Ron McLarty Movies

If nothing else, the extremely shortlived Fox comedy series The Return of Jezebel James will make a nice answer to the trivia question "In what 2008 TV show did the title character never appear?" Indie-film favorite Parker Posey starred as Sarah Thomkins, a successful editor of children's books. Recently divorced and presently involved with with handsome business executive Marcus Sonti (Scott Cohen), Sarah wanted more than anything to have a baby, but the doctors had told her that she was unable to conceive. In desperation, Sarah sought out her long-estranged younger sister Coco (Lauren Ambrose) and asked her to be a surrogate mother. At first the freespirited Coco refused, but finally acquiesced when Sarah informed her that she had transformed "Jezebel James", Coco's childhood imaginary friend, into the heroine of a new series of kiddie books. In one fell swoop, the nonexistent Jezebel went from the wedge that had driven the sisters apart, to the link that brought them back together. Outside of the above mentioned actors, the only other series regulars of consequence were Ron McLarty as Sarah and Coco's dad Ronald and Michael Arden as Sarah's obsequious assistant Buddy. Quirky to the point of irritation, The Return of Jezebel James was cancelled three weeks after its debut on March 14, 2008. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A man who has spent much of his life dealing with grief finally has more than he knows what to do with in this independent drama. Walter Hartwig Jr. (Sean Patrick Flanery) is a New York City cop who is haunted by the death of his sister, who drowned at Coney Island when he was a boy. Hartwig saw his sister die and has felt responsible ever since. Every year on her birthday, he has himself thrown into the ocean as penance, and works with the NYPD Harbor Unit in hope of someday paying back his act of childhood negligence. After a passenger jet crashes into the ocean near the city, Hartwig is sent out to help, and is mesmerized by the sight of Sabrina Hampton (Melina Kanakaredes), a musician who died in the accident. Sabrina reminds him of his sister, and he sets out to find her twin sister, who worked as a teacher but has been traumatized by her loss and now refuses to leave her apartment. As Hartwig begins losing touch with reality, he finds solace when he strikes up a friendship with June Sickles (JoBeth Williams). June lost her son, who was a police officer, on September 11, 2001, and since then has been raising his daughter, giving her plenty of experience in dealing with the harsh side of fate. Into the Fire was the first feature film from writer and director Michael Phelan. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The D.A.'s office has quite a full docket in this episode. Vital ingredients include an assault on a former attorney, a messy divorce, the death of a patient during a routine operation, charges of criminal negligence leveled against two doctors, and a significant name spoken in passing. As A.D.A. Abbie Carmichael, actress Angie Harmon provides most of the episode's dramatic intensity. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Adapted from a play by Tom Ziegler, the made-for-TV Grace and Glorie stars Gena Rowlands and Diane Lane as the title characters. Disenchanted with her empty existence in New York City, stylish but lonely Gloria "Glorie" Greenwood heads to the country, where she becomes a hospice worker in the mansion of Grace Stiles, an old, terminally ill widow. At first, Glorie has trouble "taking" to Grace, just as Grace resents Glorie's very presence. Gradually, the two women realize that they have far more in common than they ever could have imagined. A CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation, Grace and Glorie was first telecast on December 13, 1998. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Kevin Costner directed and stars in this adaptation of David Brin's science fiction novel The Postman (1985), first published in 1982 issues of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Costner's return to directing after his Oscar-winning Dances With Wolves(1990) is a futuristic epic depicting the aftermath of a destructive war. Some 16 years from the present day, America has been turned into a wasteland of separated communities minus a national government. A vagabond (Costner) who travels through these little villages performing Shakespeare is captured by marauders known as the Holnists, and thrown into a totalitarian labor camp run by a Hitler-like dictator, General Bethlehem (Will Patton).

Making an escape, the drifter, known to some as "Shakespeare," stumbles across an abandoned U.S. Postal Service jeep and dons the dead postal-worker's uniform. With a scheme simply to get food, he sets out to deliver 15-year-old mail, proclaiming himself The Postman, and discovers that residents accept his lies about a restored United States government because they desperately need something to believe in. This hope leads to the thought that perhaps the United States of America could indeed be restored, so an unusually inspired young man, Ford (Laren Tate) is deputized with the "Neither snow, nor rain..." oath to become the country's second Postman. At the town of Pineview, the attractive Abby (Olivia Williams), who has an impotent husband, asks The Postman to impregnate her. After Abby's husband is killed during a raid by Bethlehem, she is taken prisoner but injures Bethlehem and makes an escape. Pregnant, she spends the winter nursing the wounded Postman in a snowbound cabin. When spring comes, they emerge to discover that Ford has organized an entire squad of mail deliverers who regard The Postman as a mythical hero. The Postman reluctantly accepts his messianic role in the rebirth of the country, even as it becomes clear that the rebel force must ultimately battle and defeat the Holnist army in order to regain the American Dream. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

When a man is stabbed to death in front of a coffee shop, an unhinged "street person" named Lemonhead (Matthew Cowles) leads detectives Logan (Chris Noth) and Cerreta (Paul Sorvino) to the probable killer, a homeless man named Polesky (Stuart Rudin). Sure enough, the cops find the murder weapon in the Central Park clearing that Polesky calls "home." Unfortunately, the killer's prosecution may be stymied when the Defense argues that Logan and Cerreta didn't have a search warrant. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on a novel by Thomas Berger, The Feud is a lampoonish look at 1950s manners and mores. There is no love lost between the neighboring communities of Milville and Hornbeck. This is largely due to the animosity between two large and demonstrative families: the Bullards and the Bealers. In the tradition of the Hatfields and McCoys (and also Laurel and Hardy), minor irritations slowly escalate into all-out warfare. The humor is very dark at times, sometimes bordering on the "sick": this is Norman Rockwel as filtered by Hieronymus Bosch. Because the actors play their roles in a broad, slapsticky manner, The Feud is liable to turn off as many viewers as it attracts, but that's the peril of being a "cult film." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The third and final season of Spenser: For Hire finds the titular private eye hero (Robert Urich again unattached romantically, inasmuch as his second-season sweetheart, Assistant DA Rita Fiori, has been written out of the show. But before you despair over the emotional well-being of Boston's best and most ethical P.I., be it noted that Barbara Stock, absent since Season One, has returned in the role of guidance counselor Susan Sullivan. It is explained that, after a year's residence in California, Susan has returned to Beantown, determined to give her relationship with Spenser a second chance despite the danger represented by Spenser's many enemies in the Underworld. But while Susan is back, another of the series' regulars, Richard Jaeckel at Lt. Martin Quirk of the Boston PD, has departed. The scriptwriters contrive to have Quirk retire from the force after suffering a heart attack. The season opens with Spenser mediating a deadly feud between a judge and a mobster, and soon after our hero's sentimental nature again resurfaces as he helps an alcoholic priest create a halfway house for homeless teams. The subsequent episode "Sleepless in Seattle" represents something of an inside joke for scripter Lee Goldberg, who names all the members of the fictional "Kincaid" clan after the characters in The Partridge Family. Meanwhile, Spenser's brooding, implicitly lethal street contact Hawk (Avery Brooks) exhibits the charisma that will soon enable him to star in his own self-named TV series, especially in the episodes wherein Hawk shield Susan against a "respectable" sexual predator, and in another story in which he tries to negotiate with a berserk, gun-wielding postal worker (and this BEFORE the popular coinage of the phrase "Going postal"!) Among the future stars appearing guest roles on Spenser: For Hire this season are Kadeem Hardison, Samuel L. Jackson, Laura San Giacomo, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ving Rhames. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

As a result of several changes in his TV series' production staff, the brilliant, highly principled Boston private eye Spenser (Robert Urich) is short one girl friend as Spenser launches its second season. It was decided to write out the character of guidance counselor Susan Silverman, played by Barbara Stock; by way of explaining her absence, Susan left Boston for California, reluctant to continue her relationship with Spenser for fear that he'd be killed at any moment. In the season opener, Carolyn McCormick is introduced in the role of assistant DA Rita Fiori, whose initial relationship with Spenser is adversarial; in fact,when first we see her, she is doggedly prosecuting our hero on a blackmail charge. Eventually, Rita realizes that Spenser is one of the "good guys", and before long a romance has blossomed. Episodes this season include a brace of stories in which Spenser's grim, muscular street contact Hawk (Avery Brooks finds himself in hot water, first when he is framed for carrying a concealed weapon in a backwater town, and second when he is suspected of shooting down Spenser's police lieutenant friend Martin Quirk (Richard Jaeckel). In other episodes, Spenser is stuck between a rock and a hard place when he must either clear a notorious pimp of murder or let him take the fall for the real killer, whose motive for murder was a surprising noble one; our hero nearly loses the use of his right arm when he takes a bullet meant for a politician; and, as he has so often done in the past, Spenser takes time to put a few misguided youths on the right path. Guest stars this season include such familiar film and TV faces as Charles Kimbrough, Ed O'Neill, Samuel L. Jackson, John Cullum, Rob Morrow, Jamey Sheridan, Ruby Dee, Larry Fishburne, David Straitharn, Tony Shalhoub and David Hyde-Pierce. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Season One of Spenser:For Hire begins with the two-part "Promised Land", one of a handful of the series' episodes actually based on a "Spenser" story by novelist Robert B. Parker. In this one, tough but ethical Boston private eye Spenser (Robert Urich) is hired to find the wife of a powerful businessman, only to realize that his client may not be 100 percent trustworthy. In addition to Spenser himself, the series' inaugural season introduces Avery Brooks as Spenser's fearsome but loyal street contact Hawk (Avery Brooks), his guidance-counselor girlfriend Susan (Barbara Stock) and his liasons at the Boston PD, Lt. Quirk (Richard Jaeckel) and Sgt. Belson (Ron McLarty). Subsequent episodes found Spenser protecting a volatile police witness, going after a duo of thrill killers, butting heads with a crooked landlord, protecting the so-called twin sister of a neurotic woman, exposing a team of "dirty" vice cops, going undercover to trap a gang of heroin pushers who have infiltrated a private high school, attempting to dissuade the clueless Sgt. Frank from romancing a white supremict, and trying to avoid extermination by that most terrifying of adversaries, the Woman Scorned. Among the season's guest star are George Grizzard as Susan's ex-husband Frank Silverman, Shirley Knight as Lt. Quirk's wife Katie, and a young Jimmy Smits as a firebrand Mexican dockworker in an episode reminiscent of On the Waterfront. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Set in 1963, The Flamingo Kid finds 18-year-old Brooklynite Matt Dillon, the son of blue-collar Hector Elizondo, getting a taste of the Good Life by joining several of his friends at "El Flamingo", a swank Long Island beach club. Wealthy car salesman Richard Crenna, the uncle of Matt's girl friend Janet Jones, befriends the boy and takes him under his wing. Thanks to Crenna's influence, Matt secures a good job at the Flamingo. The boy is bedazzled by Crenna's sumptuous lifestyle, and most especially by the older man's reputation as the Flamingo's reigning gin rummy champ. Dillon begins taking on airs, which alienates his down-to-earth father. Watch for a scene in which, while channel-surfing with his new remote control, Richard Crenna watches a fleeting clip from the old TV sitcom The Real McCoys--featuring Richard Crenna. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Originally telecast October 9, 1983, Tiger Town was the first feature film made specifically for the Disney Channel cable service. Roy Scheider stars as a veteran Detroit Tigers right fielder, whose chances of getting into at least one World Series before retirement diminishes with each Tigers loss. Scheider's biggest fan is preteener Justin Henry, so devoted to baseball that his mother wakes him up each morning by playing "The Star Spangled Banner." Recalling the words of his late father--"If you really believe deep in your heart, there's always hope and you can make it happen"--Henry closes his eyes and "wills" Scheider to hit a winning home runs. Wham! It works! Thereafter, Henry shows up at every game, convinced that the Tigers will lose if he doesn't "will" a few homers from the bleachers (indeed, whenever Henry is absent, the Tigers tank). A crisis develops when it appears as though Henry will not be on hand for the deciding pennant game between the Tigers and the Orioles. Beautifully acted and directed for the most part (the scene in which Henry learns of his father's death is particularly well-handled), Tiger Town falls apart about ten minutes before the ending, when it degenerates into a standard "Disney movie," complete with a destructive slapstick chase. Otherwise, Tiger Town, the maiden directorial effort of Alan Shapiro, is a first-rate baseball picture, one of the best of the genre. Watch for cameo appearances by ex- "Supreme" Mary Wilson, Tigers manager Sparky Anderson, and sportscasters Ernie Harwell, Ray Lane and Al Ackerman. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi