A mother (Barbara Harris) and daughter (Jodie Foster) get what they wish for, with hilarious consequences in Walt Disney's 1976 adaptation of Mary Rodgers' hilarious novel, Freaky Friday.
A typical Friday morning turns haywire when Harris and Foster wake up to discover they've swapped bodies, evidently the result of a mother-daughter disagreement from the evening before. Each goes about the other's daily routines, from housework to car-pooling and marching bands to boyfriends.
Miss Foster foreshadows her illustrious, Academy-Award winning adult career with a versatile, convincing performance as the tomboyish adolescent who gains a new measure of respect for adulthood after spending the day in grown-up shoes. Harris is suitably frazzled while John Astin, as the husband-father, also plays his role effectively.
Directed by Gary Nelson, veteran TV director of such programs as Gilligan's Island, Happy Days, Gunsmoke and many others, Freaky Friday moves quickly and presents the "adult vs. childhood" age-old conflict effectively and entertainingly.
