Joanna Kerns Movies
Though blonde actress Joanna Kerns may be best known for her breakthrough role as Maggie Seaver on the popular 1980s television sitcom Growing Pains, the seasoned actress-turned-director has subsequently made quite a name for herself behind the camera by taking the reigns of such popular small-screen series as Ally McBeal, Felicity, Judging Amy, and Boston Public. Born Joanna Cruisse de Varona in San Francisco in 1953, the talented teen pursued many avenues before eventually discovering her love of acting. Though she would compete unsuccessfully for a spot on the 1968 Olympics Gymnastics team (her sister Donna would later take home the gold medal for swimming), she remained steadfast in her athleticism and subsequently dropped out of high school to tour with the Gene Kelly stage musical Clown Around. It wasn't long before she gained affection for the spotlight, and following a move to New York, the aspiring young actress could be spotted in a Broadway production of Ulysses in Nighttown. A move back to the West Coast resulted in numerous film and television roles, and as her television career continued to take off, the up-and-coming actress married producer Richard Kerns. On the heels of minor roles in such films as Ape (1976) and Coma (1978), roles in Magnum, P.I., The A-Team, and Hill Street Blues made Kerns a familiar face to television viewers, and by the time she accepted the role of loving mother Maggie Seaver, Kerns had also turned heads in Hunter and V. Balancing out her seven-year run on Growing Pains with numerous made-for-television feature roles, Kerns ultimately realized that her small-screen fame would inevitably be short-lived, and that realization eventually led her to step behind the camera as a frequent director for the series. Of course, her prediction did come true, and after Growing Pains went off the air in 1992, Kerns juggled acting and directing in television throughout the 1990s in addition to remarrying Mark Appleton following the breakup of her previous marriage. After helming many of the decade's most popular shows, Kerns brought in the new millennium with a role as Winona Ryder's distant mother in Girl, Interrupted before experiencing something of a family reunion with 2000's The Growing Pains Movie. Kerns' frequent recognition of her Spanish roots has also made her something of a role model to Chicano and Latino youth. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
When post-partum depression causes the reawakening of long-dormant and traumatic memories of childhood rape by her father, an angry young mother takes her tormentor to court and in so doing nearly destroys her family. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joanna Kerns, Michael Brandon, (more)
- 1991
A new production staff is at the helm as Growing Pains launches its seventh and final season. The most significant development this year occurs when aspiring actor Mike Seaver (Kirk Cameron) returns to his family's Long Island home accompanied by 15-year-old homeless youngster Luke Brower, played by none other than Leonardo DiCaprio). Mike had met Luke while temporarily teaching at the inner-city Community Health Center, and felt that the boy could benefit by living in a loving and supportive family situation. Luke does his best to fit in with the Seavers, but he has serious honesty and behavior issues to deal with -- not to mention the unexpected return of his irresponsible father, George (Gary Grubbs). Mike himself has managed to land a role on the daytime soap opera "Big City Secrets," somewhat justifying his decision to pursue a show-business career to his doubting parents Jason (Alan Thicke and Maggie (Joanna Kerns) -- even though his TV character, "Strong Waverly," spends most of his time in a coma with no lines to speak. As for the other Seaver youngsters, 7-year-old Chrissy (Ashley Johnson) is now regularly attending school, making an effort to follow the rather dubious social and academic advice dispensed by her 16-year-old brother Ben (Jeremy Miller). Meanwhile, oldest daughter Carol takes leave of Columbia University to study abroad in London. This plot development was necessitated by the ongoing serious health problems of actress Tracey Gold, whose battle with anorexia had forced her to drop out of the series. Both Carol and Gold's absence were touchingly acknowledged in an episode wherein Ben cheers up his absent sister by sending her a family video that he has filmed. Of the season's guest stars, special attention should be paid to the actress playing the haughty Sasha Serotsky in the episode "Menage a Luke." Yes, it is Hilary Swank, long before either one of her two Oscar-winning film performances. The series ends with the two-part "The Last Picture Show," as the Seaver family prepares to move to Washington so that Maggie can accept a job as media-relations director for a prominent senator -- and in what is almost an afterthought, Mike finally proposes to his erstwhile girlfriend Kate Malone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, (more)
- 1991
The quiet family life of an Oregon couple and their infant is shattered when two criminals whacked-out on drugs burst into their home and hold them hostage. The film is based on a true story. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barry Bostwick, Joanna Kerns, (more)
- 1991
The superb, utterly convincing special effects in the two-part TV movie The Big One: The Great Los Angeles Earthquake cannot be faulted. Less convincing are the scenes in which the fictional TV reporters, demoralized and in tears, can't bring themselves to describe the extent of the destruction. Part One, telecast November 11, 1990, finds seismologist Joanna Kerns trying in vain to convince authorities that the entire LA basin will be shake-and-bake within a few days. This portion of the drama ends with "The Big One" wreaking havoc throughout Lala-land. Part Two, broadcast November 12, concerns itself with the aftermath, the rescues, the tragedies, and above all the effect the natural disaster has on Kerns and her friends and family. Also appearing in The Big One is Ed Begley Jr. as the one political official willing to listen to Kerns' warnings, and Richard Masur as one of those "I can't bear it!" TV journalists. The video version titled The Great Los Angeles Earthquake runs 106 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
In this crime drama, a sequel to "Deadly Intentions," the protagonist, Dr. Charles Raynor, who was convicted of attempted murder, has been paroled. He goes home to his second wife. He is determined to get revenge upon those who had him convicted for trying to kill his first wife. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1990
Season six of Growing Pains begins with 21-year-old Mike Seaver (Kirk Cameron) moving to New York to pursue an acting career, an action staunchly opposed by his parents, psychiatrist Jason (Alan Thicke) and TV journalist Maggie (Joanna Kerns). More family fireworks ensue when Mike's sister Carol (Tracey Gold), upset that her parents' problems with her brother have caused them to neglect her needs, defiantly moves out of the house as well -- only to briefly end up sharing an apartment with Mike! In a later three-part episode, Mike takes a temp job at a travel agency, where he arranges for his parents to vacation in Paris, where Maggie comes down with appendicitis. Meanwhile, youngest Seaver son Ben (Jeremy Miller) shows every sign of emulating his older brother Mike in his pursuit of pretty girls. Ben will ultimately be center of attention in a fantasy episode in which he imagines that his family is starring in a "typical" sitcom, Meet the Seavers. And in a less lighthearted development, Maggie's father Ed (Gordon Jump) passes away. Through that peculiar brand of chronological magic that occurs only in TV sitcoms, the Seavers' baby daughter, Chrissy, born a scant two seasons earlier, is now six years old, with Ashley Johnson taking over the role from twin infants (Kirsten and Kelsey Dohring). The "new" Chrissy makes her mark in the episode wherein she creates an imaginary friend who most decidedly does not meet with her mom's approval. Guest stars appearing this season include Jamie Luner as a horror-story heroine in the episode "Happy Halloween," Heather Langenkamp as Mike's vacation sweetheart in "Let's Go Europe," and singer Jerry Vale as himself in "Divorce Story." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, (more)
In this youthful drama, Tom, a 14- year-old who's parents have just divorced, is abruptly uprooted from his wealthy Chicago home and sent to the strange land of LA to live in the far-out beach bungalow of his aunt, an aging hippie still stuck in a by-gone era. He is unhappy with the new arrangement and finds his new bohemian lifestyle strange and the activities of his new peers, stupid. His life begins to change a bit when he befriends a young surfer named Fin. At first he thinks of the fun-loving Fin as a real dolt, but later he admits he was wrong. Like the Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn characters on which they are loosely based, the two new friends soon find themselves having a series of adventures, some of them dangerous; by the summer's end, Tom finds himself wiser, accustomed to California, and a lot more grown up. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Landes, Brian Austin Green, (more)
- 1990
Originally telecast in two parts, Blind Faith was adapted from a fact-based book by investigative author Joe McGinniss. The scene is Toms River, New Jersey; the year is 1984. Insurance salesman Rob Marshall (Robert Urich) informs the authorities that his wife Maria (Joanna Kerns) has been murdered by a band of marauding thieves. Marshall claims that he and his wife were ambushed at a remote picnic area, and for a while everyone believes the man. But further investigation leads to the conclusion that Maria was the victim of a murder conspiracy, fomented by Marshall himself in order collect his wife's insurance. The climactic trial forces Marshall's three teenaged sons to bear witness against their own father. With grim irony, Blind Faith was first broadcast just before Valentine's Day, 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
As season five of Growing Pains gets under way, neither psychiatrist Jason Seaver (Alan Thicke) nor his TV-journalist wife Maggie (Joanna Kerns) are pleased that their son Mike (Kirk Cameron) has become engaged to Julie (Julie McCullough), the young woman whom the Seavers had hired as nanny for their infant daughter, Chrissy. As it turns out, the elder Seavers had nothing to worry about -- after considerable rumination, Mike and Julie decide to break off the engagement. Later on, Mike will begin attending acting classes, where he will meet and fall for fellow student Kate Malone (Chelsea Noble). In other developments this season, a crisis developments when Maggie gets promoted to head of the Channel 19 news team, meaning that Jason won't be able to accept a job at a prestigious Manhattan clinic; Mike manages to land a small part on a popular TV show, but his euphoria is short-lived when his appearance is cut to virtually nothing; and after failing to qualify for a summer semester at Columbia University, Mike's sister Carol (Tracey Gold) takes a job with a publishing company -- which, ironically, may force her to bypass her second opportunity to attend Columbia. In the season finale, Jason seriously contemplates a radical change in his lifestyle when he inherits a mountain cabin in Colorado. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, (more)
- 1989
- R
In this convoluted drama, a CIA agent is finally released after spending the past thirteen years imprisoned in the Soviet Union. The joy of his homecoming is shattered when he discovers his wife married to another and that his daughter has grown up. When he learns that his wife's new husband is busy battling the corrupt family who controls the town, and that this has endangered his former family, he takes action to protect them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Ontkean, Joanna Kerns, (more)
- 1989
Based on a true story, The Preppie Murder begins on August 26, 1986. This was the day that 18-year-old Jennifer Levin (Lara-Flynn Boyle) was strangled to death in Central Park. The prime suspect, Jennifer's 19-year-old boyfriend Robert Chambers (William Baldwin), confesses to the crime. The well-to-do young man insists that the killing was accidental; he claims that it occurred during a "rough sex" session that Jennifer had inaugurated. The ensuing media frenzy forces the old "she asked for it" defense to rear its ugly head. The Preppie Murder's attempts at fairness caused a great deal of critical turmoil when the film first aired on September 24, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
The ordeal of young husband Scott Grimes (Gary Cole) begins when his wife Sue (Mary Page Keller) unexpectedly dies in childbirth. Unprepared to be a single parent, Scott seeks out help from his mother-in-law (Colleen Dewhurst) and from professional caregivers. Still, he is overwhelmed by the responsibility, so much so that he seriously considers putting his infant daughter up for adoption. An unabashed "weepie", the made-for-TV Those She Left Behind also stars Joanna Kerns and George Coe. The film debuted March 6, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cole, Joanna Kerns, (more)
- 1988
The number of children in the Seaver family increases from three to four in season four of Growing Pains, as mom Maggie (Joanna Kerns) takes a brief leave from her TV reporting job to deliver a baby daughter named Chrissy (played by twin infants Kirsten and Kelsey Dohring). While Maggie's hubby Jason (Alan Thicke) and older children Mike (Kirk Cameron) and Carol (Tracey Gold) are delighted with this new arrival, youngest son Ben (Jeremy Miller) is put out that Chrissy had the bad timing to arrive on his own birthday. Elsewhere this season, Mike begins attending junior college, in the process moving out of the Seaver house -- and into the apartment just above the family's garage. He has good reason to stick around -- his parents have hired pretty 19-year-old Julie Costello (Julie McCullough) as Chrissy's nanny. Another character introduced this season is Jason's widowed mother, Irma (Jane Powell), who has become engaged to a guy named Wally (Robert Rockwell) -- a fact that Jason takes some time getting used to, especially since his father has been dead for only a year. Later on, the vivacious Irma has a memorable run-in with Maggie's more conservative parents Ed (Gordon Jump) and Kate (Betty McGuire). Guest stars during season four include Kirk Cameron's real-life sister Candace Cameron, somewhat ironically cast as Ben's party date; Jenny Lewis, as another of Ben's female acquaintance; Matthew Perry as a good-looking high-schooler whom Carol briefly falls for -- and who is ultimately involved in a tragic drunk driving accident; and Brad Pitt, who'd guested as another student a few seasons earlier, this time playing Ben's rock star idol Jonathan Keith in the appropriately titled episode "Feet of Clay." Closing the season is the two-parter "The Looove Boat," wherein the family attends Irma and Wally's marriage on an ocean cruise, an event that ends with a considerable amount of chaos -- and on a more upbeat note, with Mike proposing to Julie Costello. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, (more)
- 1988
Jane Powell makes her first series appearance as Jason's lively widowed mom Irma. Returning from a vacation cruise, Irma surprises one and all by bringing along her new boyfriend Wally (Robert Rockwell), whom she plans to marry. Despite Irma's assurances that this situation is no different than the one encountered by "Ethel Merman and Gene Rayburn" on The Love Boat, Jason (Alan Thicke) is outraged that his mom would even think of remarrying only a year after his father's death. Meanwhile, Mike (Kirk Cameron) has a fascinating experience as a first-time tutor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
Laid-back psychiatrist Jason Seaver (Alan Thicke) is still conducting his business from his Long Island home as Growing Pains launches its second season, but Jason's wife Maggie undergoes a radical change of scenery when she leaves her job at the "Long Island Herald" behind to accept a post as TV reporter for local outlet Channel 19 -- appearing under her maiden name, Maggie Malone. The season opens with what must have once been a carved-in-stone requirement on TV sitcoms: a family vacation to Hawaii (taped on location on the island of Maui), which of course is plagued with all sorts of farcical misfortunes. In another standard-issue TV comedy device, the later two-part episode "The Obscure Objects of Our Desire" uses a spring-housecleaning session as an excuse for an economical "clip show," featuring highlights from seasons one and two. And still another two-parter "How the West Was Won," serves as a springboard for Growing Pains recurring character Coach Lubbock's (Bill Kirchenbauer) new spin-off sitcom Just the Ten of Us, introducing several of that series' future regulars. On the "Look who that is!" guest-star scene this season, Heather Graham shows up as Cindy, one of Mike Seaver's (Kirk Cameron) fellow students; Brad Pitt plays transfer student Jeffrey, for whom Mike's sister Carol (Tracey Gold) briefly ditches her erstwhile boyfriend Bobby (Kevin Gerard Wixted). And Gilligan's Island alumnus Alan Hale Jr. is seen as a mysterious cabdriver in a fantasy episode wherein youngest Seaver kid Ben (Jeremy Miller) imagines that he has been replaced in his own home by another Ben Seaver. Season three concludes with Mike graduating from high school -- and a disgruntled Carol losing a long-standing bet that he'd never make it! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, (more)
- 1987
- R
Martin Short and Annette O'Toole star in this comedy documenting a date from hell. Short is David, a sunglasses salesman, who makes a date with Kathy (Annette O'Toole) in order to celebrate his new promotion. David and Kathy have gone out a few times before, but they both think that this is the date that will put both of them over the top, convinced that they have finally found the right person. With anxiety in their hearts, they both prepare anxiously for the date. But there is trouble on the horizon. Before heading out on the date, David discovers that instead of getting a promotion, he has been fired. Afraid that Kathy will think that he is loser, he doesn't tell her that he lost his job. He has also borrowed the car and the apartment of his friend Bruce (Paul Reiser) for the date, permitting her to think that they all belong to him. But Kathy hasn't been entirely truthful to David either. For example, she has conveniently forgotten to tell him about the existence of her seven-year-old daughter. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Short, Annette O'Toole, (more)
- 1987
A kept woman learns to live independently in this made-for-TV melodrama. Her troubles begin after her successful and much loved "sugar daddy" suddenly dies, leaving her with nothing but her own strong will and very few real job skills to survive. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victoria Principal, Don Murray, (more)
- 1986
Season two of Growing Pains serves up 22 new episodes featuring the Seaver clan of Long Island: stay-at-home psychiatrist Jason Seaver (Alan Thicke), suburban-newspaper reporter Maggie Seaver (Joanna Kerns), and their children Mike (Kirk Cameron), Carol (Tracey Gold), and Ben (Jeremy Miller). In the season opener "Jason and the Cruisers," Maggie reorganizes Jason's college rock band to help him get over his middle-age angst. The next episode, "Fast Times at Dewey High," introduces Bill Kirchenbauer as Coach Lubbock, a recurring character who would ultimately graduate to stardom in his own spin-off sitcom Just the Ten of Us. In the same episode, freshman Carol begins her on-and-off relationship with fellow student Bobby (Kevin Gerard Wixted). Not surprisingly, the season has its share of crises, some amusing, others less so. Sensitive Carol raises over two grand on her own so that she can have cosmetic surgery; Mike continues prowling around for eligible girls, with a success rate of about 50-50; and elementary schooler Ben must deal with such standard exigencies as tough teachers and brutish bullies. Arguably the biggest crisis to arise from the season occurs when a nonplussed Carol discovers that both of her parents had previously been married to other people. This year's guest-star roster includes Hallie Todd as a homeless girl befriended by Ben; Renée Estevez as an assistant teacher who expects certain -- er -- favors from Mike in exchange for giving him a passing grade; Kristy Swanson as one of the guests at a party attended by Mike, who learns to his chagrin that he is expected to snort cocaine to pass the "cool" test; former Gilligan's Island damsel Dawn Wells as a bidder in a carnival auction scene; and Candace Cameron, sister of series star Kirk Cameron, as a young student whose school video report yields surprising results. In the season finale, Maggie is offered a major job at a prestigious magazine by a man whom nervous Jason knows to be a flagrant womanizer -- but is unable to warn his wife because of doctor-patient confidentiality! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, (more)
As season one of Growing Pains gets under way, Long Island housewife Maggie Seaver (Joanna Kerns) lands a job as a reporter for a local newspaper. Since it has always been the Seavers' philosophy that at least one parent should always be home to look after youngsters Mike (Kirk Cameron), Carol (Tracey Gold), and Ben (Jeremy Miller), Maggie's husband Dr. Jason Seaver (Alan Thicke) obligingly moves his psychiatric practice out of his New York offices and into his own home. The family's first crisis takes place smack-dab in the middle of the opening episode, when Mike is arrested for underage driving. In later trials and tribulations, Jason exhibits jealousy when Maggie is required to work after hours with her male colleagues; Mike and Ben get in trouble for betting on horse races; and Carol despairs when her parents are deemed "unacceptable" to chaperone her school dance. Mike's buddy Boner (Andrew Koenig) makes his first appearance this season in the episode "Dirt Bike," while another best friend, Eddie, is introduced in "The Reputation." And in the later episode "Be a Man," Gordon Jump and Betty McGuire are seen for the first time in the roles of Maggie's parents Ed and Kate Malone. Among the well-known actors making season one guest appearances are Dana Plato as Mike's girlfriend Lisa in "Mike's Madonna Story"; Ami Dolenz as another of Mike's dates, this one named Linda, in "Slice of Life"; Dennis Haysbert, playing a cop in "Weekend Fantasy," Dan Lauria as the ruthless new coach of Ben's ice hockey team in "First Blood"; and the delightful Annette Funicello as a middle-aged suburban mom in "The Seavers vs. the Cleavers." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, (more)
Made for television, Broken Badge originally aired as The Rape of Richard Beck. Richard Crenna plays Beck, a hard-bitten cop who has little patience for female rape victims. Then he himself is sexually assaulted by two assailants. Crenna's excellent performance notwithstanding, the teleplay by James G. Hirsch is a bit simplistic, drawn up along the lines of the old bromide "a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged" Meredith Baxter Birney is seen all too briefly as a rape counsellor. The Rape of Richard Beck premiered on May 27, 1985, as an "ABC Theatre" presentation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
In this drama, a divorced and irresponsible motocross racer grows up as he prepares to run the Big Race. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1985
A Bunny's Tale is a TV-movie adaptation of Gloria Steinem's experiences as a Playboy bunny. Engaged by a magazine to write an investigative article on publisher Hugh Hefner's nightclub chain, Ms. Steinem (Kirstie Alley) poses as a young girl named "Marie" and enters the Bunny training program at the New York Playboy club. Outfitted with phony ears, fuzzy tail and revealing costume, Gloria learns the proper method of serving drinks (the "bunny dip") and how to fend off customers who ignore Hefner's "look but don't touch" policy. She also concludes that being a sex object, even a chaste one, is depressingly demeaning -- an "awakening" which, according to this film, leads to Steinem's feminist activism of the 1960s and 1970s. By the time it made its February 25, 1985 debut, it was beating a dead rabbit: the glory days of the Playboy Philosophy had long passed, and most of the once-thriving "bunny clubs" had gone out of business. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
Inspired by the popular Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry movies, the weekly, hour-long NBC cop drama Hunter starred former NFL star Fred Dryer as the Eastwoodesque title character, LAPD detective sergeant Rick Hunter. Originally operating out of the Homicide department, Hunter spent the series' first season patrolling the mean streets of Los Angeles' less savory districts, partnered with the equally no-nonsense lady cop Dee Dee McCall (Stepfanie Kramer), aka "the Brass Cupcake." Using a Magnum revolver that he called Simon--as in "Simon says 'Freeze'!"--Hunter gave no mercy or quarter to the various thugs, pimps, pushers and lowlifes with whom he came in contact. And like Dirty Harry, our hero was given to pithy catchphrases, notably the oft-repeated "Works for me." Introduced with a two-hour TV movie on September 18, 1984, Hunter languished near the bottom of the ratings during its first season due to the stiff competition of CBS's Dallas. Things improved significantly when Roy Huggins took over as executive producer at the beginning of Season Two, primarily due to a softening of the previously grim and intractible characters of Hunter and Dee Dee, and the decision to move them to a more upscale section of LA to provide them with a wider variety of antagonists. Also, Hunter's unsavory past as the son of a mobster--and his checkered present with a slew of crooked relatives and former acquaintances--faded into the background and eventually disappeared altogether. During the first two seasons, Hunter went through several superior officers, each one of whom despised him and sought out any excuse to divest him of his badge. Finally in Season Three, the producers settled on Charles Hallahan as Charles Devane, who remained with the series for the remainder of its run. Though not much more fond of Hunter than his predecessors, Devane was at least willing to cut his most contentious cop a little slack due to the results he'd gotten with his strongarm methods. At the end of Season Six, Dee Dee McCall left the department to get married. The following season, both Hunter and Devane were moved out of Homicide and into the department's elite Metro Division, focusing on cases that warranted extra-special attention. Hunter's new partner was Officer Joanne Molinski (Darlanne Fluegel) who unfortunately was killed halfway through the season. In the series' final months on NBC, Hunter developed a romantic relationship with Sgt. Chris Novak (Lauren Lane), a former girlfriend and presently the single mom of a cute little girl named Allison (Courtney Barella). Ending its network run on August 30, 1991, Hunter was briefly revived four years later in the form of a TV movie, The Return of Hunter: Everyone Walks in L.A., then again in 2002 with another feature length episode, Hunter: Return to Justice. This last project led to a brief weekly revival of the property, reuniting Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer, which ran from April 12 through May 10, 2003 on NBC. Created by Frank Lupo, Hunter was a Stephen J. Cannell pro ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
Hunter launches its seven-season run with the series' two-hour pilot, starring former football proFred Dryer as Rick Hunter, a mobster's son who has grown up to become a thoroughly incorruptible LAPD detective sergeant. Hunter's "Dirty Harry" tactics and his flagrant flouting of the rules have earned him thousands of loyal supporters and an equal number of bitter enemies--the latter on both sides of the law. Though the higher-ups would prefer that Hunter pack up his bottomless arsenal of weaponry and his pithy "Make my day"-style catchphrases (notably "Works for me") and leave town, he is obviously the one man capable of trapping an elusive murderer who is holding the city in thrall. Teaming up with Hunter for the first time in this episode is his friendly enemy, Sgt. Dee Dee McCall (Stepfanie Kramer), better known as "the brass cupcake." Michael Cavanaugh appears as Captain Lester Cain, a role taken over in subsequent episodes by Arthur Rosenberg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
