The Morton Downey Jr. Show blazed like an incendiary comet for about two years on television in the late 1980's only to crash and burn due to the all-too-human flaws and foibles of its exceptionally crude, rude, and abrasive host Morton Downey Jr. Notorious for the ruthless way he ferociously bullied and berated guests that he disagreed with, Downey Jr. played the role of the angry and abusive ultra-conservative right-wing wacko to the deliciously slimy hilt. Naturally, it was basically all a cunning and calculated act, but Downey Jr. still managed to achieve significant iconic status with a huge segment of the disenfranchised American public as a kind of say-it-like-you see it blue collar folk hero. Born to show business parents (his mother was a dancer and his father was a famous singer), Downey Jr. initially made an abortive attempt to become a singer like his much-despised father before going on to work for the Kennedy family as a liberal senator (!) in the 1960's prior to recreating himself as a hostile Republican loudmouth rabble rouser in the 1980's.
Fortunately, this documentary neither glorifies nor vilifies Downey Jr; instead it presents him warts'n'all as an extremely angry and insecure man whose fragile ego and continual desire for acceptance caused him to self-destruct in the most excruciatingly painful manner possible (Downey Jr. infamously staged an incident claiming that he had been attacked and brutalized by skinheads in an airport bathroom, which this documentary states for the record was an outright hoax concocted by Downey Jr. to get one of his wives to feel sorry for him). The clips from The Morton Downey Jr. Show are every bit as outrageous and hilarious as one would expect -- obnoxious gadfly Al Sharpton was knocked flat on his then fat pompous keister on one legendary episode which made the news -- while the latter footage of habitual chain smoker Downey Jr. transforming into a staunch anti-smoking advocate in the wake of being diagnosed with lung cancer registers as remarkably poignant and heart-wrenching. Mort's daughter Kelli Downey Cornwell and his best friend Lloyd Schoonmaker offer touching insights into the more human side of Mort while Chris Elliot, Sally Jessy Raphael, and Pat Buchanan discuss Downey Jr.'s legacy as a true trash TV pioneer who kicked politeness and civility out the door and replaced it with roaring rage and fury. Moreover, producer Bob Pittman admits he feels guilty about providing Mort with an ideal forum in which to bring about his own ruination while writer Jim Langan and bodyguard David Giegold tell some colorful stories about their wild ride working for Downey Jr. Although not without its flaws (for example, this documentary completely ignores the fact that Mort was a gay baiter who had a homosexual brother with AIDS who appeared as a guest on his show as well as glosses over Mort's subsequent career as an actor after his show went down the tubes), this documentary still overall sizes up as a fascinating chronicle of a singular 80's icon.
Fortunately, this documentary neither glorifies nor vilifies Downey Jr; instead it presents him warts'n'all as an extremely angry and insecure man whose fragile ego and continual desire for acceptance caused him to self-destruct in the most excruciatingly painful manner possible (Downey Jr. infamously staged an incident claiming that he had been attacked and brutalized by skinheads in an airport bathroom, which this documentary states for the record was an outright hoax concocted by Downey Jr. to get one of his wives to feel sorry for him). The clips from The Morton Downey Jr. Show are every bit as outrageous and hilarious as one would expect -- obnoxious gadfly Al Sharpton was knocked flat on his then fat pompous keister on one legendary episode which made the news -- while the latter footage of habitual chain smoker Downey Jr. transforming into a staunch anti-smoking advocate in the wake of being diagnosed with lung cancer registers as remarkably poignant and heart-wrenching. Mort's daughter Kelli Downey Cornwell and his best friend Lloyd Schoonmaker offer touching insights into the more human side of Mort while Chris Elliot, Sally Jessy Raphael, and Pat Buchanan discuss Downey Jr.'s legacy as a true trash TV pioneer who kicked politeness and civility out the door and replaced it with roaring rage and fury. Moreover, producer Bob Pittman admits he feels guilty about providing Mort with an ideal forum in which to bring about his own ruination while writer Jim Langan and bodyguard David Giegold tell some colorful stories about their wild ride working for Downey Jr. Although not without its flaws (for example, this documentary completely ignores the fact that Mort was a gay baiter who had a homosexual brother with AIDS who appeared as a guest on his show as well as glosses over Mort's subsequent career as an actor after his show went down the tubes), this documentary still overall sizes up as a fascinating chronicle of a singular 80's icon.