Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Her Life as a Man (1984) TV Movie

To land a sportswriting job on a national magazine run by a chauvinistic editor, an aspiring female reporter convincingly disguises herself as a man to get the inside story.




Her Life as a Man (1984) TV Movie
Cast: Robyn Douglass, Marc Singer, Laraine Newman, Miriam Flynn, Robert Culp, Joan Collins, Anthony Holland, Patricia Barry, Malcolm Campbell

Thea (1993) (TV series) 1993-1994

Starring Thea Vidale, this series marked the first time an African American female comedienne was the star of a self-named series.






AVAILABLE EPISODES
Season 1, Episode 8
Birthday Girl
3 November 1993

Season 1, Episode 19
Pie Queen and the Loan Duck
19 February 1994

Thea (1993) TV series 1993-1994
Cast: Thea Vidale, Brandy Norwood, Brenden Jefferson, Adam Jeffries, Jason Weaver, Cleavant Derricks, Yvette Wilson

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Girl to Kill For, A (1990)

A young college boy finds himself entangled in a deadly scheme when he meets up with an unbalanced heiress with murder on her mind. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide



A Girl to Kill For (1990)
Cast: Karen Medak, Sasha Jenson, Alex Cord, Karen Austin, Rod McCary, Sandy Berumen, R. Adam Chambers, Tony Fasce, Guy Remsen, Erik Stern, Austin Stoker, Irene Tsu, Chopper

Give Us Tomorrow (1978)

Terror strikes with a knock on the door...

Masked intruders take the family of a bank manager hostage in order to rob his bank.





Give Us Tomorrow (1978)
Cast: Derek Anders, Mark Elwes, Donna Evans, Gene Foad, Alan Guy, James Kerry, Derren Nesbitt, Richard Shaw, Sylvia Syms, Derek Ware, Donovan Winter

Girl in the Watermelon, The (1994)

This charming comedy follows the quest of a young girl to find her unknown father through the vivid streets of New York. The film begins in Brooklyn as 17-year old Sam again asks her mother about her estranged father and again receives no answers. The determined girl then sneaks a look into her mother's 1976 datebook to look for clues. She finds two potential fathers and so writes each of them a letter of introduction. One of the men is a Latino trumpet player. He is also a womanizer. The other is Anglo, owns an art gallery, is very wealthy, and gay. Both of them are delighted at the prospect of having a daughter. Sam must now find a balance between her mom and two dads. The two disparate men teach her much about the diversity of life outside of Brooklyn. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Girl in the Watermelon (1994)
Cast: Michael Allinson, Jon Avner, Steven Mark Friedman, Jose Herrera, Meredith Scott Lynn, Darryl McCane, Michele Pawk, Lázaro Pérez, Jamie Lynn Reif, Steve Stahl

Girl I Want, The (1990)


A brainy girl turns bimbo and a football star turns brainy in order to attract each other's attention.








The Girl I Want (1990)
Cast: Linnea Quigley, Elizabeth Kaitan, Karen Russell, Kitten Natividad, Lyle Waggoner, Burt Ward, Deanna Lund


Girl from Tomorrow, The (1991) TV Movie

Alana, a teen-aged girl from the year 3000, finds herself trapped in 1990 with a criminal from the year 2500.







The Girl from Tomorrow (1991) TV Movie
Cast: Katharine Cullen, Melissa Marshall, James Findlay, Andrew Clarke, Helen O'Connor

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Gig, The (1985) TV Movie

MOVIE REVIEW
The Gig (1985)
FILM: 'THE GIG,' BY FRANK D. GILROY

By JANET MASLIN
Published: November 26, 1985

"THE GIG," by Frank D. Gilroy, is a small-scale, big-hearted comedy about a group of middle-aged men who enjoy one last fling with freedom and artistic fulfillment, in the form of a two-week Catskills engagement for their amateur Dixieland band. The situation is loaded with potential for soddenness - indeed, several group members are teary-eyed 10 minutes into the story - but on the whole, the film is a nice surprise.

Its characters are on the familiar side and its jokes not exactly new, but "The Gig," which opens today at the 57th Street Playhouse, still manages to have a certain sweetness. It may not provide the cross-section of masculine attitudes that Mr. Gilroy apparently intends, but it has an easy, good-natured flavor. Not much happens to any of the principals, but in a way that's a blessing, since the story always seems to be teetering on the brink of cliched revelations. There is the moment, for instance, when the dentist in the group (who is also the lonely bachelor, much too zealously devoted to his mother) begins to say that an awful lot is revealed about human nature by the way people behave in the dentist's chair. Fortunately, whenever Mr. Gilroy approaches this sort of insight, he soon has the good sense to back away.

The band members are first seen having fun at one of their frequent rehearsals, as they apparently have been doing for years. ("How many years have we been playing together, once a week?" Mr. Gilroy has one of the characters ask, as part of the none too graceful exposition.) Then along comes an offer for their first professional job, and the musicians are stunned by this new development. One reveals that he is too ill to go (hence the above-mentioned tears); another must lie to his wife in order to get away; a third leaves home easily because he's married to a woman whose wealthy father set him up in the real-estate business, and he can't stand his home life anyway. Mr. Rogers, as the used-car salesman who's the sharp dresser in the group, has the corniest getaway scene, with the woman beside him in bed sobbing uncontrollably over his two-week absence. "Where you going?" she asks as he finally gets up to leave. "Home - my wife didn't make half this fuss!" is the answer.

There's a muted, moderate quality to "The Gig"; for instance, the resort in the Catskills isn't half as awful as might be anticipated, and the men's fellowship isn't nearly as intense. However, the otherwise all-white band members have a friendly rapport, even when the group is joined by a black bassist (Cleavon Little) who insists on more money, no smoking and very rarefied working conditions, and who has no interest in being buddies with the others. There is a hint of racial tension at first, but it isn't long before they've all gotten to be pals.

At least the cast is harmonious, the setting quiet ("Everyplace you look, you got scenery!" declares Joe Silver as the too-proud owner of the Catskills hotel), and the feeling that of a pleasantly uneventful vacation. There's some talk, some music, some bicycling and some boating. When it's over, everyone goes home.

The Gig (1985) TV Movie
Cast: Wayne Rogers, Cleavon Little, Andrew Duncan, Jerry Matz, Daniel Nalbach, Warren Vaché, Joe Silver, Jay Thomas, Stan Lachow, Celia Bressack, Georgia Harrell, Michael Fischetti

Gift, The (1979) TV Movie

A Christmas 1979 TV-movie offering based on the semi-autobiographical book written in 1973 by Pete Hammill. Gary Frank plays the Hammill counterpart, a Brooklyn-born sailor about to be shipped off to the Korean War. Frank decides to use his 3-day pass to discover if his girl friend really loves him, if he can communicate at last with his troublesome parents, and if he can get his own life together before being sent into battle. Julie Harris plays Frank's mother, while Glenn Ford portrays Frank's pugnacious, one-legged Irish dad. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Gift (1979) TV Movie
Cast: Allison Argo, Kevin Bacon, Tom Clancy, Maggie Cooper, Pat Corley, Glenn Ford, Gary Frank, Julie Harris, Jane Hoffman, M. Emmet Walsh

Gideon Oliver (1989) TV series


Gideon Oliver is an anthropology professor at Columbia University who (aided by his daughter/assistant Zina) uses his knowledge of other cultures to solve crimes.




AVAILABLE EPISODE
Season 1, Episode 1
Sleep Well, Professor Oliver
20 February 1989

Gideon Oliver (1989) TV series
Cast: Louis Gossett Jr., Shari Headley, Mary Fogarty

Gideon (1999)

The world we create is the world we live in...

Gideon Dobbs is young, simple-minded man who checks into a retirement home where he finds the residents have lost their lust for life.



Gideon (1999)
Cast: Christopher Lambert, Charlton Heston, Carroll O'Connor, Shirley Jones, Mike Connors, Barbara Bain, Shelley Winters, Crystal Bernard, Christopher McDonald, Mykelti Williamson, Taylor Nichols, Michael Bowen, Harvey Korman

Getting Married in Buffalo Jump (1990) TV Movie

Sophie Ware is a musician who returns to run the family farm after her father's death.








Getting Married in Buffalo Jump (1990) TV Movie
Cast: Wendy Crewson, Paul Gross, Marion Gilsenan, Victoria Snow, Murray Cruchley, Kyra Harper, Diane Gordon, Ivan Horsky, Florence Patterson, Alexander Brown, Andy Maton, Kirk Grayson

George's Island (1989)

This is a tale about two children who are put in a foster home.










George's Island (1989)
Cast: Ian Bannen, Sheila McCarthy, Maury Chaykin, Nathaniel Moreau, Vickie Ridler, Brian Downey, Irene Hogan, Gary Reineke, Chas Lawther, Avery Saltzman

Genuine Risk (1990)

A destitute young horse jockey and gambler resorts to debt-collecting for a racketeer.









Genuine Risk (1990)
Cast: Terence Stamp, Peter Berg, Michelle Johnson, Michael Harris, Teddy Wilson, Sid Haig, Max Perlich, Hal Shafer, Joe Shea, Jeffrey Arbaugh

Generation (1985) TV Movie

Story of a family in the (then) future of 1999, and how the son's invention of pro-hockey armor affects the rest of the family. Written by the great Gerald DiPego.





Generation (1985) TV Movie
Cast: Richard Beymer, Hannah Cutrona, Marta DuBois, Drake Hogestyn, Priscilla Pointer, Cristina Raines, Bert Remsen, Kim Miyori, Reid Shelton, Lorene Yarnell Jansson, Scott Paulin, Harrison Page, Liz Sheridan, Michael Young

Gauguin the Savage (1980) TV Movie

The story of Paul Gaugin (1848-1903), the Parisian stockbroker who left his job, his wife and his five children for the life of an artist in Tahiti, was superbly fictionalized in Somerset Maugham's "The Moon and Sixpence". "Gaugin the Savage" is the same story with no names changed, told in two wearisome hours. David Carradine is the right age for Gaugin, and certainly does well in conveying the man's callous self-absorption. But we never quite see the inner fire that would compel a man to totally kick over the traces at age 35 and devote the remaining 20 years of his life to art and debauchery. This made-for-TV movie is at its best when showcasing Gaugin's fiercely brilliant paintings. Otherwise, "Gaugin the Savage" is as shallow as its advertising campaign, which showed a goateed David Carradine standing in the middle of Tahitian garden with both fists clenched--more closely resembling a disgruntled magician rather than a brilliant artist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gauguin the Savage (1980) TV Movie
Cast: Alex Hyde-White, Bernard Fox, David Carradine, Ian Richardson, Lynn Redgrave

Garden, The (1990)

A nearly wordless visual narrative intercuts two main stories and a couple of minor ones. Directed by Derek Jarman.







The Garden (1990)
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Johnny Mills, Philip MacDonald, Pete Lee-Wilson, Spencer Leigh, Jody Graber, Roger Cook, Kevin Collins

Games, The (1970)

The spectacle behind the spectacle.

Four marathon runners (one from England, one from the U.S., a Czech and an Australian Aborigine) prepare to run in the Olympic games.



The Games (1970)
Cast: Michael Crawford, Ryan O'Neal, Charles Aznavour, Jeremy Kemp, Elaine Taylor, Stanley Baker, Rafer Johnson, Sam Elliott

Game of Love, The (1987) (TV)

With live performances from Billy and the Beaters and a Tangerine Dream score.








The Game of Love (1987) (TV) AKA Tonight's the Night
Cast: Jack Blessing, Max Gail, Gerrit Graham, Janet Margolin, Ed Marinaro, Tracy Nelson, Ken Olin, Robert Rusler, Brynn Thayer

Galaxies Are Colliding (1992)

It's not science fiction. It's something else.

Black comedy about a normal guy, about to get married, who starts to question all things of a cosmic significance.




Galaxies Are Colliding (1992)
Cast: Dwier Brown, Susan Walters, Karen Medak, Kelsey Grammer, James Kevin Ward, Rudy Hornish, Rick Overton, May Quigley, Steve Ruggles, Rick Livingston, Sharon Barr

Gaby: A True Story (1987)

The life of Gaby Brimer, a girl physically handicapped, who finally gets her goals of study and triumph.








Gaby: A True Story (1987)
Cast: Liv Ullmann, Norma Aleandro, Robert Loggia, Rachel Chagall, Lawrence Monoson, Robert Beltran, Beatriz Sheridan, Tony Goldwyn, Danny De La Paz, Paulina Gómez

Ghost Riders (1987)

An outlaw gang hanged by a posse in the late 1880s comes back from the grave to terrorize the descendants of the posse's leader.






Ghost Riders (1987)
Cast: Bill Shaw, Jim Peters, Ricky Long, Cari Powell, Mike Ammons, Arland Bishop, Beverly Cleveland

Ghost Fever (1987)

Two policeman are sent on a routine assignment to serve an eviction notice.










Ghost Fever (1987)
Cast: Sherman Hemsley, Luis Avalos, Jennifer Rhodes, Deborah Benson, Diana Brookes, Myron Healey, Joe Frazier, Pepper Martin

Ghost Warrior (1986)

Forgotten by time...Awakened by science...An ancient warrior faces the battle of his life.

A deep-frozen 400-year-old samurai is shipped to Los Angeles, where he comes back to life.

Ghost Warrior (1986)
Cast: Hiroshi Fujioka, John Calvin, Janet Julian, Charles Lampkin, Frank Schuller, Bill Morey, Andy Wood, Robert Kino, Joan Foley, Rob Narita, Phil Rubenstein

Ghosts Can't Do It (1989)

Scott and Kate are married and so in love. Scott is over 60 years old, while Kate is at least thirty years younger.








Ghosts Can't Do It (1989)
Cast: Bo Derek, Anthony Quinn, Don Murray, Julie Newmar, Victoria Burgoyne, Jane Damian, Mickey Knox, Donald Trump

Girlfriend from Hell (1989)

The Devil is a woman! She is on the run and being pursued by God's "chaser", (who is an ex-lover coincidently).







Girlfriend from Hell (1989)
Cast: Liane Alexandra Curtis, Dana Ashbrook, Lezlie Deane, James Daughton, Anthony Barrile, Ken Abraham, Sarah Kaite Coughlan

Friday, August 13, 2010

Getting Even (1986)

A soldier-of-fortune steals some Russian nerve gas from Afghanistan, and brings it to the U.S. to be analyzed.








Getting Even (1986)
Cast: Edward Albert, Audrey Landers, Joe Don Baker, Rod Pilloud, Dan Shackleford, Caroline Williams, Woody Watson, Paul Napier

Ghost Writer (1989)

A writer moves into a Malibu beach house, and comes up against the ghost of an actress who supposedly had committed suicide there 30 years previous, but in actuality had been murdered by her boyfriend.


Ghost Writer (1989)
Cast: Audrey Landers, John Matuszak, David Doyle, George 'Buck' Flower, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, Joey Travolta, Jeff Conaway, Judy Landers, Jery Tyminski, Martin Madden, Jim Crawford, Anthony Franciosa, Peter Paul, David Paul, Monique Mannen, Robin Antin

Thursday, August 12, 2010

It Was 20 Years Ago Today (1987)

An examination of the classic rock album, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", and the year of its debut, 1967.







It Was 20 Years Ago Today (1987)
Cast: Peter Coyote, Allen Ginsberg, George Harrison, Abbie Hoffman, Timothy Leary, George Martin, Paul McCartney, Malcolm McDowell, Derek Taylor

Secrets Revealed (1994) (TV)

With a now-familiar format of going behind the scenes to look at certain processes and industries. Very entertaining, apparently based on a series of books by a gentleman named William Poundstone.


Secrets Revealed (1994) (TV)
Host: William Devane

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Glitter (1984) TV Movie

Daily goings-on at an "upscale" tabloid magazine. Morgan Brittany & David Birney starred as competing reporters. It had the typical Spelling trademarks, lots of drama, lots of guest stars and lots of relationship problems.


Glitter (1984) TV Movie
Cast: Adrian Zmed, Arte Johnson, Barbara Sharma, Cyd Charisse, David Birney, Joan Van Ark, Juliet Prowse, Markie Post, Morgan Brittany, Patricia Neal, Teri Copley, Van Johnson

Monday, August 9, 2010

Laugh-In (1977) TV series

Remake of a classic, mostly falls flat. Surprisingly B-A-D.









AVAILABLE EPISODES
Episode 1
Jimmy Stewart
1977

Episode 2
Frank Sinatra 

1977

Episode 3
Bette Davis
1977

Episode 4
Assorted
1977

Episode 5
James Garner
1977

Laugh-In (1977) TV series
Cast: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bea Arthur, Ed Bluestone, Kim Braden, Bette Davis, Claire Faulconbridge, Wayland Flowers, June Gable, Jim Giovanni, Rich Little, Ralph Nader, Ben Powers, Bill Rafferty, Rodney Allen Rippy, Lenny Schultz, Michael Sklar, April Tatro, Robin Williams, Flip Wilson, Tina Turner

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Message from Holly, A (1992) TV Movie

Kate is a high-powered, workaholic executive who discreetly takes time off from her work to live with her artist friend Holly.







