Joey Lawrence Movies
Rising to fame as a lovable dim-witted television teen heartthrob in Blossom (1991-1995) after charming prime-time viewers as the adorable youngster in such sitcoms as Diff'rent Strokes, Silver Spoons, and Gimmie a Break!, Joseph Lawrence has since gone on to numerous film and television roles in addition to maintaining an active recording career as a Philly soul-inspired singer/songwriter. Born Joseph Lawrence Mignogna in a suburb of Philadelphia, PA, in 1976, Lawrence was the oldest of three brothers and by age four had convinced his parents that he had what it took to become an actor. Landing the first job he auditioned for and crooning "Give My Regards to Broadway" and "Zippity Do Da" on The Tonight Show shortly thereafter, it was obvious to many that the eager youngster indeed had the energy, talent, and dedication to make it as an entertainer. Making his mark on various television sitcoms before he became a fixture for four seasons on Gimmie a Break!, it was as a teenager that Lawrence made his true mark on the small screen. As the titular character's goofy brother in the popular sitcom Blossom, Lawrence's charming aloofness endeared him into the hearts of starry-eyed teenage girls everywhere. His 1993 self-titled debut album quickly went gold as it sold over two million copies worldwide, proving that Lawrence's fans were indeed loyal. Following a public persona change in which he adopted the more mature moniker of Joseph, the actor/singer continued to make numerous appearances in such made-for-television films as Prince for a Day (1995) and Romantic Comedy 101 (2001) and such features as Tequila Body Shots (1999), Urban Legends: The Final Cut (2000), and Pandora's Box (2001). Lawrence made his directorial debut while simultaneously acting alongside brothers Matthew and Andrew in the mid-'90s sitcom Brotherly Love, and went on to produce (as well as star in) such made-for-television films as Horse Sense (1999) and Jumping Ship (2001). In 2002, Lawrence joined the cast of the period drama American Dreams, playing the recurring character of Michael Brooks. The following year, he starred in the sitcom Run of the House, which he followed with another comedy role, playing Brett on the series Half & Half until 2006. Later that same year, Lawrence took to the floor as a competitor on the reality series Dancing with the Stars, and proved a popular addition to the show's roster. The stint led to Lawrence hosting the reality show Master of Dance in 2008, though it wasn't long before he was making waves with a comedic role again, appearing in the popular TV movie My Fake Fiancé with Melissa Joan Heart in 2009. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1983
When his wife becomes the new family breadwinner, a football coach must learn the ins and outs of child care and housecleaning. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Michael Glaser, Dee Wallace, (more)
- 1983
Season three of Gimme a Break finds the Kanisky household of Glen Lawn, CA increased by two. In addition to curmudgeonly police chief Carl Kanisky (Dolph Sweet), his daughters Katie (Kari Michaelsen), Julie (Lauri Hendler), and Sam (Lara Jill Miller), and their sassy housekeeper Nell (Nell Carter), the house's residents now include Carl's recently widowed dad Grandpa Kanisky (John Hoyt) and 6-year-old orphan Joey Donovan (Joey Lawrence). As introduced in a two-part episode, Joey is a budding con artist who has been abandoned by his uncle in Glen Lawn, and unofficially adopted by Nell so that the boy won't have to be institutionalized. Also joining the cast this season is Telma Hopkins, who makes her first appearance as Nell's childhood chum Dr. Addy Wilson in the episode "Nell's Friend" (The fact that Hopkins was formerly a member of Tony Orlando's backing band, Dawn, is underlined by the title of the subsequent episode "Knock Three Times)." The addition of Hopkins affords star Nell Carter even more opportunities to show off her singing skills than in previous seasons, beginning with the season opener guest-starring Andy Gibb. Later on, Nell and The Chief perform a duet of "Me and My Shadow," and the entire cast lifts its collective voice in "A Kanisky Christmas." Highlights this season include an appearance by impressionist George Kirby as the mayor of Glen Lawn, who falls hard for Nell; a flashback episode showing Nell's first meeting with Chief Kanisky's late wife Margaret (played by Sharon Spelman); and the two-part "The Big Apple," featuring cameo appearances by Wheel of Fortune's Pat Sajak and Vanna White, former New York mayor Edward I. Koch, and actor Tony Randall. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nell Carter, Dolph Sweet, (more)
- 1984
Casting a pall over the proceedings in season four of Gimme a Break is the serious illness of co-star Dolph Sweet, whose appearances as Glen Falls, CA police chief Carl Kanisky are for the most part limited to walk-ons, with very little dialogue. In the earliest episodes of the season, The Chief is conspicuous by his absence, resulting from Sweet's stomach surgery. When he finally returns to the cast, he seems wan and distracted, literally phoning in his performance on several occasions. Reportedly, the series' producers, aware of Sweet's condition, offered the actor the opportunity to retire from the series, but Sweet valiantly insisted upon sticking it out until season's end -- a few weeks after production closed down, the 65-year-old actor was dead of stomach cancer. On a brighter note, Telma Hopkins is now a full regular in the role of Dr. Addy Wilson, lifelong friend of The Chief's outspoken housekeeper Nell Harper (Nell Carter), thereby permitting both characters ample opportunity to show off their musical skills. Nell in particular in is in splendid voice this season, joining in duets with such guest stars as Sammy Davis Jr. and Ray Parker Jr. Meanwhile, The Chief's three daughters are growing apace. After briefly attending junior college, oldest daughter Katie (Kari Michaelsen) drops out to open a boutique; youngest daughter Sam (Lara Jill Miller) has long since passed the tomboy stage and is dating regularly; and middle daughter Julie (Lauri Hendler) has fallen in love with Jonathan (Jonathan Silverman), a young archeologist introduced in the episode "Jonathan's Lie." By the end of season four, Julie and Jonathan have run off to Las Vegas to get married -- on Julie's 18th birthday! Flashing back to the season opener, the two-part "New Orleans" finds Nell and the Kaniskys' foster son Joey (Joey Lawrence) visiting the titular metropolis during the 1984 World's Fair, where Joey is reunited with his father and Nell nearly marries a man whom she's only known for 24 hours. Later on, Addy is likewise reunited with her long-lost dad, but only after the aging roué has tried to make time with Nell! Still later, another two-parter, "Alabamy Bound," introduces Rosetta Le Noire as Nell's hyper-judgmental mother Maybelle. And on February 23, 1985, the episode "Cat Story" was telecast live in the Eastern and Central Time Zones -- a rare occurrence for prime time television of the period. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nell Carter, Dolph Sweet, (more)
- 1985
With the death of co-star Dolph Sweet on May 8, 1985, the producers of the NBC sitcom Gimme a Break had no choice but to allow Sweet's character, suburban California police chief Carl Kanisky, to pass away as well. The opening episode of the series' fifth season finds the Kanisky household still trying to come to grips with The Chief's death, which in many ways has impacted housekeeper Nell Harper (Nell Carter) far more than Kanisky's daughters Katie (Kari Michaelsen), Julie (Lauri Hendler), and Sam (Lara Jill Miller). Eventually, the family bucks up and moves on with their lives, though Nell is occasionally seen talking to the departed Chief, supplying him with "updates" as to the well-being of his daughters. In other developments, Nell has decided to enroll in college, even though she is sorely tempted to return to her previous career as a singer, never more so than in the two-part "Second Chance", in which she is spotted by actor Gary Collins and given the opportunity to sing on Collins' afternoon TV show "Hour Magazine." Eldest Kanisky daughter Katie has moved into her own apartment, and by season's end has closed down her boutique to accept a high-paying job in San Francisco. Middle daughter Julie finds out she is pregnant, just as her husband Jonathan (Jonathan Silverman) has left on an archeological expedition to Mexico; eventually the couple is reunited and Julie gives birth to a daughter, whom she names after Nell. And youngest daughter Sam has entered the dating scene and is weighing options for her college career. As for the family's foster child, Joey (Joey Lawrence), he finds out he is "gifted" academically, but prefers to remain in the fourth grade where he's happy; and on a more somber note, he accidently shoots Nell with the late Chief's gun, an act for which he cannot forgive himself despite Nell's efforts to calm him down. Finally, season five yields the series' 100th episode "The Elevator", a milestone acknowledged by a closing scene in which the cast breaks character and blows out the candles on a huge cake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nell Carter, Kari Michaelsen, (more)
This routine comedy is about a series of misadventures during a family vacation at the beach and stars John Candy (who died of a heart attack while filming in Mexico in 1994) as John Chester and Karen Austin as his long-suffering wife Sandy. When the family leave for what turns out to be a pretty decrepit shack on a public beach, Jack eventually locks horns with the owner of this dubious piece of real estate, and their conflict terminates in a boat race in which Jack and his motley crew are at first glance, and even second, no match for the others in the race. In the meantime, there are plenty of skits with Jack dressed as anything from an ample, unintentional likeness of a geisha to the normal tourist dude in a Hawaiian shirt. His wife and daughter tackle their own problems, related to sex in one way or another, mostly another. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Candy, Rip Torn, (more)
- 1986
The major cast and format changes in Gimme a Break's sixth and final season commence with the two-part season opener, in which Nell Harper (Nell Carter), housekeeper for the Kanisky family in suburban California, finds herself experiencing a bad case of "empty nest syndrome." Eldest Kanisky daughter Katie (Kari Michaelsen) has moved to San Francisco to start a fantastic new job; middle daughter Julie (Lauri Hendler), her husband Jonathan (Jonathan Silverman), and their baby daughter have relocated to San Jose; and youngest daughter Sam (Lara Jill Miller) is off to New Jersey, there to begin her freshman year at Littlefield College. Staying behind with Nell are the girls' feisty Grandpa Kanisky (John Hoyt), the family's foster son Joey (Joey Lawrence), and Nell's best friend Dr. Addy Wilson (Telma Hopkins). Before long, however, this little group has moved bag and baggage to New York City, where Addy has landed a new job and Joey comes face-to-face with Matthew, the little brother he never knew he had (Matthew is played by Matthew Lawrence, the real-life younger brother of series regular Joey Lawrence). Finding a job with a publishing house, Nell moves into a Greenwich Village apartment over a Mexican restaurant called El Gatspacio, run by a zany character named Marty (Paul Sand), who for business purposes assumes the identity (and wretched accent) of a Latino named Esteban. Also joining the cast on a regular basis is Rosetta Le Noire as Nell's cantankerous mother Maybelle and a very young Rosie O'Donnell as wisecracking neighbor kid Maggie O'Brien. The series' final episode "Mama's Date" is highlighted by a surprising revelation concerning Nell's mother. It does not, however, play like a traditional "finale" -- mainly because the cast and production crew were unaware that NBC had decided to pull the plug on Gimme a Break after six years on the air. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nell Carter, Telma Hopkins, (more)
Household appliances are generally useful and beneficent items, and most of us who own them take them for granted, but should we? This sci-fi thriller shows what happens when electricity gets a mind of its own, becomes evil and turns every-day gadgets into evil killers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cliff De Young, Roxanne Hart, (more)
This animated musical retells Dickens's Oliver Twist amongst animals in New York City, with Oliver as an innocent kitten who joins a gang of law-breaking dogs. When Oliver is adopted by a wealthy young woman, the gang's evil human owner hatches a kidnapping scheme to tap into the girl's fortune. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joey Lawrence, Billy Joel, (more)
- 1992
In this made-for-cable actioner a good-hearted social worker embarks upon a one-man crusade to save Miami teens from getting further involved with a gang of crack dealers. The social worker does this in large part to ease his own guilt at having been responsible for the death of his own son back when he was drinking heavily. To save the teen, he pretends to be a dealer and infiltrates the gang. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
A blend of screwball farce and whodunit murder mystery, this madcap period piece was the brainchild of executive producer George Lucas. In 1939, Penny Henderson (Mary Stuart Masterson) is the harried general secretary and de facto manager of a new fourth radio network, WBN. On the night that the Chicago station goes live on the air, a mysterious voice interrupts, and a series of murders soon follows, each one described by the same sonorous phantom. While Penny and her staff desperately try to keep WBN's roster of shows afloat during the unfolding crisis, her estranged husband Roger (Brian Benben), a staff writer, becomes the chief suspect. Roger is forced to dodge a detective, Lieutenant Cross (Michael Lerner), find the real killer, win Penny back, and perform last-minute script rewrites for an unhappy sponsor. As the backstage hysteria reaches a fever pitch, the show goes on with real-life radio-era pros such as George Burns and Rosemary Clooney. Although never explicitly pointed out in the film, Radioland Murders (1994) was a pseudo-prequel to an earlier Lucas feature -- Roger and Penny are the future parents of Curt Henderson (Richard Dreyfuss) from American Graffiti (1973). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian Benben, Mary Stuart Masterson, (more)
This animated Disney feature is based on a popular afternoon television show. The story centers on Goofy's teenage son, Max, who is terrified that he will grow up to be as dorky a dog as his daffy daddy. Just as shy Max has screwed up enough courage to ask his dreamgirl, Roxanne, on a date, Goofy stumbles in and announces that they need to spend some quality time together, and then drags Max off on a vacation. Just before they leave, Max tells Roxanne that he will be in the audience at the next Powerline concert, which is to be televised. As Goofy heads for the forest for some huntin' and some fishin', "hyuk," Max schemes to get them to LA where he hopes they will be able to sneak backstage after the concert and fulfill his promise to Roxanne. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Farmer, Jason Marsden, (more)
