The Mogul

Rating:
Summary: Could this movie be made today?
Review: A small gem made by Danny Devito in the '80s. It's a made for TV movie that mocks TV itself. One wonders if corporate media would let anyone get away with this today. Devito plays a small time mafia man with aspirations to be a sit com writer. A fired TV exec, to get revenge on his network, signs Devito to a contract as his last official act. Devito's sitcom is a rip off of threes company. The premise is a hunky guy who lives with two big breasted blondes. However, Devito casts himself in the lead. The network is horrified about the deal and tells Devito the contract is null and void if the ratings [are bad]. So they schedule the show to run up against the All Star Game. Devito realizes he's [in trouble]. So he gets his gangster buddies to abduct key Neilson's families and send them on a horrifying "cruise". He then gets some low level thugs to sit in their homes and watch his show. The sitcom wracks up record ratings against the All Star game. Suddenly Devito is hailed as a creative genius and given free creative control at the network. All his TV shows, however, seem to be based on his limit life. He creates a Saturday cartoon for kids called The Goombas, about a couple guys that spend all their time wagering over pool and farting ("Who cut a flounder?") He creates Charlie's Angelsesque show called Nuzio's Girls about three street walkers. The movie has a cameo by Seinfeld's Michael Richards (Kramer). Like many of the characters Richards played on ABC's Fridays, Richards yet again plays a Kramer like character. All in all a cute little film.