Nickelodeon

John Ritter,Burt Reynolds,Stella Stevens,Tatum O'Neal

In 1911, Chicago lawyer Leo Harrigan and Florida proverbial snake-oil salesman Tom "Buck" Greenway, neither particularly committed or good at their respective jobs, accidentally get involved in the moving-picture-making business: one-, two-, three-, and four-reelers shown at nickelodeons--Leo initially as a scenarist turned scenarist/director/editor and Buck as an action actor, despite neither initially knowing anything about their jobs and Buck being afraid of heights and not knowing how to ride a horse--and being asked to do deal with both in front of a camera. Both get into the business working for independent producer H.H. Cobb at a time when the big moving-picture companies formed the Patents Company, using heavy-handed tactics to prevent small companies, like Cobb's Kinegraph, from being able to make pictures by denying use of cameras under supposed patent. Via different routes, Leo and Buck initially meet at one of Cobb's secret sets located in the backwater frontier railroad stop of Cucamonga, California, so chosen to hide from the Patent Company. Leo and Buck's relationship becomes even more complicated as they both fall in love at first sight with Kathleen Cooke, an extremely nearsighted and klutzy Chautauqua girl on a national tour, who literally stumbles onto the Cucamonga set. Their personal and professional lives, presented over a four-year period, are not only affected by the ongoing battle with the Patents Company, and Leo and Buck's love for Kathleen, but their own growth within the business, the struggle for artistic control, and the changing face of the business, which hits a milestone in 1915.—Huggo