Ian Ziering

This Lifetime television series finds ten professional dancers partnered with a significantly less skilled partner - one of their parents. The show follows each parent-child team's efforts at learning various pieces of choreography to be performed in front of a studio audience. Each week leaves one of the hopefuls eliminated until only one remains to take home the $100,000 prize. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Perhaps the most elaborate of all the animated TV versions of the Marvel Comics icon Spider-Man, this one was co-produced by Brian Michael Bendis, the writer of the highly regarded comic book Ultimate Spider-Man. Former Doogie Howser, M.D. star Neil Patrick Harris provided the voice for youthful photojournalist Peter Parker (aka the wall-crawling Spider-Man). Originally created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1963, the venerable comic-book property was herein updated to the early 21st century, and its content was heavily influenced by the live-action 2002 Spider-Man feature -- and also by the earlier cartoon daily Batman: The Animated Adventures, insofar as the use of celebrity voices for the villains was concerned. Animated in a style described by its producers as "CG Neon Noir," the series assumed that the viewers were familiar with the Spider-Man legend, thus the standard backstory (Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider, he suffered pangs of guilt for inadvertently causing the death of his uncle, etc.) was dispensed with, the better to plunge right into the action. Spider-Man: The Animated Series premiered with back-to-back episodes over the MTV network on July 11, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Revenge after an investigation gone-wrong turns into a family affair in this made-for-television movie. When an FBI operation goes sour and lives are lost, a mobster (Michael Lerner) decides to avenge the death of his son by kidnapping the son of the agent (Russell Crowe) he believes to be responsible. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

Peg (Katey Sagal), Bud (David Faustino) and Kelly (Christina Applegate) hold the three crucial votes that will determine whether or not Al (Ed O'Neill) can pitch in an upcoming championship softball game. Though the kids are easily bought off, Peg's decision is swayed by one glance at Al's replacement, muscle-bound Sven Hunkstrom (Dan Blom). But in the ninth inning, Sven is injured--so guess who steps up to the pitcher's mound? This episode manages to include virtually every baseball-movie cliché known to man (including a wickedly hilarious send-up of Lou Gehrig's farewell speech), and as a bonus features future Beverly Hills 90210 regular Ian Ziering in a small role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

First telecast October 4, 1972, the ABC Afterschool Special series was an ambitious project underwritten not only by ABC but also by several prominent children's advertisers -- the network's "answer" to such prestigious PBS efforts as Sesame Street and The Electric Company. In its earliest seasons, the series was aimed at elementary- and secondary-school students, though later its scope was expanded to accommodate teenage viewers of high-school age. Initially telecast on a monthly basis, the program was seen on Wednesdays in the 3:00 or 4:00 p.m. slot, depending upon the schedules of the individual network affiliates. As the series progressed, it could often be seen on a biweekly basis; and in 1981, three ABC Afterschool Specials were telecast in Sunday-evening prime time under the umbrella title "The ABC Theater for Young Americans." Adopting an anthology format, the series offered a wide variety of 60-minute playlets, some comical, most serious, many adaptations of popular children's novels. Several of the stories concerned such volatile topics as drunk driving, teen pregnancy, the plight of the homeless, the environment, divorce, child abuse, sexual molestation, the "punk rock" scene, illiteracy, anti-Semitism, schizophrenia, dyslexia, and AIDS. Though often provocative, the series never lapsed into bad taste; and though aimed at a young audience, the scripts neither patronized nor condescended to the viewer.
In its first few seasons, ABC Afterschool Special included a handful of animated programs, a musical celebration of William Shakespeare, and an intriguing documentary on a 1974 state political campaign, as seen through the eyes of two teenage campaign volunteers. Eventually, such "offbeat" entries were weeded out, and the series focused exclusively upon dramatizations. Among the best and most celebrated episodes were The Woman Who Willed a Miracle, the true story of autistic savant Leslie Lemke and his indefatigable stepmother; My Mom's Having a Baby, which included videotaped footage of a live birth; Rookie of the Year, the tale of a talented female Little League ballplayer; the amusing, self-explanatory It Must Be Love (Cause I Feel So Dumb); the equally self-explanatory but far more serious The Late Great Me! Story of a Teenage Alcoholic (one of several episodes alerting viewers to the existence of an organization called AlaTeen); and The Wave, a chilling cautionary fable about the seductive powers of blind groupthink and neofascism. In its later seasons, the program featured an off and on miniseries called "Summer Stories," in which the challenges facing youngsters of the 1990s were dramatized in a period setting.
The cast lists of the various ABC Afterschool Specials read like a veritable who's who of former child and teenage actors who graduated to adult stardom. Jodie Foster and Kristy McNichol appeared in several of the earliest entries, while later episodes featured such up-and-comers as Rob Lowe, Ben Affleck, River Phoenix, Kyra Sedgwick, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rosanna Arquette, Jennifer Grey, Seth Green, Trini Alvarado, Michelle Pfeiffer, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Grey, Sean Astin, Mare Winningham, and Kellie Martin. The winner of countless industry honors (including several Emmy and Peabody Awards), ABC Afterschool Special continued turning out new episodes at the rate of six to seven per year until ABC was taken over by Disney in 1996. ~ All Movie Guide