| Genre: | Comedy |
| Director: | James Frawley |
| Music: | Arthur B. Rubinstein |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Executive Producer: | Greg Strangis Sam Strangis |
| Runtime: | 96 minutes |
| Company: | Ten-Four Productions |
| Network: | NBC |
The Great American Traffic Jam (alternate title Gridlock) is a 1980 American made-for-television movie which first aired on NBC on October 2, 1980. The comedy revolves around a large "all-star" cast getting stuck in a massive Los Angeles area traffic jam, with multiple interweaving story lines among those stuck.[1]
The movie debuted on NBC on Thursday October 2, 1980.[2] The TV Guide summary of the week's TV movies described it as a film that "provides stale characters in staler situations,"[3] but another promotional blurb in the same issue stated "what sets this 1980 TV-movie apart are its flashes of wit, delivered in a running commentary by a glib disc jockey (Howard Hesseman) and its satirically staged sequences--such as a helicopter's convoy's delivering portable toilets."[4]
Though Ed McMahon refers to the movie as a "semiclassic" in his biography,[5] Rue McClanahan (who plays his wife) admits she did it just to fill a contractual obligation with NBC and said "it was about as funny as Mom and Me, MD", a reference to another television movie she did in 1979.[6] [7]
On its debut, the movie was the 14th most watched primetime show of the week with a 17.8/30 rating. The serious Holocaust drama Playing for Time, which won a number of Emmys, was the most watched program that week.[8] [9]
Writers Steve Hattman and Dave Hackel dreamed up the idea for the movie when they were stuck in an L.A. traffic jam.[1] It appears the original title of the film was "Gridlock", but there is no evidence of it ever being released under that title.[10] It was released on VHS in the United States in December 1987.[10] [11]
Though the cast is large, the opening credits billed cast are listed in alphabetical order as follows:
Other actors appearing in the film include Lyle Waggoner, Abe Vigoda, Marcia Wallace, and Paul Willson; game show hosts Wink Martindale, Jack Clark, Art James, and Jim Perry; and Howard Hesseman (who was playing a DJ role on WKRP in Cincinnati at this time) as the voice of the radio announcer.