David Faustino Movies

Can a caterer from Ohio find love in Los Angeles after spending a decade with the same man? Josh (Jason Stuart) is a thirtysomething gay man who came to Los Angeles from Cleveland ten years earlier with his significant other, Lyle (Rusty Updegraff). While Lyle has eased comfortably into the Los Angeles lifestyle, Josh is still a Midwesterner at heart, and he becomes aware of just how far off base he is when he learns Lyle has been having an affair. Josh breaks up with Lyle, and, suddenly single after a decade, he finds he's more than a little out of step with the Hollywood dating scene. Josh's friend Brandon (Christopher Cowen) assures him that it will only take ten dates for Josh to find the new man of his dreams, and after getting some fresh fashion advice from the wildly flamboyant Tex (Jim J. Bullock), Josh hits the Internet looking for love. However, Josh ends up kissing more than his share of toads as he searches for Prince Charming. 10 Attitudes marked the directorial debut of producer Michael Gallant; Gallant also co-wrote the film with leading man Jason Stuart. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The always-touchy issue of euthanasia has provided source material for films since the silent era. 1980's Act of Love stars Ron Howard as the brother of Mickey Rourke, who has been left paralyzed by a motorcycle accident. Howard kills Rourke with a shotgun, claiming his brother begged him to do it. He willingly gives himself up to the authorities and stands trial, hoping more for understanding than exoneration. Made for television, Act of Love was based on a true story, chronicled by author Paige Mitchell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A private eye gets a startling perspective on the sordid underbelly of the ad game in this thriller. Montaghe (David Carradine) is a billionaire business tycoon, and when his daughter disappears under mysterious circumstances, he hires Darrel Chisum (David Faustino), a hard- bitten but streetsmart detective, to find her. Chisum's investigation leads him to Dick Bunche (Michael York), the unscrupulous owner of a large and powerful advertising agency; certain Bunche knows more about Montaghe's daughter than he's telling, Chisum wants to get an inside perspective on what goes on at Bunche's agency, and persuades his friend Erik Denham (Chris Conrad), an out-of-work ad man, to infiltrate the organization. However, Denham and Chisum soon find that Bunche's secrets are deeper and more sinister than they ever imagined. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A poor review of his latest film sends Vince on a shopping spree for a new car; Jessica Alba invites the boys to a party; Eric is stung by Ari's suggestion that Vince get a new manager. ~ Joe Friedrich, All Movie Guide

The angelic Mark (Victor French) is reunited (after a fashion) with his old Air Force buddy, who is now a border drug-enforcement agent. Unfortunately, Mark's friend has been murdered, but not before uncovering a dope-smuggling ring that is using model airplanes as a means of transportation. In the course of events, several other lives are threatened, including that of a young model-plane enthusiast (played by future Married...With Children co-star David Faustino). ~ All Movie Guide

Real-life father and son Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez star in the made-for-TV In the Custody of Strangers. Blue-collar Sheen and his wife Jane Alexander attempt to instill discipline in their three growing children. But their 16-year-old son Estevez chafes at their authoritative attitudes, and runs seriously afoul of the law. Picked up on a drunk-driving charge, Estevez is charged with assault and battery when he fights off the sexual advances of his cellmate. His release continually delayed by judicial red tape, Estevez holds his parents, who are virtually helpless within the strictures of the Law, responsible for the mess he's in. But the real villain of the piece is not a person but an entity: The juvenile justice system, which is overworked, understaffed and swamped with dead-end bureaucracy. Scripted by Jennifer Miller, In the Custody of Strangers debuted on May 26, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this low-budget screwball-mystery, the death of an L.A. woman leads to a surreal murder investigation on the outer fringes of la-la land. When Molly McMannis (Justine Bateman) turns up dead, still impaled with the murder weapon -- a carrot -- the police launch a probe into the colorful world Molly inhabited. The suspects range from her ex-con brother to her roommate to her high-strung friend (Heather Graham). But a more likely culprit lurks among the ranks of a therapy group full of off-the-wall serial killers and the shrinks who coddle them. The fetishistic police detectives -- including sadistic interrogator Angela Pierce (Jill Hennessy) -- prove as disturbing as the people they're investigating. In fact, their unorthodox procedures leave the door open for the killer to strike again. Written, produced, and directed by Jordan Alan, who previously helmed the similarly offbeat Love and Happiness, Kiss and Tell features a who's who of obscure and indie Hollywood talent, including veteran actor Lewis Arquette and his three famous sons. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Playwright Tyrone Atkins lost a promising career in theater and film -- as well as his home, his belongings, and (for a time) his freedom -- when he became addicted to crack cocaine. After conquering his habit, Atkins used his experiences living on the streets as the basis for this story about a group of homeless addicts attempting to hold on to the last shreds of their dignity. Cody (Thomas Jefferson Byrd) was once a respected jazz musician, but after getting hooked on crack, Cody abandoned his wife and son and now lives in a makeshift hut in Los Angeles's MacArthur Park. Cody scrapes up enough money to feed his habit through petty crime and acting as a go-between for more privileged users willing to pay a premium to him rather than hunt down hard-nosed dealer Freddie (B-Real). Cody's friend Blackie (Miguel Nunez) gets along in much the same way, but he finds himself in hot water after he takes off with the money of downwardly mobile TV actor Steve (Balthazar Getty), who gave him a handful of cash to score drugs for him. Cody is forced to take a long look at his responsibilities when he's confronted by his son Terry (Brandon Adams), whom he hasn't seen in years; Cody also runs into Karen (Rachel Hunter), once a fellow addict, who wants him to know there is a way out of the cycle of addiction. MacArthur Park's supporting cast also includes Julie Delpy, Lori Petty, Ellen Cleghorne, David Faustino, Sticky Fingaz, and Sydney Tamia Poitier, while R&B star Macy Gray contributed to the soundtrack; the film was enthusiastically received in its screenings at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

According to legend, the working title for Married...With Children was "NOT the Cosby Show," and that said it all. This raunchy, ribald eleven-year saga of a boorish, dysfunctional family living in the outskirts of Chicago was about as far removed from The Cosby Show as Mercury is from Pluto -- which was just fine so far as its creators, Ron Leavitt and Michael Moye, were concerned. Harboring a lifelong hatred for the "typical, wholesome" American TV family, Leavitt and Moyes chose instead to develop a series which revelled -- nay, wallowed -- in questionable taste, endless insults, and juicy sexual badinage. The newly formed Fox network, anxious to offer programming that would immediately separate itself from the "norm" as dictated by the ABC, CBS, and NBC, was receptive to the concept, and on April 5, 1987, Married...With Children debuted as Fox's first-ever sitcom -- not to mention its first-ever prime-time series. The Bundy family might well have been described as "trailer trash," only they didn't live in a trailer but instead in a large, untidy suburban Chicago house. Patriarch Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) worked for minimum wages as a clerk at Gary's Shoe Store. Being an unregenerate male chauvinist pig, unkempt, and reeking of body odor, Al would sooner hang out at the local nudie bar with his fellow members of "NO MA'AM" (the National Organization of Men Against Amazonian Masterhood) than come home to the wretched meals prepared by his lazy, viper-tongued wife, Peggy (Katey Sagal). Hating housework almost as much as cooking and forever dressed in tight, garish outfits that displayed her ripe figure to anyone who was interested (Al certainly wasn't), Peg was also distinguished by her layers of facial makeup and her towering teased hair. The Bundy's dimwitted, slatternly daughter, Kelly (Christina Applegate), was so proud of her reputation as the high school's "easiest" girl that she sometimes gave annotated lectures on the subject; in later episodes, Kelly worked at such intellectual pursuits as waitressing and as commercial spokesperson for an off-brand beer. Kelly's kid brother Bud (David Faustino), eleven years old when the series began, was a combination juvenile delinquent and con artist, who, once he reached maturity (?), held down jobs as a clerk at the Motor Vehicle Bureau and as a one-person talent agency (with Kelly as his sole client). The Bundy family was a great source of irritation and embarrassment for their strait-laced newlywed neighbors, Steve and Marcy Rhoades (David Garrison and Amanda Bearse), who were respectably employed as accountants. The bad influence of the Bundys eventually seeped over into the Rhoades household, with Steve losing his job, divorcing his wife, and ending up working as a forest ranger, and Marcy taking as her second husband the terminally lazy Jefferson D'Arcy (Ted McGinley), whom she met during a drunken binge at a banker's convention. During the series' seventh season, Shane Sweet became a regular as Seven Bundy, son of one of Peg's many cousins; but the character never caught on and was summarily dropped without explanation. Two other series regulars never appeared on camera. Kevin Curran provided the voice of the Bundys' unhousebroken, oversexed dog, Buck, and later voiced a cute cocker spaniel puppy named Lucky -- who turned out to possess the reincarnated soul of the late and very reluctant Buck. And during the series' tenth season, Kathleen Freeman was heard but not seen as Peg's harridan hillbilly mother, Mrs. Wanker, who moved into Bud's room after walking out on her husband (played in some episodes by Tim Conway).

Bearing absolutely no resemblance to real life and doggedly avoiding sentiment and "very special episodes," Married...With Children was not exactly everyone's cup of treacle; in fact, one Michigan housewife became so incensed by the series' outrages (which were grotesquely exaggerated for full satiric effect) that she organized a letter-writing campaign to force Fox to cancel the series. Though the woman did not succeed, one third-season episode of Married...With Children, in which the Bundys were unwittingly videotaped while having sex at a cheap motel, was never aired by Fox and in fact was not seen in the United States until 2002, some 14 years after it was produced! Though the series had more than its share of detractors, it also enjoyed a huge fan following with most viewers fully aware that Married was actually a spoof of late-'80s/early-'90s TV raunchiness and accepted it as such. The series' "nothing sacred" attitude enabled the writers to sidestep a particularly delicate situation during season six. To accommodate the real-life pregnancy of Katey Sagal, it was decided that Peg Bundy would also have a baby. Unfortunately, Sagal miscarried, leaving audiences to wonder how this personal tragedy would affect the series. As it turned out, the writers managed to transform pathos into hilarity by stating baldly that Peg's pregnancy was merely a bad dream, à la Dallas! (Later in the series, Sagal again became pregnant, fortunately carrying the baby to term; this time around, however, the writers felt it would be best not to say anything whatsoever about babies on the series). Ending its original network run in 1997, Married...With Children has continued to be successfully rebroadcast in syndication and as part of the FX cable network lineup. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Firmly established as the fledgling Fox network's most successful (and most outrageous) sitcom, Married...With Children sails into its second season with more misadventures of the boorish Bundy family and their long-suffering neighbors, the Rhoadeses. As farcical and far-out as the plotlines had been in season one, the series' "real-life" quotient is virtually nonexistent in season two. In the two-part season opener, the Bundys take a vacation to Florida, where Peg (Katey Sagal) is kidnapped by an axe murderer and Al (Ed O'Neill) exerts the least possible energy to save her. Later episodes revolve around the sexual promiscuity of the Bundys' dog, Buck, Peg's revealing (in more ways than one) night out with neighbor Marcy (Amanda Bearse) at a male strip club, daughter Kelly (Christina Applegate) amazing one and all by actually passing her driver's test, 12-year-old son Bud's (David Faustino) tentative fling with a 21-year-old art student, the demise of Santa Claus on the Bundy property, and the first signs of marital disfunction in the Rhoades household. The most talked-about episode of season two was "Peggy Loves Al, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah," in which the Fox network conducted a telephone poll during the original telecast (on February 14, 1988) to find out if the viewers really wanted Al to get off his chauvinistic high horse and tell Peggy that he really loves her. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One significant cast change occurs during season four of Married...With Children -- namely, the departure of Steve Rhoades (David Garrison), long-suffering accountant neighbor of the boorish Bundy family. Taking a chance by okaying a $50,000 loan for the redoubtable Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill), poor Steve loses his job at the bank. Before long, Steve's wife, Marcy (Amanda Bearse), is short one husband, as Steve runs off to become a park ranger at Yellowstone. After the divorce, Marcy joins Al's wife, Peg (Katey Sagal), and the delinquent Bundy children for a getaway vacation to Las Vegas -- which culminates in a grudge match with a female wrestler! Nor is this all that happens during season four -- not by a long shot. In the season opener, "Dead Men Don't Do Aerobics," Peg persuades a physical-fitness nut to pig out on junk food -- with fatal results. Elsewhere, a young Milla Jovovich guest stars as a foreign exchange student who becomes a thorn in the side of the Bundys' daughter Kelly (Christina Applegate); son Bud Bundy (David Faustino) becomes the world's youngest talent agent; the family dog, Buck, finds a voice (in the unseen form of actor Kevin Curran); and Al suffers from an unwelcome foot fetish when chosen to emcee a beauty contest at the shoe store where he works. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season six is "the year of the babies" on Married...With Children. To accommodate the real-life pregnancy of series star Katey Sagal (Peg Bundy), the scriptwriters contrive to have Peg find herself in "the family way" -- and for good measure, the Bundy's next-door neighbor Marcy Rhoades D'Arcy (Amanda Bearse) is also expecting. But by the middle of the season, it turns out the ladies' pregnancies were imaginary, the result of a Dallas-style nightmare. The reason is simple and poignant; Katey Sagal had suffered a miscarriage, so it was decided to eliminate the entire pregnancy angle from the rest of the season. In other, non-maternal plot developments: Bud Bundy (David Faustino), teenage son of Peg and her hubby Al (Ed O'Neill), adopts a nickname that no one can remember; Bud's sister, Kelly (Christina Applegate), gets her own TV talk show, "Vital Social Issues 'N Stuff With Kelly;" experiencing an epiphany, Al decides to devote his life to selling "God's Shoes;" and Marcy has a run-in with ex-husband Steve Rhoades (former series regular David Garrison), currently on the lam for stealing rare hawk eggs from a public park (Don't you just hate when that happens?). The sixth season concludes with a two-parter set in England, where the Bundys, Marcy, and Marcy's current husband Jefferson (Ted McGinley) tackle an ancient curse -- not to mention the more contemporary curse of lost luggage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide