Kyle A. Clark Movies

The title character in this made-for-cable comedy is a youthful slacker (Nick Stabile) who has long been a source of disappointment and embarrassment for his famous jolly-old-elf father. Anxious to prove his worth, Nick (as our hero is known) decides to clamber down a few chimneys just prior to Christmas Eve. Alas, his efforts coincide with a string of burglaries, and Nick is promptly arrested by cops Daryl Bedford (Judd Nelson) and Norm Potter (George Wallace). As Nick frets away the hours before Christmas under house arrest, Bedford grows attached to Nick's court-appointed attorney, Susan Flynn (Lauren Holly) -- and inevitably, the real burglar strikes again. Santa Jr. was first telecast over the Hallmark Channel on November 30, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the family-entertainment tradition of his multi-talented father Michael Landon, writer/director Michael Landon Jr. offered this made-for-cable frontier drama, adapted from a novel by Janet Oke. En route to her new home in the West, Marty Claridge (Katherine Heigl) suddenly finds herself a widow, with no roof over her head or means to support herself. At the gentle prodding of her settler friends Ben and Sarah Graham (Corbin Bernsen, Theresa Russell), Marty accepts the marriage proposal of taciturn widower Clark Davis (Dale Midkiff). It is strictly a business arrangement, with no romance or cohabitation involved; Marty will act as housekeeper to Davis and as teacher and surrogate mother for Clark's sullen nine-year-old daughter Missy (Skye McCole Bartusiak), and in return she will receive food and lodging. Pragmatists both, Marty and Clark assume that they will dissolve their marriage of convenience when the spring thaw comes...but that isn't how things turn out. Love Comes Softly first aired April 13, 2003, on the Hallmark Channel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The old "wrong person answers the 'object-matrimony' ad" story device was refreshingly brought up to date in this made-for-TV romance. Jilted by her boyfriend, professional photographer Jordan Donovan (Teri Polo) decides that her problem is one of bad location; though a New Yorker for several years, she still feels like a fish out of water. Meanwhile, Jordan's roommate, Laurie (Patricia Kalember), ever searching for a suitable mate, has put an ad in the personals column of a national magazine. When a widowed rancher answers the ad, Jordan (with Laurie's blessing) answers the letter herself and heads to Wyoming. Upon meeting Jordan, taciturn rancher Tyler Ross (Andrew McCarthy) is disappointed, and lashes out with a steady stream of preconceptions about New York girls. Recoiling, Jordan lets Tyler know exactly what she thinks of "cowboys." Naturally, this means that the two lonely people are crazy about each other -- but before a happy ending can transpire, Tyler must overcome a profound feeling of guilt over his first wife's death, fueled by his spiteful father-in-law. Originally slated to debut over the Hallmark Channel on February 14, 2002, Straight from the Heart was curiously held back for nearly a year, finally premiering on February 9, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second of two made-for-cable films inspired by the old Ivan Tors series Gentle Ben, Gentle Ben 2: Danger on the Mountain was more blatantly a "pilot" for the revival of the series than its predecessor. Dean Cain stars as Jack Wedloe, overseer of a North California wilderness preserve which serves as the home for himself, his young nephew Mark (Reiley McClendon) and a big, lovable bear named Gentle Ben. Trouble begins when Jack's headstrong friend, land developer Fog Benson (Corbin Bernsen), enters into a business arrangement with a pair of shady entrepreneurs. Intending to cultivate the land abutting Wedloe's preserve, Fog naïvely insists that his partners intend to open a natural spring-water business. By the time Fog realizes that his new cronies actually plan to drill for oil, poor Jack has been arrested on trumped-up charges and Mark is bundled off to a foster home. Not surprisingly, it is Gentle Ben who sets things right in his own inimitable bruin fashion. Gentle Ben 2: Danger on the Mountain debuted January 5, 2003 on the Animal Planet cable channel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An epic-Western in the grand tradition, the made-for-cable The Trail to Hope Rose stars Lou Diamond Phillips as Keenan Deerfield, a half-Indian outlaw just released from prison. Determined to start life anew, Keenan takes a grueling rock-mining job in a town controlled by the odious Driggers family, headed by flint-eyed patriarch Samuel Drigger (Warren Stevens), with the coldblooded Gerald Rutledge (Richard Tyson) as the family's chief henchman. Keenan's fellow workers are treated like slaves and forced to live in squalor, but none dare complain lest they meet with one of the many convient "accidents" that have befallen anyone who dares stand up to the Driggers. With stoic fortitude, Keenan waits for the right moment to strike a blow for justice, benefiting from the moral support of the town's honest but ineffectual Marshal Toll (Lee Majors) and good-natured farmer Eugene Lawson (Ernest Borgnine). The plot thickens when Keenan falls in love with Gerald's "woman," the pregnant Christine Beckford (Marina Black), and when one of Keenan's past associates, A.J. Foster (David Shackelford), rides into town intent upon stealing the Drigger mine's payroll. The rather endearing old-fashioned quality of the film is enhanced by the location-shooting at the Paramount Ranch, a reconstructed western town in Agoura, CA. The Trail to Hope Rose first aired July 4, 2004, on the Hallmark channel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jane Doe:The Wrong Face is one of several Hallmark Channel TV-movies starring Lea Thompson as Simi Valley housewife and mom Kathy Davis (Lea Thompson), who unbeknownst to her neighbors occasionally moonlights as an undercover special agent and "problem solver" for the NSA. Kathy is summoned by her NSA superior Frank Darnell (Joe Penny) to tackle the mysterious kidnapping of Caroline Raphaelson (Roxanna Zal), wife of crusading prosecutor Phil Raphaelson (John Rubinstein). No one ever saw anyone entering or leaving the room in the health spa from which Caroline, who'd been undergoing cosmetic surgery, was snatched. Still, the fact remains that a ransom demand has been made, said demand being that Caroline's husband arrange for the release of Ray Jackson (Michael Bailey Smith), a shady construction executive being held on a money-laundering rap. Complicating Kathy's investigation is Jackson's staunch insistence that he is innocent and that he completely disapproves of the kidnapping, and the subsequent disappearance of the 16-year-old girl who'd impersonated Caroline while the abduction was allegedly taking place. Jane Doe: The Wrong Face) was originally telecast on June 19, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jane Doe: Vanishing Act is the first of several Hallmark Channel TV-movies starring Lea Thompson as Simi Valley housewife and mom Kathy Davis (Lea Thompson), who unbeknownst to her family occasionally moonlights as an undercover special agent and "problem solver" for the NSA. Having previously worked as a spy, Kathy is pulled out of an 18-year retirement by NSA operative Frank Darnell (Joe Penny) in hopes that she will be able to locate a missing file containing all of America's defense secrets, which was stolen from a plane in flight--along with the computer whiz who created the file. Adhering to her policy of "eliminating the impossible", Kathy--cover name "Jane Doe"--tries to figure out a logical method by which the file was heisted, a task made difficult by the vague recollections (and shady pasts) of the witnesses to the crime. As she gets deeper into the case, Kathy herself is placed in harm's way, to say nothing of her unwitting family. Jane Doe: Vanishing Act originally aired January 21, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This heartwarming made-for-cable "road" picture begins in Chicago, where widowed grandmother Annie Eason (Betty White, convincingly portraying a 69-year-old while herself in her eighties!) wants to grant the final request of her husband Elliott: To release his ashes from the top of "Annie's Point"--3000 miles away. Embittered over having to manage his late father's business, Annie's son Richard (Richard Thomas) flatly refuses to take her to Annie's Point, so she goes instead with her free-spirited granddaughter Ella (Amy Davidson). Their odyssey turns into a frantic and sometimes funny chase after Annie goes on a gambling spree in Las Vegas, prompting Richard to hotly pursue his mother with the intention of having her institutionalized. Annie's Point made its Hallmark channel bow on January 22, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Reunited as adults, childhood friends Mark Lucas (Bridget Brannagh and Theresa Connolly (Crystal Allen) fall in love and decide to get married. The wedding plans are okay so far as Mark and Theresa's golfing-buddy dads are concerned. Alas, the couple's mothers constitute a different story: Betsy Lucas (Shelley Long) and Bridget Connolly (Patty Duke) have carried on a bitter feud for the past 25 years, and they aren't about to go into "all is forgiven" mode just because their kids are in love. The situation reaches a disastrous peak when Betsy and Bridget take it upon themselves to arrange the couple's Catalina Island wedding--and as terrifying as these two ladies are when they're on opposite sides of the fence, they're even more so when they join forces! Falling in Love with the Girl Next Door was first telecast February 4, 2006, as a cinematic Valentine card from cable's Hallmark Channel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Remar and Melvin Van Peebles headline this relentlessly tense tale of a special ops sniper who reluctantly accepts one final mission before disappearing into retirement. Dillon (Remar) is a special ops sharpshooter extraordinaire - the kind of triggerman who could take out a Tic Tac at twenty yards without so much as using his scope. But now that Dillon has experienced his fair share of the war game, he's about to hang up his rifle for good. Just as he's preparing to disappear into obscurity, however, Dillon learns that some very bad people are attempting to obtain some very volatile nuclear materials. Suddenly, an ambitious terrorist plot goes unexpectedly awry, and the man who was supposed to stop it is now at the center of a deadly conspiracy. Will Dillon be able to unravel the explosive mystery that could bring about his death, or is he playing right into the hands of the powers that be. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Armand Mastroianni, the gifted director of the legendary 1980 horror sleeper He Knows You're Alone, returns to helm the three-hour, all-star medical miniseries Pandemic. The program explores the lethal consequences that can unfurl when a deadly plague, with an unknown cure and an even more mysterious source, worms its way through the denizens of a terror-stricken metropolis. 90210's Tiffani-Amber Thiessen stars as Dr. Kayla Martin, an epidemiologist at the Center for Disease Control. When the news arrives of a plague victim on board a flight from Australia to LAX Airport in Los Angeles -- who promptly dies amid body-racking convulsions and a record-high fever -- Dr. Martin makes the pivotal decision to quarantine all passengers at LAX, sending the city, and the mayor (Eric Roberts), into an uproar. Meanwhile, the plague concurrently begins to appear in other areas of the city -- suggesting a beast that no one can even begin to contain. In time, the disease becomes known as "The Riptide Virus." As a thoughtless ACLU attorney schemes to wage war against Dr. Martin for an unlawful quarantine, Martin, her associate Carl Ratner (French Stewart), and FBI Agent Troy Whitlock (Vincent Spano) race to find a solution before time runs out. Faye Dunaway also co-stars. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide