wrote, "Sidney Poitier has directed Stir Crazy as if it were as much fun as his previous comedies—e.g., Uptown Saturday Night. But no amount of bouncy good-naturedness can disguise the stretched-thin quality of the material." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune was positive, giving the film three stars out of four and writing, "There are explosively funny moments in this prison comedy that wouldn't be there without Pryor, who radiates a comic energy in a scene even when he's merely standing still." Variety wrote, "The extensive comic talents of Richard Pryor take a below average film like Stir Crazy and make it into an often funny and saleable picture." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post also liked the film, stating that it "blends several inventive, high-spirited performing talents into a tangy, cheerful entertainment." David Ansen of Newsweek found the film "only intermittently funny", remarking that writer Bruce Jay Friedman is "trying for a formula film and can't land on the right formula. Is it a buddy movie, a caper comedy, a parody of prison films, an urban-cowboy neo-Western, a New York vs. Sun Belt comedy? Unfortunately it's more of a shambles than any of the above, albeit a fairly genial one." The film was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress for Georg Stanford Brown in drag. Television series CBS adapted Stir Crazy as a television series as part of its 1985 fall lineup. This version starred Larry Riley as Harry Fletcher and Joseph Guzaldo as Skip Harrington, who were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to 132 years in prison. While working on a chain gang, they escape and set out after Crawford (Marc Silver), the man who had actually committed the crime for which they had been sentenced. None of the people involved in the film had a major role in this series. It was pulled from the CBS fall lineup in October 1985, the month after its premiere, and put on hiatus. It returned in a new time slot in December 1985 and a few more episodes were aired, also to low ratings. The program was permanently cancelled after the January 7, 1986 broadcast. See also Gene Wilder filmography List of American films of 1980 References External links 1980 films 1980 comedy films 1980s buddy comedy films 1980s crime comedy films 1980s prison films African-American comedy films American buddy comedy films Films about miscarriage of justice American