John Hemphill Movies

Marking their first theatrical-release feature since 1995's It Takes Two, the Olsen twins bring their adventures back to the big screen with New York Minute. Billed as a sort of Ferris Bueller's Day Off for tweens, the plot involves the escapades of two enterprising Long Island girls, Roxy (Mary-Kate Olsen) and Jane (Ashley Olsen), as they decide to dupe their parents and spend a day on the island of Manhattan. It seems the high-minded Jane has a speech to give to a scholarship committee, while the punky Roxy wants to meet her favorite rock band. When Jane's planner gets swiped, however, the girls find themselves embroiled in a political scandal involving a high-powered senator (Andrea Martin), as their high school's truant officer (Eugene Levy) doggedly pursues them. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

When a divorced couple discovers that they are still legally married, their lives are further complicated by an old lover who wants to do a takeover on their successful swimwear business. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

Josh Wheeler has it good these days as the entertainment director at a golf resort in the Bahamas, but he used to be a pretty active criminal. He owes his freedom to the fact that one of his compatriots went to jail in his stead when he bungled their getaway attempt after a robbery. Now that same man is asking him to do him a favor by arranging free stays for a group of gangsters. In order to explain their presence at the resort, he tells his boss that they're golfing big-shots, and as a result he has to stage a phony tournament for the golfing-impaired thugs to be involved in. What's more, he has to make sure the results of the tourney are profitable to the gangsters, or else... ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

After wrapping production on the weekly, 90-minute NBC comedy-variety series SCTV Network, six members of the Canadian "Second City TV" comedy troupe reassembled for this cable-TV effort, which premiered November 22, 1983 on Cinemax. Seen in a weekly 45-minute slot, SCTV Channel proved an excellent workout for the comic skills of SCTV "veterans" Andrea Martin, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, and Martin Short, as well as comparative newcomers Mary Charlotte Wilcox and Jim Hemphill. Although the absence of former SCTVers John Candy, Dave Thomas, and Catherine O'Hara was sorely felt, all three of these performers were adequately represented via guest appearances.
No longer obliged to use musical guest stars as they had during the NBC run, the producers of SCTV Channel were able to focus exclusively on comedy. As in its previous incarnations, the show specialized in devastatingly on-target satires of contemporary television programs and genres, with each episode representing a "typical" broadcast day at Channel 109, the SCTV network's flagship station in Melonville. Many of the recurring characters had already been established in SCTV's previous syndicated and network shows, notably crooked station owner Guy Caballero (Flaherty), obnoxious station manager Edith Prickley (Martin), burned-out horror show host Count Floyd (Flaherty), pompous news anchor Earl Camembert (Levy), nerdish SCTV janitor Ed Grimley (Short), oily talk show MC Sammy Maudlin (Flaherty), unfunny funnyman Bobby Bittman (Levy), and smarmy Australian superstar Jackie Rogers Jr. (Short), among others. The one significant "new" character was created by Jim Hemphill; lachrymose, heavy-drinking kiddie show host Happy Marsden, who presided over his daily TV series from his favorite tavern, and who featured highlights (?) from the interminable black-and-white movie serial Six Gun Justice. As for Mary Charlotte Wilcox, her main character of note was fatuous "famous for being famous" local celebrity Idella Voudry. Although at its best SCTV Channel was every bit as good as the late, lamented SCTV and SCTV: Network 90, the series' writers tended to stretch and attenuate its material at times; also, the show seemed to run out of gas toward the end, as witnessed by its heavy reliance upon "coming attractions" consisting of vintage clips from earlier SCTV efforts. Even so, the 18-episode SCTV Channel was a worthy swan song for one of the most consistently funny and inventive sketch series in television history. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

SCTV's new studios are located in the world's tallest building -- so guess what happens next, especially with Towering Inferno star Charlton Heston (Joe Flaherty) on hand. In other sketches, Divine (John Candy) and David Steinberg (Martin Short) star in a revival of "Peter Pan." Anchorman Earl Camembert (Eugene Levy) exposes urban transit (bicycles included) on "One on the Town." Musical guests Banda Brava show up on "Words to Live By With Mr. Mambo." And in the new game show "Let's Find Jerzy," contestants search for novelist Jerzy Kosinski (Flaherty) in his own living room. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide