Larry Linville Movies

Crazy for You, Ken Ludwig's 1992 adaptation of George and Ira Gershwin's 1930 musical comedy Girl Crazy, had already won a Tony award when this PBS TV adaptation was taped at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse. As if it matters, the plot concerns Bobby Child (Jim Walton), the son of a prominent East Coast banker. Though he'd rather be a song-and-dance man, Bobby is forced to enter the family business -- and his first assignment is to foreclose on the Gaiety Theater in Deadrock, AZ. But when he falls in love with Polly Baker (Stacey Logan), daughter of the Gaiety's owner (Larry Linville), Bobby dedicates himself to saving the theater. And how does any self-respecting musical comedy hero accomplish this task? By staging a fabulous show, naturally, with Bobby himself in the lead. Of course, the plot is a mere peg upon which to hang some of the Gershwins' best-loved songs, including "Embracable You," "Bidin' My Time," and the show-stopping "I Got Rhythm," belted out con brio by Stacey Logan. Crazy for You was first telecast on October 20, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The CEO of a brokerage firm currently under Federal investigation suddenly disappears. Jessica (Angela Lansbury) becomes involved in the situation when the last call made by the missing executive is traced to her phone. A dogged Federal prosecutor demands that Jessica face the grand jury investigating the matter--and then charges her with contempt when she speaks to a witness who later turns up dead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This comedy, set in the barrios East L.A. is loosely based upon Mark Twain's parable The Million Pound Bank Note. The new version tells the tale of Juan Lopez a nice, but uneducated hombre trying to earn enough money to support his little boy. Though Juan was born in the States, he lacks proper documentation and is sent back to Mexico. Now he sells oranges at an intersection. His life looks hopeless when a limousine pulls up and he is handed an envelope containing a check for one million dollars. He is told that he has one month. If he uses the money correctly he will get an award. Juan is suspicious and takes it to his immigration worker who encourages him to check it out. A Beverly Hills banker almost has apoplexy upon examining the check and Juan knows he has the real thing. Now the good-hearted Juan must avoid the temptations, and the greedy people that suddenly surround him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Despite some last-minute "dirty tricks" perpetrated by his opponent (Larry Linville), Byron Douglas III (Joe Morton) wins the senatorial election. Whitley (Jasmine Guy), of course, is delighted--but not nearly as delighted as when Byron asks her to marry him. Elsewhere, Freddie (Cree Summer) and Ron (Darryl M. Bell) are pressed into service as emergency obstetricians when Jaleesa (Dawnn Lewis) suddenly goes into labor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A young stud has to raise $3,000 in three weeks if his father is to allow him to leave his company. He and his friend fail miserably at selling tanning cream but for some reason, are very successful at magnetizing bikinied babes. The two are offered big money by a few nerdly losers to teach them how to be cool enough to pick up the chicks. Will it work??? ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

In this madcap comedy, Geena Davis plays Valerie, a manicurist living in the valley with her cold fiancé, Dr. Ted Gallagher (Charles Rocket). At the Curl Up and Dye beauty salon where she works, Valerie enlists the help of her boss, Candy Pink (Julie Brown), for some style advice to try and win back Ted's affections. After undergoing a brand-new hairstyle, Valerie learns that Ted is having an affair and she kicks him out of the house. Soon, while lounging around in her bikini, a spaceship from the planet Jhazzalan crash-lands in her swimming pool. Curious, Valerie befriends the ship's inhabitants -- three horny aliens covered in fur named Mac (Jeff Goldblum), Whiploc (Jim Carrey), and Zeebo (Damon Wayans). Introducing her new friends to Candy, the aliens get a shave and a total makeover transformation into hot, available dates. They all go out dancing at L.A. nightclubs and party. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

It seems there is this cursed ruby, the Danaau, that for decades has been the scourge of the family of Cabot Cove physician Seth Hazlitt (William Windom). Many people who have owned the Daanau Ruby in the past have come to a violent end, at it looks as though the next victim of the curse will be Seth's sister-in-law Alice (Jane Windsor). Instead, Seth's brother (Alice's husband) is the one who ends up strangled to death--and now the ruby has vanished. If ever Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) was needed, it is right now! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In one of the series' best episodes, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) and Sheriff Tupper (Tom Bosley) are taking a bus trip from Cabot Cove to Portland, Maine, when the vehicle makes a stopover at a roadside inn. Before long, one of the other passengers--a bank robber recently released from prison--turns up murdered. As it happens, practically everyone on the bus except Jessica and Tupper had a powerful motivation...and this may well be one of those rare instances in which the Most Likely Suspect turns out to be the guilty party after all! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

California wives band together to form a tough neighborhood watch in this crime drama that is a failed television pilot. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this pilot episode for the Marla Gibbs sitcom Checking In, Florence Johnston (Gibbs) has left the employ of the Jeffersons and has accepted a job as executive housekeeper in a posh downtown hotel. Almost immediately upon her arrival, Florence is faced with two unpleasant tasks: Firing an old friend, and breaking the news to her ex-boss, George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley), that the hotel has turned down his bid for a dry-cleaning contract. Originally telecast as a single 60-minute episode on March 29, 1981 -- thereby bringing season seven of The Jeffersons to a close -- "Florence's New Job" has since been divided into two half-hour installments for syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although M*A*S*H entered its fifth season with the cast from season four intact--including relative newcomers Mike Farrell as B.J. Hunnicut and Harry Morgan as Col. Sherman Potter--the production roster was short one significant name. Producer and co-creator Larry Gelbart had exited the series at the end of the 1974-75, declaring that he had contributed all he could to the project and was now prepared to move on. This left the lion's share of the creative decisions in the hands of series star Alan Alda, aka Hawkeye Pierce, who had already written and/or directed a number of episodes. Another M*A*S*H stalwart was indicating that he, too, was feeling creatively confined by the series. Larry Linville, who since the beginning of the program in 1972 had functioned as the 4077th's resident nemesis in the role of xenophobic, incompetent surgeon Maj. Frank Burns, had been issuing public complaints that his character had not been allowed to grow and mature as had the other M*A*S*H regulars. Also, since the decision had been made to marry off Burns' mistress Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Loretta Swit) to dashing officer Donald Penobscott, Frank was becoming gratuitous and redundant. By the end of season five, Larry Linville followed the lead of such former regulars as Maclean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers) by leaving the series to pursue more artistically satisfying projects. Linville's discomfiture did not, however, extend to the other M*A*S*H cast members. In particular, William Christopher had every reason to welcome the beginning of the fifth season with open arms. Having long been consigned to the "featured players" roster in the closing cast of each episode, Christopher had finally graduated to series-regular status--with commensurate billing at the beginning of the program--in his role as the 4077th's mild-mannered but strong-willed chaplain, Father John Mulcahy. Having been toppled from the "Top Ten" by CBS's reckless decision to schedule the series opposite NBC's Friday-night blockbuster Chico and the Man during season five, M*A*S*H had begun regaining lost ground in December of 1975, when the network shifted the program to Tuesday evenings. It remained a solid Tuesday hit throughout the 1976-77 season, climbing back to fourth place in the ratings. The series also picked up two more Emmy Awards, for Gary Burghoff (aka Cpl. Radar O'Reilly) as best supporting player in a continuing series and for Alan Alda as best director (for the episode "Dear Sigmund"). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With an ever-increasing viewership and three Emmy awards to its credit, M*A*S*H had no trouble easing into a third successful season in the fall of 1974. Not wishing to tinker with the success, the series' producers retained all of the regular characters from previous years--Hawkeye (Alan Alda), Trapper John (Wayne Rogers), Frank Burns (Larry Linville), Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Loretta Swit), Henry Blake (Maclean Stevenson) and Radar O'Reilly (Gary Burghoff)--while steadily beefing up the roles of the series two most popular recurring characters, Father Mulcahy (William Christopher) and Cpl. Klinger (Jamie Farr). And in a piquant bit of guest-star casting, the third season opener "The General Flipped at Dawn", Harry Morgan was cast as a crackpot General named Bartford Hamilton Steele, whose adherence to regulations was matched only by the length and breadth of his certifiable insanity. Although General Steele would not be seen past this episode, Harry Morgan would of course return the following year in a radically different--and far more enduring--characterization. One person who would not be returning for a fourth season was Maclean Stevenson, who in a career move that has become legendary in its short-sightedness, opted to leave M*A*S*H to star in a new series of his own. The departure of Stevenson's character, the 4077th's beloved commanding officer Henry Blake, occurred during the third season's final episode, "Abyssinia, Henry", the conclusion of which was one of the best-kept--and most shocking--secrets in TV sitcom history. Having ended the 1973-74 season as the fourth most popular series on American television, M*A*S*H slipped ever so slightly to fifth place during 1974-75, a decline attributable to CBS' decision to move the program from its winning Saturday-night slot to a less desirable Tuesday-evening berth. Even so, M*A*S*H remained one of the jewels in CBS' crown, if for no other reason than the series copped its fourth Emmy during its fourth season: the winner was series co-creator Larry Gelbart, for his direction of the episode titled "O.R.", the first (but hardly the last) of the season's installments to completely dispense with a laugh track. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the most famous and successful sitcoms of all time, M*A*S*H was based on the 1970 Robert Altman theatrical film of the same name--which, in turn, was inspired by an autobiographical novel by a former Army doctor, writing pseudonymously as Richard Hooker. Although set during the Korean War of 1950-1953, the staunch antiwar trappings of M*A*S*H, coupled with its relentlessly irreverent treatment of the military "big brass", were very much in tune with the sentiments of the Vietnam War era, during which both the film and the TV series were spawned. The action took place within the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (hence the anagrammatic title), a unit stationed behind the lines in South Korea. Most of the characters on the CBS television series had been introduced in the novel and film, but only one of the film's actors was carried over to the TV version. The main players were two surgeons, Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce (Alan Alda) and Captain "Trapper" John McIntyre (Wayne Rogers), who though dedicated to their work were determined to has as much fun as possible during their off-hours, to break as many rules and regulations as traffic would allow, and to dally with as many pretty nurses as time permitted. The 4077th's commanding officer during the series' first three seasons was easygoing Lt. Col. Henry Blake (Maclean Stevenson, who though he regarded the operating room as his main priority, would sooner go fishing or goof off than anything else. The laid-back demeanor of Hawkeye, Trapper and Blake was not shared by uptight, arrogant, anal-retentive, xenophobic and generally inept surgeon Major Frank Burns (Larry Linville), whose strict adherence to Rules and Regulations usually ended up backfiring on him, or resulted in practical jokes at his expense. Also putting a damper on the fun-and-games was "regular Army" head nurse Major Margaret Houlihan (Loretta Swit), who would have liked nothing better than to see Hawkeye and Trapper. court-martialed. But though Margaret was more competent at her job than Frank Burns, she too became an object of ridicule, principally because she and the very married Burns were carrying on a torrid clandestine romance--which was why she was saddled with the demeaning nickname "Hot Lips." Rounding out the series' first-season regulars was the 4077th's timid, bespectacled, uncannily clairvoyant and endlessly resourceful company clerk, Cpl. Walter "Radar" O'Reilly--played by the same actor who essayed the role in the movie version of M*A*S*H, Gary Burghoff. In additon to the above-mentioned regulars, there were any number of recurring characters who wove in and out of the proceedings during season one, notably the 4077th's mild-mannered chaplain Father John Mulcahy, played in the pilot episode by George Morgan and thereafter by William Christopher); African American surgeon Spearchucker Jones (Timothy Brown); the well-named orderly Ugly John (John Orchard); sexy nurses Maggie Dish (Karen Phillip) and Leslie Scorch (Linda Meikeljohn), Ginger Ballis (Odessa Cleveland) and Maggie Cutler (Marcia Strassman); and the officer's Korean houseboy Ho-John (Patrick Adiarte). Another peripheral character, intended as one-shot "gag" appearance, was Corporal Maxwell Klinger (Jamie Farr), a doctor's aide who was so determined to get discharged from the Army on a "Section 8" that he always dressed in women's clothing. After his first fleeting appearance on M*A*S*H's seventh episode, Klinger proved so popular that he became a recurring character--and, like Father Mulcahy, ultimately a full-fledged regular. The first-season episodes of M*A*S*H are easily distinguishable from later installments in the series in several respects: there was more background music and a louder laughtrack (except during the operating-room scenes, in which canned laughter was never, ever heard); the practical jokes were crueler; the higher-ranking officers were almost invariably buffoons; and Hawkeye and Trapper were more hedonistic in their behavior towards the opposite sex. Opening to lukewarm reviews and mediocre ratings, M*A*S*H slowly but surely built up a following thanks to that old reliable known as "word of mouth". This came as something of a surprise to its parent network CBS, which had been none too enthusiastic about the project in the first place, and had accordingly scheduled the program as a "throwaway" opposite NBC's Sunday-night blockbuster The Wonderful World of Disney. But CBS eventually got the message, and moved M*A*S*H to a more desirable Saturday-night slot for its second season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide