Robert Downey Jr. David Fincher's mystery thriller "Zodiac", which was based on a true story. He played the role of "San Francisco Chronicle" journalist Paul Avery, who was reporting the Zodiac Killer case. With all of the critical success Downey had experienced throughout his career, he had not appeared in a "blockbuster" film. That changed in 2008, when Downey starred in two critically and commercially successful films, "Iron Man" and "Tropic Thunder". In the article Ben Stiller wrote for Downey's entry in the 2008 edition of "The Time 100", he offered an observation on Downey's commercially successful summer at the box office: In
Morton Downey Jr. a decade later with the found footage genre. In 1989, Downey released an album of songs based on his show entitled "Morton Downey Jr. Sings". The album's single, "Zip It!" (a catch-phrase from the TV show, used to quiet an irate guest), became a surprise hit on some college radio stations. Over the course of the 1988–89 television season, his TV show suffered a decline in viewership, resulting from many markets downgrading its time slot; even flagship station WWOR moved Downey's program from its original 9:00 PM slot to 11:30 PM in the fall of 1988. Beginning in January 1989,