Bernadette Birkett Movies

While his apartment is being fumigated, Sam (Ted Danson) makes arrangements to sleep over at the home of a lady friend. Alas, the lady cancels and Sam locks himself out of Cheers, his second choice for a nocturnal resting place. One thing leads to another, culminating with him bunking at the home of garrulous Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dinner at Eight is a TV remake of the 1933 MGM film of the same name; both films were adapted from the play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. While the basic plot point of a social-climbing woman (Marsha Mason) throwing a "best people" dinner party has not dated all that much, other elements prevalent in the 1933 version were due for an overhaul 56 years later. The aging, near-impoverished stage actress played con brio by Marie Dressler in the original becomes a jet-setting "literary raconteur" (read: "trash novelist") in the form of Lauren Bacall. And the alcoholic matinee idol portrayed by John Barrymore in 1933 is transformed into a Pacino type (Harry Hamlin) with a drug and attitude problem for the 1989 version. While not exactly improvements, these alterations do not stand out like sore thumbs, as do many past attempts at updating old material. Only Ellen Greene, in Jean Harlow's role as the floozielike wife of a corrupt businessman, falls short of the original. Produced by actress Shelley Duvall, the 1989 Dinner at Eight was first shown on December 11, 1989 over the TNT Cable network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Thanksgiving is approaching, but only Diane (Shelley Long) has made plans to celebrate the holiday (and elaborate plans they are indeed, replete with Pilgrim costumes). So that no one will be left out of the festivities, Carla impulsively invites the Cheers gang to dinner at her place. As they impatiently wait for Norm's turkey to finish cooking, Carla can take heart in the fact that, no matter how disastrous the dinner may turn out, at least Diane won't be showing up -- or will she? Vera, the much talked about, but never seen, wife of Norm Peterson (George Wendt), makes her first on-camera appearance -- sort of. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Post-collegiate angst, '80s style, is the subject of this coming-of-age ensemble piece, which traces the fortunes of a group of Georgetown grads as they enter the real world and grapple with work, infidelity, and adulthood. The most outwardly upscale member of the gang, Jules (Demi Moore), hides a plethora of emotional baggage behind a chic wardrobe, an expensive apartment, a fashionable drug habit, and lots of meaningless casual sex. Her friend Wendy (Mare Winningham) has the opposite problem; a trust-fund baby with body-image issues and little sexual experience, she's hung up on Billy (Rob Lowe), a no-good, sax-playing drunkard who can't face up to his responsibilities in the job market or at home with his wife and young child. Such open infidelity is anathema to Alex (Judd Nelson), who must maintain a sense of propriety even while engaging in compulsive womanizing; after all, the Democrat-turned-Republican's nascent political career requires the sort of picture-perfect relationship he shares with girlfriend Leslie (Ally Sheedy). That doesn't sit too well with tortured writer Kevin (Andrew McCarthy), who toils away at a newspaper job and pines away for the unattainable Leslie. Unrequited love also dogs Kirby (Emilio Estevez), a law-school student whose greatest wish is to romance classy doctor Dale Biberman (Andie MacDowell), who is, alas, way out of his league. Co-written by director Joel Schumacher and his studio intern, Carl Kurlander, St. Elmo's Fire spawned the number one pop hit "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)," which was credited to John Parr but co-written by music producer David Foster. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

The perennially unlucky-in-love Cliff (John Ratzenberger) falls for a girl whom he meets at a costume party. (The girl is played by Bernadette Birkett, the real-life wife of series regular George Wendt). Emboldened by the costume that masks his identity, Cliff is transformed into the world's greatest lover -- and is now afraid to let the girl seem him unmasked. Meanwhile, Sam (Ted Danson) agrees to sub for Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) by escorting Diane (Shelley Long) to a concert. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jack Butler (Michael Keaton) is a Detroit automobile engineer unjustly fired by his boss. Jack's wife Caroline (Teri Garr) is compelled to get a job to make ends meet, and is soon hired on as an advertising executive in a firm run by the shifty Ron Richardson (Martin Mull. This leaves Jack at home doing the housework and taking care of the kids, which he discovers is a lot more complicated than he ever imagined. Moving from breadwinner to househusband doesn't do much for his self-esteem, and he bides his time playing poker for 10-cents-off coupons with a gaggle of neighborhood housewifes and pondering infidelity with dedicated homewrecker Joan (Ann Jillian). Among Keaton's fish-out-of-water bits: trying to maneuver a shopping cart with the inevitable wobbly wheels; and imagining a soap opera-cum-film noir episode in which he gives in to Joan's advances, only to be found out by Caroline. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Mulligan directed this Americanized re-make of the successful Brazilian comedy Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. Sally Field stars as Kay Villano, a lonely widow of three years who can't forget the memory of her dead husband, Jolly (James Caan). Jolly was a selfish and unfaithful Broadway choreographer who still managed to win Kay over with his charm. But Kay has fallen in love again with Rupert Baines (Jeff Bridges), a stuffy professor of Egyptology. As her wedding day approaches, Kay receives a visit from Jolly's ghost, who taunts and harasses her, clearly upset that Kay is marrying someone so dull. Kay goes ahead with the marriage and Jolly refuses to disappear, resulting in a bizarre menage-a-tois. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide