2024 has been a wild one for the movie industry. Major ups like the phenomenal successes of Dune: Part Two and Inside Out 2 have balanced against massive box-office disappointments like Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and Horizon: An American Saga, making for a confusing year for the money-making side of the art. As summer gets into full swing, several big releases loom, and none bigger than the return to the screen after nearly 40 years of Michael Keaton's iconic character Beetlejuice. The Ghost with the Most is set to hit theaters for just the second time ever on September 6 for cleverly titled sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and after a major 2023 cameo as his version of Batman that was the main thing anyone remembers from The Flash, Michael Keaton is more in the zeitgeist than he has been in years.

Keaton's more than proved his chops at dramatic acting of the highest caliber, now considered one of the great living dramatists, but Beetlejuice Beetlejuice represents a return to the genre that got Keaton his storied career in the first place: comedy. In fact, Keaton's first leading role that launched him to stardom was another dark comedy, 1982's Night Shift, and despite it being a big hit in its day, the co-starring vehicle for Keaton and Henry Winkler has largely been forgotten in the long tale of Michael Keaton's career. Despite that, Night Shift is one of the funniest forgotten movies of the 80s, and the Ron Howard-directed, big-hearted satire of a workplace comedy that features two men running a brothel out of a morgue very much deserves a rewatch by fans who can't wait to meet The Juice again this fall.

Michael Keaton Had a Surprising First Career Before Starring in Movies, and Night Shift Launched Him to Fame

• Michael Keaton was born and raised in the suburbs of Pittsburgh.
• Keaton's got started as a cameraman and a production assistant for public access shows, eventually moving to L.A.
• Keaton had small roles in sitcoms, plus one failed show with Jim Belushi, before he was hired by Ron Howard for 1982's Night Shift.

For being one of Hollywood's undeniable icons, and Batman, not many people know how Michael Keaton's career got started. Growing up in the suburbs of Pittsburgh as the son of a civil engineer and a homemaker, Keaton started from very un-Hollywood beginnings, going to Catholic school and eventually spending two years at Kent State in Ohio studying speech. Keaton acted in some plays at the time but dropped out and went back to Pittsburgh, where he got his start in showbiz as a cameraman at a cable TV station.

It wasn't long before Keaton flipped to the other side of the camera, though, as he shortly found himself in small roles in Pittsburgh public access shows including Where the Heart Is and, notably, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, where he was both a full-time production assistant and played one of the "Flying Zookeeni Brothers." During this time Keaton was working in local Pittsburgh theater and, most interestingly, gigging as a stand-up comedian, a job that rare YouTube clips show that he was actually quite good at.

According to Keaton, however, it didn't always go so well, telling Jimmy Fallon on his show in 2017 that he sometimes played gigs so bad that they didn't have a microphone and that he experienced some major bombing, including one failed prop bit with a rubber chicken. Keaton finally bit the bullet and moved to L.A. to try and make it, where he changed his name for roles from Michael John Douglas (to avoid confusion with Michael Douglas) to Michael Keaton (he says he just chose the name out of a phonebook). He started booking small roles on TV shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Hour and Maude, which led to his non-speaking film debut in Billy Crystal comedy Rabbit Test (also Crystal's first film) and a co-starring role alongside Jim Belushi in goofy sitcom Working Stiffs.

Working Stiffs, about a pair of brothers who worked as bumbling janitors (and whose pilot was oddly directed by famed actress and director Penny Marshall), only lasted nine episodes, five of which were unaired, but it proved Keaton's comedic screen chops. The 1979 show features a lot of wisecracking and physical comedy, later Keaton's calling cards, and three years after in 1982 Keaton earned his first leading film role, allegedly beating out hundreds of actors to co-star in Happy Days star Ron Howard's first feature film. Howard had directed some TV movies before, but Night Shift was the later Oscar-winning director's big directorial break, and he tapped his TV co-lead Henry Winkler and Happy Days writers (and later legends) Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz to get the film made.

As Dark Comedies Go, Night Shift's Premise Is Among the Darkest, But In Actuality It's Light, Clever Fun

• Night Shift is a dark comedy directed by Ron Howard and starring Keaton, Henry Winkler and Shelley Long.
• The movie is about a morgue that doubles as a brothel, and though it has some dated material, it's almost feminist in its approach.
• Keaton shines in the film opposite Winkler, using his physical comedy chops and quick wit to incredible effect.

Considering that Howard, Winkler, Mandel and Ganz were all largely known for extremely family-friendly fare (though Winkler had a long stage career as a serious actor), Night Shift's concept is rather risque, being a dark comedy about two morgue attendants who run a brothel out of their morbid place of work. Wild as the concept sounds, it comes directly from the pages of reality, being a real thing that three people were arrested for in New York in 1976, which gave long-time Ron Howard producer Brian Grazer the idea for the movie (this being the first time Howard and Grazer would work together). Howard's Richie had largely been written off of Happy Days, which was now centered on Winkler's The Fonz, and Howard offered either of the main roles to Winkler.

Trying to get as far away from The Fonz as possible, Winkler took the role of Chuck Lumley, a depressed stick-in-the-mud who is mostly concerned with trying to convince his neurotic girlfriend (a rather "of the time" misogynistic portrayal, unfortunately) that she isn't overweight. Lumley works nights at the morgue, having been demoted in favor of his boss's inexperienced relative, and his life is boring and rote until Michael Keaton comes literally dancing through the door of the morgue as Bill "Blaze" Blazejowski. Keaton is electric before he's even fully visible, with his soon-to-be iconic outline shining through the frosted glass of the morgue as he hums The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" while singing the lyrics to an entirely different Stones song, "Jumpin' Jack Flash."

Right away, Keaton's wisecracking, charmingly bumbling, always-scheming performance demands full attention, providing a perfect foil for Winkler (also in top comic form) and his hangdog face and attitude toward life. Few times has an actor's first major scene in a movie been so obviously a star-making moment, and Keaton never lets off the gas for the rest of the movie (as viewers hope will be the case for Keaton in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice). Almost a proto-Jim Carrey-style character, Blaze is nonstop and uses his face and body to emphasize everything to the extreme, and after only a short while trying to work his job as he's supposed to, he convinces an increasingly existentially frustrated Chuck to become the replacement pimps for his neighbor Belinda, a very charismatic and confident prostitute played by Shelley Long.

The pair convinces Long and her fellow sex worker friends to the plan in one of Keaton's best-ever scenes, where he very stupidly attempts to break down the word "prostitution" into its component parts on a blackboard before asking to see everyone's breasts. And while the film does have moments of old-school 80s inappropriateness, especially toward women, those interactions are mostly played as jokes on the dumbbell men making them. In fact, the brothel that Keaton and Winkler set up is rather feminist in many ways, offering 90% of profits, health insurance and investment opportunities to the women, who say their situation has improved greatly.

Night Shift Is a Cult Classic Dark Comedy That Set the Tone for Michael Keaton's Legendary Comedic Persona

• Night Shift marked the undeniable announcement of new major movie star.
• The film was extremely financially successful, and both Keaton and Ron Howard used it to launch their careers to the highest heights of Hollywood.
• Night Shift is a secret gem in the storied history of 80s comedies.

The inevitable antics that occur as Blaze and Chuck get deeper into the world of light crime might seem predictable, but they're played to perfection by Keaton and Winkler, with Keaton's star almost visibly growing with every scene he's in. Pulling faces, shouting bizarre things and wearing ridiculous outfits, Keaton is explosive and impossible to deny, with Gene Siskel (who did not like the film as a whole) going so far as to say "Based on this one role, I would now pay to see Keaton in just about anything." One of the best of a weird crop of 80s films that focused on prostitution, Night Shift somehow manages to avoid making its pimps into pigs, no easy feat.

In fact, many scenes, especially those with Long, Winkler and Keaton together, are quite touching and full of heart, with the three having great chemistry (even though Winkler apparently did not enjoy working with Long). By the film's end, the viewer has laughed at all of the ridiculousness (including excellent comedic cameos from Clint Howard, Richard Belzer and a very young Kevin Costner), but they've also come to care about the weird ersatz family that the sex and morgue workers have created. When the predictable crisis point splits the film's main trio apart only for them to find each other again, it's a welcome sightseeing them walk off arm-in-arm into New York's bright night, and one can almost hear Keaton's phone ringing with more offers.

Night Shift was a big hit financially, making $21.1 million on an $8.1 million budget, and it proved to be star-making for both Ron Howard and Michael Keaton. Howard followed up Night Shift with 1984 megahit Tom Hanks film Splash, while Keaton found himself next in one of his iconic roles, playing the titular part in 1983's Mr. Mom. Howard and Keaton would find themselves together again just a few years later for the controversial 1986 comedy Gung Ho, but it will always be their work together on the hilarious, weird and massively underseen Night Shift that will go down as the film that launched not one, but two of Hollywood's most legendary careers. Night Shift is available to rent on most major streamers, and as not only a piece of film history but also a seriously funny movie, it stands today as one of the best-hidden gems of 80s comedy

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