Bill Williams

This video features some highlights from the golden era of American television in the 1950s, with live clips and personal recollections of the stars. In this volume, Betty White and Bill Williams star in Date With the Angels. Ozzie and Harriet Nelson then appear in The New Chairs. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide

This low-budget, much-released horror film first saw the light as Gamma 693 in 1979, was resuscitated as Night of the Wehrmacht Zombies in 1981, and rose again in 1983 as Night of the Zombies. Although the film has titles that spring from a long tradition, its story is about some U.S. and German soldier "zombies" who were wounded in World War II but had their lives extended with the top-secret gas Gamma 693 -- so technically, the soldiers are not zombies at all. There are only two catches to the soldiers' existence: they must dine on human flesh in order to keep on living (making them ghouls), and they are still fighting World War II. Talky and static, but with outrageously silly dialogue and a send-up of films on global intrigue, Night of the Zombies was the last film made by director Joel M. Reed. For the trivia buffs, the word "zombie" comes from the Bantu language of Angola ("n-zumbi," meaning ghost or departed spirit), zombies debuted in 1929 in The Magic Island by William B. Seabrook, and the 1932 classic White Zombie established the genre in film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The story begins as an astronomer notices that a blazing comet is headed straight for Phoenix Arizona. Unfortunately, no one believes him. They will eventually, but only after most of Phoenix has been reduced to cinders. Emmies went to the special effects (among the best ever seen on TV in those days before computer-generated special fx) and sound recording. The all-star cast includes Richard Crenna, Elizabeth Ashley, David Dukes, Joanna Miles, Lloyd Bochner, Merlin Olsen and Andrew Duggan, all of them superbly cast and none merely doing the usual celebrity walk-through. Originally telecast in a three-hour slot, Fire in the Sky debuted November 26, 1978. This film should not be confused with the 1993 alien-abduction film of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A young boy tames and befriends a grey wolf and then must struggle to save the life of his friend when the locals mistakenly label the beast as a vicious killer. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Bill Rebane's backyard wonder is a hilariously hokey throwback to the giant-monster flicks of the 50s, while taking its only pseudo-scientific conceit from the mid-70s trend of popular "black hole" theories, combining these two elements to create pure bad-movie heaven. A tiny, decrepit town in rural Wisconsin is rocked by a mysterious explosion, after which a drunken farmer (Robert Easton) discovers dozens of crystal geodes strewn across his property. Cracking each one open reveals a diamond-like encrustation (which to the farmer's dismay proves nearly worthless), as well as a hairy but decidedly un-cosmic tarantula. Being permanently soused, he fails to notice the latter (his equally boozy wife accidentally purees one in her daiquiri!) until the rocks begin opening on their own, and the entire farm is overrun with eight-legged invaders. Despite the title, only one of the spiders would qualify for giant status, but it's definitely a keeper: the Big Daddy arachnid is quite clearly a Volkswagen Beetle covered with black fake fur, with legs operated by the car's passengers and taillights doubling for glowing red eyes. Unfortunately, it is merely glimpsed through much of the film, making its triumphant appearance in the final few minutes. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

The title of this episode is something of a misnomer: It's anything but routine for Officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) when they pursue four young car thieves. The quartet has stolen a vehicle full of weaponry and ammunition, and now they're taking advantage of this fact by going on a violent crime spree. Other crises facing Jim and Pete tonight include a "dead spouse" report and an outsized bar fight. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Several years ago, journalist Jerry Porter (John Carter) conspired with Greg Davidson (Robert Foxworth) in a blackmail scheme, but Porter managed to avoid arrest while allowing Davidson to take the rap. Adding insult to injury, Porter has been lavishly spending the blackmail money while Davidson has been languishing in prison. Now, however Davidson has escaped--and he's thirsting for revenge. A very young Annette O'Toole plays a key role in this thrill-packed episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Rampart emergency team is confounded by a pair of accident victims who refuse treatment: One of them has sustained a punctured lung in the crash of a cropduster, while the other has suffered a concussion falling off a horse. In other cases, an ear infection is caused by exposure to mothballs, and a girl o.d.'s on lethal daffodil bulbs. And in a less serious but no less grueling situation, John (Randolph Mantooth) must wriggle out of a marriage proposal which he insists he never made. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This episode is something of a showcase for two former TV-series regulars: Perry Mason's Barbara Hale, and Family Affair's Kathy Garver. While searching for a rapist who preys on hitchhikers, Officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) do their best to reunite a drug-peddling teenage runaway (Garver) with her anguished mother (Hale). Also appearing is Barbara Hale's real-life husband Bill Williams as a suspected rapist (Incidentally, Hale and Williams were the parents of future Greatest American Hero star William Katt). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Wayne, in the last of his Civil War characterizations, portrays Cord McNally, a Union Army colonel who loses a gold shipment in a Confederate raid, during which a devoted young officer is also killed. After the end of the war, McNally bears no ill-will toward the leaders of the raid, Pierre Cordona (Jorge Rivero) and Tuscarora Phillips (Christopher Mitchum), who were acting as soldiers, but he still wants the two unknown men on the Union side who they say sold them the information about the gold shipments. A year later, McNally crosses paths with one of the men, now a deputy from Rio Lobo, who is about to take Shasta Delaney (Jennifer O'Neill), a seemingly innocent young woman, out of a neighboring town at gunpoint. A shootout ensues, in which McNally's man and three other Rio Lobo deputies are killed, with help from Cordona -- this makes McNally very interested in what's going on in Rio Lobo, and he decides to go there with Cordona and Shasta. They find a whole community under siege from their own sheriff, a sadistic ex-outlaw named Hendricks (Mike Henry). What follows is a series of confrontations and revelations that are alternately suspenseful, sadistic -- with maimings worthy of a spaghetti western and characters even getting blown to bits -- and even occasionally comical. But the pieces all tie together very neatly, despite a convoluted plot that's sort of Rio Bravo (made 11 years earlier, also starring Wayne and directed by Hawks, and scripted by Leigh Brackett) turned sideways and readjusted to a more cynical era. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Future film director Ron Howard is cast as 14-year-old Jess Orkin, who runs away from home after mistakenly believing that he has killed his uncle. During his flight, Jess linkes up with John Evans (J.D. Cannon, a genuine killer who is planning to rob and murder a wealthy Pennsylvania farm family headed by Dan Scott (Charles Bateman) Convincing the impressionable Jess that he is the "good guy" and Scott is the "villain", Evans sweet-talks the boy into becoming his accomplice...while Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) races against time to save several innocent lives. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Unsuccessful football coach Burt Payne (Bill Williams) wants to sell his share of the Wildcats pro football team to a cartel of investors, but his wealthy wife Ellen (Mona Freeman) vetoes the deal. Even so, Ellen arranges a meeting with one of the investors--just before Burt is killed in a mysterious explosion. Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) is on hand when Burt's remains are delivered to Los Angeles by train. . .and also happens to be in the vicinity when another murder occurs and the wrong person is accused. Several real-life members of the Los Angeles Rams appear as themselves in this episode, which ends with a frenetic chase sequence filmed on location at LA Memorial Colisseum, site of the 1932 and 1984 Olympics. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In The Hallelujah Trail, Lee Remick plays temperance leader Cora Templeton Massingale, who is determined to halt a shipment of whiskey headed for Denver. The shipment is being escorted by the US cavalry, under the guidance of Col. Thadeus Gearhardt (Burt Lancaster). As the Denver miners thirstily await the precious booze, Gearhardt must fend off not only Cora and her minions, but a bibulous tribe of Sioux warriors, headed by Chief Walks-Stooped-Over (Martin Landau)-not to mention an outsized sandstorm. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide