John Groves Movies

The Golden Seal manages to be excellent family entertainment without ever resorting to gimmickry or phony sentimentality. The story focuses on a family living in the Aleutian Islands. The father, Jim Lee (Steve Railsback), has long been awaiting the return of the fabled golden seal, which comes to the islands to give birth every seven years. Like many of the other locals, Jim intends to capture the seal and turn it in for a huge reward. But Jim's 10-year-old son Eric (Torquil Campbell) endeavors to save the golden seal from harm. Told in a leisurely, unforced fashion, The Golden Seal is a fairly faithful adaptation of A River Ran Out of Eden, a novel by James Vance Marshall. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After a plane crash, killer tarantulas escape from the cargo, threatening orange groves and scaring the crop out of the locals in this arachnorama. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

Thanks to a computer foul-up, the doctors and firemen at Rampart are buried in extra paperwork. To make matters worse, the paramedic unit is saddled with a new medical-supplies nurse (Laurie Kennedy), a rule-bound martinet who insists that the staffers dot every "I" and cross every "T" before she'll requistion any equipment. This week's case load includes a drowning child in a storm drain, a warehouse fire, and a museum janitor who is poisoned by 5000-year-old Mesopotamian wine. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The doctors and paramedics of Rampart are in a state of shock and sorrow when their beloved former head nurse Millie Eastman (Anne Seymour) tries to commit suicide. However, it looks as though Millie will find a new lease on life when she bonds with a troubled young paraplegic. The emergency roster includes a family suffering from carbon-monoxide poisoning, a man trapped under a truck full of combustible fuel, and a woman who has somehow become mummified in plastic. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Pole-vault champion Gil Robinson (Colby Chester), an old classmate of John Gage (Randolph Mantooth), becomes a paramedic trainee--and has a lot of trouble adjusting to the hectic pace. Tonight's emergency roster includes a stopover at an amusement park where a man has suffered a heart attack on one of the rides, and a burning kitchen which is rapidly filling with hydrogen sulfide. In the evening's tensest moment, Roy (Kevin Tighe) tends to a man who has been bitten by a snake--only to have deadly venom sprayed in his own face. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The station house is plagued by a series of false alarms which seriously compromise the team's ability to handle genuine emergencies. Among the culprits is an old coot who pretends to be suffering from back pains so he can get a free ambulance ride. In other developments, an angry viewer suffers the consequences when he kicks his TV screen; a young person OD's on drugs; and a heart attack victim may never make it to the hospital thanks to a traffic accident. Among the guest stars in this episode are Hollywood veteran Keenan Wynn and future Hill Street Blues costar Michael Conrad. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

With the conspicuous exception of Roy Desoto (Kevin Tighe), The men of Squad 51 form a firehouse barbershop quartet to enter a musical competiton. This week's emergency caseload includes a woman who o.d.'s of sleeping tablets, and a corpulent fellow (Len Weinrib) who causes all sorts of accidents and sustains all manner of injuries while trying to reduce (his close encounter with an electric rowing machine is the "piece de resistance"). This is one of several Emergency! episodes directed by Hollywood veteran Joseph Pevney (Tammy and the Bachelor, Man of a Thousand Faces et. al.) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

John (Randolph Mantooth) would like to date a new nurse named Daisy (Britt Lind), but it looks like he'll have to wait in line. Among the evening's emergency patients is a refrigerator repairman who ends up frozen to an ice-house floor, an elderly hobbyist (John Carradine) who has glued himself to a model ship, and a man trapped in a theater fire. The guest cast this week includes TV-sitcom veterans Steve Franken ("Chatsworth Osborne" on Dobie Gillis) and Ann Morgan Guilbert ("Millie Helper" on The Dick Van Dyke Show. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

John (Randolph Mantooth) comes face to face with corporate bureaucracy when he falls victim to a credit-card computer error. On the job, the paramedics try to rescue a car-accident victim who may be pregnant, a woman who has fallen down a well, and a junkyard owner exposed to phosphorous materials. Comedian Larry Storch puts in an appearance as an amateur magician who gets trapped in a safe during an abortive escape act, while future Happy Days costar Donny Most shows up as an anguished father-to-be. Also, watch for an appearance by Mark Miller, the father of film star Penelope Ann Miller. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi