Beverly Sanders Movies
- 1997
Mary Tyler Moore is reunited with her onetime sitcom costar Edward Asner in this anything-but-funny TV movie melodrama. While closing down her restaurant late one night, Kathryn Stanfill (Moore) notices a prowler hanging around outside. She quickly summons the police, only to stand by in horror as one of the cops, a loose cannon named Brian Kaleen (Frederick Lehne), brutally and without provocation beats the prowler within an inch of his life. Jack Patkanis (Asner), the police department's Internal Affairs investigator, has long suspected that there have been a few rotten apples like Kaleen on the force, and urges Kathryn to report the beating. Suspended from the force, the psychotic Kaleen methodically mounts a campaign of revenge, using his police-department and political connections to financially destroy Kathryn's husband (Dennis Arndt) and frame her son (Adam Scott) on a murder charge. Payback was first telecast by ABC on February 10, 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Tyler Moore, Ed Asner, (more)
- 1996
- NR
The bulk of this domestic drama is comprised of video footage shot over the years by a boorish husband. Pieced together it forms a diary of a marital breakup that begins at a New Years Eve party. While David is taping, his wife Lily announces, right in front of the camera and everyone, that she wants a divorce. Utterly shocked, he asks her why and she tells him to look at all the videotape of their lives to discover the answer. What he finds does not reflect kindly upon his behavior. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Winston, Amy Smallman, (more)
- 1989
In this black comedy, a wealthy but flaky family tries to deal with their lives after their bizarre father suffers a fatal heart-attack on Thanksgiving and falls face first into the turkey. Now the family must somehow get their act together enough to pay bills and make funeral arrangements. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1989
In this first episode of a two-part story arc, Virginia Madsen guest stars as Maddie's married cousin Annie Charnock. When David (Bruce Willis) goes to great length to help Annie with her problems, Maddie assumes that it is because David is in love--not with Annie, but with Maddie! This episode was cowritten by longtime David Letterman associate Merrill Markoe), and features a very significant cameo appearance in the elevator scene. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
Eugene Roche returns as Jack Sullivan, the troublesome father of public defender Christine (Markie Post). Recently retired, Jack plans to move to Florida and live in an RV--but this is before he becomes close friends with prosecuting attorney Dan (John Larroquette), who ironically has been trying to get Christine into the sack since he first laid eyes on her. Now Jack has opted to remain in New York, moving into Christine's apartment and driving her bonkers. Elswewhere, we have a serious "Peter Piper" situation on our hands in the person of panhandler Papaya Patty (Tona Dodd) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
Under normal circumstances, Danny (Bob Saget) would greet the news of his mother's impending visit by scurrying around to clean up the house before her arrival. Alas, Joey (David Coulier) has neglected to inform Danny that mom Claire (Alice Hirson) is on her way. Confronted with a mess of mammoth proportions, Claire not only begins cleaning herself, but also calls in Joey's mom Mindy (Beverly Sanders in her only series appearance) and Danny's mom Irene (Rhoda Gemignani, in the role later played by Yvonne Wilder) as her backup crew. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A timid aerobics instructor learns that her new best friend is also her husband's mistress in this domestic drama starring Mary Tyler Moore. Suffering from a bit of empty-nest syndrome as her children pass through adolescence, indecisive homemaker Holly Davis (Moore) reluctantly accepts a part-time gig teaching exercise classes for frazzled gym owner Helga (Salome Jens). There, she meets struggling, independent-minded broadcast journalist Sandy Dunlap (Christine Lahti) and they quickly become thick as thieves. As it turns out, though, Sandy is actually an adulteress -- she's engaged in a clandestine affair with Chip (Ted Danson), Holly's seismologist husband. Chip loves both women and wants to continue seeing Sandy, but she breaks things off with him now that she knows his wife. When Chip dies suddenly, Sandy helps Holly cope and finances Phase Two of her life as the new owner of Helga's aerobics center. Unfortunately, though, evidence of Chip's infidelity lies around just waiting to be discovered. In the end, it's up to Chip's friend Harry Crandall (Sam Waterson) -- who's been nursing a crush on Holly for years -- to help a pregnant Sandy and a heartbroken Holly come to terms with their complicated friendship. Just Between Friends marked the directorial debut of screenwriter Allan Burns. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Tyler Moore, Christine Lahti, (more)
- 1983
Directed by seasoned comedy man Melville Shavelson, The Other Woman is a "menage a trois" TV movie with a twist. The stars are middle-aged Anne Meara and Hal Linden, and youngish Madolyn Smith. The twist? Linden, a book publisher, is married to half-his-age Smith, a fashion designer. It is Anne Meara, a fiftyish divorcee and aspiring romance novelist, who turns out to be the "other woman!" Ms. Meara cowrote the teleplay for this engaging contrivance, in which everyone is so essentially likeable that we genuinely care how things turn out. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hal Linden, Anne Meara, (more)
Norman Jewison's blackly satirical look at the American justice system has gained in stature as one of the more incisive social commentaries of its time. Al Pacino plays Arthur Kirkland, an incorruptible attorney who attempts to initiate reforms in the Maryland justice system. Kirkland is haunted by the fates of two past clients, one of whom committed suicide in jail; the other is still alive but is locked up on a trumped-up traffic violation. The ability of power and money to distort the pursuit of justice becomes all too clear as Kirkland finds out how deeply the rot has spread. He finally retaliates by representing a repulsive judge (John Forsythe) accused of rape. Pacino's and Forsythe's performances are intense and powerful. Many critics found the film biting and almost painful in its razor-sharp indictment of the justice system, while others declared the script too outrageous. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Pacino, Jack Warden, (more)
- 1979
Quincy (Jack Klugman) is outraged to discover that an accident victim had died when he was refused admittance to the hospital run by Dr. Chet Rawlins (James Karen). Investigating, Quincy finds out that Rawlins' hospital regularly turns away emergency cases if they are unable to pay for treatment--and that this isn't the first time that someone has died unnecessarily because of this discriminatory policy. It now falls to Quincy to prevent Rawlins from purchasing another hospital and causing future tragedies with his greed and callousness. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
George Hamilton confounded his detractors by turning in a first-rate comic performance in Love at First Bite. Hamilton plays Count Dracula, who is evicted from his Transylvanian domicile when the Communist government decides to nationalize his castle. With faithful toady Renfield (Arte Johnson) at his side, Dracula heads for the Big Apple, where he finds the vampire pickings radically different from those on his home turf: for example, ol' Drac suffers the mother of all hangovers when his sinks his fangs into the neck of a wino. Klutzy Cindy Sondheim (Susan Saint James) falls in love with Dracula, not fully aware of his colorful background. But Cindy's stuffy fiance Dr. Jeff Rosenberg (Richard Benjamin), a descendant of Dracula's perennial foe Professor Van Helsing, knows what Dracula's up to and does his best to thwart the vampire's plan. This proves very difficult, since such time-honored remedies as the stake through the heart are frowned upon by the New York City authorities. So successful was Love at First Bite that Hamilton was encouraged to have a satiric go at another literary icon in 1982's Zorro, the Gay Blade. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Hamilton, Susan Saint James, (more)
Anthony Hopkins is a ventriloquist psychologically tormented by his dummy in the Richard Attenborough thriller Magic (a film with a story that may seem familiar to those who have seen the Michael Redgrave segment of Dead of Night, or the Cliff Robertson episode "The Dummy" from The Twilight Zone television series). William Goldman based his screenplay on his best-selling novel. Hopkins plays Corky, a seedy magician who is hooted off the stage in the low-rent clubs that will stoop to hire him. But when he comes across a dummy named Fats, his career is energized. Corky sees in Fats everything he lacks himself -- confidence, creativity, and verbal agility. With the help of his agent Ben Greene (Burgess Meredith), Corky rises to the top of the nightclub circuit. But with Corky's success comes an increased paranoia, and he turns down a TV contract, believing that it would mean taking a medical examination and that rumors of his mental instability might leak out. Corky takes off to a Catskills resort, run by Peggy Ann Snow (Ann-Margret), an old girlfriend now unhappily married to a volatile hick (Ed Lauter). While a frustrated Ben high tails it to the Catskills to find Corky, Corky discovers that he still has feelings for Peggy, but lands in the middle of a love triangle between the woman and her husband, where his schizophrenic personality manifests itself and additional murders occur. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Hopkins, Ann-Margret, (more)
- 1975
Zohra Lampert delivers a colorful performance as Marina Sheldon, a Gypsy fortune teller who, while trying to pass some counterfeit money, witnesses a bank robbery. Figuring that there's more profit in thievery than in crystal-gazing, Marina steals a mug shot of the robber from police files, uses the man to organize her own gang, and formulates a scheme to knock over six banks simultaneously--right under the nose of Lt. Kojak (Telly Savalas). Appearing as one of the crooks is a young Lane Smith. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Lamont Sanford (Demond Wilson) will inherit 7,000 dollars from his late Uncle George -- provided Lamont has a son, also named George, within the next year. Only one problem: Lamont isn't married, and has no plans of getting married. His avaricious dad Fred (Redd Foxx), not wishing to let seven grand slip through his fingers, sets about to find Lamont a bride in a hurry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Redd Foxx, Demond Wilson, (more)
- 1973
Neither his parents nor the emergency staff of Rampart Hospital can figure out why a young boy is apparently choking to death. In other cases, a youngster dives off a roof, and a blind grandfather is trapped in a house fire with his infant grandson. And in the episode's obligatory humorous subplot, John (Randolph Mantooth) vows to be 100 percent honest for the rest of his life after a slight prevarication results in a brush with death (so to speak). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
No one in the police department seems to care too much when call girl Wanda Bolen (Tisha Sterling) turns up murdered. All this changes when Chief Ironside meets and befriends the girl's elderly, grief-stricken father (Titos Vandis). Making it his personal crusade to bring Wanda's killer to justice, the Chief must forge a temporary truce with the pimps and hookers who may be able to provide him with the necessary leads. This episode features an orginal song by Marty and David Paich, "Money Girl", sung by Carol Carmichael). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