- 1995
In yet another modern-dress version of The Prince and the Pauper, Joey Lawrence plays Ricky Prince, a famous pop star who has grown tired of the spotlight and the pressures of fame. Ricky makes the aquaintance of Ralph Bitondo (also played by Joey Lawrence), a pizza delivery boy who looks almost exactly like Ricky -- so much so that the two decide to trade identities for a while. Ricky enjoys being able to live like an average guy for a change, and Ralph gets a kick out of the perks of stardom, but predictably enough they both learn the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Also known as The Prince and the Pizza Boy, Prince for a Day also stars Richard Belzer and Khrystyne Haje. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joey Lawrence, Richard Belzer, (more)
- 1996
In this western adventure a young man heads off into the wilds to save his parents from their Indian captors. A lovely native woman befriends him and helps out with his search. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joey Lawrence, Matthew Lawrence, (more)
- 1999
District Attorney Sara Perker (Paige Moss) recoils in terror when her former boyfriend Jesse (Joey Lawrence) is brought into court as an armed-robbery suspect. Unable to face Jesse. Sara makes a beeline to the corner bar, where as luck (?) would have it Monica (Roma Downey) and Tess (Della Reese) are currently employed. In the course of a very long evening, the angels hear the story of the strange hold that Jesse once had--and still has--over Sara. Special Agent Angel Sam (Paul Winfield) makes a pivotal appearance in the episode's flashback sequence, while Monica and Tess' colleague Andrew (John Dye) has a surprise for everyone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Pop star Joey Lawrence stars in this blend of comedy and horror about a group of college kids who get a lot more than they counted on when they head to Mexico for a good time. Film student Johnny Orpheus (Lawrence) and his buddies Paul (Nathan Anderson) and Al (Josh Marchette) decide to head down to Mexico's Rosaferno Beach for a major league party, held to commemorate the national celebration of the Day of the Dead. A Mexican medicine man persuades Johnny to try a potion that will allow him to read women's minds, doubtless a great advantage in winning the girl of your dreams. Johnny tries it, only to discover it also makes him see Hector (Rene L. Moreno), a horrific demon who has risen from hell to reclaim the hand of his former lover, Carlotta. Will Johnny be able to vanquish evil and snag a date with one of the hot babes he's met? ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joey Lawrence, Dru Mouser, (more)
- 1999
In this frantic comedy, Lily (Christine Taylor) is thrilled when Jonathan (John Corbett), a good-looking man she's had her eye on for some time, asks her to attend a friend's wedding reception with him. But Lily's joy is short-lived when, on the day of the wedding, she misplaces her invitation and is unable to reach Jonathan on the phone. Even though she can't find Jonathan and can't recall the location of the reception, Lily is not about to let her dream date go without a fight, so she enlists the help of her best friend Frances (Paget Brewster), a good-time gal who can smell a party a mile away. Together, they make the rounds of the Los Angeles social circuit, hoping that they'll somehow stumble upon either the reception or Jonathan. Desperate But Not Serious also stars Claudia Schiffer, Joey Lawrence, and Henry Rollins. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christine Taylor, Paget Brewster, (more)
- 2000
- G
An unexpected snowstorm forces Santa Claus to crash-land in the North Woods. By chance, Santa and his reindeer encounter a band of wandering circus animals that frighten the reindeer enough to cause them to run away, thus leaving Santa alone and stranded in the forest. The circus animals decide to assist Santa in rounding up his reindeer and in the process learn about the true meaning of Christmas. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
A vacation in paradise turns into a bloodbath in this modern-dress horror story. Six students from an exclusive East Coast university head down to Florida for spring break, but while sun and fun are the first order of business, things take a turn for the worst when the friends head out for a night on the town, and one of them is brutally murdered at a dance club. Over the next three days, three more of the vacationers turn up dead, and the two survivors have to figure out who the killer is and why they've been targeted -- before it's too late to save themselves. Do You Wanna Know A Secret stars Joseph Lawrence (better known as Joey Lawrence when he was the teen-dream star of Blossom), Chad Allen, Dorie Barton, and Jack McGee.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joey Lawrence, Chad Allen, (more)
