The Ratings Game
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The Ratings Game is a 1984 comedy film directed by Danny deVito and produced by David Jablin.
Contents |
[edit] Main cast
- Danny DeVito - Vic de Salvo
- Rhea Perlman - Francine Kester
[edit] Plot
Vic is a successful New Jersey trucking magnate with a desire to make it big as a Hollywood producer - but he has no talent. 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 who has just been fired, and to revenge himself, he accepts Vic's script and arranges for a pilot episode to be filmed. The resultant episode is abysmally awful, both in acting and story, but Vic is only inspired to greater heights. He 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, 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 by-passed and results fixed. They conspire to run a scam that will make Vic's programmes the most-watched on television.
The scam works and Vic is voted best new actor at a grand awards ceremony. But the agency has now discovered the scam, and as soon as Vic has accepted his award, he is arrested by police.
Francine and Vic are married in jail.
[edit] Trivia
This film marked Devito's feature length directing debut and it was Showtime Network's first original movie.
Bootlegged VHS versions of this film have been widely distributed under the title, "The Mogul." This version was illegally made from a sub-par off-the-air copy and was horribly edited in order to change title.[citation needed]
