Ben Piazza

The directorial debut of producer Irwin Winkler, Guilty by Suspicion is a sobering account of one movie executive's woes in dealing with the political fallout from the McCarthy Era Hollywood blacklist. Robert De Niro stars as David Merrill, a film director in the 1950s whose obsession with his burgeoning career has estranged him from his wife Ruth (Annette Bening) and their son. When he returns from a trip to Paris, Merrill is surprised when told by his boss, Darryl F. Zanuck (Ben Piazza) that he's been summoned to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee, which is investigating Communist ties to Hollywood. Although Merrill once attended a meeting years before, he's not a Communist, and he refuses to help the committee wreck the career of his friend Bunny Baxter (George Wendt). Merrill becomes blacklisted, unable to find work even in menial positions or under assumed names as the editor of a B-movie or the director of a low-budget Western. Reconciled with his family, Merrill caves in and agrees to testify, but as he prepares to "name names," his conscience plagues him. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

This is the only Moonlighting episode in which neither Cybill Shepherd nor Bruce Willis appear. Instead, the focus is on nerdish detective Bert Viola (Curtis Armstrong), who has gone into a deep blue funk over an imagined slight from Blue Moon secretary Agnes Dipesto (Allyce Beasley). In the course of a very long night in which Bert is required to guard an "experimental grapefruit", he dreams of his future with Agnes, in sequences inspired by Rudolph Valentino's silent "Shiek" pictures and the 1940s classic Casablanca (in which "As Time Goes By" is replaced by "Chopsticks"!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Billionaire Boys Club is the two-part TV adaptation of a book by Sue Horton (unpublished at the time of the film's first telecast). In flashback form, the story recounts the murder of Beverly Hills con artist Ron Levin (Ron Silver). The culprit is yuppie Joe Hunt (Judd Nelson), a sharp young commodities trader who has organized an investment firm with several of his prep school buddies, known as the Billionaire Boys Club. Part one, originally telecast November 8, 1987, traces Hunt's meteoric rise to wealth and power, and the means by which Levin worms his way into Hunt's confidence. In part two, shown the next evening, Hunt has already murdered Levin and carefully disposed of the body. The next step of the scheme is take over where Levin left off by conning an Iranian millionaire out of a huge sum of money. Meanwhile, other members of the Club begin to have qualms over Hunt's finagling. Their whistle-blowing leads to Hunt's arrest and convinction for murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Martin Sheen, who in 1972 co-starred in That Certain Summer, the precedent-setting TV movie concerning homosexuality, is cast as the father of an "out of closet" gay son in Consenting Adult. Sheen and his wife Marlo Thomas are devastated when their college-age son Barry Tubb comes forth with details of his sexual preference. Thomas is convinced that Tubb can be "cured" through psychiatry; Sheen, a prideful man suffering from several illnesses, is unable to accept his son for what he is--as much as he wants to. Only Tubb's married sister Talia Balsam can approach the situation with understanding. Consenting Adults is based on a novel by Laura Z. Hobson (of Gentleman's Agreement fame). It was first telecast on February 4, 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season Three of The A-Team begins as Hannibal (George Peppard), B.A. (Mr. T), Face (Dirk Benedict) and Murdock (Dwight Schultz) head to Miami at the request of two pretty young lasses, Sandy (Kimberly Ross) and Tina Betsy Russell). The girls run a tourist hotel which may be put out of business by gangster Joey Epic (Vincent Baggetta). Taking charge of the hotel for a while, the A-Team finds out that Epic is in league with Prescott (Ben Piazza), a crooked congressman who is pressing for legalized gambling in Miami, the better to take a juicy slice of the proceedings. The climax features the by-now-standard improvised weaponry, including a "machine gun" which shoots nails! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this easily predictable romantic comedy, Gail (Anne Archer) is a no-nonsense geologist from the East Coast and John (Terry Jastrow) is a down-home, intuitive Texan whose expertise lies in guessing where petroleum is located -- Gail, as a geologist, is not in the habit of guessing. As the two meet and work together on a wildcat well in Texas, their romantic and financial fortunes are transparently tied together, and nothing at all comes as a surprise after their first initial meeting and disagreement. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Historically, most multiple-personality cases have been women. Based on the autobiographical book by Henry Hawksworth, The Five of Me centers on a rare male victim of this bizarre syndrome. David Birney plays Hawksworth, who for his first 36 years lived with four separate personalities. When a fifth manifested itself, the other four displayed reactions ranging from petulant to sadistic. Dee Wallace co-stars as Hawksworth's wife Ann ("Ann is married to five men!" screamed the insensitive ad copy for this film). Made for television, The Five of Me was first broadcast on May 12, 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the 122nd and final episode of The Rockford Files, Jim Rockford (James Garner) heads to the small community of Parama for a peaceful fishing trip; instead, he ends up in the middle of a violent Mob power struggle Last episode. If only Jim hadn't agreed to cast a proxy vote for "Propostiion 46D", which will determined whether or not gambling will be legalized in Parama. Also enmshed in the intrigue is snoopy journalist Carrie Osgood (Sandra Kerns) and a shady Las Vegas entrepreneur named Belding (Joseph Sirola). And though Jim has come up against corrupt political officials in the past, those guys were saints compared to the villains in this episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally intended as the pilot for a never-sold cop series titled Battles, this made-for-TV meller stars William Conrad as William Battles, a retired Los Angeles police detective spending his golden years in Hawaii. Somewhat bored by inactivity, Battles takes a job at a local college as assistant football coach and security chief. Not unexpectedly, our corpulent hero is soon up to his neck in a murder investigation, this time with a recent homicide bearing a remarkable resemblance to a similar killing in the 1940s (as described in a mock newsreel narrated by no less than Lowell Thomas). Assisting Battles in bringing the culprit to heel are his niece Shelby (Robin Mattson), collegiate football star Deacon Joe Jackson (Lane Caudell) and his own boss, Dean Mary Phillips (Marj Dusay). The Murder That Wouldn't Die debuted March 9, 1980, on NBC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Expanding on their Saturday Night Live characters, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd star as Jake and Elwood Blues, two white boys with black soul. Sporting cool shades and look-alike suits, Jake and Elwood are dispatched on a "mission from God" by their former teacher, Sister Mary Stigmata (Kathleen Freeman). Said mission is to raise $5000 to save an orphanage. In the course of their zany adventures, the Blues Brothers run afoul of neo-Nazi Henry Gibson, perform the theme from Rawhide before the most unruly bar crowd in written history, and lay waste to hundreds of cars on the streets and freeways of Chicago. In case you aren't swept up in the infectuous nuttiness of the brothers Blue, you might have fun spotting film's legion of guest stars, including James Brown, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, John Candy, Carrie Fisher, Steve Lawrence, Twiggy, Paul Reubens (aka Pee-Wee Herman), Frank Oz, and Steven Spielberg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In a desperate effort to pay his gambling debts, Dr. Shane (Peter Brandon) performs unecessary surgery on an old woman who subsequently dies. Shane then applies pressured upon the dead woman's timid son Irving (Ben Piazza), demanding that he pay for the fatal operation. When Irving refuses, a vicious loan shark proceeds to make his life hell. Clearly, it is high time that Lt. Kojak (Telly Savalas) take a hand in matters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Without ever revealing the diagnosis, this film chronicles the inner life and outer circumstances of Deborah Blake (Kathleen Quinlan), a young mental patient. As the film opens, she is being accompanied by her subdued parents to yet another mental hospital. This one looks clean and cheerful, at least. Her treatment is handled by Dr. Fried (Bibi Andersson), a very skillful therapist who gets past her deranged defenses and reveals that Deborah harbors some very violent fantasies about some of her relatives. The movie is based on the best-selling autobiographical novel by Joanne Greenberg. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

William Devane stars as John Henry Faulk, a popular radio and TV entertainer of the 1950s. In 1956, Faulk is blacklisted on the basis of an attack from the self-appointed anticommunist group AWARE. Fired by CBS, Faulk decides to sue AWARE for libel. His attorney Louis Nizer (George C. Scott) warns him that such a case will take several years to get to court, thus Faulk reluctantly takes a series of low-paying jobs to sustain himself during his "down period". In 1962, the case is finally brought before a judge, with several witnesses pointing out the idiotic iniquities of the Blacklist mentality (one child actor was prohibited from working because he had a name that sounded like that of an adult blacklistee). Appearing as themselves during the courtroom scenes are actress Kim Hunter, herself a blacklist victim, and producers David Susskind and Mark Goodson. Faulk wins his case, though his original award of $3.5 million in damages is later reduced to $550,000, and he is never able to completely return to his pre-blacklist prominence. Like several other filmic recreations of the "witch-hunt" era, Fear on Trial was first presented in the mid-1970s (October 2, 1975, to be exact), long after the most zealous of the 1950s anti-Red groups had fallen by the wayside. The film earned an Emmy award for screenwriter David Rintels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide