This late-fifties farce takes only two things seriously: sex and television. David Niven is the father of one of New York's last surviving TV-less households and one of the happiest for it. When he and wife Mitzi Gaynor are presented with their first television set as an anniversary present, Niven does with it what Jane Wyman in All that Heaven Allows would do if she could: he kicks it in. Presented with a replacement set, he boots that one to boot. But it is only the beginning of the socialization of this renegade couple as they (literally) step into the television era and out of marital bliss. After Dad inadvertently reveals to his stunned children and in-laws the extent of his pre-nuptial gymnastics with Mom, their daughter (Patty Duke) finds that, when it comes to revenge, the medium is the message. Incidentally, much ado was made, within the film and in the press, about the film's risqué business, but the voice you will hear chirping "I was wrong, I never should have taken Alice to that hotel room before we were married" is not actually that of David Niven, who refused to participate in United Artists' compromise with the newly created Review Board. (JB)