Harriet Sansom Harris Movies
A dying man entrusts a straight-shooting police detective with the key to a timeless mystery, thrusting the unsuspecting lawman into a deadly world where everyday objects have an unusual influence over reality as the result of an inexplicable rift in time and space. By all accounts the Sunshine Motel was one indistinguishable from any one of the countless other roadside lodges which dot Route 66. On the typical morning of an otherwise ordinary day, however, the contents in room ten of the Sunshine Motel are suddenly transformed into indestructible objects of immeasurable value. There's a comb with the power to stop time when the user runs it through their hair, and a pair of glasses that can inhibit combustion anywhere in a twenty-yard radius. When Police Detective Joe Miller (Peter Krause) is given the most powerful of all the objects - the key to room ten - he is quickly targeted for death by the various cabals that seek to collect the objects; some of the cabals want to collect to objects to achieve their own nefarious means, others simply to prevent them from falling into the wring hands. Things go from bad to worse for Detective Miller when his young daughter disappears in the room and he must race to solve the mystery of this strange phenomenon before he is caught in the crosshairs and his little girl disappears forever. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Krause, Julianna Margulies, (more)
- 2005
Using her unwanted pregnancy as a bargaining chip, Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) sets up several conditions before agreeing to help Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) reduce his prison time -- but it looks like all bets are off when Carlos finally learns about Gabby's affair with John (Jesse Metcalfe). Armed with all the facts pertaining to his mother's suicide -- not to mention a deadly weapon -- a vengeful Zach (Cody Kasch) takes Susan (Teri Hatcher) hostage. Lynette's (Felicity Huffman) hubby, Tom (Doug Savant), intends to extract full retribution for her getting him fired. Bree (Marcia Cross) still hasn't figured out why Rex's (Steven Culp) health has taken a turn for the worse (the "reason" does not appear in this episode). And in anticipation of things to come, new neighbor Betty Applewhite (Alfre Woodard) already shows signs of having dark secrets of her own when she shuns a friendly welcoming visit from Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan). This ironically titled cliffhanger was the final episode of Desperate Housewives' first season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2005
What sinister scheme can George Williams (Roger Bart) have in mind to steal Bree (Marcia Cross) away from Rex (Steven Culp)? Will Lynette (Felicity Huffman) suffer from the presence of her husband Tom's former girlfriend Annabel Foster (Melinda McGraw) when Annabel is hired by Tom's firm? Does Susan's daughter, Julie (Andrea Bowen), have anything to fear from the increasingly obsessive Zach (Cody Kasch)? How will Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) explain away her illegal home invasion? And here's a question we can answer without any problem at all: will Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) be lonely during the eight months that Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) is in jail? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2005
Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) is a far from disinterested witness when Bree (Marcia Cross) goes out to lunch with the charming but slightly sinister George Williams (Roger Bart). Meanwhile, Bree's husband, Rex (Steven Culp), continues to suffer from ill health (can there be a connection somewhere?). And in other developments, Susan (Teri Hatcher) forgives Mike (James Denton) for his fatal "indiscretion"; Felicia (Felicity Huffman) takes a hand in Zach's (Cody Kasch) problems; and Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) finds out that birth control is not 100 percent effective -- especially when it's been tampered with. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2005
There's intrigue aplenty as Desperate Housewives approaches the end of its first season. Still unaware that George (Roger Bart) is more than a passive observer vis-à-vis her husband's illness, Bree (Marcia Cross) falls for George's lie that Rex (Steven Culp) has been bragging about their kinky bedroom escapades; the confrontation that results between her and Rex leads to a drastic downturn in his health. Edie goes into "hell hath no fury" mode when Susan (Teri Hatcher) and Mike (James Denton) move in together. Lynette (Felicity Huffman) unintentionally causes Tom (Doug Savant) to lose his job in her efforts to foil her would-be romantic rival Annabel (Melinda McGraw). And when Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) learns how her birth-control prescription has been tampered with, she angrily tells Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) that he may not be the father, and he reacts in a manner that gets seven more years tacked on to his jail sentence. Alfre Woodard and Mehcad Brooks make their first series appearances as Betty and Josh Applewhite. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2005
Lesley Ann Warren makes her first appearance as Sophie Bremmer, who descends upon her daughter, Susan (Teri Hatcher), after calling it quits with her current boyfriend, Morty (Bob Newhart). Elsewhere, Bree (Marcia Cross) enrages Lynette (Felicity Huffman) when she disciplines Lynette's incorrigible son Porter. Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) has another shocking surprise for his parents. And Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) fiddles with his prenuptial contract while wife Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) burns. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2005
The whole truth concerning the "extracurricular activities" of über-mom Daisy Gibbons (Sharon Lawrence) has a disturbing effect on the ladies of Wisteria Lane -- not to mention some of the husbands. However, Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) and Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) can't be bothered with this crisis in the face of their ever-mounting debts. Meanwhile, Susan (Teri Hatcher) and Edie (Nicolette Sheridan) unexpectedly call a truce; and Lynette (Felicity Huffman) continues to be plagued by the misdeeds of her young boys. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2005
Ryan O'Neal guest stars as Rodney Scavo, father-in-law of Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman). Rodney has a few surprises in store for Lynette and her husband, Tom -- and they don't come wrapped up in pretty ribbons. (Also, listen for an inside reference to the old TV soaper Peyton Place, which also featured Ryan O'Neal.) Meanwhile, Susan (Teri Hatcher) looks askance at the growing relationship between her daughter, Julie (Andrea Bowen), and the secretive Zach Young (Cody Kasch). Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) is shocked by a favor asked by the parents of her teenage paramour, John (Jesse Metcalfe). And Bree (Marcia Cross) doesn't seem all that eager to get back together with her estranged husband, Rex (Steven Culp). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2005
As Valentine's Day dawns, Susan (Teri Hatcher) eagerly awaits her date with Mike Delfino (James Denton) -- or at least she does until a new plot development rears its ugly head. Elsewhere, Bree (Marcia Cross) doesn't know as much about her husband, Rex (Steven Culp), as she thought she did. Lynette (Felicity Huffman) has kid and neighbor trouble again. And Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) finds a job uniquely suited to her special talents when she is hired to model mattresses. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2005
As of now, the only people who know what actually happened to busybody Mrs. Huber are the viewers -- and her killer. Meanwhile, Mrs. Huber's equally problematic sister, Felicia (Harriet Sansom Harris), makes an unexpected appearance. Bree (Marcia Cross) comes to grips with her separation from her husband and tentatively re-dips her toes into the dating scene with pharmacist George Williams (Roger Bart, in his first series appearance). Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) must take drastic measures to compensate for her past extravagances. Susan (Richard Burgi) once more goes head-to-head with ex-husband Karl (Richard Burgi). And Lynette (Felicity Huffman) has reason to regret hiring her new nanny, Claire (Marla Sokoloff). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2005
The journal of the late Mrs. Huber forces Susan (Teri Hatcher) to tell all to Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) about the fire. Bree (Marcia Cross) is having second thoughts about dating George Williams (Roger Bart). Lynette (Felicity Huffman) allows a misunderstanding to go uncorrected to get her son in daycare while she does yoga. And the financial situation of Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) and Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) has been set on its ear thanks to recent unpleasant plot developments. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2003
TV talker "Dr. Phil" McGraw makes his acting debut in this episode. Though mad at Dr. Phil because of an outstanding poker debt, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) agrees to take Roz (Peri Gilpin) to the good doctor's lecture. Upon arrival, Frasier is shocked to discover that Dr. Phil's agent is the redoubtable Bebe Glazer (Harriet Sansom Harris). Frasier is also peeved that Bebe had never been able to make him a huge star in all the time she was representing him. So imagine his surprise when Bebe offers to do for Frasier what she's done for Dr. Phil -- in exchange for certain, er, favors. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phil McGraw, Harriet Sansom Harris, (more)
- 2003
The ABC sitcom It's All Relative had its roots in the 1920s Broadway hit Abie's Irish Rose, which chronicled the trials and tribulations of an Irish-Jewish married couple and their constantly warring parents. This time around, the wedding-bound duo were Boston bartender Bobby (Reid Scott) and Harvard medical student Liz (Maggie Lawson). Though deeply in love and committed to one another, Bobby and Liz were saddled with parents who just plain couldn't see eye to eye on anything. Bobby's blue-collar dad and mom, Mace and Audrey O'Neill (Lenny Clarke and Harriet Harris), were the Irish-Catholic, conservative-Republican owners of a Boston pub. As for Liz, she had two "daddies," wealthy gay art-gallery owner Philip (John Benjamin Hickey) and his life partner, Simon (Chris Sieber). Gloriously anti-PC, the series showed that the gay couple were equally as intolerant of the "straight" O'Neills as the O'Neills were of them. And avoiding the usual "old people can't do it anymore" sitcom cliché, it was obviously that both sets of parents enjoyed robust sex lives. Created by Anne Flett-Giordano and Chuck Ranberg and produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron of Chicago fame, It's All Relative proved an instant winner when the series joined the ABC Tuesday-night lineup on October 1, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lenny Clarke, Harriet Sansom Harris, (more)
Former X-Files writer James Wong makes his sophomore feature as a director at the helm of this science fiction thriller that's reminiscent of Timecop (1994). In the near future, a technology called "quantum tunneling" allows human beings to travel between parallel universes. The abuse of this ability by criminal elements has led to the formation of the Multi-Verse Authorities or "MVA," an agency of quantum traveling cops who apprehend violators of inter-dimensional laws. The MVA faces its greatest crisis when a former agent named Gabriel Yulaw (Jet Li) goes renegade, traveling between one universe and the next, murdering his own parallel selves and gaining enormous power with each slaying. It is believed that when Yulaw has become "the one," the only version of himself to exist, he will be omnipotent, but the final Gabriel Yulaw exists in our plane of existence (the "magna universe") and is also becoming stronger, though he doesn't understand why. Hot on the evil Yulaw's trail are his former partner Harry Roedecker (Delroy Lindo) and Harry's new colleague Evan Funsch (Jason Statham). Created with Wong's longtime writing and producing partner Glen Morgan, The One (2001) co-stars Carla Gugino. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jet Li, Carla Gugino, (more)
- 2001
Although there's little love lost between Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) and his carniverous agent Bebe (Harriet Sansom Harris), something bad always happens when our hero is represented by someone else. This time, Frasier's new agent is young Portia Sanders (Kristin Chenoweth), whose eagerness to please borders on the annoying. The limit comes when Portia gets involved in the rivalry between Frasier and competiting radio shrink Dr. Zach (Chris Berg). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A man is determined to find justice after the loss of a loved one, even though he is incapable of fully remembering the crime, in this offbeat thriller. Leonard (Guy Pearce) is a man who is struggling to put his life back together after the brutal rape and murder of his wife. But Leonard's problems are different from those of most people in his situation; he was beaten severely by the same man who killed his wife. The most significant manifestation of Leonard's injuries is that his short-term memory has been destroyed; he is incapable of retaining any new information, and must resort to copious note-taking and Polaroid photographs in order to keep track of what happens to him over the course of a day (he's even tattooed himself with a few crucial bits of information he can't get along without). Leonard retains awareness that his wife was brutally murdered, however, and he's convinced that the culprit still walks the streets. Leonard is obsessed with the notion of taking revenge against the man who has ruined his life, and he sets out to find him, getting help from Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss), who appears to be a sympathetic barmaid, and Teddy (Joe Pantoliano), who claims to be Leonard's friend, even though Leonard senses that he cannot be trusted. Writer/director Christopher Nolan adapted Memento from a short story by his brother Jonathan Nolan. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, (more)
- 2000
Harriet Sansom Harris returns as Bebe Glaser, carnivorous agent (and former lover) of radio shrink Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer). This time, it is Bebe's turn to take a talent fee as she substitutes for the co-host of the morning TV talk show "AM Seattle." The original plan had been for Bebe to talk Frasier into giving up radio in favor of television...but things work out somewhat differently, as things on Frasier have a habit of doing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
After two acclaimed independent films in which he took a troubling look at male/female relations, director Neil LaBute moves on to less controversial ground in this dark comedy. Betty Sizemore (Renee Zellweger) is a woman from Kansas City who waits tables at a diner and is married to an insensitive thug named Del (Aaron Eckhart). One of Betty's few pleasures in life is the soap opera A Reason to Love. Her favorite character is handsome Dr. David Ravell, played by George McCord (Greg Kinnear). One night, Del gets involved in a drug deal with a pair of gangsters, Charlie (Morgan Freeman) and his sidekick Wesley (Chris Rock). Del's thoughtless racial slurs lead to an arguement, and the short-tempered Wesley attacks him; Charlie is forced to kill Del, as Betty watches. Dazed and in shock, Betty hops into her car, deciding that the time is right for a date with destiny. Betty tracks down George McCord, and soon the soap's producer Lyla (Allison Janney) is considering Betty for a part on A Reason to Love, not realizing that Betty doesn't want to play Dr. Ravell's nurse and fiance, she wants to be her. Betty, meanwhile, has no idea that the drugs that Del was trying to sell are still in her car, and that Charlie and Wesley are hot on her trail, determined to get the dope and silence her once and for all. Nurse Betty also features Kathleen Wilhoite, Crispin Glover, and Pruitt Taylor Vince. The film was shown in competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the prize for Best Screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Renée Zellweger, Morgan Freeman, (more)
- 1998
It is negotiation time again at radio station KACL, and Frasier's carnivorous agent Bebe Glazer (Harriet Sansom Harris) is prepared to pull out every underhanded trick in the book to secure a larger salary for her client -- and, of course, a bigger commission for herself. But Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) has decided to dispense with Bebe's services and put himself in the hands of a nicer and more scrupulous talent rep named Ben (Robert Stanton). Besides, the new agent has promised to arrange for a crane in the Seattle zoo to be named after Frasier! Alas, by the time this episode is over, our hero has been given "the bird" in an entirely different manner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1998
Her upcoming birthday and Greg's lack of sexual interest are stressing Ally out. Meanwhile, Elaine plans a celebration for her. ~ TV Guide, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Calista Flockhart, Courtney Thorne-Smith, (more)
- 1997
Having been a background player for years, Roz (Peri Gilpin) yearns to be an on-the-air radio talent like Frasier (Kelsey Grammer). She gets her chance when a timeslot opens up on station KACL. Frasier and Daphne (Jane Leeves) offer to help Roz by participating in her audition tape, enacting the roles of a couple with sex problems. All seems to bode well for Roz until Frasier mentions the upcoming radio show to his predatory agent Bebe (Harriet Sansom Harris) -- who promptly conjures up her own battalion of auditionees. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1997
Some critics pigeonholed the made-for-TV melodrama Friends 'Til the End as a junior version of such theatrical features as All About Eve and Single White Female. A plain-looking, delusional college girl who calls herself Zanne Armstrong (Jennifer Blanc) goes to great lengths to befriend beautiful, popular coed Heather Romley (Shannen Doherty). Heather graciously allows the girl to enter her circle of friends, little suspecting that Zanne obsessed with "becoming" Heather, literally taking over her life and personality. The scheme is set in motion when Zanne joins Heather's campus band Dead Pink, and reaches a peak of sorts when the deranged girl manages to bed Heather's boyfriend--but the worst is still to come. Friends 'Til the End premiered January 20, 1997 on NBC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1997
Three years after the cancellation of her popular series Murder She Wrote, Angela Lansbury returns for the first of several TV-movie followups to that selfsame series. Once again, Lansbury is cast as Jessica Fletcher, best-selling mystery writer and amateur sleuth. As indicated by the film's title, Hitchcock references abound in the plotline, beginning when a lady vanishes on the train that Jessica is taking to El Paso to deliver a lecture. Helpful Jessica accepts a message for the mystery woman, whereupon she is attacked by an assailant in search of "it." Our heroine is rescued by a journalist who may not be a journalist, then when attempting to ascertain the missing woman's whereabouts Jessica is warned to mind her own business by a guy identifying himself as an FBI agent. Inasmuch as such warnings have never stopped Jessica in the past, she follows the trail of clues to the desert town of Agua Verde, Arizona, adopting a few aliases alng the way. The climax is an echo of Hitch's The 39 Steps, wherein Jessica not only solves the mystery but also unmasks the Least Likely Suspect (or in this case, Least Likely Suspects). Produced and directed by Angela Lansbury's sons, Murder She Wrote: South by Southwest first aired November 2, 1997 on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Jean Townsend (Ann Jillian) is happily married to the dull but dependable Roger (Garrett M. Brown), who does not object to her evenings out to attend various classic-film festivals. On one of these occasions, Jean befriends Tom Doster (Lee Horsley), a fellow film enthusiast likewise mired in a comfortable, conformist marriage. Over the next several weeks, Jean begins socializing with Tom, and it isn't long before the couple is toying with notion of an extramarital affair. But how far will things go--or, to be more specific, how far are Jean and Tom willing to go beyond their own deeply ingrained middle-class values? Essentially a Brief Encounter for the 1990s, the made-for-TV The Care and Handling of Roses was first broadcast by CBS on October 8, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Radio station KACL is purchased by Big Willy Boone (Richard Hamilton) a flamboyant 85-year-old Texas multimillionaire. It turns out that Big Willy is engaged to Bebe Glazer (Harriet Sansom Harris), the redoubtable agent of Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer). Warned that the engagement will be broken off if she doesn't stop smoking within three days, Bebe turns to Frasier for help -- thereby setting up a situation that could either land Frasier a nationally broadcast radio show or a quick trip to the unemployment bureau. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
