Pam Dawber Movies

In this drama, a caring doctor investigates a child's home life and deduces that the boy's bizarre infections are psychosomatic and are directly linked to his mother's mental instability. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Robert Altman's over-frenetic satire on American marriage rituals and hypocrisy concerns the upper-crust marriage between Dino Corelli (Desi Arnaz Jr.) and Muffin Brenner (Amy Stryker). As the film begins, a senile bishop forgets the lines to the wedding ceremony and Nettie Sloan (the groom's grandmother) drops dead in an upstairs bedroom. Nettie's death is not disclosed to the two families who converge at the wedding reception. As the two sets of in-laws slam into each other, the bride and groom disappear in the ensuing whirlwind of chaos as both extended families vie for sexual favors and try to keep hidden never-discussed family secrets. Regina Corelli (Nina Van Pallandt) is revealed to be a drug addict, while Luigi, is endeavoring unsuccessfully to keep his Mafia connections under wraps. Meanwhile, the bride's family, although more down to earth, are revealed to be no better. Tulip Brenner (Carol Burnett) begins to flirt with one of the wedding guests, Mackenzie Goddard (Pat McCormick), while Snooks Brenner (Paul Dooley) acts like a lout and drinks heavily. And flying around the edges of the action like Tinkerbell is Buffy Brenner, the Brenners' youngest daughter, who is pregnant by the groom. As other characters bang into each other -- sexual degenerates, hard-nosed radicals, raw-boned emotional wrecks -- the wedding reception heads for its inevitable nuclear explosion. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Do You Know the Muffin Man? was the first of a brace of TV movies about day-care abuse (see also Unspeakable Acts). Pam Dawber and John Shea play the parents of a preschool child who comes home one day with horrible stories about the staff of his day care center. The owners of the center are two highly respected social pillars, who automatically deny all charges and accuse the parents of fabricating the whole thing. Despite the looming spectres of public ridicule and financial ruin, Dawber and Shea hire lawyers and pursue the case. Once the story switches to the courtroom, the emphasis shifts from the adult litigants to the prosecution's difficulties in coaxing the children to testify without inducing further damage. Do You Know the Muffin Man? is handled with care and discretion, though dramatically it covers more legal and emotional ground than its two-hour length can hold. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Mork and Mindy's Pam Dawber plays the title role in this hour-long adaptation of The Little Mermaid. This is the tale of a beautiful young mermaid with an exquisite singing voice, who falls in love with a human being. To gain "human-hood" herself, she must give up all that she holds dear-including her voice. The spirit of the original Hans Christian Andersen story is strictly adhered to, with some delightfully anachronistic interpolations. Ms. Dawber is ably supported by such reliables as Brian Dennehy, Karen Black, Treat Williams and Helen Mirren. The Little Mermaid was originally telecast on the Showtime cable service as part of the Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Haley Joel Osment stars in this melodramatic war drama about Japan's attempted incursion into California's water just after Pearl Harbor. Japanese sailor Matsuo (Yuji Okumoto) falls overboard off the coast of Passerville. He eventually finds refuge in an old factory where four boys, including Pee Wee (Osment) and Duke (Trevor Morgan), usually play. Meanwhile, Duke's parents (Mark Harmon and Pam Dawber) befriend Japanese-American Abe Tanaka (Noriyuki "Pat" Morita) as he his forced to move to a relocation camp. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Perky social worker Laura Mathews (Pam Dawber) takes up the cause of a group of senior citizens, whose dilapidated apartment building has been targetted for demolition. While on a blind date, Laura falls in love with Richard Wylie (James Naughton)--who, alas, turns out to be the very building inspector who condemned the building. But help is on the way in the unlikely shape of Laura's ex-boyfriend, a hotshot attorney. Populated with the sort of "cute" oldsters that generally infest TV movies of this nature (the old ladies swear and play cards, the old men keep unusual pets and pursue eccentric hobbies, etc.), The Last of the Great Survivors premiered January 3, 1984 on CBS. ~TV Guide/Marrill/Internet/Expert ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

John Ritter and Pam Dawber star as Roy and Helen Knable, a suburban American couple having marital problems. Roy has become a couch potato, and a resentful Helen wants him to ditch the remote. When the demonic Spike (Jeffrey Jones) offers Roy a deal on the ultimate satellite TV system, Roy doesn't realize that he's just signed away his soul. Roy and Helen are sucked into their own television, where they endure a gauntlet of Hellish television shows such as "Northern Overexposure" and "I Love Lucifer." When their kids Darryl (David Tom) and Diane (Heather McComb) realize that their parents are on the twisted television, they set out to rescue them. Among other elements, Stay Tuned contains an original cartoon short by Looney Tunes legend Chuck Jones. The film was the debut of writing team Tom S. Parker and Jim Jennewein, who would stay in the wacky comedy genre with a whopping four major releases in 1994. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

The TV-movie thriller Face of Fear is a real cliffhanger--or rather, skyscraper-hanger. Lee Horsely plays a psychic mountaineer who's been afraid of heights ever since stumbling off Mt. Everest. Pam Dawber costars as Horsely's patient fiancee. Less patient is neo-Nazi leader Kevin Conroy, who for reasons dictated by the plot chases Horsely and Dawber around and up a 40-story building. The climax finds hero and heroine dangling by their fingertips, and Conroy all prepared to do a little prying loose. The only people watching Face of Fear upon its September 30, 1990 airing were those who'd had their fill of David Lynch's Twin Peaks--which was resolving a cliffhanger of its own for its second-season opener on a rival network. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Beau Bridges stars in this fact-based TV movie as Dr. Norman Grayson (Beau Bridges, a man who may destroy his life because he loves not wisely but too well--and too often. Hopelessly smitten by three different women over the course of several years, Grayson ends up marrying all three, then spends the rest of the movie trying to be a good and faithful husband to each wife without the others discovering his tangled web of deceit. Only when one of the women, Robyn (Pam Dawber), starts putting the pieces together, do the other wives Lillian (Kathleen Lloyd) and Katy (Joanna Kerns) even begin to suspect that Grayson's frequent out-of-town trips are not professional nature. Ironically, audience sympathy is with the bigamous Grayson throughout the film--especially at the end, in which the three woman turn upon each other over base financial matters! Originally telecast on CBS, The Man With Three Wives first aired March 28, 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When people begin to be murdered around them, two disparate voyeurs in apartment high-rises begin to suspect they are the objects of interest for yet another peeping tom. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

A former rodeo champion gets an insatiable hunkering to get back in the saddle and ride out on a wild horse round up in this made-for-TV western adventure. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi