Meredith Baxter-Birney Movies
Revered by anyone who grew up in the 1980s as the matriarch of the Keaton clan on television's Family Ties, actress Meredith Baxter-Birney has since gone on to become a mainstay of the made-for-television dramas that defined her early career. Though her post-Family Ties roles may not have offered the wide-scale exposure of the fondly remembered sitcom, the variety of parts she has since played have nevertheless exposed dramatic capabilities in her that are generally unexplored in the half-hour television comedy format.A South Pasadena native and graduate of Hollywood High School, the up-and-coming actress got her start with bit roles in such television shows as The Partridge Family before making her feature debut in the 1972 film Stand Up and Be Counted. Though many believe Family Ties to be her first stint in sitcom land, Baxter-Birney actually starred as a rich Catholic married to a Jewish cab driver in the short-lived 1972 series Bridget Loves Bernie. Following a small role in the popular 1972 rodent horror film Ben, Baxter-Birney appeared in a slew of small-screen dramas before once again venturing into sitcom territory with Family in 1976. Baxter-Birney remained with the show for its entire four-year run, alternating between that and the television dramas on which she was building her onscreen reputation. If the old adage "third time's a charm" has any true merit, it certainly applies to Meredith Baxter-Birney and her success on Family Ties. Though she had twice tested the sitcom waters to varying success, it was Family Ties that ultimately found her achieving household-name recognition.
Though some may have been content to simply sit back and enjoy the success that came from Family Ties, the tireless Baxter-Birney again spent all of her spare time appearing in numerous made-for-television movies that addressed a variety of pressing women's issues. By the time Family Ties drew to a close in 1989, Baxter-Birney was ready to dive headlong into a series of television dramas dealing with such issues as alcoholism, breast cancer, suicide, divorce, family dysfunction, drug addition, abuse, and the loss of children, averaging about three films a year. Of course, one can't live on melodrama alone, so Baxter-Birney sought to balance this out every few years by appearing in such efforts as the Hercule Poirot mystery Murder on the Orient Express. In 2003, the veteran actress could be spotted alongside Kip Pardue and Tara Reid in the dramatic thriller Devil's Pond. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1988
Made for television, Winnie is adapted from the fact-based book Winnie: My Life in the Institution by Jamie Paster Bolnick. Meredith Baxter-Birney plays Winnie Sprockett, who at age 6 is adjudged moderately retarded and confined to an Iowa mental institution. After being locked away for 30 years, Winnie campaigns for her release, attempting to write a book of her experiences. At one point she escapes with a fellow patient (David Morse). Through the intervention of a compassionate administrator (Barbara Barrie), Winnie is at last allowed to re-enter the outside world. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
In one of their last professional appearances together, David and Meredith Baxter Birney star in the made-for-TV The Long Journey Home. David plays a Vietnam MIA, declared legally dead; Meredith plays his wife, who after an eight-year waiting period has decided to marry again. Two days before the wedding, David emerges from an underground garage and re-enters Meredith's life. He relates several incredible stories of his experiences, all of which convince Meredith that she's dealing with a dangerous paranoiac. It turns out, however, that one of his "tall tales"-the one concerning an assassin who's been stalking David since his return-is all too terribly true. Essentially a chase-and-pursuit melodrama, The Long Journey Home is a throat-grabber from start to finish. The film originally aired November 29, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
In this made-for-TV movie, Meredith Baxter plays Kate, a homemaker who suffers from the eating disorder bulimia. On the surface, slim, attractive Kate's life seems perfect. Her husband, Jack (Ben Masters), is a successful lawyer, while her daughter, Becky, a Junior Girl Scout, adores her. But between strenuous workouts and gossip sessions with Gail (Shari Belafonte), her best friend and personal trainer, Kate binges on junk food and then purges by vomiting. Any stressful situation can set off these bulimic episodes, and Kate has three separate sources of aggravation to deal with: Jack is about to make partner in his firm; Monica (Leslie Bevis), another lawyer, is making a play for Jack; and Kate's controlling mother (Georgann Johnson) has just arrived for an extended visit. Soon, Kate's vomiting spirals out of control as she binges everywhere from a grocery-store dairy aisle to her own suburban kitchen. One afternoon, weak from lack of food and too much exercise, Kate crashes her car, almost killing herself and Becky. Soon an eating-disorder specialist, Dr. Resnick (Edward Asner), reveals Kate's secret to her husband and mother, and Kate must enter a clinic to face her demons in the company of the other bulimics and anorexics. Her roommate, Patch (Tracy Nelson), a gorgeous young model, teaches Kate the therapeutic ropes, but the road to healing isn't as smooth as either woman would like. Kate's Secret premiered on November 17, 1986. In addition to Family and Family Ties star Baxter and Mary Tyler Moore Show vet Asner, Kate's Secret featured fellow sitcom survivor Mackenzie Phillips, of One Day at a Time fame, as another clinic patient. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Made for television, Broken Badge originally aired as The Rape of Richard Beck. Richard Crenna plays Beck, a hard-bitten cop who has little patience for female rape victims. Then he himself is sexually assaulted by two assailants. Crenna's excellent performance notwithstanding, the teleplay by James G. Hirsch is a bit simplistic, drawn up along the lines of the old bromide "a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged" Meredith Baxter Birney is seen all too briefly as a rape counsellor. The Rape of Richard Beck premiered on May 27, 1985, as an "ABC Theatre" presentation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Steve and Elyse Keaton (Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter-Birney), once 1960s radicals, now find themselves in Reagan-Era American trying to raise a traditional suburban family. Son Alex P. Keaton (Michael J. Fox) is an ambitious Young Republican and his sister Mallory (Justine Bateman) is a shallow victim of the corporate culture, obsessed with music, clothes and boys. Their only normal kid is young Jennifer (Tina Yothers), a bit of a tomboy.
- Starring:
- Michael Gross, Meredith Baxter-Birney, (more)
- 1985
All the main characters from the popular TV sitcom Family Ties were carried over into this made-for-TV feature. Michael J. Fox heads the cast as insufferable/lovable young conservative Alex Keaton, who this time around is attending Oxford on a summer scholarship. The Keaton family--ex-hippie parents Elyse (Meredith Baxter Birney) and Steven (Michael Gross), and sisters Mallory (Justine Bateman) and Jennifer (Tina Yothers)--decide to go along with Alex in order to enjoy a vacation in England. The script contrives to have the Keatons behave wildly out of character by getting involved in a hackneyed espionage plot. The film looks more like one of those Dell Comics "specials" or Ace Paperback TV show tie-ins rather than a logical extension of the original series. Family Ties Vacation was first telecast September 23, 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael J. Fox, Michael Gross, (more)
Steve and Elyse Keaton (Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter-Birney), once 1960s radicals, now find themselves in Reagan-Era American trying to raise a traditional suburban family. Son Alex P. Keaton (Michael J. Fox) is an ambitious Young Republican and his sister Mallory (Justine Bateman) is a shallow victim of the corporate culture, obsessed with music, clothes and boys. Their only normal kid is young Jennifer (Tina Yothers), a bit of a tomboy.
- Starring:
- Michael Gross, Meredith Baxter-Birney, (more)
Steve and Elyse Keaton (Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter-Birney), once 1960s radicals, now find themselves in Reagan-Era American trying to raise a traditional suburban family. Son Alex P. Keaton (Michael J. Fox) is an ambitious Young Republican and his sister Mallory (Justine Bateman) is a shallow victim of the corporate culture, obsessed with music, clothes and boys. Their only normal kid is young Jennifer (Tina Yothers), a bit of a tomboy.
- Starring:
- Michael Gross, Meredith Baxter-Birney, (more)
- 1982
Actor Robert Urich cannot find work in Hollywood and his marriage is falling apart in this fictitious comedy. Can he turn his life around? Richard Levinson and William Link teams up again for made-for-TV Take Your Best Shot. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- 1981
In this drama, an ex-hooker reluctantly accepts an undercover assignment for the cops and returns to her old stomping grounds. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Beulah Land is an edited, movie-length version of the three-part TV miniseries adaptation of Lonnie Coleman's multi-part novels. The film is set in the Old South, with a time span ranging from 1827 to the postwar Reconstruction Era. Lesley Ann Warren stars as Sarah Kendrick, young belle of the Beulah Land plantation, who finds herself in love with a "damn Yankee." Sarah must also contend with a weakling brother (Paul Rudd) and a former slave (Dorian Harewood) who demands freedom as a right rather than a privilege. Beulah Land took forever to get before the cameras due to protests from black historical organizations; when it was finally telecast on October 7-9, 1980, NBC conducted a low-pressure ad campaign, as though the network was still fearful of stepping on toes despite the testimonial of a black Yale history professor, who commended the production for its "special sensitivity." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lesley Ann Warren, Michael Sarrazin, (more)
- 1979
A middle-aged husband must choose between his wife and family, and the younger woman he is having an affair with in the made-for-TV movie. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The third filming of Louisa May Alcott's novel is this made-for-TV effort, which follows the hardships faced by the March family during the Civil War. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Meredith Baxter-Birney, Susan Dey, (more)
- 1977
Us Against the World stars Christine Belford, Meredith Baxter-Birney and Donna Mills as three interns in a busy metropolitan hospital. Chief among their many problems is dealing with the chauvinistic comments of a brilliant surgeon (Theodore Bikel). The interns also contend with the drawn-out death of a young leukemia patient, and with an emotionally disturbed, increasingly violent child. Us Against the World originated as a two-part episode of the 1975 TV anthology series Medical Story; curiously, only Part One was ever telecast on the series itself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Conspiracy film specialist Alan J. Pakula turned journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's best-selling account of their Watergate investigation into one of the hit films of Bicentennial year 1976. While researching a story about a botched 1972 burglary of Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate apartment complex, green Washington Post reporters/rivals Woodward (Robert Redford, who also exec produced) and Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) stumble on a possible connection between the burglars and a White House staffer. With the circumspect approval of executive editor Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards), the pair digs deeper. Aided by a guilt-ridden turncoat bookkeeper (Jane Alexander) and the vital if cryptic guidance of Woodward's mystery source, Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook), Woodward and Bernstein "follow the money" all the way to the top of the Nixon administration. Despite Deep Throat's warnings that their lives are in danger, and the reluctance of older Post editors, Woodward and Bernstein are determined to get out the story of the crime and its presidential cover-up. Once Bradlee is convinced, the final teletype impassively taps out the historically explosive results. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, (more)
- 1976
In this thriller, a politician's wife finds her life endangered when she gets herself entangled in a deadly web of murder and illicit romance. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1975
The Night That Panicked America is centered around Orson Welles' notorious "War of the Worlds" broadcast of October 30, 1938. Welles (Paul Shenar) arrives at CBS studios just in time to assume his directing post for the radio adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic, which has been updated and rewritten in the form of news bulletins. Unfortunately, millions of listeners tune in late and assume that the Earth is actually being invaded by Martians. This TV movie periodically cuts away from the broadcast in progress to concentrate on the panicky reactions of several listeners -- including a terrified mother (Eileen Brennan) who nearly kills her own children rather than allow them to fall into the tentacles of the Men From Mars. Advised of the panic, Welles is convinced that his career is over, but the ensuing publicity makes him nationally famous. As he absorbs the events of the evening, the hoodwinked radio fans crawl back sheepishly to the safety of their homes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
Bo Svenson plays a bonded courier whose girlfriend Meredith Baxter is kidnapped while the two of them are out on a date. The villains demand that Svenson participate in an elaborate scam. He is to fake a diamond robbery, so that the bad guys can collect a huge insurance settlement. But Svenson turns the tables on the crooks and saves Meredith from an untimely end (else she wouldn't have been able to play straight woman to Michael J. Fox on Family Ties). The pilot for an unsold Bo Svenson TV action series, Target Risk was originally telecast January 6, 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
In this pilot film for a never-sold weekly series, Paul Hecht stars as Joe Tyler, a former Army intelligence officer turned private investigator. For a tidy fee of 5,000 dollars, Tyler agrees to impersonate a businessman who has been slated for assassination. Unearthing a vast conspiracy to defraud a land-development firm, the hero may well get blown to bits before he can make his findings public. Clearly, the planned series was to have Paul Hecht pose as a different person each week, with similar explosive results. The Impostor was broadcast by NBC on March 18, 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
