Erica Hagen Movies

After Grand Prix driver and self-avowed "health nut" Kevin Bannon dies in car crash, Quincy (Jack Klugman) performs an autopsy and discovers that the victim's body was riddled with amphetamines. Having been assured by car mechanic Chick Thomas (Simon Oakland) that Kevin never took a drug in his life, Quincy believes that the man was murdered. Also taking a vested interest in the case is spunky insurance investigator July Fellner (Cassie Yates). This episode was originally scheduled for October 5, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Silent Movie is just that: a totally nonverbal comedy, save for one single line. Director Mel Brooks stars as a once-famous comedy director, who with his faithful assistants Dom DeLuise and Marty Feldman return to Hollywood with plans for a comeback. Brooks wants to return to the good old days by producing a silent movie (he explains this via subtitle). Producer Sid Caesar is agreeable, provided Brooks can line up top stars. In a series of vignettes better seen than described, Brooks persuades Burt Reynolds, Liza Minelli, Paul Newman, James Caan and Anne Bancroft (Brooks' real-life wife) to star in his project. The only holdout is mime Marcel Marceau, who after a few moments of walking against the wind shouts the film's solitary line: "No!" Meanwhile, the crooked executives of the Engulf and Devour conglomerate want to take over Caesar's studio and are worried that Brooks' film might be so huge a hit that Caesar won't be interested in selling. To prevent this, the conglomerate dispatches sexy Bernadette Peters to lure Brooks into drink and ruination. The film's climax is lifted from the 1943 Olsen and Johnson film Crazy House). Featured in brief comic cameos are Harry Ritz as the man with half a suit, Charlie Callas as the blind man, Dom DeLuise's wife, Carol Arthur, as the incredibly pregnant woman, Fritz Feld as the headwaiter (whose trademarked "Pop" is conveyed on a subtitle) and Henny Youngman as the diner with a fly in his soup. Co-writers Ron Clark, Rudy DeLuca and Barry Levinson also show up on screen as three of the Engulf & Devour minions. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A pair of blue-collar buddies use hypnosis to turn a wimpy boxer into a champ in this crime comedy, which reunites actor/director Sidney Poitier and comedian Bill Cosby, stars of the similarly themed Uptown Saturday Night. Clyde Williams (Poitier) and Billy Foster (Cosby) want to help raise funds to sustain the Sons and Daughters of Shaka Lodge, their local community group. Given that Clyde was trained as a hypnotist while in the military, the pair decide to con mobster Biggie Smalls (Calvin Lockhart) by placing a high-stakes bet on a boxing match and then using hocus-pocus to transform skinny underdog Bootney Farnsworth (Jimmie Walker) into a bruiser. When Biggie finds out about their ruse, he and his thugs move in to reclaim their money, setting the stage for further laughs and sleight-of-hand. With a supporting cast that includes Denise Nicholas and Lee Chamberlin as the protagonists' wives and Ossie Davis as an elder at their lodge, Let's Do It Again also reunited Good Times stars Walker and John Amos to the silver screen. Cosby and Poitier would return two years later with A Piece of the Action, though Lockhart, another veteran of Uptown Saturday Night, would sit out the final team-up. Hip-hop fans will note that Lockhart's character provided one of the aliases for slain '90s rap star Christopher Wallace, also known as the Notorious B.I.G. The soundtrack for Let's Do It Again featured Curtis Mayfield songs performed by the the Staple Singers. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

A desperate young mother wants to reclaim the baby she sold into adoption. The woman approaches undercover cop Tony Baretta (Robert Blake), begging for his help. Baretta takes on the case, and in so doing exposes a "black market baby" racket. This episode was first telecast on November 19, 1975, in place of the scheduled Baretta installment "The Big Hand's on Trouble," which was moved to December of the same year. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Emily never felt older nor more out of touch with the world than the day Bob gave her a blender as a birthday present. Determined to change her image, Emily rushes out and buys a "younger" wardrobe. What is one person's trendiness is another person's childishness -- and it hurts when that other person is Bob. Also in the cast are Sharon Gless as Rosalie, Bill Miller as Roy, and Erica Hagen as Miss Carmichael. Written by Charlotte Brown, "The Modernization of Emily" first aired on January 12, 1974. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Richard Fleischer directed this nightmarish science fiction vision of an over-populated world, based on the novel by Harry Harrison. In 2022, New York City is a town bursting at the seams with a 40-million-plus population. Food is in short supply, and most of the population's food source comes from synthetics manufactured in local factories -- the dinner selections being a choice between Soylent Red, Soylent Yellow, or Soylent Green. When William Simonson (Joseph Cotten), an upper-echelon executive in the Soylent Company, is found murdered, police detective Thorn (Charlton Heston) is sent in to investigate the case. Helping him out researching the case is Thorn's old friend Sol Roth (Edward G. Robinson, in his final film role). As they investigate the environs of a succession of mad-from-hunger New Yorkers and the luxuriously rich digs of the lucky few, Thorn uncovers the terrible truth about the real ingredients of Soylent Green. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Trapped stars James Brolin as an casual shopper who is mugged in the men's room of a huge department store. Rendered unconscious, Brolin awakens late at night, long after the store has closed. That's when he discovers himself at the mercy of six vicious guard dogs, trained to tear apart any and all intruders. Instead of simply remaining in the bathroom until morning (that would be too logical), Brolin tries to outsmart his bare-fanged canine foes in order to make his way to the exit. The made-for-TV Trapped stretches its already attenuated premise way beyond its value by adding a gratuitous subplot. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi