Somewherein Brooklyn Just watched on Bounce TV, and ancillary channel available here in NYC to those of us "cable-less" free TV antenna viewers.I thought it was a very well done comic treatment of a very real American issue. Racism is never dead, it just hides under the surface like an indolent disease. I thought George Segal did a fine job. Jack Warden played the rich, controlling, pragmatic racist father in law to tee. And then there is Denzel. I watched the opening credits and saw "and Introducing Denzel Washington". How could ANYONE resist that?? Maybe I am just blinded by love ;) but the talent was just so obvious in this very early performance.

Syl George Segal plays Walter Whitney, a man who has changed his name from Wisenthal to Whitney to fit in with his new life in California. He is married to Vivian (played by Susan Saint James) and works for his father-in-law Nelson (played by Jack Warden). Dick Martin is hysterical as his pot-smoking attorney and friend. Tom Poston has a small role as the minister. This film is about a lot of things. For starters, Walter learns that his ex-girlfriend Lorraine Porter had a son, Roger (played by Denzel Washington in one of his first roles). After all, Walter is shocked to learn that she and him have a son, Roger, a 17 year old African American. Anyway, this news doesn't go well for Walter's life. His father-in-law fires him. He loses his car, his wife, his adoptive daughter, and his place in San Marino society. He and Roger move into a motel and they get reaction regarding their relationship as father-son. Nobody believes him. Still the film has a lot of problems regarding script but a first rate cast also featuring Paul Whitfield as well. Still if you are truly a Denzel Washington fan, you will get through it. There is some negative humor though that it might be considered highly offensive but this film is nearly 30 years old. Walter and Roger take turns in each other's worlds and you wonder if they can ever fit in or find out who they really are. After all, Walter changed his name, his religion and ethnicity, and married Vivian instead of his true love, Lorraine in the 1960s.

TeeJayKay I saw this movie in the 1980s on German TV (in English). Fortunately, I taped it, because I never saw it again -- until 2006 on the MGM cable channel (and now I recorded it on DVD!). In the meantime, I wrote a thesis that dealt, among other things, with integration and denial issues (compare it to Woody Allen's "Zelig", for example!), and I found more quotable poignant and funny lines in this movie than in any other. On top of it, it has all those minor jokes that you probably won't catch the first time around and that make a comedy great. This movie is extremely funny, well written and has great actors, who should really be proud of it. The only thing that surprises me is that with all those big names attached the movie is so frequently overlooked and almost forgotten. If you haven't seen it and get a chance to, by all means, watch it and spread the word. By the way: I won't claim I saw Denzel's potential back then, but when I look back at this movie now, in hindsight, you can detect an Oscar winner in the making. Why didn't I give ten points? Well, I have to admit that the movie tapers off a bit at the end. If it had started more slowly, it would be OK, but the first half is just one funny line after another, and it just doesn't keep up its pace. And maybe the end is too unrealistic -- but then again, what do you expect from comedy? For me, it still works because it has a lot to say, and it does so in a brilliant way.

David Nicholson This was a great script and a good performance. It had a tendency to exaggerate stereotypes, but it did provide a humorous look at how people can be dominated and controlled by corporate power, and the will power and determination it takes to break that control.