Howard Platt Movies

The sophomore film from former music video and commercial director Michael Bay, this fast-paced action yarn featured rapid-fire editing, a cutting-edge rock soundtrack and liberal use of shots awash in a haze of burnished hues, all trademarks of producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. Nicolas Cage stars as Stanley Goodspeed, an FBI chemical weapons expert handed a unique assignment. Francis X. Hummel (Ed Harris), an insane Marine Corps general, has taken 81 tourists hostage on the abandoned island prison of Alcatraz. He and his men are threatening to bomb San Francisco with deadly gas unless $100 million is paid in war reparations to the families of servicemen killed in covert operations. Goodspeed is teamed with former British spy John Patrick Mason (Sean Connery), the only man ever to escape "The Rock," as well as a Navy SEAL team. When their military escorts are ambushed, it's up to odd couple Goodspeed and Mason to break into Alcatraz and stop Hummel. The Rock was the last film produced by Simpson, who died of a drug overdose before the film's release. Solo, his partner Bruckheimer continued making the sort of glossy, frenetic films for which the duo was famed. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Overexposed starts out as a "heavy breather of the week" TV movie and develops into a truly involving suspense tale. Marcy Walker plays a wife and mother, stalked by wacko Terence Knox. This isn't just the usual hit-and-run harassment; Knox is a businessman who has an "X-rated" video of an adulterous affair, with Walker as "star." He had tricked her into sleeping with her years earlier; now he plans to destroy her marriage (her husband is his business associate) and then claim her for himself. Based on fact, Overexposed was filmed in Chicago by Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Pamela Myers guest stars as Bobbi, a wide-eyed Phoenix tour guide who develops a passionate crush on Mel (Vic Tayback). Inasmuch as Bobbi is willing to shepherd new customers into his diner, Mel strings her along. There's no way that Mel is going to emerge as the "good guy" this time--but has he gone too far to mend his ways? This episode was codirected by series star Linda Lavin. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Life after death experiences are examined in this documentary. Stories are told by those who have come back from beyond. ~ Rovi

Flying High was a Charlie's Angels of the airways. Pat Klous, Connie Sellecca and Kathryn Witt play three flight attendants for the fictional Sunwest airways. This TV movie (the pilot for the original series) traces their various seriocomic adventures in the sky and on land. Guest stars on this particular boarding are Marcia Wallace and Jim Hutton. Flying High was the pilot film for a sixty-minute weekly TV series, which ran--or flew--from September 1978 through January 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this broad comedy-western set in 1908 Colorado, Lee Marvin and Oliver Reed team up as Sam Longwood and Joe Knox, two con-men who once worked as a team. They reunite in order to get revenge upon their third partner, Jack Colby (Robert Culp), who used the trio's ill-gotten gains to become a high society big shot. Oliver Reed's ridiculously stereotypical portrayal of an Indian goes down in film history as the most absurd casting of a Native-American role since Howard Keel's "distinctive" portrayal of Levi Walking Bear in The War Wagon. Kay Lenz also appears as the sexy prostitute Thursday, who has an affair with Sam. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx) doesn't know it at first, but his new "lady love," Miss Wallace, is actually a male criminal in drag. Even worse, the cross-dressing crook is on the lam from the law, with the neighborhood cops hot on a trail that leads directly to Fred's doorstep. Upon learning the truth, Fred cooks up a scheme to claim the reward money for himself -- a scheme that requires him to "play along" with the phony female. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Lamont (Demond Wilson) thinks Fred (Redd Foxx) is watching too much TV. Fred disagrees, sparking a violent quarrel. Hoping to end his dad's TV addiction once and for all, Lamont arranges for Fred to be hypnotized: From now on, whenever he has the urge to be a couch potato, Fred will imagine that his TV set is overheating. Originally scheduled to air on January 16, 1976, this episode was bumped forward to January 30. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This week, Bob is besieged from all sides. Not only is Carol threatening to give notice to two of her four bosses, but Howard has given Bob a bad-taste gift -- and he expects to be praised for his largesse. Completing the canvas is the unscheduled appearance of a human fly. Shirley O'Hara appears as Debbie Flett. Written by Gary David Goldberg of Family Ties fame, "Et Tu, Carol?" originally aired on October 30, 1976, as the final episode in The Bob Newhart Show's familiar 9:30 p.m. Saturday time slot; thereafter, the series would be shown one hour earlier. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Beginning its fifth successful season on Friday, September 12, 1975, Sanford and Son was essentially the mixture as before with most of the familiar regulars firmly in place. His well-publicized contract disputes more or less receding into memory, Redd Foxx was back as cantankerous Watts junk dealer Fred Sanford, with Demond Wilson as his long-suffering son and reluctant business partner Lamont. Also returning were LaWanda Page as Fred's explosively prudish sister-in-law Aunt Esther, Lynn Hamilton as Fred's sometimes fiancée Donna Harris, Don Bexley and Nathaniel Taylor as family friends Bubba and Rollo, and Hal Williams and Howard Platt as police officers Smitty and Hoppy. Conspicuously absent from the fifth-season roster were three actors who had departed for other sitcoms: Gregory Sierra (Julio Fuentes), who had moved to Barney Miller; Pat Morita (Ah Chew), who had transferred to Happy Days; and, most notably, Whitman Mayo (Grady Wilson), now starring in his own spin-off series, Grady. However, despite his new leading-man workload, Mayo would continue to make token Sanford appearances as Grady, returning to the series on a more or less regular basis after Grady (the series) folded in the spring of 1976. Additions and emendations to the Sanford format included the arrival of Marlene Clark as Janet Lawson, a widowed mother with whom Lamont would fall in love, and Edward Crawford as Janet's young son Roger. Also, Fred and Lamont Sanford would try to amplify their income by managing a boarding house, the Sanford Arms, which introduced as steady stream of recurring characters -- and also set the stage for the ultimate conclusion of Sanford and Son at the end of 1977. That denouement was still part of the distant future by the conclusion of the series' sixth season, during which Sanford ranked as America's seventh most popular weekly series. Fans were particularly gratified that NBC chose to rerun selected episodes on Wednesday evenings from April to August 1976, under the title The Best of Sanford and Son. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ever in pursuit of extra money, Fred and Lamont Sanford (Redd Foxx, Demond Wilson) take over management of a rooming house, which they rename the Sanford Arms. At first, our heroes intend to be discriminating in their clientele; after all, they can't just let anybody rent a room. But when tenants fail to materialize and the debt begins mounting, the Sanfords are forced to rethink their screening process -- and as a result, they open their doors to a fugitive from justice. Nancy Kulp makes her first series appearance as May Hopkins, the mother of semi-regular Officer "Hoppy" Hopkins (Howard Platt). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Splitting up with her husband, Woodrow (Raymond Allen), after a row, Aunt Esther (LaWanda Page) moves in with Fred and Lamont Sanford (Redd Foxx, Demond Wilson). Fred tolerates Esther's presence when he believes that she only intends to stay the night. But when it becomes clear that she plans to remain in the Sanford home for six months, the better to establish separate residency for a divorce, Fred schemes to bring Esther and Woodrow back together -- and out of his hair. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi