Gerald O'Loughlin Movies
Though early on, short, pugnacious American actor Gerald S. O'Loughlin dreamed of becoming a lawyer, the prohibitive cost of law school forced him to steer toward engineering as a career. O'Loughlin was deflected from this ambition by an increasing interest in the theatre. After a long stint with the Marines, O'Loughlin used his GI Bill money to finance his participation at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. Working steadily on stage and in live TV drama, O'Loughlin made an inauspicious debut as the romantic lead in the Manhattan-filmed turkey Lovers and Lollipops (1956); one year later, he was shown to better advantage re-creating his stage role in the filmization of Michael Gazzo's play A Hatful of Rain (1957). For many children of the '70s, Gerald O'Loughlin will always be the tough-but-tender Lt. Ryker on the long-running cop series The Rookies. Even in his subsequent TV series assignments (Automan [1983-1984], Our House [1986]) one half expected O'Loughlin to drop character and start barking out "Hey! Danko." Gerald O'Loughlin was married to casting director Meryl Abeles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Noted hip-hop producer DJ Pooh, who co-wrote the urban comedy Friday, makes his directorial debut with this comedy-drama. A young African-American man is enjoying his freedom after his second stretch in prison. Under the "three strikes and you're out" law, another brush with the police could mean life behind bars, so he's determined to stay out of trouble. He quickly learns, however, that trouble has a way of finding him, no matter where he goes. DJ Pooh also stars in 3 Strikes, alongside N'Bushe Wright and Brian Hooks. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian Hooks, N'Bushe Wright, (more)
- 1997
This first episode of ER's fourth season originally aired live on September 25, 1997, with two separate telecasts for the East and West Coasts. A TV documentary crew follows Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) during a "typical" shift in the emergency room of Chicago's County General Hospital. Still not completely recovered from a brutal beating, Greene is none too happy about being a "TV star," sentiments shared by the ER's attending physician Kerry Weaver (Laura Innes), who regards the camera crew as an invasion of everyone's privacy. As it turns out, the documentary makers get more than they bargained for as they record for posterity a gang fight, an out-of-control patient, and a heart attack. In the midst of all this confusion, Dr. Elizabeth Corday (Alex Kingston) arrives from England to witness American surgical procedures. The syndicated version of "Ambush" combines scenes from both the East and West Coast broadcasts, expunging a number of conspicuous continuity errors and an embarrassing moment in which a crucial prop is misplaced. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1993
Making her annual pilgrimage to Ireland, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is determined to catch up with the sightseeing that has so often been interrupted in the past by murder. Alas, it isn't long before our heroine is involved in another homicide case. This time around, the eldest son (Gordon Currie) of Jessica's widowed friend Fiona Griffith (Fionnula Flanagan) is accused of killing the American cousin (Andrew Robinson) who had planned to horn in on the family business. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
A rookie detective's investigation of a particularly brutal murder takes a personal turn for her when her lover turns out to the their main suspect. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jaclyn Smith, John Spencer, (more)
- 1992
Gerald S. O'Loughlin guest stars as Ben Oliver, a former Army buddy of Cabot Cove physician Seth Hazlitt (William Windom). Arriving in town to pay Seth a visit, Ben is clearly carrying around a great deal of emotional baggage. Subsequently, Ben's new boss is murdered, and Ben is implicated in the crime. Out of friendship for Seth, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) investigates the situation, but doesn't like what she finds out. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Kate Jackson had intended to both produce and star in the made-for-TV A Child's Cry, but her busy Scarecrow and Mrs. King schedule forced her to relinquish the leading role to Lindsay Wagner. Wagner plays Joanne Van Buren, a sensitive social worker whose latest charge, young Eric Townsend (Taliesen Jaffe), shows signs of being abused. Running up against several walls of resistance, Joanne nonetheless continues to investigate. She ultimately unearths a shocking truth involving Eric's father, played in image-busting fashion by James Brolin. A Child's Cry debuted February 9, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this underscripted and not wholly convincing drama, Kevin Bacon plays Jack Casey, an up-and-coming broker who crashes on the stock market one day and cashes in whatever he has left to become a bicycle messenger in San Francisco. Although not exactly a logical alternative, bicycling the hilly streets of S.F. turns out to be dangerous after Casey runs into Gypsy (Rudy Ramos), the street pusher who has the messengers run drugs for him. A series of characters and events drop in and out of the conflict between Gypsy and Casey, including love interest Terri (Jami Gertz) and Casey's friend Hector (Paul Rodriguez). Music dominates throughout the film which includes scenes of breakdancing on bikes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Bacon, Jami Gertz, (more)
- 1986
Under Siege was first telecast in February 1986, a time when the notion of foreign terrorists in America was still speculative fiction. A militant group sets off explosives at US Army bases, then branches out to such civilian targets as crowded shopping centers. FBI director Peter Strauss discovers that these outrages are possibly being orchestrated by Iranian extremists. Despite pressure to take retaliatory action, US President Hal Holbrook continues to preach moderation, until he can be certain of the true source of the attacks. Under Siege was cowritten by Bob Woodward, of All the President's Men fame. Little Rock, Arkansas substitutes for Washington DC in several scenes, including one startling sequence set in the Capitol Building. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Following the excellent ratings response to the 1985 "reunion" special Perry Mason Returns, producers Fred Silverman and Dean Hargrove quickly assembled a second two-hour Mason TV movie in 1986. Perry Mason: The Case of the Notorious Nun finds Mason (Raymond Burr), now a judge, briefly stepping down from the bench to defend a nun (Michele Greene) accused of murder. The victim was a handsome priest, with whom the nun was allegedly conducting an affair. William Katt plays private detective Paul Drake Jr., who in the tradition of his late father tracks down clues on Mason's behalf--nearly losing his life at every turn. Case of the Notorious Nun was followed in short order by Perry Mason: The Case of the Shooting Star (86). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
In this Stephen Cannell-produced pilot for a potential TV detective series, Mac Davis plays an ex-highway patrolman and Joseph Cortese an ex-trucker, related by marriage. Their wives were twin sisters--were, because in addition to all the other "ex" qualifications in their lives, Davis and Cortese are ex-husbands. Still pals after their group divorce, the boys become private eyes. Their first case is to get the goods on a shady tycoon (Robert Culp), who happens to be their former father-in-law. Brothers-in-Law was the first Steven J. Cannell independent production which failed to sell as a series, but it wouldn't be the last. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
Jerry Orbach makes his first series appearance as gruff but golden-hearted Boston private detective Harry McGraw. While researching a 25-year-old murder for her latest book, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) engages the services of McGraw's partner Archie Miles (Maltese Falcon fans take note!) When Miles is murdered, McGraw joins forces with Jessica to find out if his partner's probe of the "old" case was the cause of his death--or could it have been one of the other two cases which Miles was also digging into? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
Angel-in-training Jonathan (Michael Landon) is assigned to straighten out the problems of Lori Parks (Carrie Wells), a famous and rather contentious child movie star. Jonathan's first step is to find the runaway Lori and return the girl to her parents. His next step -- which does not become obvious until Lori has been returned -- is to wean Mr. Parks (Gerald S. O'Loughlin) away from his booze habit and convince Mrs. Parks (Trish VanDevere) to stop behaving like the proverbial stage mother from hell. ~ All Movie Guide
Joanna Crane (Kathleen Turner) is a cold, workaholic sportswear designer, divorced and dedicated only to her job. Once strapped into that role, Joanna looks for an "out" and finds it by donning a wig and hitting the pavement as a $50/trick hooker named China Blue. Explicit scenes show her at work on her night job, including a long S and M segment with a policeman. While making money as China Blue, Joanna runs into a menacing, fanatic preacher (Anthony Perkins) who is out to save her from this life of sin, but in the meantime, he is also busy watching nude girly shows. As China Blue and the sexually ambivalent Reverend heat up their relationship, he becomes difficult to read: is this psycho reverend a killer? While China Blue is plying her trade, Bobby Grady (John Laughlin) has finally realized after 12 years of marriage that his wife Amy (Annie Potts) is frigid and just as he has this remarkably delayed insight, he is assigned by Joanna's boss to find out if she is stealing designs or not. By tracking Joanna, Bobby sees her transformation as China Blue and as might be expected, sex is not far behind. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kathleen Turner, Anthony Perkins, (more)
This standard, tongue-in-cheek, gangsters and good guys saga is carried on the star power and screen presence of Clint Eastwood as Lt. Speer, a taciturn, tough, play-it-by-the-book cop, and on Burt Reynolds as Mike Murphy, Speer's old friend in the force, now turned private eye but still a captivating rogue at heart. With a sub-text of playing their well-known screen personas off each other, Eastwood and Reynolds provide more than a surface interpretation of the characters that made them famous. After Murphy's partner is murdered, he focuses on pitting one mob boss against another in an attempt to have both mobsters kill each other. In the meantime, Lt. Speer -- who has never approved of Murphy's private detective business -- does not really know if Murphy is for or against the two top gangsters. Set in the era of speakeasies and Prohibition, an added layer of "film noir" can be discerned under the complex plot, verbal repartée, and episodes of toned-down violence (a kind of parody in themselves). Although this may not be the best film either star has made, it is still interesting to see them together on screen. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, (more)
- 1983
Illiterate factory employee Tim Hurley (Sean Kelly) is killed in a explosion because of his inability to read the warning signs posted on the walls of his workplace. While looking into this tragedy, Quincy (Jack Klugman) is shocked to discover that his colleague, coroner's investigator Arnold Chatham (Gerald S. O'Loughlin), is also illiterate. Though it is something of a stretch to believe that Chatham could have held down an important job for so long without being found out, this plot inconsistency is shunted aside as Quincy goes on a crusade against a public educational system that allows its students to graduate without being able to read or write. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1982
When several people are killed in a hotel blaze, the authorities pin the blame on a known pyromaniac. But after a careful forensic examination, Quincy (Jack Klugman) is convinced that the wrong man is behind bars. To help prove this theory, Quincy persuades his old pal, insurance investigator Jake Carter (Gerald O'Loughlin, to come out of retirement. The opening fire sequence in this episode was excerpted from 1978's Inferno, a two-hour TV movie spinoff of the popular Jack Webb series Emergency! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
As played by Jessica Lange, Frances Farmer is a rebel from the word go, winning a high school essay award by writing a piece in defense of Communism. Determining to become an actress, Frances is equally determined not to play the Hollywood game: she refuses to acquiesce to idiotic publicity stunts, and insists upon appearing on screen sans makeup. Her defiance attracts the attention of Broadway playwright Clifford Odets, who convinces Frances that her future rests with the Group Theatre. But once she leaves Hollywood for New York, Frances learns to her chagrin that the Group intends to exploit her movie fame in order to draw in customers. Her desperate attempts to restart her movie career, combined with her increasing dependence on alcohol and the pressures brought to bear by her monster mother (Kim Stanley), result in a complete mental breakdown. Even while institutionalized, Frances is abused by the powers-that-be; she is forced to undergo an injurious brain operation, is treated like a mad animal, and periodically raped by the inmates. Frances is released in the custody of her mother, who persists in browbeating her tortured daughter until Frances discovers the legal means to break away. The real-life Frances spent her last years as host of a local Indianapolis TV program, dying in 1970 at age 57; the film comes to a climax when Frances is feted on the smarmy network program This is Your Life. Other actual personages depicted herein include Clifford Odets (played by Jeffrey DeMunn), Harold Clurman (Jordan Charney) and Ralph Edwards (Donald Craig). Frances' first husband Leif Erickson is fictionalized as "Jeffrey York", and played by Lange's real-life inamorata Sam Shepard. And if you listen closely, you'll hear the voice of Kevin Costner, whose minor role was whittled down to one line when he, like Frances Farmer, had the temerity to argue with the director. The unhappy life of actress Frances Farmer was also covered in Farmer's autobiography, Will There Ever Be a Morning? While the film rights for that book were sold to a TV-movie concern, the producers of the theatrical feature Frances were able to ship their production out to the public first. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jessica Lange, Kim Stanley, (more)
- 1982
Charles (David Ogden Stiers) and Hawkeye (Alan Alda) are out to prove the old adage that one can never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the average person. To that end, the two doctors spread a rumor that Hollywood sex symbol Marilyn Monroe will soon be paying a visit to the 4077th. The only person left unexcited by this "news" is B.J. (Mike Farrell), who is conducting a desperate search for a wounded soldier that he was forced to leave in the battlefield--and who was indirectly responsible for B.J. earning a Purple Heart. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
This fact-based made-for-television drama tells the story of nurse Joy Ufemal and her invaluable work with those dying of incurable diseases. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1980
O. J. Simpson plays a chartered bus driver shepherding a group of wealthy tourists to Las Vegas. His bus is waylaid by a trio of murderers, who intend to kidnap one of the passengers and bump off the rest. Arte Johnson provides a few laughs as a tour guide, while one of the villains is played by Lorenzo Lamas. Detour to Terror is, by TV standards, a real oldie-it debuted February 22, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- O.J. Simpson, Arte Johnson, (more)
- 1980
In this romantic made-for-television comedy, a womanizing, handsome gambler tangles with the feisty female owner of a large casino and ends up falling in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The phenomenal success of the 1977 ABC miniseries Roots all but demanded a sequel to writer Alex Haley's epic story of his African and African-American forebears. Debuting February 18, 1979, Roots: The Next Generations picked up where its predecessor left off, with Haley's slave ancestors winning their freedom in the aftermath of the Civil War. Even so, life for black Americans was wrought with hardship and oppression thanks to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, the staunch refusal of the white power structure to pass anti-lynching laws, and the formation of the dreaded Jim Crow laws which legalized racial segregation in the South (and much of the North). Covering the period from 1882 to the mid-1970s, the miniseries first focuses on blacksmith Tom Harvey (Georg Stanford Brown), great-grandson of Kunta Kinte (the protagonist of the original Roots), and his family. Meanwhile, reacting to the marriage of his son to a black woman, anal-retentive Southern colonel Warner (Henry Fonda) begins setting the legal wheels in motion to deny blacks like Tom the right to vote and to hold "white" jobs. A few decades later, Tom's son-in-law encourages his fellow blacks to stand firm against the KKK's reign of terror. His labors on behalf of his race are rewarded when his daughter Bertha (Irene Cara) becomes the first descendant of Kunta Kinte to receive a college education. It is Bertha Palmer who weds the equally ambitious Simon Haley (Dorian Harewood), who goes on to serve in WWI and to organize farmers and sharecroppers during the Depression. Simon's son Alex (played at various ages by Kristoff St. John, Damon Evans, and finally James Earl Jones) is just as determined to succeed in a white man's world as his father, and to that end becomes a professional writer after his own service stint in the Coast Guard during WWII. At the height of his professional success (largely due to his having ghost-written the autobiography of Muslim activist Malcolm X), Alex Haley pays a visit to his boyhood hometown -- where, almost by accident, he receives the first clue to his heritage, a clue that will lead him on an odyssey of self-discovery, arriving full circle at Kunta Kinte's birthplace in Africa. Although the miniseries' "money scene" was Haley's nervous interview with American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell (Marlon Brando in a superb cameo turn), the climactic episode, in which Haley tearfully embraces the living African descendants of Kunta Kinte, is one of the most unforgettable moments in the history of network television. Running 12 episodes and 14 hours, Roots: The Next Generations concluded on February 25, 1979, playing to huge ratings all along the way and ultimately garnering several Emmy nominations (and one win). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Georg Stanford Brown, Olivia de Havilland, (more)
- 1979
The 8-hour TV miniseries Blind Ambition was originally telecast May 20 through 23, 1979. This 105-minute feature-film version, prepared in 1982, seems a bit rushed at times, but overall does a credible and coherent job of storytelling. Based on John Dean's book Blind Ambition, with elements of Maureen Dean's Mo woven in by screenwriter Stanley R. Greenberg, this is the saga of the Watergate affair, as experienced by Dean (Martin Sheen) and hia wife Maureen (Theresa Russell). As the Nixon administration goes down in flames, the Deans' marriage is sorely tested-as is Dean's success-at-any-price credo. Rip Torn plays Nixon like something out of a Greek Tragedy; some viewers accepted his interpretation, others found it jarringly inaccurate. Others in the cast of "usual suspects" include Michael Callan as Charles Colson, Lonny Chapman as L. Patrick Gray, William Daniels as G. Gordon Liddy, Fred Grandy as Donald Segretti, Christopher Guest as Jeb Magruder, Lawrence Pressman as H. R. Haldeman, William Windom as Richard Kleindienst, James Greene as E. Howard Hunt, Logan Ramsey as J. Edgar Hoover, and Al Checco as judge John Sirica. Also known as The John Dean Story, Blind Ambition earned two Emmy nominations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Sheen, Theresa Russell, (more)
- 1978
Another of the many Arthur Hailey literary properties which were transformed into TV miniseries in the 1970s, the five-part, ten-hour Wheels took place in Detroit sometime in the late 1960s. Rock Hudson starred as Adam Trenton, executive in charge of project development at the fictional auto-manufacturing firm of National Motors. Ambitious and ruthless, Adam let nothing stand in the way of his development and production of a new, youth-marketed car known as the Hawk. Meanwhile, Adam's bored and neglected wife Erica (Lee Remick, who earned an Emmy nomination for her performance) drifted into an extramarital affair and a brief "career" as a shoplifter. Eventually, Adam himself acquired a mistress, who in turn fell in love with Adam's son Kirk (James Carrol Jordan). As if things couldn't get any seamier, Kirk's brother Greg (Howard McGillin) was plagued by a blackmailer, while crooked car dealer Smokey Stevenson (played by miniseries stalwart Anthony Franciosa) cooked up a sinister deal that threatened to destroy National Motors. Originally telecast from May 7 to 15, 1978 on NBC, Arthur Hailey's Wheels posted such disappointing ratings that, when it was later rebroadcast, the property was whittled down from ten hours to four -- with episodes three and four summarily dropped from the proceedings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Lee Remick, (more)
