Mike Post Movies

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

Actress-turned-director Lori Petty makes her feature directorial debut with this period drama set in 1976 that explores a typical day in the life of a decidedly atypical teen named Agnes. Some folks have the luxury of living each day to the fullest, but for Agnes every day is a grueling struggle for survival; her mother is strung out on drugs, her home has been overrun by degenerates, and her only father figure is a pimp. For Agnes and her two younger sisters, this particular day will be marked by both tragedy and triumph, but which will resonate most in the days and weeks to follow? Selma Blair, Bokeem Woodbine, and David Alan Grier star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

James Garner first assumed the bethumped mantle of Private Investigator Jim Rockford on March 27, 1974. The original Rockford Files TV movie, like the long running series that followed, starred Garner as an ex-con who only takes cases that the people have been unable to solve. Future Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner is the person retaining Rockford's service in this first adventure. She wishes Jim to investigate the death of her father, a skid-row derelict whose demise the police have written off as natural causes. Robert Donley plays Jim Rockford's father in the inaugural Rockford Files, a role that was filled by Noah Beery Jr. in the series proper. ~ 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

James Garner won an Emmy for his continuing performance as disheveled, cynically humorous ex-convict turned private detective Jim Rockford during season three of The Rockford Files. This honor may very well have been due to Garner's work in the season's best and most pungent episode, "So Help Me God," in which Rockford finds himself enmeshed in a maze of governmental bureaucracy when he is forced to testify before a grand jury -- a nightmarish situation which, as noted in the episode's closing titles, could happen to anyone in the audience! Also in the cast this season are familiar supporting players Noah Beery Jr., as Jim's dad Rocky; Gretchen Corbett as Jim's attorney girlfriend Beth Davenport; Stuart Margolin as Rockford's humorously untrustworthy former cellmate Angel Martin; and Joe Santos as Rockford's police department pal (and severest critic), Detective Dennis Becker. New to the cast is James Luisi as Dennis' superior Lt. Doug Chapman, who, like his predecessor Alex Diehl, seems to have a permanent grudge against the insouciant Mr. Rockford. As for the season's guest stars, Sharon Gless -- long before Queer as Folk -- makes a return appearance in the opening episode "The Fourth Man"; Burt Young of Rocky fame is seen in "The Family Hour"; Veronica Hamel (Hill Street Blues) and Ned Beatty are in "Return to the 38th Parallel"; Oscar-winner Strother Martin plays the title character in the two-part "The Trees, the Bees, and T.T. Flowers"; comic actress Joyce Van Patten is cast against type as a dangerous obstreperous "police groupie" in another two-parter, "To Protect and Serve," and finally, "The Becker Connection" serves to reunite James Garner with his former Maverick co-star Jack Kelly. ~ 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

Originally shot as a television series pilot, the made-for-television Rousters is about Wyatt Earp's great-grandson (Chad Everett) who is a bouncer for Captain Jack Slade's carnival in Sladetown. The carnival is upset when a rascal named Clayton drops by, looking to cause some trouble. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Long ago and far away, Patty Duke occasionally played hippie types. One can get a glimpse of Duke's "far out" period in the 1972 TV movie Two on a Bench. Psychedelic Patty finds herself eyeball to eyeball with uptight square Ted Bessell when each suspects the other of working for a notorious spy. The supporting cast includes Alice Ghostley as Duke's klepto mom, John Astin (Duke's future husband) as a psychiatrist, and Jeannie Berlin (Elaine May's daughter) in a comedy vignette. Filmed in Boston, Two on a Bench is a surprising misfire from the otherwise dependable writing team of Richard Levinson and William Link. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Conrad fills the role of G. Gordon Liddy like the proverbial glove in this macho-driven biopic. Convicted in the Watergate conspiracy, Liddy serves 54 months in prison. At first laughed off by the other cons as merely a white-collar criminal, Liddy proves through various he-man methods that he's the match for any man behind bars. Every highlight of Liddy's autobiography is lovingly detailed, including the blood oath "I will kill for you, Mr.President" and the legendary hand held over the burning flame. Without descending to political partisanship, we note here that Conrad's G. Gordon Liddy is lot more exciting and charismatic than the genuine article. Will: G. Gordon Liddy was first telecast January 10, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide