Ronny Cox

The controversial satire The LA Riot Spectacular plays for mordent laughs the events that consumed L.A. in 1992, after the police officers on trial for beating motorist Rodney King were found innocent. The city was engulfed by a massive riot, but the film plays these moments for laughs. In addition to recreating some of the images seen on television, the film skewers a variety of figures including the police, the media, and the citizens of the city. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

A psychiatrist confronts a new client whose problems may not be all in his head in this drama. Dr. Ty Adams (Michael Beach) is a well-known psychiatrist who has earned no small amount of controversy for his blunt and "anti-medicinal" approach to treatment. Adams is also dealing with some emotional problems of his own after the death of his wife and child. Parker (John C. McGinley), a documentary filmmaker, has arrived at the hospital where Adams works to make a movie about his work, just in time for Adams to start working with a new patient -- a mysterious and angry fellow known only as "The Man" -- who insists he is Satan (Eriq LaSalle). The new patient is not easily convinced that he's delusional, and as he becomes a greater disruptive force, Adams can't help but wonder if maybe the stranger is telling the truth. Crazy as Hell was directed by actor Eriq LaSalle, who plays the new patient and is best known for his work on the television series E.R.; it was his first theatrical feature, after helming the made-for-cable Rebound. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This episode takes place a decade into the future: The SG-1 team has been de-activated by the new President, the Goa'uld has been defeated, and all earthly diseases have been eradicated. This has come about thanks to the advanced technology of the Aschen, a seemingly benign alien race. But when the now-married Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) is given false information about her inability to bear children, it becomes obvious that the Aschen pose a sinister threat. The former SG-1 team members must send a message to their younger selves in the year 2000 to preserve the future of Mankind. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on Jack Curtis' novel Christmas in Calico, this sentimental TV movie is set in Oregon in the early 1900s. Reba McEntire (who also produced) stars as widowed farmer Rose Cameron, who struggles to save her home from foreclosure, and to make enough money to pay for the medicine necessary to keep her sickly son Toby (Devon Alan). Nor is Rose the only person in town weighed down by problems: a well-organized gang, clearly bankrolled by someone with a lot of political pull, has been systematically stealing cattle, threatening to bankrupt everyone in the community. Enter a mysterious man on horseback named Harry Withers (Thomas Ian Griffith), an ex-outlaw determined to atone for his past by performing random acts of goodwill throughout the west. As Withers grows closer to Rose, she begins to suspect that he is actually someone else, someone far more famous than whom he claims to be (Hint: He's been living in South America for several years, and raindrops kept fallin' on his head). In the hearty spirit of brotherhood and political correctness, the beleaguered townsfolk join forces with a group of Chinese immigrants to help Withers vanquish the villains -- and, it is intimated, to reform Villain Number One. The Secret of Giving was initially telecast by CBS on November 25, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"What if they're right?" screamed the ad copy for the TV movie Y2K, referring to the millions of otherwise rational, level-headed people who lived in mortal terror that virtually every computer in the world would malfunction on December 31, 1999, because of an imbedded inability to "read" the year 2000. As it turned out, of course, "they" were wrong, and no worldwide technical meltdown occurred: but the producers of this film, which originally aired November 21, 1999, on NBC, were clearly not above exploiting everyone's panic over things to come to make a few bucks. In traditional disaster-flick fashion, the film offers a multitude of subplots with several different sets of main characters, all of whose lives will be profoundly altered by the cataclysmic events of Y2K. Likewise adhering to tradition is the notion that only one man is capable of saving the world from plunging into a computerized abyss. That man is MIT-trained "systems failure" expert Nick Cromwell (Ken Olin), who on the eve of the new millennium races against time to prevent a nuclear disaster in New York City -- one that threatens to dwarf a similar reactor meltdown that occurred a scant few hours earlier in Sweden. To juice up the suspense, the script contrives to place Cromwell's wife Kelly (Jane McGregor) and daughter Alix (Kate Vernon) in jeopardy while dad is off being a hero. The film's level of credibility reaches a crest when Jay Leno makes a cameo appearance as himself. Seen from the vantage point of the post-9/11, post-Hurricane Katrina era, Y2K seems as quaint and naïve as a 1908 Biograph one-reeler -- perhaps even more so. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comic suspense story, sixth-grader Allison Parker (Katie Stuart) likes to imagine herself something of a detective, keeping tabs on what goes on in her neighborhood and communicating with her best friend Jane Walker (Emily Lipoma) via walkie talkie. (In the manner of good spies everywhere, Allison used the code name "Frog" when talking via radio and insists Jane call herself "Wombat.") However, when the girl's new principal, Larry Struble (Ronny Cox), moves in next door, Allison begins to wonder if she might have a real mystery to investigate when Larry's niece Nancy (Jessica Cashman) disappears a few days after he's moved in. Convinced foul play is afoot, Allison begins snooping, with Jane her reluctant helper, though Jane is hardly as convinced as her friend when she decides that a missing refrigerator, a stray wedding ring, and some photos of a mystery woman add up to murder. Lindsay Wagner also appears as Allison's mother, in whom Larry seems to have taken an interest. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Originally aired on HBO and directed by Apollo 13 star and space enthusiast Tom Hanks, among others, From the Earth to the Moon explores the ups and downs of space travel, beginning with President Kennedy's famous speech before Congress on May 25, 1961, and chronicling the journey to putting the first man on the moon. This highly acclaimed, Emmy-nominated, 12-episode series is available in a six-tape VHS set and a four-disc DVD set. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Greg Davis (Michael Reilly Burke) was 12 years old when his childhood sweetheart Karen Carlson disappeared while en route to his home. 17 years later, Greg, now a schoolteacher, is astonished by the sudden appearance of an enigmatic young woman (Melissa Gilbert) who claims to be the long-missing Karen. The woman's vivid recollections of abduction, and the fact that she knows many of Karen's innermost secrets, convince Greg that she's the genuine article. But Karen's father Warren (Ronny Cox) and detective James Walker (Leon Russom) are not so easily persuaded--and when Karen begins to behave in a bizarre, erratic fashion, the possibility arises that she may not be whom she claims to be...and that her past is far more sinister than anyone could imagine. Alternating between a full-color "present" and black-and-white vignettes of "the past", the made-for-TV Childhood Sweetheart? debuted March 18, 1997, on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this inspirational sports drama, a talented but drug-addicted basketball player cleans up his act and devotes his life to teaching Harlem children to play the game. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The first "Perry Mason" TV movie of the 1992-93 season, The Case of the Heartbroken Bride was the 23rd such production. The wedding of pop star Heather McAdam is disrupted by a drunken interloper. When the party crasher is murdered, Heather is nabbed for the killing. Among the special guest suspects are Ronny Cox, Linda Blair and Diane Baker. Stephen Stills, of Crosby Stills, Nash and Young, has a cameo. As always, Perry Mason is played by Raymond Burr. The Case of the Heartbroken Bride first aired October 30, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide