Allyn Ann McLerie

This drama is based on a true story and chronicles the struggle of a woman who loses her memory in a car crash and attempts to put her old life back together. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Richard Thomas stars as country music star Hank Williams Jr. in this made-for-TV biopic, based on Williams' own memoirs. Williams wasn't yet four years old when his father, the legendary country singer/songwriter Hank Williams, died en route to a show. By the time he was eight, his mother, Audrey (Allyn Ann McLerie), had put Hank Jr. on-stage, singing his father's songs as a novelty act. As a teenager, Williams was signed to a recording contract, still specializing in his father's material. Williams made a respectable living in the music business, but he longed to create a musical identity of his own. Williams' struggle to come out from under the long shadow of his father's legacy was a difficult one, and it took a prolonged bout with alcoholism, an unsuccessful suicide attempt, and a near-fatal fall while mountain climbing before Williams was able to come to terms with his father's reputation, forging a country-rock style all his own and finding success on his own terms. Living Proof: The Hank Williams Jr. Story also features Williams' long-time manager and friend Merle Kilgore as himself; country star Naomi Judd also makes a cameo appearance as one of Hank's many one-night romances on the road, and a 14-year-old Christian Slater plays Hank's son. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV suspenser stars Suzanne Pleshette as famous soap opera writer Carla Webber. Carla turns detective when the cast members of her program begin dying under mysterious circumstances. Barry Newman plays the investigating detective, while Robert Vaughn and Patrick O'Neal are special guest suspects. The film's principal attraction (and a hardly unexpected one) is the presence in the supporting cast of then-current soap opera stars: All My Children's Peter Bergman, General Hospital's Stuart Damon and Robin Mattson, Ryan's Hope's John Gabriel, and One Life to Live's Robert S. Woods. Fantasies was first networkcast January 18, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Richard Thomas plays a sensitive college student in the made-for-TV To Find My Son. While tutoring a speech-impaired orphan named Tommy (Justin Dana), Thomas becomes determined to adopt the boy. The Child Welfare people, however, have different ideas: after all, Thomas is hardly in a financial position to properly support Tommy. But Thomas will not be dissuaded, tilting at the windmills of bureaucracy for nearly two hours' worth of TV time. To Find My Son debuted October 6, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Timothy Bottoms stars as the real-life John Baker in the made-for-TV A Shining Season. A champion University of New Mexico track athlete, the 25-year-old Baker is only momentarily halted when he is diagnosed with terminal cancer. His efforts to coach a losing girls' track team in his last months proves an inspiration for the sports world in general, and for a similarly doomed child in particular. Adapted by William Harrison from the book by William Buchanan, this film was first telecast the day after Christmas, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 1975 TV movie Death Scream is based (like High Plains Drifter) on the shameful Kitty Genovese affair of 1964, in which a N.Y.C. woman was stabbed to death while 38 witnesses locked their windows and doors and pretended not to hear. Raul Julia stars as the detective who investigates the murder and stirs up the guilt feelings of those who refused to help. The film casts celebrity actors in the roles of the witnesses (Diahann Carroll, Cloris Leachman, Lucie Arnaz, Nancy Walker, Art Carney, et al.). Around three years later, Harlan Ellison and director William Friedkin reportedly teamed up to realize a big-screen version of the same story, starring Jeanne Moreau. It was never made. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Americanized remake of John Osborne's play changes the locale from a seedy British amusement pier to an equally seedy burlesque house in Santa Cruz, California. Jack Lemmon assumes the Laurence Olivier role as Archie Rice, a third-rate entertainer who's a failure but won't admit it. Selfishly feeding his own ego, Archie destroys the lives of those around him, including his long-suffering wife (Sada Thompson), his formerly famous father (Ray Bolger) and his disenfranchised grown children. This made-for-TV film is set in the 1940s to allow for several period-flavor tunes by Marvin Hamlisch, the best of which is the jaunty "Honolulu Lulu". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Several years ago, journalist Jerry Porter (John Carter) conspired with Greg Davidson (Robert Foxworth) in a blackmail scheme, but Porter managed to avoid arrest while allowing Davidson to take the rap. Adding insult to injury, Porter has been lavishly spending the blackmail money while Davidson has been languishing in prison. Now, however Davidson has escaped--and he's thirsting for revenge. A very young Annette O'Toole plays a key role in this thrill-packed episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Betty Smith's best selling novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn inspired an Oscar-winning 1945 film, a play and a Broadway musical; this 1974 73-minute telefilm - a pilot for a weekly series drama -- represents the fourth incarnation. Cliff Robertson plays Johnny Nolan, a bibulous waiter living in turn-of-the-century Brooklyn. When Nolan dies, it is up to his widow Katie (Diane Baker) to carve out an existence for herself and her children Francie (Pamelyn Ferdin) and Neely (Michael James Wixted). Ultimately, Katie marries kindly Brooklyn cop McShane (James Olson). Nancy Malone costars as Katie's promiscuous sister Sissy. First telecast March 27, 1974, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn failed to generate high enough ratings for a regular series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"Gorgeous goyish guy" meets Jewish radical girl in Sydney Pollack's glossy romance. In 1937, frizzy-haired Red co-ed Katie Morosky (Barbra Streisand) briefly captures the attention of preppy jock Hubbell Gardiner (Robert Redford) with her passionate pacifism, while the writing talent beneath his privileged exterior entrances her. Almost eight years later, the two are reunited in New York, when well-coiffed leftist radio worker Katie spies military officer Hubbell snoozing in a nightclub. Through her force of will, and in spite of his smug rich friends, the two opposites fall in love, sparring over Katie's activist zeal and Hubbell's writerly ambivalence after a failed first novel. They head to Hollywood so that Hubbell can write a screenplay for his buddy-turned-producer J.J. (Bradford Dillman). But the House Committee on Un-American Activities' Communist witch hunt in 1947 tears the pair apart, as a pregnant Katie refuses to keep silent about the jailing of the Hollywood Ten, while a faithless Hubbell decides to save his career. When the two meet again at the dawn of the '60s, TV hack Hubbell and A-bomb protestor Katie feel the old pull, but they have to decide if it's worth the grief. Although blacklisted writers had returned to Hollywood -- and won Oscars -- by the early 1970s, the HUAC sections of Arthur Laurents's screenplay were still considered dicey, resulting in substantial cuts; Laurents reportedly blamed star Redford for not fighting them hard enough. Regardless of the edits, and critics' complaints about the film's schlockiness, 1973 audiences went for the well-executed and still politically tinged weepie, turning The Way We Were into one of the most popular films of 1973 and Redford into a major heartthrob. Streisand won an Oscar nomination for Best Actress and the Streisand-sung title tune won for Best Song. Despite the eviscerated politics, The Way We Were poignantly captures the insoluble dilemma of reconciling private desires with public awareness. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

In her first Waltons appearance, future Oscar winner Sissy Spacek) is cast as Sarah, the sheltered daughter of hyper-religious Widow Simmonds (Allyn Ann McLerie). In a desperate attempt to emerge from her shell, Sarah all but throws herself upon John-Boy (Richard Thomas). He gently resists her romantic overtures, whereupon Sarah takes up with a callow "townie" named Theodore Claypool Jr. (Nicholas Hammond]), the son of a wealthy businessman. Ultimately, Sarah and Theodore elope--and both her mother and his father hold John-Boy responsible for this catastrophe! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In one of John Wayne's more interesting late Westerns, "The Duke" plays Will Anderson, a crusty veteran cattleman preparing a 400-mile drive to get a herd of steers to market. Shortly before the trip is scheduled to begin, Will's crew quits when they get word of a nearby gold strike. With little time and few alternatives, Will recruits eleven boys, ages nine through 13, and teaches them the basics of herding cattle and riding the range. Bruce Dern plays a memorably foul villain and cattle rustler named Long Hair, while Roscoe Lee Browne portrays Jebediah, the cattle drive cook, and Colleen Dewhurst is Kate, a madam. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

William Windom guest stars as Elias Devon, a criminal mastermind whose activities have aroused the attention of the FBI. Thanks to some clever subversion by the Feds, Devon begins to lose control of his gang members. Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) hopes that he can sow enough seeds of suspicion within the gang's ranks to force Devon into betraying himself--but there are few unexpected developments along the way. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide