Craig Zadan Movies

Recorded in the wake of the phenomenal success with the screen adaptation of Cabaret, Liza with a Z features Liza Minnelli performing over a dozen songs under the direction of Bob Fosse. This special originally aired on network television. The setlist includes renditions of "God Bless the Child," "Son of a Preacher Man," "Bye Bye Blackbird," and a medley of songs from Cabaret. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

In this tuneful teen drama, two disparate high school students, he a street-wise Italian rebel and she a sweet naive Jewish girl, fall in love while preparing for the annual "Sing," a competition between seniors and the other grades attending Brooklyn schools. It is the caring school music teacher who involves the street-tough, for he sees tremendous talent in the youth. With the help of the teacher and the affection of the young woman, the angry youngster, mends his self-destructive ways and makes the annual musical a smashing success. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Glenn Close won the "Outstanding Lead Actress" Emmy for her performance in this made-for-television drama about the rights of homosexuals in the military. Close stars as Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer, an Army medical officer with an eye on a promotion who is suddenly tossed into discharge proceedings after admitting to being homosexual. The film shows how she fought the system with the help her family and the support of gay rights activists. Judy Davis stars as her lover and also won the Emmy for "Outstanding Supporting Actress." Barbra Streisand was among the executive producers and the film was nominated for several Emmy and Golden Globe awards. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

Seen on ABC's Wonderful World of Disney, this $12-million production is the only musical Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote for television. The CBS-TV original, with 21-year-old Julie Andrews in the title role and Edie Adams as the Fairy Godmother, played on live television March 31, 1957 to TV's largest audience ever to that date (107-million viewers). That historic production, captured on kinescope, can still be seen today on library monitors at the Museum of Television & Radio in New York and Los Angeles. Hammerstein died in 1960 and did not get to see 18-year-old Lesley Ann Warren as Cinderella in the February 22, 1965 restaged production, repeated annually on CBS until 1977 and later made available on videotape from CBS/Fox Video and Facets Multimedia. Added to the 1965 show was "Loneliness of Evening", a song actually written for South Pacific but cut before the Broadway opening.

Running a half-hour longer, this third interpretation premiered November 2, 1997. Filmed over a 28-day period, it stars Brandy Norwood as Cinderella and Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother, with Bernadette Peters as the Stepmother, Whoopi Goldberg as the Queen (wearing $60 million worth of borrowed Harry Winston jewelry), Paolo Montalban as the Prince, and Jason Alexander as the Prince's steward, Lionel. Scripter Robert L. Freedman provided a rewrite of the original Oscar Hammerstein book, and three other Richard Rodgers songs were added to the existing score: "There's Music in You" (from the 1953 movie musical Main Street to Broadway), "The Sweetest Sounds" (a Brandy/Montalban duet), and "Falling in Love with Love". Originally set in motion as a follow-up to the highly successful TV Gypsy (1993) with Bette Midler, this 1997 multicultural version (sometimes referred to as the "rainbow Cinderella") was years in the making, since it was initiated in 1994 when Houston joined executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (the team responsible for the TV Gypsy). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Based on Living in the Labyrinth, the autobiography of Diana Friel McGowin, the made-for-TV Forget Me Never stars Mia Farrow as McGowin, a successful middle-aged legal secretary. Upon her realization that she is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, Diana courageously attempts to hide her affliction from her husband, Jack (Martin Sheen), and her children, but it isn't long before the truth becomes painfully obvious. Seeking to bond with others suffering from Alzheimer's, Diana forms a strong and unassailable friendship with ex-professor Dr. Albert Morelli (Colm Feore), who is in a more advanced stage of the disease. Mia Farrow earned a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in Forget Me Never, which made its CBS network debut on October 3, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The comedy team that made the phrase "nyuk nyuk nyuk" part of the American vocabulary gets the full biographical treatment in this made-for-TV feature. The Three Stooges opens in 1959, as a TV executive tries to persuade Moe Howard (Paul Ben-Victor) to reunite with his former onscreen partners to publicize the television premiere of a package of Three Stooges classic comedy shorts. Howard then flashes back on his long and remarkable career, as vaudeville star Ted Healy (Marton Csokas) assembles Moe Howard, sibling Shemp Howard (John Kassir), and Larry Fine (Evan Handler) as "stooges" for his stage act. As Moe, Shemp, and Larry gain popularity, a jealous Healy forces them to strike out on their own, but after many grueling years on the road, Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn (Linal Haft) offers them a chance to star in their own series of two-reel comedies. But Shemp, always stage-shy, backs out of the group, and his brother Jerome (Michael Chiklis) -- aka "Curly" -- takes over, and the Three Stooges become a sensation. However, success proves to be a bumpy road for the group, as a bad deal with Columbia prevents them from reaping the full benefits of their success, and a serious illness forces Curly to quit, bringing Shemp back into the act. Mel Gibson was an executive producer for this biopic, which first aired on ABC on April 24, 2000. Incidentally, this wasn't Michael Chiklis' first time playing an icon of American comedy; he portrayed John Belushi in the 1989 drama Wired. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Though not the first TV dramatization of the lives and careers of the popular 1960s singing group the Beach Boys, this two-part miniseries was the first that did not concentrate exclusively on Brian Wilson, arguably the most brilliant and troubled member of the quintet. Instead, the production details the triumph and heartbreaks of all five Beach Boys: Brian (here played by Frederick Weller), his brothers Carl and Dennis Wilson, and non-related members Mike Love and Al Jardine. Played by Kevin Dunn, the Wilson brothers' father Murray Wilson is cast as a complete monster, shown to be both verbally and physically abusive to his grown sons, as well as a money-grubbing dictator while managing The Beach Boys during their most prolific period. The miniseries also delves into the darker side of the singers themselves, especially when Dennis Wilson (played by Nick Stabile) begins carousing with a would-be tunesmith named Charles Manson (Erik Passoja). Producer John Stamos had originally wanted to appear in the production as Dennis (who died in a surfing mishap in 1983), but the ABC network decided that Stamos was too old for the part. Many (including, reportedly, Brian Wilson himself) complained loudly about the gross liberties taken with actual events in this picture. The Beach Boys: An American Family was originally telecast on February 27 and 28, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Co-produced by Barbra Streisand and Whoopi Goldberg, the made-for-TV What Makes a Family stars Brooke Shields, cast against type as a woman happily committed to a lesbian relationship. Yearning for a family of their own, Janine Nielsen (Shields) and her partner, Sandy Cataldi (Cherry Jones), elect to have a baby via artificial insemination, with Sandy as the biological mother. Alas, Sandy dies not long after the birth of her child, whereupon Janine is plunged into a legal hell by Sandy's parents (Anne Meara and Al Waxman), who sue to gain custody of the baby. Poignantly addressing a myriad of moral, legal, and ethical issues, What Makes a Family was ideally suited to air over the Lifetime cable network, where the film first aired on January 31, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A starry-eyed would-be star discovers just how far the notion that "there's no such thing as bad publicity" can go in this screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Chicago, originally directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse. In the mid-'20s, Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) is a small-time chorus dancer married to a well-meaning dunderhead named Amos (John C. Reilly). Roxie is having an affair on the side with Fred Casley (Dominic West), a smooth talker who insists he can make her a star. However, Fred strings Roxie along a bit too far for his own good, and when she realizes that his promises are empty, she becomes enraged and murders Fred in cold blood. Roxie soon finds herself behind bars alongside Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a sexy vaudeville star who used to perform with her sister until Velma discovered that her sister had been sleeping with her husband. Velma shot them both dead, and, after scheming prison matron "Mama" Morton hooks Velma up with hotshot lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), Velma becomes the new Queen of the scandal sheets. Roxie is just shrewd enough to realize that her poor fortune could also bring her fame, so she convinces Amos to also hire Flynn. Soon Flynn is splashing Roxie's story -- or, more accurately, a highly melodramatic revision of Roxie's story -- all over the gutter press, and Roxy and Velma are soon battling neck-to-neck over who can win greater fame through the headlines. A project that had been moving from studio to studio since the musical opened on Broadway in 1973, Chicago also features guest appearances by Lucy Liu and Christine Baranski. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

From the creators of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider came this weekly, 60-minute ABC adventure-fantasy series. The titular Veritas was a high-tech archeological team headed by brilliant scientist Solomon Zond (Alex Carter) and his long-estranged teenaged son Nikko (Ryan Merriman). As the two Zonds awkwardly tried to reconnect after so many years apart, they also embarked upon thrill-packed missions aimed at solving the riddles of long-dead civilizations. Helping Solomon and Nikko in their quest (and also dodging innumerable villains and mercenaries along the way) were gorgeous female computer geek Maggie (Cynthia Martells), narrow-visioned pedant Calvin (Eric Balfour) and Solomon's raffish buddy Vincent (Arnold Vosloo). Veritas: The Quest debuted January 27, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

From the same production team responsible for the highly regarded 2000 Judy Garland TV biopic comes this equally elaborate and very thorough (if not 100-percent accurate) filmed biography of Lucille Ball. Using the 1960 breakup of the marriage between Lucy and her husband/co-star Desi Arnaz, the film covers 40 years in the life of America's favorite redheaded gal, beginning with her early dramatic aspirations as an acting student (one of her fellow aspirants is Bette Davis) and her emergence as a platinum-blonde chorus girl in such film extravaganzas as Eddie Cantor's Roman Scandals. Once Hollywood is convinced of Lucy's fierce work ethic, and her willingness to do anything -- even allow herself to be caked in mud -- for the good of the picture, RKO Radio inaugurates a star build-up, though poor Lucy never quite gets beyond the B-list of leading ladies. In 1940, she falls madly in love with Desi Arnaz, a sexy Cuban bandleader and scion of an aristocratic family. Despite Desi's imperious nature, and his self-proclaimed "entitlement" to savor the favors of as many ladies as possible, Lucy and Desi are wed. Moving from RKO Radio to MGM during the war years, Lucy becomes a redhead to take better advantage of the studio's Technicolor cameras, and also learns the rudiments of broad slapstick comedy from such masters as Buster Keaton and Red Skelton. Even so, she is considered washed-up in Hollywood by the end of the 1940s, and her union with the constitutionally faithless Arnaz is on the rocks. Coming to the rescue of both Lucy's career and marriage is a new medium called television: With Desi as her creative Svengali, Lucy scales the heights of superstardom as star of the top-rated weekly sitcom I Love Lucy. Alas, the more popular Lucy becomes, the more her marriage to Desi suffers, and the film is unsparing in showing how fame and fortune can be fatal to domestic happiness. In the title role, musical comedy actress Rachel York doesn't resemble the real Lucy all that much, though she gamely recreates such classic I Love Lucy moments as the "Vitameatavegamin" commercial and the grape-stomping orgy. Far better cast is Danny Pino as Desi Arnaz, depicted as an enigmatic blend of Latin charm, filmmaking genius, and sociopathic serial philandering. While the teleplay is an acceptable overview of the subject's life and career, there is little in the film that is not common knowledge to Lucy buffs, save for a re-enactment of the childhood tragedy which left the heroine a mass of insecurities, and Lucy's morbid fear of birds (yes, birds). The three-hour Lucy first aired on May 4, 2003, telecast by Lucy's old home network, CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The assassination of Julius Caesar has plunged Rome into chaos, and the only hope for the once-thriving empire lies in the ability of his 18-year-old nephew Octavius to defeat the manipulative Marc Anthony in this epic miniseries starring Santiago Cabrera and directed by John Gray, Kim Manners, and Greg Yaitanes. On the eve of Caesar's demise, Rome is thrown into anarchy and Octavius is thrust into exile with his guardian Tyrannus lest he meet a similar fate as his uncle at the hands of those who wish to see Caesar's bloodline severed once and for all. In the years that follow, Octavius is trained by his faithful mentor for the day he will return to Rome and seek revenge against the man who orchestrated his uncle's downfall. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Adam Shankman's adaptation of the stage musical Hairspray, itself an adaptation of the non-musical John Waters film of the same name, stars Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad, an overweight high-school student whose only dream is to be on a local Baltimore teen dance program. While her father (Christopher Walken) tells her to follow her dreams, her mother Edna (John Travolta in drag) reminds her that she doesn't look like the girls on that show. After impressing the show's host (James Marsden), Tracy earns a coveted spot on the program, but when she becomes a popular addition to the cast, she earns the wrath of the prettiest girl in school -- a girl whose mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) just happens to operate the local television station. Tracy's visit to detention hall opens her eyes to the racial tension on the show, as does the budding relationship between her best friend (Amanda Bynes) and an African-American boy named Seaweed (Elijah Kelley). Thus empowered, Tracy attempts to integrate the races on her favorite program. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide