Bill Smitrovich Movies

A suspense novel by Sue Miller was the source for the made-for-TV While I Was Gone, which made its CBS network debut on October 10, 2004. Boston veterinarian Jo Beckett (Kirstie Alley) feels trapped in her marriage to kindly but unexciting minister Daniel Beckett (Bill Smitrovich). Then, one day, a dog that may have to be put down is brought into Jo's office. The dog's owner turns out to be her old college friend Eli Mayhew (Peter Horton), with whom Jo shared a hippie pad along with several other shaggy students back in the 1960s. As she waxes nostalgic over her carefree youth, Jo considers leaving staid Daniel for footloose Eli, and goes so far as to set up a clandestine meeting with him. But Jo's dream romance turns into a nightmare with the revelation of a horrible secret from her past -- and the fulfillment of a strange "out-of-body" premonition which Jo had experienced in the opening scenes of the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Maury Chaykin returns as wealthy, eccentric, ill-tempered, self-indulgent, and insufferably brilliant private detective Nero Wolfe, with Timothy Hutton as his wisecracking, skirt-chasing assistant and legman, as the A&E series bearing the blanket title A Nero Wolfe Mystery enters its second season. As in season one, most of the episodes are directly based on the original Nero Wolfe novels written by Rex Stout between 1934 and 1975. All of the episodes are ample demonstrations of the keen deductive and analytical skills of the overweight protagonist, who specializes in solving seemingly unsolvable crimes -- but only when he feels like doing so. The season opens with the two-part "Death of a Doxy," directed by series regular Timothy Hutton, in which Archie must explain the presence of a corpse in his apartment. In a later two-parter, "Motherhunt," Wolfe ignores his precious prize-winning orchids and rare beers long enough to track down the mother of an abandoned infant. Also spread over two episodes is "Too Many Clients," the title of which should be self-explanatory (Wolfe's many clients are the lovers of a libidinous murder victim). And in the final two-parter of the season, "The Silent Speaker," the case at hand is the death of a representative from the National Industrial Association. Curiously, the season ends with a rare single, self-contained episode: "Immune to Murder," in which Wolfe's talents as a gourmet chef are brought into play. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nero Wolfe (Maury Chaykin) is the world's greatest detective, and like any genius, he has his share of idiosyncrasies -- he loves orchids with an unnatural passion, he weighs a seventh of a ton, and--oh yeah--he never leaves his New York brownstone. Instead, he is aided by an army of foot soldiers headed by Archie Goodwin (Timothy Hutton). The film opens when Pete, a young windshield washer, is begged by a woman to call the police. She is then ushered into a car and whisked away. Thinking that she has been kidnapped, Pete gives Nero the scoop in exchange for half the reward money. When Pete later turns up dead, Nero kicks his investigation into high gear. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Expectant parents Bill and Joanne McNabb (Bill Smitrovich, Betsy Brantley) are torn apart by the news that their unborn child has Down Syndrome. Though Joanne wants to keep the baby, Bill is leaning in the opposite direction--and, out of shame over having an "imperfect" child, he has told Joanne to keep the baby's condition a secret until a final decision is made. Though angels Monica (Roma Downey) and Andrew (John Dye) are on hand to help alleviate the tension, it falls to another angel named Taylor (Chris Burke), himself a Downs child, to lead the McNabbs towards the right decision--but not before a near-fatal disaster! This episode features a piquant reunion of actors Bill Smitrovich and Chris Burke, respectively cast as father and son on the earlier series Life Goes On. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Created by Chris Carter of X-Files fame, the Fox sci-fi crime thriller series Millennium starred Lance Henriksen as Frank Black, a former Washington, D.C.-based FBI agent who in the opening season returned to his native Seattle with wife Catherine (Megan Gallagher) and daughter Jordan (Brittany Tiplady). Gifted with a sixth sense enabling him to "see" through the eyes of dangerous criminals, thereby helping him keep one step ahead of those criminals in order to stop their reigns of terror, Frank utilized his talent on behalf of the Millennium Group, a secret organization purportedly dedicated to thwarting serial killers and also preparing humanity in case one of the various "end of the world" scenarios floating around turned out to be true. Frank also offered his services as a criminal profiler to his old friend Lt. Bob Bletcher (Bill Smitrovich), a Seattle homicide detective. Catherine provided indirect assistance to her husband in her capacity as a counselor to crime victims and trauma patients. During the series' first season, Frank dealt mainly with straightforward murder cases, but after the bizarre death of Bob Bletcher, he devoted more and more of his time to cases involving the supernatural. In these, he was occasionally aided by Millennium Group representative Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn).

Later on, the pressures of their work led Frank and Catherine to separate, whereupon Frank and his daughter Jordan (who had apparently inherited vestiges of her dad's "gift") were left alone in their Seattle home. Replacing Bletcher as Frank's police liaison was Det. Bob Geibelhouse (Stephen James Lang), while Frank's new Millennium Group contact was Lara Means (Kristen Cloke). It gradually dawned on Frank that the Millennium Group was not as beneficent and altruistic as it first appeared, and in fact may have been using Frank's psychic talents as part of a campaign to take over the world. Things got curiouser and curiouser as the series progressed, culminating in an apocalyptic second-season finale in which a deadly virus was decimating the populace, killing Catherine and rendering Frank insane.

When Millennium was unexpectedly renewed for a third season, the producers hastily "re-invented" the events of season two, so that the virus was not nearly as all-consuming as it had been cracked up to be; also Frank had completely recovered from his mental breakdown (many of the horrific sights he and the audience had witnessed were written off as "delusions"), and had moved to the Washington, D.C., suburb of Falls Church, VA, with his daughter Jordan in tow. Despite having developed a deep mistrust for bureaucracy, Frank nonetheless utilized his psychic skills on behalf of the FBI, working with agents Andy MacLaren (Stephen E. Miller) and Emma Hollis (Klea Scott) as well as Barry Baldwin (Peter Outerbridge) of the Critical Incidents Response Group. All the while, Frank conducted a personal investigation of the Millennium Group, his suspicions having been confirmed that the organization was up to no good. First telecast October 25, 1996, Millennium officially ended its network run on May 21, 1999, though the series' "true" final episode was seen later as an entry on The X-Files. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On January 2, 1995, Deep Space Nine belatedly rang in the New Year with part one of this two-part adventure. A transporter accident sends Sisko, Bashir, and Dax hurtling back to 21st Century San Francisco. Upon their arrival, they are forced to confront the plight of the city's homeless and to avoid contact with those unfortunates, lest they alter events that could profoundly and dangerously change the course of the Future. Part one of "Past Tense" was scripted by Robert Hewitt Wolfe from a story by Wolfe and Ira Steven Behr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jessica (Angela Lansbury) arrives at the headquarters of a prominent ice cream manufacturing firm in order to collect a promised donation for her literacy foundation. It soon develops that the company has created a brand-new flavor--but not for public consumption. How else to explain the mysterious death of one of the company's top executives...a death quickly followed by another one that is equally mysterious? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Investigating the murder of a chiropractor's wife, Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) and Simone (Jimmy Smits) suspect that the victim's husband is the guilty party. Elsewhere, Simone's friend (Isabel Glasser) finds out that her young son is hiding a gun, and while moonlighting as a security guard, Martinez (Nicholas Turturro) is attracted to the person he is protecting, who lives in mortal fear of her father. This is the legendary NYPD Blue episode in which, while sharing a shower with his lady love Sylvia (Sharon Lawrence), Andy Sipowicz unabashedly displays his bare backside (and viewers couldn't say they weren't warned). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky's first American film is a romantic tale about an American war veteran whose dreams of his childhood sweetheart are countered by a less sunny reality. John Savage stars as Ivan Bibic, who has returned home to a small town in Pennsylvania, having suffered a nervous breakdown as a P.O.W. During the war, he would dream about his fiancee back home, Maria Bosic (Nastassja Kinski), imagining their forthcoming perfect marriage. At one point, Ivan is told, "You dreamed about her too long. She lives in your dreams, not in your body." And it's true -- his dreams do not equal his reality. Maria and Ivan marry, but Ivan finds that he cannot make love to the flesh and blood Maria. Knowing she was actively pursued by men in town during the war, Ivan courages her to take lovers. Maria does so, having affairs with another GI, Al Griselli (Vincent Spano), and a passing drifter named Clarence Butts (Keith Carradine). But after spending the night with Clarence, Maria becomes pregnant, and Ivan's love for her is sorely tested. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide