John Byner Movies

The original 1987 Munchies was a PG-rated horror spoof about a monster with an insatiable appetite for junk food. Though public domain was not forthcoming, a sequel, titled simply Munchie, came out in 1991; this time, the title character was an invisible imp who helped unpopular kids learn how to cope. Both films were chock-full of such TV icons as Harvey Korman, Dom DeLuise, Loni Anderson and Arte Johnson. The 1994 Munchie Strikes Back, starring Lesley-Anne Down and Andrew Stevens, eschewed the "scare" elements altogether and was geared strictly for the kiddie trade. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the first episode of a two-part story, the Bundymobile breaks down in the middle of the Nevada desert, where Al (Ed O'Neill) ends up trading the car for a map to a gold mine. Summoned to the desert by the Bundy for extra funds and supplies, Marcy (Amanda Bearse) and Jefferson (Ted McGinley) are also swept up in the race for the gold. Series cocreator Michael Moye appears as the inappropriately named "Young Zeke." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Live-action and stop-motion animation combine to adapt Beverly Cleary's novel about a young boy's friendship with a talking rodent. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

Walt Disney Pictures produced this ambitious, animated tale of sorcery and swordfighting. Taran (voice of Grant Bardsley), is an assistant to Dallben (voice of Freddie Jones), a pigkeeper in the mythical land of Prydain. Taran longs to be a knight, and he's given his chance to live out his dream when he is sent out in search of a magical black cauldron which can either be a powerful instrument of good or a bottomless fount of evil, depending entirely upon who should find it. However, Taran is not the only one in search of this talisman -- the Horned King (voice of John Hurt) wants the cauldron to shore up his sinister powers and raise an army of the dead, and with the help of the all-seeing pig Hen-Wren, the wicked one may make his hideous plans a reality. The Black Cauldron had the distinction of being the first animated feature from Disney to receive a PG rating from the MPAA, due to some frightening scenes of black magic. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The action and stunts in this fourth racing vehicle for Burt Reynolds could be accurately foreseen by most youngsters. Stroker Ace (Reynolds) is a race car driver who gets the short end of a contract with a fried-chicken entrepreneur (Ned Beatty) but can be expected to end up with the woman (Pembrook) in compensation -- and actually did (Pembrook is played by Loni Anderson in her first movie with Reynolds). By this time, the formula of racing cars, wild stunts, blond co-stars (Goldie Hawn, Farrah Fawcett, and Dolly Parton were the most recent) was wearing thin and Reynolds starred in only one more "Cannonball" film, ending his car-chase series there. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The death of Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) was the big shocker at the end of Soap's third season. So imagine everyone's surprise when, as the series launched season four, Jessica was brought back to life -- following a brief stopover in Heaven to commiserate with all her ex-lovers! In another dangling plot strand resolved by the fourth-season opener, Jessica's son, Billy Tate (Jimmy Baio), is rescued from the bullet fired by his scorned lover, Leslie Walker (Marla Pennington). Additionally, the Tates have acquired a new butler named Saunders (Roscoe Lee Browne), replacing their former retainer Benson (actor Robert Guillaume had of course left Soap to star in his own sitcom, titled -- you guessed it -- Benson). The many subplots wending their way through the series' final network season include the election of Jessica's brother-in-law, Burt Campbell (Richard Mulligan), as sheriff leading to Burt's run-in with mob-connected hooker Gwen (Jesse Welles) -- with whom Burt's stepson, Danny (Ted Wass), becomes enamored. Also highlighted are the long-delayed wedding of Jessica's daughter, Eunice (Jennifer Salt) and ex-convict Dutch (Donnelly Rhodes); the long, anguished search by Danny's brother, Jodie (Billy Crystal), for his missing daughter; and Jessica's abduction to South America, where she falls in love with revolutionary leader El Puerco (Gregory Sierra), culminating in her divorce from Chester (Robert Mandan). As in previous years, season four of Soap ends with a cliffhanger as Jessica Tate faces a South American firing squad. This time, however, there was to be no resolution -- the series had been canceled! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Producer Aaron Spelling's made-for-TV Murder Can Hurt You is an unsubtle take-off of Neil Simon's theatrical feature Murder By Death. A crime is committed by the unknown, all-seeing Master Criminal. To solve the case, several top detectives are summoned, each one a takeoff of a popular TV gumshoe. Victor Buono plays Ironbottom, Jamie Farr and John Byner are Studsky and Hatch, Tony Danza is Pony Lambretta, Gavin McLeod impersonates Nojak, Connie Stevens goes by the name of Salty Sanderson, Burt Young portrays Palumbo....you get the idea. Just so we don't miss the joke, each character is introduced with the theme song of his or her "real" TV counterpart. The sporadically chucklesome Murder Can Hurt You was first telecast May 21, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Made for TV, The Man in the Santa Claus Suit jumped the gun a bit by premiering December 23, 1979. The title "character" is threefold: John Byner, Gary Burghoff and Bert Convy all don Santa suits for various reasons. Byner is a fugitive tramp, Burghoff a lonely schoolteacher, and Convy a divorced father estranged from his young son. Unifying their three stories is top-billed Fred Astaire, who pops up in eight different roles (or seven different roles, if you don't count his "surprise identity") and sings the title song. The moral, as ever, is that Christmas is what you make of it: if you're merry, then you'll have a merry Christmas. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this comedy, four couples go on a dating game show and end up winning a fabulous Hawaiian vacation. Unfortunately, they are accompanied by a stern chaperone. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The cliffhanger that brought season one of Soap to a climax is resolved in season two when Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) is cleared of the murder of her lover (and step-nephew!) Peter Campbell. Jessica's husband, Chester (Robert Mandan), confesses to the crime whereupon he is convicted and sent to prison. Later on, Chester escapes with fellow con Dutch (Donnelly Rhodes), who, while holding the Tate family hostage, sleeps with Jessica's far-from-unwilling daughter, Eunice (Jennifer Salt), leading to an elopement. As for Eunice's daughter Corrinne (Diana Canova), she marries defrocked priest Father Tim (Sal Viscusco), with whom she has a child -- who, alas, is possessed by Satan!. Still later, Chester loses his memory and wanders westward, ultimately getting a job as a fry cook. To find her missing husband, Jessica hires Detective Donahue (John Byner), with whom she falls in love! Meanwhile, Jodie Dallas (Billy Crystal), the gay son of Jessica's sister, Mary Campbell (Cathryn Damon), opts to give women a try and to that end moves in with Carol David (Rebecca Balding) -- who happens to be carrying Jodie's baby. Later on, Jodie will have a fling with a sucidal lesbian named Alice (Randee Heller). Elsewhere, Jodie's mobster brother, Danny (Ted Wass), forced into a relationship with Mafia daughter Elaine (Dinah Manoff), tries to figure out various ways of getting rid of her. But when Elaine is kidnapped and subsequently killed, a heartbroken Danny swears vengeance. And what of Danny and Jodie's stepfather, Burt (Richard Mulligan)? Well, he has his hands full trying to convince his family that he has seen a UFO. As season two rushes to a close, Jessica Tate is compelled to choose between hubby Chester and Detective Donahue, Billy Tate (Jimmy Baio) is being held captive by a religious cult called the "Sunnies," and befuddled Burt is abducted by those "non-existent" aliens. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Not everything Henry Fonda did was Grapes of Wrath or Mister Roberts. In the enjoyable low-budget "road" flick The Great Smokey Roadblock, Fonda plays a worn-out trucker named Elegant John. Anxious to make one last, big haul before retiring, Fonda loses his 18-wheeler to the repo men. He steals his rig back, then further thumbs his nose at the law by hauling a group of prostitutes across the border as a favor to his old flame, bordello madam Eileen Brennan. This rollicking film ends on an unexpected--but logical within the framework--tragic note. Filmed in 1974, The Great Smokey Roadblock lay on the shelf for nearly two years. Despite a plethora of illnesses, Fonda is in fine fettle, delivering one of his sprightliest latter-day performances. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

With Howard Hawks's Bringing Up Baby (1938) as his blueprint, Peter Bogdanovich resurrected and payed homage to 1930s screwball comedy in What's Up, Doc? (1972). When wacky co-ed Judy Maxwell (Barbra Streisand, in the Katharine Hepburn part) spies nebbishy musicologist Howard Bannister (Ryan O'Neal in bespectacled Cary Grant mode) in a San Francisco hotel lobby, she decides that Howard and his precious igneous rocks are right up her alley. Too bad Howard already has a fiancée, the propriety-fixated Eunice (Madeline Kahn in her film debut). Using all her arcane knowledge from brief stays at numerous colleges, Judy tries to charm her way to a $20,000 grant for Howard, and Howard himself, at a banquet with grantor Frederick Larrabee (Austin Pendleton). Things get even more complicated the next day when Judy's underwear-filled overnight bag gets mixed up with Howard's rock bag, which gets mixed up with Mrs. Van Hoskins' bag of jewels, which gets mixed up with Mr. Smith's bag of top secret government papers. All sides converge at Larrabee's mod townhouse and the chase begins. Retaining Hawks' machine-gun pace (as well as the sly pop culture referentiality of Billy Wilder), Bogdanovich and writers Buck Henry, David Newman, and Robert Benton updated the opposites-attract screwball convention for contemporary times. O'Neal gently parodied not only Grant but also his own Love Story (1970) preppy, while Kahn represents stiff-wigged 1950s manners as opposed to Streisand's long-haired, pants-wearing free spirit. The happy ending, in which Cole Porter-belting youth wins out over old manners, found favor with audiences, as What's Up, Doc? became one of the most popular films of 1972, and the second hit in a row for Bogdanovich after 1971's The Last Picture Show. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi