Peggy Rea Movies

In Fun and Games, a professional career woman is harassed by her boss, who then rejects her for promotion. The woman then sues her boss for sexual harassment ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Mel Tillis, who'd later show up as "himself" on Dukes of Hazzard, is here cast as horse-farm owner Burl Tolliver. Mr. Tolliver owns an extraordinarily fast stallion, which Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) plans to steal and enter in the "Mrs. J.D. Hogg Stake Race"--after framing Bo (John Schneider) and Duke (Tom Wopat) for the crime, of course. Unfortunately for all concerned, the prize horse has also attracted the attention of some professional rustlers who have a bad habit of killing people. Seen as Burl Tolliver's wife Sherri is Dorothy Collier, who later married series regular James Best (Roscoe P. Coltrane). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Crooked car dealer Ace Parker (Jerry Rushinng) offers to sell the Duke boys a battered car with a really good engine (designed by "R. Petty"!) for a measly 200 bucks. All that Luke (Tom Wopat) and Bo (John Schneider) have to do in exchange is repossess a fancy Rolls Royce on behalf of Boss Hogg's wife Lulu (Peggy Rea, in her first series appearance). Trouble is, the Rolls is currently in the possession of a particulary nasty gang of counterfeiters! Ben Jones (Cooter Davenport) becomes a full fledged series regular in this episodes, which features in the guest-star roster Dukes of Hazzard's executive producer Rod Amateau, real-life former moonshiner Jerry Rushing, and onetime NFL defensive end Claude Humphrey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The opening two-part episode of The Waltons' seventh season (originally telecast in a single two-hour timeslot) is dedicated to the memory of Will Geer, who had died in the summer of 1978. Also conspicuous by her absence is semi-regular Nora Marlowe, who had also passed away, as neighbor Flossie Brimmer. The loss of both Grandpa and Mrs. Brimmer is duly acknowledged as the Walton family leaves 1940 behind and enters 1941, a year that will yield many dramatic changes in their lives. For starters, John Walton (Ralph Waite) is faced with a choice between remaining with his struggling lumber business on Waltons' Mountain or accepting a more lucrative job out of town; and John's daughters Erin (Mary Elizabeth McDonough) and Mary Ellen (Judy Norton-Taylor) follow the lead of their brother John-Boy , moving out of the family home and into their own apartment. Peggy Rea, who would later join the series' cast as the Waltons' cousin Rose Burton, is here seen as the girls' landlady Mrs. Boren. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Child actor Ike Eisenmann, a frequent participant in the ABC Afterschool Special offerings of the 1970s, plays the title role in The Amazing Cosmic Awareness of Duffy Moon. Shorter in stature than most of his classmates in the sixth grade, young Duffy decides to purchase a somewhat mystical book that, according to its advertising, will enable him to "THINK BIG." Among the book's suggestions is to speak in a robotic voice when confronted by an adversity (namely, the school bully). An unexpected incident involving an injured pet crow serves to prove that Duffy doesn't really need a book to tap the inner resources -- and strengths -- that he's had all along. The impressive adult supporting cast includes Jim Backus and Jerry Van Dyke. ~ All Movie Guide

In the first episode of a two-part story, a flu epidemic has decimated the Rampart division, forcing Officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) to take over an unusually large caseload. Admist the plethora of emergency calls, burglaries, and public disturbances, the two mobile officers find time to issue a traffic ticket to a rather formidable woman named Edna Dixon (Juanita Moore)--who turns out to be the new police commissioner. Producer Jack Webb introduces this episode, which features a brief appearance by former series sem-iregular Robert Donner, who for several years appeared in the role of police informant TeeJay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fran (Elizabeth Baur) is devastated when word arrives that her cousin Bobby has committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. But the lack of a corpse, and the sudden appearance of several letters allegedly written by Bobby and declaring his unrequited love for Fran, lead Ironside (Raymond Burr) to suspect that the boy may not have killed himself after all--or that someone else is trying to drive Fran insane with grief and guilt. The episode's highlight is a performance of the original song "Growing Up is Hard to Do". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This comedy is notable as the final onscreen appearance (non-speaking) of Edward Everett Horton, a staple comic supporting actor from the early '30s onward. Dick Van Dyke plays an ambitious small-town minister who rallies the whole town to meet a challenge bet by a tobacco corporation. Cooked up by the tobacco company's public relations head (Bob Newhart), the bet is an offer to pay twenty five million dollars ($25,000,000.00) to any town that can quit smoking for the required period of time. Barnard Hughes is Dr. Proctor, a heart surgeon who has to be physically restrained to prevent him from smoking. Jean Stapleton is the mayor's wife, who swells visibly as her eating replaces cigarettes. Edward Everett Horton is eloquent as the mysterious tobacco tycoon who comes to observe the chaos first-hand. There is lots of frantic action as the townsfolk try to win the prize, and the tobacco company (which has no intention of paying off the bet) works to sabotage their efforts. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Season two of All in the Family commenced on September 18, 1971 with yet another taboo-banning episode. Scripted by Burt Styler and Norman Lear from a story by Styler, "The Saga of Cousin Oscar" dared to turn a subject as serious as death into a joke. No one in the Bunker family can abide freeloading cousin Oscar, least of all Archie. Thus, when Oscar has the audacity to drop dead in Archie and Edith's upstairs bedroom, poor Arch is stuck with the funeral expenses -- and the eulogy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gordon Parks' adaptation of his own novel The Learning Tree stars Kyle Johnson as Newt, a black teenager living in 1920s Kansas. He is an intelligent even-tempered young man who meets the many racial prejudices he faces with composure and pride. His best friend Marcus (Alex Clarke) is hot-headed and prone to react emotionally when confronted with life's problems. Newt gets into a difficult situation when he witnesses a murder and must decide if he should come forward to clear the man being framed for the crime. Doing so would forever change his own life, as well as Marcus'. In 1989, the film was selected to the National Film Registry in the Library of Congress. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

A cinematic take on a 1960s best-seller, Valley of the Dolls traces the ups and downs of three young women as fame, booze, pills, and men consume their lives. Well-bred, small-town Anne Welles (Peyton Place star Barbara Parkins) arrives in New York eager for fame but settles for a job assisting theatrical attorney Henry Bellamy (Robert H. Harris). The job leads her to cross paths with Helen Lawson (Hollywood veteran Susan Hayward), the grand dame of Broadway musicals, and Neely O'Hara (sitcom star Patty Duke), an up-and-coming performer whom Lawson unceremoniously boots from her latest show. Neely lands on her feet thanks to a series of nightclub gigs, and soon she and Anne befriend Jennifer North (Sharon Tate), a buxom starlet. As Neely becomes a huge star of stage and screen and Jennifer appears topless in a string of European "art" films, Anne becomes a wealthy cosmetics spokeswoman and suffers though a passionate but failed affair with aspiring writer Lyon Burke (Paul Burke). As the pressures of fame and failed romance take their toll on all three women, they take refuge in food, sex, liquor, and pills -- especially Neely, who becomes downright monstrous (the titular "dolls" are the uppers and downers to which she becomes hopelessly addicted). Although the film's characters are fictitious composites, Neely most closely resembles Judy Garland; Garland herself was originally cast as Lawson, but she was replaced after only a few days by Hayward. Although the film's trailer played up the story's titillating subject matter, the script for Valley of the Dolls actually toned down Jacqueline Susann's novel. And despite the fact that Dionne Warwick can be heard singing "(Theme From) The Valley of the Dolls" twice during the film, contractual snags kept her from releasing the soundtrack version; a different arrangement later became a number two pop hit in 1968. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Cary Grant made his last film appearance before retiring from the screen in this agreeable piece of fluff based on the 1943 comedy The More the Merrier, which dealt with the romantic complications inherent in the housing shortage in Washington D.C. during World War II. In Walk, Don't Run, the story is updated to a housing shortage in Tokyo during the Olympic Games of 1964. British industrialist Sir William Rutland (Cary Grant) arrives in Tokyo two days before the start of the games and cannot find any suitable accommodations. As a result, he answers an ad for an "apartment to share" and convinces the occupant, Christine Easton (Samantha Eggar), to rent a room to him. The next day he meets the handsome Steve Davis (Jim Hutton), a member of the United States Olympic walking team. Steve also needs a room and convinces Christine to take him on as a second tenant. After meeting Christine's pompous fiancé, Julius D. Haversack (John Standing), Rutland begins to ply his matchmaking skills in an effort to get Christine and Steve to fall in love with each other. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This romantic comedy stars Rock Hudson as Carter Harrison, an executive rising through the ranks of a major oil company. When he meets Toni Vincente (Gina Lollobrigida), a beautiful but hot-tempered artist, it's love at first sight and they quickly marry. The bloom is soon off the rose, however, and, five years later, Carter and Toni are about to finalize their divorce. However, just as the final paperwork is about to go through, Carter learns that he's up for a major promotion which would hinge on his being married. Carter is able to engineer a reconciliation with Toni with the help of his friend Richard Bramwell (Gig Young), a PR agent with the firm who hopes that a happy marriage will improve Carter's reputation. Since his separation from Toni, Carter has become known as something of a lothario, a reputation that the family-oriented company would like to avoid. But even though the couple patches things up, Richard has his work cut out for him when Toni announces that she'll be reenacting Lady Godiva's naked ride as part of a protest organized by an artists' group. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide