Television Review : Big Names Make Small Splash in Trite Story

The only surprise about “Side by Side” (Sunday at 9 p.m., Channels 2 and 8) is that George Burns isn’t in it. Otherwise, it’s a formulaic spunky-codgers movie, New York division.

Milton Berle, Sid Caesar and Danny Thomas (in alphabetical order) play lifelong chums, two of whom have just been booted into retirement from jobs in the garment industry. They decide to go into business together, manufacturing clothes for older people, made by older people.

The inspirational overlay is so thick that you know they’ll succeed, despite the obstacles thrown in their path by writers Rosemary Edelman, Sheldon Keller, Ed Kaplan and Anthony Velona.

The script overlooks the biggest obstacle of all--the fact that the item with which they break down the barriers is an overpriced ($29.95) pair of designer jeans. The funniest moment in the movie is when Berle, playing Uncle Miltie as a model, demonstrates how ridiculous he looks in these jeans. Yet we’re supposed to believe that Bloomingdale’s and all of its older customers will snap them up?

Richard Kline plays the yuppie meanie who forces Caesar out of his job and then tries to steal his idea. He’s a stereotype, but at least he’s consistent, which is more than you can say for Berle’s son (Michael Lembeck). One moment, this guy is snapping at his father’s intrusions into his life; the next, he’s offering to share his sculpture studio with his father’s business. Huh?

Morey Amsterdam, complete with cello, hangs around the periphery, and Georgann Johnson plays a Bloomie’s buyer who conducts a pro-forma romance with Thomas. Jack Bender directed.