The Couch Trip

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For other uses, see The Couch Trip (disambiguation).

The Couch Trip
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Michael Ritchie
Produced by	Lawrence Gordon
Written by	Ken Kolb Steven Kampmann William Porter Sean Stein Walter Bernstein
Starring	Dan Aykroyd Walter Matthau Charles Grodin
Music by	Michel Colombier
Cinematography	Donald E. Thorin
Editing by	Richard A. Harris
Distributed by	MGM
Release date(s)	July 22, 1988
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Couch Trip Is a 1988 comedy film starring Dan Aykroyd as a mental patient who gets a chance to go to Hollywood and host a radio talk show.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Mental patient John Burns (Akyroyd) gets the chance to fill in for his doctor (Dr. Lawrence Baird) when he intercepts a telephone call whilst being reprimanded in the doctor's office, asking if Dr. Baird could fill in for Dr. George Maitlin (Grodin) on his popular radio talk show. Burns jumps at the chance to escape the mental hospital, and with the help of Dr. Baird's secretary manages to break out and get to the airport to pick up a waiting ticket, assuming Dr. Baird's identity in the process.

When Burns arrives in L.A. he is met by Dr. Maitlin's radio show assistant Laura Rollins (Dixon) and escorted to the waiting limousine, where he crosses paths with Donald Becker (Matthau) a crazy priest who is collecting money to save plants, Becker recognises the trousers Burns is wearing to be asylum issue and ends up riding the gravy train with him. When the time comes to do the radio talk show Burns is a huge hit, offering people free consultations and using profanity on the air, he even arranges for everyone who comes down to the radio station to go to a ball game for free (where he also throws the first pitch).

All goes well until Dr. Maitlin meets the real Dr. Baird in London when they both attend the same seminar, they realise something is wrong and fly back to L.A. to try and find what is going on, meanwhile Aykroyd has been given his payment for the show (in cash) and is ready to leave by aeroplane when he sees on the in-flight TV that Becker is on top of the Hollywood sign shouting Baird's name. Ackroyd decides to go back and help to resolve the situation, where he is arrested only to be rescued on the way to the penitentiary by Becker and Maitlin's assistant Rollins.

[edit] Cast

Dan Aykroyd as John Burns
Walter Matthau as Donald Becker
Charles Grodin as George Maitlin
Donna Dixon as Laura Rollins
Richard Romanus as Harvey Michaels
Mary Gross as Vera Maitlin
David Clennon as Lawrence Baird
Scott Thomson as Klevin
David Wohl as Dr. Smet
Arye Gross as Perry Kovin
Victoria Jackson as Robin

[edit] Trivia

In the last few scenes of the movie , Burns gives his inmate number "7474505B" which is the same number that Jake Blues had in the The Blues Brothers (film) and Louis Winthorpe III in Trading Places.