jefks I just saw The Barefoot Executive for the first time on TV, and was pleasantly surprised. Joe Flynn was funnier than in any episode of McHale's Navy (in which he played a similar character). His crabby, confused, exasperated behavior and expressions throughout the film just made me roll. Starts out kind of slow and campy, with a silly plot. I thought at first just another squeaky clean shallow 70's family movie. But the film really starts to get funny when Kurt Russel's character realizes that the chimp can pick the winning TV shows. As Russel tries to sneak the chimp into the TV preview room, the scenes of the chimp going up and down the mail dumbwaiter are great. The interaction between Flynn and his chauffeur (Wally Cox) are hilarious. The chimp's reactions when a very young (and very funny) John Ritter sneak into the apartment are great. When Flynn, Cox and Ritter spy on the chimp, and the resulting kidnapping scene on the building ledge, it just absolutely cracked me up! Lots of comical sight gags and facial expressions in this movie. A very funny moment that's easy to miss is when Flynn is eating a banana (soon after hearing a Doctor "expert" theorize that bananas are "brain food") - one example of great humorous satire throughout the movie. Bill Daily has a brief but hilarious part towards the end. A great and appropriate ending wraps it all up in a neat package which I won't reveal - all very funny!

Brandt Sponseller The Barefoot Executive may appear to just be a light and fluffy 1960s/1970s-style Disney comedy, and it can certainly be enjoyed that way, but you don't have to dig very far below the surface to find a subtly clever satire of the television industry with a very insider feel. Having worked in radio for a while, and having friends and family who do or did work in television, as well as reading a lot of behind the scenes books on television programs, a lot of the jabs at the industry feel spot on.The humorous premise, probably stemming from a common joke about this, is that a "monkey" (actually a chimpanzee here) could pick a television stations' programming and do just as good or even a better job at it. Screenwriter Joseph McEveety and director Robert Butler get the dynamics between various levels of employees right, including the bigwigs. There are nice, continuing threads of intertwined sycophancy, insular ideas, fears of getting canned or demoted over ratings or general incompetence, and self-righteous assertiveness. Some of those things may be contradictory, but nevertheless they're representative of life within the walls of a broadcast media outlet--and probably many other places of employment as well. To an extent, the personal dynamics aspects of The Barefoot Executive are suggestive of an early version of Office Space (1999). But towards the end of the film, The Barefoot Executive nicely diverges into slightly more absurdist territory.Raffles, the chimpanzee, is charismatic and impressive. But an unexpected surprise was the scope and chemistry of the cast, which includes veteran character actors and Disney regulars Joe Flynn and Harry Morgan, veteran television actor Wally Cox, the woman who has supplied the voice of Daphne in most of the Scooby-Doo series and animated films since 1970, Heather North, and in one of his first films, John Ritter. Ritter is on fire here. He steals almost every one of his scenes. And that's quite a feat seeing that the star is an engaging Kurt Russell, who had already made a string of very successful films for Disney.

elizasimons It'll be fun to see how David Duchovny & Jake Kasdan's excellent new film "The TV Set" compares to this film of 35 years ago. Lila Garrett, Robert Butler & the others involved in "The Rating Game" aka "The Barefoot Executive" had done nothing but live through pilot hell for most of their careers. The people involved in "The TV Set" have jumped from pilot hell to feature hell and back enough times. And both sets of film makers manage to make us laugh and laugh a lot. Even the two casts are interchangeable. The cast of one would be equally brilliant in the other film. The intervening years teach us there's still great pain that goes along with the politics of television, and there is great talent.

helpless_dancer One of the funniest comedies I've seen yet. What made this so was the interplay between Wally Cox and Joe Flynn [one of my favorite comics]. The bit on the building ledge was too much and had me rolling. The bellowing company prez was well played by Harry Morgan, a man I well remember from the early 60's sitcom "Pete & Gladys" where he played the put upon hubby, Pete Porter. John Ritter performed the snobbish, suck-up nephew to the hilt who, of course, gets his just payment in the end. 4 stars.