Robert Benchley

A look at the first years of Pixar Animation Studios - from the success of "Toy Story" and Pixar's promotion of talented people, to the building of its East Bay campus, the company's relationship with Disney, and its remarkable initial string of eight hits. The contributions of John Lasseter, Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs are profiled. The decline of two-dimensional animation is chronicled as three-dimensional animation rises. Hard work and creativity seem to share the screen in equal proportions.

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Two classic animated shorts from the Disney studios. In 'The Reluctant Dragon' (1941), a young boy and a famous dragon fighter team up to teach a docile dragon the art of being a force to be reckoned with. In 'Mickey and the Beanstalk' (1947), Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck confront the fearsome Willie the Giant to try to retrieve the magical singing harp to Happy Valley.

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The story of the legendary wits who lunched daily at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City during the 1920s. The core of the so-called Round Table group included short story and poetry writer Dorothy Parker; comic actor and writer Robert Benchley; The New Yorker founder Harold Ross; columnist and social reformer Heywood Broun; critic Alexander Woollcott; and playwrights George S. Kaufman, Marc Connelly, Edna Ferber and Robert Sherwood.

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While a few Hollywood celebrities such as James Stewart and Clark Gable saw combat during World War II, the majority used their talents to rally the American public through bond sales, morale-boosting USO tours, patriotic war dramas and escapist film fare. Comedian David Steinberg plays host for this star-studded, 90-minute documentary, which looks at the way Tinseltown helped the United States' war effort.

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Bob's favorite memories and funniest moments on TV The biggest Stars! ... The biggest laughs! On DVD for the first time, this special 90 minute collection proves that laughter is the universal language with a sidesplitting salute to slapstick, satire, sketch comedy and zingers. Featuring Bob's funniest moments on television, this tribute includes a virtual who's who of legendary entertainers like Bing Crosby, Jackie Gleason, Roy Rogers, Ingrid Bergman, Bob Newhart, Lucille Ball, Ann-Margret, Jack Benny, Angie Dickinson, Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, Danny Thomas, Don Rickles, Milton Berle, Redd Foxx, Dorothy Lamour, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Dyan Cannon, Debbie Reynolds, Lassie and more.

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Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.

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Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.

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The original concept of the show was to allow the viewer to see the inner workings of a movie studio and featured interviews with MGM stars and explanations of how movies were made. Later, the format changed to show edited versions of MGM films.

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Newlywed Janie's (Joan Leslie) World War II-veteran husband (Robert Hutton) goes to work at her father's (Edward Arnold) newspaper.

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A bookish husband tries to win back the affections of his horse-breeding wife.

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While on a ship to Skagway, Alaska, Duke and Chester find a map to a secret gold mine, which had been 'stolen' by thugs. In Alaska to recover her father's map, Sal Van Hoyden falls in with Ace Larson, who secretly wants to steal the gold mine for himself. Duke, Chester, the thugs, Ace and his henchman chase each other all over the countryside—for the map.

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After aspiring singer Judy Peabody rescues the elderly J.B. Bates from drowning, she assumes that the disheveled man is a vagrant and goes back to her job checking hats at New York City's famed Stork Club. But Bates is actually a grateful millionaire who becomes Judy's anonymous benefactor, and before long the working girl is swathed in minks and diamonds, much to the dismay of her suspicious beau.

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A 14-year-old boy lies about his age and enlists in the United State Marine Corps without his family's consent or knowledge. He is sent into battle in the Pacific war-zone, decorated, and spotted in a newsreel by his family. The family asks the War Department to discharge him and send him home.

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Anything can happen during a weekend at New York's Waldorf-Astoria: a glamorous movie star meets a world-weary war correspondent and mistakes him for a jewel thief; a soldier learns that without an operation he'll die and so looks for one last romance with a beautiful but ambitious stenographer; a cub reporter tries to get the goods on a shady man's dealing with a foreign potentate.

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Film adaptation of the Broadway hit, about the comic mayhem that erupts in a small town when a 15-year old high-schooler (Shirley Temple) is wrongly suspected of being pregnant.

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A girl is desperate to get to Washington D.C. to be with her lonesome brother, a wounded G.I. She persuades Bing Crosby to let her join his caravan.

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The staff of a record factory drown their sorrows at Duffy's Tavern, while the company owner faces threats of bankruptcy.

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While his wife is away, Frederick Stumplefinger lets his kids go out jitterbugging on a school night, only to have his wife return early.

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The ringmaster of a flea circus inherits a fortune...if he can find which chair it's hidden in.

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A New York magazine sends its editors to South America to find beautiful girls.

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A comic training film designed to help sailors readjust to civilain life after World War II.

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In this screwball comedy a WW2 US pilot bombs a Japanese aircraft carrier, is assumed to be dead, and then is misquoted in the press as fondly remembering his days back home walking his dog Piggy. Instead of his dog Piggy he is thought to be in love with Peggy, a girl he worked with. The usual farce ensues after he returns home alive and tries to play along with the mistake to save embarrassment for all.

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This film gives a fictionalized version of how the popular real-life radio program of the title began.

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Teenage Janie falls in love with a private from an Army base opposed by her editor father.

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An anthropologist unwittingly takes a man disguised as a "primitive man" back to New York as a specimen.

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When Joe Doakes listens to a quiz show on the radio and knows all the answers, his wife encourages him to go on a quiz show himself. He appears on a new show called "Why Daddy?", where a child and an adult compete against each other, with less than stellar results.

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Robert takes a train ride to Washington, DC, on "important business."

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Journalist Marion Hargrove enters the Army intending to supplement his income by writing about his training experiences. He muddles through basic training at Fort Bragg with the self-serving help of a couple of buddies intent on cutting themselves in on that extra income.

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American conductor John Meredith and his manager, Hank Higgins, go to Russia shortly before the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Meredith falls in love with beautiful Soviet pianist Nadya Stepanova while they travel throughout the country on a 40-city tour. Along the way, they see happy, healthy, smiling, free Soviet citizens, blissfully living the Communist dream. This bliss is destroyed by the German invasion.

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Robert Benchley answers questions ranging from across the political spectrum.

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Joe Doakes is lamenting to his wife the lack of variety in his meals. In particular, he misses eating stewed tomatoes, the fruit which he believes incorrectly is being rationed as a war measure. Mrs. Doakes knows that tomatoes aren't rationed, but she doesn't correct him, especially after he announces that he will grow enough tomatoes to feed the entire block. As he proceeds with his tomato garden, he, unaware of what it actually takes to grow tomato plants successfully, accepts advice from the many people who are willing to give it. The problem ends up being that much of the advice is conflicting. But at the end of the process, Joe is pleased with the fact of having grown a fruit to maturity - regardless of the actual yield of the garden - until someone else, or something else, has a say in what happens to that fruit.

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Anthology film of three tales of the supernatural. The first story is set at the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The second involves a psychic who predicts murder. The third is about a man who literally meets the girl of his dreams.

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Flying Tiger Fred Atwell sneaks away from his famous squadron's personal appearance tour and goes incognito for several days of leave. He quickly falls for photographer Joan Manion, pursuing her in the guise of a carefree drifter.

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A multi-studio effort to show the newsreel audience the progress of the Hollywood war effort.

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A group of young stage hopefuls tries to persuade a theatrical producer to give them their big chance at stardom.

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A 17th-century witch returns to wreak havoc in the life of a descendant of the Puritan witch hunter who burned her, but runs afoul of her father when she discovers that her mischief might have found her true love.

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While his wife is away, Frederick Stumplefinger lets his kids go out jitterbugging on a school night, only to have his wife return early.

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A comic training film designed to help sailors readjust to civilain life after World War II.

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When Joe Doakes listens to a quiz show on the radio and knows all the answers, his wife encourages him to go on a quiz show himself. He appears on a new show called "Why Daddy?", where a child and an adult compete against each other, with less than stellar results.

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Robert takes a train ride to Washington, DC, on "important business."

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Robert Benchley answers questions ranging from across the political spectrum.

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As Joe Doakes is reading the newspaper, he begins to talk to himself. Questioned by his wife, he explains that he is disturbed by the paper's account of the ways that a government investigative committee has been interrogating its witnesses. Joe then nods off, and imagines that he is being questioned by the committee. He envisages how satisfying it would be to turn the tables on the investigators.

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