Michael Pressman

Originally slated to premiere on November 27, 2007, then held back until December 4, the hour-long dramedy Cashmere Mafia finally made its ABC debut on January 6, 2008. The series focused on a quartet of highly successful female executives, friends since their days in business college, who continued to meet, compare notes, and advise and console one another in various expensive Manhattan restaurants and watering holes. Miranda Otto played the "anchor" of the group, Juliet Draper, the powerful COO of the Stanton Hall hotel chain, who wryly observed the passing scene, dispensed sage wisdom, and merrily dissed most of the males who crossed her path--with the occasional exception of her husband Davis (Peter Hermann). Lucy Liu costarred as Mia Mason, high-powered functionary at Barnstead Media, a publishing firm run by a Murdoch clone; Mia was so ambitious that she was even willing to sacrifice her love life for her career, maneuvering her own fiancee out of the job she finally grabbed for herself. Frances O'Connor played Zoe Burden, senior marketing VP for Lily Parish cosmetics, who after several dead-end heterosexual romances suddenly found herself attracted to another woman, Alicia Lawson (Lourdes Benedicto). And Bonnie Somerville appeared as Zoe Burden, managing director of mergers and acquisitions at the investment firm of Gorham Sutter, who encountered considerable difficulty juggling her career and her private life with her stay-at-home husband Eric (Julian Ovenden) and twin children Luke (Nicholas Reese Art) and Sasha (Peyton List). Also in the cast was Addison Timlin as Juliet and Davis' mildly rebellious 14-year-old daughter Emily. If Cashmere Mafia seemed to be an upscale variation of HBO's Sex and the City, it may have been because it was executive-produced by former Sex and the City producer Darren Star. The ABC series also bore a marked resemblance to Lipstick Jungle, a novel written by Starr's onetime Sex and the City partner Candace Bushnell; ironically, the TV-series version of Lipstick Jungle made its NBC bow some four weeks after Cashmere Mafia's inaugural episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Successful television director and film producer Michael Pressman sets off with high hopes when he decides to helm a film production of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. He believes the experience of directing a film starring his struggling actress of a wife (Lisa Chess) will be a fun and relatively easy way to revitalize their marriage. Unfortunately, the decision to cast Alan Rosenberg to play Johnny proves disastrous -- Rosenberg is incredibly difficult to work with and Pressman's already tense relationship becomes steadily worse as the horrific rehearsal and filming process intensifies. The situation looks bleak when, after a devastating preview, Pressman is forced to shut down the play, relinquish his investment, and possibly lose his wife. Of course, the aggrieved director has one option: to take over the role of Johnny. The stakes have never been higher for the married couple, considering their future together appears to hinge on the final outcome of the film. Frankie and Johnny Are Married was directed in real life by the protagonist, Michael Pressman. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

The Yuletide Season is anything but merry for Emily (Carla Gugino), who is forced to take charge of her nephew J.T. (Evan Sabara) and niece Alanna (Mae Whitman) when their drug-addicted mother (Laura Dern) O.D.'s and the kids are dispossessed. When it looks as though the kids will be sucked into the merciless maelstrom of the foster-care system, Emily packs them up and heads out of her home state, ending up in a little town that happens to be named Bethlehem Even though the authorities have been temporarily left behind, Emily will need a miracle to keep her family together. Enter a versatile guardian angel (Patty Duke), who assumes a variety of earthly guises to save the day for Emily, J.T. and Alanna--and also orchestrates a romance between Emily and a sympathetic local cop (David Conrad). Based on a novel by Marilyn Pappano, A Season for Miracles first aired as a CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation on December 12, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a best-selling Anne Tyler novel, this Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation centers on an unselfish young man who in 1965 sidelines his own considerable ambitions to single-handedly raise his brother's children. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The crime-fighting Turtles -- Michaelangelo (Michelan Sisti), Donatello (Leif Tilden), Raphael (Kenn Troum), and Leonardo (Mark Caso) -- return in this quickly made sequel to the popular superheroes' first film. The story concerns arch-enemy Shredder, who kidnaps nutty professor Jordan Perry David Warner, the man who invented the infamous ooze, in order to use the ooze to destroy the Turtles. Shredder enlists his hapless German shepherd puppy named Rahzar and a baby snapping turtle named Toko and dips them in the ooze to turn them into horrible and imposing ninja warriors. But on the Turtles' side is proficient kick-boxing pizza boy Keno (Ernie Reyes Jr.), who uses his moves to help the Turtles stop Shredder and his monster warriors. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The crush felt by a young boy for his father's girlfriend creates heartbreak when the adults call the relationship off. ~ All Movie Guide

An L.A. policeman (George Peppard) works with several partners to destroy the prostitution ring run by Chinatown's version of the Mafia. The film was originally produced for television. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

The made-for-cable Incident at Dark River stars Mike Farrell as a working-stiff family man. When his daughter falls ill, Farrell discovers to his horror that the girl is suffering from toxic poisoning. A local battery factory has been polluting the area with its deadly waste, but when Farrell tries to take legal action, he finds that the law favors the factory. Albert Rubin's slowly paced script leans towards "bad guy vs. good guy" rather than shades of gray, but it successfully hits all the right emotional buttons. The presence of well-known environmentalist Mike Farrell in this sincere, medium-budget effort is a prime example of putting one's money where one's mouth is. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Shootdown, based on a controversial book by R. W. Johnson, examines the aftereffects of a politically sensitive air disaster. Angela Lansbury portrays the real-life Nan Moore, a US government employee whose son (Kyle Secor) is among the 269 people killed when Korean airliner KAL 007 is shot down by the Russians on September 1, 1983. The official story is that the plane accidentally invaded Russian airspace, then was mistaken for a spy plane when the crew did not identify itself. Ms. Moore doesn't swallow this, but in seeking the truth she runs up against a stone wall of bureaucracy. This film adheres to Ms. Moore's theory that KAL 007 was engaged in an actual spy mission, a theory dramatized in a "reconstruction" assembled by investigator John Cullum. Reportedly, the original telecast date of Shootdown was delayed because of its criticism of the Reagan administration; the real Nan Moore insisted that the film's production was slowed down because she didn't want to offend any members of her family. The intention of Shootdown was to put pressure on the US congress to inaugurate a hearing for the benefit of Ms. Moore. In 1989, a second TV movie based on the KAL 007 tragedy was released: Tailspin, which tells the story from the point of view of the government investigators. Since the original telecast of both films, new evidence has surfaced indicating that Flight 007 was not on an espionage mission, and that the Russian fighter pilots had acted on the orders of their over-zealous superiors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this holiday drama, a widowed architect tries to mix business with pleasure when he takes his daughter on a business trip to a strange town in Colorado. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Don't look for Alex Trebeck or listen for the familiar "thinking music" in the made-for-TV Final Jeopardy. This chiller-diller stars Richard Thomas and Mary Crosby as a small-town couple who find themselves stranded in an unfamiliar--and most unfriendly--big city. Weaving in and out of the proceedings (sometimes literally so) are a bunch of bad dudes with names like Slash, DOA and Ice. And they don't say "Your money or your life" in the form of a question. Final Jeopardy debuted December 8, 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV effort concerns a con man who worms his way into the position of principal at the high school where his ex-girlfriend works. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Richard Pryor gives a compelling performance in Some Kind of Hero, playing a Vietnam veteran who tries to readjust to civilian life. Pryor plays Eddie Keller, who has just spent five years in a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp. Most of the time there, Eddie was able to hold his own against his captors, but he eventually was forced to sign a statement denouncing United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Eddie decided to sign the document in order to insure that his friend Vinnie (Ray Sharkey) would be given proper medical treatment. Because of this denunciation, when Eddie returns home from the war he is denied his back pay. He also discovers that his wife has left him for another man, his business has fallen apart, and his mother has been sent to an asylum. Eddie falls into a deep depression and hits rock bottom. But he meets a friendly prostitute, Toni (Margot Kidder), who helps him straighten out his life. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide