Severn Darden Movies

In this comedy-drama, Vashti Blue (Whoopi Goldberg) is a struggling actor who takes out her frustrations via the telephone, in various accentual impersonations, by making prank calls from her apartment. Off the screen Goldberg attempted to prevent the release of this version of Telephone by filing suit, but apparently did not win the case. Many critics seem to insist she was right in doing so. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

Martha Coolidge directed this comedy taking place at fictional Pacific Tech, concerning incoming freshman Mitch (Gabe Jarret), a high school student whose Science Fair project made important inroads into laser beam technology. Mitch has been recruited by famed physics professor Hathaway (William Atherton), who asks Mitch to work in his laboratory. On campus, Mitch becomes roommates with the brilliant Chris Knight (Val Kilmer), legendary as the smartest freshman in the history of the college; but now, as a senior, he is less interested in his studies and more interested in having fun. It turns out that Hathaway is enlisting his students, unbeknownst to them, as a slave labor force to do research in developing a state-of-the-art laser device for the Defense Department (he uses his government grant funds to build a house). But Chris and Mitch begin to suspect that something is amiss with Hathaway's project. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

In this syrupy drama, a terminally ill priest continues trying to keep his orphanage from closing. Fortunately, a rousing soccer game (featuring the legendary player Pele) saves the orphanage ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this early '80s send-up of venerable horror clichés, Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss star as John and Mary, an ordinary couple who inherit a mysterious house from a deceased uncle. Along with kids Debbie (Kari Michaelsen) and Billy (Kevin Brando), they move into the musty mansion, unaware that vampire Waldemar (Jeffrey Tambor) and his wife are desperately seeking an ancient book housed within its walls. Soon, Billy finds the book and learns that opening it releases an assortment of scary creatures. John and Mary, however, refuse to believe Billy's tall tales, not even after Mary ends up with puncture marks in her neck and an aversion to normal food. Soon, a mer-man is stalking Debbie in the bathtub, relatives are disappearing and monsters have taken over the house. Help arrives in the form of the wise Van Helsing (Severn Darden) -- or does it? Saturday the 14th provided the directorial debut for veteran horror screenwriter Howard R. Cohen, who would return to the same territory with 1988's Saturday the 14th Strikes Back. Benjamin, who is married to Prentiss in real life, also appeared in the horror satire Love at First Bite. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Jill Robinson's Bed-Time-Story, inspired by actual events, was the source for the made-for-TV A Cry for Love. Divorcee Susan Blakely, with no alimony and two kids to support, begins turning to amphetamines. While at her lowest ebb, she meets Powers Boothe, an alcoholic and three-time loser in marriage--who, incredibly, turns out to be the ideal man for her! Joseph Bologna and Renee Taylor were the guiding hands behind the Cry For Love teleplay. The film debuted on October 20, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this romantic drama, Treat Williams plays Cletus, a rather unpleasant and morally shaky man desperate to keep his mitts on the one-million-dollar inheritance bequeathed to himself and his siblings. He improbably accepts a job as a social worker, then becomes emotionally involved with Jeorge (Gabriel Swann), a little boy torn away from his wrongly convicted and incarcerated mother., Cletus then sets about reuniting Jeorge with his mother. Along the way, he falls in love with Kay (Lisa Eichhorn. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In the second half of the 19th century, some 100,000 abandoned or poverty-stricken New York children were relocated to midwestern families by the Children's Aid Society. Made for television, Orphan Train is a fictionalized account of the early days of the Society in 1854. Top billing goes to Jill Eikenberry as a minister's daughter and Kevin Dobson as a photojournalist. Eikenberry shepherds the first group of orphans from New York to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana, with Dobson along for the ride in hopes of getting the exclusive story. En route, the orphans encounter hostility from so-called "respectable" people and danger from a fire and a train crash. The supporting cast includes Glenn Close, five years away from her theatrical-movie debut in The World According to Garp. Based on a novel by Dorothea G. Petrie, Orphan Train was initially telecast December 22, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The gifted comic actor Severn Darden serves up his best Orson Welles imitation in this, the final episode of Laverne & Shirley's second season. Darden is cast as Charles Pfister Krane, Milwaukee's most famous and wealthiest show-biz impresario. Insisting that anyone could be made a star under his tutelage, Krane transforms Laverne (Penny Marshall) and Shirley (Cindy Williams) into a musical duo called--what else?--The Rosebuds. Stars Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams perform The Crystals' "Da Do Ron-Ron" (and never mind that this episode allegedly takes place in 1959, several years before the song was written). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Within months after the spectacular July 4, 1976 rescue of hostages from Uganda's Entebbe airport, there were two competing TV movies on the subject. The longest (and least) of the two was Victory at Entebbe, hurriedly shot on videotape. The story begins when Arab terrorist capture a civilian airliner and force a landing at Entebbe. Ugandan president Idi Amin (Julius Harris, substituting for recently deceased Godfrey Cambridge), struts about at the airport, insisting that he can do nothing--but apparently siding with the terrorists, especially when the Arabs begin separating and mistreating the Jewish passengers. A surprise Israeli commando raid masterminded by defense minister Shimon Peres (Burt Lancaster, who more than compensates for his miscasting with an excellent performance) rescues most of the hostages, though at least one of the passengers (played by Helen Hayes with a Jewish accent that wouldn't convince a duck) is apparently killed out of retribution while en route to hospital. The teleplay's bad dialogue, and the producers' Airport-like decision to use only big stars in the major roles (Richard Dreyfuss, Elizabeth Taylor, Kirk Douglas et. al.) tends to trivialize one of the most auspicious acts of selfless heroism of the 1970s. A far better dramatization of the incident, Raid on Entebbe, was telecast a few months later. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In 1926, flamboyant evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappeared for six weeks. At first feared drowned (she'd been vacationing on a California beach at the time she vanished), Aimee finally showed up, wandering barefoot in the Mexican desert. For the benefit of the press, Aimee related a fantastic story of being kidnapped and held for ransom, a story given "credence" by a ransom note which popped up at her Four Square Gospel headquarters. Aimee's tale was full of holes; as more facts became known, it was apparent (to everyone but "true believers") that Aimee had spent those six weeks on a romantic idyll with Kenneth Ormiston, a married radio technician. This made-for-TV movie takes no sides in the controversy, offering generous space to both theories; still, Aimee does not come off as being particularly saint-like. Faye Dunaway stars as Aimee, Bette Davis co-stars as her domineering mother, and William Jordan is man-in-the-middle Ormiston. Written by John McGreevey, The Disappearance of Aimee was the November 17, 1976, presentation of NBC's Hallmark Hall of Fame. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this frantic black comedy, Harry Fishbine (Allen Garfield) is the proprietor of the F&B Ambulance Service, a low-budget free-lance rescue service which is struggling to keep up with the bigger and better funded competition after a law in Los Angeles decrees that the first ambulance to arrive at the scene of a distress call gets the job. F&B's best driver is Mother (Bill Cosby), a free-wheeling ambulance jockey who likes to drink beer and play dance music while he makes his rounds. Mother's new assistant is Speed (Harvey Keitel), a former cop who left the force after allegations of drug use; Speed is looking for a new career and a chance to prove himself. And Jugs is the accurate-if-sexist nickname for Jennifer (Raquel Welch), the company secretary who wants to get out from behind the desk and prove her skills as a paramedic. As F&B's drivers race through the streets of Hollywood, their adventures veer between the hilarious and the tragic. Mother, Jugs and Speed also features Larry Hagman, Dick Butkus, Bruce Davison, and L.Q. Jones. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The second made-for-TV movie based on Charles Moulton's classy comic-strip heroine Wonder Woman, The New Original Wonder Woman was the one that "sold", resulting in a popular and durable weekly series. Replacing Cathy Lee Crosby, who'd starred in the disastrous 1974 adaptation of Wonder Woman, is the statuesque Lynda Carter. Having dwelled exclusively among females on Paradise Islandsince 200 BC, immortal Amazonian princess Diana comes in contact with the real world for the first time in her life when US Army Major Steve Trevor (Lyle Waggoner) crash-lands on the island during WWII. Falling in love with Steve, the Princess assumes the identity of mousy, bespectacled Diana Prince and returns with him to the mainland. Every so often, and unbeknownst to Steve, Diana occcasionally transforms herself into the scantily clad superheroine Wonder Woman (golden lasso, magic belt and bracelets, the whole bit) in order to save the world from the Nazi menace. On this occasion, Wonder Woman does her thing in order to prevent the Nazis from destroying the prototype of a revolutionary new bombsight. First telecast on November 7, 1975, The New Original Wonder Woman was seen on ABC; by the time the Wonder Woman series proper ran its course on September 11, 1979, the property had switched networks to CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi