Robin Riker Movies

Competition at the Sunnydale High cheerleading tryouts literally heats up when the star cheerleader catches on fire during her routine. As if the pressure of the tryouts isn't enough, Amy Madison (Elizabeth Anne Allen) is failing miserably to get on the team and live up to her mother Catherine's (Robin Riker) legacy as the cheerleading champion of Sunnydale High. Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) also wants to get on the team, but she and Amy end up first and third alternates, respectively. Then, serendipitously, Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) becomes blind, another cheerleader's mouth is sealed with a flap of skin, and Buffy is turned into a dangerously peppy pom-pom girl through a Bloodstone Vengeance spell. It's no surprise when Amy makes the team. Buffy, weakened by the spell, goes with Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) to Amy's house, only to find that it is Amy's mother, Catherine, a witch who has inhabited her daughter's body, who is casting the spells. This leads to a showdown with the witch at the high school, in which Giles reverses all of her spells. In a final twist, Buffy repels Catherine's final spell, trapping her in the cheerleading trophy she won as a teenager. Originally aired on March 17, 1996, "The Witch" was the first episode in the series not to deal directly with vampires. Also, Buffy's cheerleading interest is the first direct reference to Buffy the Vampire Slayer the movie, in which she was a pom-pom queen. ~ All Movie Guide

This junior-level Ground Hog Day stars Erik Von Detten as Billy Jackson, a 13-year-old Scrooge in the making. Lacking the athletic prowess to play with his Christmas presents, mooning over a girl who doesn't know he's alive (and whose boyfriend is a bully), and ruminating over the fact that his rich uncle's new Val-U-Mall will put his father's store out of business, Billy has absolutely no reason to believe in Santa Claus--and he relays this sentiment to his kid sister Sarah (Yvonne Zima). In a burst of retaliatory stubbornness, Sarah counters Billy's sourness by wishing that it would be Christmas every day. Wham! She gets her wish, and Billy is trapped in an eternity of Christmases--and of course, he's the only person who is aware that time is standing still. At first intending take advantage of his foreknowledge by getting even with various enemies and selfishly grabbing up whatever he wants, Billy gradually realizes that the only way December 26th will ever dawn is if he stops thinking about himself and starts caring about others. First telecast by the Family Channel on December 17, 1996, the made-for-cable Christmas Every Day has become something of a Yuletide perennial in recent years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season two of the blithely surrealistic Fox sitcom Get a Life begins as over-aged paperboy Chris Peterson (Chris Elliott) celebrates his 31st birthday by moving out of the apartment over his parents' garage -- and moving into the apartment over the garage of his grumpy neighbor, police officer Gus Borden (Brian Doyle-Murray). The defection of series regular Sam Robards is amusingly addressed in the next episode, wherein Robards' character, Chris' best friend Larry Potter, runs out on his wife, forcing Chris to launch a search...for a new best friend. As for Larry's wife Sharon (Robin Riker), her hatred of Chris reaches epic proportions in the episode which finds them both trapped in a meat locker. In other episodes, Chris becomes a food inspector after finding a dead rat in a milk carton, belatedly has his tonsils removed, is held hostage by his prison inmate pen pal (A crisis that does not seem to faze Chris' parents -- played by Bob Elliott and Elinor Donahue -- in the least!), becomes a male escort to meet rich and sexy young girls (only to end up with a poor and elderly old bag), "stalks" an attractive doctor (Emma Samms) while simultaneously being stalked by a love-starved drugstore clerk (Amy Yasbeck), becomes a genius when exposed to toxic waste, misguidedly tries to adopt an obnoxious space alien named Spewey, and screws up the time-space continuum while attempting to save Gus' job. Just the sort of mishaps that could happen to anyone, right? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Chris Peterson (Chris Elliott) undergoes the sort of bizarre, surrealistic life experiences that are all too typical for 30-year-old paperboys who still live above their parents' garage as Get a Life enters its first season. In the series opener, Chris persuades his best friend Larry Potter (Sam Robards) to join him for the world premiere of the treacherous Hell Loop 2000 roller coaster (the first of the series' many whimsical invocations of the year 2000) -- only to become stuck upside-down when the coaster stalls. In later adventures, Chris becomes a male model, talks his phlegmatic father Fred (played by Chris Elliott's real-life father, Bob Elliott) into participating in the newspaper boys' annual picnic, endeavors to set a rather pointless world record, is replaced on the job by a paper-delivering robot, applies for his first-ever driver's license in order to impress a pretty waitress, and wins a weekend with his favorite talk show host (played by Fred Willard), who proves to be an even bigger waste of humanity than Chris! Also: Chris has a brief romantic fling with the sister of Larry's wife Sharon (Robin Riker), much to Sharon's dismay (to say she doesn't like Chris is like saying a rattlesnake doesn't like a mongoose); he experiences a full married life within a single day with his new-found "soulmate"; he stars in the very off-Broadway musical "Zoo Animals on Wheels," he briefly switches bodies with Larry after falling victim to an ancient curse; and, after 20 years, he finally receives the toy submarine kit which he'd paid for by becoming a paperboy in the first place. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Whenever one of their fellow Vietnam veterans is in trouble, you can count on the A-Team to come to the rescue. On this occasion, there are three disabled Vietnam vets, who in partnership with heroine-of-the-week Amanda (Robin Riker) have opened a desert resort called the Stagecoach Hotel. In his efforts to drive the vets off their property, evil land developer Frank Gaines (Alan Fudge) shuts down the water supply of both the hotel and a neighboring village. In order to foil the villain, the Team sets about to dig their own water well--and, as is customary, chaos ensues! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

No sooner has Jim (James Garner) arrived in Newark than he is robbed of his watch, wallet, luggage, and return plane ticket. The culprits are a couple of minor-league crooks who hope to break into the Big Time through the auspices of Jim's friend, reformed mobster Beppy Conigliaro (Simon Oakland). Female impersonator Jim Bailey appears as himself in this sequel to the 5th season episode "he Jersey Bounce", with Greg Antonacci and Gene Davis making return appearances as Eugene Conigliaro and Mickey Long. Both this episode and its predecessor were written by David Chase, who later parlayed his fascination with New Jersey mobsters into the groundbreaking cable-TV series The Sopranos. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide