Joe Lando

When a series of unexplained explosion send shockwaves of fear through a small town, it's up to a city engineer to save the panic-stricken residents in director Kelly Sandefur's bombastic thriller. City engineer Joe Lando (Michael Gross) has just returned to his small hometown with his wife and teenage son following an extended stint in Houston when he discovers evidence of methane gas in the town's drainage system. When Joe's concerns are met with cool resistance by the fire chief, his suspicions of a conspiracy lead him to an ominous discovery that endangers the lives of everyone in the tightly-knit community. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Although the small town of Rutland, VT, lives contentedly in the shadow of the huge, newly constructed Rankin Dam, there are those who realize that the dam was built "below code" and with inferior materials for the purpose of saving a few bucks. City Counsel President Natalie Powell (Michele Greene) soon has reason to regret the short-cuts taken with the project when the town is threatened by a raging flood. Even worse: Natalie's architect husband David (Joe Lando) and son Garth (Matthew Eward) are trapped inside the dam. Made for television, Killer Flood: The Day the Dam Broke debuted over the PAX network April 25, 2003, the same day that the filmed was screened at a benefit premiere in the real-life Rutland, VT. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The long-running CBS drama series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman was briefly resurrected in this made-for-TV feature film. Jane Seymour again stars as feisty 19th century doctor Michaela "Mike" Quinn, with Joe Lando as her sweetheart Sully. After a few minor crises in their frontier home town, Mike and Byron head to Boston, there to care for Mike's ailing mother Elizabeth (Georgann Johnson) and to attend the graduation of Mike's Harvard-educated daughter Colleen (Jessica Bowman). Spicing up the plot is a tense sequence in which Colleen performs an emergency tracheotomy and Sully settles a political argument by wielding a hatchet. Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman: The Heart Within was originally broadcast on May 12, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The family friendly Adventures of Cinderella's Daughter offers a sequel to the famous fairy tale. Cinderella has become a mother of a teenage princess of her own named Cindy. Cindy wants to break out of the gilded cage she feels she is in as a princess. Their relationship gets smoothed over with the help of Cinderella's reliable fairy godmother (Shirley Jones). The two learn lessons about the importance of family. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

The lives of a down-and-out but loving and optimistic Florida couple change dramatically when their desperately impoverished relatives abduct the 11-year-old son of a wealthy businessman and bring the child to their house. When Lucas and Roberta find that Roberta's sister Carrie and her husband Carl have kidnapped little John Wesley Danforth from a little-league game, their first instinct is to call the cops and send the boy back home. But Carl is in dire financial straits and desperately needs the ransom money. He pulls out a loaded gun and forces Lucas and Roberta to become accessories to the crime. Meanwhile, the boy's upstanding father August Danforth hires a private detective. Against the advice of the investigator, he then agrees to pay the $100,000 that Carl demands. When it is time to pick up the loot, Carl remains at home with Roberta and the boy and forces Lucas to accompany Carrie to get the money. While they are gone, Roberta engineers an escape for herself and John Wesley.

As soon as Lucas returns with the money, the three speed off in a truck. Lucas and Roberta want to take John Wesley straight to the police, but he refuses to go. Shortly thereafter, they learn the shocking reason why: it seems that his fine, well-respected father is a child batterer. All John Wesley wants is to be reunited with his estranged mother in Louisiana. When faced with the child's obvious suffering, the good-hearted couple feel they have no choice but to obey his wishes. This puts all three of them plus the mother in grave danger for not only has the vengeful August called in the FBI, but the dangerously enraged Carl and Roberta are rapidly closing in on them. In order to survive, the four fugitives make one final effort to make it to the safety of Mexico. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV movie, inspired by the 1989 film Alien Nation (as well as the subsequent TV series adapted from it), follows the adventures of an unlikely pair of police detectives -- earthling Matt Sikes (Gary Graham) and assimilated alien "newcomer" George Francisco (Eric Pierpoint). When Sikes and Francisco are assigned to investigate the death of a "newcomer," Sikes is given a glimpse of the ugly side of the aliens' caste system, as Francisco turns up his nose at chasing the killer of an "Eeno" -- an alien trained to do the most menial labor aboard the cruisers used to transport alien slaves. Alien Nation: The Enemy Within also features Terri Treas, Michele Scarabelli, and Joe Lando. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Additions to the cast of characters on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman during the series' fifth year on the air include Katie Sully (played by various female members of the Calabreese family), newborn daughter of Colorado Springs' lady doctor, Michaela "Mike" Quinn (Jane Seymour), and her mountaineer husband, Byron Sully (Joe Lando), and Teresa Morales (Michelle Bonilla), who after arriving in town upon the death of her husband becomes the new schoolteacher in place of the Reverend Timothy Johnson (Geoffrey Lower) -- and briefly arouses the bigotry of certain townsfolk in the process. Recovering from her pregnancy, Dr. Mike tries to go back to work, only to find that her patients have become rather accustomed to her temporary replacement, Dr. Andrew Cook (Brandon Douglas). Elsewhere, Sully's friendship with Indian shaman Cloud Dancing (Larry Sellers) causes him to lose his job as local Indian agent; strapped for cash, Sully and Mike are rescued from penury by Sully's old pal Daniel Simon (John Schneider), a prospector who's struck it rich. Meanwhile, Mike's foster daughter Colleen (Jessica Bowman) begins attending college -- and dating the handsome Dr. Cook. Season five ends on a cliffhanger, as Dr. Mike is left alone when Sully helps Cloud Dancing jump his reservation -- and disappears in the massacre that follows. ~ All Movie Guide

Jane Wyman guest stars as Elizabeth Quinn, the wealthy Bostonian mother of Dr. Michaela "Mike" Quinn (Jane Seymour). Summoned to Colorado Springs by Sully (Joe Lando), the snobbish Elizabeth makes no secret of her disapproval of her daughter's profession and surroundings. The gap between mother and daughter is widened when Elizabeth refuses to provide the funds to transform an abandoned boarding house into a permanent medical clinic -- even after young Robert E. (Henry G. Sanders) is severely injured in a fire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dr. Mike (Jane Seymour) and Sully (Joe Lando) come to the rescue of Zack (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a mentally challenged youth who has suffered ill treatment at the hands of his guardian. The rest of the community shuns Zack, not only because he is "simple-minded," but because he is apparently the son of a prostitute. Only Brian (Shawn Toovey) is willing to befriend Zack -- thereby tapping the boy's hitherto unrecognized artistic abilities. This poignant episode ends with a startling revelation regarding Zack's parentage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Enjoying astonishing (and well-deserved) popularity at a time in TV history when dramatic programs trafficking in "family values" were few and far between, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman was also one of the last of that hardy breed known as the "TV Western." Set in Colorado Springs, CO, in the years just following the Civil War, the weekly, 60-minute series starred Jane Seymour as Michaela "Mike" Quinn, one of a handful of women doctors west of the Mississippi (or anywhere else!) during the second half of the 19th century. After the death of her father and medical partner, Dr. Mike left her hometown of Boston to set up practice in the hardscrabble village of Colorado Springs. Not surprisingly, she encountered much hostility and mistrust from the townsfolk, but gradually won them over not only because of her medical brilliance, but because she was almost unerringly "in the right" at all times. When one of her first patients, Charlotte Cooper (Diane Ladd), died of a snakebite, Dr. Mike inherited the woman's three children, who at the outset of the series ranged in age from 10 to 17. Oldest son Matthew Cooper (Chad Allen) grew up to become the town's sheriff, and later went off to study law; daughter Colleen (played by Erika Flores from 1993 to 1995, thereafter by Jessica Bowman) eventually followed Dr. Mike's footsteps by pursuing a medical career, and ultimately married her foster mother's young assistant, Dr. Andrew Cook (Brandon Douglas); and youngest Chandler boy, Brian (Shawn Toovey), got into many a scrape -- some of them near-fatal -- in the course of the series.

Also in the cast was Joe Lando as taciturn mountain man Byron Sully, who spent most of his time communing with nature (including his pet wolf) and commiserating with the local Cheyenne Indian tribe. In the early episodes, Sully was merely the man who owned the house rented by Dr. Mike and her "instant" family; later on, he and Mike fell in love, got married, and had a daughter named Katie. The huge, rotating cast of recurring characters included curmudgeonly (and, initially, downright nasty) storekeeper Loren Bray (Guy Boyd in the pilot episode, Orson Bean thereafter); Bray's sister-in-law, Dorothy Jennings (Barbara Babcock), editor of the town newspaper; Grace (Jonelle Allen), a black woman who owned the town diner; telegraph operator Horace Bing (Frank Collison) and his bride, Myra (Helene Udy), a former saloon girl; Myra's ex-boss Hank (William Shockley), owner of the local "sporting house"; Rev. Timothy Johnson (Geoffrey Lower), who functioned as the town schoolteacher until Teresa Morales (played first by Michelle Bonilla, then by Alex Meneses) took over; Loren Bray's conniving buddy, barber Jake Slicker (Jim Knobeloch); Sully's old pal, wealthy ex-prospector Daniel Simon (John Schneider); and the much-maligned Cheyenne medicine man Cloud Dancing (Larry Sellers), whose persecution at the hands of the U.S. military aroused the fire-breathing activism of pioneering feminist and humanitarian Dr. Mike.

Our heroine also fought tirelessly for the rights of blacks, Hispanics, battered wives and practically everyone else who suffered under the weight of bigotry and misunderstanding in the Old West. Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman was far and away CBS' most successful and beloved Saturday-night series throughout its five seasons on the air, and has remained an audience favorite on cable and in syndication. ~ All Movie Guide