Michael Constantine Movies

Timothy Hutton stars as a government agent dealing with the aftermath of a biological attack in this thriller from director Robert Mandel (School Ties). In the wake of a deadly outbreak on a cruise ship, it becomes clear that the U.S. has been hit by a terrorist attack. As the virus spreads, it's up to Agent Sullivan (Hutton) to track down those responsible and prevent the entire country from becoming infected. Winds of Terror was originally broadcast on the Fox network as WW3. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

A 12-year-old Harlem youth is killed in a hit-and-run. The driver, an elderly Jewish man named Joshua Berger (Michael Constantine), is not indicted. This is all it takes for outspoken (and blatantly bigoted) black activist Reverend Ott (Tony Todd) to foment racial tensions that explode in violence. The scenes involving Assistant D.A. Stone (Michael Moriarty) and black defense lawyer Shambala Green (Lorraine Toussaint) are among the most powerful ever seen on Law & Order; small wonder that "Sanctuary" was cited by TV Guide as one of television's best individual series episodes. As a bonus, actor J. K. Simmons, who later became a series semiregular in the role of police psychologist Dr. Emil Skoda, is here seen in an entirely different characterization. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Arrested for killing one of his classmates, 15-year-old Jamie Marsh (Harley Cross) insists that it was all a tragic accident: True, he had a gun in his hand, but "It just went off." Despite the evidence gathered by detectives Logan (Chris Noth) and Cerreta (Paul Sorvino) indicating that Jamie is lying, the boy beats the rap in court, thanks to information legally suppressed as part of his parents' divorce settlement. But when another opportunity arises to nail the baby-faced killer, assistant D.A. Stone (Michael Moriarty) is not about to let Jamie slip through his fingers a second time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A young woman learns that she has a lethal, rare kind of cancer. This fact-based, heart-wrenching made-for-TV drama chronicles her struggle to cope with her own personal feelings and those of her family. She then begins looking for alternative ways to treat her disease while her husband deals with his denial. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

While researching her latest novel, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) almost becomes a casualty in the bombing of a jewelry store. It later turns out that the store's owner has been murdered and the priceless Queen of Tara tiara has been stolen. Forming an uneasy alliance with a pair of wisecracking "Cagney and Lacey"-style female cops (played by Lucie Arnaz and Patty McCormack), Jessica follows the trail of clues to the home of a famously reclusive actress named Siobhan O'Dea (played with Garboesque hauteur by Jean Peters). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In one of the series' best episodes, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) and Sheriff Tupper (Tom Bosley) are taking a bus trip from Cabot Cove to Portland, Maine, when the vehicle makes a stopover at a roadside inn. Before long, one of the other passengers--a bank robber recently released from prison--turns up murdered. As it happens, practically everyone on the bus except Jessica and Tupper had a powerful motivation...and this may well be one of those rare instances in which the Most Likely Suspect turns out to be the guilty party after all! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Greek-American businessman returns to his homeland with his teenage American-born son and finds that he has little in common with his family's simple life. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide

In this followup to the Season Six episode "Who Speaks for the Children", Quincy (Jack Klugman) continues his crusade to push forward the stalled "Orphan Drug Act" in congress, creating funding to develop curative drugs for rare diseases. The big problem is money, or lack of it: the major pharamaceutical companies don't want to invest in research that will benefit only a handful of consumers, while dedicated scientists like Dr. Styer (Joseph Campanella) are facing severe cutbacks. The situation becomes personal when Quincy befriends a young mother suffering from Myoclonus, a degenerative nerve disease that has already driven another of Styer's patients to suicide. Returning from "Who Speaks for the Children" are Michael Constantine as pharmaceutical activist Dr. Ciotti, and Paul Clemens as Ciotti's son Tony. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

War is waged in an inner-city neighborhood when the Mafia struggles with local gang members for the rule of the roost. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Faye Dunaway portrays the Argentinian title character in this four-hour TV biopic. The story traces Evita's rise to power from humble origins; she establishes herself as a radio and film actress, then meets and marries powerful politico Juan Peron (played by James Farentino, a last minute replacement for Robert Mitchum). Peron's iron-fisted rule of Argentina allows Evita to become a political power in her own right. At first she is widely beloved as a "woman of the people", but gradually many of her followers are disillusioned by her use -- and misuse -- of her authority and her influence over Peron. After Evita dies, she is all but canonized by the Faithful, and it becomes more difficult than ever to separate fact from legend. Evita Peron was clearly produced to capitalize on the Broadway musical hit Evita, though the script takes great pains not to copy its theatrical inspiration. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Crisis in Mid-Air is essentially a "problem drama" concentrating on a single individual. George Peppard plays a veteran air traffic controller who holds himself responsible for a mid-air collision. With an FAA investigator breathing down his neck, Peppard gets a chance to prove his value when another flight, with 235 passengers on board, puts in a "Mayday" call. The TV Guide ads for this television movie were a little misleading, suggesting that Peppard was in the cockpit rather than the control tower. Crisis in Mid-Air debuted February 13, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The phenomenal success of the 1977 ABC miniseries Roots all but demanded a sequel to writer Alex Haley's epic story of his African and African-American forebears. Debuting February 18, 1979, Roots: The Next Generations picked up where its predecessor left off, with Haley's slave ancestors winning their freedom in the aftermath of the Civil War. Even so, life for black Americans was wrought with hardship and oppression thanks to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, the staunch refusal of the white power structure to pass anti-lynching laws, and the formation of the dreaded Jim Crow laws which legalized racial segregation in the South (and much of the North). Covering the period from 1882 to the mid-1970s, the miniseries first focuses on blacksmith Tom Harvey (Georg Stanford Brown), great-grandson of Kunta Kinte (the protagonist of the original Roots), and his family. Meanwhile, reacting to the marriage of his son to a black woman, anal-retentive Southern colonel Warner (Henry Fonda) begins setting the legal wheels in motion to deny blacks like Tom the right to vote and to hold "white" jobs. A few decades later, Tom's son-in-law encourages his fellow blacks to stand firm against the KKK's reign of terror. His labors on behalf of his race are rewarded when his daughter Bertha (Irene Cara) becomes the first descendant of Kunta Kinte to receive a college education. It is Bertha Palmer who weds the equally ambitious Simon Haley (Dorian Harewood), who goes on to serve in WWI and to organize farmers and sharecroppers during the Depression. Simon's son Alex (played at various ages by Kristoff St. John, Damon Evans, and finally James Earl Jones) is just as determined to succeed in a white man's world as his father, and to that end becomes a professional writer after his own service stint in the Coast Guard during WWII. At the height of his professional success (largely due to his having ghost-written the autobiography of Muslim activist Malcolm X), Alex Haley pays a visit to his boyhood hometown -- where, almost by accident, he receives the first clue to his heritage, a clue that will lead him on an odyssey of self-discovery, arriving full circle at Kunta Kinte's birthplace in Africa. Although the miniseries' "money scene" was Haley's nervous interview with American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell (Marlon Brando in a superb cameo turn), the climactic episode, in which Haley tearfully embraces the living African descendants of Kunta Kinte, is one of the most unforgettable moments in the history of network television. Running 12 episodes and 14 hours, Roots: The Next Generations concluded on February 25, 1979, playing to huge ratings all along the way and ultimately garnering several Emmy nominations (and one win). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide