Peter O’Toole in MY FAVORITE YEAR Available on Blu-ray From Warner Archives

Peter O’Toole in MY FAVORITE YEAR is available on Blu-ray from Warner Archives

King Kaiser’s Comedy Cavalcade goes on in minutes. But guest star Alan Swann is exiting the building. Fast. “I’m not an actor. I’m a movie star!” he bellows in stark fear. He just found out the show is LIVE!

Directed by Richard Benjamin and inspired by incidents from comedy legend Mel Brooks’ early career, My Favorite Year is a golden age revisited, a zany, misty-eyed tribute to TV’s early days. Academy Award® winner* Peter O’Toole plays Swann. Once a swashbuckling movie idol whose face was plastered on fan magazines, Swann is now mostly plastered. And it falls to Cavalcade’s rookie writer (Mark Linn-Baker) to keep him on the sober and narrow. Don’t touch that dial.

Mark Linn-Baker makes his debut and Peter O’Toole is a delight in this tale from director Richard Benjamin inspired by producer Mel Brooks’ experiences working for Sid Caesar’s legendary Your Show of Shows. Young Benjy Stone (Baker), tyro comedy writer/production assistant on “King” Kaiser’s (Joseph Bologna) Cavalcade of Comedy TV show, is overjoyed when his childhood idol, swashbuckling screen star Alan Swann (O’Toole), gets booked as the host. But when Swann is discovered living on the dipsomaniac side of the street, King wants to sack him from the show. Desperate to defend his hero, Benjy makes a plea on his behalf. Annoyed by Benjy’s temerity, King puts Swann under Benjy’s charge with the caveat that if Swann falls off the wagon while they are rehearsing, it will cost Benjy his job. All goes almost smoothly until Swann finds out Cavalcade is broadcast live and he’s “not an actor, (he’s) a movie star!” The production’s skillful recreation of early 1950s New York, Richard Benjamin’s comedic gifts as a director throughly infused with a human touch, and one of O’Toole’s most celebrated performances effervesce as never before thanks to this intoxicating High Def Master. Special Feature: commentary by director Richard Benjamin. 16×9 Widescreen