Elinor Donahue Movies
Elinor Donahue's mother, a theatrical costumer, moonlighted as a department store saleswoman in order to pay for her daughter's dancing lessons. Appearing in dancing-chorus film roles from the age of five, Donahue was at one point a ballet-school classmate of future Fred Astaire partner Barrie Chase. Striking out on her own at 12, Donahue attained work as a Las Vegas showgirl at 14; the fact that she was underage was discreetly covered by her agent and her co-workers, who took a paternal interest in the impressionable young dancer's career. Breaking her ankle at 16, Donahue decided to forego dancing in favor of acting; she was almost immediately cast in the role of sensitive teenager Betty Anderson in the long-running (1954-60) sitcom Father Knows Best. It was the first of many TV stints for Donahue; over the next three decades she would appear as a regular on such series as The Andy Griffith Show, Many Happy Returns, The Odd Couple, Mulligan's Stew, Please Stand By and Doctor's Private Lives. She became a special favorite of writer/director Savage Steve Holland, who cast Donahue as the ditsy mother of a teen-aged secret agent on the 1987 Fox network series The New Adventures of Beans Baxter, and as the voice of a suburban mom who spends her waking hours trying to learn an indecipherable foreign language on Holland's cartoon series Eek! The Cat. This fey, eccentric quality was carried over into Donahue's performance as the eternally bathrobe-clad wife of Bob Elliot and mother of 30-year-old paperboy Chris Elliot on the 1990 Fox sitcom Get a Life. Donahue's film appearances have been less frequent; when she showed up in a cameo as a department store clerk in Gary Marshall's Pretty Women (1987), there was an audible appreciative sigh of recognition from movie audiences everywhere. Elinor Donahue was the wife of Columbia TV executive Harry Ackerman from 1961 to Ackerman's death in 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1948
The combination of star Gloria Jean and director Arthur Dreifuss resulted in several pleasant if unmemorable late-1940s musicals. In An Old-Fashioned Girl, Jean is cast as Polly Milton, the poor relation of a prosperous 19th-century Boston family. Rather than accept financial support from her stuffy relatives, Polly elects to support herself as a music teacher. Mistreated and misunderstood by practically everyone she meets, our heroine at last finds true love in the arms of businessman Mr. Sydney (John Hubbard). The supporting cast includes former child star James Lydon and future adult star Elinor Donahue, as well as violin prodigy Sandra Berkova. An Old-Fashioned Girl is based on the story of the same name by Louisa May Alcott. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gloria Jean, Jimmy Lydon, (more)
- 1944
In this melodrama, a doctor returns to his home town to set out his shingle. He was born on the poor side of town and so has had a life-long anger towards the town's wealthiest family. When the daughter of this family comes in for treatment, he finds himself faced with a dilemma. A bout with meningitis has left her deaf. He has a new drug that can cure deafness. Will he use it, or will he let his anger prevent him from helping her? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Young, Alan Ladd, (more)
- 1980
Condominium is a two-part, four-hour TV adaptation of the novel by John D. McDonald. The setting is a hastily constructed Florida high-rise, assembled at the least possible cost by its greedy owners. An oncoming hurricane threatens to topple the structure and its residents into the ocean. Various degrees of greed, lust, terror and concern are displayed by stars Steve Forrest, Dan Haggerty, Ralph Bellamy, Barbara Eden, Stuart Whitman, Jack Jones and Pamela Hensley. Produced for the syndicated "Operation Prime Time" series, Condominium was first made available to local stations on November 20, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
Doctors' Private Lives was the 2-hour pilot film for the shortlived TV series of the same name. Ed Nelson and John Gavin star as, respectively, chief surgeon Dr. Michael Wise and cardiovascular unit chief Dr. Jeffrey Latimer. The drama arises from the ongoing clash of egos between these two medical giants. Nelson and Gavin were carried over to the series, as was Randolph Powell as Dr. Rick Calder. The guest cast includes Bettye Ackerman, who had ironically costarred in an earlier hospital series, Ben Casey (Ackerman was the wife of Sam "Dr. Zorba" Jaffee). Doctors' Private Lives premiered March 20, 1978; the series itself ran from April 5 to 28, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2001
- Add Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman: The Heart Within to QueueAdd Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman: The Heart Within to top of Queue
The long-running CBS drama series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman was briefly resurrected in this made-for-TV feature film. Jane Seymour again stars as feisty 19th century doctor Michaela "Mike" Quinn, with Joe Lando as her sweetheart Sully. After a few minor crises in their frontier home town, Mike and Byron head to Boston, there to care for Mike's ailing mother Elizabeth (Georgann Johnson) and to attend the graduation of Mike's Harvard-educated daughter Colleen (Jessica Bowman). Spicing up the plot is a tense sequence in which Colleen performs an emergency tracheotomy and Sully settles a political argument by wielding a hatchet. Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman: The Heart Within was originally broadcast on May 12, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1959
This special episode of Father Knows Best was done one behalf of the United States Treasury Department in 1959, and was never aired on television -- it was, however, widely shown on 16mm prints at schools and churches, and to civic groups, to help sell U.S. Savings Bonds. Jim Anderson (Robert Young) is chosen to run a campaign to sell Savings Bonds through the Payroll Savings Plan and the Bond-a-Month Plan, and discovers that his three children are reluctant to participate. When he realizes the depth of their apathy, he decides to prove to them the importance of Savings Bonds and what they provide, in securing peace and freedom, by making them a bet -- that for 24 hours, they will not live in America, but in "Tyrantland," where a dictator in their home will control every aspect of their lives. He and Margaret (Jane Wyatt) play their roles to the hilt, eliminating all freedom of expression and choice for them for the next night and day. Betty (linor Donahue), Bud (Billy Gray), and Kathy (Lauren Chapin) are given numbers instead of names, and put on a rigid regimen of chores and errands. In the end, the three children recognize what they risk losing and relent. Like other, similar shows done for the Treasury Department (such as "Stamp Day For Superman"), "24 Hours In Tyrantland" was never part of the official list of episodes of its parent series, and only saw official commercial release in 2008, as part of the DVD set Father Knows Best: Season One. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Father Knows Best: Home for Christmas was the second of three TV pilot films for a proposed (and abandoned) revival of the 1950s sitcom classic Father Knows Best. Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray and Laurin Chapin reprise their old TV roles as the Anderson family. Jim and Margaret Anderson (Young and Wyatt), facing the prospect of celebrating Christmas alone, are further depressed by the possibility of having to sell their home. Their children Betty, Bud and Kathy (Donahue, Gray and Chapin), now grown and pursuing their own lives, drop what they're doing to rally around their parents. Father Knows Best: Home for Christmas was slightly more realistic than its 1950s inspiration, but Sentiment wins out over Truth once more. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1994
Monica (Courteney Cox) actually has a moment of understanding with her mother (Christina Pickles), brought about by the death of Monica's grandmother (actually grandma's two deaths; the title of this episode is not a misprint). Elsewhere, Chandler's (Matthew Perry) co-worker's assume that he is gay -- not that there's anything wrong with that (oops, that's another sitcom). And Ross (David Schwimmer) swallows a few too many muscle relaxers. Watch for Rachel's (Jennifer Aniston) new, trend-setting hairstyle in this episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
In 1990, the upstart Fox network took a chance on a chubby, balding thirty-ish kid with a big dream, and began airing Get a Life, Late Night with David Letterman regular Chris Elliott's absurdist sitcom about a chubby, balding thirty-ish kid who lives with his parents and works as a paperboy. Actually, as Chris Peterson (Elliott) would point out, he's "head paperboy." David Mirkin, who had worked on Newhart and The Simpsons, was the executive producer, and former Late Night scribe Adam Resnick was the co-producer. Both would later go on to HBO's groundbreaking The Larry Sanders Show, as would Get a Life's writing supervisor, Bob Odenkirk, also of The Ben Stiller Show and Mr. Show. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, who would later write the script for Being John Malkovich, got his start writing two of the more memorable episodes of Get a Life, "Prisoner of Love" and "1977 2000." The show was also perfectly cast, with Elliott's own father, Bob Elliott, of the beloved "Bob and Ray" comedy team, cast as Chris Peterson's cantankerous father, Fred, and the lovely Elinor Donahue, who starred in the classic sitcoms Father Knows Best and The Andy Griffith Show, playing Gladys, Chris' sweet but bluntly honest mom. The first season cast was rounded out with Sam Robards as Chris' slow-witted and naïve best friend, Larry Potter, and Robin Riker as Larry's caustic wife and Chris' nemesis, Sharon. Riker was the only one of these cast members to move on to the second season. Brian Doyle-Murray was added to the cast in season two, playing Chris' perennially grumpy landlord, Gus Borden. With such an assemblage of comedic talent, and Elliott's own modest following from his hilarious Late Night appearances as "The Guy Under the Seats" and other characters, the show was predicted by some to be a hit and run for years. It even had a hit show for its lead-in (although one with, arguably, a very different target audience demographic), the urban sketch comedy show, In Living Color. But when Get a Life failed to garner an immediate following (in part due to the relative weakness of the first episode, "Terror on the Hell Loop 2000"), the fledgling network began moving it all over the Sunday night schedule. Loyal viewers, and there were some, never knew at what time the show would air from week to week. This doomed the bizarre, innovative, and very funny sitcom to even worse ratings than it would otherwise have had. It was an unusual program. Chris was a loser of epic proportions, but eternally optimistic about his prospects. He seemed to believe he could accomplish anything, whether it was becoming a male model despite his flabbiness and baldness ("The Prettiest Week of My Life"), or traveling through time to 1977 to save a friend's job ("1977 2000"). The humor was hyper-ironic, as many of Late Night's sketches had been. Get a Life was a meta-sitcom. It was rife with non-sequiturs and amusing pop culture references. The story lines ranged from outrageous parodies of ancient sitcom plots (Chris gets trapped in a meat locker with Sharon, his least favorite person) to absurd and ridiculous original stories (Chris becomes a spelling bee champion after being exposed to toxic waste). Chris also had a number of sitcom-style quirks, such as his obsession with the song "Alley Cat," and his unnoticed but seemingly supernatural ability to take a full glass of whatever beverage he wants from the refrigerator without ever opening a container or pouring. He also suffered a violent death at the end of many episodes, but it never seemed to get him down. The show was a flop and ran for only two seasons, even though it was on a network that seemed desperate for content, but it developed a passionate and loyal cult following. It has since been sporadically syndicated, and several episodes have been released on DVD. Cabin Boy, a feature film starring Elliott and featuring many of the same creative personnel, was released in 1994 to similar widespread public apathy but cult interest. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Elliott, Elinor Donahue, (more)
- 1992
During the tragically brief run of Get a Life, the show often transcended mere sitcom parody brilliance and became something unique and wonderful in the world of television -- a truly surreal comic masterpiece. That is certainly the case with the bizarrely named "1977 2000" episode (show episodes were frequently given the title "Something 2000," -- such as "Terror on the Hell Loop 2000," the series premiere, or "Meat Locker 2000" from season two -- in an apparent effort to highlight the show's ahead-of-the-curve, millennial bent). This episode finds Chris (Chris Elliott) sadly pondering the fate of Gus (Brian Doyle-Murray), his beloved abusive landlord. Gus reminisces about his glory days beating up jaywalking suspects, and laments getting sacked for drunkenly urinating on his captain at a party after being passed over for a promotion. Assessing the state of his friend's life, Chris tells Gus the painful truth as only he could see it: "You're ugly and you're doughy and you're bursting with love like some kind of rancid wedding cake that was left out in a terrible rainstorm by a drifter who's smelly named Hank who lives in a storm drain and he wears five pairs of pants, even though it's summertime and he'd be much more comfortable wearing five pairs of shorts." Despite a stern warning from Gus about the dangers of time travel, Chris boldly decides to travel back to 1977 and save his friend's law enforcement career. Things don't go as planned, and Chris inadvertently and repeatedly alters the future in terrible ways. As Gus warns him, having seen enough Twilight Zone episodes to know, "You mess with the past, you get screwed over." This cornucopia of darkly comic goodness was written by Charlie Kaufman, who would later go on to write the equally surreal and hilarious Being John Malkovich. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Elliott, Bob Elliott, (more)
- 1990
Will Chris Peterson (Chris Elliott) find true love with Charleene (Blair Tefkin)? Not if Charleene's sister, Sharon Potter (Robin Riker), can help it. Sharon is married to Larry (Sam Robards), Chris' best friend, and she's always despised Chris. The trouble starts for her when she has Charleene and some friends over for a dinner party. Chris naturally crashes, and proceeds to describe a dream to the assembled guests, in which he was chased by a frozen turkey through a Brazilian supermarket. This long, demented story drives away the other guests, and Chris, over Sharon's strenuous objections, ends up making a date with Charleene. The date is going well until Chris, confused by the fact that they're watching a French film, starts to complain loudly about how everyone in the movie is speaking "baby talk." He's eventually dragged from his seat and beaten by angry ushers. After the big date, Larry reassures Sharon that Charleene has probably lost interest in Chris. But to Sharon's horror, she finds the couple naked in her and Larry's bed. Chris is ecstatic, and Charleene seems fairly content, but Sharon quickly leaves the room, explaining, "I'm going to wash my eyes out with soap." When Chris starts talking about spending holidays with the Potter family, Sharon decides she's had enough, and hatches a plan to end the two lovebirds' happiness. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Elliott, Bob Elliott, (more)
- 1992
An exceptionally surreal episode written by Bob Odenkirk of Mr. Show fame, this one starts with Chris (Chris Elliott) preparing for a party in the home of his landlord, Gus (Brian Doyle-Murray). Gus tries to object, but Chris tells him, "Everybody knows when you get Chris Peterson, you get parties. I'm like a party animal. Like that dog, Spuds Mackenzie, only I've never bitten a small child's head off." When Gus agrees to let the party happen, no one shows up for the party except the hated Sharon (Robin Riker), who arrives with a stink bomb. When Chris grows despondent and tries to stab himself in the chest with one of Gus' socks, Sharon and Gus agree to party with him. They're not interested in bobbing for meatballs in mashed potatoes, or in Chris' Jell-O-filled piñata, but they do foolishly agree to partake of his wheelbarrow full of rancid shellfish. Gus and Sharon quickly lose consciousness. When they wake up, Chris realizes they have amnesia. He decides to turn the situation to his advantage by telling the two that they are all the best of friends, and that he is the leader of their little group. They're skeptical at first, as Chris tries to convince them they enjoy drinking chocolate syrup straight from the can, egging old women, and, especially, dancing for hours on end to Chris' favorite song, "Alley Cat." At one point during their dance marathon, Gus says, "I don't remember. Did I always wanna blow my brains out?" Chris is having the time of his life, but what will happen when Gus and Sharon remember who they are? ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Elliott, Bob Elliott, (more)
- 1990
Chris Peterson (Chris Elliott) tries to teach a group of thugs how to behave, and learns a valuable lesson himself in "Bored Straight." Chris accidentally wanders into the "bad part" of Greenville, where a group of leather-jacketed hoodlums cruelly call him "Beardie," and one punches him in the stomach. Chris later complains about the deterioration of the town to his parents, Fred (Bob Elliott) and Gladys (Elinor Donahue), and vows that he's going to take back the streets. "In my heart, I know your right," Fred responds thoughtfully, "but my perfectly functioning brain says you're a horse's ass." Chris is undeterred and reaches out to the mixed-up kids, who respond by coming to his room for a "rap session." He gets them to open up by telling them about his own traumatic experience, involving his ten-year inability to shower in the nude. Unfortunately, Chris has no idea how to solve any of their problems, and quickly changes the subject. He takes the gang to a local supermarket, where, to the strains of "To Sir, With Love," they experience the life-altering joys of fresh produce. Just when Chris thinks he's had a breakthrough, he finds that the punks have tied up Fred and Gladys, stolen nearly everything of value in their house, and spray-painted the walls with vile epithets like "REAR END." Chris is still willing to give the kids the benefit of the doubt, until he discovers they've also made off with his fudgesicles. He doggedly tracks them down and makes one final effort to win over their hearts and minds. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Elliott, Bob Elliott, (more)
- 1991
After some pestering, Fred (Bob Elliott) reluctantly agrees to take his son, Chris (Chris Elliott), on his annual weekend camping trip. Chris brings along his friend Larry (Sam Robards), and neither one of them knows the first thing about the woods. The two annoy Fred so much that he ditches them, leaving them to fend for themselves. Before long, they grow hungry. Larry has only brought an assortment of sweaters with him. Chris' backpack contains a woman's shoe, shoe polish, his collection of desert island 45s, an extension cord, and three staplers. Luckily, he's also brought along his "lucky can of soup," but the two have no way to open it. In desperation, Chris turns to eating dirt ("kinda tastes like chicken") and sticks. When they find a berry bush, they think it's their salvation, but if they could only see Fred's survival book, they'd know these berries cause "paranoia and homicidal delusions." Meanwhile, Fred, enjoying his solitary fishing trip, finally grows concerned enough about the two idiots to go looking for them. But by this point, the berries have had their effect on Chris and Larry, and when they spot Fred, Chris initially thinks he's his "giant talking pet hamster," President Roosevelt. When they realize it's Chris' dad, they think Fred is hunting them. "That's why he's been fattening me up all these years," Chris reasons, "I'm his ultimate trophy." The two decide they have to strike first. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Elliott, Bob Elliott, (more)
- 1991
Chris Peterson (Chris Elliott) wakes up one morning and tells his beloved landlord, Gus (Brian Doyle-Murray), that he's going to get a job with the local escort service. The main appeal of the job for Chris is going to free plays. After noting that Chris has "a certain, goony, misshapen quality," the agency hires him and sends him out on his first job. When he realizes that the elderly Margaret (Dena Dietrich) is his date, he freaks out. Things get off to a bad start, and he tells his disgruntled client, "I'm sorry if I've been remiss in my duties, but your excessive age really knocked my ass out of whack for a second." After Chris makes his halfhearted apologies, the two are off to the theater to see a production of Equus starring Max Baer Jr. After the play, Chris is ready to go home, but Margaret has other plans, especially after she sees him do his famous "Alley Cat" dance. Despite Chris' offer to refund her money, and even clean her bathroom, Margaret has her way with him. Then she takes him on trips around the world and buys him expensive gifts. But one night, in the middle of Chris' own brand of love talk, an unexpected visitor arrives and threatens to destroy Chris' new life. This episode is notable for an unusually high number (even for this show) of pop culture references, including Horshack, Robert Conrad, Barry White, Chuck Connors, Red Dawn, Amazing Discoveries, and The Benny Hill Show. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Elliott, Bob Elliott, (more)
- 1991
