Veronica Hamel

To escape his enormous gambling debts, the highly unlikable Reese Williams (Marc Singer) decides to fake his own death, with the help of his long-suffering wife, Katie (Michele Greene). Once Reese is safely "deceased," Katie will fall heir to a five-million-dollar insurance policy, which will help the couple square their debts and start a new life elsewhere. But can it be that the scheme has not gone the way it was supposed to -- and that Reese is dead for real? Reese's sister-in-law Ginny (Veronica Hamel) may or may not be able to provide the answers to insurance investigators Logan (William Katt) and Mac (George Dzundza), one of whom has fallen in love with Katie. Though innumerable clues are adroitly planted along the way, the outcome of the story remains a jaw-dropping surprise. Originally intended for theatrical release, Determination of Death was not seen until its premiere on German television in 2002; thereafter, the film was added to the "Monday Night Movie" rotation on the American Lifetime cable channel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a prominent attorney begins suspecting that her latest client, a homeless transient, may in fact be the brother she lost many years before. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Teenager Willow Patchett (Bonnie Root) and her mother Georgia (Veronica Hamel) seldom see eye to eye on anything. But both Willow and Georgia are forced to form a united front to save their lives when three desperate thieves (one of them mortally wounded) invade the Patchett household on the same night that Willow is throwing a party for her friends. As the authorities outside try to negotiate a rescue with a minimum of bloodshed, the hostages desperately formulate their own plan for escape. This TV movie throws in everything from a hearing-impaired kid brother to bikini-clad high school girls to sustain audience interest. First telecast by NBC, Home Invasion debuted January 13, 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-TV comedy adapted from the once-popular TV series The Munsters, Herman Munster (Edward Herrmann) and his wife Lily (Veronica Hamel) learn that they are no longer welcome in Transylvania, so they relocate to California with their children Eddie (Matthew Botuchis) and Marilyn (Christine Taylor), as well as Grandpa (Robert Morse). As the Munsters try to adjust to their new life in laid-back, sunny Los Angeles, they're faced with a crisis -- Marilyn not only discovers she's adopted but that her biological father has disappeared. Here Come the Munsters first aired on Halloween in 1995. Keep an eye peeled for cameo appearances by Yvonne De Carlo, Al Lewis, Butch Patrick, and Pat Priest, all of whom played Munster family members in the original series.

~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a caring doctor investigates a child's home life and deduces that the boy's bizarre infections are psychosomatic and are directly linked to his mother's mental instability. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

James Belushi and Charles Grodin team up for this variation on the Prince and the Pauper. Belushi plays Jimmy Dworski, a convicted car thief, serving time in a minimum security prison. But when Jimmy wins a pair of tickets to the World Series from a radio call-in show, he can't resist walking out of jail, particularly when the warden won't even let the inmates watch the series on television. Grodin plays rich workaholic Spencer Barnes, who, when his wife walks out on him right before a long-planned vacation, leaves his datebook in an airport telephone booth. Happening upon Spencer's datebook is Jimmy, who simply intends to return the datebook to Spencer for a 1,000-dollar reward. But when he finds the datebook contains his credit cards, Jimmy assumes Spencer's identity, living the good life and dating the boss's daughter, while making his way to Malibu to return the property to Spencer. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by David Morrell, the made-for-TV Brotherhood of the Rose is unabashedly old-fashioned escapist espionage fare. Peter Strauss and David Morse play polar-opposite CIA agents, code names Romulus and Remus. Their superior-and father figure-is crusty CIA official Robert Mitchum. Though Romulus and Remus are devoted to Mitchum, he is only concerned with the greater good of the service-a philosophy that has become despotic over the years. Now Mitchum has determined that Romulus is expendable. Escaping from CIA assassins, Romulus and Remus stumble into a vast rule-the-world conspiracy called The Brotherhood of the Rose. Filmed in New Zealand, this was originally a long miniseries broadcast in two parts, on January 22 and 23, 1989 - and then edited down to feature length. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted from the phenomenally popular best-seller by Jeffrey Archer, the three-part, seven-hour CBS miniseries Kane & Abel is the tale of two tycoons -- one a self-made man, one born into wealth -- who both came into the world on the very same day. The illegitimate son of a Polish baron, Abel Rosnovski (Peter Strauss) is forced to fend for himself from childhood. Escaping from Siberia during WWI, Abel emigrates to America, where he builds up a multimillion-dollar hotel business. Meanwhile, Boston brahmin William Lowell Kane (Sam Neill) is carefully groomed to take his place in both society and the financial world, succeeding on both counts in the banking business. Though Abel and Kane might have become friends in any other circumstances, an accidental slight on Kane's part earns him the undying enmity of a vengeful Abel -- and thus is set in motion a tense, feud-driven power struggle that will consume both their lives for the next 25 years. Filmed on-location in Canada, England, and France, Kane & Abel originally aired from November 17 to 19, 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide