Shelley Long Movies
Northwestern University drama student Shelley Long began picking up work in Chicago TV commercials in the mid-1970s. She went on to host the WMAQ-TV "magazine" program Sorting it Out, and honed her comic timing with the Second City troupe. While her actual film debut was in 1980's A Small Circle of Friends, Long prefers to list the 1981 spoof Caveman as her first film. After a handful of TV guest appearances (notably as one of Alan Alda's lady friends on MASH) and an attention-grabbing performance as a freewheeling hooker in Night Shift (1982), Long was cast as the pretentious, garrulous waitress Diane Chambers on the weekly sitcom Cheers. She won an Emmy for this role, but all was not roses on the Cheers set. According to most sources, Diane's overbearing personality spilled over into Long's off-camera behavior; when she left the series in 1987, many of the cast members, especially star Ted Danson, breathed a rather loud and public sigh of relief. Shelley Long's post-Cheers efforts to establish herself as a movie star have thus far fallen short of expectations; her most successful film assignment to date has been as retro housewife Carol Brady in 1995's The Brady Bunch: The Movie. She reprised the role of Carol in the 1996 sequel A Very Brady Sequel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Pumped up with energy to spare in its first half, this is an otherwise routine drama about a love triangle set in the turbulent late '60s on the Harvard campus. Harvard takes a remote backseat though, as Leo (Brad Davis) chases after Jessica (Karen Allen) while buddy Nick (Jameson Parker) also nurses a crush on her. Leo is in journalism, or wants to be, Jessica paints but she is leaning toward law school, and Nick is a solid, steady pre-med student. Their relationship takes a serious turn when Leo's number comes up on the Vietnam draft. Nick makes his feelings known to Jessica and whether it seems like a good idea or not, she suggests that the three of them move in together. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brad Davis, Karen Allen, (more)
In this drama, a young woman gives up college and marries her boyfriend, a Marine. Unfortunately, he is killed in Vietnam. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1979
Based on the best-selling novel by Joyce Rebeta-Burditt, the made-for-TV Cracker Factory originally aired on March 16, 1979. Natalie Wood stars as alcoholic Cleveland housewife Cassie Barrett, who after attempting suicide is shipped off by her family to a psychiatric ward. It's not the first time Cassie has been in "the cracker factory", but the doctors continue to hope that she'll eventually learn to grasp reality and stop hiding behind her boozing and blustering facade. As before Cassie resists the trappings of normality; this time, however, she may end up in the "factory" to stay if she doesn't at least try to help herself. Alternating sombre tragedy with moments of raucous comedy, Cracker Factory is an outstanding tour de force for Natalie Wood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
