CBS (Fri., Sept. 19, 9 p.m. ET)
F+
What an easy, ideal target the IRS is: universally despised, all-powerful, run by weenies. It shouldn't be hard to make a movie about the IRS so funny even an auditor would laugh at it. But Many Happy Returns is not such a flick, filled as it is with thin jokes played too broadly. A 1040 is funnier. Proclaiming that "we've only got one weapon in the war against the taxpayer and that's F-E-A-R," the boss of an IRS office decides to make an example of one little guy: George Segal. Poor, honest George loses his house and his sporting-goods store in the mall. Segal himself almost loses his self-respect—except he's the show's one and only asset. For making me suffer through this bankrupt movie, I hope all its producers get audited.
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