This episode opens with Chris (Chris Elliott) undergoing a makeshift medical exam. Gus (Brian Doyle-Murray) is using a cigarette lighter to look at his throat. Chris mentions a burning sensation (he does have a lighter in his mouth), but Gus reassures him, "I wouldn't worry about it, unless it was in your urinary tract." Chris nevertheless takes an ambulance to his doctor's office (he finds them "much more courteous and quicker than taxi cabs") where Dr. Garrett (Earl Boen, who played Dr. Kramer in three episodes the first season) breaks the bad news. Chris' tonsils will have to come out. "Now my voice will get high," Chris laments, "and I'll sprout breasts and sit around all day in lingerie -- not that that'd be the worst thing in the world." But Dr. Kramer reassures him that there's only a .001 percent chance that there will be complications. Chris poignantly expresses his fear that he's "doomed...isolated from the rest of the world, like a free-floating blob of cellulite cast adrift in a sea of cotton candy soaked in dog saliva. Which is so ironic because dogs are allergic to cotton candy." After the doctor throws Chris out, he goes to break the bad news to his parents, who promise to "pull the plug" if the operation renders Chris unable to enjoy life. Chris then goes to make his peace with his nemesis, Sharon (Robin Riker), who knees him in the groin and scares him off with a pistol when she learns he's just having a tonsillectomy. After spending a day living life to the fullest (including defacing the Mona Lisa and giving birth to a baby), Chris goes under the knife. When he wakes up, he's horrified to discover he is unable to speak. No one else is upset about it. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Elliott, Bob Elliott, (more)
- 1991
Season two of the bizarrely hilarious TV series Get a Life begins with Chris (Chris Elliott) walking into the kitchen of his parents, Fred (Bob Elliott) and Gladys (Elinor Donahue), and performing his "I have a big announcement to make" dance, which entails dancing around in a circle and waving his arm over his head while shouting, "I have a big announcement to make," in a high-pitched voice. Chris lets his parents know that, as he has reached the age of 31, he is "officially, unequivocally, irreversibly, and pooky-pockily [sic] moving out" of the room above their garage. Chris soon finds himself at the home of Gus (Brian Doyle-Murray), a retired cop with a mean temper. At first, Gus mistakes Chris for a "slobbering brain-dead derelict," but Chris quickly dispenses any question of his social status by pointing out that he is wearing Jordache designer pants. Gus doesn't actually have a room for rent, but when he learns that Chris has 150 dollars to spend each month, he convinces Chris to move into his garage. Actually, he almost convinces Chris that his garage is a spare room, designed with a "garage motif." Chris assesses his new situation astutely, telling Gus, "As Bogart said at the end of Casablanca, this looks like the beginning of two guys who kind of tolerate each other." But Chris soon discovers that spending the night alone in a strange place can be a frightening experience. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Elliott, Bob Elliott, (more)
- 1991
Starland Vocal Band's "Afternoon Delight" is the unofficial theme song of this episode, as little Chris Peterson (Chris Elliott) shows cynical show biz celebrity Sandy Connors (Martin Mull) "a world of life, hope, and laughter." The episode has a special resonance for fans because Sandy bears an uncanny resemblance to one David Letterman, Elliott's former employer. Like Letterman, Sandy is an acerbic, cigar-chomping late night talk show host who seems uncomfortable in his own skin. Chris sends 3,000 entries in to "Sandy's Laugh and Song Jackpot," and wins a weekend with the curmudgeonly star. Sandy, arriving at the Peterson home, immediately tries to get out of his obligation, proposing he stay at the Marriott and meet Chris for breakfast the next day. Chris knows the contest rules, and warns Sandy, "If you're going to challenge me, I'll run right over to the mall and get myself a lawyer." He sums up the situation thusly: "It's like a little game of chess, isn't it, Sandy? The only problem is, I own Boardwalk, and you keep landing on it." The miserable Sandy can't even get out of sharing Chris' bed, as Chris tells him, "Yeah, that's a good idea -- sleep on the sofa. But I warn you, it's loaded with chiggers." After a frightening night, Sandy offers Chris money to let him leave, but instead, Chris takes him on a life-affirming journey around town, to the strains of the aforementioned song. He's ecstatic to have won Sandy over, until the celeb decides to give up show biz, with its "grueling...five hours of work every week," and "those horrible synthetic hairpieces," and move in with Chris and his parents. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Elliott, Bob Elliott, (more)
