Kevin Tighe Movies

Robert Pirosh's teleplay for this Bonanza episode was based on an actual 19th century phenomenon. In the years following the Civil War, many young and disillusioned ex-soldiers formed nomadic groups called the "Weary Willies", who roamed throughout the west living off the land and avoiding "proper" employment. In other words, they were the hippies of their time, something with which viewers could instantly relate when this episode first aired on September 27, 1970. In the course of the story, the Ponderosa welcomes the Willies to their property, but their neighbors do not. When a girl is attacked, the Willies are accused of the crime, but the truth lies closer to home. The cast includes a pre-Waltons Richard Thomas as Billy, Lee Purcell as Angie, Elisha Cook Jr. as Marcus, and Kevin Tighe as Krulak. In keeping with its flower-child ambience, "The Weary Willies" features several songs, including "Man Passing Through", "Blood Brothers" and "It Won't Be Very Long". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hastily assembled by executive producers Jack Webb and R.A. Cinader to fill the Saturday-night schedule gap left by the abrupt cancellation of the NBC sitcoms The Partners and The Good Life, the hour-long drama Emergency! premiered in January of 1972, in a Saturday-night "suicide" slot opposite CBS' All in the Family. Inspired by a paramedics program that had been inaugurated by Los Angeles country only two years earlier, the series focuses on Squad 51, a team of paramedics operating out of the L.A. County Fire Department and nearby Rampart General Hospital. The premiere episode sets the tone for all to come: several different "incidents," tied together with a basic plotline. In the opener, the doctors at Ramparts treat a girl with respiratory problems and a drunk who isn't a drunk, while the paramedics rescue an imperiled hunter and a party-goer whose chest pains are at first treated as a joke by his friends. Weaving in and out of the proceedings is the story of a man and his dog, namely paramedic John Gage (Randolph Mantooth), who has been enlisted to look after the pet dog of a woman injured in a car accident. Later episodes deal with such crises as botulism, a boy trapped in a condemned building, the birth of a cyanotic baby, a deadly brushfire, an ailing hippie who may or may not be on drugs, the consequences of cryogenic freezing, and on a lighter note, the perils of public adulation when one of the paramedics is lionized in the press for his heroics. Although Emergency! ran a distant second in the ratings to All in the Family during its first season, it emerged as the most popular prime-time program amongst younger viewers, specifically those under the age of eleven. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Squad 51 guys enter a contest for the best new firefighting invention. This new diversion, however, does not cause them to neglect their workload, which this week includes an obese homehowner stuck in his own ceiling, a comatose man suffering from an inexplicable ailment, and a case of radiation poisoning which threatens to spread throughout the city. This final episode of Emergency!'s third season was directed by series regular Kevin Tighe (Roy Desoto). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John (Randolph Mantooth) takes it personally when a shortage of equipment results in the death of a heart attack victim. Elsewhere, Roy (Kevin Tighe) is injured in a fire at a fireworks factory, and Chet (Tim Donnelly) likewise sustains injuries in an explosion. Also, the team is pestered by an amateur firefighter; a young patient shows symptoms of polio; and a tree surgeon requires a quick rescue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fed up with low-quality television programs, John (Randolph Mantooth) stays up all night--for several consecutive nights--to develop his own TV game show. Back on the job, John joins Roy (Kevin Tighe) in treating an ex-jazz singer who may have heart problems. Other emegencies on tonight's docket include a tightrope walker who is trapped between two tall buildings, and a multiple-injury incident caused by a careless driver. This final episode of Emergency!'s sixth season is also the series' last hour-long episode; thereafter, the program would resurface in the form of six movie-length "specials", spread out over the next two years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Emergency: Survival on Charter No. 220 was a special 2-part, 2-hour installment of the weekly TV series Emergency. The emphasis is on paramedics Gage (Randolph Mantooth) and DeSoto (Kevin Tighe), who spring to action when a small private plane collides with a chartered jetliner. The enormity of the disaster requires Gage and DeSoto to work in tandem with medical personnel from Ramparts Hospital, as well as a team of municipal firefighters. Those familiar with Emergency should be able to determine that from this slim plot premise will blossom a multitude of major crises and minor irritations. Survival on Charter #220 was originally telecast on March 25, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It will be recalled that the Jack Webb-produced TV series Emergency! was originally networkcast from 1972 and 1977. Viewers may also remember that the series was headquartered at LA Ramparts hospital, where doctor Robert Fuller dispatched paramedics DeSoto (Kevin Tighe) and Gage (Randolph Mantooth) to various disasters, major and minor. Viewers may likewise remember that real-life husband and wife Bobby Troup and Julie London rounded out the cast as, respectively, doctor and nurse. For those with fuzzy memories, the made-for-TV clipfest Greatest Rescues of Emergency! will serve as a refresher. Originally telecast December 31, 1978, Greatest Rescues consists of highlights from Emergency's five-year run. Among these: rescues of air crash victims, would-be suicides, and a girl whose toe is stuck in a faucet (no, it isn't Mary Tyler Moore). Unifying these "flashbacks" are newly filmed scenes of paramedics Gage (Mantooth) and DeSoto (Tighe), recalling their careers just before both men are promoted to Fire Department captains. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Rebels was the second "Operation Prime Time" miniseries to be based on author John Jakes' Kent Family Chronicles (the first was The Bastard). The saga of Philip Kent (Andrew Stevens), illegitimate son of a British blueblood, picks up with Kent fighting in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Part One of this two-part endeavor busies itself with setting up characters, places and events; Part Two finds Kent and his pal Judson Fletcher (Don Johnson) teaming up to prevent the assassination of General George Washington (Peter Graves). The enormous all-star cast includes Richard Basehart, Doug McClure, Joan Blondell, Tom Bosley, Macdonald Carey, Robert Vaughan, William Daniels and Nehemiah Persoff; William Conrad does off-screen duty as narrator. The Rebels was syndicated to local TV stations beginning the week of May 14, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Independent filmmaker John Sayles creates one of his more artistic works with this period feature about a volatile 1920s labor dispute in the town of Matewan, West Virginia. Matewan is a coal town where the local miners' lives are controlled by the powerful Stone Mountain Coal Company. The company practically owns the town, reducing workers' wages while raising prices at the company-owned supply and grocery. The citizens' land and homes are not their own, and the future seems dim. When the coal company brings immigrants and minorities to Matewan as cheaper labor, union organizer Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper) scours the town to unite all miners in a strike. As the crisis grows, strikers and their families are removed from their homes by two coal company mercenaries (Kevin Tighe and Gordon Clapp, both also featured in Sayles' Eight Men Out (1988)), and the situation heads toward a final shootout on Matewan's main street . Sayles' simple but telling screenplay brings to light the treatment of immigrants and minorities in the early 20th century South, and it draws sharp parallels between the Matewan labor battle and the Civil War some 50 years earlier. The visual feel of the film is real West Virginia backwoods, with much of the credit going to legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler, whose warm, rustic lighting belies the anxiety and terror felt by the oppressed townspeople. ~ Norm Schrager, All Movie Guide

James Belushi stars in this cop actioner about a loner narcotics officer who has to break in a new partner. The twist here is that the new partner is barely housebroken, but he's still sharp and keeps his nose close to the ground. Dooley (Belushi), who works on the San Diego narc squad, is an eccentric guy who has pizzas delivered to his car and likes a good steak. He is working on a stakeout of a local drug dealer when he barely escapes with his life as a helicopter blows up his car. When he asks the department for a new car, they give him a new partner instead --a police dog called Jerry Lee (Jerry Lee the Dog). Jerry's good at sniffing out the criminals but Dooley doesn't really hit it off with his new partner until the pooch saves his life. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Love, treachery, and broken furniture are the hallmarks of this rollicking action drama. Dalton (Patrick Swayze) has a Ph.D., but rather than make a living teaching Socrates at some university, he's opted to become a top-drawer "cooler" -- an expert barroom bouncer who can break up fights without getting himself killed in the process. Dalton is hired to keep the peace at the Double Duce, a rough-and-tumble honky tonk in Jasper, Missouri, where beer-soaked free-for-alls are a nightly event. Dalton is hurt on his first night on the job, and he is patched up by "Doc" Clay (Kelly Lynch), a beautiful woman working as the town's physician. Dalton and Doc immediately hit it off, but Dalton learns that another man, Brad Wesley (Ben Gazzara), already has his eye on her. Wesley is a man used to getting his way; he's an extortionist and crime boss who has nearly everyone in Jasper under his thumb, and he sets out to teach Dalton a lesson, while Dalton is determined to clean up the town like he breaks up brawls at the Double Duce. Sam Elliott plays Dalton's mentor Wade, and Red West, a one-time member of Elvis Presley's "Memphis Mafia," appears as Webster; Canadian blues-rock guitarist Jeff Healey leads the Double Duce house band. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Jessica (Angela Lansbury) shows up on Wall Street, there to make her very first personal investment in the stock market. As inevitably as night follows day, Jessica's stockbroker promptly turns up murdered. The police figure that the dead man's secretary is the culprit...but as usual, Jessica doesn't take stock (ouch!) in the conventional wisdom, and sets out to find the real murderer on her own. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This contemporary western stars Dermot Mulroney as a Montana teenager whose sanity is being eroded by his parent's domestic squabbles. Linking up with Lili Taylor, a Wyoming-bound transient with a checkered history, Mulroney embarks upon an odyssey of self-discovery. Unfortunately, he persists in crossing the paths of people even more emotionally disturbed than his mother and father. Adapted by Richard Ford from two of his short stories, Bright Angel is a film of short, pithy vignettes, handled with subtlety and sensitivity-at least until the unexpectedly brutal finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide