Ed Marinaro Movies
A Cornell University graduate, Class of '72, Ed Marinaro went on to play professional football with the Minnesota Vikings, New York Jets and Seattle Seahawks. Turning to acting in the late 1970s, Marinaro landed the supporting role of Sonny St. Jacques on the ratings-grabbing sitcom Laverne and Shirley. He was then cast as Officer Joe Coffey, partner to policewoman Lucy Bates (Betty Thomas) in Hill Street Blues, a role he played from 1981 to 1986. He later appeared as Mitch Margolis in the weekly dramedy Sisters (1991-94). Like many athletes-turned-actors, he has at least one "eponymous hero" action flick to his credit: in his case, he played "Mace" in the 1987 film of the same name. In 1992, Ed Marinaro managed to survive playing Joey Buttafucco in the TV biopic Amy Fisher: My Story with both his career and dignity intact. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1987
Malcolm "Mace" Douglas (Ed Marinaro) is a vice squad detective who investigates the drug-related murders of strippers in this uneven, low-budget crime drama. The former homicide lieutenant was demoted when he earned his nickname for spraying mace down the throat of a suspect. He and Mark Cain (Darrell Larson) later become entangled in implausible international intrigue with Bulgarian diplomats, KBG agents, lowlife club owners, and blackmail. Mace loses his badge when he falls for the stripper Amber (Cassandra Gava). Isaac Hayes, Lynn Whitfield, Corbin Bernsen, and John Hancock co-star. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ed Marinaro, Darrell Larson, (more)
- 1983
Laverne & Shirley was Laverne & Shirley in name only as the series entered its eighth and final season. For a variety of reasons, chief among them her feelings that she was being overshadowed by co-star Penny Marshall (Laverne) and that the producers were insensitive to the work limitations imposed by her pregnancy, Cindy Williams had walked off the series after completing only two season-eight episodes. Providentially, the first of these, the season opener of September 28, 1982, had contrived to marry off Shirley to an army medic named Walter Meany (making her Shirley Feeney Meany!), thereby explaining away the many absences that Williams was expected to take before giving birth. No one (except perhaps the actress herself) could have suspected that the next episode telecast, "Window on Main Street, would constitute Williams' last appearance on the series. Thus, Laverne soldiered on throughout the rest of the season without Shirley, as the writers tried to recapture the old magic by briefly teaming Penny Marshall with such guest stars as Julie Brown, Carrie Fisher, Laraine Newman, Carol Kane, and Vicki Lawrence, the latter reprising her role as bombastic WAC sergeant Plout. And in an unrelated distaff development, series co-star David L. Lander, normally cast as the goofy Squiggy, shows up in drag as Squiggy's sister Squendolyn! Perhaps the highlight of the season is future Tonight Show host Jay Leno's guest appearance as duplicitous radio DJ Bobby Bitts in the episode "Do the Carmine." Ranking 25th in the ratings during its terminal season -- not bad, but far below its onetime ranking as America's Number One series -- Laverne & Shirley concluded with the unremarkable episode "Here Today, Hair Tomorrow." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Penny Marshall, Cindy Williams, (more)
- 1983
This fact-based exploitation drama tells the story of a buxom policewoman who nearly destroys both her personal and professional life by posing naked for a popular men's magazine. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melody Anderson, Ed Marinaro, (more)
- 1982
Here's the status quo as Laverne & Shirley enters its seventh season. Ex-Milwaukeeans Laverne (Penny Marshall) and Shirley (Cindy Williams) are still living in Burbank, CA, still working at Bardwell's Department Store, and still trying to break into the movies. The girls' zany pals Lenny (Michael McKean) and Squiggy (David L. Lander) are trying their luck as talent agents; Laverne's sometime boyfriend Carmine (Eddie Mekka) is still tap-dancing around the notion of marriage, though he very nearly makes it to the altar in the episode "I Do, I Don't." And although Laverne's dad, Frank (Phil Foster), continues to manage the Burbank eatery Cowboy Bill's, his wife, Edna, is nowhere to found (longtime regular Betty Garrett has left the series). Although ostensibly set in the mid-'60s, Laverne & Shirley is now emphatically "early '80s" in its look and attitude: for example, "Friendly Persuasion" features actor Charles Grodin as his successful movie-and-TV personality "self" of the 1980s, not as the struggling young character actor that he was 20 years earlier. At least Joey Heatherton is pretty much the same person she was "back in the day" in the episode "Night at the Awards." In other season-seven highlights, former semi-regular Carole Ita White returns briefly as Laverne and Shirley's high-school nemesis Rosie Greenbaum in "Class of '56"; and Squiggy's father (Wynn Irwin) shows up out of nowhere in "Helmut Weekend." Although Laverne & Shirley was no longer America's top-rated series, it remained in a respectable 20th place through its seventh season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Penny Marshall, Cindy Williams, (more)
- 1982
Born Beautiful proposes that model Erin Grey is over the hill when she turns 27. We don't believe it, but the plot hinges upon Grey's rivalry with the younger, more aggressive Lori Singer. Some of the characters are straight out of Valley of the Dolls, especially the neurotic pill-popper played by Barbara Blackburn. Polly Bergen comes off best in the stock role of a no-nonsense model agency head. Made for television, Born Beautiful was originally telecast on November 1, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
"Let's be careful out there..." So ends each roll call session at the Hill Street station house. As the cops and detectives head out to the streets, Captain Frank Furillo begins the delicate balancing act of providing enough protection for the law-abiding citizens without inciting the neighborhood gangs and local criminal elements who are openly hostile towards any police presence. Yet as dangerous as his inner city precinct can be, Furillo's biggest battles often involve protecting his own cops from the Public Defender's office, self-serving bureaucrats, and even each other.
- Starring:
- Daniel J. Travanti, Michael Conrad, (more)
- 1981
To counteract a precipitous drop in its ratings during its previous season, Laverne & Shirley launched season six by shifting the series' locale from Milwaukee, WI, to Burbank, CA. Fired from their jobs when Shotz Brewery decides to switch to automation, Laverne (Penny Marshall) and Shirley (Cindy Williams) pack their bags and leave Beertown in favor of the Golden State, where Laverne's dad, Frank (Phil Foster), and his new bride (and the girls' former landlady), Edna (Betty Garrett), have already resettled and opened a restaurant called Cowboy Bill's. In the interests of continuity, Laverne and Shirley are soon joined in California by their zany ex-co-workers Lenny (Michael McKean) and Squiggy (David L. Lander), and by Laverne's erstwhile boyfriend Carmine (Eddie Mekka). Moving into an apartment managed by part-time stuntman Sonny St. Jacques (Ed Marinaro), Laverne and Shirley immediately come into contact with their new neighbor, airheaded model-dancer Rhonda Lee (Leslie Easterbrook), and not long afterward the girls land jobs in the gift-wrapping section of Bardwell's Department Store. They also launch an ongoing effort to break into the movies, beginning with the famous episode in which Troy Donahue appears as himself. Evidently, several years have passed between season five, which was ostensibly set in the very early '60s, and season six. How else can one explain how Lenny and Squiggy end up as guests on TV's The Dating Game, which didn't debut until December of 1965, or how Frank and Edna, who were married in the early months of season five, are suddenly celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary? Highlights this season include the return of Vicki Lawrence as the redoubtable Sgt. Plout of the WACS, now seeking help from her former "grunts" Laverne and Shirley as she goes AWOL; Eric Idle and Peter Noone, showing up as pot-smoking rock singers in the episode "I Do, I Do"; Lenny and Squiggy imagining themselves as silent movie stars in "Born Too Late"; and "Laverne's Broken Leg," which may well have been the first sitcom episode inspired by the 1946 feature film It's a Wonderful Life (but certainly not the last)! The move from Milwaukee to Burbank did wonders for Laverne & Shirley's ratings: not even showing up in the Top 30 during season five, the series shot up to 20th place for season six. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Penny Marshall, Cindy Williams, (more)
- 1980
During the 1970s, the Gong Show was a game/talent show phenomenon. With equal measures of parody, camp and pure lowest-common denominator exploitation, it presented a bizarre assortment of talented and untalented contestants (for example, the musician who played his trumpet with his bellybutton) making their bid for stardom, and a ridiculous prize of $516.32 while three rambunctious minor celebrity judges looked on offering scores for acts they liked, or instantly stopping showing disapproval by pounding furiously on a large Chinese gong. The co-creator, producer and acid-witted but smarmy daytime host of this tawdry kitsch pastiche was Chuck Barris (AKA "Chuckie Baby"). This attempt at a serious drama chronicles a day in his hectic life as he tries to prepare a new episode of his crazy show. As he deals with a seemingly unending string of increasingly freaky acts, the pressure begins to get to the sensitive, caring (as portrayed in the film) Barris and by the day's end he becomes a true lunatic. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chuck Barris, Robin Altman, (more)
- 1980
Ed Marinaro, who would join the regular Laverne & Shirley cast as Sonny St. Jacques during the series' sixth season, is here seen as Antonio, the Italian cousin of Shirley Feeney (Cindy Williams). Newly arrived in America, Antonio moves in with Shirley and Laverne (Penny Marshall) while looking for a job. Unfortunately, despite the concerted efforts of Lenny (Michael McKean), Squiggy (David L. Lander) and Carmine (Eddie Mekka), Antonio proves to be uniquely unqualified for any sort of employment--at least until the "surprise" ending of the episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Jimmy Angelelli (Harvey Keitel) wants to be a concert pianist. Jimmy's dad, Ben Angelelli (Michael V. Gazzo), wants his son to go into the family business. So far, so banal. But the "family business" depicted in Fingers is organized crime, and therein lies the film's perverse appeal. Fingers represents the directorial debut of screenwriter James Toback, who also wrote the script. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harvey Keitel, Tisa Farrow, (more)
