Topper (1979) TV Movie

This updating of the screwball classic about two brand new angels, a carefree rich couple on earth who have a devil of a time getting into heaven stars Kate Jackson and her then-husband Andrew Stevens (who also were the film's executive producers) in the roles played in the 1937 original by Constance Bennett and Cary Grant. It also served as a pilot to a prospective new "Topper" series (the earlier one with Anne Jeffreys and husband Robert Sterling as the invisible twosome ran from 1953 to 1956).

Topper (1979) TV Movie

Cast: Andrew Stevens, Charles Siebert, Estelle Omens, Fred Karlin, Jack Warden, James Karen, Kate Jackson, Lois Hamilton, Rue McClanahan

Stranger Within, The (1990) TV Movie

Rick Schroder has, before our eyes, grown into a skillful, intriguing actor. This former child star used his doughy baby face to portray a naive cowpoke in "Lonesome Dove", and, earlier this year, he was convincing as the brave oldest brother in a family of orphans in "Too Young the Hero". Now, in "The Stranger Within", Schroder uses his wide-eyed innocence to become a scary psycho. He plays a teenager who shows up on the doorstep of Kate Jackson ("Charlie's Angels, Baby Boom"), claiming to be her son. Sixteen years earlier, as we see in a flashback, Jackson's baby boy was snatched in a supermarket while her head was turned. Now she has to figure out whether Schroder is telling the truth. And pretty quickly, she hopes to heaven he isn't, because this kid is given to insanely jealous rages and worse: During one of Schroder's fits, Jackson's boyfriend (Chris Sarandon) meets his end in the grisliest ice-fishing scene you've ever seen.

Eventually, Schroder begins menacing Jackson as well, but by then the movie has become hokey and overwrought. Still, director Tom Holland proved with 1989's "Child's Play" that he knew how to make an unsettling horror film. With "The Stranger Within", he proves he can cut back on the gore and still make you jump. B
Reviewed by Ken Tucker | Nov 23, 1990

The Stranger Within (1990) TV Movie

Cast: Rick Schroder, Kate Jackson, Chris Sarandon, Clark Sandford, Peter Breitmayer

Baby Boom (1988) TV series 1988-1989

Yet another movie-turned-TV series that flopped. This comedy was based on the 1987 Diane Keaton film of the same name.

AVAILABLE EPISODES

Season 1, Episode 6

The Club

14 December 1988

Season 1, Episode 7

Christmas '88

21 December 1988

Season 1, Episode 9

X-Y-L-O-P-H-O-N-E

14 August 1989

Baby Boom (1988) TV series 1988-1989
Cast: Daniel Bardol, Joy Behar, Kate Jackson, Robyn Peterson, Sam Wanamaker, Susie Essman