“Morning Glory” Delightful Look at Today’s Television

“Delightful Look at Today’s Television”

MORNING GLORY is an amusing little comedy about the people in charge of a television network’s morning show trying to increase their ratings and keep from being canceled.

Starring Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, and Diane Keaton, the movie can bring back memories of when these morning shows were more about news than they were about entertainment, more about information than they were about ratings, and when they didn’t require their hosts to become buffoons.

Good times.

McAdams plays Becky Fuller, who gets fired from her producer’s job on a morning show in New Jersey and finally gets an interview in New York City for the job of executive producer of “Daybreak,” the morning show on IBS, the fourth-place network.

Jeff Goldblum plays Jerry Barnes, the head of the news division who interviews Becky, and he tells her that her boss in New Jersey had said that Becky was the most promising producer he had ever fired.

Despite that less-than-glowing recommendation and despite the fact that Jerry tells her she has never been an executive producer before and she is too young, she gets the job of executive producer of “Daybreak.”

However, when she shows up for her first day of work and tells the guard in the lobby who she is, he tells her, “Another one? Don’t unpack.”

Becky’s first meeting with her staff is chaotic, but after she takes control, she surprises everybody by firing the male co-host on the spot.

Now she has to find someone to replace him who won’t cost a penny and still get the ratings up, which leads her to Mike Pomeroy, played by Ford, who is still under contract to the network after being fired from the network news desk.

Mike refuses to be the co-host at first, but Becky finds a loophole in his contract and essentially blackmails him to join the show, which annoys the other co-host, Colleen Peck, played by Keaton.

Mike refuses to say the word “fluffy,” Colleen insists on being the one to say “Goodbye” at the end of the show, and you can see where all this bickering is going to end.

Even so, it is very funny getting there.

MORNING GLORY is a delightful look at today’s television, and for some a wish that it would become as serious as it used to be.

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”