Jerry Paris

In this weak, undistinguished sequel to the successful Police Academy, Mahoney and his cohorts have now graduated from their police training and are ready to tackle real criminals. The first assignment for the enthusiastic former cadets is to halt the graffiti-scribbling antics of a local gang of marauding toughs. The new lieutenant at the station (Art Metrano) is not anxious to see them succeed -- and begins to roadblock their efforts against the graffiti artists. Not to be easily outmaneuvered, Mahoney and friends plot an appropriate revenge. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The cliches about actors fighting an uphill battle in Tinseltown are all found in this film, its own actors an example of its message. Donny Most stars as Leo, an aspiring thespian with less than an ingratiating manner and Linda Purl is Loree, an actress who just might get her foot in the door because her mother -- an Oscar winner -- has already opened it for her. Loree's ups and Leo's downs do nothing to help their romantic relationship, as careers and professional goals have an impact on their feelings. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

While her dad Frank (Phil Foster is out of town, Laverne (Penny Marshall) rents out Frank's restaurant, the Pizza Bowl, for a bachelor party thrown by their pal Fonzie (Henry Winkler). Unfortunately, the added burden of cooking up enough food and entertainment for Fonzie's buddies proves to be a bit too overwhelming for Laverne and Shirley (Cindy Williams). Surprisingly, however, it is L&S who come to the rescue of Fonzie rather than the other way around when a key participant in the event fails to materialize. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-television comedy, a young woman gets herself into trouble when she begins fulfilling her man-craving with a string of married men. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

"Mom" is Connie Stevens, who stars in this made-for-TV comedy. Stevens plays a small-town waitress who is appointed the housemother for a rambunctious fraternity house on the local college campus. The frat boys assume that freewheeling Stevens will allow them to party to their hearts' content, but "Mom" takes her job quite seriously and compels the students to behave themselves. She also becomes involved in a campus feminist movement that threatens to topple the college's male power structure (headed by dean Van Johnson). Call Her Mom was the pilot for a Connie Stevens TV series that found neither a sponsor nor a network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Overlooked when it first aired February 18, 1972, the made-for-TV Evil Roy Slade has gained a loyal and protective cult following in the past 20 years. The film was the second pilot for a never-sold TV western spoof created by Garry Marshall and Jerry Belson, Sheriff Who?. Actually, it was the second and third pilot, since Evil Roy Slade has been cobbled together from two hour-long films. John Astin is terrific in the title role, playing an outlaw so repulsive that, when he was orphaned and left stranded in the desert as a baby, even the wolves didn't want him! As an adult, Evil Roy Slade can't resist "going the extra mile" in his nastiness: while robbing a bank, he stops to pilfer a fountain pen chained to one of the desks, and the next shot shows Slade riding off into the sunset, dragging the desk behind him. Attempting to reform for the sake of pretty schoolmarm Betsy Potter (Pamela Austin), Slade simply cannot curb his crooked tendencies, so it's up to Dick Shawn as singing Sheriff Bing Bell ("Will somebody please answer that door?") to bring the criminal to justice. Shawn previously appeared in the original 1967 Sheriff Who? pilot as the "fastest interior decorator in the West"; in both films, he's almost unbearably funny. The Marshall/Belson script is full of hilarious running gags and throwaway jokes. Our favorite bit concerns railroad magnate Mickey Rooney's legendary stubby index finger: "They still sing about it around campfires at night," claims Rooney--and indeed, they do. The supporting cast includes such never-fail laughgetters as Milton Berle, Henry Gibson, Dom DeLuise and Edie Adams; also, keep a lookout for John Ritter and Penny Marshall in unbilled bits. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jerry Paris's Star Spangled Girl (1971), based on Neil Simon's play (a notorious Broadway flop), never made much of an impression in theaters, which is understandable with a cheap, overlit television look to most of it and Davy Jones singing the song "Girl" over the main titles (which got a lot more visibility from its use in the Brady Bunch episode in which Marsha has to get the singer to appear at her school), it looked too much like a small-screen production blown up; it was dated from the first frame of its opening credits. Tony Roberts and Todd Susman play Andy Hobart and Norman Cornell, a pair of self-styled political radicals living in California, beating the system by stealing as much as they can from neighborhood shops and conning the rest out of anyone around, all for the greater goal of keeping their underground newspaper alive and kicking. Their lifestyle is a cross between the ideas in Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book and Max Bialystock's dalliances in The Producers. Into their midst moves a transplant from rural Florida, Amy Cooper (Sandy Duncan) (who was called Sophie Rauschmeyer in the play), a perky aspiring Olympic swimmer and old-fashioned, patriotic Southern girl, and as corn-fed a hick as you found in movies in 1971 without a cynical bone in her body. Norman, a hopelessly neurotic and sexually dysfunctional writer, falls in love with her almost instantly upon encountering her; not, mind you, based on her personality or even her looks, but her smell. Andy is, at first, oblivious to her charms and content to maintain his relationship with their libidinous landlady (Elizabeth Allen, totally wasted here), paying their rent with all-night barhopping and trysts involving skydiving. At some point, however, Amy decides she has to have Andy (based on his smell...), and he feels the same way. Andy and Norman end up -- Odd Couple-style -- in conflict over their differing approaches to life; the Odd Couple allusions are further amplified by Roberts' remarkable resemblance to Walter Matthau in his manner and delivery of dialogue. The story is resolved as unconvincingly as it's played. It's also a sign of just how unfunny the play was in that the funniest moment in the movie is new to the screenplay and comes just a minute after the opening credits with a gag referring to a certain John Schlesinger movie from 1969. It's not much of a gag, but it's funnier than anything in the main body of the movie, which otherwise plays like a terminally extended version of a Love American Style episode. The original Broadway production, incidentally, starred Richard Benjamin, Anthony Perkins, and Connie Stevens. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

In this comedy drama, an ingenious young woman from the Bronx impersonates a socialite so she can con a confused old man out of his money. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Quite unexpectedly, Mary (Mary Tyler Moore) and Rhoda (Valerie Harper) are given the opportunity to leave wintry Minneapolis behind for a vacation in Mexico. As usual, however, there's a hitch; the vacation is contingent upon the mood of a Mexican-restaurant owner (Frank Ramirez). Unless Mary and Rhoda grant an unusual wish, they may as well kiss the sun goodbye and pull out their gloves and mufflers. "He's No Heavy...He's My Brother" was first broadcast on October 2, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When the Partridges' resident composer Keith (David Cassidy) suffers a creative dry spell, younger brother Danny (Danny Bonaduce) offers to write a few songs of his own. Unfortunately, Danny's tunes have a very familiar ring, leading Keith to accuse his brother of plagiarism. It turns out, however, that Danny is having a "George Harrison" moment, subliminally soaking up other people's compositions while he's supposed to be asleep! (Note to younger viewers: Ask your parents to explain the "Myra Breckinridge" reference). Song: "To Be Lovers." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Christine (Jacqueline Bisset) is the young bank teller who is bored with her job and her husband. She leaves for Las Vegas where she scores a job as a chorus girl. The beautiful Christine does not have the talent to parlay the job into an upwardly mobile career. She marries an older man and becomes a "kept woman." Tommy Marcott (Jim Brown) is the greeter at a casino who poses for pictures with the guests and marries Christine. When Christine is invited to dinner by Roosevelt Dekker (Ramon Bieri), she is beaten up by her host. Tommy tracks down the construction magnate at a local golf course and beats him to a pulp. Danny (Corbett Monica) is the comic who gives Christine her first tour of Vegas and his bedroom. Christine hires a pilot to skywrite an obscenity that sums up her feelings about her experience. Joseph Cotten also appears in this drama of a naive young woman nearly swallowed up by the seamier side of the Las Vegas nightlife. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Jack Albany (Dick Van Dyke) is an actor in a television series who is mistaken for a real-life murderer Ace Williams (Jack Elam). Comedy ensues when gangster Leo Smooth (Edward G. Robinson) goes after Jack. Robinson reprises the role of the gangster tough guy he made famous in the 1930s. He leads a comical crew of criminals which include Ned Glass, Mickey Shaughnessy, Slim Pickens, Henry Silva and Tony Bill. Sally (Dorothy Provine) is the love interest who comes to the aid of the unhappy Jack. Jerry Paris, who starred as Van Dyke's neighbor in his highly successful television show of the 1960s, directs this Walt Disney-produced comedy. Disney had given the nod to the script and the production blueprints shortly before his death in 1966. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide