Ted Wass Movies
Goodman Theatre graduate Ted Wass made his Broadway bow in the 1976 production Grease. Wass later became a lightweight leading man in films; his performances were generally appealing and effective, except when he was required to step into the late Peter Sellers' shoes in Curse of the Pink Panther (1983). His TV credits include the roles of Danny Dallas in Soap (1977-81) and leading character Dr. Steven Ratajkowski in Men (1989). Perhaps Ted Wass' best-known TV assignment was the part of Nick Russo, father of star Mayim Bialik, in the popular sitcom Blossom (1991-95). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In the third and final film in the Oh, God! franchise, Bobby Shelton (Ted Wass) is a struggling musician who can't get a break, which bothers him all the more now that his wife, Wendy (Roxanne Hart), is about to have a baby. Desperate and depressed, Bobby announces that he'd sell his soul to get ahead. Suddenly, Harry O. Tophat (George Burns), Satan's earthly representative, appears and offers Bobby a deal -- seven years of unprecentented fame and fortune in exchange for his soul. Bobby cynically accepts and discovers that the devil is true to his word, but he finds that the trappings of fame and wealth are empty pleasures, and he loses Wendy along the way. When Bobby declares that he's made a horrible mistake, God (Burns), who has been watching over Bobby, offers to help get his soul back as the devil offers Bobby's place in eternity as the prize in a poker game. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Burns, Ted Wass, (more)
- 1983
Phoebe Cates plays the Baby Sister in this made-for-TV melodrama. A sexually promiscuous college dropout, Cates moves into the home of older sister Pamela Bellwood. Ted Wass, Bellwood's husband, welcomes Cates with open arms...and that's the whole trouble. The original title of this pulpish endeavor was Tainted Love. Baby Sister was first broadcast March 6, 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phoebe Cates, Pamela Bellwood, (more)
Curse of the Pink Panther was released just after Trail of the Pink Panther with a script that has someone looking for the inept Inspector Clousseau and the fabulous stolen Pink Panther diamond at the same time. In Curse, Clifton Sleigh (Ted Wass) is a New York retread of the bumbling Inspector, chosen to look for him by Clousseau's former boss because Sleigh most certainly will never find him. Although peppered with a few inventive stunts, Curse still falls short of the Sellers classics. In a bizarre side note, David Niven was himself terminally ill at the time of his appearance in Trail of the Pink Panther and unable to speak adequately. His voice was dubbed in by impressionist Rich Little. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ted Wass, David Niven, (more)
- 1982
Determined to prove that the men who answer advertisements for mail-order brides are nothing more than jerks and lechers, Chicago magazine writer Kate Tosconi (Valerie Bertinelli) places a typical "object matrimony" ad and awaits the inevitable drooling replies. Meanwhile, L.A. lawyer Robert Fitzgerald (Ted Wass) has bet his practical-joking friends that if he were to answer such an ad, he could easily remain celibate for two weeks after meeting his "bride." Anyone who can't guess what happens next should be drummed out of the TV room in shame. A fascinating example of what passed for "feminism" and "male compassion" back in the early '80s, the made-for-TV I Was a Mail Order Bride was first broadcast by CBS on December 14, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The death of Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) was the big shocker at the end of Soap's third season. So imagine everyone's surprise when, as the series launched season four, Jessica was brought back to life -- following a brief stopover in Heaven to commiserate with all her ex-lovers! In another dangling plot strand resolved by the fourth-season opener, Jessica's son, Billy Tate (Jimmy Baio), is rescued from the bullet fired by his scorned lover, Leslie Walker (Marla Pennington). Additionally, the Tates have acquired a new butler named Saunders (Roscoe Lee Browne), replacing their former retainer Benson (actor Robert Guillaume had of course left Soap to star in his own sitcom, titled -- you guessed it -- Benson). The many subplots wending their way through the series' final network season include the election of Jessica's brother-in-law, Burt Campbell (Richard Mulligan), as sheriff leading to Burt's run-in with mob-connected hooker Gwen (Jesse Welles) -- with whom Burt's stepson, Danny (Ted Wass), becomes enamored. Also highlighted are the long-delayed wedding of Jessica's daughter, Eunice (Jennifer Salt) and ex-convict Dutch (Donnelly Rhodes); the long, anguished search by Danny's brother, Jodie (Billy Crystal), for his missing daughter; and Jessica's abduction to South America, where she falls in love with revolutionary leader El Puerco (Gregory Sierra), culminating in her divorce from Chester (Robert Mandan). As in previous years, season four of Soap ends with a cliffhanger as Jessica Tate faces a South American firing squad. This time, however, there was to be no resolution -- the series had been canceled! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Mandan, Katherine Helmond, (more)
When Soap arrived at its cliffhanging season-two finale, Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) was trying to choose between her husband Chester (Robert Mandan) and a detective named Donahue; Jessica's son Billy (Jimmy Baio) was in the clutches of a religious cult called the "Sunnies"; and Jodie's step-father (and Jessica's brother-in-law) Burt Campbell (Richard Mulligan) had been abducted by space aliens. Season Three finds Billy being rescued from the Sunnies by Jessica's butler Benson (Robert Guillaume), while an alien clone of Burt moves into the Campbell home undetected -- much to the delight of Burt's spouse Mary (Cathryn Damon), who immensely enjoys the vast improvement in her sex life! In other developments, Jessica's daughter Eunice (Jennifer Salt) is getting tired of life on the run with her escaped-con husband Dutch (Donnelly Rhodes); Eunice's sister Corrine (Diana Canova) is just about fed up with her do-nothing husband, ex-priest Father Tim; Jodie's gangster brother Danny (Ted Wass) is saved from mob retribution by a girl named Millie (Candy Azzara), but ultimately forges a new romance with a black girl named Polly Dawson (Lynne Moody); Jessica decides to forgive Chester, only to have him cheat on her again; "Alien Burt" impregnates Mary, and later "Real Burt" runs for sheriff; Mary's gay son Jodie (Billy Crystal) launches a few more "straight" relationships; and Benson leaves the employment of the Tate family (a move necessitated by actor Robert Guillaume's defection to his own sitcom titled -- what else? -- Benson). This season's 60-minute cliffhanger finale finds Danny proposing to Polly, Jodie fighting for custody of the son born to him by Carol David, and Mary trying to figure out how to tell Burt that her baby is not his; and, after a lengthy illness, Jessica Tate dies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Mandan, Katherine Helmond, (more)
- 1979
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This made-for-television drama tells of an actual event in 1911 where 145 workers in the Triangle garment factory were killed in a huge industrial fire. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
The cliffhanger that brought season one of Soap to a climax is resolved in season two when Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) is cleared of the murder of her lover (and step-nephew!) Peter Campbell. Jessica's husband, Chester (Robert Mandan), confesses to the crime whereupon he is convicted and sent to prison. Later on, Chester escapes with fellow con Dutch (Donnelly Rhodes), who, while holding the Tate family hostage, sleeps with Jessica's far-from-unwilling daughter, Eunice (Jennifer Salt), leading to an elopement. As for Eunice's daughter Corrinne (Diana Canova), she marries defrocked priest Father Tim (Sal Viscusco), with whom she has a child -- who, alas, is possessed by Satan!. Still later, Chester loses his memory and wanders westward, ultimately getting a job as a fry cook. To find her missing husband, Jessica hires Detective Donahue (John Byner), with whom she falls in love! Meanwhile, Jodie Dallas (Billy Crystal), the gay son of Jessica's sister, Mary Campbell (Cathryn Damon), opts to give women a try and to that end moves in with Carol David (Rebecca Balding) -- who happens to be carrying Jodie's baby. Later on, Jodie will have a fling with a sucidal lesbian named Alice (Randee Heller). Elsewhere, Jodie's mobster brother, Danny (Ted Wass), forced into a relationship with Mafia daughter Elaine (Dinah Manoff), tries to figure out various ways of getting rid of her. But when Elaine is kidnapped and subsequently killed, a heartbroken Danny swears vengeance. And what of Danny and Jodie's stepfather, Burt (Richard Mulligan)? Well, he has his hands full trying to convince his family that he has seen a UFO. As season two rushes to a close, Jessica Tate is compelled to choose between hubby Chester and Detective Donahue, Billy Tate (Jimmy Baio) is being held captive by a religious cult called the "Sunnies," and befuddled Burt is abducted by those "non-existent" aliens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The endless intrigues (sexual and otherwise) involving the Campbells and the Tates are already up and running as the satirical sitcom Soap launches its first season. By the time episode one has faded from view, the audience is aware that blowhard businessman Chester Tate (Robert Mandan) is cheating on his wife, Jessica (Katherine Helmond); that Jessica herself is fooling around with studdish tennis instructor Peter (Robert Urich), who in turn is sleeping with Jessica's daughter, Corrinne (Diana Canova); that Corrinne's brother, Billy (Jimmy Baio), is nervously anticipating his first score -- er, first date; that Billy's other sister Eunice (Jennifer Salt) is the only member of the family who isn't sex-obsessed; and that Jessica's senile father, "The Major" (Arthur Pierson), is still reliving the horrors of WW2 -- with a bit of prodding from the family's sneering butler, Benson (Robert Guillaume). Meanwhile, Jessica Tate's sister, Mary Dallas Campbell (Cathryn Damon), is having troubles of her own with her blue-collar second husband Burt Campbell (Robert Mulligan) and her sons, mobster Danny Dallas (Ted Wass) and homosexual Jodie Dallas (Billy Crystal) (it is revealed that Mary's first husband officially committed suicide, but that Mary "helped" his demise along). In future episodes, we learn that tennis pro Peter is the son of Burt Campbell; that a contract has been taken out on Burt, and Danny is to be the hit man; that Jodie is contemplating a sex change operation; and that Corrine is having an affair with an ex-priest. We are also introduced to "mob daughter" Elaine Lefkowitz (Dinah Manoff), whom Danny is forced to marry if he wants to save his skin. Season one ends on a cliffhanger with Jessica being arrested for, and convicted of, the murder of Peter Campbell -- but the series' narrator assures us that she didn't do it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
