Mr. Saturday Night
Mr. Saturday Night is a 1992 American comedy-drama film that marked the directorial debut of its star, Billy Crystal.
It focuses on the rise and fall of Buddy Young Jr., a stand-up comedian. Crystal produced and co-wrote the screenplay with the writing duo Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz. It was filmed from November 1991 to March 1992, produced by Castle Rock Entertainment, New Line Cinema and Face Productions and released on September 23, 1992, by Columbia Pictures. Co-star David Paymer received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Plot
Stand-up comedian Buddy Young Jr. becomes a television star with the help of his brother, agent and manager, Stan, but alienates many of those closest to him once his career began to fade.Through a series of flashbacks, the brothers are seen during childhood entertaining their family in the living room. Buddy cultivates a career as a comic in the primarily Jewish resorts of the Catskills, where he meets his future wife, Elaine.
As Buddy's fame grows, so does his ego. He hits the big time with his own Saturday night television show. But despite the warnings of his brother, Buddy uses offensive material on the air, costing him his show and causing his career to suffer, officially ending when his stand-up act on the Ed Sullivan Show is scheduled right after the Beatles' first U.S. appearance, causing his act to be ignored and cut short. Furious over being snubbed, he goes into an offensive tirade and quits.
As an older man, long past his prime, Buddy is estranged from Stan as well as from his daughter, Susan. A chance at redemption comes when a young agent named Annie Wells finds him work and even gets Buddy a shot at a role in a top director's new film. Buddy nevertheless gives in to his own self-destructive nature, continuing to hurt his relationships with his family.
Eventually Buddy realizes how he has hurt his family and mends the relationships by giving the money Stan gave him from their mother's estate to his daughter Susan and performing at retirement homes. The story ends with his brother giving him a painting he made of the two of them as children in their parents living room where they used to entertain the family on Shabbat.
Cast
- Billy Crystal as Buddy Young Jr.
- David Paymer as Stan Young
- Julie Warner as Elaine Young
- Helen Hunt as Annie Wells
- Jerry Orbach as Phil Gussman
- Ron Silver as Larry Meyerson
- Mary Mara as Susan Young
Cameos
Production
Development
Billy Crystal first originated the character of Buddy Young Jr. for a 1984 HBO special, A Comic’s Line. On a 1985 episode of Saturday Night Live, he made an appearance as the character during a Weekend Update segment. "One night, the producer said, 'Johnny Cash, June Cash and Waylon Jennings are in the audience tonight — what if I put them near the Weekend Update desk?' I did live and I was like Don Rickles, I just had funny interplay with them. I had no idea what I was going to say. Live! And it was really funny. And then I knew I had something."The opening title sequence was designed by Elaine Makatura Bass and Saul Bass.