Bruce Paltrow Movies
Though better known in his late career as the father of his wildly successful actress daughter Gwyneth, Emmy-nominated Bruce Paltrow was previously noted for his achievements as a writer, producer, and director of film and television. Born in Brooklyn, NY, Paltrow studied art at Tulane University before embarking on a career as a theatrical scenic designer in the late '60s. Meeting future wife Blythe Danner shortly thereafter, Paltrow moved into television as the writer and producer of the ABC "Tuesday Night at the Movies" special Shirts/Skins (1973). Subsequently involved with numerous television specials and such series as St. Elsewhere and Homicide: Life on the Streets, Paltrow would later direct daughter Gwyneth in the 2000 comedy-drama Duets. It was while in Italy to visit his daughter and celebrate her birthday that Bruce Paltrow was stricken with a recurrence of throat cancer and pneumonia. Airlifted to Rome for treatment, Paltrow died shortly thereafter. He was 58. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Director Bruce Paltrow teams with his Oscar-winning daughter Gwyneth Paltrow for this road comedy with music. Paltrow plays Liv, a struggling professional singer whose meets her father, Ricky Dean (Huey Lewis), for the first time at the funeral of her mother. As it turns out, both Liv and Ricky supplement the income from few-and-far-between gigs by singing in karaoke contests, and soon father and daughter are competing on the same circuit. Meanwhile, Todd Woods (Paul Giamatti), a salesman who has grown disenchanted with his job, his family, and his life, picks up a hitch-hiker named Reggie Kane (Andre Braugher), and during a stop at a tavern, they discover they make a good duet team while belting out a version of "Try A Little Tenderness." And waitress Suzi Loomis (Maria Bello) sweet talks Billy (Scott Speedman), a cabbie, into driving her to Omaha, where the national karaoke finals will determine who does the best job of singing along with the records, as the lives of these six characters begin to intersect. Duets also features Angie Dickinson as Blair, Liv's grandmother who was once a showgirl in Frank Sinatra's Las Vegas floorshow; Brad Pitt was originally cast in Speedman's role but withdrew after he and Paltrow announced the end of their off-camera relationship. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Maria Bello, Andre Braugher, (more)
- 1995
When a serial killer starts to prey on female coed runners, the 87th precinct detectives put their own problems on hold on order to catch the maniac. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Randy Quaid, Alex McArthur, (more)
- 1995
This made-for-TV drama, based on a series of popular novels by Ed McBain, stars Randy Quaid as Steve Carella, a police detective investigating a series of grisly murders. A serial killer is targeting women who compete in track and field events, and Carella and his team have to find the perpetrator before he can strike again. Supporting cast includes Ving Rhames, Alex McArthur and Eddie Jones; directed by Bruce Paltrow, whose daughter Gwyneth has done all right for herself in the film industry. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 1993
Worn out by the dead-end investigation of the Watson killing, Bayliss (Kyle Secor) turns on the obstreperous Capt. Barnfather (Clayton LeBouef) and calls him a "butthead." As his ex-partner Thormann (Edie Falco) recovers from her wounds, Crosetti (Jon Polito) closes in on the man whom he thinks pulled the trigger -- and who seems eager to confess whether he's guilty or not. While investigating a double murder, Munch (Richard Belzer) becomes fed up with being constantly compared to Bolander's (Ned Beatty) former partner. And Pembleton (Andre Braugher) and Felton (Daniel Baldwin) search for a car that may be crucial to the outcome of a case. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Baldwin, Ned Beatty, (more)
- 1982
Gritty, filled with gallows, or rather hospital humor, and daily life-and-death struggles, St. Elsewhere was an innovative television series that attempted to present a more realistic view of life in a public hospital. The doctors at Boston's St. Eligius (St. Elsewhere is its nickname) weren't always heroes and miracles were seldom, if ever, seen as the staff worked with its poor, downtrodden patients, patients rejected by Beantown's tonier hospitals. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
In this feature comedy, a womanizer (Tim Matheson) marries his live-in girlfriend (Kate Capshaw) only to quickly resume his wicked ways. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tim Matheson, Kate Capshaw, (more)
- 1980
Returning from a sentimental journey to his home town, basketball coach Ken Reeves (Ken Howard) arrives at his familiar stamping grounds at the inner-city LA Carver High School, whereupon he quickly learns that there's been some changes made. Season Three of The White Shadow begins with several of the familiar supporting players no longer part of the action. Gone are team members Carter (killed at the end of Season Two), Hayward, Reese, Goldstein and Gomez. New to the basketball squad are Wardell Stone (Larry Flash Jenkins), Jesse B. Mitchell (Stoney Jackson), Teddy Rutherford (Wolfe Perry), Eddie Franklin (Art Holliday), and Paddy Falahey (John Laughlin). Likewise, Reese's old friend Jim Willis has stepped down as principal, replaced by Ken's "friendly enemy" Sybil Buchanan (Joan Pringle)--and as for Ken's sister Kate and brother-in-law Bill, they're also gone, who knows where? Rounding out the newcomers is Carver's freshly hired wrestling coach, Ezra Davis (Rosey Grier). This final season of White Shadow contains a number of standout episodes. In a followup to a story in the previous season, Warren Coolidge (Byron Stewart) considers trying out with the Harlem Globetrotters. Several prominent sports and showbiz celebrities, including Jimmie Walker, Elgin Baylor, Sparky Anderson and Willie Tyler, show up in an episode wherein Reeves get unexpected assistance while captaining a fund drive. "Salami" Pettrino (Timothy Van Patten) ends up in the slammer after a violent confrontation with an opposing player. Stone gets a dose of celebrity after saving an old lady from a burning car. Basketball great Bill Russell guests in a story involving Coolidge's sudden self-consciousness over his height, which is fine for the basketball court but awkward everywhere else. Michael Winslow, who would later rise to fame as the "human sound effects machine" in the Police Academy films, delivers a searing dramatic portrayal as a delusional student who targets an emotionally fragile teacher for persecution. Coolidge and Franklin are subjected to inordinately rough treatment at the hands of the Law when they're suspected of mugging a senior citizen. And in the series finale "A Day In the Life", an alumni exhibition game finds graduates Goldstein (Ken Michelman), Gomez (Ira Angustain), Hayward (Thomas Carter) and Reese (Nathan Cook) returning to Carver with an arsenal of anecdotes--amusing and not-so-amusing--about what they've been doing with themselves since last we saw them. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ken Howard, Roosevelt Grier, (more)
All of the regular cast members seen during Season One of The White Shadow are on deck for Season Two, with a pair of new additions. Joining the Carver High School basketball team under aegis of coach Ken Reeves (Ken Howard) (nicknamed "The White Shadow" by the largely black student body) are player Nick Vittaglia (John Mengatti) and team manager Phil Jefferson (Russell Phillip Robinson). No sooner has the season begun when one of Reeves' best players, Curtis Jackson (Milton Reese), unwittingly falls in with a gang of bookies who want him to shave a few points. Later, an embittered transfer student tries to turn the team against Reeves for making a joke that the student has misinterpreted as a racial slur; Reeves is racked with guilt when a rookie player dies of a hitherto undetected heart condition during practice; it's an inner-city "Odd Couple" when the temporarily homeless Warren Coolidge (Byron Stewart) is forced to share living quarters with the hapless coach; Coolidge and Morris Thorpe (Kevin Hooks) both get a sexually transmitted disease from the same girl; "Salami" Pettrino (Timothy Van Patten) runs afoul of the authorities when he innocently shares his prescription painkillers with his teammates, and later has a brief affair with an attractive young teacher; Reeves suspects that Ricky Gomez (Ira Angustain) is the victim of domestic violence; and the team challenges a group of volunteer workers to a pickup game, little imagining that their opponents are none other than the Harlem Globetrotters! The season ends on a truly shattering note: After helping his team win the LA City Basketball Championship, and on the brink of his graduation, Curtis Jackson is shot down and killed while witnessing a liquor store holdup. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ken Howard
In the Emmy-winning debut episode of The White Shadow, Chicago Bulls forward Ken Reeves (Ken Howard), forced to retire after a series of injuries, bypasses the offers of several more prestigious jobs, accepting instead an invitation from college buddy Jim Willis (played by Jason Bernard in the opener, Ed Bernard thereafter) to coach the mediocre basketball team at Carver High, the inner-city-LA high school where Willis is principal. Reeves is hardly welcomed with open arms by taciturn vice principal Sybil Buchanan (Joan Pringle), nor does he immediately win over the largely black student body. He does, however, have better luck bonding with his team members, beginning with James Hayward (Thomas Carter), whom Ken talks out of quitting school. As the team begins to win games under Reeves' tough-but-fair tutelage, the kids come to both respect and revere "The White Shadow." All the while, however, Ken's sister Katie (Robin Rose) and brother-in-law Bill (Jerry Fogel) nag him to stop trying to save the world and take a safer, more secure, and better-paying job at one of the suburbans schools. A subsequent episode finds Reeves having a showdown with player Curtis Jackson (Eric Kilpatrick) when he finds a liquor bottle in Curtis' locker. Another player, Milton Reese (Nathan Cook) may have to give up both the team and a scholarship when his girlfriend turns up pregnant. Briefly dropped from the team, Ricky "Go Go" Gomez (Ira Angustain) rejoins his old street gang. Player Abner Goldstein (Ken Michelman) undergoes a crisis of faith when his teammates seem indifferent to his grandmother's illness. And in a basically serious episode with comic undertones, the team decides to form a singing group--excluding the sensitive Morris Thorpe (Kevin Hooks), whose ear-piercing rendition of "My Girl" must be heard to be disbelieved. The problems tackled in the first season of The White Shadow go beyond the regular characters: A talented transfer student faces persecution because he is rumored to be homosexual; a hot college prospect turns out to be illiterate, a product of the "slide 'em through and no one will notice" school of athletic promotion; and while subbing for another teacher, Reeves finally comes to grips with the fact that not every troubled student is capable of being "saved"--especially after one such student tries to rape Ms. Buchanan. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ken Howard
- 1978
One of the most critically acclaimed (and, sadly, least watched) of the MTM dramatic series of the 1970s and 1980s, the weekly, hour-long The White Shadow debuted November 27, 1978 on CBS. Ken Howard was cast as basketball pro Ken Reeves, star forward of the Chicago Bulls, who was forced to retire after one too many knee injuries. At the invitation of his old college friend Jim Willis (Ed Bernard), Reeves accepted a coaching job at Carver High School in Los Angeles, where Willis was principal. Referred to as "The White Shadow" by the predominately black student body, Reeves slowly but surely won the respect of his players, most of whom came from underprivileged homes and a few of whom were in the "high-risk" category. As he molded the perennially losing team into winners, Reeves also did his best to help his players straighten out their troubled personal lives. Meanwhile, Reeves faced resistance from the school's black vice principal Sybil Buchanan (Joan Pringle), who regarded the "White Shadow" as just another limousine liberal who went around raising the expectations of inner-city kids but did not follow through to make sure that those expectations were met. In a similar vein, Ken's sister and brother-in-law Katie and Bill Donahue (Robin Rose, Jerry Fogel) could not for the life of them understand why Ken didn't leave Carver for a better-paying job in one of the lily-white suburbs. During the series' first two seasons, Reeves' team included Kevin Hooks as Morris Thorpe, Eric Kilpatrick as Curtis Jackson, Byron Stewart as Warren "Cool" Coolidge, Timothy Van Patten as Mario "Salami" Petrino, Ken Michelman as Abner Goldstein, Ira Angustain as Ricardo "Go Go" Gomez, John Mengatti as Nick Vittaglia and Russell Phillip Robinson as team manager Phil Jefferson. Those first seasons were generally somber in tone, dealing realistically with the myriad of problems facing urban kids of the era, including drugs, domestic abuse, gang pressure, sex and learning disabilities. In the series' most shattering moment, Curtis Jackson was killed at the very end of Season Two when he had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time during a liquor store holdup. In addition to "lightening up" the story material during its third season, The White Shadow also underwent a large cast turnover (logically, in that several of the students had graduated high school). New team members included Larry Flash Jenkins as Wardell Stone, Wolfe Perry as Terry Rutherford, Stoney Jackson as Jesse B. Mitchell and John Laughlin as Patrick Falahey, Art Holliday as Eddie Jackson. Also, Sybil Buchanan--no longer Reeves' enemy, but not exactly his friend either--had become principal, replacing the departed Jim Willis. In addition, former football pro Rosey Grier joined the cast at this time as wrestling coach Ezra Davis. Despite its lukewarm ratings, The White Shadow enjoyed a healthy fan following amongst younger viewers, especially those in big cities. The series also won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Directing", and was nominated in several other categories. The White Shadow ran until August 12, 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1973
In this comedy, some clever amateur basketball players create an interesting and highly rewarding variation of the popular sport. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
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