The Couch Trip

John W. Burns Jr. is a con man and escaped psychiatric patient who has learned he may soon be declared sane and sent back to serve out his sentence. After slipping away from the psychiatric wing of an Illinois prison, he heads to Los Angeles and takes over a radio therapy program, posing as the psychiatrist Lawrence Baird in place of the vacationing host, Dr. Maitlin. Burns proves an unexpected hit with listeners and lifts the show's ratings, but his position is threatened when Maitlin meets the real Lawrence Baird at a conference abroad and decides to take action against the impostor. The film is a comedy based on a novel by Ken Kolb.

Michael Ritchie directed; it was the eleventh of the fifteen films he made, following Wildcats and preceding Fletch Lives. The screenplay is by Steven Kampmann and William Porter, and Lawrence Gordon produced. Dan Aykroyd plays Burns, with Walter Matthau, Charles Grodin, Donna Dixon, Richard Romanus and Mary Gross in supporting roles, among a credited cast of fifty-two. Released by Orion Pictures in January 1988 and running ninety-seven minutes, it drew modest responses: on IMDb it holds 5.8 from about 6,100 votes, and on TMDB 5.5 from around 120 votes. A critics' rating of 5.3 from ten reviews places it slightly below even the audience scores, suggesting a largely indifferent reception for the comedy.