Myra Fried Movies

The title of this made-for-TV period drama refers to a low-income suburban New Jersey housing project, which in the year 1958 represents the life's dream of vivacious Brooklyn housewife Gloria Goodman (Kirstie Alley. Weighed down with a well-meaning but boorish husband (Clancy Brown) and a pair of unruly children (Adam Lamberg, Tori McPetrie), Gloria can only dream of life beyond the four walls of her drab little apartment. Enter Bert Kramer (Gil Bellows), a freewheeling young "beat" writer who may well be the only person capable of liberating Gloria and paving the way towards that El Dorado known as Radiant City. The film made its ABC debut on March 31, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A young man with ESP is alarmed to discover that his girlfriend is slated to become a serial killer's next victim. When no one believes him, he attempts to stop the killer himself and made-for-cable terror ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Returning to Toronto to attend a family reunion, a recently-jilted man gives a lift to an attractive young hitchhiker. Confusion abounds when the man's family members take the hitchhiker for his former fiancee. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

With a script that is too anemic for the red-blooded actors featured here, this anorexic comedy moves slowly up and down the corporate ladder with the fortunes and misfortunes of several company men. Jack Issel (Judge Reinhold) gets a VIP position at INC in the PR department (business-speak). Suddenly the corporation's shady activities come to the fore -- especially when a U.S. plant is set to close for a move south of the border where labor is almost free. Enmeshed in these tangles, Jack is hardly prepared to fall in love with the leading activist against the plant closing -- but he does. Meanwhile, a lot of other subplots quickly dispose of potentially budding villains like Stedman (Danny DeVito) the inside trader -- too bad. DeVito and Don King (appearing as himself) would have made a great team. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Season three of the live-action puppet series Fraggle Rock serves up 13 new adventures, taking place in the tiny world hidden beneath the big rock that rests in the backyard of human inventor, Doc. As before, head Fraggle Travelling Matt continues in his explorations of Outer Space (otherwise known as the "real world"), sending back his discoveries in the form of postcards to his home turf of Fraggle Rock. A Christmas parable, "The Bells of Fraggle Rock," opens the series' third season. In subsequent episodes, a huge, pink glob from the gruesome Gorg Family's castle wreaks havoc during Fraggle Rock's annual Joke Day; Gobo Fraggle seeks out a cure for the dread Pebble Pox; Wembley Fraggle finds a magic bottle and uncorks a surprisingly nasty genie; the ability of the Fraggles' furry tales to register "fear" is given quite a workout; Pa Gorg's fear of heights is exposed during a cloudburst, and the hardworking Doozers accept the wrong creature as their long-awaited king. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Although kindly old inventor Doc is unaware that a tiny civilization lives beneath the rock behind his house, Doc's dog, Sprocket, is all too cognizant of this phenomenon. Thus is established the premise of the live-action puppet show Fraggle Rock, which launched its first season's worth of 24 half-hour episodes in January of 1983. The stories deal with the colorful, carefree Fraggles, the hardworking and industrious Doozers, and the gross, dictatorial Gorgs. The first episode, adroitly titled "Beginnings," finds head Fraggle Travelling Matt venturing out of Fraggle Rock and into "Outer Space" (aka the real world), sending postcards of the various wonders he's witnessed to his nephew, Gobo. In later episodes, Wembley Fraggle's willingness to be agreeable to everyone he meets plays right into the hands of the Gorgs; the Doozers are frustrated by the Fraggles' insistence upon eating their construction jobs; Gobo and Red Fraggle go on a treasure hunt; Boober Fraggle gets his feelings hurt once too often; the Fraggles' precious radish supply runs out; and Mokey's efforts to one-up the Gorgs culminate in her funeral -- even though she's very much alive! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi