Audra Lindley Movies

Pragmatic businesswoman Gail Metzger (Joanna Kerns) has never seen eye to eye with her eccentric sister Renee (Debrah Farentino), a bad situation made worse when the two women butt heads over a real estate deal. Later on, Renee turns up dead, an apparent suicide. But as more "facts" come to surface, the police change their minds about Renee's demise--and Gail is suspected of murder. In her efforts to find out what really happened, Gail is enveloped in a frightening atmosphere of suspense and mysticism. Adapted fromBarbara L. Parker's novel Suspicion of Innocence, the made-for-TV Sisters and Other Strangers made its initial CBS network appearance on May 6, 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Pittsburgh Penguins owner Howard Baldwin was the producer of Sudden Death, and the action is set in his hockey arena, in which the Penguins are playing the Chicago Blackhawks. Pittsburgh fire inspector Darren McCord (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is attending the game with his two children. He's quit fighting fires because of a tragedy a few years earlier involving a child he couldn't save. Also at the game is the vice-president of the United States (Raymond Barry), who is the target of a terrorist plot. The terrorist leader, an insane ex-CIA agent named Joshua Foss (Powers Boothe), has masterminded a scheme to hold the vice-president hostage in his luxury suite while demanding that payments be transferred to his account electronically at the end of each period of the game. If he doesn't get his money, he will kill one member of the vice-president's party at the end of each period, and at game's end he will order ten bombs hidden in the arena to be detonated with all 17,000 fans present. McCord discovers the plot while his daughter Emily (Whittni Wright) is kidnapped by the terrorists too. McCord must dispatch the villains and find the bombs, while saving all the hostages. Luckily, he is adept at martial arts. He fights one henchman dressed in a Penguins mascot outfit in the arena's kitchen, and another terrorist on the arena's retracting dome. At one point, McCord switches identities with a player, is sent into the game, and scores a goal. Director Peter Hyams also directed Van Damme in the blockbuster Timecop. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

In 1988, Nancy Klein, the pregnant wife of Long Island accountant Marty Klein, was involved in a car accident that left her comatose. Convinced that Nancy would never recover if she went to full term with the baby, Marty asked the doctors to perform an abortion. Almost immediately, Nancy Klein became a cause celebre for pro-life and pro-choice activists alike. Made for television, Absolute Strangers recreates this traumatic event and the drawn-out courtroom litigation that followed. Henry Winkler, who produced the film, returned to acting after a long absence to play Klein; others in the cast include Jennifer Hetrick as Nancy, Richard Kiley as Dr. R. J. Cannon, Karl Malden and Audra Lindley as Nancy's parents, and Patty Duke as a lower-court judge. Though it is clear that the filmmaker's sympathies are clearly on Marty Klein's side, the script remains even-handed throughout, observing that the pro-choicers can be just as narrow-minded and contentious as the "absolute strangers" who wish to usurp Marty Klein's rights concerning his wife's wellbeing. Written by playwright Robert Anderson (Tea and Sympathy, I Never Sang For My Father), Absolute Strangers premiered April 14, 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Four women, all high school best friends, are reunited in Minnesota at the wedding of a fifth friend. On the eve of the nuptials, the foursome discuss their lives, their loves and their innermost secrets. Adultery and a surprise pregnancy are choice ingredients added to this TV-movie brew. For the record, the four female chums are played by Shelley Hack, Sela Ward, Stephanie Faracy and Brooke Adams. Bridesmaids was originally telecast February 21, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tim Daly stars in director Janet Greek's fair horror-thriller as Los Angeles attorney Jeff Mills, who rescues beautiful Miranda Reed (Kelly Preston) from being raped. As he and Miranda become lovers, Jeff learns that his new girlfriend is a witch trying to escape from an evil cult led by Aldys (Anthony Crivello), who wants to use her as a human sacrifice. Borrowing ideas from thrillers like Fatal Attraction (1987) and Tutti i Colori del Buio (1972), this borderline occult chiller co-stars genre veterans Rick Rossovich, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Stefan Gierasch, and Audra Lindley. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Raymond Burr, as ever, stars in this TV-movie continuation of the Perry Mason saga. Once more pulled out of semi-retirement, Perry takes on the case of a wealthy man (David Hasselhoff) accused of murdering his heiress wife. Of course, this has nothing to do with the Klaus von Bulow affair. As was customary in these latter-day Mason episodes, the bulk of the detective work is in the hands of Paul Drake Jr., played by William Katt--the real-life son of Mason's "Della Street," Barbara Hale. Lady in the Lake was one of two Perry Mason two-hour specials produced by Fred Silverman and Dean Hargrove in 1988; the other was subtitled The Case of the Avenging Ace. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-TV crime drama a cop pursues a homicidal maniac. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Director Donna Deitch makes a strong impression in her first feature film, a simple story of a lesbian love affair, based on Jane Rule's 1964 novel Desert of the Heart. Helen Shaver stars as Vivian Bell, an uptight 35-year-old Columbia University professor who travels to Reno to get a divorce. She arrives in Reno on her way to Frances Parker's (Audra Lindley) ranch, where she is staying to establish six weeks of residency in order to obtain the divorce. Once at the ranch, Vivian catches the fancy of Frances's adopted daughter Cay (Patricia Charbonneau), a casino worker ten years younger than herself. Vivien tries to remain unruffled as Cay makes unabashed overtures to her. Cay thinks that all Vivian needs is the love of another woman, and soon enough the two are in each other's arms. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

An all-star (or rather, "all-TV star") cast distinguishes this three-hour filmed re-creation of the great stock market crash on October 29, 1929. Though inspired by a fact-based book on "Black Tuesday," the film is chock full of fabricated soap-opera complications involving dozens of fictional characters, among them a debt-plagued Stock Exchange officer, a group of high-profile embezzlers, a social-climbing couple determined to land a wealthy husband for their hapless daughter, and the inevitable far-sighted individuals who know that the Crash is coming and are determined to may hay while the sun is still in the sky. Overall, the film simplifies a very controversial and complicated moment of history into a cut-and-dried account peopled by blatantly obvious heroes and villains. Originally slated to air on February 1, 1981, The Day the Bubble Burst was inexplicably shelved by NBC for over a year, finally making its debut on February 7, 1982. The fact that it was scheduled opposite the network television premiere of Superman: The Movie was indication enough that NBC had very little confidence in their expensive "factual fiction" piece. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

According to the NBC publicity packet, the made-for-TV Revenge of the Stepford Wives was "based on characters created by Ira Levin" -- specifically, those characters created by Levin for his fantasy-suspense novel The Stepford Wives, which was transformed into a theatrical film in 1975. On this occasion, plucky TV journalist Kay Foster (Sharon Gless) is stranded in the "idyllic" New England community of Stepford, populated exclusively by chauvinistic males and their eerily submissive and subservient wives. With the help of Megan Brady (Julie Kavner), a new arrival to the community who hasn't yet been "conditioned," Kay tries to learn the terrible secret behind the robotic Stepford wives -- and to foment a rebellion against the wicked menfolk. Revenge of the Stepford Wives first aired on October 12, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As the third most popular program on network television, Three's Company entered its third season on ABC with the greatest of ease in the fall of 1978. No major changes had been made in the format or premise: Jack (John Ritter) still shared a Santa Monica apartment with Janet (Joyce DeWitt) and Chrissy (Suzanne Somers), the relationship was still strictly platonic, and the trio's landlord, Mr. Roper (Norman Fell), remained convinced that Jack was gay (this was the story given him by the girls, who didn't want to be kicked out), though both Jack and the audience knew that this was far from the truth. As the season progressed, Jack graduated from cooking school and began work as a caterer, Chrissy landed a new secretarial job in the firm run by female executive J.C. Braddock (Emmaline Henry), and Janet, the "calm, reliable" roommate, occasionally kicked over the traces and acted silly just for the heck of it. Towards the end of the season, Mr. Roper and his wife, Helen (Audra Lindley), sold their apartment building and moved into a ritzy Cheviot Hills townhouse, thereby seguing into their own spin-off series, The Ropers, which premiered on March 13, 1979. (A precedent for this move had been established on Man About the House, the British sitcom upon which Three's Company was based, which had likewise spawned a spin-off called George and Mildred.) At the same time, recurring actor Richard Kline was elevated to regular status in the role of glib car salesman Larry Dallas. Not only did Three's Company retain its popularity, but it actually increased its viewership, moving from the number three to the number two ratings slot by the end of its third season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide