Janine Turner Movies

Vanessa Stewart (Janine Turner) has the soul of an artist, but her business tycoon father insists that she follow in his footsteps. As a result, Vanessa convinces herself that she wants to be a globetrotting executive, and also that she truly loves the man to whom she is engaged. But while in Venice on a business trip at the behest of her father, Vanessa meets and falls in love with adventurous Irish TV war correspondent Bill Fitzgerald (Paudge Behan). Deciding to kick over the traces, Vanessa is prepared to turn her back on her family obligations and plight her troth with Bill. But Fate, as it often does, takes a hand in matters when Bill is reported killed during a dangerous combat assignment. Based on a novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford (as if the full title of this made-for-TV feature left any doubt), A Secret Affair first aired October 27, 1999 on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

For Christians who have longed to experience the positive health benefits of yoga but remain weary of the Hindu spirituality with which it is so closely tied, this non-traditional hatha-yoga routine may be just the answer you've been looking for. Beginning and intermediate-level yoga routines are presented as passages from the Bible are used to achieve meditative focus. Designed to be practiced three times a week, Christoga aims to help the viewer improve muscle tone, breathing, balance, and concentration in a manner that is both comforting and restorative. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In Cliffhanger, Sylvester Stallone plays Gabe Walker, a member of a mountain-climbing rescue team. Gabe is haunted by an incident from his past when he couldn't save the girlfriend of his best friend, Hal Tucker (Michael Rooker), from falling to her death. As the story begins, Gabe has left mountain-climbing rescue work and has set up business in Denver. He returns to the mountain rescue office to persuade his lover, Jessie (Janine Turner), to quit and come back to Denver with him. While he is begging Jessie to head out to Denver, things are happening in the skies overhead. A gang of professional crooks headed by psychotic Eric Qualen (John Lithgow) has hijacked a U.S. Treasury plane carrying millions of dollars. But the plane crashes, and the bad guys find themselves stranded on top of a mountain with the money (put into three cases) scattered around the wreckage and with no way to get down off the pinnacle to retrieve the cases. They put in a phony distress call that is received by the mountain rescue team. Gabe agrees to take part in one last rescue attempt, and they head up to help rescue the thieves. But Qualen has plans for the rescuers -- to force them to climb through the dangerous snow-covered peaks to find the three suitcases of cash. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A technological nightmare becomes a terrifying reality in this sci-fi-thriller. When a group of computer experts and executives from a high-tech firm based in Seattle die suddenly and unexpectedly during a conference call, Samantha Craig (Janine Turner), a government agent who specializes in disease tracking, is brought in to investigate. Craig finds herself having to work alongside Dr. Nick Baldwin (Antonio Sabato Jr.), a local physician trying to live down a professional disgrace, and together they make a shocking discovery: a deranged genius has developed a computer virus that has evolved from destroying databases into an organic virus that can claim human lives. But who would create such a contagion, and how can it be stopped? Fatal Error also stars Robert Wagner and Malcolm Stewart. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Cleaver Family makes the jump from the small black and white screen to color and Panavision in this updated version of the classic TV sit-com. Eight-year-old Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver (Cameron Finley) is a good natured kid with a habit of getting in trouble; he's not bad, mind you, just a bit absent-minded. Beaver lives with his 12-year-old brother Wally (Erik Von Detten), his father Ward (Christopher McDonald), and his mother June (Janine Turner) in a small town in Ohio. Beaver wants a new bicycle more than anything, but his father wishes that he had more of an interest in team sports; someone suggests to Beaver that if he joined the school's football team, Ward might be impressed enough to buy him the bike. Beaver signs up, but his skills on the gridiron fall somewhere between slim and none, and the experience proves more than a bit embarrassing for both Beaver and Ward. Before long, Beaver has quit the team, but he tries to hide this fact from his father. Beaver does get his bike -- but he doesn't get to do much with it before it's stolen by a bigger kid in the neighborhood. Meanwhile, Wally's best friend, the mildly sleazy Eddie Haskell (Adam Zolotin), has fallen for a cute girl at school, Karen (Erika Christensen), and wants Wally to help him impress her; however, Karen seems to like Wally more than Eddie. This puts Wally in dutch with his best friend, and Wally feels even worse when he and Karen begin to quarrel. Ken Osmond, who played Eddie Haskell on the original TV series, plays Eddie's father here, and Barbara Billingsley, the original June Cleaver, appears as Aunt Martha. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A quadriplegic former athlete finds his darkest urges being acted out by an animal familiar in this psychological horror film. When Allan Mann (Jason Beghe) loses the use of his legs and arms in an accident, he becomes bitter -- no surprise given that his girlfriend dumps him for his surgeon, his new nurse (Christine Forrest) is a shrew, and his smothering mother (Joyce Van Patten) keeps threatening to move in and take care of him. Enter Kate McNeil (Melanie Parker), a scientist who is working to provide handicapped people with highly trained animal helpers. Soon Allan is bonding with Ella, an adorable Capuchin monkey, who, unbeknownst to him, has been injected with human brain tissue by drug-addicted scientist Geoffrey Fisher (John Pankow). At first Allan loves little Ella, but the monkey seems to grow jealous as Allan slowly develops a romance with the beautiful Kate. Meanwhile, Allan begins having strange dreams in which he experiences the world from a monkey's-eye point of view. These visions culminate in a fiery nightmare -- the same night Allan's ex-girlfriend and her new lover die in a house fire. Realizing the growing link between his own inner demons and the violence occurring around him, Allan tries to sever the connection with Ella. But the limitations of even his high-tech wheelchair give the psychic primate the upper hand. Written and directed by horror veteran George Romero, Monkey Shines re-teams the filmmaker with his frequent collaborator, Christine Forrest. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Strange things always happen in Cicely during the Aurora Borealis, and those "things" are even stranger in this final episode of Northern Exposure's first season. Lost in the woods, Joel (Rob Morrow) is rescued by a legendary sasquatch-like creature named Adam -- who turns out to be a human being, a sociopath, and a damned good gourmet cook. Elsewhere, Chris gives up his radio job to construct a towering sculpture and along the way forms a symbiotic relationship with an African-American stranger named Bernard (Richard Cummings Jr.), who has motorcycled into Cicely on a mission...and who is no stranger after all. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Northern Exposure was an unusually intelligent and witty hour-long comedy-drama set in a fictional Alaskan town that is filled with a quirky ensemble of residents. In this memorable episode, independent-minded but neurotic pilot Maggie O'Connell, who seems to be romantically cursed to have all of her lovers each die in a bizarre way, is freaked out about her upcoming 30th birthday. Her dead lovers weigh heavily upon her mind and she decides that the best way to deal with it is to head out into the wilderness and celebrate with a ritual. Meanwhile, back in town, laid-back, taciturn Marilyn, the Native American receptionist of Dr. Fleischman, wants to learn to drive. Loquacious, pseudo-intellectual deejay Chris decides to teach her, while pompous town autocrat and former astronaut Maurice drives everyone crazy trying to write his memoirs. Displaced New Yorker Doctor Fleischman gets involved when he figures out that part of the reason that Maggie has been so upset has to do with an appendicitis. Sure enough, out in the wilderness, she succumbs, and in her delirium has a strange picnic with all her dead amores, including Rick who died when a satellite fell upon his head. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Northern Exposure made its first appearance as an eight-week Thursday-night "tryout" on CBS in the late summer of 1990. With swift, sure strokes, the series' producers quickly established that 27-year-old Dr. Joel Fleischman (Rob Morrow), freshly graduated from Columbia University Medical School, was required to spend four years working in Anchorage, AK, to pay off 125,000 dollars in student loans. Though Joel had seldom strayed off his native Manhattan Island, he took a deep breath and prepared for his journey northward (the alternative was a 10,000-dollar fine and/or 18 years in jail). Upon arrival in Anchorage, Joel discovered that his services were no longer required -- but there was an opening in the tiny (population 815) Alaskan village of Cicely, whose only doctor had just died. Throughout the eight episodes of Northern Exposure's first season, Joel bemoans his "exile," desperately tries to pull strings to get out of his contract...and slowly, almost imperceptably becomes adjusted to his new life in Cicely.

Just as the series wasted no time in establishing its locale and premise, so too did the writers vividly bring the other characters to life with efficiency and economy. During season one, the viewer was introduced to Joel's attractive landlady Maggie O'Connell (Janine Turner), the local air-taxi pilot, whose love life was complicated by an inexplicable "curse" whereby all of her boyfriends were doomed to die under bizarre but undeniably amusing circumstances (her latest beau, fellow pilot Rick Pederson (Grant Goodeve), knew he was living on borrowed time, but managed to survive the series' first season). Also seen for the first time were worldly ex-astronaut Maurice J. Minnifield (Barry Corbin), who owned Cicely lock, stock, and barrel, and entertained dreams of transforming the remote community into the "Alaskan Riviera"; Maurice's best friend, the aggressively masculine tavern owner Holling Vicoeur (John Cullum); Holling's 18-year-old fiancée, Shelly Tambo (Cynthia Geary), former "Miss Northwest Passage"; Maurice's Native American assistant, Ed Chigliak (Darren E. Burrows), an orphan with a murky past and an overwhelming desire to gain fame as a big-bucks moviemaker; and Chris Danforth (John Corbett), the quirky, poetic morning DJ on Cicely's radio station KBHR, who functioned as the series' combination narrator and Greek chorus. Also seen in these formative episodes were Ruth-Anne Miller (Peg Phillips), no-nonsense proprietor of the local general store, and Marilyn Whirlwind (Elaine Miles), a poker-faced Eskimo who worked as a nurse in Joel's medical office.

By the end of season one, the series had introduced at least two of the peripheral characters who would add to the funkiness and eccentricities of Cicely from time to time. The first was Adam (Adam Arkin), a shaggy, sociopathic brute who happened to be a "damn good" gourmet cook; and the second was Bernard (Richard Cummings Jr.), a peripatetic African-American who turned out to be the rootless Chris Danforth's half brother. Although Northern Exposure set no fires in the ratings, the word-of-mouth buzz about the series was sufficiently encouraging for CBS to give it another limited-run tryout in the spring of 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After what amounted to a brace of "trial runs," the quirky seriocomic series Northern Exposure entered its third year on CBS with a full season's worth of episodes -- more than enough to thoroughly explore the mystical eccentricities of the citizens of Cicely, AK, and the constant bafflement of the town's premier "outsider," New York-bred doctor Joel Fleischman (Rob Morrow). As season three begins, local mail pilot Maggie O'Connell (Janine Turner) is struggling to overcome the demise of her boyfriend Rick Pederson, the most recent victim of "Maggie's curse," whereby all of Ms. O'Connell's beaux meet bizarre and perversely amusing deaths. Elsewhere, Joel is kidnapped by mercurial hermit Adam (Adam Arkin) and his hypochondriac live-in girlfriend, Eve (Valerie Mahaffey) -- a crime that the rest of Cicely seems willing to overlook, inasmuch as Adam is a brilliant gourmet chef (later in the season, Adam and Eve are wed, and their nonplussed former "victim" Joel is among the guests). Also, Joel's taciturn Eskimo receptionist, Marilyn (Elaine Miles), falls in love with a traveling carnival mime (Bill Erwin), in an episode built around the talents of the amazing Cirque du Soleil troupe; Joel's now-widowed former fiancée (Jessica Lundy) pays a memorable visit; Maggie's slightly addled mom (Bibi Besch) drops in on her daughter -- and promptly burns down her house; and Bernard Stevens (Richard Cummings Jr.), enigmatic "doppelganger" of local radio DJ Chris Danforth (John Corbett), unexpectedly returns. Among the season's best episodes are "Jules et Joel," with Rob Morrow in a dual role; the multiple Emmy winner "Cicely," with virtually everyone in the cast playing their 1909 counterparts (who'd a thunk that Joel Fleischman might have been Frank Kafka in a previous life?); and the unforgettable "The Body in Question," in which the town gets all worked up over the discovery of an 18th century Frenchman whose corpse has been encased in ice for two centuries (yes, this is the "Frozen Pierre" story...remember?). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The opening episode of Northern Exposure's fifth season is even more surrealistic than usual, which is saying quite a lot considering the quirky goings on in the Alaskan village of Cicely. Said opener is "Three Doctors," in which the town's New York-bred doctor, Joel Fleischman (Rob Morrow), aspiring Native American filmmaker Ed Chigliak (Darren E. Burrows), and newlywed Shelly Tambo-Vincoeur (Cynthia Geary) find themselves enmeshed in a cosmic game of hide and seek. Other memorable season five episodes include "Jaws of Life," in which everyone's nerves are on edge in anticipation of the annual visit by the dentist (Jay O. Sanders); "A River Doesn't Run Through It," wherein sexy 31-year-old mail pilot Maggie O'Donnell (Janine Turner) is asked to be the local high school's homecoming queen (and as a bonus, one of the students is played by Jack Black!); "Rosebud," featuring director Peter Bogdanovich in a story built around Cicely's first film festival; and "A Cup of Joe," in which Shelly's husband, Holling (John Cullum), and storekeeper Ruth-Anne (Peg Phillips) discover that one of their grandparents ate the other one during the "Blizzard of '97." And there's more! The town's resident gay couple, Ron (Doug Ballard) and Erick (Don R. McManus) decide to get married; Shelly gives birth to a daughter named Miranda, who is promptly designated Cicely's 844th citizen; the whole town conspires to cure the redoubtable Walt Kupfer (Moultrie Patten) of his galloping depression; and in the season finale, "Lovers and Madmen," eternal outsider Joel finally resigns himself to the fact that he is a true Son of Cicely. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide