''Packin' It In'' is a 1983 American

made-for-television A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

comedy-drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

starring

Richard Benjamin Richard Samuel Benjamin (born May 22, 1938) is an American actor and film director. He has starred in a number of well-known film productions, including ''Goodbye, Columbus'' (1969), based on the novella by Philip Roth; ''Catch-22'' (1970), fr ...

and

Paula Prentiss Paula Prentiss (née Ragusa; born March 4, 1938) is an American actress. She is best known for her film roles in ''Where the Boys Are'' (1960), ''What's New Pussycat?'' (1965), ''Catch-22 (film), Catch-22'' (1970), ''The Parallax View'' (1974), a ...

. It was directed by

Jud Taylor Judson Taylor (February 25, 1932August 6, 2008) was an American actor, television director, and television producer. Early years Born in New York City, Taylor graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. Career Taylor is perhaps best ...

Plot

A family decide to move to Oregon.

Cast

as Gary Webber *

as Diana Webber * Tony Roberts as Charlie Baumgarten *

Andrea Marcovicci Andrea Louisa Marcovicci ( ro, Marcovici; born November 18, 1948) is an American actress and singer. Life and career Marcovicci was born in Manhattan, to Helen Stuart, a singer, and Eugen Marcovicci, a physician and internist of Romanian descen ...

as Rita Baumgarten *

Molly Ringwald Molly Kathleen Ringwald (born February 18, 1968) is an American actress, singer, dancer, and author. She was cast in her first major role as Molly in the NBC sitcom '' The Facts of Life'' (1979–80) after a casting director saw her playing an or ...

as Melissa Webber *

Mari Gorman Mari Gorman is an American actress perhaps best known for her work in television, particularly as a frequent guest star on the 1970s and 1980s sitcom ''Barney Miller'', but she is also known for her theater acting. She has won several acting awar ...

as Brooklyn Mary *

Sam Whipple Sampson E. Whipple (September 25, 1960 – June 3, 2002) was an American actor best remembered for his role as Dr. John Ballard on the TV series '' Seven Days''. His credits include ''The Doors'', ''Airheads'', ''This Is Spinal Tap '' ...

as Zack Estep * Kenneth McMillan as Howard Estep *David Hollander as Jay Webber *

Philip Proctor Philip Proctor (born 1940) is an American actor, comedian and a member of the Firesign Theatre. He has performed voice-over work for video games, films and television series. Career Of the four members of Firesign Theatre, Proctor has had t ...

as Cliff, Gary's Coworker

Production

Benjamin made it just after making his feature film debut as director, ''

My Favorite Year ''My Favorite Year'' is a 1982 American comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Richard Benjamin and written by Norman Steinberg and Dennis Palumbo from a story written by Palumbo. The film tells the story of a young comedy write ...

''. Although set in Oregon, the film was shot in Vancouver. Benjamin and Prentiss brought their two children along on location. "That was great and there was just a nice family feeling," Benjamin said. "Paula and I have been married for 22 years. I was in a movie a few years ago called ''

The Last Married Couple in America ''The Last Married Couple in America'' is a 1980 comedy film released in the US. It was directed by Gilbert Cates, whose most successful film ''Oh, God! Book II'', was released in the same year. The film starred George Segal and Natalie Wood a ...

'' and now we are - at least we're one of the last in show business, anyway. We're real close and we like to work together. We have not worked together in television since we did the series called 'He and She' in 1970 and we had a great time doing that."

Reception

The ''New York Times'' said the film had "some very funny bits and pieces. But the overall conception never quite holds together. It is only sporadically as good as it should be."TV: COMEDY ABOUT FLEEING THE CITY: eviewO'Connor, John J. New York Times 7 Feb 1983: C.17

References

External links

''Packin' It In''
at

TCMDB Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atl ...

''Packin' It In''
at BFI
''Packin It In''
at

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

{{Jud Taylor 1983 films 1983 television films 1983 comedy-drama films American comedy-drama television films Films directed by Jud Taylor Films scored by Mark Snow CBS films 1983 comedy films 1983 drama films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films