David Ankrum Movies

Jerry Orbach returns as hard-boiled Boston private eye Harry McGraw, who once again teams up with Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) to solve a murder. This time the victim is a popular actor, who had agreed to serve as one of the auctioneers accepting bids for a torrid diary written by a onetime sex symbol. Not only is the author of the diary under suspicion, but so are several others who'd been a part of her tragic past, obliging Jessica to burrow through the sizeable suspect list so that Harry can make a pinch. Watch for Angela Lansbury's former Picture of Dorian Gray costar Hurd Hatfield--not to mention Jean VanderPyl, the longtime voice of cartoondom's Wilma Flintstone! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although penned by the same screenwriter, David S. Ward, this sequel to The Sting (1973) is tarnished by comparisons to its predecessor. Jackie Gleason fills the shoes of Paul Newman as Harry Gondorff and Mac Davis slips into the Robert Redford role of Johnny Hooker, two con men pals whose latest "sting" involves Hooker pretending to be a down on his luck boxer. Their goal is the fixing of a prizefight, which will rook a tacky nightclub owner (Karl Malden) out of a fortune while simultaneously getting revenge on their old nemesis, Doyle Lonnegan (Oliver Reed). On their side is Veronica (Teri Garr), a seasoned scam artist, but what Gondorff and Hooker don't know is that Lonnegan is manipulating events behind the scenes. Director Jeremy Paul Kagan followed up this terribly unfunny and inferior sequel with the much better received The Journey of Natty Gann (1985), while Ward became a director of such comedies as Major League (1989) and King Ralph (1991). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Making its ABC bow on September 10, 1977, after two preview pilot episodes on April 24, 1976, and May 7, 1977, Tabitha was a spin-off of the popular fantasy sitcom Bewitched (previously seen on the same network from 1964 to 1972). The title character was the daughter of sexy witch Samantha Stevens and her mortal husband, Darrin Stevens. Tabitha was "born" on Bewitched in 1966 and later played by child actress Erin Murphy. Although by rights Tabitha Stevens should have been at most eleven years old when her own series debuted, she was redefined as a grown woman in her early twenties -- and accordingly, was played by adult actress Lisa Hartman. The 1976 pilot episode, which starred Liberty Williams, had Tabitha working as an editorial assistant at a trendy San Francisco magazine. In the series itself, Tabitha was employed as a production assistant on the L.A.-based talk show "The Paul Thurston Show." Though she kept her magical witch powers (inherited from mom Samantha) under wraps for the most part, Tabitha could and did conjure up a spell or two to get herself and her co-workers out of various jams. The supporting cast featured a pre-Vega$, pre-Spenser Robert Urich as the vainglorious, thick-witted Paul Thurston; Mel Stewart as Tabitha's boss, TV producer Marvin Decker; David Ankrum as Tabitha's younger brother, Adam, who, unlike his sister, had no magical powers, but who knew Tabitha's "secret," and did a good job keeping it; and Karen Morrow as Tabitha's Aunt Minerva, a flighty full-fledged witch who enjoyed casting spells on the doltish Thurston. Although Adam and Aunt Minerva were carryover characters from Bewitched, they were not played by the original actors. Conversely, Bewitched veteran Bernard Fox occasionally reprised his famous role as wacky Dr. Bombay, the witches' favorite general practitioner. Only 12 half-hour episodes of Tabitha were seen before ABC made the series vanish into thin air on January 14, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Members of a rock band get a little carried away with their partying lifestyle. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide