jilliangreene Review of The Please Watch the Jon Lovitz Special

The Please Watch the Jon Lovitz Special (1992 TV Special)

The funniest send up I've seen. If Bowfinger was an actor, he'd do this.

[10/10 · 27 April 2008]

I thought this was probably one of the funniest send-ups of wannabe actors I've ever seen. If you live in Hollywood, you've seen the self promotion of thousands, but there are truly only a few legends. Angelyne is one who most people see on billboards or driving her hot pink Corvette. Dennis Woodruff is another who has painted both his car and van to say "Hire Dennis Woodruff for your next film," or something to that effect. Both his vehicles are moving dioramas with odds and ends plastered on every available surface. It does get ones' attention, but perhaps not the kind he would want. In any case, Please Watch the Jon Lovitz Show had me and my friends laughing so hard at shameless self promotion set in a theatrical showcase. The premise is that Jon begged, blackmailed and bribed everyone he knew to get them to support his big break. He had to because no one really likes him. And then it all goes awry in the wonderfully comic way that only Jon can carry off. This was made at the time A League of Their Own came out, so Jon continued the baseball genre because he kept the costume and everybody loves baseball. He tries to garner sympathy for his character, a baseball player with a head injury, but is obviously insincere to great comic effect. Everyone who appears with him upstages him, sometimes they do it on purpose, sometimes they're just no good at playing bad. They're all there against their will, even the directors in the audience. There are telephones attached to the seat backs in front of them so that if they see something they can use in their next movie, they can call right away and book Jon. A running gag has Jon breaking character to check the phones and see if they're working, usually when he feels he's really "acting" well. And they do work. Unfortunately the directors never call Jon unless it's for him to pass the phone to someone else on stage. It was all done brilliantly and with the complete selfishness self serving that is Jon's trademark.