Alan Fudge Movies

In the wake of the 45-million-dollar gross of the original Airport (1970), Universal was all but required by an act of Congress to produce Airport '75. Charlton Heston heads the all-star cast as Alan Murdock, the former test pilot who must keep a disabled 747 from crashing in flames. The crisis begins when a businessman (Dana Andrews), flying his small private plane, suffers a fatal heart attack and the plane smashes into the cockpit of the 747. Following Murdock's radioed instructions, stewardess Nancy Pryor (Karen Black) takes over the controls. The special-guest passenger lineup includes Helen Reddy as a singing nun (a character wickedly satirized in the 1980 parody Airplane!), Myrna Loy as an alcoholic, and Sid Caesar as a garrulous passenger. While Airport '75 yielded only 25 million dollars at the box office, the franchise continued, spawning Airport '77 a few years later and Airport '79 two years after that. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Attack on Fear was based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of newspaper articles by Dave and Cathy Mitchell. Paul Michael Glaser and Linda Kelsey play the Michaels, who labor away at a tiny California daily. Upon hearing of iniquities at the famed Santa Monica drug-rehab center Synanon, the Michaels begin publishing their evidence. Despite legal pressure from Synanon and bizarre anonymously mailed threats, the Mitchells' story results in a major investigation of the revered institution. Completed in 1982, the made-for-TV Attack on Fear was not telecast until October of 1984, and then only after (presumably) being reshaped to satisfy Synanon's battery of attorneys. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Natalie Wood made her last screen appearance in Brainstorm; in fact, she died before the film was completed, necessitating extensive rewrites. Wood's character is secondary to the one played by Christopher Walken. A research scientist, Walken has been experimenting with a revolutionary brain-reading device. This wondrous machine is able to read a person's thought processes and translate these to videotape. When Walken wants to study the brainwaves of his late partner Louise Fletcher, he finds himself seriously at odds with his superiors-not to mention several ominous-looking government types, headed by Cliff Robertson. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The last gasp of gimmick-horror auteur William Castle (who produced and co-wrote), Bug is an entertaining throwback to the mutant-monsters-amok theme of the 1950s (themselves throwbacks of another kind) that he found so profitable. The film stars Bradford Dillman as a kinder, gentler mad scientist who discovers the presence of a bizarre strain of mutant cockroach emerging from the earth after a severe earthquake. Although larger than the average beetle, the most disturbing aspect of the critters is their innate ability to ignite fires with their bodies -- a talent dramatically revealed after a few of the bugs crawl up a vehicle's tailpipe. When Dillman discovers that the creatures possess a group intelligence, he attempts to train and breed them -- which proves to be less than a good idea. In Castle's heyday, this would have proven an ideal theme for one of his patented gimmicks (perhaps having little rubber bugs drop from the ceiling onto unsuspecting patrons at appropriate moments), but director Jeannot Szwarc (who later helmed Jaws 2 and the hankie-fest Somewhere in Time) plays the story straight, with remarkably chilling results. This is also remarkably violent for a mainstream PG film (particularly in the scene where Bad Seed Patty McCormack's hair is ignited by the six-legged arsonists) with a downbeat ending typical of many horror movies of the '70s. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

Neil Simon's bright, autobiographical romantic comedy, a big Broadway success, has been adapted to the screen in a screenplay by Simon, directed by Robert Moore, that subtly shifts the emphasis from the play. In the stage version, recently widowed writer George Schneider (James Caan) and his efforts to form a new relationship after years of marriage, was the crux of the story. The film, however, reduces George's role and, instead, emphasizes the character of Jennie MacLaine (Marsha Mason), the actress being wooed by George. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

This made-for-TV effort from horror director Wes Craven and Salem's Lot producer Richard Kobritz involves a case of cryogenic suspension gone horribly wrong. A wealthy industrialist (Michael Beck) arranges for his body to be kept on ice in a high-tech cryonic chamber with specialized instructions regarding his revival at a future date when medical science can restore him to life. Thanks to a computer malfunction, these instructions are not followed properly, and Beck emerges from the frozen crypt as an empty, soulless creature and a vessel of pure evil with an appetite for destruction. So evil, in fact, that his own mother (Beatrice Straight) decides he must be destroyed and sets out to do the deed herself. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

After an absence of nearly a decade, Peter Falk returns to the role of dishevelled detective Columbo in Columbo Goes to the Guillotine. The special guest murderer this time out is professional psychic Anthony Andrews. The victim is magician Anthony Zerbe, a onetime cellmate of Andrews' who had been the psychic's co-conspirator in a plan to steal military secrets. Zerbe is found lying next to his guillotine trick, his head neatly severed from his body. An accident, says the coroner. Maybe not, says Columbo, whose efforts to tighten the noose around Andrews' neck are complicated by the latter's ESP prowess. The 2-hour Columbo Goes to the Guillotine was telecast February 6, 1989, as the opening volley of The ABC Monday Mystery Movie. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Actress Susan Ruttan, who played the quietly efficient legal secretary on LA Law, does an artistic about-face in the TV movie Deadly Medicine. She plays a Texas pediatrics nurse who may have committed several "mercy killings" of her charges. 43 babies die under mysterious circumstances, with Ms. Ruttan seemingly always lurking in the corridor. When confronted by doctor Veronica Hamel, Susan threatens to accuse Ms. Hamel of the murders--and she does, with astonishing success. Though constructed like a network "mystery of the week", Deadly Medicine is founded on fact. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A Southern big shot (Mitch Ryan) runs his local community like a personal fiefdom. His despotism extends to his abusive marriage to Maggie (Jaclyn Smith). Denied her basic rights as a woman and a human being, Maggie tries to file for divorce, only to run up against a corrupt, good-ole-boy legal system. Her only recourse is to escape from Bogen County without attracting the attention of the paid-off police force. The film's feminist trappings do not entirely compensate for the exploitational nature of the script. Made for TV, Escape from Bogen County first aired October 7, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Everyone seems to be having a Merry Christmas except the people at Seattle Grace. Izzie (Katherine Heigl) can't get into the holiday spirit because she's still p.o.'ed at Alex (Justin Chambers), who for his part is convinced that he'll fail again when he takes his board exams for the second time. Back at the hospital, Bailey (Chandra Wilson) maintains her backbreaking schedule despite her pregnancy; George (T.R. Knight) can't help but feel that his patient's obnoxious relatives are the root cause for her gastric ulcer; and Cristina (Sandra Oh) and Burke (Isaiah Washington) have a theological argument while trying to persuade a 10-year-old to undergo a heart transplant. Finally, though Derek (Patrick Dempsey) and Addison (Kate Walsh have reconciled for the umpteenth time, it doesn't last long--a fact that doesn't make Addison happy, but which may turn out to be the best Christmas present that Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) ever had. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on a true story, the two-part TV movie I Know My First Name Is Steven tells the tragic story of Steven Stayner. At age seven, Steven was kidnapped by two men who held him captive in a tiny shed for seven years. One of the men, a habitual child abuser named Kenneth Parnell, sexually assaulted Steven on an almost daily basis during the boy's ordeal. At age 14, Steven finally was able to escape and return to his family. But we are shown that Steven's safe return was far from the happy ending it appeared to be. He's forced to adjust to a family he'd never really known, to convince himself that his parents had never forgotten him, and to put his seven-year hell behind him. While I Know My First Name Is Steven ends on an upbeat note, the real Stayner died in a motorcycle accident only a few months after this film was first telecast in May 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This TV-dramatization tells the story of marital abuse, but with a slight twist in the formula: the abuser and abused are young, upper-middle-class newlyweds. Kellie Martin is fresh-faced wife and young-mother Katie, who goes against her parents' better judgment and marries the good-looking but shady Jim (Ivan Sergei). Soon after their marriage, Katie realizes her husband has explosive and violent anger, but repeatedly accepts his apologies. After doing everything in her power to hide the truth from her police-officer father (Kevin Dobson), she finally comes clean to her family and tries to leave, facing the ultimate confrontation with Jim. Somewhat typical in its characterizations, the movie is notable for Martin's believable performance as the resigned victim. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi