The Girl Most Likely to... Reviews

Highly regarded in its day, this made-for-TV black comedy never received a lot of play after its original airing. Three decades and counting later, it's slightly behind the times but still way ahead of its own. Homely coed Miriam Knight (Stockard Channing) transfers from campus to campus in hopes of snagging her very own Mister Right. Although she's always regarded childhood pal Herman Anderson (Warren Berlinger) as a back-up fiancee, he never pops the question. And the shallow frat boys and university jocks won't give her a second look: She's a dumpy brunette in a sea of stacked, slender blondes. After Miriam tutors a football hero named Moose Meyers (Larry Wilcox), he humiliates her by ditches her at a drive-in. A blind date at a pool hall ends in another brush off from, and after letting "Doctor" Ted Gates (Fred Grandy) get past third base, Miriam learns that discovers he seduced her on a bet. And it's not just the guys who have it in for her: Miriam lands the lead in a student play, only to have jealous sorority sweetheart Heidi Murphy (Suzanne Zenor) sabotages her success by engineering a hay fever attack and stealing the part out from under her. Driven to suicidal despair, Miriam crashes her car. But the accident turns out to be a blessing in disguise: Miriam's injuries require plastic surgery, and Miriam finds a new in older police detective Ralph Varone (Ed Asner. Unfortunately, her gruff admirer stands in the way of her plan to avenge herself on her tormentors in various clever ways, including a lethal skydiving mishap and an exploding billiard ball. Can true love stop Miriam from settling the score with Moose, Heidi, Ted and Herman? The caricatured performances and screenwriters’ Joan Rivers and Agnes Gallin's incessant zingers eventually deflate this dark tale of what goes around coming around, but Channing’s star turn remains dazzling. The veteran actress has been given too few opportunities to demonstrate her versatility onscreen, but this tour de force is a tribute to her comic genius.