Vicki Schreck Movies
- 1976
John-Boy (Richard Thomas) takes pity on Muffin Maloney (Vicky Schreck), a 12-year-old runaway who claims that her stepfather beats her night and day. When John-Boy allows Muffin to stay with the Waltons for a while, Grandpa (Will Geer) takes an immediate dislike to the girl, convinced that she is a compulsive liar. Actually Muffin is not so much a liar as a con artist--just like her grandfather Nifty Mulligan (Bert Conway), whom she hopes to spring from jail by playing on John-Boy's eagerness to act as her surrogate "big brother." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
The Macahans is a two-hour TV movie utilizing characters originally created for the 1962 Cinerama extravaganza How the West Was Won. In his first post-Gunsmoke project, Zeb Macahan stars as frontiersman Zeb Macahan, who in the early 1860s returns to Virginia to visit his family. It takes only the slightest encouragement for Zeb's brother (Richard Kiley) to agree to bring his family along with Zeb on another westward trek. Eva Marie Saint, the brother's wife, isn't keen on leaving her cozy Southern household, but neither is she anxious to be in Virginia when the Civil War breaks out. Narrated by William Conrad (who had coincidentally starred on the radio version of Gunsmoke) and jam packed with action, The Macahans served as the pilot for the subsequent James Arness TV series How the West Was Won, which ran from 1978 to 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Prolific television director Gary Nelson made the Walt Disney live-action comedy Freaky Friday, based on the novel by Mary Rodgers. Barbara Harris stars as suburban housewife Ellen Andrews, the wife of Bill (John Astin) and the mother of Annabel (Jodie Foster) and Ben (Sparky Marcus). Ellen just can't understand what's going on with teenaged Annabel, who hangs around the house making snappy remarks, eating ice cream for breakfast, and calling her brother Apeface. They each make a separate wish to be in the other's place, and they get their wish on Friday 13th. Ellen has to go through the day as a kid, playing on the field hockey team and dealing with typing class. Annabel has to deal with grown-up problems like getting appliances fixed and preparing a banquet. The whole silly story ends with a wacky car-chase/water skiing/hang-gliding conclusion in keeping with other Disney movies of the day. Freaky Friday was remade twice with the same title, and spawned a whole subgenre of body-switching movies in the 1980s. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Harris, Jodie Foster, (more)
