Mike Post Movies

Monie Ellis is the latest in a long line of movie and TV "Gidgets" in Gidget Gets Married. The title tells all: Francie "Gidget" Lawrence (Ellis) forsakes bikinis and surfboards for a wedding gown and corsage. Her husband, of course, is her faithful beau "Moondoggie", aka Jeff Stevens (Michael Burns). But the course of true love steadfastly refuses to run smoothly, as Gidget tries to deal with the snobbish social hierarchy within her husband's family and business associates. As he did in 1970's Gidget Grows Up, Paul Lynde steals the show as the waspish Louis B. Lattimer. Based on characters created by Frederick Kohner (whose own daughter was the model for the original Gidget), the made-for-TV Gidget Gets Married premiered January 4, 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dick Van Dyke put his image and his career on the line with this searing TV movie about a "social drinker" who becomes a full-fledged alcoholic. Van Dyke plays a loving husband and father with a solid job and an excellent reputation, who blows it all with his excessive drinking. His wife (Lynn Carlin) tries to be supportive, but even she throws in the towel as Van Dyke's illness worsens. The film refuses to cop out with a happy ending, leaving Van Dyke as low as he can get short of sleeping in the gutter. Morning After was something of a public "A.A." testimonial for Dick Van Dyke, who had recently come to grips with his own real-life alcoholism. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Introduced as a 90-minute TV movie in March of 1974, The Rockford Files began its weekly, hour-long series run in September of that year. The opening episode, "The Kirkoff Case," finds ex-con turned private eye Jim Rockford (James Garner) trying to prove that his earnest but obnoxious young client (played by James Woods, Garner's later co-star in the made-for-TV feature My Name is Bill W.) did not murder his parents as claimed. In the first season's second episode, Gretchen Corbett is introduced as Jim's lawyer girlfriend Beth Davenport, who hires our hero to clear her client of a murder charge. Throughout the rest of the season, Jim is aided and abetted by his crusty dad Rocky (Noah Beery Jr.), his likeable (if not entirely honest) former cellmate Angel (Stuart Margolin), and, reluctantly, by his police-department contact Detective Dennis Becker (Joe Santos). Meanwhile, Dennis' superior Lt. Alex Diehl (Tom Atkins) can't shake himself of the conviction that Jim's prison record was somehow deserved -- especially when the private eye utilizes unorthodox methods to get results. Although the main focus is on star Garner, season one of The Rockford Files affords generous screen space to a variety of guest stars. A pre-Cagney and Lacey Sharon Gless is seen along with Joseph Cotten in the two-part "This Case is Closed"; a young Jill Clayburgh shows up in "The Big Ripoff"; Joan Van Ark (Dallas) and Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky & Hutch) are seen in "Find Me if You Can"; Shelley Fabares, halfway between The Donna Reed Show and Coach, guests in "Caledonia -- It's Worth a Fortune"; Linda Evans, likewise 'twixt and 'tween The Big Valley and Dynasty, appears in "Claire"; and future Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner can be seen in "Aura Lee, Farewell." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this thriller, an amnesiac woman hires a young detective to investigate the two men who seem to be trying to kill her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The made-for-TV Invasion of Johnson County is based on a dark chapter in the history of Wyoming. As settlers pour in, a cartel of Wyoming cattle barons raise a private army to wipe the "interlopers" off the face of the Earth. Bostonian Bill Bixby teams with good ol' boy Bo Hopkins in warding off the villains. If the story for this TV movie strikes a familiar chord, it is because the same historical incident was used as the basis for Michael Cimino's 1980 megabomb Heaven's Gate. The principal differences: Heaven's Gate lasted three dreary hours, while Invasion of Johnson County zipped along at 100 rousing minutes; and while it didn't set fires in the ratings, at least Johnson County didn't destroy United Artists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nice Night for a Hanging was the feature-length pilot film for the never-sold TV series Charlie Cobb. Clu Gulager stars as Cobb, a private detective operating in the Old West. Our hero comes to California at the behest of a powerful rancher (Ralph Bellamy), and is hired to locate the rancher's long-lost daughter, who was kidnapped in infancy. Cobb runs into resistance from several unsavory characters who have their eyes on his client's fortune. Produced by Columbo creators Richard Levinson and William Link, Charlie Cobb: Nice Night for a Hanging premiered June 19, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dr. Scorpion (Roscoe Lee Browne) is a megalomaniac genius, who plans to rule the world with or without the world's cooperation. His chief nemesis is marine biologist Jonathan Shackleford (Nick Mancuso), an ex-spy better known as "Shack". Shack was also the title of the TV series for which the filmed-in-Hawaii Dr. Scorpion was the pilot. Producer Stephen Cannell lost interest in the project almost from the beginning, thanks to the network-imposed casting of the Nick Mancuso in the leading role (Mancuso agreed that he was wrong for the part, but a buck's a buck). Still, the notion of a Hawaii-based spy appealed to Cannell, so much so that he later revitalized the notion as the moderately successful TV series Stingray. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Garner is back as Jim Rockford, an ex-con turned private eye with a penchant for righting old wrongs (and a predilection for getting beaten up by those who don't want those wrongs righted) in season five of The Rockford Files. Also returning are Noah Beery Jr. as Jim's dad Rocky, Joe Santos as his "friendly enemy," police detective Dennis Becker, and Stuart Margolin as Jim's delightfully duplicitous former cellmate Angel Martin, a role that would earn Margolin an Emmy award this season. And though Gretchen Corbett, who played Jim's attorney girlfriend Beth Davenport, is no longer on the series, her function as "legal liaison" has been filled by Bo Hopkins as disbarred lawyer John Cooper. Also introduced this season is Jim Rockford's bete noir, dazzlingly handsome rival private detective Lance White, whose incredible luck (vital clues seem to literally appear out of nowhere at all the right moments) and irritatingly unerring intuition is a continual source of outrage and embarrassment for Mr. Rockford. Lance White is superbly played by Tom Selleck as sort of a dry run for his more famous starring portrayal of Magnum P.I. in the TV series of the same name. Additionally, Rita Moreno makes a return appearance in her Emmy-winning role as abrasive "working girl" Rita Capkovic in the cleverly-titled episode "Rosendahl and Gilda Stern Are Dead"; and Dennis Dugan is back as boyish, baby-faced private eye Richie Brockelman (a role he also played in his own spin-off series) in the two-part "Never Send a Boy King to Do a Man's Job." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This second made-for-TV movie features the Marvel Comic-book hero who must keep the villains from succeeding in accelerating the ages of government officials. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

Dennis Weaver plays Daniel Stone, a Joe Wambaugh-style LA cop turned novelist. The pressures of his new career cause a rift between Stone and his superior officer Pat Hingle, and also puts additional barriers between Stone and his estranged wife Mariette Hartley. The fact that Stone's partner Roy Thinnes is sweet on Hartley only compounds the complications. The plot, involving the mysterious murders of several top crime bosses, somehow finds time to accommodate a guest appearance by Steve Allen (as "Himself"). When Stone became a TV series of three months' duration in 1980, only Dennis Weaver and Pat Hingle were retained from this pilot film; a new character, Stone's young partner, was added to the fold (the part was played by Dennis Weaver's son Bobby). Stone was the brainchild of Rockford Files mentor Stephen J. Cannell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season six of The Rockford Files marks the return of James Garner as wryly humorous ex-con turned private eye Jim Rockford -- but not for long. Weary of the role, fed up by constant quarrelling with the production staff over story values and working conditions, and racked with pain from a variety of job-related injuries, Garner abruptly quit the popular series just before shooting wrapped. With no star, there was no Rockford Files, and the show was canceled -- leaving one announced episode, "Never Trust a Boxx Boy," uncompleted and abandoned. But before this could happen, the season opens with "Paradise Cove," highlighted by the much-publicized guest appearance of Mariette Hartley, who was then appearing with Garner in a series of popular camera commercials. (The warm rapport between the two actors was so persuasive that many viewers assumed they were married, prompting Hartley to half-seriously go around wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with the message "I am not Mrs. James Garner!".) This is followed by the two-parter "Lions, Tigers, Monkeys, and Dogs," with guest-star turns by Hollywood icons Lauren Bacall and Dana Wynter. Other highlights during the series' final season are the return appearances of Tom Selleck as the insufferably lucky P.I. Lance White in "Nice Guys Finish Dead," James Whitmore Jr. as casually unscrupulous detective Fred Beamer in the same episode, and Rita Moreno in her Emmy-winning role as troublesome prostitute Rita Capkovic in "No Fault Affair." And speaking of Emmies, Rockford Files co-star (and occasional writer and director) Stuart Margolin this season walked home with his second gold statuette for his portrayal of Jim Rockford's delightfully untrustworthy former cellmate Angel Martin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this children's movie, a single executive enjoys her life on the fast track, but when she is talked into becoming a den mother to a rambunctious pack of Cub Scouts, her life is temporarily derailed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide