Garry Trudeau was a vocal critic of Reagan throughout his presidency, and devoted considerable space in his comic strip
Doonesbury to attacking his policies, administration, and Reagan himself. In the early 1980s, Trudeau took a hiatus from the strip to write
Doonesbury: A Musical Comedy, a
Broadway show that brought an end to many of the strip's long running story lines in anticipation of
rebooting it in a format that eliminated its
floating timeline and allowed the characters to age and grow. In addition to the play's narrative, it also featured several self-contained sketches satirizing the Reagan administration; after the play closed, Trudeau and Swados decided to expand on the sketches and turn them into their own show, timing the release to the
1984 presidential election. A
music video was produced in conjunction with the play, to be used as a satirical
fundraising tape by the
San Francisco Democratic Party. The video was shot on location in
Washington, D.C., and featured professional Reagan impersonator Robert H. Schmidt as well as several
break dancers credited as "The Doonesbury Break Crew". In 1985, the play was revived in Los Angeles. Four years later, as Reagan's presidency drew to a close, Swados and Trudeau updated the show as a
made for TV movie that aired on late night
Cinemax in 1988 as part of the network's comedy programming block "
Cinemax Comedy Experiment." This version was titled "Rap Master Ronnie: A Report Card". ==Plot summary==