Lillian Adams Movies

TV talker "Dr. Phil" McGraw makes his acting debut in this episode. Though mad at Dr. Phil because of an outstanding poker debt, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) agrees to take Roz (Peri Gilpin) to the good doctor's lecture. Upon arrival, Frasier is shocked to discover that Dr. Phil's agent is the redoubtable Bebe Glazer (Harriet Sansom Harris). Frasier is also peeved that Bebe had never been able to make him a huge star in all the time she was representing him. So imagine his surprise when Bebe offers to do for Frasier what she's done for Dr. Phil -- in exchange for certain, er, favors. ~ All Movie Guide

Cory (Ben Savage) and Shawn (Rider Strong) revert to their old "bad boy" mode to help Mr. Feeny (William Daniels) woo and win Dean Bolander (Bonnie Bartlett) before she is reclaimed by her ex-husband Curtis (Francis X. McCarthy), an entymologist. As a result, Curtis' lab is trashed and a rare killer bee is released into the world--a potential tragedy that takes an entirely different turn when the insect makes a beeline (ouch!) for Ms. Bolander! Elsewhere, Rachel decides that it is high time she and Jack go on a real date, something Jack has been avoiding for a very surprising reason. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Diane Keaton made her directorial debut with this drama, adapted from the autobiographical novel of sportswriter Franz Lidz. Lidz's story was set in his New York childhood and told of how living with his four eccentric uncles helped him overcome his grief at the death of his beloved mother. The movie is set in southern California and the four uncles from the novel have been whittled down to two. Lidz was christened Steven (Nathan Watt) and he is raised by the luminous Selma (Andie McDowell) and Sid (John Turturro), his father. When Selma is taken ill, Sid keeps Steven and his sister out of her bedroom, fearing they will upset her. Sid is an ingenious but cool-hearted inventor whose head is more developed than his heart. He sends Steven off to live with his two brothers. Danny (Michael Richards) is a high-spirited, paranoid man who suffers from delusions. Arthur (Maury Chaykin) is a big-hearted guy who likes to collect other people's junk. Together they rename the child Franz and teach him to value his own uniqueness. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Tim Matheson stars in this made-for-TV movie based on a true story. Roger Paulson (Matheson) is a divorcee who wants to start dating again. Roger thinks he's found the perfect woman, but he learns she's been keeping a few secrets from him -- some of which have deadly consequences. Dying to Love You also stars Tracy Pollan and Christine Ebersole.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This episode was originally telecast one day before the election of President Bill Clinton--and, accordingly, focuses on the Election Day coverage by the "FYI" staff. As the ballots are tallied and the predictions noted, each staff member recalls the first time that he or she ever cast a vote. Not surprisingly, Murphy (Candice Bergen) serves up the most fascinating flashback, reaching way back to the turbulent seventies. Patrick Warburton of Seinfeld fame appears as Bo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On the eve of his Hawaiian vacation, irresponsible high school teacher Mark Harmon is forced into teaching a summer school class. His students are all malcontents and layabouts with the standard repertoire of teenaged hangups and hostilities (two of the kids, who can't see enough slasher movies to suit them, are hilarious precursors to Beavis and Butt-Head). Harmon would rather spend his time with history teacher Kirstie Alley, but she doesn't think much of his laziness and lack of dedication. Harmon finally begins to take his job seriously when he realizes his students' problems are not all of their own making. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

By the admission of its own producers, the made-for-TV Marian Rose White was "extremely loosely based" on a true story. The real Marian Rose White was a 1930s teenager who suffered from a congenital visual defect. This led to her being misdiagnosed as "feebleminded," and locked away in a Sonoma, California institution. Despite the entreaties of sympathetic staffers, Marian was forced to undergo a legally mandated sterilization--which her widowed, impoverished mother readily agreed to. Thirty years passed before this terrible wrong was addressed and Marian was allowed to re-enter society. For the purposes of this film, those three decades were telescoped into four years. The result is a sincere (if somewhat rushed) "injustice of the week" TV effort. Katherine Ross is top-billed as a compassionate nurse, while Valerie Perrine is cast as Marian's unfeeling mother. Marian Rose White is brilliantly essayed by Nancy Cartwright, who is best known today as the voice of cartoon character Bart Simpson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Devastated when her brand-new husband Albert Brooks) drops dead on their wedding night, Jewish American princess Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn) is receptive to the pitch delivered by a duplicitous recruiter for the Women's Army Corps. Quickly adivsed by topkick Captain Lewis (Eileen Brennan) that she should not look forward to the private room, fancy clothes and sauna bath that she'd been promised, Judy is forced to go through basic training like any other "grunt". This turns out to be a real growth experience for the pampered Private Benjamin, who for the first time in her life has to work for her privileges. A brief misadventure with a lascivious paratroop officer (Robert Webber) nearly sours Judy on army life, but she turns out to be a darned good soldier-and a woman with a highly developed sense of self-esteem, which enables her to weather a further disappointing romantic fling with French phsycian Henri Tremont (Armand Assante). Private Benjamin turned out to be one of Goldie Hawn's most profitable vehicles. The 1981-82 TV sitcom spinoff starred Lorna Patterson in Goldie's role, with Eileen Brennan repeating her film characterization of the long-suffering Captain Lewis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robin Strand stars as a female narcotics cop transferred to an all-male police squad assigned to patrol the California beaches. Strand's assignment ends almost before it begins when she is targeted for assassination by the Mob. First telecast April 30, 1979, Beach Patrol was supposed to have been the first episode of a weekly series. It wasn't. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tony Curtis stars as the feared leader of "Murder Incorporated" in this underworld drama based on the life of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. Lepke began his criminal career as a petty thief in his teens; a stretch in prison taught him the finer points of life on the wrong side of the law. After getting out of jail, Lepke and his pal Gurrah Shapiro (Warren Berlinger) join a gang who hire themselves out as strikebreakers, and the vicious but clever Lepke soon rises through the ranks. Lepke makes powerful friends with mob kingpins "Lucky" Luciano (Vic Tayback) and Albert Anastasia (Gianni Russo), and when high-ranking but deranged gangster "Dutch" Schultz (John Durren) announces he's going to kill District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey (Richard C. Adams), Lepke is chosen to rub "Dutch" out. Lepke handles the assignment well, and he's able to strike up a deal with the various Mafia families -- he'll form a separate organization to handle executions and assassinations, and he'll hire out his services to any mobsters who need it, provided the mob bosses approve the killings. Between "Murder Incorporated" and a drug ring operated with Luciano, Lepke has become a wealthy and important man in the underworld, but ironically he finds soon himself himself investigated by the man whose life he unwittingly saved -- Dewey. Lepke also features comedian and impressionist Vaughn Meader as the voice of Walter Winchell. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Heavy Traffic represents a follow-up to animator Ralph Bakshi's first feature film, Fritz the Cat (1972). The central character is Michael, the ingenuous son of an Italian father and Jewish mother. An aspiring cartoonist, Michael leaves home in a huff and outrages his family by conducting an affair with an African-American woman. Heavy Traffic was originally intended to be a cartoon adaptation of Hubert Selby's notorious novel Last Exit to Brooklyn, but negotiations fell through, and Bakshi was obliged to cook up a similar but not identical "mean streets" plotline. (Last Exit to Brooklyn was made as a live-action film in 1989.) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The body of a young woman is found in a San Francisco park, and the evidence points to a notorious but unidentified criminal abortionist (this episode was of course filmed long before Roe-v-Wade). In order to flush out the criminal, Eve (Barbara Anderson) dons an elaborate disguise--including a brunette wig--and poses as an unwed pregnant girl. Will Ironside (Raymond Burr) and his team be able to trap the villain before Eve becomes the next victim? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide