All You Need Is Cash

All You Need Is Cash (also known as The Rutles) is a 1978 television film that traces (in mockumentary style) the career of a fictitious English rock group called the Rutles. As TV Guide described it, the group's resemblance to the Beatles is "purely – and satirically – intentional". The film was co-produced by the production companies of Eric Idle and Lorne Michaels, and it was directed by Idle and Gary Weis. It was first broadcast on 22 March 1978 on NBC, earning the lowest ratings of any show on American prime time network television that week, though those who did watch it gave almost unanimously good reviews. It did much better in the ratings when it premiered in the UK on BBC2 on 27 March 1978. Premise All You Need Is Cash is a series of skits and gags that illustrate the fictional Rutles story, closely following the chronology of the Beatles' career. Cast Eric Idle as Dirk McQuickly, a parody of Paul McCartney; as The Narrator, a parody of Alan Whicker; and as Stanley J. Krammerhead III, Jr., occasional visiting professor of applied narcotics at the University of Please Yourself, California Neil Innes as Ron Nasty, a parody of John Lennon John Halsey as Barry Wom (Barrington Womble), a parody of Ringo Starr Ricky Fataar as Stig O'Hara, a parody of George Harrison Michael Palin as Eric Manchester, Rutle Corp. Press Agent & Lawyer, a parody of Derek Taylor George Harrison as The Interviewer Bianca Jagger as Martini McQuickly John Belushi as Ron Decline, the most feared promoter in the world, a parody of Allen Klein Dan Aykroyd as Brian Thigh, ex-record producer who turned down the Rutles, just as Decca had turned down the Beatles, a parody of Dick Rowe Gilda Radner as Mrs. Emily Pules Bill Murray as Bill Murray the K., a parody of Murray the K. Gwen Taylor as Mrs.