First of all, consider that this was the only motion picture Andy Kaufman made before he died. He was quite sick when he made it and he never defined himself as a comedian; he always defined himself as a "song and dance man." It was the rest of the world who kept trying to shove him into the comedy can. Andy was perhaps the most misunderstood performer of all time and undoubtedly a genius. At the time this movie was made, Kaufman's break-out TV series, Taxi, had just been cancelled and he had just been diagnosed with a rare large cell carcinoma in his lungs. He wanted to get away from the disastrous "Inter-Gender Wrestling" gig he started that caused his popularity to fall flat and got him banned from Saturday Night Live. Bernadette Peters had just come off playing a cupie-doll airhead against Steve Martin's moron in "The Jerk" and Heartbeeps seemed like a good follow-up role. It's nuances you need to watch for in this film. The unlikely allies of the robots, Val, Aqua and the Catskill Performer, while being pursued by a crazed police robot, makes for a simplistic, yet classic tale of good vs. evil and good wins (spoiler alert!). Much of Kaufman's performance reminds me of the innocent, yet poignant Latka from Taxi. Thank you very much!
Review of Heartbeeps
