Susan Dey Movies

The two-part opener of Streets of San Francisco's fifth and final season marks a major transition, as SFPD homicide detective Mike Stone (Karl Malden) loses his longtime partner Steve Keller (Michael Douglas) and gains a new one, athletic young inspector Dan Robbins (Richard Hatch). But before Keller can leave the force to launch a teaching career, he and Stone are faced with the daunting task of rescuing a busload of jurors who have been kidnapped by a "family" of dangerously misguided revolutionaries, who demand the release of their imprisoned cohorts. This two-parter is clearly inspired by the Patty Hearst kidnapping, with former Partridge Family regular Susan Dey delivering a shockingly powerful performance. As a publicity ploy, the season opener features fourteen guest stars, including Marion Ross (then appearing regularly on Happy Days, Barry Sullivan, Dick Van Patten, Norman Fell and Doris Roberts--not to mention such stars-to-be as Anthony Geary and Ron Glass. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Terror on the Beach stars Dennis Weaver and Estelle Parsons as the parents of a family vacationing on the shores of California. A gang of vicious, marauding teenagers invade the campsite and proceed to make the family's life hell. Weaver resists giving into violence until the fierce climax, where he proves just as capable of evil as his tormentors. The highlight of this grim charade is a dune-buggy chase, far better staged and photographed than most of the violent set-pieces. Made for television, Terror on the Beach was filmed on location at California's Pismo Beach. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sky Terror is the reissue title for Skyjacked, a 1972 MGM all-star adventure based on a novel by David Harper. Charlton Heston mans the controls of a Los Angeles-bound commercial airliner which is hijacked to Russia by an unknown miscreant. Even when the skyjacker, revealed to be passenger James Brolin, is subsequently subdued, the crew must contend with a hidden time bomb. The film is graced with a who's who of MGM contractees past and present, including Yvette Mimieux, Walter Pidgeon and Mike Henry. A flashback sequence contains one of the first examples of an American film coming to grips with how rudely our Vietnam veterans were ignored upon returning home; alas, this compassion quickly degenerates into the odious "crazed Vietnam vet" cliche. Footnote: The first network showing of Skyjacked was boycotted by TV stations owned by the Storer Corporation, which had a hard and fast rule against screening any film concerning a hijacked plane. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season two of The Partridge Family is significant for two reasons: number one, the role of Chris Patridge, played during season one by Jeremy Gelbwaks, is taken over by Brian Foster, who would remain with the series until its cancellation two years later; number two, the series' theme song, "When We're Singin'," is given new lyrics and a new title, the now-familiar "Come On, Get Happy." This season's crop of episodes (which includes the classic installment in which Danny Partridge [Danny Bonaduce] worries about losing his singing voice due to tonsillitis) is graced by a number of prominent guest stars. Rob Reiner is seen as a motorcycle hippie named Snake, who falls in love with Laurie Partridge (Susan Dey). Howard Cosell shows up as himself (as if there was any other part he could play) in an episode filmed at Marineland of the Pacific. Dean Jagger appears as a grizzled old prospector who becomes a proxy Santa when the Partridges are stranded in a Nevada ghost town during Christmas, while in another episode with a desert setting, Harry Morgan plays a garage mechanic who gently persuades the family to perform a free concert for a local Native American tribe. Meredith Baxter-Birney is cast as a free-spirited millionairess who may or may not be able to provide the Partridges with lifetime financial security. Arte Johnson goes into his foreign-accent mode as a Russian émigré who offers his services as a jack of all trades to a "typical middle-class American family" (guess who?). And in the season finale, former Hogan's Heroes co-star John Banner, who died in 1972, delivers his final TV performance, as a retired vaudeville mind reader. And, of course, we must not forget the Partridges themselves, led by Shirley Patridge (Shirley Jones), with teen heartthrob Keith Partridge (David Cassidy) writing the songs, younger kids Laurie, Danny, Chris, and Tracy (Suzanne Crough) doubling as vocalists and instrumentalists, and grouchy, kid-hating agent Reuben Kinkaid (Dave Madden) ever seeking out newer and greater methods of enriching himself and his clients. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Investigating the strange noises coming from her garage, widow Shirley Partridge (Shirley Jones) discovers her five children -- Keith (David Cassidy), Laurie (Susan Dey), Danny (Danny Bonaduce), Chris (Jeremy Gelbwaks), and Tracy (Suzanne Crough) -- performing an impromptu rock concert, complete with instruments. Spontaneously joining her kids' makeshift band as lead vocalist, Shirley has a lot of fun, but never imagines that this little performance could lead anywhere. But thanks to the machinations of agent Reuben Kinkaid (Dave Madden) -- whose love of money supersedes his hatred of children -- the Patridges' recording of "I Think I Love You" is soon topping the charts, leading to the "official" formation of that celebrated traveling singing aggregation, the Partridge Family. Thus begins season one of the ABC sitcom bearing the name of that selfsame singing group. Piling into the family's dilapidated, brightly painted bus, the Partridges embark on a steady progression of adventures in a variety of locales, never failing to deliver at least one tune per episode.

Several guest stars grace The Partridge Family during its inaugural season, beginning with a young Farrah Fawcett in the second episode. In subsequent weeks, Ray Bolger and Rosemary DeCamp make their first joint appearance as Shirley's lively parents; Pat Harrington Jr. plays a gangster who puts the muscle on wheeler-dealer Danny Partridge when the ten-year-old starts giving stock tips to the gangster's fiancée; Morey Amsterdam is cast to type as a gag writer brought in to "juice up" the Partridge's act; Dick Clark shows up as himself in another episode, while in a story centering around Keith Partridge, Keith's prom date is played by Annette O'Toole. Other first-season highlights include the classic episode in which Danny is mistakenly drafted, and the one in which Keith arranges for his family to perform in front of a controversial feminist group, just so he can score points with his latest sweetheart. On two separate occasions, episodes of The Partridge Family did double duty as the pilot episodes for potential spin-off series. The first, starring no less than Richard Pryor and Louis Gossett Jr. as a pair of Detroit nightclub owners, failed to yield a series of its own; the second, in which teen idols David Cassidy and Bobby Sherman meet face to face, had better luck, resulting in the weekly half-hour sitcom Getting Together. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide