Phylicia Rashad

Sean Combs, Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, Sanaa Lathan, and John Stamos all return to reprise the roles they originally played on Broadway in this made for television take on Lorraine Hansbury's timeless play about a 1950s-era Chicago family longing for a better life. Walter Lee has died, and now his widow Lena Younger (Rashad) is about to receive a $10,000 check from her late-husband's insurance company. Everyone in the family dreams about the ways their lives will be changed with the arrival of the money, family matriarch Lena - who longs to retire from her job as a domestic servant for a wealthy white family - in particular. Having lived in a one room tenement apartment ever since she and her late husband originally married, Lena is eager to purchase a house of her own and provide her family with a real home. Lena's son Walter Lee, Jr. (Combs), currently employed as a chauffer, and has recently become taken with the idea of purchasing a liquor store as a means of solving his family's financial woes. Like her mother-in-law, Walter's wife Ruth (McDonald) is also a domestic servant for a white family, and dreams of the day she can walk away from her job. While Walter's sister Beneatha (Lathan) strives to become a medical professional, tuition is expensive and she is currently being pursued by two men - wealthy but superficial George Murchison (Sean Patrick Thomas) and intellectual classmate Joseph Asagai (David Oyelowo). Much to everyone's surprise, Lena uses the lion's share of the money to purchase a home in the all-white residential neighborhood of Cllaybourne, splitting the remainder between Walter (for his entrepreneurial endeavor) and Beneatha (for tuition). Around the same time Walter loses his share of the inheritance to a smooth talking con man who claimed he could help finance the liquor store, the Claybourne "home improvement" association makes the discovery that the Youngers are black and sends emissary Mr. Lindner (John Stamos) to try prevent their neighborhood from becoming integrated by buying the house back. Now faced with the prospect of losing it all, Walter considers making a deal with Mr. Lindner in order to recover his losses. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In this followup to the first-season episode "Tough Love", Phylicia Rashad and Erica Gimpel) return in the roles of journalist Elizabeth Jessup and Elizabeth's daughter Sydney (whose own daughter Beth, originally played by Melissa Lee Andrew, is here enacted by Lauren Robinson). Though Elizabeth had overcome her alcoholism with the help of angel Monica (Roma Downey) several years before, she has curiously chosen not to mention this life-altering experience in her memoirs. In fact, when Monica returns for a visit, Elizabeth is downright hostile. Ultimately, Angel of Death Andrew (John Dye) gently informs Elizabeth that she hasn't much time left to come to terms with her past--if not for herself, then at least for the sake of her loved ones. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A cast of distinguished veterans and promising newcomers headline this stark prison drama from first-time writer-director Jordan Walker-Pearlman. Hill Harper stars as embittered inmate Alex, sentenced to serve time for a rape he claims that he didn't commit. His link to the outside world is his upper-middle class bother Tony (Obba Babatunde), the only family member who's come to visit him in the half-decade he's been in jail. On his latest visit, Alex pleads with Tony to have the rest of the family visit him, admitting that he's in the final stages of his battle with AIDS. Through flashbacks, dream sequences, and real-time encounters, Alex interacts with the people who have shaped his life -- his parents (Marla Gibbs and Billy Dee Williams), his old friend (Rae Dawn Chong), and his therapist (Phylicia Rashad) -- and attempts to overcome the seething anger and resentment that have punctuated his time in prison. The Visit was greeted with much acclaim when it premiered at the 2000 Method Fest Independent Film Festival. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Made especially for the Showtime cable network, this touching drama stars Sidney Poitier and his daughter Sydney Poitier, respectively, as a prominent New York businessman and the feisty, troubled teen he mentors. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Actor Tim Reid (WKRP in Cincinnati) made his directorial debut with this filmed adaptation of Clifton L. Taulbert's autobiography. Set in an African-American community in the segregated South, Once Upon a Time...When We Were Colored follows a young Taulbert through three decades, beginning with his birth in a cotton field in 1946. As he grows up, Taulbert is faced with the harsh realities of being black in the mid-20th century: first from the lessons of his great-grandfather (Al Freeman Jr.), later in his trips to the local segregated library, and finally in 1962, when a 16-year-old Taulbert watches as his community deals with a racist white business owner trying to run a local black ice man out of town. Once Upon a Time...When We Were Colored was the recipient of the Audience Choice Award at the 1995 St. Louis International Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Kirstie Alley earned a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in this moving made-for-TV drama. She plays Sally Goodson, the devoted mother of autistic child David. Abandoned by her husband years before, Sally has sacrificed much for her son but has felt it in his best interest. One of the key things she accomplished was keeping her son out of the institution that the government feels is in his best interest. Unfortunately, she could not avoid "the System" forever and when a well-meaning social worker learns that the boy is still in Sally's care, a heated battle ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Mother Goose is a favorite of parents and children alike. Actress Phylicia Rashad brings these nursery rhymes to life. The viewer watches a cast of children and animals perform such favorites as "Old Mother Hubbard", "This Little Pig", "Old King Cole", and "Three Little Kittens". Also, the work of the stage crew is shown, to help children understand that there is more to a play than what is seen from the audience. Composer Jason Miles provides music to accompany each of the 36 nursery rhymes. ~ Linda J. Shriver, All Movie Guide

Phylicia Rashad once again makes a "crossover" appearance from The Cosby Show in the role of Clair Huxtable, This time, Clair has arrived at Hillman College to videotape the students as they go through the motions of professional interviews and discuss their plans for the future. Skipping out of this project to focus on an archaeology assignment, Freddie (Cree Summer) learns a surprising (and life-altering) secret about Hillman when she stumbles upon a hidden room in the cellar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

So here are the conditions that prevail as The Cosby Show enters its seventh season. Obstetrician Cliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby) and his attorney wife, Clair (Phylicia Rashad) are still happily married, still living in the upscale Brooklyn brownstone that also serves as Cliff's office. Their youngest daughter, Rudy (Keshia Knight Pulliam), is the only one of the couple's five children still living at home: both daughters Sondra (Sabrina Le Beauf) and Denise (Lisa Bonet) are married and raising families; son Theo (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) is attending New York College and living near campus in a tiny apartment; and daughter Vanessa (Tempestt Bledsoe) had graduated from high school a year earlier, and is about to start her freshman year at Lincoln University. This season, the series' humor, which has usually been at a gentle middle-American level, takes on a sharper and sometimes more caustic edge with the introduction of several new characters from the tough Bed-Stuy section of Brooklyn. In the episode "Period of Adjustment," 17-year-old Pam Turner (Erika Alexander), Clair Huxtable's second cousin once removed, moves out of her inner-city neighborhood when her mom leaves for California to take care of a sick relative, and moves into the Huxtable home. Also coming along for the ride -- at least on an occasional drop-in basis -- are Pam's neighborhood pals Slide (Mushond Lee), Charmaine (Karen Malina White), and Lance (Allen Payne). For the first time in five years, The Cosby Show was not America's top-rated series during season seven. However, it did manage a respectable fifth place -- ironically, just below its spin-off series, A Different World. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Making another crossover appearance from The Cosby Show, Clair Huxtable (Phylicia Rashad) arrives at Hillman College to conduct a business-etiquette seminar. She also hopes to persuade her daughter Vanessa (Tempestt Bledsoe) to enroll in Hillman, but Vanessa turns out to have other plans. At the same time, Dwayne (Kadeem Hardison) turns to Clair for help after an important job interview with Kinishewa Electronics goes horribly wrong. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When Whitley (Jasmine Guy) announces plans to attend her father's wedding in New York, Dwayne (Kadeem Hardison) offers to drive her there. Actually, Dwayne's primary misison is to visit his former classmate Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet, in her first series appearance after leaving A Different World in 1987), hoping to persuade her to return to Hillman College. Ultimately, a depressed Whitley and a disheartened Dwayne find themselves trapped in a blizzard--a crisis that forces them to draw closer together than ever before. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

There were those in 1989 who bellyached that Disney Television's Polly was a far from faithful adaptation of Eleanor Porter's classic novel Pollyanna. What they meant was that Polly did not resemble the 1960 Hayley Mills movie version of Pollyanna, which itself played fast and loose with the source material. In Polly, The Cosby Show's Keshia Knight Pulliam portrays the "Glad Girl" who brings along a satchelful of happiness and optimism when she visits her wealthy aunt one summer. Tranposing Porter's all-white story to a middle-class black community in the Alabama of the 1950s (Celeste Holm is the only white costar) isn't nearly as self-conscious or gimmicky as it seems on paper. Nor is any damage done to the original by adding musical numbers, especially when taking into consideration that the film was directed by renowned choreographer Debbie Allen (the sister of Phylicia Rashad, who plays Polly's aunt--and who in 1989 was costarring with Keshia Knight Pulliam on a weekly basis on The Cosby Show). Polly scored a boffo ratings hit, prompting Disney TV to assemble a 1990 sequel, Polly: Comin' Home! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide