Richard Lawson Movies

An angel from above arrives on a mission to transform a spoiled college girl into a caring young woman in this contemporary variation on the Christmas Carol story starring Keshia Knight Pulliam, Tom Bosley, and Pooch Hall. To wealthy college girl Layla Turner (Knight-Pulliam), Christmas is all about overstuffed gift bags from Bloomingdale's and the best jewelry that money can buy - but this holiday season promises to be a real eye-opener. When an angel in disguise walks into Layla's life and shows her the true meaning of the holiday season, the girl who once scoffed at off-brand names gradually begins to realize that there's more to Christmas than designer labels. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Terry McMillan and Ron Bass wrote this screenplay based on McMillan's semi-autobiographical best-selling novel (over 2,000,000 copies in print before the release of this film). San Francisco stockbroker Stella (Angela Bassett), a 40-year-old divorcee, has a nice Marin County home and an 11-year-old son, Quincy (Michael J. Pagan). With Quincy off to see his dad, Stella and her best friend Delilah (Whoopi Goldberg) vacation in Jamaica, where she meets sexy, good-looking Winston Shakespeare (Taye Diggs). He's the man of her dreams in every way except one -- he's half her age. Even so, a romance develops. Grammy Award-winning songwriters Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis supervised the film's music and produced the R&B-slanted soundtrack album. Shown at the 1998 Urbanworld Film Festival (NY). ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Comic actress Jackee serves double duty in this made-for-TV comedy. A top female FBI agent is injured in the midst of an important assignment, and a look-alike replacement is needed in short order, so her superiors are forced to enlist her identical twin sister for the job. Unfortunately, she lacks her sister's skills as a crime fighter, and the bulk of her work experience is as a waitress; will she be able to save the day? Also screened as Double Your Pleasure, The Reluctant Agent co-stars Dan Hedaya, Richard Lawson, and Cynthia Stevenson. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The Forgotten deserves at least a small niche in TV history as the first-ever TV movie made especially for the USA cable network. Based on a story by Vietnam veteran Paul Staples, the film concerns six American Green Berets, held for 17 years in a Vietnamese POW camp. They are finally released in secret, during a delicate trade-talk session between Vietnam and the United States. Keith Carradine, the ex-prisoners' CO, begins to suspect that government-man Stacy Keach, who is in charge of the debriefing, may be pursuing a hidden agenda that will result in the early deaths of Carradine and the five men under his command. Stacy's brother James Keach directed Forgotten and also co-wrote the script with another of his stars, Steve Railsback. First aired April 26, 1989, The Forgotten set the "viewer discretion" standard for all future USA TV movies with its grim flashback sequences depicting the torture methods of the NVA. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bill Duke directed this fact-based tale of a poor Southern black woman who rose from poverty to become an FBI agent. Retitled Johnnie Gibson F.B.I. for home video. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

Ever on the lookout for a quick buck, T.C. (Roger E. Mosley) agrees to deliver a mysterious briefcase to Oahu. En route, T.C.'s chopper plunges into the ocean, and he ends up in the hospital in a comatose state. Flying in the face of convential wisdom, Magnum (Tom Selleck) is certain that the crash was no accident, and he is determined to bring in the men responsible for T.C.'s plight. Joining Magnum in this mission is T.C.'s visiting brother Gerald (Richard Lawson)--who turns out to be pursuing an agenda of his own. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this sprawling television miniseries, originally aired in May 1983 on NBC, a race of seemingly human-like aliens arrive en masse on Earth. These "Visitors" promise cooperation and friendship -- then launch a clandestine takeover of the planet by accusing the entire scientific and medical community of conspiring to destroy them, then finally "benevolently" seizing power. Inspired by Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here, a 1935 account of a fictional fascist takeover of America, V uses a huge ensemble cast and an elliptical method of storytelling to trace the contact between humans and the Visitors, from the arrival of 50 giant flying saucers in low Earth orbit to the first major victory of the underground resistance that opposes the aliens. Major characters include Mike Donovan (Marc Singer), a television cameraman who leverages his experience filming in various war-torn locales to help expose the Visitors' true nature; news anchor Kristine Walsh (Jenny Sullivan), his sometime girlfriend, who allows her ambitions to cloud her journalistic judgment and becomes a pawn of the alien invasion; Juliet Parrish (Faye Grant), a young biochemist who finds herself thrust into the role of resistance leader; Abraham Bernstein (Leonardo Cimino), the patriarch of a Jewish family divided between the lessons of the Holocaust and the need to survive; Elias Taylor (Michael Wright), a petty thief who joins the resistance after the Visitors kill his doctor brother, Ben (Richard Lawson); and Robin Maxwell (Blair Tefkin), the surly eldest daughter of a scientist (Michael Durrell) who finds his family the target of harassment and intimidation. The Visitors, who assume common human first names as their monikers, include supreme leader John (Richard Herd); sultry science and security officer Diana (Jane Badler); hunky Brian (Peter Nelson); and gentle Willie (Robert Englund). V was written and directed by Kenneth Johnson, who initially envisioned the project as a less fanciful story of fascist aggression; when his pitch to NBC seemed to be faltering, Johnson allegedly added the alien angle extemporaneously, securing himself a green light and NBC a sweeps-week hit. The success of V spawned a second miniseries, V: The Final Battle, and a weekly TV series that lasted 19 episodes from 1984 to 1985. Johnson ended his association with the world of V halfway through production on the second miniseries, but his work on the Alien Nation TV spin-off years later would resurrect many of the themes of V. Actor Singer was already known to sci-fi fans as star of The Beastmaster, while Englund would go on to portray Freddy Krueger in countless Nightmare on Elm Street films. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Some sort of Bad Timing Award must surely be bestowed upon the otherwise worthwhile Golden Moment: An Olympic Love Story. David Keith stars as American athlete Wayne Robinson, whose main goal in life is to win the Olympic Decathlon. His dream is compromised when he falls in love with Soviet athlete Anya Andreyev (Stephanie Zimbalist), sparking an international cause celebre. First shown in two parts on May 25 and 26, 1980, Golden Moment was timed to coincide with the telecast of the 1980 Olympics--from which the United States had just withdrawn! Even with this working against it, the film performed reasonably well in the ratings, and also managed to pick up an Emmy nomination for best sound mixing. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this actioner, a pugnacious aspiring pugilist pummels his way out of the slums to become a professional prizefighter. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Charleston is a brazen rip-off of Gone with the Wind which premiered over NBC on January 15, 1979--one month before CBS' planned telecast of Wind. Delta Burke, who was an unknown in 1979, very nearly remained that way in the role of post-Civil War Southern belle Stella. As Stella fiddle-dee-dees around in an effort to raise the tax money to maintain her mansion, her faithful ex-slave Minerva (Lynne Moody) runs the household with an iron hand (that must hurt). Also lurking about is Stella's cousin Valerie (Patricia Pearcy), who squanders her own savings in an effort to find her missing husband. This is the sort of film in which the aggressively urbanized actor Mandy Pantinkin plays a corn-fed character named Beaudine Croft. Martha Scott, the only "name" actor in Charleston, is wasted in a peripheral role as Stella's mom. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Good Times moved from Wednesday to Monday evening with this episode, in which J.J. (Jimmy Carter) loses out on a job promotion. Another employee at the ad agency intimates that J.J. would have gotten the move-up had he been a different color. The result: J.J. has a dream in which he has turned white, whereupon series regular Jimmie Walker relinquishes his customary role to Caucasian comic actor Dennis Howard. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Much against his will, Mike accompanies Archie and Gloria on a subway ride. In the course of events, he is forced to slug a wife-abusing passenger (Wynn Irwin), who tried to assault Gloria. As the passenger threatens legal action, peace-loving Mike broods over the fact that he was pushed into violence -- while Archie, who's "seen it all" on previous subway excursions, smiles knowingly throughout the incident. Also in the cast is Nita Talbot as the obstreperous passenger's wife, William Pierson as a wino, Richard Lawson as a black passenger, and Gerry Black as the conductor. Written by Phil Doran and Douglas Aragno, "Mike the Pacifist" first aired on February 12, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi