I'm a big fan of Burt Reynolds despite his hit-or-miss batting average. Burt Reynolds is a first ballot Hall of Famer. "Switching Channels" has a solid performance from Reynolds. This movie isn't the greatest but Reynolds does a really nice job. This fast talking, wise crack stuff is right up Burt's alley. Burt's supporting cast is likeable but whenever Burt's not on screen the movie dies. Unfortunately at one point, he's not on screen for about twenty minutes. The movie never recovers from that gap. I first saw this movie in the theaters (Movie World, Douglaston, NY). I've seen it quite a few times since. It's not my favorite but Burt is terrific in it.

This umpteenth version of the Front Page story made the quite appropriate adaptation from newspaper journalism to television.

Although the character names have been changed we have no problems identifying the main characters of the Front Page. As in His Girl Friday, Hildy is played by a woman and Kathleen Turner was the ideal choice for this role at the time. Burt Reynolds takes on the Walter Burns character, but he neither has the charm of Cary Grant [His Girl Friday] nor the comic timing of Walter Matthau [Front Page, The (1974)] - but then, who has? The only serious miscasting is Christopher Reeve who just can't match the whimpish Ralph Bellamy.

All in all it's not as good as the previous (excellent) versions, but it is still quite enjoyable. A story with that many remakes normally has a stinker amongst the lot, but this one has not (so far).