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Over the years, Ringo Starr has grown tired with being a superstar - so
when he meets poor and insignificant Maps to the Stars salesman Ognir
Rrats, who just happens to look exactly like him (and is thus also played
by Ringo Starr), he suggests to swap places for a few hours, promising him
he won't be bothered as long as he repeats "I'm on a break" to
everybody. Ognir agrees and pretends to be on break, but that's not good
enough for his manager Marty (John Ritter), who pretty much pushes him
onto the Mike Douglas Show, where Ognir makes an utter fool
of himself (or rather of Ringo), so that hires hypnotist Dr. Nancy
(Vincent Price) to get him back into the right midnset for tonight's
concert. But Ognir not being Ringo it will take more than the right
mindset for Ognir not to blow it ... Meanwhile the real Ringo has his
own set of problems, from clashes with Ognir's father (Art Carney) to him
being (innocently) arrested for car theft (by Angie Dickinson), and nobody
ever taking his side but his girlfriend (Carrie Fisher). And then he sees
how Ognir is (unintentionally) trashing his career ... Ringo's bandmate
of old George Harrison plays himself at a press conference in the film's
framing story. Now think what you may about Ringo Starr as a
singer and musician, he was quite possibly the best actor and comedian of
the Beatles, maybe also the most likeable one. Now that in its
totality is a good argument for a TV special, but what speaks against it
is the show's rather lazy writing and tired jokes, along with many a
musical interlude (including several Beatles evergreens). The
result is a perfect time capsule where these kind of somewhat forced TV
specials were still a thing, but good TV this is not by a lonh stretch.
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