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Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
Entertainment
Asharq Al-Awsat

‘My Favorite Year,’ Comic Salute to TV’s Golden Age, Hits 40

Peter OToole Richard Benjamin Mel Brooks Albert Finney David Bianculli Neil Simon Sadie
British actor Peter O'Toole. (AP)

Peter O’Toole was famed for his commanding, Oscar-nominated turns. Mark Linn-Baker was a fledgling stage actor. Richard Benjamin, who’d made a leading-man splash in "Goodbye, Columbus" and "Westworld," had a few TV directing credits. 

The sum of these unlikely parts was the zesty 1982 movie comedy "My Favorite Year," starring O’Toole and Linn-Baker, directed by Benjamin and produced by Mel Brooks. It paid loving tribute to the original golden age of TV in the mid-20th century and the variety shows that were the "Saturday Night Live" hits of their day. 

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