The Barefoot Executive

Infobox Film
name = The Barefoot Executive


image_size =
caption =
director = Robert Butler
producer = Bill Anderson
writer = Lila Garrett (story)
Bernie Kahn (story)
Stewart C. Billett (story)
Joseph L. McEveety (screenplay)
narrator = Kurt Russell
starring = Kurt Russell
Joe Flynn
Wally Cox
Heather North
John Ritter
Harry Morgan
music = Robert F. Brunner
cinematography = Charles F. Wheeler
editing = Robert Stafford
distributor =
released = 1971
runtime =
country = USA
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0066811

"The Barefoot Executive" is a live-action film released by the Walt Disney Company in 1971 starring Kurt Russell, Joe Flynn, Wally Cox, Heather North and John Ritter (in his film debut), about a pet chimpanzee who can predict the popularity of television programs.

Plot

A satire of network television, the movie follows the adventures of an ambitious mailroom clerk, Steven Post (Russell) at the fictional UBC Network who discovers his girlfriend's pet chimpanzee has the ability to predict which television programs will receive the highest ratings, in which he claps his hands in applause at shows that will be successful.

Post successfully masks the chimp's abilities as his own and rises to vice president of UBC, now the top rated area network. This creates suspicion and resentment among UBC executives, mainly because they believe Post is too young to merit the title of vice president.

Fearing that Post's seemingly miraculous abilities will make their own jobs unnecessary, network executives E. J. Crampton (Morgan) and Francis X. Wilbanks (Joe Flynn) attempt to discover his secret to success. One flunky sees a bunch of bananas in Post's apartment, which leads to a humorous scene where the executives believe bananas are brain food and start eating bananas.

Using a telescope to peer through his apartment window at night, the executives discover the chimpanzee watching television with Post. Upon spying the chimp going to the refrigerator for a beer during the commercial break, the executives realize the chimpanzee's true abilities.

Fearing the revelation that America's favorite TV programs were being picked by a primate would spell the end of television, the executives decide to steal the chimpanzee and return it to the jungle.

Wilbanks and his chauffeur, Albert Mertons (Cox) venture out a narrow ledge in an attempt to snatch the chimp out of Post's apartment in his absence. The plan goes and the duo become stranded on the ledge until the police and fire department arrive, mistaking their break in for a potential suicide.

As a last ditch effort, the network offers Post $1,000,000 in exchange for the chimp, which he ultimately accepts. Post's girlfriend, Jennifer Scott (Heather North) becomes disenchanted with him when she finds out he sold her pet for money and breaks off their relationship. She does not believe her chimpanzee should be released into the wild.

Meanwhile, executives from every studio and camera crews crowd a cargo plane soaring over the jungle, as they prepare to parachute the chimp into an unexplored section of the Amazon. But before arriving at the intended disembarkation point, the stubborn chimpanzee, not wanting to be sent into the wild, pulls a lever opening an emergency hatch which sucks all the executives out of the plane, causing them to parachute into the jungle instead.

After landing back in the U.S., Post uses the opportunity to trade back the $1,000,000 dollars for the chimp. Post comments that UBC is going to need the money now in order to fund a search party for Wilbanks and the other executives. Post and Jennifer have not only rekindled their relationship, but are now married and set off on their honeymoon with the chimpanzee in tow, while a radio announcement says that Post has just married and quit his job at UBC, but many people are wishing him well in his future endeavors.

Remake

It was re-made for the Disney Channel in 1995 starring Nathan Anderson and Terri Evans.

Other titles

* The Rating Game (USA) (working title)