Annie Potts Movies

In this sci-fi film, actually a television pilot inspired by Nicolas Roeg's provocative 1976 film, chronicles the exploits of an alien marooned on Earth. All he wants is to go back to his dying planet. He is hindered by military forces determined to find him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

John Hughes crafts an exemplary '80s Brat Pack romance out of the standard Cinderella story in Pretty in Pink. Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald) is a teenager who lives in the dingy part of town with her terminally underemployed dad (Harry Dean Stanton). She works at a record store with eccentric Ionia (Annie Potts) and is considered a misfit at her uppity high school, but somehow she rises above them all. Her oddball best friend, Duckie (Jon Cryer), is hopelessly in love with her, so he causes trouble for her romantic pursuits. When local rich kid Blaine (Andrew McCarthy) develops a fascination with her, they go out on a date together. Visiting the home bases of each social clique, they are basically ridiculed for their audacity to date one another. When Blaine eventually asks the delighted Andie to the prom, he is threatened by his rich friend Steff (James Spader). The romance versus high school social politics finally culminates at the big night of the prom. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Penny Marshall in her feature film directing debut, four screenwriters, and a ebullient Whoopi Goldberg join forces to make Jumpin' Jack Flash, a modern espionage comedy. Goldberg plays Terry Doolittle, a computer operator in a large New York City bank who picks up a cry of help on her computer. The signal is from a man who signs off as Jumpin' Jack Flash. Based on the Rolling Stones tune of that name, she figures out his secret password and opens up a Pandora's box of international intrigue. It seems Jack Flash is a pseudonym for a British agent who is trapped in Russia and desperate for information from the British Embassy that will help him escape. When Terry agrees to help him, the CIA, the KGB, British intelligence, and sundry other law enforcement organizations are all hot on her tail as she tries to help the beleaguered British agent. ~ Paul Brenner, 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

Made for television, Why Me? is the true story of Air Force nurse Leola Mae Harmon (Glynnis O'Connor), whose face is all but destroyed in a head-on automobile accident. As Leola recuperates in a military hospital, her will to live is seriously tested, not only by her shattered face, but also by the loss of her unborn child and the breakup of her marriage. The one person who refuses to feel sorry for Leola -- and who, in fact, admires her spunk -- is dedicated plastic surgeon James Stallings (Armand Assante). Persuading Leola to allow him to rebuild her face, Stallings puts his patient through 40 operations in the next four years. Understandably, the film's dramatic impact is greatest in the early sequences, wherein actress O'Connor, her face obscured by bandages (and by Michael Westmore's disturbingly realistic, Emmy nominated makeup), must convey her thoughts and moods through her eyes, her body language, and an occasional incoherent grunt. Why Me? originally aired March 12, 1984, on ABC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A lifeguard who had been driving an expensive car that was well beyond his means is found dead, apparently from drowning. To find out if the victim was actually murdered, Magnum (Tom Selleck) teams up with Tracy Spencer (Annie Potts), who introduces herself as a homicide detective. In truth, Tracy is only a meter maid, but she hopes to land a promotion by cracking this case--assuming that she and Magnum can survive the deadly assaults perpetrated by the criminals responsible for the murder, including a particularly nasty set-to between Magnum and a pair of Karate-chopping damsels! The main villain in this episode is played by Magnum, P.I.'s stunt coordinator Bob Minor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Something So Right was a November 1982 entry in CBS' series of GE Theatre movie specials. Ricky Schroder plays the trouble-prone son of divorcee Patty Duke Astin. Upset that his idolized football-jock father is gone, Schroder has developed into a petty thief. Unable to handle the boy herself, Duke enrolls Schroder in a Big Brother program--where, much to his dismay, he is paired up with inept, unathletic James Farentino (decked out in a convincing "paunchy" bodysuit and a bald wig). Gradually, Schroder grows close to his new "Big Brother"--only to feel deserted again when Farentino, also divorced, falls in love with Schroder's mom. Something So Right is one of those few and far between TV movies that assumes an audience is intelligent enough to digest a story based on genuine human emotions rather than car chases, serial killings or diseases of the week. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Flatbed Annie is played by Annie Potts; her sidekick Sweetiepie, aka Ginny La Rosa, is played by Kim Darby. Annie is a hard-bitten veteran, Sweetiepie a starry-eyed novice. Harry Dean Stanton co-stars as a mean, nasty, awful bad guy who wants to repossess the girls' truck. The plot is further complicated by a gang of hijackers. Fred Willard plays Sweetiepie's hubby, while Arthur Godfrey, of all people, is the lovable Special Guest Star. And they hoped that this thing would graduate into a weekly TV series, did they? Flatbed Annie & Sweetiepie: Lady Truckers was first telecast February 10, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Corvette Ken Dantley's (Mark Hamill) class has been restoring in their high-school shop class is nearly completely fixed up. One day, the students walk in and it is gone - apparently stolen. Ken is larking about in Las Vegas when he spies a car that looks suspiciously like the Corvette he knows so well. He begins looking for the car, but in the meantime Vanessa (Annie Potts), propositions him on the street. Intrigued, he follows the girl back to her van, which is equipped with a waterbed. She hopes to use the van as a travelling brothel, with herself as the bill of fare. Instead, she helps him look for the missing car, and as they search, the two of them fall in love. Though praised by critics, Mark Hamill's second starring feature did poorly at the box-office, and stalled his career. Corvette Summer marks the first star appearance by Annie Potts, perhaps better known for her role in the U.S. television show Designing Women. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Ghostbusters
Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson star as a quartet of Manhattan-based "paranormal investigators". When their government grants run out, the former three go into business as The Ghostbusters, later hiring Hudson on. Armed with electronic paraphernalia, the team is spectacularly successful, ridding The Big Apple of dozens of ghoulies, ghosties and long-legged beasties. Tight-lipped bureaucrat William Atherton regards the Ghostbusters as a bunch of charlatans, but is forced to eat his words when New York is besieged by an army of unfriendly spirits, conjured up by a long-dead Babylonian demon and "channelled" through beautiful cellist Sigourney Weaver and nerdish Rick Moranis. The climax is a glorious sendup of every Godzilla movie ever made-and we daresay it cost more than a year's worth of Japanese monster flicks combined. Who'd ever dream that the chubby, cheery Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man would turn out to be the most malevolent threat ever faced by New York City? When the script for Ghostbusters was forged by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, John Belushi was slated to play the Bill Murray role; Belushi's death in 1982 not only necessitated the hiring of Murray, but also an extensive rewrite. The most expensive comedy made up to 1984, Ghostbusters made money hand over fist, spawning not only a 1989 sequel but also two animated TV series (one of them partially based on an earlier live-action TV weekly, titled The Ghost Busters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ghostbusters 2
Ivan Reitman's sequel to the phenomenally successful Ghostbusters is looser and more self-assured than the original. The film opens with a title reading "Five Years Later" and finds the ghostbusters living in hard times. A restraining order has forbidden the boys to partake in paranormal warfare, and as a result they have had to seek other lines of work. Ray (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston (Ernie Hudson) spend their time performing at children's' birthday parties, and Egon (Harold Ramis) is busy conducting experiments investigating the effect of human emotions on the environment, leaving ghostbusting behind. Venkman (Bill Murray) and Dana (Sigourney Weaver) have split up. Venkman now hosts a local cable show called "The World of the Psychic." Dana, now divorced and the mother of a little baby named Oscar, works as an art restorer in a museum -- and this is where the plot kicks in. While Dana is restoring a portrait of a 16th-century tyrant by the name of Vigo the Carpathian, the portrait becomes hexed. The evil Vigo wants to return to life by taking over the body of Dana's little child. Vigo has enlisted Dana's boss, Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol), to compel Dana to cooperate. Soon dirty sludge and slime flow through the streets of Manhattan, and the ghostbusters have to reunite to save the city from a funky paranormal evil. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide