Customer Reviews

Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For the price that you can get for this movie I would definitely check it out. Carol Burnett is at her beautiful best as Dorothy Benson, housewife and want-to-be-writer who moves her strangely normal family to the suburbs of New York. Of course she gets to meet all of the neighbors, deal with her hubby (Charles Grodin) who's obsessed with the lawn (thus the name of the movie), her kids' crazy schedules, and her friends who use her as a sacrifice for cookie sales and parties. Different but sweet anybody who likes the brilliant Burnett has to check into "The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank." For the $5.00, it's worth it.

A hilarious look at how a family can get into so many problems after moving from the city to the suburbs after the man of the house is mugged. We have children who never do take care of the huge dog they begged their mother to let them keep, a housewife who wants to become a famous mystery writer, a husband who stays late at the office and sometimes only comes home on weekends, and when he is home,is so obsessed with the lawn he has little time for his wife, and a possible liaison between the wife and the coach of her son's baseball team. The acting was pretty good, though I thought Grodin was a bit bland in his delivery of lines. To see the actress who played JR Ewing's wife on Dallas was interesting. Underneath the comedy was the knowing this family would pull itself together in the end, but it was nice to watch. Not so nice to watch the huge backhoe dig up that beautiful lawn in search of the sewer that had been improperly installed. Great fun to watch even if it is not released on DVD.

If you like Carol Burnett, you will like this movie. She puts out her best performance as a actress with great comedy. A MUST for all fans of Carol Burnett.

Wow - a wonderful romp!

Carol Burnett is a VERY funny lady. Erma Bombeck is (was - we miss her) a VERY funny lady. So how can you go wrong here! Based on the novel with the same name by Erma Bombeck**, this made-for-TV movie from a gentler time is a wonderful movie to enjoy -- matinee style, with dear friends, or just anytime.

The whole cast is wonderful (Charles Grodin manages to be both lovable and hugely irritable, and ultimately adorable as usual), and Linda Gray (who made her name on the series 'Dallas' years later) is shown here in an early role.

Highly recommended. Too bad it's not on DVD. Wonderful that Amazon makes these hard-to-find videos available for those of us looking for lighter fare than the current crop of TV and DVD movie offerings.


**The Grass Is Always Greener over the Septic Tank - link to book by Erma Bombeck