Crystal bust onto the national concsiousness in the 70's on the hit show "Soap," where he played the first openly gay character on prime-time TV. That seems to be his last bit of daring, however. To be fair, he managed to compensate by succeeding in his stand-up act, his stint on "Saturday Night Live," and movies such as WHEN HARRY MET SALLY and CITY SLICKERS to make "feel-good" material that actually made you feel good. But this movie, which he starred in, directed, and co-wrote with Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, sets itself to be the RAGING BULL of stand-up comics movies, and while it's entertaining, it falls short on that score.
Crystal takes his story from the character of Buddy Young Jr., which he created on HBO and then featured on SNL. Buddy is a Borscht Belt comedian who once had a hit TV show (the movie's title), but that was back in the 50's. Since then, he's been playing nursing homes ("These people were on the Titanic!" he gripes at one point). He loses the chance to play a cruise ship, and then his brother Stan (David Paymer), who's also served as his manager, decides to retire. Buddy runs into Phil Gussman (Jerry Orbach), an old friend of his who runs a talent agency, and things look good at first. Except Phil sends Annie (Helen Hunt), a young talent agent, to handle him, and that turns Buddy off, even after she gets him an audition for a director (Ron Silver) who happens to be a big fan.
Then again, Buddy's always had a penchant for self-sabotage. True, it's doubtful any comedian could deal with coming on after the Beatles performed their legendary appearance on Ed Sullivan, but Buddy doesn't help matters by insulting the audience. We see him firing writers (played by Ganz and Mandel) when he doesn't get laughs he thinks he should be getting. He has heaped abuse on Stan throughout their relationship, professionally and personally. When Annie gets him a TV commercial, he blows that by being vulgar after a few takes that he flubs. Finally, while he's been married to the same woman, Elaine (Julie Warner), for forty years, his daughter Susan (Mary Mara) is a crack addict.
