Robert Guillaume Movies

The made-for-TV Fantastic World of D.C. Collins is curiously not a pilot film, despite the presence of the principal character's name in the title. D. C. Collins (played by Gary Coleman) is the son of a U.S. diplomat. His own life is deadly dull, so D.C. escapes into fantasy. At various junctures, he imagines himself to be space traveller Dwight Cloudclimber and archaeologist Alabama Smith (these character names are a tip-off to the film's level of wit). Collins gets a chance to act out his fantasies when he becomes embroiled in a real-life adventure involving stolen documents. The eclectic supporting cast includes Jason Bateman, Michael Ansara, and George Gobel! Fantastic World of D.C. Collins premiered February 10, 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nick Newell (Gary Coleman) doesn't like being called a "genius," but the word certainly fits. The 13-year-old is starting as a freshman at Brighton University, and he's excited to be in a class taught by his idol, famous astronomer Jason Mills (Robert Guillaume). He gets along great with his roommate, Steve (Dean Butler), and gains the friendship of a pretty co-ed named Julie (Kari Michaelsen). Unfortunately, Nick's brain power doesn't prepare him for the problems that arise from being younger than everyone else on campus. Anxious to make a good impression on Professor Mills, Nick tries too hard and only embarrassess himself, plus his grades are slipping for the first time in his life. Nick also develops a massive crush on Julie, who considers him more of a younger brother than a love interest. When Julie and Steve become interested in each other and Professor Mills criticizes an extra-credit project, Nick despairs and decides to take a bus back home. He's surprised to find out how much he's loved, though, when his friends follow and beg him to return. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide

Gary Coleman stars as a teen-age angel who must return to Earth to help out three troubled families in order to earn his wings. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

For the first (and thus far the only) time in his career, Chevy Chase plays a genuinely sympathetic character in Neil Simon's Seems Like Old Times. This time around, Chase is a divorced novelist who is abducted by crooks and set up as the fall guy in a bank robbery. Arrested, Chase manages to escape and to make his way to the home of ex-wife Goldie Hawn, now a highly respected liberal defense attorney. Chase's unexpected arrival coincides with an important dinner party on behalf of Goldie's current husband, district attorney Charles Grodin. At first making every effort to give Chase the boot, Hawn, ever the champion of the underdog finally decides to help him out of his dilemma--much to the discomfort of her politically ambitious husband. Wisely, Grodin does not play his character as an unpleasant stuffed shirt; he is as likeable as Chase and Hawn, giving the farcical plot convolutions a tinge of reality. We care about the people involved, thus the laughs spring as much from characterization as they do from the situation. If only Seems Like Old Times didn't have that lame-brained final close up..... ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When Soap arrived at its cliffhanging season-two finale, Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) was trying to choose between her husband Chester (Robert Mandan) and a detective named Donahue; Jessica's son Billy (Jimmy Baio) was in the clutches of a religious cult called the "Sunnies"; and Jodie's step-father (and Jessica's brother-in-law) Burt Campbell (Richard Mulligan) had been abducted by space aliens. Season Three finds Billy being rescued from the Sunnies by Jessica's butler Benson (Robert Guillaume), while an alien clone of Burt moves into the Campbell home undetected -- much to the delight of Burt's spouse Mary (Cathryn Damon), who immensely enjoys the vast improvement in her sex life! In other developments, Jessica's daughter Eunice (Jennifer Salt) is getting tired of life on the run with her escaped-con husband Dutch (Donnelly Rhodes); Eunice's sister Corrine (Diana Canova) is just about fed up with her do-nothing husband, ex-priest Father Tim; Jodie's gangster brother Danny (Ted Wass) is saved from mob retribution by a girl named Millie (Candy Azzara), but ultimately forges a new romance with a black girl named Polly Dawson (Lynne Moody); Jessica decides to forgive Chester, only to have him cheat on her again; "Alien Burt" impregnates Mary, and later "Real Burt" runs for sheriff; Mary's gay son Jodie (Billy Crystal) launches a few more "straight" relationships; and Benson leaves the employment of the Tate family (a move necessitated by actor Robert Guillaume's defection to his own sitcom titled -- what else? -- Benson). This season's 60-minute cliffhanger finale finds Danny proposing to Polly, Jodie fighting for custody of the son born to him by Carol David, and Mary trying to figure out how to tell Burt that her baby is not his; and, after a lengthy illness, Jessica Tate dies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-TV remake of the 1953 comedy, the wisdom of a young batboy (Gary Coleman) leads the San Diego Padres from worst to first and an eventual berth in the World Series. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Just as season four of Good Times was marked by the defection of actor John Amos as James Evans, so too was the series' fifth season distinguished by the conspicuous absence of another leading character. Having already gone on record over the dissatisfaction with the direction in which the series had gone -- that is, from a positive depiction of a closely knit inner-city family headed by a strong male parental figure to a somewhat stereotypical portrait of a fatherless ghetto clan dominated by the buffoonish behavior of the family's oldest son -- Esther Rolle (aka Florida Evans) decided to follow Amos' lead. Citing "illness," Rolle was off the Good Times cast list as of September 1977. Her character's sudden disappearance was neatly compensated for by explaining that, after a whirlwind courtship, Florida had married the irascible but lovable Carl Dixon (Moses Gunn), and had moved with her new husband to Arizona. The three Evans children -- J.J. (Jimmie Walker), Thelma (BernNadette Stanis), and Michael (Ralph Carter) -- had stayed behind in the family's tiny Chicago apartment, with the tacit understanding that Florida's longtime friend and neighbor Willona Woods (Ja'net DuBois) would drop in from time to time to make sure the kids were doing well. While J.J. was still the prankish "Dy-no-mite Kid," his sudden ascension to head of the Evans household had thrust maturity and responsibility upon him; he even landed a semi-steady job as an ad agency artist. In other words, J.J. began behaving less like a sitcom clown and more like a genuine human being -- precisely what Esther Rolle had been demanding for years. It was this metamorphosis as much as anything else that persuaded Rolle to return to the series at the outset of season six. To counteract the depletion of the basic Good Times ensemble, the producers contrived to add a brand new character and to build up an older one. A very young Janet Jackson was added to the cast as 13-year-old Penny Gordon, the product of an abusive home. Taking pity on Penny, the childless (and husbandless) Willona adopted the girl, thereby opening up a whole new realm of plot possibilities. In addition, the Evans' penny-pinching landlord Nathan Bookman (played by Johnny Brown) was promoted from recurring character to full regular. Theoretically, the time-honored ritual of cast additions and deletions is supposed to breathe new life into old sitcoms (look what that ritual did for M*A*S*H). Unfortunately, Good Times showed few signs of resuscitation. Although the series still had a loyal coterie of fans, it continued to plummet in the ratings, losing out to ABC's Eight is Enough on Wednesday nights, then to NBC's Little House on the Prairie when Good Times moved to Mondays in mid-season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The endless intrigues (sexual and otherwise) involving the Campbells and the Tates are already up and running as the satirical sitcom Soap launches its first season. By the time episode one has faded from view, the audience is aware that blowhard businessman Chester Tate (Robert Mandan) is cheating on his wife, Jessica (Katherine Helmond); that Jessica herself is fooling around with studdish tennis instructor Peter (Robert Urich), who in turn is sleeping with Jessica's daughter, Corrinne (Diana Canova); that Corrinne's brother, Billy (Jimmy Baio), is nervously anticipating his first score -- er, first date; that Billy's other sister Eunice (Jennifer Salt) is the only member of the family who isn't sex-obsessed; and that Jessica's senile father, "The Major" (Arthur Pierson), is still reliving the horrors of WW2 -- with a bit of prodding from the family's sneering butler, Benson (Robert Guillaume). Meanwhile, Jessica Tate's sister, Mary Dallas Campbell (Cathryn Damon), is having troubles of her own with her blue-collar second husband Burt Campbell (Robert Mulligan) and her sons, mobster Danny Dallas (Ted Wass) and homosexual Jodie Dallas (Billy Crystal) (it is revealed that Mary's first husband officially committed suicide, but that Mary "helped" his demise along). In future episodes, we learn that tennis pro Peter is the son of Burt Campbell; that a contract has been taken out on Burt, and Danny is to be the hit man; that Jodie is contemplating a sex change operation; and that Corrine is having an affair with an ex-priest. We are also introduced to "mob daughter" Elaine Lefkowitz (Dinah Manoff), whom Danny is forced to marry if he wants to save his skin. Season one ends on a cliffhanger with Jessica being arrested for, and convicted of, the murder of Peter Campbell -- but the series' narrator assures us that she didn't do it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An old sitcom plot line is given a fresh new workout in this episode of All in the Family. Receiving a chain letter from superstitious Edith, Archie and Mike laugh off the "dire predictions" catalogued therein and disdainfully throw the letter away. But then, both men experiencing an uncanny streak of bad luck. Future Benson star Robert Guillaume appears as the doctor. Written by Lou Derman and Milt Josefsberg, "Chain Letter" originally aired on October 20, 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This sequel to Superfly has former drug dealer Youngblood Priest living in Rome with his lover. His life has become peaceful and he is utterly bored, so when a gun-smuggling African revolutionary shows up, he decides to help him overthrow the tyrant who is running the rebel's country. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide