Actors - My Favorite Year

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	Actors - My Favorite Year

My Favorite Year is a 1982 comedy film which tells the story of the early days of television, and a flamboyant film actor who is shepherded by a young intern through a week of overdrinking. The film was later turned into a musical version on Broadway. It stars Peter O'Toole, Mark Linn-Baker, Jessica Harper, Joseph Bologna, Bill Macy, Lainie Kazan, Selma Diamond, Cameron Mitchell and Gloria Stuart.

The movie's background was based on the Sid Caesar show Your Show of Shows and its love story is about how a Mel Brooks-like comedy writer Benjy Stone woos and wins an upper class young lady K. C. Downing as his Anne Bancroft, with the assistance of the drunk yet aware Alan Swann as an Errol Flynn-ish charmer. Joseph Bologna's character, "King Kaiser," invokes the charm of Sid Caesar. The characters learn they are as brave as they need to be.

Plot details

Benjy Stone (Linn-Baker), who serves as the narrator of the story, tells of the summer he met his idol, Alan Swann (O'Toole). Benjy was working for NBC Studios in the mid 1950's as a writer for a variety televison show starring 'King' Kaiser (Bologna) (a not-so-subtle reference to shows like Sid Caesar's - Kaiser meaning 'Caesar' in other languages like Dutch and German, for example). As a special upcoming guest, they get the famous movie star Alan Swann (whose films seem to be cut from the same cloth as those of Errol Flynn's). However, when they realize that Alan is a roaring drunk, Kaiser is ready to just dump him - until Benjy intervenes and promises to keep him sober during the week leading up to the big show.

As Benjy tails along with Alan, 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, he tries to hide from his Jewish mother who is married to a former Filipino bantamweight boxer and his other various relatives. In Alan's case, he has a young daughter named Tess whom he hasn't seen in years, but he continues working to stay in America so he can secretly keep tabs on her.

A side story involves Kaiser's run-ins with Karl Rojeck (Cameron Mitchell), whom he parodies on his variety show as 'Boss Hijack'. Rojeck makes some not-so-subtle threats to Kaiser, and accidents start happening while they're rehearsing for the show. Another side story involves Benjy trying to win the affections of his co-worker K.C. Downing, (Jessica Harper).

On show night, Alan suffers a panic attack when he finally realizes that millions of people will be watching him live (he's used to working with a small crew and getting many takes to get his parts right). Running away from the show, Alan resorts to getting drunk again, but is confronted by Benjy, who angrily tells him that despite his faults, Benjy always thought of Alan as being the swashbuckling hero he sees on the big screen. As Benjy puts it when convincing Swann that he has courage inside him, "Nobody's that good an actor". As they walk off, they see that Rojack's men are beating up on Kaiser during the live broadcast of the show (where Kaiser is supposed to walk out as 'Boss Hijack'). Swann grabs a rope and swings into action (being dressed as a Musketeer for a skit later in the show), saving the day in front of a surprised audience. The movie ends with Benjy narrating how Alan finally got the nerve to see his daughter Tess the next day while Alan waves to the audience and takes a bow.

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