USA UP ALL NIGHT MONTH: Night Shift (1982)

EDITOR’S NOTE: Night Shift aired on USA Up All Night on February 17, 1995.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Eldon Glen is a horror fanatic/part-time reviewer.

Chuck Lumley (Henry Winkler, “The Fonz”) is a nervous, mild-mannered New Yorker employed by the city morgue. Run by his overbearing health obsessed Girlfriend Charlotte (Gina Hecht, St. Elmo’s Fire) the neighbor’s rottweiler that stalks the hallway of his apartment building and the intimidating sandwich guy (Vincent Schiavelli, Ghost) who always gets his order wrong. Enter Chuck’s exasperating new night assistant Bill Blazejowski (Michael Keaton, Pacific Heights, Batman) an “idea guy” who convinces Chuck by much pleading and begging to turn the morgue into (enter obvious answer here) command central for New York’s disgruntled ladies of the night, including Chuck’s beautiful neighbor Belinda (Shelley Long, Cheers, Troop Beverly Hills), the woman he is falling in love with and the real reason for his foray into crime. Chuck and Bill become the ladies’ “business partners” and in the process enjoy a windfall of riches but not without attracting the attention of the very same pimps their clients were desperate to escape. What ensues is Chuck and Bill’s inevitable run-in with the pimps and the law itself, but all’s well that ends well, as they find out about love, friendship and courage under fire as this mismatched trio comes to realize they are not as different as they may seem.