Jerry Thorpe Movies

The year 1983 saw no fewer than two made-for-TV movies bearing the title Happy Endings. The first one premiered March 1, 1983, and starred Dukes of Hazzard's John Schneider. The story concerns a teacher and author named Nick Callohan (Schneider) and would-be singer Lisa Sage (Catherine Hicks), Nick's new neighbor. Both hero and heroine have just emerged from unhappy love affairs. Even though they still pine away for their former amours, Nick and Lisa manage to find romance with each other. The title song, written by Molly-Ann Leiken and William Goldstein, was nominated for an Emmy. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The issue of forced school busing is explored with an unfortunately heavy hand in All God's Children. Richard Widmark plays a judge who is tortured with guilt after a school bus is stolen. The robbery was a prank, committed as a reaction to the judge's ruling that selected black students must be bused to white schools, and vice versa. The vehicle was appropriated by two high schoolers, one black, one white. The film's tension arises from the fact that a burned-beyond-recognition body was found in the wreckage; the families of both boys wait in anguish to discover the identity of a victim, while the rest of the community threatens to erupt into violence no matter what the outcome of the autopsy. All God's Children was first telecast April 20, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

An angel helps a struggling basketball team and especially one player who wishes to regain his former glory in order to earn the respect of his 9-year-old son. ~ Rovi

A Question of Love is the deceptively bland title for this controversial made-for-TV film. Gena Rowlands plays a divorced nurse who is doing her best to raise her young sons (Keith Mitchell and Josh Albee) without their dad's help. Rowlands' ex-husband Clu Gulager files for full custody of the children. It isn't that Gulager is selfish or vindictive: the fact is that Rowlands is a lesbian, with a live-in lover (Jane Alexander), and Gulager feels that her lifestyle is not in the boys' best interests. Nothing is cut and dried in William Blinn's intelligent screenplay: there are no heroes and villains, no absolute "right" or "wrong." Extremists and moderates are depicted with equanimity, as are the points in favor of both Rowlands' and Gulager's position. While it has unavoidably dated since its first telecast on November 26, 1978, A Question of Love retains most of his dramatic power even after nearly two decades. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

I Want to Keep My Baby is a cautionary TV movie starring Mariel Hemingway as a pregnant 15-year-old girl. She is pressured by her mother (Susan Anspach) to keep her baby, despite the warnings of a social worker (Rhea Perlman) that the girl is emotionally and financially unable to care for the child. Taking a defiant attitude, Hemingway insists upon setting herself up as a single parent. It is only after a few harrowing months of unassisted motherhood--and a brief temper flare-up in which Hemingway comes dangerously close to injuring her child--that the girl bows to logic and puts the baby up for adoption. I Want to Keep My Baby would have been more effective without such melodramatic setpieces as a rape attempt and a chance encounter between the girl and a pair of adoptive parents. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Not technically a movie, Antonio and the Mayor originated as a 90-minute CBS TV special. Set in rural Mexico in the 1920s, the play stars Diego Gonzales as Antonio, a 10-year-old boy of limited education who happens to be a whiz at all things mechanical. Gonzales dearly covets a bicycle so that he may pedal the distance to school. But the bike belongs to ineffectual mayor Gregory Sierra who, angered that he can't make it work to his satisfaction, tosses the vehicle into a deep ravine. Marvelously photographed and extremely well acted, Antonio and the Mayor debuted on January 7, 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This film for the TV series Harry-O was originally telecast under the title Smile, Jenny, You're Dead. David Janssen plays Harry Orwell, a seedy private eye investigating the murder of his friend's son-in-law. The principal suspect is the victim's wife Jenny (Andrea Marcovicci), a photographer's model. Since this is less a mystery than a suspense story, it isn't unfair to reveal that the real killer is a looney photographer (Zalman King, later a prolific producer of film erotica!), who is in love with Jenny and insanely jealous of anyone who gets in his way. The climax takes place on the roof of a high-rise. Guess what happens. The Harry-O series proper debuted in the fall of 1974, lasting two seasons. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Television's great existential Western series Kung Fu starred David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine, a half-Chinese, half-Caucasian who had once studied to become a Shaolin priest in 1860s China. Essentially a man of peace and introspection, Caine had been forced to kill a member of the Chinese royal family and had subsequently fled to the American West in search of his long-lost brother...and, it could be inferred, in search of himself (of course, he also had to keep one step ahead from pursuing Chinese authorities and paid assassins). Wherever he went, the solemn, shaven-headed Caine encountered hostility and intolerance from surly white men, yet he generally kept his temper and his impressive martial-arts skill in check, usually by remembering his training at the Shaolin temple where he had been raised since he was orphaned in infancy. Instructed by his mentors, Master Po (Keye Luke) -- who affectionately referred to his charge as "grasshopper" -- and Master Kan (Philip Ahn), the young Caine (played in the flashback scenes by Ramades Pera) had learned to use his strength wisely and with discipline and to rely upon his "inner harmony" in adverse situations. Unfortunately, the series' villains generally picked on those weaker and less powerful than themselves, and it fell to Caine to protect the downtrodden with astonishing displays of strength and agility, with the inevitable fight scenes usually filmed in slow motion. Other than Caine and his two masters there were no other regulars on the series. Despite its philosophy and mysticism, Kung Fu was, in many ways, a traditional Western, with the Mysterious Stranger arriving out of nowhere to vanquish evil and benefit those who were good, then disappearing just as quickly and quietly as he arrived.

Caine was a "loner," thus his character was always alone, even in a crowd. During the third season, however, Season Hubley made sporadic appearances as Caine's American cousin, Margit. Created by Ed Spielman and developed by Herman Miller, the weekly 60-minute Kung Fu ran for three seasons on ABC, from 1972 to 1975. The concept was revived 1986 as the CBS made-for-TV feature Kung Fu: The Movie, and in 1993 as the syndicated weekly Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, which was set in modern times rather than the 19th century. David Carradine appeared in both of these revivals as Caine in the first and as the grandson of the "original" Caine in the second. ~ Rovi

Also known as Cross Current, The Cable Car Murder emulates the 1971 theatrical feature Tick, Tick, Tick by teaming a black homicide lieutenant (Robert Hooks) with a white partner (Jeremy Slate). Simon Oakland costars as the team's apoplectic superior (is there any other kind?) Set in San Francisco, the story involves the cable-car murder of a shipping mogul's son, which was committed in broad daylight. Is Special Guest Star Robert Wagner the guilty party? Designed as the pilot for a TV series, Cable Car Murder received very little word of mouth when it premiered on November 19, 1971; after all, everyone was still talking about Steven Spielberg's Duel, which received its first telecast six days earlier. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this thriller a police detective must find a renegade assassin who is not only wanted by the cops, he is also wanted by his bosses at Murder, Inc. Conspiracy abounds as the hitman controls other assassin's who keep the police preoccupied by their attempts on the life of a multimillionaire. The film climaxes with an exciting car crash. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Warfield (Glenn Ford) is the dispassionate ex-gunslinger who joins forces with peaceful neighbor Forbes (Arthur Kennedy) to help him track down the Apache Indians who have kidnapped Warfield's wife and children two months prior. In searching for the abductees, the hardened gunslinger eventually keeps a level head while the even-tempered Forbes turns into a cold-blooded killing machine. Warfield and Forbes eventually complete their personality changes that lead to the inevitable western showdown. Initially a television movie made for ABC, the company decided to release the film only in theaters. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Perhaps inevitably, the more popular the ABC crime drama The Untouchables became, the louder the series' detractors complained. Reaching its ratings peak as America's eighth-most-watched program during its second season, the series, which elaborated in the most violent fashion imaginable on the career of treasury agent Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) as he and his team of "Untouchables" challenged the criminal element of Depression-era Chicago, was besieged by a flock of clean-up-TV advocates, church and school groups, and especially the Italian Anti-Defamation League, which condemned the series for its preponderance of Italian villains. Executive producer Desi Arnaz argued that many of the real-life gangsters were indeed Italian, whereupon their critics counter-argued that the scriptwriters tended to use Italian-sounding names even for the series' fictional bad guys. Everyone from the Longshoreman's Union (which threatened not to deliver the sponsors' product) to singer Frank Sinatra converged upon Arnaz, and there were even rumors that The Mob had put out a contract on the beleagured producer (reportedly, the higher-ups figured that killing Desi wouldn't be worth the trouble). Finally, the producers agreed that, beginning with the series' third season, none of the fictional gangsters would be Italian, and that the genuine Italian miscreants would be counterbalanced with honest, upright and incorruptible Italian-American supporting characters--notably Nick Georgiade in the recurring role of "Untouchable" Enrico Rossi. Highlights of Season Two include Elizabeth Montgomery's bravura, Emmy-nominated portrayal of a duplicitous gun moll in the opening episode, "The Rusty Heller Story"; "Jack 'Legs' Diamond", with future Law&Order star Steven Hill in the title role and Robert Carricart as Lucky Luciano; "Augie 'The Banker" Ciamino" with Keenan Wynn, who ironically had played straight-arrow "Untouchable" Joe Fuselli in the series' two-hour pilot; and "Mr. Moon", which garnered a great deal of critical attention due the starring performance by 23-year-old Victor Buono. And as had happened with the first season "The Unhired Assassin", the second season of The Untouchables is distinguished by another elaborate two-part episode, "The Big Train", which brings Neville Brand back as Ness' number one nemesis Al Capone--and which got the producers into trouble (again!) by suggesting that the incarcerated Capone had been given preferential treatment in the Atlanta Pentitentiary. Also in the tradition of "The Unhired Assassin", "The Big Train" was later released theatrically as Alcatraz Express. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi