Deborah Van Valkenburgh Movies

Monica (Glenn Close) takes command of The Barn, and tells the troops that they will be implementing an asset-seizure program. She puts Vic (Michael Chiklis) in charge of all gang-related felonies. Units working under Vic are assigned to take Polaroids of all gang members, and their ink, in order to build a database. Vic now knows that Shane (Walton Goggins) and his partner, Army (Michael Pena), are working with Antwon (Anthony Anderson), and he lets Lem (Kenny Johnson) and Ronnie (David Rees Snell) know. Vic says they should keep Shane close and keep IAD off him, or it will come back to them. There's a gang war erupting in Farmington, and Monica wants it headed off quickly. Vic reluctantly goes to Antwon for help in stopping the violence between the One-Niners and the Spookstreet Soldiers. Choppa (Six Reasons), a drive-by suspect from the Soldiers, is brought in for questioning. He doesn't want to talk, so Monica threatens to seize his mother's house, which he paid for with drug money. She feels conflicted about throwing the family out on the street. When Choppa turns out to have made a pornographic rap video with Bounce (Tanya Alexander), the girlfriend of Puppethead (Kamil Beale), a member of the One-Niners, Vic thinks he's found what initiated the escalating gang violence, and reluctantly turns to Antwon for help in stopping it. Dutch (Jay Karnes) and Claudette (CCH Pounder) are still being blackballed by the DA, so they're assigned to catch a convenience store robber who buys a hot cup of coffee then throws it in the clerk's face. Dutch pressures Claudette to apologize to the DA. She refuses, and his frustration grows. He finally decides to go behind her back to make a deal. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

This Hallmark Channel TV movie is one of several starring Kellie Martin as Samantha "Sam" Kinsey, the owner of a British-style American bookshop which traffics in mystery novels. To improve business, Sam hosts a book signing with three celebrity "whodunit" authors in attendance. One of the three, Claire Beckman (Beth Broderick), uses the occasion to announce her retirement -- whereupon she is nearly shot to death by a cleverly rigged hidden pistol. A second attempt on Claire's life, using poison, succeeds, whereupon local police chief Connors (Casey Sander) places everyone under suspicion -- including Sam. Thus, our heroine is forced once again to play amateur sleuth, with the able assistance of her friends and colleagues, especially enigmatic former CIA agent Philby (Clarence Williams III). Mystery Woman: Mystery Weekend debuted January 7, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A repossession agent falls in love with a woman whose father is high on his list of priority accounts in this romantic drama. Jet James (Christopher Lloyd) was a popular and influential rock star in the late '60s, but 30 years down the road, things are not going well for him. He's in poor health and the spendthrift habits he picked up during his glory years have left him deep in debt. Jet's daughter, Jessy (Lauren Graham), is looking after her ailing Dad and trying to keep what possessions he has left from being taken away by debt collectors, particularly Jet's prized vintage Ford Mustang. Bobby Moritz (Casper Van Dien) is a silver-tongued repo man who is sent to clear up some of Jet's accounts, but his silky smooth pleas fall on deaf ears with Jessy, who is willing and able to respond in kind. While Bobby is not one to take his responsibilities lightly, he finds himself falling for Jessy, which adds an unexpected element to the tug-of-war between them. Chasing Destiny also stars two authentic classic rock stars, Roger Daltrey and Spencer Davis, as longtime friends of Jet. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, a crime boss ponies up $10 million to the winner of a gunfight to be held in a derelict correctional facility. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Andrew Dice Clay trades in dumb yucks for numchucks in Brainsmasher: A Love Story as Ed Molloy, a part-time comic and bouncer who takes on a belligerent gang of ninjas. The story kicks in when supermodel Samantha Crains (Teri Hatcher) receives a red lotus flower from her sister that has to be delivered to Seattle. Samantha makes the delivery only to find that her sister is has been held captive by Shaolin Monks who want the red lotus because it contains "the key to the ultimate power." The two sisters manage to escape the clutches of the mad monks but the Shaolins immediately give chase. Samantha runs into Ed's nightclub, where he prevents her from entering, but when the monks come to get her, Ed holds them off. Impressed by Ed's brawn, she hires him to protect her. The chase continues as Ed and Samantha run from the ever one-step-behind ninjas, climaxing in an extended battle in a go-go bar. During the fight, Ed is captured by the Shaolin monks and Samantha and her sister have to decide whether they should exchange the red lotus flower for Ed. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In this horror comedy, the new owner of the beautiful old Ritz theater is in the process of renovating it when he discovers that beneath the stage lives the evil, enraged spirit of a teen who was burned and disfigured during a drag race in the mid '50s. Afterward, he took to living in the Ritz and remained there until 1992 when the hapless new owner took over. The trouble begins because the phantom does not want any one messing with what he believes is his theater. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A Bunny's Tale is a TV-movie adaptation of Gloria Steinem's experiences as a Playboy bunny. Engaged by a magazine to write an investigative article on publisher Hugh Hefner's nightclub chain, Ms. Steinem (Kirstie Alley) poses as a young girl named "Marie" and enters the Bunny training program at the New York Playboy club. Outfitted with phony ears, fuzzy tail and revealing costume, Gloria learns the proper method of serving drinks (the "bunny dip") and how to fend off customers who ignore Hefner's "look but don't touch" policy. She also concludes that being a sex object, even a chaste one, is depressingly demeaning -- an "awakening" which, according to this film, leads to Steinem's feminist activism of the 1960s and 1970s. By the time it made its February 25, 1985 debut, it was beating a dead rabbit: the glory days of the Playboy Philosophy had long passed, and most of the once-thriving "bunny clubs" had gone out of business. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Despite its cancellation by ABC at the end of the 1982-1983 TV season, the Britain-inspired sitcom Too Close for Comfort proved immensely successful when it was retooled as a first-run syndicated program and sold to individual stations and sponsors rather than telecast by a single network. As a result, the series was renewed for another season's worth of "syndie" episodes -- and that still wasn't the end of the story. The basic premise remains as ever: a conservative newspaper cartoonist named Henry Rush agonizes over the well-being of his toothsome daughters Jackie and Sara, who live in the lower apartment in the townhouse owned by Henry and his wife Muriel. Also, the familiar cast remains intact: Ted Knight as Henry, Nancy Dussault as Muriel, Deborah Van Valkenburgh as Jackie, Lydia Cornell as Sara, Joshua Goodwin as the Rushes' youngest child Andrew, and Audrey Meadows as Henry's termagant mother-in-law Iris, who now resides in the attic apartment above Henry and Muriel. With the announcement that series regulars Deborah Van Valkenburgh and Lydia Cornell would exit the series at the end of its second syndicated season (and fifth year on the air), the climactic episodes of Too Close for Comfort work overtime to prepare audiences for the series' major format change, coming up the following year. As the result of the cancellation of Henry's comic strip "Cosmic Cow," he and Muriel will soon forsake San Francisco, along with their longtime "house guest" Monroe Ficus (Jim J. Bullock), and move to Marin County, where Henry is destined to assume co-ownership of a small weekly newspaper. Armed with this premise, Too Close for Comfort would reemerge as The Ted Knight Show, beginning in April of 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

More like a series of MTV sequences than a long-term narration, this super-thin story line focuses on a kidnapped singer (Diane Lane) and her ex-boyfriend (Michael Pare) who goes forth to save her through rainy streets, the roar of elevated subways, several alleys, and the usual warehouses. Each thrust of the story has rock music that follows along with the narration. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Harry Hamlin stars as the self-styled "King of Mulholland Drive," the leader of a group of men who get drunk and then race their cars at high-speed along a perilous Los Angeles roadway. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

A mere eleven months after the ITV debut of the British sitcom Keep It in the Family, the American version of the series, Too Close for Comfort, made its bow on ABC. Actually, the latter series might have arrived on the scene even earlier but an actors' strike delayed the start of the 1980-1981 TV season by two months.

Ted Knight starred as Henry Rush, a San Francisco-based cartoonist and creator of the popular comic strip "Cosmic Cow." Prudish and conservative, Henry was extremely overprotective of his gorgeous college-age daughters, brunette Jackie (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) and blonde Sara (Lydia Cornell). Henry's wife, Muriel, who prior to her marriage had led a freewheeling (but respectable) existence as a band singer, now worked as a freelance photographer. Less strict and strait-laced than Henry, Muriel tended to allow her daughters a freer reign, though she still made sure that they didn't make too many mistakes. Season one began as Jackie and Sara moved into the downstairs apartment of dad Henry's two-apartment town house, recently vacated by the death of tenant Mr. Rafkin (who, much to Henry's dismay, turned out to be a transvestite). Having reluctantly agreed to this arrangement, Henry agonized over what might have been going on in the lower apartment, especially considering the steady stream of attractive young men who paid regular visits to his darling daughters. (He had nothing to worry about, of course, but that didn't stop him from doing so.) During the series' first 19 episodes, Jackie worked at a bank while Sara attended college -- where she met and befriended that walking mass of neuroses and insecurities known as Monroe Ficus (J.M. J Bullock), who from episode four onward was a more or less permanent house guest of Henry and Muriel. A handful of other recurring characters were introduced during the series' maiden season. Among these were Mr. Wainwright (Hamilton Camp), Hamilton's short-statured, dictatorial publisher; Mildred Rafkin (Selma Diamond), the abrasive and insulting sister of Henry's deceased tenant; and Henry's libidinous 75-year-old father Huey Rush (Ray Middleton). Also given prominence was another "character," the Cosmic Cow hand puppet with whom Henry "consulted" in moments of crisis. Scheduled as part of ABC's virtually unbeatable Tuesday-night sitcom lineup (which in 1980 included Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, and Three's Company), Too Close for Comfort emerged from its inaugural season as America's 15th most-watched program, with a Nielsen rating of 20.8. ~ All Movie Guide