"Diner" is an American live action short film that was intended as the pilot episode for the show with the same title, but unfortunately it got cancelled and no follow-up to the action here happened. This is from 1983, so over 40 years old now, and linked to the Hollywood movie "Diner" from one year earlier that featured the young Mickey Rourke and Kevin Bacon. The writer and director for both projects was Barry Levinson, who was around the age of 40 back then, which means he is over 80 now, and maybe it was a good thing the pilot did not get picked up as he focused on other projects afterwards like the movie "Rain Man" that got him an Oscar for Best Director. Anyway, today we talk about these slightly under 25 minutes here and you can watch them in three parts on Youtube if you like. It was uploaded there by a fan of James Spader as he plays one of the protagonists in here and he was in his early 20s at that point. You will also find the slightly older Michael Madsen before he became a regular in Tarantino movies. Here with his hair, he looks a bit like a mix of Columbo and Johnny Cash. So the film had some actors that everybody knows, but this television pilot is not far behind when it comes to that and this is probably what is gonna help it the most with not getting forgotten too soon, even if a series was not meant to be. The first credit and probably the name that was the headliner for the show was Paul Reiser who scored a double-digit amount of Emmy nominations afterwards, but never managed the win. Still, a quite successful career too. The two female actors here, Kaplan and the more stunning La Placa, probably not too many will recognize.
But now let us look at the contents: We have a group of young men meet at a diner regularly where they talk about life and all kinds of things that are on their minds. This may include Marilyn Monroe's curves, which makes sense because the action is set in the year 1960s and she was still alive back then, but also many other topics and I cannot go into detail there about all of those. This was basically the first ten minutes. Then the action moves to the two ladies portrayed by the actresses I mentioned earlier and they have a conversation about how one of them does not want her man to go to the diner anymore because he is supposed to have a more serious and responsible lifestyle now and according to her he is too old for these diner visits. Well, actually not too nice if a woman wants to change her man like that. Her friend, however, does not disagree with her, but, on the contrary, also talks to her man that she does not want him to go there anymore either. In-between, we also meet one character's mother and there is a little bit of a dispute there, nothing too serious, that ends with the statement that the wife is now in charge of making sure all the tasks are fulfilled, the tasks that the mother took care of earlier. The two moments where the action movies to the characters' homes does not include Spader or Madsen, so you see that they were not as much at the center of the story as some of the other male characters here. We only get to see those two popular actors only at the diner. Or outside where Spader's character is bullied by a man called The Gripper. I am not really sure what this scene was about, but it was entertaining to watch for sure and also not super serious as all the other guys are having a fun time watching this confrontation. They were probably still glad that they were not in Spader's character's shoes. The handshake moment was also a bit on the tense side and brought in some decent suspense.
I would still say that this show is all about the comedy, even if at the same time I must say I did not really laugh during the watch here, which makes it difficult to give the outcome a positive recommendation. I still come to the conclusion that the good here is more frequent than the bad and thus I give it 3 stars out of 5. The ending is a solid compromise for everybody it seems as the boys can still meet at the diner, but their wives also have a bit of a last laugh when they go to concerts that sound much more interesting than meeting other young men at the diner. At least one of the guys is a bit jealous and maybe regrets his decision to keep going to the diner. But only for a minute or so. The music is also nice, the songs you hear I mean as there is no instrumental soundtrack or so. You also do not hear crowds laughing. Maybe it would be a bit too far-fetched to say that the discussions between the guys bring an ounce of Seinfeld, but I thought that way. A very rough shape of the discussion from the show that many consider the finest comedy show in television history. Another thing I thought of was the idea of friends meeting at a restaurant or some similar place to talk to each other. This became common during shows like "Friends" afterwards or the one that is set in Philly. Or shows that even are set in restaurants. I mean you can say it is a common place to socialize and you would be right, but you don't really have shows where 75% of each episode is set at a park or at school etc. So this little pilot episode was maybe more of a trailblazer than most may think. Go give it a watch, especially if you are a fan of Spader or Madsen. You will also find some mannerisms in their acting and face expressions that they are still showing to this day over 40 years later. Thumbs-up, even if I cannot say for sure that I would have kept watching after five episodes without any improvement. But it wasn't meant to be. The guys could still meet at the diner after overcoming this dealbreaker linked to the existence of the show even, but isn't it ironic that we could not keep watching them? Pity.
But now let us look at the contents: We have a group of young men meet at a diner regularly where they talk about life and all kinds of things that are on their minds. This may include Marilyn Monroe's curves, which makes sense because the action is set in the year 1960s and she was still alive back then, but also many other topics and I cannot go into detail there about all of those. This was basically the first ten minutes. Then the action moves to the two ladies portrayed by the actresses I mentioned earlier and they have a conversation about how one of them does not want her man to go to the diner anymore because he is supposed to have a more serious and responsible lifestyle now and according to her he is too old for these diner visits. Well, actually not too nice if a woman wants to change her man like that. Her friend, however, does not disagree with her, but, on the contrary, also talks to her man that she does not want him to go there anymore either. In-between, we also meet one character's mother and there is a little bit of a dispute there, nothing too serious, that ends with the statement that the wife is now in charge of making sure all the tasks are fulfilled, the tasks that the mother took care of earlier. The two moments where the action movies to the characters' homes does not include Spader or Madsen, so you see that they were not as much at the center of the story as some of the other male characters here. We only get to see those two popular actors only at the diner. Or outside where Spader's character is bullied by a man called The Gripper. I am not really sure what this scene was about, but it was entertaining to watch for sure and also not super serious as all the other guys are having a fun time watching this confrontation. They were probably still glad that they were not in Spader's character's shoes. The handshake moment was also a bit on the tense side and brought in some decent suspense.
I would still say that this show is all about the comedy, even if at the same time I must say I did not really laugh during the watch here, which makes it difficult to give the outcome a positive recommendation. I still come to the conclusion that the good here is more frequent than the bad and thus I give it 3 stars out of 5. The ending is a solid compromise for everybody it seems as the boys can still meet at the diner, but their wives also have a bit of a last laugh when they go to concerts that sound much more interesting than meeting other young men at the diner. At least one of the guys is a bit jealous and maybe regrets his decision to keep going to the diner. But only for a minute or so. The music is also nice, the songs you hear I mean as there is no instrumental soundtrack or so. You also do not hear crowds laughing. Maybe it would be a bit too far-fetched to say that the discussions between the guys bring an ounce of Seinfeld, but I thought that way. A very rough shape of the discussion from the show that many consider the finest comedy show in television history. Another thing I thought of was the idea of friends meeting at a restaurant or some similar place to talk to each other. This became common during shows like "Friends" afterwards or the one that is set in Philly. Or shows that even are set in restaurants. I mean you can say it is a common place to socialize and you would be right, but you don't really have shows where 75% of each episode is set at a park or at school etc. So this little pilot episode was maybe more of a trailblazer than most may think. Go give it a watch, especially if you are a fan of Spader or Madsen. You will also find some mannerisms in their acting and face expressions that they are still showing to this day over 40 years later. Thumbs-up, even if I cannot say for sure that I would have kept watching after five episodes without any improvement. But it wasn't meant to be. The guys could still meet at the diner after overcoming this dealbreaker linked to the existence of the show even, but isn't it ironic that we could not keep watching them? Pity.
