Ken Kimmins Movies

It was perhaps inevitable that the breakdancing craze of the early 1980s would pervade even a traditionalist sitcom like Alice. In this episode, a group of talented breakdancers are hired to perform at an art festival held at Mel's Diner; unfortunately, Mel (Vic Tayback) mistakes the dancers for hoodlums and boots them out. Featured in this episode are professional dancers Steven "Sugar Pop" DeSilva and Jason "Elf" DeSilva), not to mention a veritable chorus line of familiar faces, among them What's Happening!!'s Fred "Rerun" Berry, Coach's Kenneth Kimmins, and singer-model Donovan Leitch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tom Hanks stars in this raunchy teen comedy from veteran screenwriters Pat Proft and Neil Israel, who had previously collaborated on the amusing sketch film Tunnelvision (1976) and the disappointing Americathon (1980). Bus-driver Rick Gasko (Hanks) is engaged to wealthy Debbie Thompson (Tawny Kitaen), much to the chagrin of her father (George Grizzard), who considers Rick a loser. To keep an eye on her future groom, Debbie and her friends dress as prostitutes to attend his bachelor party, which quickly turns into a bacchanal of smutty debauchery. Familiar faces in the cast include action stars Michael Dudikoff and Ji-Tu Cimbuka, pin-ups Monique Gabrielle and Rosanne Katon, and teen-movie regulars Adrian Zmed and Wendie Jo Sperber. It's an occasionally hilarious excursion into bad taste, although one which two-time Oscar winner Hanks would probably like to forget. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Norm (George Wendt) hopes to curry favor with his boss by holding the annual office party at Cheers. Swept up in preparing for the festivities, Diane (Shelley Long) suggests that Norm throw a toga party. What she doesn't know is that Norm has arranged for Diane to be his boss' date for the evening -- and "the old man" doesn't need a toga to have a good old fashioned Roman orgy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jean Stapleton stars as Eleanor Roosevelt in this made-for-TV biography, first telecast May 12, 1982. The film recounts Mrs. Roosevelt's life after the 1945 death of her husband, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. At the request of new president Truman, Eleanor serves as a United Nations delegate, spending much of her time tilting with dedicated anti-FDR politico John Foster Dulles (E.G. Marshall). She goes on to spearhead the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proving to Dulles--and to Soviet delegate Freddie Jones--that she's anything but soft on Communism. The winning teleplay for Eleanor: First Lady of the World was by Caryl Ledner and Cynthia Mandenberg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Real-life married couple Cindy Williams and Bill Hudson star as New York yuppies Lisa and Tom Burke, who moved to Arizona when both are hired by a new ad agency. The couple's boss is big on "family values" and encourages his employees to project an appropriate image. Unfortunately, the Burkes are childless, and for a while it looks as if their fabulous new job will end before it begins. But not to worry: Lisa and Tom hit upon a foolproof scheme to create an "instant" family by advertising for a pair of rambunctious youngsters to pose as the Burkes' children. Since this film originally aired as an installment of ABC's Disney Sunday Movie anthology, one can easily guess the outcome from the moment the opening credits fade from view. Help Wanted: Kids debuted on February 2, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Determined to prove that the men who answer advertisements for mail-order brides are nothing more than jerks and lechers, Chicago magazine writer Kate Tosconi (Valerie Bertinelli) places a typical "object matrimony" ad and awaits the inevitable drooling replies. Meanwhile, L.A. lawyer Robert Fitzgerald (Ted Wass) has bet his practical-joking friends that if he were to answer such an ad, he could easily remain celibate for two weeks after meeting his "bride." Anyone who can't guess what happens next should be drummed out of the TV room in shame. A fascinating example of what passed for "feminism" and "male compassion" back in the early '80s, the made-for-TV I Was a Mail Order Bride was first broadcast by CBS on December 14, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Made for TV on a feature-film budget, Love Among Thieves stars Audrey Hepburn and Robert Wagner--but fails to be worthy of the talents of either star. Ms. Hepburn plays a widowed baroness and classical pianist, who steals three Faberge eggs from a museum in order to ransom her kidnapped fiance. En route to the "drop", Audrey is rescued from a mysterious assailant (Jerry Orbach) by suave stranger Robert Wagner. Wagner proceeds to demonstrate that he's not all he seems by swiping the valuable jeweled eggs. The rest of the film is a maelstrom of double-crosses, clinches and hairbreadth escapes, all evidently intended to emulate Hepburn's 1963 theatrical feature Charade and Wagner's popular 1960s TV series It Takes a Thief. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally telecast as an ABC Theatre of the Month special, My Body, My Child nobly attempts to tackle the abortion issue--but does so with a painfully contrived, mazelike Perils of Pauline script. Irish-American schoolteacher Vanessa Redgrave, married to Italian fireman Joe Campanella and already the mother of three daughters, believes that she's pregnant. Her doctor pooh-poohs the notion and prescribes several forms of drugs to counter her "faux" morning sickness. The effect of the narcotics, coupled with the fact that Redgrave's invalid father (Jack Albertson, in his final role) has been charged with the mercy killing of her mother, lead the poor schoolmarm to attempt suicide. This time the doctor on the scene announces that Redgrave is pregnant, and that her previous drug intake will result in a deformed, retarded child. Now arrive at the abortion issue: With all the cards stacked against her, what will Redgrave do in regards to her body and her child? Unfortunately, after raising so many diverse social issues, My Body, My Child drops many of those issues in order to rush towards its climax. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A trenchant satire of "trash TV," Network seems to grow only more relevant with each passing year. Howard Beale (Peter Finch), the dean of newscasters at the United Broadcasting System, is put out to pasture because he "skews old." Network executive Max Schumacher (William Holden), Howard's best friend, is forced to deliver the bad news. Beale can't stomach the idea of losing his 25-year post as anchorman simply because of age, so in his next broadcast he announces to the viewers that he's going to commit suicide on his final program. Network head Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall) is all for kicking Beale out then and there, but when it looks as though the UBS is going to have its greatest ratings ever on the night of Beale's self-destruction, ambitious programming exec Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) talks Hackett into treating that fateful final telecast as a special event. Naturally, Beale doesn't go through with it -- but he does begin rambling about the horrible state of the world in general and television in particular. He concludes his tirade by admonishing his viewers to "Go to the window and shout as loud as you can: 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!'" With that, Howard Beale becomes the hottest TV personality in America, and Diana becomes the network's fair-haired girl. She draws up plans to treat the nightly news broadcast as garish entertainment (complete with a psychic), all built around the rants of Beale, billed as "The Mad Prophet of the Airwaves." Network won Oscars for Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay as well as for three of four acting categories -- Dunaway for Best Actress, Peter Finch for Best Actor (in the only posthumous Oscar yet awarded), and Beatrice Straight for Best Supporting Actress, in one of the shortest-screen-time performances ever to win an Oscar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The men in the courtroom are smitten by Pamela Hammond (Annette McCarthy), an attractive journalist who has been assigned to interview Harry (Harry Anderson). When Dan (John Larroquette) stumbles upon some of Pamela's very spicy tape recordings, he assumes that he has the "inside track" to romance. What neither Dan nor Harry know is that Pamela is the pseudonymous author of a series of romance novels--and a lesbian in the bargain. The only person aware of the whole story is Christine (Markie Post)...but should she reveal this startling information? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

ABC Afterschool Special opened its second season with one of its most popular and best-beloved efforts. Eleven-year-old Jodie Foster stars as Sharon Lee, a peppery young baseball enthusiast who lands a spot on her brother's all-male Little League team. Despite Sharon's talent and enthusiasm, she runs up against the stone wall of gender prejudice. But by the time we've reached the last of the ninth, everyone has learned a valuable lesson -- especially the boys! The script for the Emmy-winning Rookie of the Year was written by Gloria Banta, of The Mary Tyler Moore Show fame. ~ All Movie Guide

In a gender-reversed version of his previous hit Pretty in Pink, John Hughes retreads all-too- familiar ground in Some Kind of Wonderful, the story of a sensitive, young would-be artist, Keith (Eric Stoltz), who vies for the affection of his high school's popularity queen, Amanda (Lea Thompson), seemingly out of some deep-rooted insecurity regarding his social ineptitude. He enlists the help of his butch best friend and fellow misfit, Watts (Mary Stuart Masterson), unaware that she secretly pines for him. While she goads him to give up his pointless pursuit of Amanda, he encounters one other small obstacle -- Amanda's rich bully of a boyfriend, Hardy (Craig Sheffer), who threatens Keith with a face rearrangement. Undeterred, Keith decides he will, by any means necessary, escort his dream girl to the prom -- but not before he buys her expensive jewelry with the money from his college fund in order to impress her. (Hughes expects the audience to side with Keith when his father protests.) Some Kind of Wonderful is pure fantasy, but the plot is too tired and flawed for it to be completely satisfactory escapism. Still, the performances are all-around good and the ending is slightly more likeable than its predecessor's. Hughes decided to use the original Pretty in Pink ending, which had been dropped from the original after poor audience response at the advance screenings. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide