If forced to choose, most of us would probably have difficulty picking out a favorite year of our lives. Each year is so full of highs and lows, lucky breaks and random misfortunes that how anyone could select a favorite is a mystery. But for Benjy Stone (Mark Linn-Baker), the narrator of 1982’s My Favorite Year, the answer is quite simple: 1954.

That was the year when Alan Swann (Peter O’Toole), an aging matinee idol and Stone’s personal hero, came to guest star on “The Comedy Cavalcade,” a sketch comedy show hosted by King Kaiser. Unfortunately, Swann’s womanizing ways and raving alcoholism pose a very real threat to the stability of the show, so freshman writer Stone is assigned to keep an eye on the screen legend. By the time “Comedy Cavalcade” goes live, property has been damaged, brain cells destroyed, and egos bruised — but both men have walked away very much the wiser.

A brief pause for some context: The whole plot of My Favorite Year, directed by Richard Benjamin and written by Dennis Palumbo, is very loosely based upon Errol Flynn’s appearance on Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows,” an event which was reportedly far less colorful than the events depicted in the film. Benjy Stone is based on Mel Brooks, a producer of the film, who was a young writer on “Your Show of Shows” when Flynn made his guest appearance.

With Brooks’ company producing a fictionalized account from his own life, one would expect an outrageous, zany comedy. And while the film does have moments of side-splitting humor (usually thanks to Swann’s drunken irreverence), the core of the film is made up of pleasant chuckles and sincerity as a washed-up drunkard at the top and a mensch at the bottom meet somewhere in the middle.

It’s certainly no understatement to say that Peter O’Toole owns this film in what should have been an Oscar-winning role (though, unsurprisingly, he lost to Ben Kingsley’s performance in Gandhi). O’Toole’s portrayal is a virtuoso balancing act on multiple fronts: Swann is sage and lunatic, drunk and sober, loving and lascivious, crude and classy, glorious and pathetic. While he is skillful and ultimately successful in his attempt to guide the clueless Stone in his romance with fellow network peon K.C. (Jessica Harper), Swann wearily admits that not only does he not have time for a proper relationship, but he cannot fulfill the expectations scores of women have of him. He is a man who has saved the world onscreen, but when it comes to performing for an audience, he looks for refuge in a bottle.

Mark Linn-Baker makes Benjy Stone a hapless, star-struck but determined schlub from Brooklyn whose ambitions are so lofty that he cannot appreciate what he has on the ground until Swann shows it to him. The affection he feels for Swann in the film grows in direct proportion to the heartbreak he experiences as he learns that the legend is just a shell — a onetime idol now a broken old drunk. Sure, Stone may be embarrassed by his eccentric family, but compared to Swann, who has lost everyone who has ever mattered to him and whose closest human relationship is with a limo driver, how bad is Stone’s situation? As disillusioned as he may be, Stone never lets go of the love he feels for the icon, and it may be the only thing that keeps Swann going.

This sounds like serious stuff, and it is. But the charm of the two leads combined with a tight, witty script keep the film solidly in the realm of comedy. On top of the central mentor/youth storyline, there is a funny subplot about the goings-on of “Comedy Cavalcade,” including a local mob boss disgruntled over his unflattering portrayal in the show. Joe Bologna makes King Kaiser an egotistical television personality who, though he is the star of the show, is really a moron, but fortunately avoids making him a caricature. Adolph Green (of Comden and Green, the team responsible for so many musicals, including Singin’ in the Rain) makes an amusing turn as a harried producer trying to cater to the whims of a pigheaded star while placating the network.

Comedies today are so often gross-out shock fests trying to speed to the next outrageous joke. My Favorite Year belongs to that rare breed of comedy where character is incorporated into the shtick, and humanity is folded into the humor. It is not a movie that will leave you exasperated from laughter, but rather pleasantly satisfied and entertained. 1954 was Benjy Stone’s favorite year, and if you give it a chance, it could be yours too.