Fresno (1986)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

A Masterpiece!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Back in the 80's, on principle, I hated mini-series-- or at least, the way they were run in the US. Over in England, it's common for short-run series to air one hour a week. Nice and orderly, and doesn't totally disrupt your schedule. Not like here, where the habit was to run several hours a night, several nights in a row, sometimes tying up an entire week (as did SHOGUN, which I wound up despising once I got to its unbearably cynical ending). I tended to avoid them like a plague.FRESNO was an exception, because it was a comedy, and it starred 3 of my very favorite people at the time. You had Carol Burnett, whose series I loved in the 70's (barring those interminable "musicals" she'd cap off each week with); Dabney Coleman, who I've followed in MARY HARTMAN MARY HARTMAN, BUFFALO BILL, TOOTSIE, 9 TO 5, THE SLAP MAXWELL STORY, MADMAN OF THE PEOPLE and THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES movie; and Teri Garr, who I've adored since STAR TREK, McCLOUD and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.FRESNO was a MAD-magazine style parody of night-time soaps (DALLAS, DYNASTY, FALCON CREST, KNOTS LANDING, etc.), played with amazing deadpan-serious performances accompanied by insanely screwball things going on in the background, in the dialog, in the plots, and even in the some of character names. It was very much in the style of AIRPLANE!, only more subtle and subdued, and looking back I find it much funnier than POLICE SQUAD (which I re-watched only weeks ago).There's so much to like here, the increasingly-twisted, convoluted plotting and character relationships among them. One of my favorite bits is when Teri Garr's "Tallon", wanting to get back at her ever-cheating husband Charles Grodin, comes on to mysterious (and always-shirtless) Gregory Harrison, who turns her down, saying she's a "lady" (which shocks her) and he doesn't want to be used that way. As she returns to the big house, she crosses the lawn in full view of the hired workers, with HER shirt off. Later, at the breakfast table, she shows up wearing an unbuttoned shirt, and NOTHING underneath. It was quite a kick to see her in such a rare "bad" girl role.Infuriatingly, CBS murdered the show both times they ran it. The first time, instead of running 2 hours a night over 3 consecutive nights (which would have made some sense), they ran 2 hours the first night, then 1 hour apiece over the next 4. OR, they would have, except the 5th hour of the show was PRE-EMPTED by a Ronald Reagan press conference in which he defended the Iran-Contra "guns for hostages" scandal. CBS did not run the episode of FRESNO scheduled for that night, but the next day ran the story's finale ANYWAY.Then, sometime later, they re-ran the entire story, but the 2nd time around, added a LAUGH TRACK, which totally destroyed the entire presentation.Ever since the late 70's, the programmers in charge of all 3 networks have been increasingly chaotic and incompetent in how they run their shows. It continues to boggle my mind how some people get paid exorbitant amounts of money to do work THAT BADLY.

Every once in a while I remember watching this back in 1986 and have to smile. We were die-hard Dallas fans in my family (God knows why), so the tremendous evening soap-opera send-up worked very well for us. I won't ever forget the Raisin Capital of the World, DDDLT, or other giggle-producing memories (Carol Burnett's Dynasty-inspired wardrobe, e.g.). Will this ever be available on home video?? I hope so! I would love to see it again.No one who ever watched Dallas, Dynasty, Falconcrest, or other 70s-80s vintage evening soaps can find this anything but hilarious and spot-on. Its skewering of every soap/melodrama formula ever over-used will leave you howling and hoping it will go on for much longer. The week we spent watching it was one of the funniest of my television life, and made all those Friday nights soaking up South Fork seem worthwhile.It seems as though television has grown/withered to such an extent that this kind of miniseries no longer has any place in prime-time or anywhere else. It is a great pity! I am a great fan of smart entertainment, which is more often than not treated as an oxymoron by the industry these days. TV needs more of this kind of thing.

My brother and I watched this and I still recall some of the choicer scenes: the family at the table where an empty seat is placed for the long departed Patriarch Mr. Kensington, hat and vest in place. Carol Burnett as Mrs. Kensington telling hired hand Jaun that he didn't need a raise, "I've seen what your family wears and what they eat, you don't need a raise." Dabney Colman as Mr. Tyler Cain taking his niece to school in the limo. (She hates to "attrack attention"). The lady with the water rights, her clock collection and her beer drinking, hick husband in his dirty T shirt with a wedge of belly exposed. Charles Grodin as Cain Kensington pouring mama's bloody mary "breakfast". Jerry Van Dyke hosting a fund raiser for WHIP (Woman with Husbands in Prison)was a hoot. Mrs. Kensington visiting her son in prison...well it was just one belly laff after another. Non stop hilarity with an absolutely wonderful cast of characters. This NEEDS to be released on DVD!

I am looking for a copy of this Show. This by far the funniest show I have ever seen. My favorite about this show is they take "class" and "refinement" and make a mockery of it. My favorite part of the show is the "Martini in the Face" I have always thought that was so funny. It makes my stomach hurt. If you have not seen this show I strongly recommend it if you like to laugh. I have been looking for it for 3 years and finally found this site. If anyone has this show on tape or DVD I would be ecstatic. Thanks Scott