When I was born, The Disney Company released 'The Barefoot Executive'. The BE does a fairly good job managing the TV station. For starters it has employed a young Kurt Russell. What a delight to witness the early career of so great an actor who has given us great movie treasure's such a 'Big Trouble in Little China' and 'Executive Decision'. He may have gotten older and fatter but is still a class act.Along for the viewing experience is John Ritter who makes his acting debut. Interestingly when I was young I was not allowed to watch 'Three's Company'. Harry Morgan from M.A.S.H. is on hand to deliver yucks as the grumpy TV president, alongside with McHale's Navy's Joe Flynn. The film has some other talented actors and also stars a Chimp named Raffles. : "That's funny... 'cause they're monkeys!" Homer Simpson The movie centers on Raffles uncanny ability to pick out what TV shows the public will like and which they will not. Raffles informs Kurt Russell's character Steven Post of this inside information which he uses to raise himself to the top of the TV executive world. "Forget about such schlock as 'Cavemen', 'Emeril' the sitcom, and the latest reincarnation of 'The Bachelor' and concentrate on 'Heroes', 'Lost', and 'The Office'. Steven Post even has ideas of his own. One of his show ideas is a TV program entitled "Abe Lincoln's Doctor's Dog.' This was an actual episode on 'Screen Director's Playhouse in 1955.Most fake TV shows in movies tend to be so badly produced it seems very unrealistic and unlikely that anyone in the real world would ever want to watch them. It is possible however that someone would actually green light such horrid programming. For this very reason it was probably a wise idea to keep the story focused on the people who were in charge of the programming and not the programming itself, although the few clips one sees of the TV shows talked about are standard looking TV show clips and promotion for such Disney classics as the 'The Shaggy Dog'.The movie has very many funny and wacky moments and makes it worth a movie rental and maybe even a place in the family library. But there are a few glitches in the TV screen. When Kurt Russell's girlfriend catches him with her kidnapped chimp, he gives her a sweet apology and explains the real good (for himself) that came out of the deceit he has pulled on everyone around him. For the sake of moving the plot along, she seizes from being majorly being cheesed off at him and accepts his weak apology with a smile. For some reason I thought there was to be a great slapstick chase at the end of this film and for that reason I was a tad bit disappointed in the ending. Although the greedy TV executives get what they deserve in the end, I thought the ending deserved a little something more.Although not perfect, 'The Barefoot Executive', is worth turning on. It was remade as a TV movie in 1995. This version has not been deemed worthy to be released on either VHS or DVD. But you have the original one to watch and enjoy.

Young idealistic Steven Post (Kurt Russell) wants to get ahead in the TV industry but obnoxious boss Francis Wilbanks (Joe Flynn) constantly ignores him. Then Steven's loving girlfriend Jennifer (Heather North) gets a chimp (don't ask) who can predict what TV shows will be hits (!!!). Steve uses the chimp (without telling anyone) and becomes vice-president of a network in no time (just like real life huh?)...but Wilbanks is VERY suspicious of how he knows what shows will be popular.VERY silly Disney comedy. The humor and slapstick are either stupid and/or predictable, the characters are 1-dimensional and the lines would be laughed off "The Brady Bunch" as being too corny...but the kids will like this. Unlike the G rated movies today there's no crude humor, no violence and no jokes about bodily functions. This basically has good clean (if silly) humor.I admit most of the movie had me rolling my eyes but I did keep watching. I actually did laugh a few times towards the end (the reactions of a woman being interviewed on the street were very funny) and it was fun seeing Russell and John Ritter so young. Also Flynn has his moments as does Harry Morgan as the president of the network. North is sweet (but not TOO sweet) as Jen and look for Bill Daily at the end. And the chimp was adorable! So it is silly and predictable with a title song that makes you want to cut your ears off...but it's perfect for the kids. I give it a 5.

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.

A monkey who fills network slots?Just another executive meeting at the networks, you might think, but this is the beauty of the plot that is "The Barefoot Executive", a movie made when Disney was in its live action glory.A still-young Russell is a mail boy at one of the big networks who has ideas but the stuffy boss (Flynn) will have none of it. Then, Russell agress to babysit his girfriends' neighbor's pet chimp (probably a '70s thing) who turns out to be a whiz at picking out all the popular shows. One thing leads to another until Russell, playing all the chimp's hunches, finds himself on top of the TV programming world.It's not Prokofiev but for pure fun this movie is a keeper. How can you dislike a movie that not only has Russell and a cute chimp but also the comedic timing of both Joe Flynn and Wally Cox? Their moments together are pure hilarity. Even "MASH"'s Col. Potter (aka - Harry Morgan) has plenty of good scenes as a blustering head honcho.For kids and grown-ups who grew up on these movies, there can be no substitutes. "The Barefoot Executive" is monkeying around at its best.Nine stars. And we'll get through this if we ALL KEEP COOL HEADS!