The Barefoot Executive

Who: Bill
What: The Barefoot Executive
Where: Recently aired on Turner Classic Movies
Why: Classic Disney comedy fun with Kurt Russell and a chimp

In the 1960’s and 1970’s some of the most successful Disney live action films were family-friendly slapstick comedies. Thanks to repeated airings on The Wonderful World of Disney and later on The Disney Channel, these movies became semi-classics. One of them is 1971’s The Barefoot Executive. Kurt Russell stars as Steven Post, a young but ambitious mailroom clerk for the low-rated UBC Television Network (whose logo is a combination of ABC’s lower-case letters, the CBS eye and NBC’s original “living color” peacock). Post aspires to be a programmer and thinks he has a better idea of which shows would work on UBC as opposed to the flops the network puts on the air. When his girlfriend takes in a neighbor’s chimpanzee, Post discovers the chimp has a knack for picking out the top-rated programs. Using the chimp’s TV watching abilities as his own, Post quickly moves up the corporate ladder to become a top UBC executive and hailed as a programming genius. But will it last? Do Disney movies have conflict and ultimately a happy resolution?

A solid supporting cast backs up Russell which include Joe Flynn as Francis X. Wilbanks and Harry Morgan as E.J. Crampton (love those pompous-sounding character names!). John Ritter appears in one of his first major roles as Wilbank’s suspicious nephew Roger, Wally Cox plays Wilbank’s timid but sympathetic chauffer Mertons, and Heather North is Post’s girlfriend Jennifer. By the way, cartoon lovers may recognize two of the voices: North is better known as Daphne in the long-running Scooby-Doo cartoons, and Cox was the original voice of Underdog.

If you’re looking for some non-offensive, good Disney comedy fun, The Barefoot Executive is a pretty good way to spend a couple of hours on a lazy weekend afternoon.