Hal Williams Movies

Shirley Maclaine stars as a reclusive piano player in this made-for-television movie based on the play by Ernest Thompson. Maclaine plays Margaret Mary Elderdice, a loner-type who befriends her next-door neighbor and violinist Cara Varnum (Liza Minnelli) only so the two can play music together. Margaret's life takes a turn into new territory and expands beyond its small confines though, with the addition of her young, aspiring-actress housemaid (Jennifer Grey). ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

Billy Cohen appears as Billy MacDonald, a spoiled-rotten child star who runs roughshod over everyone while filming a TV pilot episode in the courtroom. The kid's coworkers are clearly unwilling to curb his obnoxious behavior, and Judge Harry T. Stone (Harry Anderson) isn't about to say anything either-- mainly because he's been cast in a bit role in the pilot. It falls to the outspoken Roz (Marsha Warfield) to bring Billy in line via a tense confrontation with the youngster's mother (Barbara Brownell). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Magnum, P.I. wraps up its eight-year run with a two-part final episode (originally telecast in a single two-hour timeslot). In Part One, Magnum returns to his home town for a family reunion, where his paternal grandfather (Howard Duff) offers to reinstate him as a Naval officer. But before Magnum can say "yes" or "no", he is summoned back to Hawaii by former girlfriend Linda Lee Ellison (Patrice Martinez), who insists that someone is stalking her. Upon his return, Magnum receives some startling information about his daughter Lily, whom he had presumed to be dead. Meanwhile, Rick (Larry Manetti) nervously prepares to marry the estimable Cleo Mitchell (Phyllis Davis). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Florence (Marla Gibbs) is crestfallen when she is unable to join the Jeffersons and Willises at a charity ball where her favorite soap opera star (Hal Williams) is slated to appear. This dilemma segues into a fanciful dream sequence, in which Florence is cast as Cinderella, and her Prince Charming is none other than that selfsame soap idol. This episode was co-written by series regular Marla Gibbs and film favorite Billy Dee Williams. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Escape Artist represents the laudable directorial debut of cinematographer Caleb Deschanel. Griffin O'Neal, the real-life son of Ryan O'Neal, plays Danny Masters, the offspring of a famed magician. Determined to match his dad's accomplishment, Danny runs into nothing but trouble. His biggest mistake is picking the pocket of the son of a corrupt town mayor. When not running from adults, the boy is being exploited by them. A critic's favorite, Escape Artist has slowly built up a cult following over the years, thanks largely to its eclectic supporting cast, including Raul Julia, Desi Arnaz Jr., Joan Hackett, Teri Garr, Jackie Coogan, Huntz Hall and M. Emmet Walsh. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This TV-movie biography of legendary black ballplayer Leroy "Satchel" Paige unfortunately whitewashes and hokes up his fascinating story. Louis Gossett Jr. stars as Paige, who spends virtually his entire professional career in the Negro leagues because of the "gentlemen's agreement" barring African-Americans from the Majors. Paige's prowess as a pitcher is so famous that he becomes the highest-paid player in the Negro leagues -- but as for joining the mainstream teams, the answer is always the same: "If only you were white." When Jackie Robinson is signed by the Dodgers in 1946, the doors open for other black ballplayers; thus it is that in 1948, Satchel Paige becomes the first black pitcher in the American leagues...at the tender age of 42. Don't Look Back down-pedals Satchel Paige's tempestuous private life (his two marriages are combined into one, for example), and tends to shortchange the viewer in the crucial ball-playing scenes. Its saving grace is the towering performance by star Louis Gossett Jr., who struggles manfully to overcome the script's shortcomings. When the film was first telecast on May 31, 1981, the real Satchel Paige appeared in the prologue; one year later, Paige was dead at the (reported) age of 76. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Devastated when her brand-new husband Albert Brooks) drops dead on their wedding night, Jewish American princess Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn) is receptive to the pitch delivered by a duplicitous recruiter for the Women's Army Corps. Quickly adivsed by topkick Captain Lewis (Eileen Brennan) that she should not look forward to the private room, fancy clothes and sauna bath that she'd been promised, Judy is forced to go through basic training like any other "grunt". This turns out to be a real growth experience for the pampered Private Benjamin, who for the first time in her life has to work for her privileges. A brief misadventure with a lascivious paratroop officer (Robert Webber) nearly sours Judy on army life, but she turns out to be a darned good soldier-and a woman with a highly developed sense of self-esteem, which enables her to weather a further disappointing romantic fling with French phsycian Henri Tremont (Armand Assante). Private Benjamin turned out to be one of Goldie Hawn's most profitable vehicles. The 1981-82 TV sitcom spinoff starred Lorna Patterson in Goldie's role, with Eileen Brennan repeating her film characterization of the long-suffering Captain Lewis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Wightmanbecomes a regular in the role of John-Boy Walton (which he'd previously played on a recurring basis, replacing Richard Thomas) in the ninth and final season of The Waltons. The two-part season opener (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode) takes place during the final months of WW2, as John Walton (Ralph Waite) tries to clear his friend Harley Foster (Hal Williams) of a long-standing murder charge. Convinced that Harley's original trial was biased, John is willing to put his own reputation--and freedom--on the line to prove the man's innocence. Elsewhere on Walton's Moutain, storekeeper Ike Godsey (Joe Conley) and his formidable wife Corabeth (Ronnie Claire Edwards) have a spirited argument over a woman's "proper place" in a male-oriented society. And as the newly-uniformed Ben Walton (Eric Scott) is headed for the war in the Pacific, his brothers John-Boy and Jim-Bob attempt to connect up with each other in Paris--an effort that seems doomed to failure! Jason Moses in seen in the role of Harley Foster's stepson Josh, replacing Todd Bridges, who of course had moved on to Diff'rent Strokes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The phenomenal success of the 1977 ABC miniseries Roots all but demanded a sequel to writer Alex Haley's epic story of his African and African-American forebears. Debuting February 18, 1979, Roots: The Next Generations picked up where its predecessor left off, with Haley's slave ancestors winning their freedom in the aftermath of the Civil War. Even so, life for black Americans was wrought with hardship and oppression thanks to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, the staunch refusal of the white power structure to pass anti-lynching laws, and the formation of the dreaded Jim Crow laws which legalized racial segregation in the South (and much of the North). Covering the period from 1882 to the mid-1970s, the miniseries first focuses on blacksmith Tom Harvey (Georg Stanford Brown), great-grandson of Kunta Kinte (the protagonist of the original Roots), and his family. Meanwhile, reacting to the marriage of his son to a black woman, anal-retentive Southern colonel Warner (Henry Fonda) begins setting the legal wheels in motion to deny blacks like Tom the right to vote and to hold "white" jobs. A few decades later, Tom's son-in-law encourages his fellow blacks to stand firm against the KKK's reign of terror. His labors on behalf of his race are rewarded when his daughter Bertha (Irene Cara) becomes the first descendant of Kunta Kinte to receive a college education. It is Bertha Palmer who weds the equally ambitious Simon Haley (Dorian Harewood), who goes on to serve in WWI and to organize farmers and sharecroppers during the Depression. Simon's son Alex (played at various ages by Kristoff St. John, Damon Evans, and finally James Earl Jones) is just as determined to succeed in a white man's world as his father, and to that end becomes a professional writer after his own service stint in the Coast Guard during WWII. At the height of his professional success (largely due to his having ghost-written the autobiography of Muslim activist Malcolm X), Alex Haley pays a visit to his boyhood hometown -- where, almost by accident, he receives the first clue to his heritage, a clue that will lead him on an odyssey of self-discovery, arriving full circle at Kunta Kinte's birthplace in Africa. Although the miniseries' "money scene" was Haley's nervous interview with American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell (Marlon Brando in a superb cameo turn), the climactic episode, in which Haley tearfully embraces the living African descendants of Kunta Kinte, is one of the most unforgettable moments in the history of network television. Running 12 episodes and 14 hours, Roots: The Next Generations concluded on February 25, 1979, playing to huge ratings all along the way and ultimately garnering several Emmy nominations (and one win). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While researching her family "roots" with the help of Jason (Jon Walmsley), Verdie Foster (Lynn Hamilton) comes across a slave ornament that had been worn by her grandfather. This artifact leads Verdie to a disturbing visit with a descendant of her grandfather's white owner. Elsewhere, 12-year-old Elizabeth (Kami Cotler) tries to impress the solider to whom she has been writing by claiming to be sixteen--and mailing him a picture of her older sister Erin (Mary Elizabeth McDonough). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the conclusion of a two-part story (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), John (Ralph Waite) reacts with anger when he discovers that Erin has taken a second job, caring for the children of a single man. Meanwhile, John-Boy (Richard Thomas) has returned home in hopes of reopening the Guthrie mine and revitalizing the local economy. But fate takes a hand in matters when John-Boy is trapped in a cave-in along with Jim-Bob (David W. Harper) and Ben (Eric Scott). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide