Karen Austin Movies

Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry was especially written by playwright James Prideaux for Katharine Hepburn. It would have been impractical to attempt a live staging, so the script was committed to a TV movie, under the direction of Hallmark Hall of Fame veteran George Schafer. Hepburn plays another variation on the indomitable elderly lady that has become her forte in the past decade. Here she is Margaret Delafield, a wealthy WASP widow who falls in love with the divorced Jewish doctor (Harold J. Stone) who has saved her life. The clucking tongues of both her family and the doctor's will not dissuade her: Mrs. Delafield stands her ground in a climactic scene reminiscent of the actress' earlier Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (67). Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry is formula all down the line, but every latter-day Katharine Hepburn performance deserves to be treasured (though the film itself hardly warranted the three-page TV Guide article written by Ms. Hepburn herself). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cinematographer Michael Chapman directed this John Sayles adaptation of Jean M. Auel's best-selling ode to Cro-Magnon women. The story begins at the moment in pre-history when the last of the Neanderthal men were becoming extinct and the superior race of Cro-Magnons were starting to supersede them. Focusing on a tribe of wandering Neanderthals who adopt a young girl named, Ayla (played as an adult by Daryl Hannah). She grows tall, lithe, and smart. The Neanderthals quickly accept her into their tribe, but once a tribal member, Ayla begins to question the tribe's male chauvinistic presumptions. Unable to conceive of why only men are given weapons, she takes it upon herself to learn how to use a slingshot. She then questions the tribe's assumptions concerning sexual politics. She learns to count and becomes the assistant to the local medicine expert. As the seasons wear on, the tribe utilizes Ayla's knowledge for their own good while Ayla's continues to try the patience of the tribe with her unspeakable feminist demands. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-television drama, a former-CIA agent is called back into to service to stop a megalomaniacal scientist's killer robot from assassinating the President and other major political figures. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

After twenty-five years, a trio of old high school friends are held responsible for a rape incident they have, until now, kept secret in this television miniseries based on Thomas Thompson's novel. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

This routine comedy is about a series of misadventures during a family vacation at the beach and stars John Candy (who died of a heart attack while filming in Mexico in 1994) as John Chester and Karen Austin as his long-suffering wife Sandy. When the family leave for what turns out to be a pretty decrepit shack on a public beach, Jack eventually locks horns with the owner of this dubious piece of real estate, and their conflict terminates in a boat race in which Jack and his motley crew are at first glance, and even second, no match for the others in the race. In the meantime, there are plenty of skits with Jack dressed as anything from an ample, unintentional likeness of a geisha to the normal tourist dude in a Hawaiian shirt. His wife and daughter tackle their own problems, related to sex in one way or another, mostly another. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Introduced to NBC's Wednesday-night schedule as a mid-season replacement on January 4, 1984, the weekly 30-minute sitcom Night Court quickly built a large and appreciative audience, enabling the series to remain on the network for nine seasons. Harry Anderson, a comedian who had established his reputation as a smooth-talking, nimble-fingered street magician and self-styled con artist, was perfectly cast as affable, irreverent Manhattan night-court judge Harry T. Stone. Although he came across as an iconoclastic jokester who held standard legal procedure in contempt (in one episode, his verdict was based on the flip of a coin), Harry was a highly successful jurist with a well-honed sense of fair play, whose handling of the oddballs that paraded in and out of his court resulted in a gratifyingly low "return" rate and quite a few reformations. Even those who'd never stood before Judge Stone in court were familiar with his lovable eccentricities, including his fondness for faded blue jeans and his adoration of singer Mel Tormé. The supporting cast included John Larroquette as Assistant DA Dan Fielding, who spent as much time trying to score with the ladies in night court as he did trying to secure convictions, and Richard Moll as bald-headed bailiff "Bull" Shannon (Richard Moll), whose bark was worse than his bite, but not by much.

During the series' first season, Paula Kelly was seen as legal-aid defense lawyer Liz Williams, who was alternately appalled and fascinated by Harry's unorthodox tactics; Karen Austin also appeared as court clerk Lana Wagner, who harbored a not-so-secret crush on Harry. In subsequent seasons, Liz was replaced by Billie Young (Ellen Foley), who in turn was replaced by Christine Sullivan (Markie Post); as for Lana, her replacement was Mac Robinson (Charles Robinson). Both Christine and Mac remained for the rest of the series; not so with Selma Diamond as abrasive jail matron Selma Hacker, a character who lasted only until Diamond's death. The actress' replacement, Florence Halop as Florence Kleiner, likewise passed away after only a short time on the series; she in turn was replaced by Marsha Warfield as Roz Russell, a character who stayed in place until the series' own demise. The on-again, off-again romance between Harry Stone and Christine Sullivan was definitely "off" during seasons seven and eight, when Christine was wed to undercover cop Tony Guillano (Ray Abruzzo), a union which produced a baby. After Christine divorced Tony, her relationship with Harry heated up considerably, but before long the ardor had cooled. Eventually, Christine was elected to congress, whereupon she was pursued not by Harry but by the ever-libidinous Dan Fielding. The final episode of Night Court, which set something of a record for the number of bizarre, surrealistic incidents occurring within a single half-hour, was broadcast on July 1, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A nurse who had served in Vietnam is found dead under questionable circumstances. After performing an autopsy on the unfortunate woman, Quincy (Jack Klugman) is alerted to the plight of the victim's best friend Rachel Kane (Karen Austin), also a nurse and likewise a Vietnam veteran. It soon becomes painfully obvious that Rachel is suffering from delayed-stress syndrome, and is "coping" with her depression by drinking heavily--and unless Quincy can come to her aid, the woman's plight may terminate fatally. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Future Magnum,P.I. star Tom Selleck makes his first Rockford Files appearance in the role of the dazzlingly handsome and insufferably successful private eye Lance White. Reluctantly teamed with Lance, Jim tackles the case of Veronica Teasdale (Karen Austin), the allegedly kidnapped daughter of a prominent weapons industrialist (Bill Quinn). The investigation veers off into unexpected twists and turns thanks to a covert scheme to sell arms to Palestine, and an elderly gangster who wants to die in Israel. Through it all, Jim is driven crazy by Lance White's "perfection" and incredible good fortune ("Things have a way of working out" is his infallible motto)--to say nothing of the fact that Jim's perennial nemesis Lt. Chapman (James Luisi) has no qualms about fawning all over Mr. White. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide