Tyne Daly Movies
The daughter of actor James Daly and sister of actor Tim Daly, Emmy award-winning American actress Tyne Daly was destined early on to enter the family business. After graduation from the American Academy of Dramatic Art, Tyne worked on stage and appeared in TV guest spots starting in the early '70s. While applauded for her talent, Daly found full stardom eluding her for several years during a long string of busted TV pilots like In Search of America (1971), Doctor Granger (1972), Fitzgerald and Pride (1972) and Hotshot Harry and the Rocking Chair Renegades (1979) did little to make her bankable (though her performance as Kate, female partner to Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry Callahan, in the 1976 action opus The Enforcer, most assuredly helped).
Then in 1981, Tyne Daly and Loretta Swit were cast in the pilot of Cagney and Lacey, an unusual (for U.S. prime time television) story of two policewomen who could handle their jobs with courage and assuredness. The success of the pilot led to a series in 1982, with Daly cast as Detective Mary Beth Lacey (opposite Meg Foster and later Sharon Gless). The series witnessed the character fighting to be accepted on equal terms with her male counterparts, and also struggling to maintain a normal home life as wife and mother. Daly's realistic portrayal earned her considerable praise from real-life law enforcement officials. Cagney and Lacey was cancelled in 1983, but returned to the air a year later thanks to a letter-writing campaign mounted by viewers. By the time the series ended in 1988, Daly had won four Emmy awards for her portrayal of Lacey. In 1994 she starred opposite Kellie Martin in the short-lived inspirational TV drama Christy, and in 1995 appeared in a trio of Cagney and Lacey reunions.
In subsequent years Daly switched venues, devoting her energies to the Broadway stage. Her accomplishments during this period included scoring a personal triumph and winning a Tony as Mama Rose in the 1989-90 revival of the 1959 musical Gypsy, and taking on untold challenges in a five-role, one-woman show, Mystery School, at Gotham's Angel Orensanz Foundation Center in 1998 (revived 2008). As time rolled on, the actress (like Cagney co-star Gless) returned to television, notably with a key supporting role as the lead character's domineering, judgmental mother on the series drama Judging Amy (1999-2005) (a series on which Gless occasionally appeared as a guest star)). Having caught the theatrical bug, however, Daly also retained her footing on stage in such outings as the acclaimed Rabbit Hole (2006) (opposite John Slattery and Cynthia Nixon). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
This grim made-for-TV domestic drama examines the terrible effects caused by spousal abuse. The story centers on the mental and physical battering endured by a wife at the hands of her troubled husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Number three in the Dirty Harry series, The Enforcer equips macho cop Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) with a female assistant, Kate Moore (Tyne Daly). Their quarry is a terrorist organization which has kidnapped the mayor of San Francisco (John Crawford). Harry goes undercover, attempting to root out the terrorists by beating up anybody who looks at him cross-eyed. When Harry and Kate discover that the mayor is being held at Alcatraz Island, it is only a matter of time before the climactic bloodbath. The Enforcer cleared enough at the box office to warrant yet another Dirty Harry opus, Sudden Impact. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clint Eastwood, Harry Guardino, (more)
- 1975
This Americanized remake of John Osborne's play changes the locale from a seedy British amusement pier to an equally seedy burlesque house in Santa Cruz, California. Jack Lemmon assumes the Laurence Olivier role as Archie Rice, a third-rate entertainer who's a failure but won't admit it. Selfishly feeding his own ego, Archie destroys the lives of those around him, including his long-suffering wife (Sada Thompson), his formerly famous father (Ray Bolger) and his disenfranchised grown children. This made-for-TV film is set in the 1940s to allow for several period-flavor tunes by Marvin Hamlisch, the best of which is the jaunty "Honolulu Lulu". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Lemmon, Ray Bolger, (more)
- 1974
Tyne Daly is the star of the 90-minute thrill piece The Haunting of Penthouse D. She plays the tenant of a luxury apartment plagued by mysterious occurrences. It's the sort of story wherein the heroine shuts the door to those who can really help her, but welcomes with open arms those who'd do her dirt. Ms. Daly really isn't the ideal "woman in peril", but she brings a great deal of intelligence and perception to her two-dimensional character. The Haunting of Penthouse D was thriftily videotaped and first telecast in October of 1974 on ABC's late-night anthology Wide World Mystery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
On assignment, Stone (Karl Malden) kills a suspect who turns out to be an undercover cop. Though he insists that the killing was an accident, tests in the police lab would seem to suggest that he has committed murder. As the story develops, Stone realizes that he has been made the fall guy in an elaborate frameup. This episode was directed by Richard Donner, whose later film credits included Superman: The Movie and Lethal Weapon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
The title of the book, written by Dr. Robert McQueen, upon which this TV movie was based is the tragically on-target Larry: Case History of a Mistake. Frederic Forrest stars as Larry, who for 26 years was wrongly confined in a mental institution. Diagnosed as retarded, Larry is actually possessed of normal intelligence, as is belatedly discovered by the film's Dr. McQueen counterpart (Michael McGuire). The problem is now twofold: Larry must be taught to be self-sufficient by the hospital staff, and he must be prepared to enter society's mainstream. Filmed at an actual California facility for the mentally challenged, the fact-based Larry premiered April 23, 1974, as a GE Theater special. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
In this TV creation, a couple can't conceive (the husband is impotent) and they hire a stud man to solve their problem. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1973
Peter Boyle plays a social worker who deals with "special needs" children. Most of Boyle's energies are devoted to communicating with an emotionally disturbed teen (Scott Jacoby). The difficulty of the job is doubled by the fact that the boy is alienated from his anguished parents (Robert Reed, Collin Wilcox-Horne), who may unknowingly be part of the problem. Filmed in semi-documentary fashion, The Man Who Could Talk to Kids transcends its "disease of the week" earmarks to become a TV movie of lasting value. The film also helped Peter Boyle shake his bullheaded Joe screen image. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
Play It As It Lays offers what is probably the harshest view of Hollywood to be given a major production up to the time of its release; it depicts a world of narcissistic egotists who will do anything to inflate their own sense of importance. Based on the novel by Joan Didion, it tells of the rise and fall of one woman's acting career. Maria Wyeth (Tuesday Weld), a model, began her acting career in a Warhol-like film, and moved "up" to perform in a biker film. The director of both films, Carter Lang (Adam Roarke), discovered her, and soon afterwards, marries her. As Carter's career moves ahead, he pays less and less attention to Maria. She has a number of affairs to try to brighten her world, but nothing much works. When she gets pregnant by one of them, Lang divorces her. Then, her best friend (Anthony Perkins), who tried to bring about a reconciliation between Lang and her, commits suicide. Her world in tatters, she has a nervous breakdown. The film's story is told in flashbacks while she is in recovery. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Although advertised as a "reunion" of former I Dream of Jeannie stars Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman, the made-for-TV A Howling in the Woods is actually a vehicle for Eden, with Hagman contributing a glorified cameo role. The scene is a remote wooded area in Nevada, where disillusioned housewife Liza Crocker (Eden) has arrived for a solitary camping trip. It so happens that Liza's "sanctuary" is located near the small and cloistered town where she was born -- a town that does not necessarily want to have her back. As Liza's husband, Eddie (Larry Hagman), searches for her in hopes of a reconciliation, the heroine is terrorized by the mournful sound of a howling dog, which triggers painful and frightening memories that she had hoped were long, long buried. Based on a novel by Velda Johnston, the underrated and almost unbearably suspenseful A Howling in the Woods debuted November 11, 1971, on NBC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The producers of In Search of America never declared outright that the made-for-TV film was intended as a series pilot, but there sure are plenty of loose plot ends. Carl Betz and Vera Miles play the parents of shaggy-haired college dropout Jeff Bridges. At the boy's suggestion, Betz and Miles pack their family--including grandma Ruth McDevitt--into a 1928 Greyhound bus and hit the road, in search of you-know-where. The picaresque plotline brings the family in contact with a variety of colorful characters. Written by Lewis John Carlino, a name that would mean a lot more to filmgoers after The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (1976), In Search of America was first telecast March 23, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vera Miles, Carl Betz, (more)
- 1971
Heat of Anger is about a sharp female lawyer who defends a businessman charged with the murder of a blue-collar construction worker. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1970
The fate of a Middle Eastern nation hangs in the balance as terrorist Ismet El Kabir (Michael Tolan) is scheduled to be pardoned from prison. The IMF must prevent Kabir's release, thereby forcing him into an escape attempt that will cost him his life. The plan involves the infiltration of Kabir's terrorist organization--and yet another of the IMF's patented "prison break-ins". Written by Laurence Heath, "Terror" made its network broadcast debut on February 15, 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Graves, Leonard Nimoy, (more)
- 1970
This episode marks a rare joint appearance by actor James Daly and his daughter Tyne Daly. The elder Daly is cast as Judge McIntire, who is presently touring college campuses giving lectures about a controversial death sentence he'd levied eight years earlier. During a classroom re-enactment of the trial, McIntire is himself marked to death by an unknown party. Law student Mark (Don Mitchell) must rely upon his boss Ironside (Raymond Burr) to save the judge's life and ferreting out the would-be "executioner". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Angel (Don Stroud) is the biker who joins a commune of hippies near a small town out West. When the town rednecks attack them in a dune buggy convoy, Angel calls up some of his bad biker buddies to exact revenge. Tremaine (Luke Askew) is the commune leader targeted extermination by the looney locals. Tyne Daly plays a hippie chick and Aldo Ray is the lazy local sheriff who refuses to calm things down in this cycle drama. Music provided by Randy Sparks and Jim Helms. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Stroud, Luke Askew, (more)
John and Mary attracted a great deal of press coverage in 1969 for being the one of the first American films in which the male and female leads (Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow) start out the film by spending the night together, rather than holding off until the end. The morning after, the boy and girl wander about New York, wondering if they'll truly commit themselves to one another. Both characters are haunted by unsuccessful earlier affairs, and both have enough hang-ups to fill volumes of psychological textbooks. Come nightfall, John and Mary end up back in bed...and learn each other's names for the first time. John and Mary was considered "beautiful," "progressive" and "significant" in the permissive 1960s; nowadays it's about as controversial as The CBS Morning News. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dustin Hoffman, Mia Farrow, (more)
