Bobby Jacoby Movies

The brutal murder of a Catskill Mountains family sets into motion a terrifying sequence of events as the horrors of H.P. Lovecraft come to the screen courtesy of directors Barrett J. Leigh and Thom Maurer. The year is 1908, and a mountain man named Joe Slaader has just committed the ultimate atrocity. Committed to the Ulster County Asylum after murdering his entire family, the man with the mysterious growth on his back is seen by the studied doctors of the facility as the harbinger of the dark days to come. When the inmates of the asylum decide to turn on their captors and wrestle away control of the remote asylum, the strange events that follow precede the ominous arrival of a dark force that the mind of man may not hold the power to comprehend. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Mr. Turner (Anthony Tyler Quinn), who hencefore shall be referred to as Jonathan, decides that it is time to become legal guardian of homeless teenager Shawn (Rider Strong). But Shawn himself has other ideas; he wants to hit the road and return to his biological father Chet (Blake Clark). . .and what's more, he's gotten it into his head that Jonathan is not sincere in his wish to take care of him. Meanwhile, Mr. Feeny (William Daniels) assigns Eric (Will Friedle) to tutor a high school athlete named Jeff (Bobby Jacoby)--a curious choice, in that Eric's grades aren't much better than Jeff's. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The comedy The Day My Parents Ran Away concerns a teenager named Matt whose wishes come true when his mother and father abandon him in their home. Soon the realities of caring for oneself overwhelms Matt and he seeks out his parents to convince them to return home. However, they have found a much more enjoyable life and have no desire to return to him. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Tremors is actually two movies in one. On its own terms, it's an enjoyable modern sci-fi horror-thriller, with good pacing and a sense of humor; but it's also a loving tribute to such 1950s low-budget desert-based sci-fi-horror films like Them!, It Came From Outer Space, Tarantula, and The Monolith Monsters. Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward are the stars, a pair of small-town handymen living in a small desert community, who stumble upon several difficult-to-explain phenomena, including a couple of people who've died under extremely strange (and, in one instance, very grisly) circumstances. Eventually, they and a handful of their neighbors find the cause: gigantic prehistoric worm-like creatures that streak under the desert the way fish swim through oceans, reaching up and grabbing anything they need for food. Cut off from the outside world, they have to figure out how to get across the desert alive while these creatures -- that are smart as well as fast -- close in on them, stalking them like monster sharks. The film benefits from the presence of special effects that are good enough to pull this all off, keeping the shock value high, and also from a subtly humorous script and performances to match by the entire cast, and director Ron Underwood's breezy pacing of the whole picture. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Season Ten of Knots Landing begins with Val (Joan Van Ark) surviving the lethal drug overdose administered by Jill (Teri Austin). Worried that her current amour Gary (Ted Shackelford) was planning to re-wed his former wife Val, Jill had schemed to bump off her rival in a manner that would look like suicide--and in fact everyone believes that Val has tried to kill herself, leaving Jill temporarily in the clear. At the same time, the lives of business partners Gary, Abby (Donna Mills) and Karen (Joan Van Ark), imperiled by their dealings with master criminal Manny Vasquez (John Aprea), are saved when Manny is killed by his conscience-ridden nephew Harold (Paul Carafontes). Meanwhile, Karen's son Michael (Pat Petersen) and his current flame Paige (Nicollette Sheridan)--the illegitimate daughter of Karen's estranged husband Mack (Kevin Dobson)--are rescued from the clutches of Mexican drug dealers by the mysterious Johnny Rourke (Peter Reckell). In other developments, conniving Abby manages to swindle her partners out of the Lotus Point Resort via the dummy "Murakame" corporation, then begins drilling for oil on the property. Paige takes up with crooked politico Greg Sumner (William Devane), who later dumps her in order to propose to Abby, mainly to revive his political career; at this juncture, Robert Desiderio joins the cast as Greg's new PR manager Ted Melcher, who will be implicated in one of the several mysterious deaths occurring this season. Johnny and Michael are innocently swept up in a computer-theft scheme, a story arc that serves to introduce the character of Danny Waleska (Sam Behrens). Mack returns to Karen after a brief fling with female forest ranger Paula Vertosick (Melinda Culea). And Abby's daughter Olivia is married to her mom's cast-off sweetheart Harold. The series' tenth season is marked by two spectacular exits. Threatened with the exposure of her many sinister schemes, and facing the loss of Gary Ewing, Jill goes completely off the deep end and commits suicide--after first going through the effort of binding and gagging herself so that Gary will be accused of her murder. And when the authorities finally catch up with Abby's various and sundry underhanded business machinations, she manages to escape by the skin of her teeth by wangling an appointment with the US Trade Adminstration--which requires her to immediately relocate to Japan! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Spirit is a TV movie based on Will Eisner's celebrated comic-strip crimefighter. The title character's real name is Denny Colt (played by Sam Jones), a police officer who is believed to be have been killed by gangsters. Revived in a shack near the city graveyeard, Colt dons a domino mask and vows to fight crime as "The Spirit." His first job is to thwart the villainous vamp P'gell (McKinlay Robinson), who schemes to detonate a bomb during an important civic event. Intended as the pilot for a weekly series, The Spirit is a misshapen fiasco, bearing little resemblance to its excellent comic strip source material. Apparently the producers were appalled by the results, since the existing 78-minute version of The Spirit gives evidence of being hacked up in the editing room. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The big news of Knots Landing's ninth season is the apparent murder of unsavory politician Peter Hollister, who in the course of the previous season had had affairs with both Abby Cunningham (Donna Mills) and Abby's daughter Olivia (Tonya Crowe)--leading Abby to believe that Olivia was the killer, and vice versa! As it turns out, only Paige Matheson (Nicollette Sheridan), illegitimate daughter of crime investigator Mack MacKenzie (Kevin Dobson), knows the whole story of Peter's untimely end. This season marks the departure of longtime regular Constance McCashin, who in the role of Laura Avery Sumner has weathered two tempestuous marriages, first to unscrupulous lawyer Richard Avery, and then to another "dirty" politician, Greg Sumner (William Devane). Before succumbing to a brain tumor, Laura asks Mack's former wife Karen (Michele Lee) to sell her house to a reliable tenant. This serves to introduce several new regulars, all members of the "jinxed" Williams family: husband Frank (Larry Riley), wife Patricia (Lynne Moody), daughter Julie (Kent Masters-King). It will soon be revealed that the Williamses are in the Federal Witness Protection Program! In other developments, Abby divorces Gary (Ted Shackleford), then renews her relationship with former beau Charles Scott (Michael York)--but only for the purpose of enlarging her power base in Knots Landing. Gary meanwhile continues his affair with the unhinged Jill Bennett, who makes it her mission in life to destroy Gary's former spouse Val, first by attempting to drive Val crazy (again), then more directly with an "accidental" drug overdose. Also, Val's mother Lilimae (Julie Harris) leaves the series when she impulsively runs off with an eccentric messenger-service employee named Al Baker (Red Buttons). And in their efforts to get the Lotus Point Resort up and running, Gary, Abby and Karen become involved with a shady character named Manny Vasquez (John Aprea), who at one point or another attempts to murder practically everyone in the cast. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

B.A.'s old college rival Jason Duke (Rick Fitts), now a bank employee, turns up missing. Despite his reluctance, B.A. (Mr. T.) agrees to look for Duke at the request of Jason's wife Debra (Sheila DeWindt), who happens to be B.A.'s former girlfriend. This assignment obliges the A-Team to descened upon Whispering Pines, Arizona, where virtually everyone in town is an accomplice in a scheme to steal gold from a nearby mine. Making matters worse, both Face (Dirk Benedict) and Murdock (Dwight Schultz) try to use the same "con" on the bad guys, neatly cancelling each other out--and nearly getting themselves killed in the process! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Over the protests of several local residents, shady tycoon Henderson Wheatley (John Ericson) intends to build a high-rise hotel in Cabot Cove. During excavation, a set of bones comes to surface, supposedly belonging to Revolutionary war hero Joshua Peabody. Almost immediately, those who oppose the hotel insist that the land be consecrated as a national monument, while others insist that those aren't Peabody's bones at all. Whatever the case, it soon develops that the centuries-old remains are those of a murder victim--and before long, Wheatley himself is murdered. William Windom makes his first series appearance as Dr. Seth Hazlitt, an old friend of heroine Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury)...and a likely suspect in the killing. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In a fast-paced teen comedy by Pen Densham, Ben Vereen stars as a former boxer who graduates into a failure as a nightclub owner. The club is called the "Zoo" and a group of homeless waifs want to rent it to start their own profitable business. The trouble is that this group of teens is opposed by a local gang, out to shut down their enterprise. The ex-fighter, known as Old Leather Face, agrees to the teens' deal and then gets further involved by the minute. The final showdown with the gang carries some heavy artillery: thumb tacks and staples. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Writer-director Richard Brooks' final film features a weak script and poor acting but high energy direction in a tale of compulsive gambling in Las Vegas. Ryan O'Neal stars as Taggart, a sports reporter obsessed with gambling. As Taggart gets deeper and deeper into debt, he compounds his problems with assorted loansharks and gambling operators. Taggart has already lost his wife because of his compulsive gambling, but he takes up with big-timer Charley (Giancarlo Giannini), hoping to make a killing and settle the score. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

See if you can predict the ending of this one. John Ritter and Cassie Yates are the next-door neighbors of Penny Marshall and Bert Convy. Ritter and Marshall can't stand each other. But presto! Ritters' wife Yates runs off with Marshall's husband Convy. The two spurned spouses meet to bemoan their individual fates. Love Thy Neighbor is a TV-movie comedy with a TV-movie cast and a TV-movie denouement. The only surprise is the absence of a laugh track. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

On a bitterly cold January day in 1982, Air Florida flight #90 crashed into the Potomac River while approaching Washington DC. Though many passengers were killed, many more were rescued. Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac is the story of the survivors, the rescuers, and the anxious friends and relatives of both the living and the dead. The crash itself is never shown, while the icy Potomac is represented by a heated Hollywood pool and chunks of Styrofoam (the actors do their best, however, to appear to be chilled to the bone). Thankfully, the cast is comprised of character actors rather than stars or "celebrities," adding an air of authenticity to the proceedings. Made for TV, Flight No. 90: Disaster on the Potomac was first telecast April 1, 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi