Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Sanjeev Waters A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

preppy-3 Young idealistic Steven Post (Kurt Russell) wants to get ahead in the TV industry but obnoxious boss Francis Wilbanks (Joe Flynn) constantly ignores him. Then Steven's loving girlfriend Jennifer (Heather North) gets a chimp (don't ask) who can predict what TV shows will be hits (!!!). Steve uses the chimp (without telling anyone) and becomes vice-president of a network in no time (just like real life huh?)...but Wilbanks is VERY suspicious of how he knows what shows will be popular.VERY silly Disney comedy. The humor and slapstick are either stupid and/or predictable, the characters are 1-dimensional and the lines would be laughed off "The Brady Bunch" as being too corny...but the kids will like this. Unlike the G rated movies today there's no crude humor, no violence and no jokes about bodily functions. This basically has good clean (if silly) humor.I admit most of the movie had me rolling my eyes but I did keep watching. I actually did laugh a few times towards the end (the reactions of a woman being interviewed on the street were very funny) and it was fun seeing Russell and John Ritter so young. Also Flynn has his moments as does Harry Morgan as the president of the network. North is sweet (but not TOO sweet) as Jen and look for Bill Daily at the end. And the chimp was adorable! So it is silly and predictable with a title song that makes you want to cut your ears off...but it's perfect for the kids. I give it a 5.

Brandt Sponseller The Barefoot Executive may appear to just be a light and fluffy 1960s/1970s-style Disney comedy, and it can certainly be enjoyed that way, but you don't have to dig very far below the surface to find a subtly clever satire of the television industry with a very insider feel. Having worked in radio for a while, and having friends and family who do or did work in television, as well as reading a lot of behind the scenes books on television programs, a lot of the jabs at the industry feel spot on.The humorous premise, probably stemming from a common joke about this, is that a "monkey" (actually a chimpanzee here) could pick a television stations' programming and do just as good or even a better job at it. Screenwriter Joseph McEveety and director Robert Butler get the dynamics between various levels of employees right, including the bigwigs. There are nice, continuing threads of intertwined sycophancy, insular ideas, fears of getting canned or demoted over ratings or general incompetence, and self-righteous assertiveness. Some of those things may be contradictory, but nevertheless they're representative of life within the walls of a broadcast media outlet--and probably many other places of employment as well. To an extent, the personal dynamics aspects of The Barefoot Executive are suggestive of an early version of Office Space (1999). But towards the end of the film, The Barefoot Executive nicely diverges into slightly more absurdist territory.Raffles, the chimpanzee, is charismatic and impressive. But an unexpected surprise was the scope and chemistry of the cast, which includes veteran character actors and Disney regulars Joe Flynn and Harry Morgan, veteran television actor Wally Cox, the woman who has supplied the voice of Daphne in most of the Scooby-Doo series and animated films since 1970, Heather North, and in one of his first films, John Ritter. Ritter is on fire here. He steals almost every one of his scenes. And that's quite a feat seeing that the star is an engaging Kurt Russell, who had already made a string of very successful films for Disney.

elizasimons It'll be fun to see how David Duchovny & Jake Kasdan's excellent new film "The TV Set" compares to this film of 35 years ago. Lila Garrett, Robert Butler & the others involved in "The Rating Game" aka "The Barefoot Executive" had done nothing but live through pilot hell for most of their careers. The people involved in "The TV Set" have jumped from pilot hell to feature hell and back enough times. And both sets of film makers manage to make us laugh and laugh a lot. Even the two casts are interchangeable. The cast of one would be equally brilliant in the other film. The intervening years teach us there's still great pain that goes along with the politics of television, and there is great talent.

georgethetee All the way through this film, part of me was saying "I don't like this kind of film" while the rest of me was replying "No, but I'm enjoying it!" The rather offensive premise here is that the tastes of the great american television-watching public can best be assessed by a chimpanzee.There's a little go at political-correctness, major swipes at TV production values and some great characterisations of TV exec types. I watched it while laying carpet tiles and it made a welcome distraction and a good excuse to take a break. I enjoyed it