Avery Brooks Movies

The third STAR TREK series concerns Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), commander of the starship Deep Space Nine, who discovers the first known stable wormhole--a virtual shortcut through space that leads from the Alpha Quadrant to the Gamma Quadrant on the other side of the galaxy. The Gamma Quadrant is governed by the Dominion, a group led by the Changelings--an group of shapeshifters which counts DS9 crew member Odo (Rene Auberjonois) among its numbers. The Dominion has become a violent force in the galaxy, and the Deep Space Nine and its crew has become the only hope in upholding the way of life established by the Federation. This 6-Disc set includes all nineteen episodes from the first season.

20 episodes on 6 discs: Emissary Part I, Emissary Part II, Past Prologue, A Man Alone, Babel, Captive Pursuit, Q-Less, Dax, The Passenger, Move Along Home, The Nagus, Vortex, Battle Lines, The Storyteller, Progress, If Wishes Were Horses, The Forsaken, Dramatis Personae, Duet, In the Hands of the Prophets.

Spenser: Ceremony stars Robert Urich as Robert B. Parker celebrated private eye. The story involves Spenser and his partner Hawk (Avery Brooks) attempting to keep a teenage girl safe after her life on the streets leads her to discover criminal truths about a prominent politician who has a taste for teenage prostitutes. Barbara Williams portrays Susan Silverman, the only woman close to Spenser's heart. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

This well-mounted made-for-cable film zeroes in on the personal story of Ernest Green, the only senior among the nine black students who integrated Arkansas' Little Rock High School in 1957. Faced with pressure from both his taunter and his peers, Ernest manages to survive a harrowing year with his courage and intellect intact. Morris Chestnut of Boyz in the Hood fame stars as Green, while Ossie Davis co-stars as Ernest's grandfather. Though produced for the Disney Channel, the dialogue in The Ernest Green Story is occasionally as raw and uninhibited as the subject matter demands. The film debuted January 17, 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Deviating from the storyline of Alex Haley's book, and the classic 1977 miniseries that followed, the plotline of 1988's Roots: The Gift finds African-born slave Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton) and his plantation friend Fiddler (Louis Gossett Jr.) helping freed black man Cletus Moyer (Avery Brooks) smuggle runaway slaves to freedom. Roots: The Gift was set during Christmas of 1775 because it was slated for telecast during the Christmas season of 1988 -- December 11, to be exact. This telecast was timed to coincide with the posthumous publication of Alex Haley's book A Different Kind of Christmas, which had nothing whatsoever to do with Roots but did concern itself with runaway slaves at Yuletide. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The third and final season of Spenser: For Hire finds the titular private eye hero (Robert Urich again unattached romantically, inasmuch as his second-season sweetheart, Assistant DA Rita Fiori, has been written out of the show. But before you despair over the emotional well-being of Boston's best and most ethical P.I., be it noted that Barbara Stock, absent since Season One, has returned in the role of guidance counselor Susan Sullivan. It is explained that, after a year's residence in California, Susan has returned to Beantown, determined to give her relationship with Spenser a second chance despite the danger represented by Spenser's many enemies in the Underworld. But while Susan is back, another of the series' regulars, Richard Jaeckel at Lt. Martin Quirk of the Boston PD, has departed. The scriptwriters contrive to have Quirk retire from the force after suffering a heart attack. The season opens with Spenser mediating a deadly feud between a judge and a mobster, and soon after our hero's sentimental nature again resurfaces as he helps an alcoholic priest create a halfway house for homeless teams. The subsequent episode "Sleepless in Seattle" represents something of an inside joke for scripter Lee Goldberg, who names all the members of the fictional "Kincaid" clan after the characters in The Partridge Family. Meanwhile, Spenser's brooding, implicitly lethal street contact Hawk (Avery Brooks) exhibits the charisma that will soon enable him to star in his own self-named TV series, especially in the episodes wherein Hawk shield Susan against a "respectable" sexual predator, and in another story in which he tries to negotiate with a berserk, gun-wielding postal worker (and this BEFORE the popular coinage of the phrase "Going postal"!) Among the future stars appearing guest roles on Spenser: For Hire this season are Kadeem Hardison, Samuel L. Jackson, Laura San Giacomo, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ving Rhames. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a series of suspense novels by Robert B. Parker, the weekly, hour-long Spenser: For Hire starred Robert Urich as the title character. The TV series was filmed on location in Boston, the home-based of private investigator Spenser (no other name), who in addition to being wily and resourceful was also highly principled and scrupulously honest: In other words, he had no qualms about turning the legal tables on his own clients if he found out they were actually guilty or lying to him. No matter what the situation, Spenser meant what he said and said what he meant, even if he framed his responses in the form of philosophical quotations. Backing Spenser's words was his tactiturn African American street contact and "enforcer", the likewise single-named Hawk (Avery Brooks), who though he always carried a giant Magnum gun seldom needed weaponry to cow the villains into submission (this character was later spun off into his own series, A Man Called Hawk). In the series' first and third seasons, Spenser's lady friend was guidance counselor Susan Silverman, played by Barbara Stock; during Susan's absence in Season Two, Spenser kept time with a former enemy turned friend, assistant district attorney Rita Fiori (Carolyn McCormick). Our hero's contacts at the police department were hard-nosed Lt. Martin Quirk (Richard Jaeckel), who liked Spenser, and slovenly Sgt. Frank Belson (Ron McLarty), who didn't. The 66-episode Spenser: For Hire was broadcast by ABC from September 20, 1985 through September 3, 1988, followed by four made-for-TV "Spenser" movies, filmed between 1993 and 1995. A sixth such film was scheduled for 2000,but was cancelled upon the death of star Robert Urich. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Written by Walter Lockwood and directed by Joan Micklin Silver, Finnegan Begin Again is a whimsical comedy drama about a late-blooming romance. Robert Preston plays a Mike Finnegan, 65-year-old newspaperman resigned to wasting his time on a lonely hearts column and caring for his ailing, unappreciative wife (Sylvia Sidney). Mary Tyler Moore portrays Liz DeHaan, a much-younger schoolteacher, recently widowed and mired in a go-nowhere relationship with a mortician (Sam Waterston). Liz comes to Mike for advice...and nature takes its course. Finnegan Begin Again premiered February 24, 1985, over the HBO cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Part of the Heart of Africa series from National Geographic, this documentary concentrates on the Virunga National Park located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is a fascinating trip to one of the world's foremost national parks, an area complex in geographic design and diverse in both the plant and animal kingdom. Exploring the mountainous terrain surrounding a hot and luscious rainforest, this feature highlights the fascinating creatures that survive in this region. Rare mountain gorillas share their domicile with such consistent African animals as the hippopotamus, the elephant, the buffalo, and the antelope. This 55-minute journey to the Dark Continent sheds some light on the fascinating secrets that it holds. ~ C. Dwayne Smith, All Movie Guide