| | | A Place Where Dreams Are Cancelled.
Features: DVD, English, Spanish, Subtitled, Sensormatic
A deadpan David Duchovny and a "flat-out fabulous" (Rolling Stone) Sigourney Weaver topline a "crackerjack cast" (Entertainment Weekly) in this uproarious, edgy peek into the world of network television...where ratings are king, and big dreams don't always fit on the small screen!TV writer Mike Klein (Duchovny) is in the Prime Time of his life: his show just got picked up by a network, his favorite actor is set to star, and his wife is about to have a baby. But even though his wife is sure to deliver, the Network President (Weaver) might not! After locking horns with the steely suit, the hapless scribe must scramble to maintain creative control, before his beloved project is altered irrevocably, and his entire career winds up in permanent hiatus!
"...a little wonder of a movie, as smart and sad and true as any comedy I've seen this year." Dana Stevens, Slate
"...this very smart, very funny movie about the making of a network sitcom is a cut-glass gem of a showbiz conceit." Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
"Weaver is hilarious and horrifying." M.E. Russell, Portland Oregonian
"A wickedly funny satire!" Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle
"A tart, smart, closely observed satire of the television industry." Ty Burr, Boston Globe
Editor's Note
Go to any bar in Hollywood and you're sure to find a hard-done-by writer who is drowning his or her sorrows after being chewed up and spat out by the network television system. In THE TV SET, Mike Klein (David Duchovny) seems set to join them. Klein's script for a TV show called THE WEXLER CHRONICLES was inspired by his brother's suicide, and is very close to his heart. After selling the script to PDN, who are headed by a fearsome executive simply known as Lenny (Sigourney Weaver), Klein watches as everything from the casting to the production goes horribly wrong. Klein has one buddy at the network, a Brit named Richard McCallister. McCallister's former position at the BBC leads Klein to believe that some quality control will be exerted over his project, and hopes McCallister will pull it out of the mire of mundanity that PDN thrives on. But he's very, very wrong, and as Klein's dream turns into dust--the show barely resembles anything he wrote--his health takes a turn for the worse and he enters mid-life-crisis mode. Duchovny and Weaver are outstanding in their roles, adding just the right balance of humor and anger to their characters. THE TV SET is ostensibly a comedy, but may make for painful viewing for anyone involved in the industry, or anyone who hates seeing dreams shattered. But director Jake Kasdan (ZERO EFFECT) manages to add a large dose of absurdity to the proceedings, saving it from being too depressing, and making many of the scenes a genuine hoot.
| Features | Audio Commentaries By Writer/Director Jake Kasdan, Executive Producer Judd Apatow, Producer Aaron Ryder, & Actors David Duchovny & Lindsay Sloane | | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Deleted Scene | | Featurette: The Making Of The TV Set | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Foxvideo |
| Release Date: 6/10/2008 |
| Running Time: 87 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2007 | | Catalog ID: 2246059 | | UPC: 00024543460596 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Available Subtitles: English, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Box Office
"Having toiled in the industry, Jake Kasdan knows what he's talking about, and the accuracy of his shrewd parody concerning the fate of a sitcom during pilot season is a major strength." 04/01/2007 p.100New York Times
"[I]t might have worked as a pilot in its own right. The humor is threaded almost invisibly beneath the surface." 04/06/2007 p.E10 Entertainment Weekly
"[T]his very smart, very funny movie about the making of a network sitcom is a cut-glass gem of a showbiz conceit." -- Grade: A- 04/13/2007 p.55 Sight and Sound
"[I]t's full of sly insider jabs at the inanity of the process, and the performances are spot-on." 03/01/2008 98 Reel.com 7 of 10
Much like the television pilot it revolves around, the pale satire The TV Set doesn't quite know what it wants to be. Though the film attempts to spoof the network development process, writer/director Jake Kasdan never really chomps down on his fleshy subject and tears it a new one, opting instead for a more hangdog approach. Perhaps Kasdan, who helmed the pilots of the short-lived series Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, didn't want to bite the hand that's fed him. Okay, understood--but then, why bother? In addition, despite a few chuckles of recognition, this is a movie that drastically needed, in TV lingo, a punch-up; it's woefully short of laughs...The material also doesn't feel fresh, especially since much of the territory skewered here has been attacked with far more gusto in a raft of movies from Network to The Player, and on TV shows like Showtime's underrated Beggars and Choosers and HBO's Entourage. One can't help but wonder how parody maestro Christopher Guest might've lit into the TV world, given the comic mileage he scored sending up the movie business in both For Your Consideration and The Big Picture. - Gary Goldstein
Variety 7 of 10
An insider pic likely to produce a few knowing guffaws from the industry but only occasional chuckles from John Q. Public, "The TV Set" reps a mild parody of the process behind tube pilot development, but can't quite balance caricature with more serious side elements...A veteran of the ego-crushing process of small-screen development himself ("Freaks and Geeks," "Undeclared"), Kasdan knows his target, showing up the ways in which group decisions suck out originality and pander to the lowest common denominator...As usual, Weaver does the best she can with the lines given, though her Lenny is played in a broad manner, occasionally teetering toward an imitation of Faye Dunaway at her least subtle. Duchovny is solid if bland, and while he's not expanding his repertoire, he's well-suited to the role. Justine Bateman, as Mike's pregnant wife, exudes warmth and intelligence, coming off best in the few scenes she's given; it's easy to imagine wanting to come home to this woman after a tiring day...Kasdan's wise decision to shoot in widescreen Panavision pays off in the way it distinguishes between small-screen actions and the cinematic pic itself, and d.p. Uta Briesewitz's frequent use of controlled handheld lensing provides the appropriate sense of casual buoyancy in comic scenes. - Jay Weissberg
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