A Message from Holly (1992) TV Movie
Cast: Lindsay Wagner, Shelley Long, Cotter Smith, Anne Jeffreys, Macdonald Carey, Allison Mack

Martial Law (1998) (TV series) 1998-2000

A Shanghai cop who is a master of martial arts fights crime with the Los Angeles Police Department.







AVAILABLE EPISODES
Season 1, Episode 3
Dead Ringers
10 October 1998

Martial Law (1998) (TV series) 1998-2000
Cast: Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, Kelly Hu, Arsenio Hall, Louis Mandylor, Gretchen Egolf, Tom Wright, Melissa Weing

Friday, August 6, 2010

Place to Call Home, A (1987) TV Movie

Sam Gavin decides to relocate his family from Houston, Texas to a sheep station in Australia to protect his eleven children from the "destructive influences" of modern American society. Because of business obligations, he fails to join them and, more or less, abandons his wife, Liz, to the hardships of her new surroundings.

A Place to Call Home (1987) TV Movie
Cast: Linda Lavin, Lane Smith, Lori Loughlin, Robert MacNaughton, Paul Cronin, Maggie Fitzgibbon, Skye Bassett, Patricia Patts, Richard Alzaga, Philip Amelio, Bessie Anne Collins, Kenny Harrison Jr., Michael Bird, Tamsin West, Fiona Walshe

Domestic Life (1984) (TV series)

The theme music was composed by Wendy Haas-Mull, with lyrics by Martin Mull. In the show Martin Crane is a commentator for a local Seattle TV station. His spot - "Domestic Life" - is about the humorous side of family life. Cliff Hamilton and Jane Funkabo are his co-workers on the news. His own family includes wife Candy, 15 year old daughter Didi and his 10 year old businessman son Harold.

AVAILABLE EPISODES
Season 1, Episode 2
Small Cranes Court
11 January 1984

Season 1, Episode 7
Rip Rides Again
1 April 1984

Domestic Life (1984) TV series
Cast: Martin Mull, Christian Brackett-Zika, Megan Follows, Robert Ridgely, Mie Hunt, Judith-Marie Bergan

Cupid (1998) TV series 1998-1999

Trevor Hale is attractive, witty, uncommonly intelligent - and he may be Cupid, the Greco-Roman god of erotic love.







AVAILABLE EPISODES
Season 1, Episode 3
Heaven... He's in Heaven
10 October 1998

Cupid (1998) TV series 1998-1999
Cast: Jeremy Piven, Paula Marshall, Jeffrey D. Sams, Paul Adelstein, Daniel Bryant, Jeffrey Vincent Parise, Noelle Bou-Sliman

I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later (1985) TV Movie

Jeannie uses her magic powers to thwart her sister, Jeannie II, who has designs on Major Nelson.








I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later (1985) TV Movie
Cast: Barbara Eden, Bill Daily, Hayden Rorke, Mackenzie Astin, Dori Brenner, André De Shields, John Bennett Perry, Dody Goodman, Wayne Rogers, Michael Fairman, Belita Moreno, Nicole Eggert

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Hat Squad, The (1992) TV series 1992-1993

A cop and his wife adopt three young boys with parents who were either cops and/or killed in the line of duty.








AVAILABLE EPISODES
Season 1, Episode 1
Pilot
16 September 1992

The Hat Squad (1992) TV series 1992-1993
Cast: Don Michael Paul, Nestor Serrano, Phil Hayes

Good Advice (1993) TV series 1993-1994

Marriage counselor Susan DeRuzza winds up sharing office space with divorce attorney Jack Harold and sparks fly.







AVAILABLE EPISODES
Season 1, Episode 6
Turning Thirteen
7 May 1993

Good Advice (1993) TV series 1993-1994
Cast: Shelley Long, Ross Malinger, Treat Williams, George Wyner, Teri Garr

Premiere of "A Star is Born" with Introduction of Paula Raymond (1954)

From Hollywood, California. This is the movie premiere of the Judy Garland rendition of "A Star is Born". With a stage literally on Hollywood Boulevard directly in front of the world famous Pantages Theatre, many of the old-school stars come to the mic to expound on the greatness of Hollywood in general. A special segment showcases 4 young starlets of the day, most notable being Paula Raymond. A stunning beauty and a special friend across time, rest in peace Paula.

Premiere of "A Star is Born" with Introduction of Paula Raymond (1954)
Host: George Fisher