Leonard J. Goldberg Movies

Entering its third season as America's 22nd most popular series (not bad for an hour-long semi-anthology in a year dominated by sitcoms!), Fantasy Island indulges its fondness for the bizarre and offbeat with an opening episode wherein David Doyle plays an impoverished chap whose "fantasy" is to be murdered by a hit man so that his family can collect his insurance! While the enigmatic Mr. Roarke (Ricardo Montalban) and his diminutive sidekick Tattoo (Herve Villechaize) are for the most part noncommittal "stage managers" while fulfilling the innermost wishes of their clients, from time to time this season the viewer is afforded intensely personal glimpses of the two main characters. For example, after many impassioned requests, Tattoo is granted his own fantasy of being a "chick magnet"; and in a later episode, Tattoo develops a serious crush on one the Island's guests, aspiring country singer Audrey Landers. And in the rare single-plotline episode "The Wedding", it looks as though Mr. Roarke will finally tie the knot with the great love of his life, Helen Marsh (Samantha Eggar)--a story development that ,alas, ends in shattering tragedy. Other guest stars this season are a fascinating mixture indeed, including Adrienne Barbeau (who'd been seen in the second feature-length Fantasy Island pilot episode back in 1978), Dale Robertson, Doris Roberts, Barbi Benton, Donna Mills, Don Adams, David Cassidy, Robert Goulet, Annette Funicello, Joan Collins and Sugar Ray Robinson. The finale, "The Eagleman/The Children of Menta", finds single dad Bob Denver aspiring to bond with his young son by becoming a comic-book superhero, and journalism student Vernee Watson being afforded the opportunity to expose the most shocking news story of the century. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ricardo Montalban and Herve Villechaize are still on hand as the mysterious Mr. Roarke and his sensitive dwarf assistant Tattoo, still ushering guests onto Roarke's lavish tropical resort where for $50,000 per customer dreams can literally come true, as Fantasy Island enters its fifth season. Wendy Schaal, who'd appeared in several fourth-season episodes as Roarke's resourceful goddaughter Julie, is no longer part of the regular cast, though she figures prominently in the first of Season Five's two 90-minute episodes, wherein the mysterical Roarke has his final confrontation with the demonic Mephistopholes (Roddy McDowell). For the record, the second 90-minuter offers three separate plotlines, with Bob Denver as an ambitious freelance photographer who gets his mitts on a fortune-telling camera, Michelle Phillips as the granddaughter of Mata Hari, and George Chakiris as a geologist in search of his long-lost lover. Other guest stars appearing this season include Charo, Sherman Hemsley, Britt Ekland], Peter Graves, Gene Barry, Tom Smothers, Linda Blair, Vicki Lawrence, Helen Reddy, Jill St. John, and Wanda Villechaize, then the wife of guess who. The season finale features erstwhile "Charlie's Angel" Tanya Roberts as an amateur occulist who summons up a bashful ghost, and Bo Hopkins as a bounty hunter anxious to collect the reward on the only fugitive who has ever gotten away from him. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With the departure of Herve Villechaize as Tattoo at the end of Fantasy Island's sixth season, enigmatic entrepreneur Mr. Roarke (Ricardo Montalban) finds himself with a brand new assistant as Season Seven gets under way: Christopher Hewitt as the veddy British, veddy proper Lawrence, who is just as expert in helping Roarke pull off his wish-fulfillment miracles as Tattoo had been. Lawrence is introduced in the season's opening episode, which guest stars which guest-stars Juliet Prowse as a lonely middle-aged widow desirous of a romance with a younger man, and Jamie Rose as a disgruntled bride-to-be who unexpectedly becomes emotionally involved with the traditionally noncommittal Roarke. Several of the guest actors this season are returnees from previous years, including Peter Graves, Mary Ann Mobley, Markie Post, Carol Lynley, Lynda Day George, Barbara Rush and Vic Tayback. Also on hand are such intriguing guest performers as country singer Tanya Tucker, "Mr. Television" Milton Berle, theatrical "renaissance man" Jose Ferrer. . .and Victoria Spelling, the daughter of series producer Aaron Spelling. Fantasy Island's concluding episode, the dual-plotted "Surrogate Mother/Ideal Woman", features Juliet Mills as the title character in the first storyline, and John Saxon as the man looking for the woman referenced in the second half of the title. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

No sooner have millionaire industrialist Jonathan Hart (Robert Wagner) and his journalist wife Jennifer (Stefanie Powers) have been introduced in the feature-length pilot episode of Hart to Hart than the couple is indulging in their favorite hobby, amateur sleuthing; it's all for a good cause of course, inasmuch as the Harts are hoping to solve the murder of an old friend at a so-called health spa. One week after the pilot aired on ABC, the Hart to Hart series proper got under way with its first 22 episodes. Frequently in harm's way during this inaugural season is the glamorous Jennifer Hart, who in the official season opener is targeted for death by a person claiming to be her cousin; a few weeks later, a looney lady (Kathleen Lloyd) who has long fantasized about being Jennifer decides to eliminate the "original"; and further down the line, Jennifer unwittingly signs her own death warrant when she commissions a portrait of herself. Both Jennifer and Jonathan are neck-deep in peril on several occasions, usually when they try to get away for a bit of rest and relaxation: for example, a vacation in Mexico goes sour when the Harts find themselves fugitives from both the local constabulary and a gang of drug dealers; a skiing weekend in Vail goes downhill when Jonathan and Jennifer are marked for death by electrocution; and a luxury cruise culminates with the Harts stuck in the middle of a blood feud between two rival teams of jewel thieves! And on separate occasions, an antique auto and a Buddha statue plunge the protagonists into the world of international espionage. In other adventures, the Harts adopt clever disguises to hunt down a killer of prostitutes; Madelyn Rhue guest stars as the latest girlfriend of the Harts' crusty chauffeur Max (Lionel Stander), and like most of Max's amours she turns out to be a crook; Jonathan is forced into a "duel a mort" with a sadistic fencing champ; the couple's pet dog Freeway dashes off to parts unknown with vital murder evidence clamped between his teeth; and a psychic employee of Hart industries bids fair to send Jonathan and Jennifer to the next world a bit ahead of schedule. Somehow or other, Jonathan and Jennifer survive to appear in the season finale, which concerns a scheming playboy who literally "plays" people like chess pieces. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season Three of Hart to Hart begins with the emphasis on Max (Lionel Stander), the ratchet-voiced chauffeur and general factotum of millionaire industrialist Jonathan Hart (Robert Wagner) and his globetrotting journalist wife Jennifer Hart (Stefanie Powers). An amateur horticulturalist, Max creates a rose which he names after Jennifer--but, as usual, the situation becomes "guns and roses" thanks to a homicidal flower expert. Later in the season, the Harts go on one of those vacations which they always hope will take them far, far away from murder and mayhem; alas, after their car breaks down in Acapulco, the couple is swiftly embroiled in a plot to assassinate a political leader. Still later the couple finds themselves in a variation on Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, which not only boasts a nifty whodunit plotline, but also accommodates guest appearances by Carol Lynley, Bernie Kopell (The Love Boat), Ron Glass (Barney Miller), David Doyle (Charlie's Angels and even Florence Henderson! And speak of guest stars: Magician Harry Blackstone does a villainous turn in an episode aptly titled "Murder Up Their Sleeve"; a pre-"Freddie Krueger" Robert Englund shows up in a story involving a glamous singer and a costume made of stolen jewels; future movie headliner Ed Harris is a key figure in an episode in which Jonathan is blinded by a psycho specializing in using poisonous chemicals to kill his victims; and Ray Milland makes his first appearance as Jennifer's father in an adventure wherein "daddy" turns out to have quite a checkered past. Later episodes involve a defecting Russian ballerina, a demented Souther Belle, dirty work in the vineyards of Jonathan's winery, a misdelivered suit leading to the proverbial body in the hotel room, a packet of valuable baseball cards which almost spells three outs for Jonathan and Jennifer. And in Hart to Hart's third-season finale, Jonathan and Jennifer are sucked up in an elaborate insurance fraud in which phony car accidents result in very real deaths. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The fifth and final season of Hart to Hart is something of a retrospective: "Two Harts are Better Than One finds millionaire industrialist Jonathan Hart (Robert Wagner) and his journalist wife Jennifer (Stefanie Powers) recalling the day they first met--and also recall how they were nearly killed on the occasion! As the season rolls on, the Harts encounter danger at a polo game and a fox hunt; Jonathan unwittingly boards a fighter jet triggered to explode in midair, and later has a slightly less lethal game of doubles with tennis legend Martina Navratilova (in another episode, Tai Babilonia skates in for a cameo role); a Grecian vacation is "highlighted" by a deadly cross-country car race; a stopover in Rhodes involves the Harts with homicidal smugglers; and Ray Milland returns as Jennifer's father Stephen Edwards, this time the target of extermination by a nutcase claiming to be his long-lost illegitimate daughter. The series' 100th episode finds Jennifer hiding in a convent to avoid being offed by gangsters; the following week she barely has time to catch her breath when she is stalked by a demented stage manager during a charity stage show. The Harts' loyal chauffeur-protecter Max (Lionel Stander) is spotlighted in an episode in which he falls for a victimized pensioner, played by Dorothy Lamour. And still another movie great, June Allyson, plays a penpal of Max who is deluded into thinking the old reprobate is a millionaire. A decade after its cancellation in 1984, Hart to Hart would return in the form of eighth feature-length TV specials. The last of the original series' hour-long episodes, "Meanwhile Back at the Ranch", guest stars Patrick MacNee in the story of a 20 million dollar jewel theft--and guess which couple finds themselves smack in the middle of the situation? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Also known as Little Ladies of the Night, the story focuses on a teenager who runs away from home and finds herself in the sordid world of street-life prostitution. She gains help from a police officer, who is still connected to the underground since he formerly worked as a pimp. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

While bound for London from New York, the occupants of a 747 are terrorized by a mad bomber. The jet's pilot (Robert Stack) and several brave passengers must thwart the plot. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Vacationing in a small town (actually Lake Arrowhead, California), a frantic James Franciscus shows up at the local police station, declaring that his wife has disappeared. Franciscus imperiously demands that easygoing police inspector Jack Klugman drop everything and find his missing spouse. Within a few days, a woman claiming to be the wife shows up-but Franciscus insists that he's never met the woman before. What's going on here, and why does Klugman seem so calm and collected. First telecast March 5, 1976, One of My Wives is Missing was based on the Robert Thomas novel Trap for a Single Man. The book had previously been filmed for TV in 1970 as Honeymoon with a Stranger, and would be remade in 1984 as Vanishing Act. One would think that, with three versions of the Thomas story floating about, virtually everyone in the audience would be privy to that clever twist ending. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The pilot film for the ABC series of the same name, Paper Dolls concentrates upon two pretty teenagers: Taryn Blake (Daryl Hannah) and Laurie Caswell (Alexandra Paul). Prodded on by their ambitious mothers (played by Joan Hackett and Jennifer Warren) and further exploited by a ruthless agent (Joan Collins), the two otherwise normal girls are transformed into 2,000-dollar-per-day fashion models. Although the glamour and excitement of the modeling world is thrilling at first, both Taryn and Laurie suffer mightily at the hands of those older than themselves. To make matters worse, both girls are thoroughly ostracized by their fellow teens. First telecast May 24, 1982, Paper Dolls became a weekly series over two years later, by which time the original stars had been replaced by Nicollette Sheridan (as Taryn), Terry Farrell (as Laurie), Brenda Vaccaro (as Taryn's mother), and Morgan Fairchild (as Racine, the agent); only Jennifer Warren was carried over from the original film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A sequel to the 1977 TV movie Fantasy Island, this film was originally titled Fantasy Island II and slated to air on November, 1977, but was instead re-christened and broadcast as the initial episode of the weekly Fantasy Island series. Once again, six people spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to fulfill their dreams on a lavish island resort overseen by the enigmatic Roarke (Ricardo Montalban) and his dwarf assistant, Tattoo (Herve Villechaize). This time, "de plane" arrives on the island with a passenger roster including Charles Fleming (Horst Buchholz), who allegedly wants to restore the memory of his amnesiac wife, Janet (Karen Valentine); love-struck executive, Benson (George Maharis), and his bitchy boss, Margo Dean (Adrienne Barbeau), whom Benson hopes to woo and win Taming of the Shrew style; and long-married couple Brian and Lucy Faber (Joseph Campanella and Pat Crowley), who yearn to be reunited with the child they gave up for adoption years earlier. Return to Fantasy Island premiered January 20, 1978, on ABC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the most memorable made-for-TV horror films of the 1970s, Satan's School for Girls is set an exclusive institution of learning in Salem, MA, where students have been committing suicide at an alarming rate. A young woman named Elizabeth Sayres (Pamela Franklin) enrolls at the all-girl's school under an assumed name, hoping to find out why her sister felt compelled to kill herself. Slowly and deliberately, Elizabeth is drawn into a coven of Satan worshipers -- and soon she realizes that she herself has demonic potential. Of special interest is the presence in the cast of two future Charlie's Angels regulars, Kate Jackson and Cheryl Ladd (here billed under her maiden name, Cheryl Jean Stoppelmoor). Originally broadcast by ABC on September 19, 1973, Satan's School for Girls was remade for television in 2000, with Kate Jackson assaying the role of the school's sinister headmistress (originally played by Jo Van Fleet). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide