Mort Lachman Movies

The documentary Bob Hope: The Road to Laughter contains numerous clips from the film and television work of the beloved entertainer. These snippets are intercut with interview footage featuring people who worked with Hope as well as film historian Leonard Maltin who provides a context for Hope's career. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

With the death of co-star Dolph Sweet on May 8, 1985, the producers of the NBC sitcom Gimme a Break had no choice but to allow Sweet's character, suburban California police chief Carl Kanisky, to pass away as well. The opening episode of the series' fifth season finds the Kanisky household still trying to come to grips with The Chief's death, which in many ways has impacted housekeeper Nell Harper (Nell Carter) far more than Kanisky's daughters Katie (Kari Michaelsen), Julie (Lauri Hendler), and Sam (Lara Jill Miller). Eventually, the family bucks up and moves on with their lives, though Nell is occasionally seen talking to the departed Chief, supplying him with "updates" as to the well-being of his daughters. In other developments, Nell has decided to enroll in college, even though she is sorely tempted to return to her previous career as a singer, never more so than in the two-part "Second Chance", in which she is spotted by actor Gary Collins and given the opportunity to sing on Collins' afternoon TV show "Hour Magazine." Eldest Kanisky daughter Katie has moved into her own apartment, and by season's end has closed down her boutique to accept a high-paying job in San Francisco. Middle daughter Julie finds out she is pregnant, just as her husband Jonathan (Jonathan Silverman) has left on an archeological expedition to Mexico; eventually the couple is reunited and Julie gives birth to a daughter, whom she names after Nell. And youngest daughter Sam has entered the dating scene and is weighing options for her college career. As for the family's foster child, Joey (Joey Lawrence), he finds out he is "gifted" academically, but prefers to remain in the fourth grade where he's happy; and on a more somber note, he accidently shoots Nell with the late Chief's gun, an act for which he cannot forgive himself despite Nell's efforts to calm him down. Finally, season five yields the series' 100th episode "The Elevator", a milestone acknowledged by a closing scene in which the cast breaks character and blows out the candles on a huge cake. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The second season of Gimme a Break finds versatile character actor John Hoyt becoming a full-fledged regular in the role of Grandpa Kanisky, the peppery father of grouchy suburban California police chief Carl Kanisky (Dolph Sweet). Jane Dulo is also seen on a recurring basis as Grandpa's wife, a role previously essayed in season one by Elvia Allman and Elizabeth Kerr. The season opens with Chief Kanisky's sassy housekeeper Nell (Nell Carter) being sent to jail for nonpayment of her phone bill -- a false charge, true, but one that causes no end of embarrassment for all concerned, especially The Chief. Kanisky will also experience troubles with his mortician brother Ed, who has fallen in love with an ex-hooker named Maxine (Arlene Golonka), and who later is in dire need of a kidney transplant (both Ed and Maxine disappear at the end of season two, never to be seen or heard from again) Elsewhere in the Kanisky household, youngest daughter Sam (Lara Jill Miller) causes a ruckus with the first of her several "imaginary friends"; middle daughter Julie (Lauri Hendler) experiments with cigarettes, oblivious to the fact that her mother died of lung cancer; and eldest daughter Katie (Kari Michaelsen) comes to the aid of her unwed-mother friend Valerie, in an episode famous for the fact that it was largely ad-libbed due to the unpredictable behavior of a baby "actor." Also, The Chief learns to tolerate homosexuals when a gay police officer saves his life; racist Aunt Blanche (Gretchen Wyler) sues The Chief for custody of his daughters; Nell and her bird-brained friend Angie (Alvernette Jimenez) try to get rich quick by peddling the "amazo-vac" door-to-door; and, of course, Nell once again gets to show off her musical skills, in an episode featuring the Pointer Sisters as a harmony group called the Doo-Wops. In other episodes worth noting, the two-part "The Centerfold" finds The Chief wrestling with a sexual-discrimination charge and a mad bomber simultaneously; and "Nell and the Kid" features Don Rickles in what was supposed to have been the pilot for a proposed Rickles series titled "Max." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Archie is driven crazy by the persistent yapping of the dog owned by his neighbor Barney Hefner. Things get worse when Archie accidentally runs over the dog with his car, and tries to rush the animal to the vet without Barney knowing anything about it. As the episode draws to a conclusion, Archie's attitude towards animals in general and dogs in particular undergoes a few remarkable changes. Written by Charles Stewart, Ben Starr, Mort Lachman, and Milt Josefsberg, "Archie's Dog Day Afternoon" originally aired on March 12, 1977, as the final episode of All in the Family's seventh season. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the first episode of a two-part story, Archie is offered membership in a secretive "patriotic" organization. Only when it is too late does Archie realize that he's been "rushed" by the KKK, who have designated his own son-in-law, Mike, as their latest target for persecution. Dennis Patrick and Roger Bowen head the supporting cast as Gordie and Mitch, respectively. Written by Bob Schiller, Bob Weiskopf, Mort Lachman, and Milt Josefsberg, part one of "Archie and the Ku Klux Klan" originally aired on November 27, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A plain, prudish librarian goes on a TV game show and finds romance. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi

"The program you are about to see is All in the Family. It seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices, and concerns. By making them a source of laughter, we hope to show -- in a mature fashion -- just how absurd they are." With this carefully worded disclaimer, the CBS television network ushered in a new era of television comedy on January 12, 1971, with the premiere of All in the Family. Inspired by the British sitcom Till Death Do Us Part, the series was proposed by producers Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin in early 1968, and a pilot episode titled "Those Were the Days" was commissioned by ABC. From the beginning, Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton were "set" as leading characters Archie and Edith Bunker (original last name: Justice), though two unknowns were cast as the couple's daughter, Gloria, and son-in-law, Mike Stivic. Also from the beginning, it had been decided to retain the controversial nature of the original British series, with bigoted hard-hat Archie forever at odds with his flaming liberal son-in-law. Alas, ABC had just been burned by the hostile reception afforded another hot-potato project, Turn-On, and had lost its taste for controversy, even when Lear and Yorkin toned down the venom in a second pilot. But in 1970, CBS, in desperate need of a hit for its sagging Tuesday-night lineup, decided to take a chance on "Those Were the Days," which by now had been christened All in the Family, and had added Sally Struthers and Rob Reiner to the cast as Gloria and Mike. Worried that audiences might be unkindly disposed to Archie Bunker's incessant harangues against "hebes," "spics," and "coloreds," CBS prefaced the first episode with the aforementioned disclaimer. Though the opener ended up an anemic 54th in the ratings (due primarily to the decision by several affiliates not to air the program, or to reschedule it to a "fringe" time slot), the first All in the Family was the topic of conversation in virtually every household and place of business in America before the week was out.

By the time the series began in its second season in the fall of 1971, All in the Family was CBS' top-rated program, a status it enjoyed for the next five years. Archie Burnker, a loading-dock supervisor who resided at 704 Houser Street in Queens, NY, was a firm and immovable believer in America, right or wrong (but mostly far, far right). Offsetting Archie's racial slurs, antediluvian political beliefs, and incessant malapropisms was his somewhat foolish but fundamentally good-hearted wife, Edith (or "Dingbat," as Archie designated her); his budding-feminist daughter, Gloria; and Gloria's long-haired, radical husband, Michael Stivic (aka "Meathead" and "Polack"), who while attending graduate school lived with Archie and Edith, and all but ate them out of house and home. In virtually every episode, an Issue (with a capital "I") was brought to the forefront -- gun control, the sexual revolution, homosexuality, religion, integration, rape -- with Archie taking the diehard conservative viewpoint, Mike assuming the liberal stance, Gloria siding with Mike, and Edith sitting on the sidelines making inane (but sometimes surprisingly sensible) comments. Usually, Archie would be hoisted by his own bigoted petard, but sometimes Mike would be trapped in the morass of his good intentions. Whatever the case, All in the Family tackled subject matter that only a few years earlier would have been rejected out of hand on network television, using language that likewise had seldom if ever been heard on the small screen. In this respect, All in the Family can be regarded as the single most influential situation comedy in television history.

Over the years, Archie's character mellowed a bit, but fundamentally he remained the same opinionated jerk he'd been in the first episode. Through it all, however, one never doubted that the members of the Bunker family all loved one another dearly and intensely. In addition to the "core" regulars, several other recurring characters paraded past Archie's beloved easy chair: Lionel Jefferson (Mike Evans), a black friend of Mike and Gloria's who, much to Archie's dismay, became their across-the-street neighbor (Lionel's upscale black family would later be spun-off into their own series, The Jeffersons); Irene and Frank Lorenzo (Betty Garrett and Vincent Gardenia), who were every bit as broad-minded as Archie was not; Bert Munson (Billy Halop), an employee at the cab company where Archie moonlighted; Archie's co-worker and lodge buddy Barney Hefner (Allan Melvin); and Tommy Kelsey (Brendan Dillon, and later Bob Hastings), owner of Kelsey's Bar, Archie's favorite hangout. At the beginning of the 1975-1976 season, Gloria and Mike moved next door to Archie and Edith, and in December of 1975, Gloria gave birth to her first child, a boy named Joey. During the 1976-1977 season, Archie met yet another sociological opponent in the form of Puerto Rican boarder Teresa Betancourt (Liz Torres). And as the 1977-1978 season began, Archie made the momentous decision to quit his job and purchase Kelsey's bar, which he renamed Archie Bunker's Place. This season ended with Mike, Gloria, and Joey bidding farewell to Archie and Edith when Mike landed a teaching job in California. The Stivics' former sleeping quarters were taken over in 1978 by Stephanie Mills (Danielle Brisebois), Edith's niece, who had been abandoned by her ne'er-do-well father.

All in the Family per se came to an end with the final episode of the 1979-1980 season; thereafter the multi-award-winning series was known as Archie Bunker's Place. In addition to its prime-time run, All in the Family was seen in rerun form as part of the CBS daytime lineup from December 1975 to December 1979; and in 1991, selected episodes of All in the Family were run in tandem with a newer but much (much) less successful Norman Lear production, Sunday Dinner, which debuted and wrapped within a month. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This story is taken from the real-life marriage of two people in the early 1960s. Helen North (Lucille Ball) is a widow with eight children who falls in love with Naval officer Frank Beardsley (Henry Fonda), a widower with ten children of his own. The two marry as comedy ensues from the sheer numbers and diverse age groups of the offspring. Narration is used in the first half of the film to help set the stage for the impending nuptials. Van Johnson is the mutual friend who brings the couple together. Tom Bosley plays the harried doctor who makes a house call and finds almost two dozen patients under one roof. The newlyweds are soon off to the hospital when Helen becomes pregnant with the couple's first child in this amusing family comedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi