Linda Kelsey Movies

The setting is a lodge in the Grand Tetons, where Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is a guest of the owner, a retired colonel. It soon develops that the colonel is being blackmailed, and that another of the guests has been involved in diamond smuggling. Somehow or other this all ends up with murder, compelling Jessica to cut her vacation short and clear the reputation of another old friend. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Morganstern (William H. Macy) offers Greene (Anthony Edwards) a permanent position as attending physician -- prompting an unexpected response from Greene's wife, Jenn (Christine Harnos). Elsewhere, a woman with breast cancer demands that she be given a painless death in the ER, while Carol (Julianna Margulies) struggles to convince another patient (Bobcat Goldthwait) that he hasn't already died. Carter (Noah Wyle) doesn't like being outperformed by fellow student Deb (Ming-Na). And a poisonous snake is somehow let loose in the ER. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A brutal murder sends a family into chaos in this made-for-TV drama. Daniel Hannigan (Johnny Galecki) becomes the key suspect in the killing of his foster parents when they're found dead in their home. While his younger brother Chris (Eric Lloyd) claims that he saw Daniel commit the crime, other evidence suggests that his half-brother Brian (Neil Patrick Harris) may actually be the culprit. So what did Chris really see, and who is actually guilty? Sudden Fury: A Family Torn Apart was based on the novel by Leslie Walker; the cast also includes Linda Kelsey and John M. Jackson as Maureen and Joe Hannigan, the ill-fated parents. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This heartrending TV movie stars John Lithgow and Mary Beth Hurt as the parents of a severely handicapped premature infant. Weighing a scant 20 ounces at birth, the baby girl has no esophagus and very few signs of being able to stay alive without artificial assistance. The desperate couple sign away the responsibility of their daughter to the doctors, who feel that they can pull the girl through with extensive experimental medical work. Within a week of this agreement, the cost to the couple is $71,000, an amount that will triple before the situation can be legally resolved. Though not based on any factual case, Baby Girl Scott maintains an uncomfortable reality throughout. The film first aired on May 24, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Mrs. Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) goes to Washington, where she has been tapped to serve out the term of a recently deceased Congressman. Before long, however, Jessica is up to her eyebrows in political intrigue, one-upsmanship, backstabbing and blackmail. Inevitably, a murder occurs--the victim is a Congressional secretary who "knows too much"--and Jessica, caught in the middle as usual, helpfully offers her services to truculent D.C. police detective Mendelsohn (Herschel Bernardi). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on a true story (it says here), He's Not Your Son is another variation on the old "switched at birth" plot device. Donna Mills and Ken Howard play Kathy and Michael Saunders, who are forced to face the possibility that their new baby may not be their new baby. It's a possibility that the hospital made a mistake, and that the Saunders infant was switched with the newborn son of Holly and Ted Barnes (Ann Dusenberry, John James). The ramifications of this error result in emotional disaster for both couples. Twin babies Drew and Preston James play the child in question. Filmed on location in Dallas, the made-for-TV He's Not Your Son debuted October 3, 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

First aired March 13, 1977, Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years was the brilliant follow-up to the equally praiseworthy 1976 TV movie Eleanor and Franklin: The Early Years. The film is framed in a flashback experienced by first lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Jane Alexander) while accompanying the casket carrying the body of her husband Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Edward Herrmann) to its final resting place in Hyde Park. Elected in 1933, FDR endeavors to pull the country out of the Depression with the New Deal during his first term, while Eleanor emerges as a formidable public figure in her own right during the second term, tirelessly working on behalf of social change and reforms. Ever under the baleful eye of his mother Sara (Rosemary Murphy), Roosevelt tries to maintain family equilibrium in the White House as he seeks an unprecedented third term. Sara dies in December of 1941, two days before Roosevelt, in his "Day of Infamy" speech, declares war on Japan. Despite health problems, FDR successfully pursues a fourth term in 1944; he dies in office in April of 1945, a scant few months before the end of World War II. Despite her long-standing displeasure over her husband's long-ago affair with artist Lucy Mercer (Linda Kelsey), a stiff-lipped Eleanor puts on a brave front when Roosevelt dies in the company of Deakins at a health spa in Georgia. Based on Joseph P. Lash's Pulitzer prize-winning biography, Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years earned Emmies for "Outstanding Special" and for director Daniel Petrie. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

SFPD homicide inspector Robbins (Richard Hatch) falls in love with attractive public defender Susan Harper (Linda Kelsey). Unfortunately, the course of romance proves to be a bumpy one when Susan champions the cause of a murder suspect whom has been charged on the basis of prima facie evidence. Ultimately, Susan manages to spring the suspect, resulting in plenty of trouble for herself and Robbins. Prominent in the supporting case is character actor William Benedict, perennial Western Union delivery boy in many an A- and B-picture of the 1930s and 1940s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

One of four dramatic miniseries carried by NBC under the blanket title Best Sellers, Captains and the Kings was adapted from a novel by Taylor Caldwell. Covering a time span from 1857 to 1912, this was the saga of the Irish-immigrant Armagh clan, with emphasis on the rags-to-riches career of Joseph Armagh (Richard Jordan). Achieving fame and prominence (if not full-fledged social acceptance) through a Byzantine series of investments in the oil industry, the elder Armagh was obsessed with the notion of having one of his sons become the first Irish-Catholic President of the United States (does this story sound vaguely familiar?). Along the way, Joseph and his offspring indulged in innumerable romantic liaisons, extramarital and otherwise. Featured in the all-star cast is Patty Duke Astin, who won an Emmy award for her portrayal of Bernadette Hennessey Armagh. Captains and the Kings was broadcast from September 30 to November 18, 1976 in seven installments, two of which ran 120 minutes, and the other six lasting 60 minutes -- a total of nine hours' air time in all. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi