While it's hard to peg just what movie started the trend, and obviously inspired by the early success of TV's "Saturday Night Live", the 70's contained a whole bunch of skit comedies that took inspiration from the commercials and television shows of the day and threw them at the viewer at a rapid-fire pace while caring little about political correctness and who they'd offend. Prime Time (also known as American Raspberry) is such an effort.

From the makers of the similar, Tunnel Vision, this is a typically hit-or-miss affair that at least attempts to connect all the insanity on hand with the loosest of wraparound stories. When it becomes apparent that someone's taken over the airwaves, the powers that be in the White House are taking frantic measures to try and figure out who's behind it and stop them from polluting the airwaves with their frequently racist, sexist, and off-colour offerings. So that's the basic premise that strings together 71 minutes of low-budget sketches that fly at you at such a quick pace it eventually runs out of steam.

The filmmaker's intentions to toss good taste to the wolves is shown early when a commercial for "Trans Puerto Rico Airlines" kicks things off on the way to a smorgasbord of jokes that take aim at the handicapped, gays, women, and minorities. With all the bases covered, it's really hard to get worked up about all the tasteless humour. Hell, I even admit to enjoying quite a bit of it and it's a great time capsule to see a time when things were a lot more relaxed and people weren't so worried about upsetting everyone around them. I've always said that the level of caution society takes these days to keep everything "vanilla" is ridiculous and because the humour here is painted with such broad strokes it's hard to take this at all seriously.

Sure, Prime Time doesn't hit the level of the cult classic Kentucky Fried Movie (the most famous of these types of flicks), but it also rises well above the cesspool that is Loose Shoes. I did eventually grow tired of the breakneck nature of everything and was taken aback by such scenes like the folk musical number between Biblical figures Mary and Joseph; but I also fully admit to laughing more than I was expecting to. The joke about a law being passed to allow abortion into the fifth year of a child's life is awesome, there's some chuckles to be had in a commercial about a sperm bank, the prize in the kid's breakfast cereal "Winkles" is amusing, and you can't do wrong with a cameo appearance by Kinky Friedman singing about "Old Man Lucas" having a lot of mucus "coming right out of his nose".

One thing about this sub-genre of flicks is you can spend a good portion of them picking out bit roles from people who would go on to better things. Ex-footballer Fred Dryer gets a big laugh from me in a commercial saying that if you're an athlete and like seeing fellow men in the locker room that "You're gay" and a few other familiar faces show up briefly including Stephen Furst (Animal House), Warren Oates (The Wild Bunch, Stripes), Nancy Parsons (Porky's, Motel Hell), and recognizable television actress Joanna Cassidy.

Your enjoyment of Prime Time depends on your tolerance for lowbrow comedy. I found there to be enough laughs for it to make an okay distraction and, when there's so many skits, it's hard to get too bored with the results. The biggest dud here is the overlong "Charlie's Angels" spoof "Manny's Nymphs" but when the makers keep things shorter it works more often than it probably should. Don't get me wrong, this is pretty passable stuff, but if you're curious about the brief popularity of this sub-genre there's a lot worse out there. (Chris Hartley, 12/10/12)

Directed By: Bradley R. Swirnoff.
Written By: Stephen Feinberg, John Baskin, Roger Shulman, Bradley R. Swirnoff.

Starring: Various.

aka: American Raspberry.