Fred Barzyk Movies
- 2000
Shot on high-definition video, The Ryan Interview is adapted by Ira Simmons from a play by Pulitzer Prize winner Arthur Miller, originally commissioned by the Actors Theater of Louisville. Though she yearns to do "meaningful" work, budding journalist Frederika Rose (Ashley Judd) must satisfy herself with various human-interest stories and puff pieces. One of these requires her to interview farmer Bob Ryan (Eddie Bracken) on the occasion of his 100th birthday. The experience proves to be of the "life-changing" variety for Frederika, and also performs a curious brand of magic upon the centenarian Ryan. Filmed on a farm where director Guy Mendes once lived, The Ryan Interview made its American TV debut over PBS on August 25, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ashley Judd, Eddie Bracken, (more)
- 1984
Countdown to Looking Glass was a Canadian-produced, 90 minute dramatic special, first telecast in the States over the HBO pay cable service on October 14, 1984. In the tradition of the earlier Special Bulletin, the story frames a nuclear-holocaust threat in the form of an ongoing news broadcast. The setup: A group of South American nations have defaulted on a loan, forcing every bank in America to collapse. The US is thus unable to help Oman when the middle-Eastern nation is invaded by Soviet operatives. This culminates in a Persian-gulf showdown, while all the major cities in the US are evacuated. Scott Glenn plays an anchorman for the fictional CVN news service, while Helen Shaver costars as the CVN Washington correspondent, who is prevented from getting on the air with a potentially world-saving bulletin. Written by MIT professor Lincoln Bloomfeld, Countdown to Looking Glass features real-life newscasters Eric Sevareid, Nancy Dickerson, Patrick Watson and Don Tobin. Note to political-trivia buffs: Appearing briefly as themselves are former Presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy, and a pre-"Contract With America" Newt Gingrich. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based on the novel by Ursula K. LeGuin, The Lathe of Heaven is a special-effects lover's smorgasbord. Set in futuristic Portland, Oregon, the film stars Bruce Davidson as a man prone to fantastic dreams. When these dreams start coming true, only Davidson at first is aware of it: "my dreams changed everything that came before them-and nobody knows it but me!" Well, that's not entirely true. Davidson's psychiatrist Kevin Conway proves beyond doubt that Davidson's dreams are coming true. Unfortunately, Conway is of an avaricious nature, and he fully intends to harness Davidson's subconscious for his own gain-all the while convincing himself that he's doing it for the good of Mankind. Advertised as PBS' "first major" made-for-TV movie, The Lathe of Heaven premiered January 9, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
- R
In 1978, African American Charlie Smith was 134 years old. So far as anyone could determine, this Florida nursing home resident was the oldest man living on Earth. As such, the nonplussed Smith found himself the subject of several magazine spreads and documentaries. Playwright Charlie Johnson's Charlie Smith and the Fritter Tree is a "dramatized biography", putting Smith's reminiscences in context with the sweeping social changes in the black American experience. Charlie Smith and the Fritter Tree was produced as a 90-minute installment of the PBS anthology series Visions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
Humorist/raconteur Jean Shepherd both wrote and narrated the TV play Phantom of the Open Hearth. Set in the 1940s, the story involves the trials and tribulations of Shepherd's alter-ego Ralph (David Elliot). Our Hero would like to escort the beautiful Daphne (Tobi Pilavin) to the junior prom, but instead settles for the comparatively homely Wanda (Robert Wallach). Along the way to the inevitable "big dance" denouement, we are treated to such slapstick sidetrips as a riotous softball game and a chaotic contretemps over a movie-house giveaway. Phantom of the Open Hearth was first telecast December 23, 1976, as an offering of the PBS series Visions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
