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''EDtv'' is a 1999 American
satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...
comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...
directed by Ron Howard. An adaptation of the Quebecois film '' Louis 19, King of the Airwaves (Louis 19, le roi des ondes)'' (1994), it stars Matthew McConaughey, Jenna Elfman, Woody Harrelson,
Ellen DeGeneres Ellen Lee DeGeneres ( ; born January 26, 1958) is an American former comedian, actress, television host, writer, and producer. She began her career in stand-up comedy in the early 1980s, gaining national attention with a 1986 appearance on '' ...
, Martin Landau,
Rob Reiner Robert Reiner (born March 6, 1947) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and liberal activist. As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence with the role of Michael Stivic, Mike "Meathead" Stivic on the CBS sitc ...
, Sally Kirkland, Elizabeth Hurley, Clint Howard, and Dennis Hopper. The movie received mixed-to-positive reviews, with some criticizing its similarity to '' The Truman Show'' (1998), and was a box office failure, grossing $35.2 million against an $80 million production budget.


Plot

Television network True TV is commencing interviews for a planned reality show that shows a normal person's life 24/7, created by TV producer Cynthia. They interview Ed Pekurny and his brother, Ray. When the producers see the interview, Cynthia chooses Ed. The show hits the airwaves under the title "Ed TV." It is a total failure at first, as only boring things happen. The producers want to pull the plug, but Cynthia remains determined that the show will succeed. Ed TV gets interesting when Ed visits Ray. Ed (along with the cameramen) discovers that Ray is cheating on his girlfriend Shari. Ed visits Shari to apologize to her for Ray's actions, but a drunk Shari starts insulting Ray, calling him "a bad lay", to the audience's amusement. Ed tries to comfort Shari, revealing he has feelings for her; she reveals she has feelings for him too, and they kiss, making Ed TV extremely popular. At Cynthia's insistence, Ed starts a relationship with Shari, but their relationship is short-lived, as Ed grows more interested in staying on TV and Shari is abused by viewers who find her unappealing. Ed goes on '' The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' and meets beautiful model and actress Jill who takes a liking to Ed. Ed visits Shari, who tells him she does not want to be with him until Ed TV stops airing. She then leaves town. Ed goes to a park to play football with Ray when Jill arrives to invite Ed over for dinner at her house, as Cynthia brought her in to earn more ratings. When Ed arrives at Jill's house, there is a massive crowd. The two have a small talk, and kiss on top of a table. They are about to have sex, but Ed falls off the table and lands on her cat, which results in a sore back for the former and a broken leg for the latter. Ed never sees Jill again, and he also finds out his brother wrote a book (called ''My Brother Pissed on Me''). Ed's father Hank, who abandoned his family when Ed was thirteen, unexpectedly visits Ed and informs him that he left because Ed's mother was having an affair with Ed's current stepfather, Al. Ed is furious with his mother Jeanette, who had previously claimed that she had only met Al after Hank left, and argues with her. Ed then gets a phone call telling him to come to the hospital, where he is told his father died making love to his wife. Ed assumes the father in question is Al, but it is actually Hank, who was having an affair with Jeanette. After Hank's funeral, Ed becomes disheartened by how the producers want him to stay on longer and that he cannot do anything to change their minds or he would be in breach of his contract. Ed is depressed until he notices a disguised Shari. He chases her to a women's bathroom in a movie theater, where she explains that she is staying with her brother for his birthday and that she just wanted to see Ed. Ed vows to find a way to end the show to be with Shari. When Ed exits, one cameraman stays with Shari, explaining that it is the producers' new idea: Ed's entire family is being filmed, but they will focus on the most interesting person, eliminating his family's right to privacy for as long as the show will air. Ed gets an idea on how to stop the main producer from airing the show: he will give $10,000 to the person who can give him the best amount of "dirt" on the producers and that he will announce it live, with the desired result being that they stop airing the show before he can make the announcement. As Cynthia feels sorry for Ed, she tells him a secret of the main producer. Ed announces the secret (that the man has to pump a liquid into his penis to get an erection), but before he can announce who it is, the show is taken off the air. After the camera crew finally leaves Ed's apartment, he and Shari renew their relationship and celebrate as TV news panelists predict Ed will be forgotten in a short period of time.


Cast


Soundtrack


Release

The film was screened out of competition at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.


Reception


Box office

''EDtv'' opened in third place behind '' Forces of Nature'' and '' Analyze This'', making $8.3 million during its opening weekend. The film was a box-office failure, grossing $35.2 million against a production budget of $80 million.


Critical response

On review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, ''EDtv'' has an approval rating of 63%, based on 48 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The site's consensus states: "If it's not as ambitious as ''The Truman Show'' in satirizing the voyeuristic nature of television, ''EdTV'' is an amiable, witty comedy with fine performances from Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson." On
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
the film has a rating of 48 out of 100, based on reviews from 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by
CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...
gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. Ross Anthony of ''Hollywood Report Card'' questioned the plausibility of parts of the script but wrote: "Though the thunder of its big idea may have been lost to '' The Truman Show'' .. this screenplay still has real and punchy dialogue. Despite its faults ''EDtv'' will engage from beginning till end."
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
, ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
'', gave the film 2 and a 1/2 out of 4 stars. Ebert stated that although they share the same idea, ''The Truman Show'' is a parable, and ''EDtv'' is an ambitious sitcom. Ebert wondered what type of person would sign up for a show like this, and did not believe that Ed is that kind of person, so "the film never quite feels convincing."


See also

* List of films featuring surveillance


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Edtv 1999 films 1999 comedy films American comedy films Fictional television shows Films about television Films produced by Brian Grazer Films produced by Ron Howard Films directed by Ron Howard Films set in San Francisco Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area Films shot in San Francisco Imagine Entertainment films Universal Pictures films American remakes of Canadian films Films with screenplays by Lowell Ganz Films with screenplays by Babaloo Mandel Films scored by Randy Edelman 1990s English-language films 1990s American films English-language comedy films