Loretta Devine Movies

Season one of A Different World focuses primarily on former Cosby Show regular Lisa Bonet in her familiar role as Denise Huxtable, 19-year-old daughter of Cleveland obstetrician Cliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby). Having enrolled in Hillman College, the alma mater of both her father and grandfather, Denise is now in her sophomore year, living in the Gilbert Hall dorm with her two roommates: Maggie Lawton (Marisa Tomei), a dreamy and naïve white girl; and Jaleesa Vinson (Dawnn Lewis) a worldly 26-year-old who'd decided to enroll in college after getting a divorce. Much of the fun arises from level-headed Denise's tiltings with her neighbor across the hall, the wealthy, spoiled, and arrogant Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy). In the earliest episodes, Gilbert Hall's dorm director is Stevie Rollins (Loretta Devine), who lives with her son J.T. (Amir Williams). Also showing up on occasion are self-styled campus Casanova Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison), who works as a DJ at the campus radio station; and Dwayne's lazy, irresponsible buddy Ron Johnson (Darryl M. Bell). Midway through the season, Loretta Devine leaves to get married, presumably to handsome Professor Walcott (David Alan Grier). Enter Lettie Bostic (Mary Alice), a globetrotting adventuress who has "seen it all" (and probably done it all), who has shown up on campus to give a lecture about the famous persons of her acquaintance. Enchanted by Lettie, Denise and Jaleesa persuade her to remain at Hillman as Loretta's replacement. Also joining the cast at this juncture is athletic coach Walter Oakes (Sinbad), who runs a local community center. Although Different World posted excellent ratings its first season on the air, many critics attributed this to the series' enviable Thursday night time slot, hammocked between The Cosby Show and Cheers. Of the series itself, few except its most loyal fans felt that it had any value past its theme song, performed by Phoebe Snow. Clearly, a major shakeup would have to occur if Different World were to survive past its next season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When African-American professional Andrew Sterling (Samual L. Jackson) moves into a summer home on an up-tight all-white New England resort island, the snoopy white neighbors are sure he must be breaking and entering. They call the cops who get too rambunctious and break into Sterling's limo, tripping its security alarm. When Sterling shows up to stop the alarm and pulls out his keys to open the car, a skittish cop thinks he's pulling a gun and opens fire. Now things are really a mess, because not only have these cops screwed up big-time, they've screwed up big-time in an election year when their Police Chief (Dabney Coleman) just happens to be running for re-election. This mess-up smacks too much as a race-inspired melee, so Chief Tolliver arranges a cover-up to keep his reputation intact. He hires a drifter to pose as a thief so the cops will have a legitimate reason for "protecting" the vacationing Sterling. Things continue to complicate in this airbrush farce, that attempts to lighten with laughter, the delicate and combustible subject of American race relations. ~ All Movie Guide

This made-for-cable version of Arthur Miller's play The American Clock was adapted for television by Frank Galati. Inspired partly by Studs Terkel's oral history Hard Times, and partly by Miller's own recollections, the film is set at the beginning of the Depression. When the stock market crashes, the well-to-do Baumler family (John Rubinstein, Mary McDonnell, Loren Dean) loses everything. The Baumlers are forced to move from their plush penthouse apartment to the less-attractive Brooklyn digs of Mrs. Baumler's sister (Joanna Miles). Twelve-year-old Lee Baumler (Dean), the Arthur Miller counterpart, hits the road to find out how others are coping with the Long National Nightmare. The alternately depressing and uplifting storyline moves along briskly to a surprisingly abrupt climax. Kelly Preston, David Strathairn, Eddie Bracken, Darren McGavin, and Estelle Parson co-star in The American Clock, which premiered over the TNT Cable Network on August 23, 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Subtitled "The Definitive Reason Why Men Are Dogs", Book of Love is a mockumentary following the lives of three L.A. bachelors (Eric K. George, Anthony "Treach" Criss, and (Richard T. Jones) as they recover from a series of unhealthy relationships. The team of average Joes are no match for their manipulative girlfriends (Robin Givens, Mari Morrow, and Salli Richardson) , however, and the over eager men are taken for all they're worth. It's this manipulative, self-serving treatment that drives the young bachelors into behaving like "dogs" themselves. Directed by Jeff Byrd, Book of Love was produced by both BET Studios and 5th Gear Entertainment, and eventually released by Strange Fruit Films. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Eleven-year-old Clover is angry, confused, frightened, and sad. She didn't ask her father to fall in love with that Yankee white woman, and she certainly didn't expect her father to die in a car crash on his wedding day. Now she feels all alone, caught between her family, who strongly disapprove of her father's bride, and the well-meaning but culturally clueless stepmother who tries to win Clover's love and deal with her own grief. In an unexpected turn of events, it is the late father/husband himself who provides the catalyst for healing. An unusually well-wrought made-for-cable drama, Clover explores a family's grief and attempts to come together in a realistic, moving manner. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

After returning to her hometown to contemplate her troubled marriage, a woman finds renewed hope as she and the cousin with whom she was once best friends slowly reconcile their own fractured relationship. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In the first half of Grey's Anatomy's two-part Season Two finale, Christina (Sandra Oh) is placed in charge of the ER just as several tense situations reach the crisis stage. It looks as if heart-transplant candidate Denny (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) won't survive the night unless George (T.R. Knight) acts quickly; Derek races against time to safe the life of gunshot victim Burke; and Webber (James Pickens Jr.) tries to make a dying girl's dream come true--a particularly poignant moment, in that the girl is his own niece. And on the romantic scene, Callie (Sara Ramirez) demands to know how George really feels about her, while Derek and Addison (Kate Walsh) reach yet another crossroads. In keeping with the "ensemble" feel of this busy episode, the offscreen narration, traditionally the responsibility of Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), is handled by virtually everyone in the cast! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The OR staff has its hands full with the victims of a spectacular car crash caused by flagrantly careless driver Bob Seibert. In the course of events, it is revealed that Seibert is a drug abuser, wife beater and all-around louse--and he is also in desperate need of a liver transplant. Ironically, the perfect donor turns out to be the very man whom Seibert killed on the road, placing the surgical interns smack in the middle of a major ethical dilemma. Elsewhere, George (T.R. Knight) is forced to work side by side with the same nurse who gave him syphillis; Webber (James Pickens Jr.) gets what-for from his wife (Loretta Devine) for having brain surgery without her knowledge; Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Cristina (Sandra Oh) do their best to lose themselves in their work and forget their romantic travails; and we finally find out the reason for the rift between Derek (Patrick Dempsey) and Addison (Kate Walsh). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the concluding half of Grey's Anatomy's Season Two finale, Denny (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) appears to have survived his heart transplant, and in the ensuing euphoria he proposes to Izzie (Katherine Heigl)--but we're still some distance removed from a happy ending. Elsewhere, the relationship between Derek (Patrick Dempsey) and Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) is soured a bit by the presence of Finn (Chris O'Donnell), while Callie (Sara Ramirez) and George (T.R. Knight) wonder if they can be in lust rather than love; Cristina (Sandra Oh), placed in charge of the ER, nearly suffers a meltdown over the plight of the seriously wounded Burke (Isaiah Washington); and Webber (James Pickens Jr.) arranges a "prom night" for his terminally ill niece. To keep audience interest piqued until the opening episode of Season Three, two life-changing events take place just before fadeout time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As Season Three of Grey's Anatomy gets under way, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) has only a few fleeting moments to ponder her romantic rendezvous with Derek (Patrick Dempsey) at the end of Season Two before Derek and George (T.R. Knight) are quarantined in the same room by a flu epidemic. In another unresolved issue from the previous season, Izzie (Katherine Heigl) is so devastated by the death of heart patient Denny Duquette that she decides to give up her medical career completely. Elsewhere, the wife (Loretta Devine) of surgery chief Webber (James Pickens Jr.) forces him to choose between the hospital and her; and two of the surgeons look after an infant found in a most unexpected place. This episode is highlighted by an extensive flashback to that wonderful night in 2005 just before the series' regulars began their "tour of duty" at Seattle Grace Hospital. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

New Age masseur Poe Finklestein (Mario Van Peebles) has an appointment at the posh estate of widow Evelyn Heiss (Lesley Ann Warren), who lives with her gay stepson Dominique (Donovan Leitch) and her sister-in-law Alena Heiss (Louise Fletcher). The gardener (Melvin Van Peebles) is a bystander observing the con games, betrayals and schemes unleashed in this dysfunctional household. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

It's triple trouble in this, the third entry in the Parent Trap series. It all begins as teen-age triplets attempt to get their father to dump his fiancee in favor of a lovely interior decorator. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide