate producer) |
| Production locations | Laird International Studio - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California Los Angeles |
| Cinematography | Tim Suhrstedt |
| Editors | Dale Beldin Marshall Harvey |
| Running time | 102 minutes |
| Production companies | Imagination Productions New Street Newstreet Productions Viacom Productions |
| Release | |
| Original network | The Movie Channel |
| Picture format | Color |
| Audio format | Mono |
| Original release | December 15, 1984 |
Plot
Vic DeSalvo (Danny DeVito) and his brother Goody are successful New Jersey trucking magnates, but Vic has a desire to make it big as a Hollywood producer. He hawks his scripts and ideas from one network executive to another, but he is turned down at each attempt.
Finally, he meets an executive at a second-rate company who has just been fired for promoting a show that attracted zero viewers. To avenge himself, he accepts Vic's script and arranges for a pilot episode of Sittin' Pretty, to be filmed. The resultant episode is abysmally awful, both in acting and story, but Vic is only inspired to greater heights. The director and star actor walk out and Vic decides to act as well as write and direct.
He throws a huge party to make himself known to "le tout Hollywood", but no one comes, except Francine (Rhea Perlman), a statistician at a ratings agency. They fall in love.
When Francine is passed over for a promotion by her philandering and incompetent boss, she reveals to Vic how the ratings system can be bypassed and results fixed by setting up confederates in Nielsen-ratings households to skew the results. They conspire to run a scam that will make Vic's program the most-watched on television.
The scam works and Vic is voted the best new actor at a grand awards ceremony, showing that many viewers (in addition to the confederates) watched his shows. But the agency has now discovered the scam, and as soon as Vic has accepted his award, he is arrested by the police.
Francine and Vic are married in jail.
Cast
- Danny DeVito... Vic DeSalvo
- Rhea Perlman... Francine Kester
- Gerrit Graham... Parker Braithwaite
- Huntz Hall... Benny Bentson
- Barry Corbin... The Colonel
- Louis Giambalvo... Goody DeSalvo
- Kevin McCarthy... Wes Vandergelder
- Basil Hoffman... Frank Friedlander
- Michael Richards... Sal
- Vincent Schiavelli... Skip
- Daniel Stern... Skip Imperali
- George Wendt... Mr. Sweeney
- Ron Rifkin... TV Director
- Jerry Seinfeld... Network Rep
- Jayne Meadows... Herself
- Steve Allen... Himself
- Allyce Beasley... Paisan Receptionist
- Selma Diamond... Francine's Mother
Notes
The Ratings Game was the first original movie financed by Showtime. The feature also marks Danny DeVito's film directing debut. The film garnered a WGA Award for Best Original TV Comedy Movie, and an International TV Movie Festival Award for Best Comedy. Writers Michael Barrie and Jim Mulholland also won a Writers Guild Award for their script.
Jerry Seinfeld makes an early appearance in the cast of the film (his future Seinfeld co-star Michael Richards also appeared alongside him).
A poor-quality bootleg version of this film has been widely distributed as The Mogul.
On July 19, 2016, Olive Films, a boutique distributor of classic and independent films, released The Ratings Game for the first time ever on DVD and Blu-Ray. It is a premium packaged "Special Edition" that has been restored in full HD from the one print in existence. The discs also include as extras the four short films directed by Danny DeVito prior to making his feature directing debut with The Ratings Game. Other special features include a behind-the-scenes featurette, the original trailer and some deleted scenes. It also includes a 28-page collectors booklet with detailed liner notes and art from the film.