Deborah White Movies

They say you can't miss what you never had, but one woman wants to put that idea to the test in this comedy. Kathy Whiting (Harley Jane Kozak) is a housewife and mother of two who enjoys a happy but unexciting relationship with her husband Peter (Bill Pullman), while her best friend Emily Embrey (Elizabeth McGovern) runs an art gallery and is living with a good-looking artist, Elliot Fowler (Brad Pitt). Both women feel that a sense of romantic adventure is missing from their lives, and Kathy has never been able to forget Tom Andrews (Ken Wahl), a football player that she was in love with in high school but never slept with (she was saving herself for marriage at the time). So when Kathy learns that Tom is living in Denver, and Emily will be going there on business soon, she asks Emily for a very big favor: find Tom, seduce him, and then give her a full report on what she's been wondering about these 15 years since graduation. The Favor was filmed in 1991 but went unreleased until 1994, after A River Runs Through It and Legends of the Fall had made fourth-billed Brad Pitt a box-office draw. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Long before co-starring on The Practice, Kelli Williams appeared in this Law & Order episode as a young drug addict living in a teen shelter. When the girl accuses Sister Bettina (Kate Burton), the nun in charge of the shelter, of molesting her, detectives Logan (Chris Noth) and Cerreta (Paul Sorvino) investigate. As it happens, the solution to the case may hinge upon a secret being withheld by the center's male supervisor (William H. Macy). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Not so much a sequel to the John Sayles-scripted Alligator as a shoddy remake, this sophomoric low-budget effort plays like a bad TV movie about a swamp-dwelling alligator mutated to monstrous size by toxic waste, munching on the screaming residents of a lakefront community. The naughty polluter who caused this mutation is the property developer himself (Steve Railsback, playing such a cookie-cutter villain that he might as well have a "BAD GUY" sign around his neck). An embarrassed Joseph Bologna plays the cop investigating the mutilation murders; an equally-ashamed Dee Wallace Stone plays the scientist assisting him, who is conveniently married to him as well. In an attempt to remedy the situation, a big-game hunter (Richard Lynch) is called in to bag the beast. When his efforts fail, it's left to Bologna to pick up the pieces -- literally -- and take charge of the situation when the big reptile decides to take in the grand opening of the local amusement park. From a nonsensical script to cheesy special effects that make the beast look like a pool toy, this film shows none of the cynical charm and sly wit that made Alligator so enjoyable. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

This episode originally marked the return of Growing Pains to ABC's Tuesday-night schedule, after a two-month hiatus in which the series' timeslot was occupied by the brand-new sitcom Perfect Strangers. The plot finds both Jason (Alan Thicke) and Maggie (Joanna Kerns) facing the possibility of a radical career change, with Jason being offered a more lucrative job at Long Island Hospital, while Maggie considers quitting the newspaper after being humiliated by her boss. But will the couple agree to return to their former status quo, with Jason going to work while Maggie stays at home? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Woods plays "Fast-Walking" Miniver, a strikingly amoral prison guard, in this dark, hard-hitting comedy/drama. When not smoking dope or scaring up customers for Evie (Susan Tyrrell), the proprietor of the local house of prostitution, Fast-Walking tries to keep order in an Oregon prison. Fast-Walking is looking for a big payday so he can quit his job and get into something less stressful, and he thinks he may have found it when William Galliot (Robert Hooks), a black political activist who has just landed behind bars, offers him $50,000 to help him escape. Fast-Walking thinks this sounds fine with him, until he finds out that his cousin Wasco (Tim McIntire) is part of a plot to kill Galliot and wants his help. Fast-Walking's dilemma is intensified by his affair with Wasco's girlfriend, Moke (Kay Lenz). Fast-Walking was written, produced, and directed by James B. Harris, who as a producer helped bring several early Stanley Kubrick films to the screen. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Lenny (Michael McKean) and Squiggy (David L. Lander) have launched the latest in a long line of questionable business ventures--namely, a computer dating service. The boys' first customers are (who else?) Laverne (Penny Marshall) and Shirley (Cindy Williams), who agree to pay a small fee in order to be fixed up with a couple of dates. Turns out that the dates (Tommy Madden, Jimmy Briscoe) are on the "small" side as well; in fact, they're both midgets! This is the episode that ends with a riotous roller-skating sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV movie stars Clu Gulager as Cuda Weber, a seafaring loner who has settled down to the life of a beachcomber on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Weber's carefree, rootless existence is considerably altered when he finds himself in charge of five feisty orphan kids from the MacKenzie clan. Actually, Cuda's guardianship is entirely involuntary; it could be said that the MacKenzie children adopted him, rather than the other way around. Originally telecast April 14, 1978, Stickin' Together was the pilot film for what ultimately emerged as the short-lived TV series The MacKenzies of Paradise Cove, which also starred Clu Gulager and featured most of the movie's supporting cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A teenager tries to win the girl of his dreams with the hottest van in town in this '70s sex comedy. Bobby (Stuart Goetz) has just graduated from high school, but he's too preoccupied with girls to think much about his future. Bobby hasn't had much luck with the ladies, and he's convinced it's because of his lack of cool wheels, so after months of slaving at a car wash owned by Andy (Danny DeVito), he blows the money he'd been saving for college on a down payment on his dream machine: a canary yellow custom Dodge van, a bachelor pad on wheels complete with mirrored ceiling, 8-track stereo, television monitors, and (natch) a waterbed. Bobby turns his attentions to class hottie Sally (Connie Lisa Marie), who happens to be dating ill-tempered bully Dugan (Steve Oliver), while his buddy Jack urges him to date the more available Sue (Marcie Barkin), who's friends with his girlfriend, Tina (Deborah White). Andy uses the car wash as a front for his bookmaking business, and when a few bets don't go his way, he asks Bobby to lend him some money. Bobby gives Andy the cash he'd earmarked for his next payment on the van, but when Andy can't pay him back, Bobby's new van may be soon be in the hands of the repo man. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Olivia (Michael Learned) is reunited with her namesake Young Olivia Hill (Deborah White), who is deeply in mourning over the death of her husband Bob. The fact that Bob has left his widow with precious few memories of their short time together serves only to make the healing process harder. It takes a a major crisis involving the Waltons' pet cat Calico to coax Young Olivia out of her shell and back into her life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Olivia Walton's namesake Young Olivia (Deborah White) brings her city-bred husband Bob (Bruce Davison) to Walton's Mountain for their wedding. Realizing that Bob would neither understand nor appreciate the old mountain custom of the "shivaree", in which the local boys kidnap the groom on his wedding night, John-Boy calls off this traditional event. But John-Boy's prankish friends Ike (Joe Conley) and Yancy (Robert Donner) are determined to go through with the shivaree anyway--and as a result, Young Olivia's marriage is nearly over before it begins. Director Lee Philipsappears as a minister. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide