Teryl Rothery Movies

In this drama, a woman teeters on the brink of deliberately falling to her death. Flashbacks provide insight as to why and who she is. Somehow it all has to do with the mid-life crises of three old friends. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Produced for television, George Schaefer's comedy-drama casts Katharine Hepburn as Victoria Brown, a sharp-tongued spinster who discovers petty thief Moony Polaski (Ryan O'Neal) hiding out in her attic. Instead of calling the police, Victoria befriends her guest, even as the manhunt for him gathers steam. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

Real-life recovering anorexic Tracey Gold stars in this emotional drama, which is more than your average disease-of-the-week fare. Based on the true story of college-student Nancy Walsh, this above-average TV-movie focuses on the family dynamic issues often found at the core of the eating disorder known as anorexia. Viewers watch Nancy as she slowly transforms from healthy and outgoing college freshman into a secretive and withdrawn young woman, starving herself in response to pressure. Her frantic parents (Jill Clayburgh, William Devane) try everything possible to save her from the slow suicide and ultimately go to the courts to legally force their daughter into getting help. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi

This family drama features the riotous exploits of a lovable seal who befriends a family of animal lovers living in Rockport Maine. The father in this family is Harry Whitney, the harbor master with a great love of animals. His wife Thalice, teenagers Steve and Paula also adore wild critters. But the one who loves them most of all is Toni, a grade-schooler. Every corner of their seaside home is filled with small animals. At work Harry battles the fishermen who hate the seals because they interfere with their catch. Their leader is Billy Baker who drinks too much. At school Toni is persecuted by her schoolmates, the sons and daughters of fishermen. Andre, the seal, has been separated from his clan and is sick. He is rescued by Harry, who brings him home. With Toni's special help, Andre returns to health and becomes a real handful by getting into innocent trouble at every turn. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this drama, a high-school counselor's life becomes a living hell after she discovers that the school principal has been abusing his power and sexually harassing his students. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Roger Moore stars as a writer whose art imitates life in this made-for-TV thriller. Moore stars as Ken Brown, a mystery writer who's central character is based on the profile of a real-life criminal. When the criminal (Malcolm McDowell) escapes from prison by faking his death, he sets out to bring Brown's stories to life and begins a murder spree. Nancy Allen co-stars as a psychic who teams up with Brown to catch the killer. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi

This fact-based TV movie stars John Ritter as Ed Chandler, whose life is torn asunder when his daughter Missy (Anna Chlumsky) is diagnosed with cancer. The nature of Missy's illness obliges Ed to spend many hours away from his job as a car salesman to commiserate with her daughter's doctors at the hospital. Then one day, Ed shows up at work to be coldly informed that he has been fired--and there is no one to whom he can go to plead his case. The plight of the Chandler family ultimately leads to the creation of the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act, which allows persons up to six weeks' leave from their jobs when their family members are suffering from serious illnesses. Telecast by CBS on January 21, 1997, Child's Wish (cable title: Fighting for Justice made headlines when it first aired because of the appearance of President Bill Clinton in the final scene--the first time that a sitting President ever starred as "himself" in a dramatic film (as well as the first such scene to be lensed on location in the Oval Office!) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Called back to active duty by Gen. George Hammond (Don S. Davis), Col. Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) emerges from the retirement he'd imposed on himself after vanquishing Ra, despotic leader of the hideous Goa'uld race, in the "alternate universe" planet Abydos. Word has reached Hammond, head of the top-secret Stargate project, that O'Neill's former associate Dr. David Jackson (Michael Shanks), who'd discovered that the universe is festooned with Stargate "portals" enabling alien civilizations to pass from one plane of reality to another and back again, and who'd evidently perished during the battle with Ra, may still be alive. Blasting off from Stargate Command's headquarters in the Air Force's Cheyenne Mountain Complex, where the Earth's Stargate is located and carefully guarded, O'Neill and his Stargate 1 team, including scientist Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) manage to cross over into Abydos and rescue Jackson from Ra's vicious successor Apophis (Peter Williams). Armed with a map drawn up by Jackson, the SG-1 personnel dedicate themselves to journeying to as many Stargates in the galaxy as possible, the better to protect a variety of alien races from hostile invasion. And thus begins the first season of the enormously popular cable sci-fi series Stargate SG-1. Before long, O'Neill et al. have taken on a new ally, Jaffa soldier Teal'c (Christopher Judge), who refuses to fall in line with his people and blindly accept the Goa'uld as gods. Though Teal'c seems to be trustworthy, the rest of the crew cannot forget that he, like all Jaffan males, carries a larval Goa'uld in his stomach. The SG-1's intergalactic perambulations brings the team in contact with the Shavadi warriors on the planet Simarka; with planet P3X797, where a strict caste system is determined by who lives on the "dark" and "light" side of the plane; and with Samantha Carter's former lover (played by William Russ), who rules Kurtzlike as a god on a faraway planet. In one startling episode the entire crew is actually killed by the predatory Apophis, only to be brought back to life by the invisible Fenri race. Elsewhere, O'Neill undergoes an accelerated aging process on the planet Argos; the crew uncovers disturbing evidence of Stargate activation as far back as 1945 -- but they may never live to tell about it; SG-1 takes the first of many trips to the Planet Cimmeria, ruled by Holographic Norse deities; Teal'c tries to save his son Rya'c (Neil Denis) from being inseminated with a Goa'uld larva; Samantha bonds with a little girl who may have to be killed before she can destroy all humankind, and later Sam and O'Neill are marooned on a frozen planet where she is forced to assume command; and Dr. Jackson is whisked into an alternate reality where all the familiar characters undergo radical changes of personality. Season one ends as all subsequent seasons will, with a cliffhanger that will remain unresolved until the beginning of the next season. In this case, Jackson must alert the team of his foreknowledge that Earth is due for an attack by the Goa'uld -- just as the Stargate Project's funding is slashed to the bone by an anti-military politician. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Teenager Carly Astin (Chandra West) is terrified of the new boyfriend brought home by her single mom Diana (Morgan Fairchild) -- so much so that she runs away from her Salt Lake City home and into the clutches of seductive, smooth-talking Brad Winters (Ricky Paull Goldin). Unfortunately, Winters is a "recruiter" for various houses of prostitution, some of them disguised as strip joints. Thus, Carly ends up taking her clothes off for libidinous strangers in a seedy Seattle nightspot, where she manages to remain more or less unsullied thanks to the maternal ministrations of older stripper Adrian (Venus Terzo) -- who is murdered for her troubles! It falls to Carly's mother Diana to come to her senses, shed her slimy beau, and rescue Carly from what used to be labeled "the fate worse than death." Based on a true story, the made-for-TV Into the Arms of Danger: A Moment of Truth Movie debuted February 3, 1997, on NBC. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Part of ABC's sporadic TV-movie series "Crimes of Passion", I Know What You Did stars Rosanna Arquette as Stacey Keane, a high-profile lawyer who specializes in defending accused rapist. In a prime example of grim irony, Stacey is attacked and sexually assaulted in her own home. Freeing herself from her assailant, Stacey accidentally kills the man, then hides his body. Unfortunately, there was a witness (Lawrence Monoson) to Stacey's desperate act of self-defense. . .and he will remain silent only for a price. The fact that the heroine's fiancé (Steven Eckholdt) is one of the investigating officers only serves to underscore the marked resemblance between this film and Alfred Hitchcock's early talkie Blackmail. I Know What You Did was originally telecast on January 11, 1998. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Another in a series of NBC TV movies originally telecast under the umbrella title "Moment of Truth", Playing to Win stars Lisa Dean Ryan as 17-year-old Dana Erikson, whose new boyfriend Marshall (David Lascher) is a compulsive gambler. Drawn in to Marshall's "special" world, Dana finds that she herself is unable to stop gambling--in fact, she is even more obsessive and self-destructive in he. In short order, Dana loses her money, her job and her reputation, and is reduced to cheating and stealing to feed her habit. Clearly, a visit to Gamblers Anonymous is called for--but is it too late for Dana to save herself? Playing to Win: A Moment of Truth Movie was first broadcast on February 11, 1998. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Resolving the cliffhanger ending established at the end of season two, season three of Stargate SG-1 finds evil Goa'uld queen Hathor (Suanne Braun) still trying to win SG-1 teammates Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson), Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping), and Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) over to her side -- while the team's Jaffan ally Teal'c (Christopher Judge). In the midst of this tense situation comes some good news; Carter's father Jacob (Carmen Argenziano) -- saved from the brink of death when his body became host for Selmak, a leader of the Goa'uld resistance movement Tok'ra -- has now joined his daughter and her comrades in the ongoing battle to protect Earth from hostile aliens who've penetrated the many Stargate portals throughout the galaxy. In later episodes, a killer parasite plunges Jackson into madness and threatens the sanity of the other team members, which may force General Hammond (Don S. Davis) to kill them all "for the greater good"; Hammond himself later becomes a liability to the Stargate Project thanks to a race of "morphing" aliens; the Quantum Mirror, a device introduced during the series' first season, once again causes profound personality changes in the protagonists when they pass into an alternate-reality Earth; and in a plot right out of a WWII spy picture, O'Neill and his crew come face to face with young alien warriors who've been trained to impersonate Stargate personnel for the purposes of infiltration and ultimate domination. Also, Jackson must make a crucial decision about his future after Teal'c is forced to kill Jackson's alien wife Sha're (Vaitaire Bandera). A "necessary" bit of thievery results in O'Neill's resignation in disgrace from the Stargate program -- and into the greedy clutches of con artist supreme Col. Maybourne (Tom McBeath). And in the two-part "Jolinar's Memories," the fate of the crew as they attempt to infiltrate the (literally) Hellish prison moon Sokar is in the hands -- and the mind -- of Samantha Carter. Likewise offered as a two-parter is the season's cliffhanger finale, in which the Earth is once again threatened with invasion -- this time by metallic Replicator bugs. In order to save mankind, O'Neill and the team may be forced into an act of mass suicide! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This two-part, four-hour miniseries adaptation of Dean Koontz's best-seller Sole Survivor begins with a plane crash that takes the lives of the wife and daughter of reporter Joe Carpenter. No sooner has Carpenter absorbed this tragedy than he begins receiving evidence that the air tragedy may not have been the accident it first seemed to be. At least, that is the story of Rose (Gloria Reuben), the only survivor of the crash. Following up on Rose's firsthand account of the events, Joe is led to the mysterious Quartermass Organization, where secret experiments are being conducted to imbue innocent youngsters with the power to heal, perform mind-transference feats over thousand of miles, move objects through sheer will power -- and, from time to time, to commit murder. Although John C. McGinley is cast as the nominal villain, hero Joe Carpenter would be well advised to watch his back whenever "heroine" Rose is around. Dean Koontz's Sole Survivor was originally telecast on September 13 and 14, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi