Jo Ann Willette Movies

Tempestt Bledsoe is a long way removed from The Cosby Show in the made-for-TV Dream Date. Bledsoe plays gorgeous 16-year-old Danni Fairview, who is courted by suave Jim Parker (Kadeem Hardison). Alas, Jim's nerdish buddy Rudy (Pauly Shore) insists upon poking his nose into the proceedings. All of this is viewed with alarm by Danni's daddy Bill (Clifton Davis), who remembers what a rat with women he was in high school. Originally telecast October 9, 1989, Dream Date was re-issued on video in 1993 to cash in on the latter-day stardom of supporting player Pauly Shore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Farentino plays the chief of a big-city underground narcotics unit. When a drug buy goes awry, a shotgun blows away one of Farentino's best men--and closest friends. As the once-harmonious drug unit disintegrates into recriminations and guilt, Farentino becomes more and more withdrawn, until he's of little further value to the force. A chance for redemption for everyone arrives in the form of another big-time drug bust. In the Line of Duty: A Cop for the Killing was based on a true story, as were all the In the Line of Duty films produced for television in the late 1980s--early 1990s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the first episode of a two-part story, Mike and Boner attempt to casually "drop in" at the home of Coach Lubbock (Bill Kirchenbauer), the better to meet Coach's three daughters Cindy (Jamie Luner), Connie (Jo Ann Willette and Marie (Heather Langerkamp). This is how the boys find out that Lubbock will be terminated from his job when his contract runs out. Determined not to let this happen, the Seaver children organize a public protest--with unexpected results. This episode and its follow-up were intended to segue into the Growing Pains spinoff series Just the Ten of Us, a vehicle for costar Bill Kirchenbauer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Considering his later well-publicized involvement in "l'affaire Heidi Fleiss," Ivan Nagy was ideally suited to direct the-made-for TV Encounters in the Night. Even more prescient so far as Nagy is concerned is the film's original title: Intimate Encounters. Donna Mills plays an attractive young woman stuck in a blah marriage. To alleviate her ennui, she begins fantasizing about affairs with handsome strangers. It sounds like a romance novel and plays that way too. James Brolin, Veronica Cartwright and Cicely Tyson co-star in Encounters in the Night, which debuted September 28, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Several years after the events of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Jesse Walsh and his family moved into the home of Nancy Thompson, the only survivor of supernatural killer Freddie's reign of terror. Haunted by dreams of the disfigured child-killer, the lonely Jesse has trouble sleeping, falls asleep often in school and quarrels with his picture-perfect family. Lisa, his prospective girlfriend, discovers Nancy's diary in Jesse's closet, and slowly he learns of his predecessor's ordeal. When his sadistic gym teacher catches Jesse blowing off steam at a leather bar, he attempts to exact punishment of an unsavory nature. Freddie intervenes, savagely murdering the coach in the school shower room, and Jesse must flee the crime scene naked, terrified that he's going insane. His parents become convinced he's on drugs, but Jesse knows that Freddie is trying to possess him. Bereft of sleep, alienated, and frightened of what he might do to his sister or Lisa -- especially if he responds to her sexual advances -- the youth attempts to sequester himself in his friend Ron's bedroom; Freddie emerges though, killing Ron and sending Jesse on the lam. Mayhem erupts when Freddie/Jesse crashes Lisa's pool party, leading to a showdown at the abandoned factory where the madman first preyed on the children of Springwood. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide