Lynn Carlin Movies

Cornell Wilde guest stars as Duncan Barnett, the ruthless founder-CEO of Barnett Industries. Gathering his board of directors (and their wives and loved ones) to his lavish New York estage, Barnett seems poised to name his successor. Instead, he is killed in an accident--or, at least, it looks like an accident. Among the board members is a certain Maine-based mystery writer named Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury), who begins to suspect that there's dirty work afoot as she watches Barnett's employees wheel, deal, bicker and backstab incessantly throughout the balance of the episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this thriller, based on a true story, a psycho killer cons his three adolescent sons into helping him and his equally crazed pal from the joint. They do so and then find themselves in a killing spree. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This made-for-television drama chronicles an atypical May-December romance involving a twenty-something doctor and a middle-aged woman. The two soon fall passionately in love and this causes a little friction between the woman and her full-grown daughters. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A "critic's darling" of 1979, the modestly produced French Postcards has an appeal that goes beyond the wine and cheese crowd. Miles Chapin plays Joel, an American student in France on an exchange program. Joel's teacher, Mme. Tessier (Marie-France Pisier), is a "Miss Jean Brodie" type whose ideas of education are highly unorthodox. One of Mme. Tessier's extracurricular activities consists of a torrid romance with the impressionable Joel. Of interest to contemporary viewers are the supporting-cast appearances of future stars Debra Winger and Mandy Patinkin. The "coming-of-age" through-line of French Postcards was second nature to screenwriters Gloria Katz and Willard Hyuck, whose previous projects included American Graffiti. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jim-Bob (David W. Harper) has a new friend, 16-year-old Joe Douglas (Peter Miner), who shares his love of aviation. Joe claims that he is on his way to sign up with the Air Corps, and suggests that Jim-Bob go along. The truth, however, is that Joe is a runaway orphan--and the authorities are hot on his trail. Meanwhile, Elizabeth (Kami Cotler) semi-adopts old Maude Gormley as her "temporary" grandma. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Having quit his job at the "Blue Ridge Chronicle", Ben (Eric Scott) is hired by a high-pressure car salesman named Jarvis (Lew Brown). The family is worried that Ben's new boss is a bad influence, especially after Ben begins courting the boss' daughter (a young Melody Thomas). Elswhere, John-Boy is frustrated in his efforts to finish his novel in peace; and over the protests of John (Ralph Waite), Olivia (Michael Learned) tries to play matchmaker for Sheriff Bridges (John Crawford) and his WW1 sweetheart Sarah (Lynn Carlin). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In Randal Kleiser's telemovie Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway, Eve Plumb stars as Dawn, who leaves home at 15 for the glamour of L.A. Friendless, she is taken in by the smooth line of Swan (Bo Hopkins), who offers to be her protector. Before long, Dawn has become a streetwalker, with Swan taking a sizeable chunk of her earnings. She finds true friendship in the form of another runaway, male hustler Alex (Leigh McCloskey) -- whose own story would be delineated in a 1977 sequel, Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn. Having learned a lesson with its controversial airing of Born Innocent, NBC preceded the September 27, 1976, premiere of Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway with a "parental discretion" disclaimer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-television disaster film, seven officer workers find themselves trapped in a towering inferno after a drunken janitor accidently torches the high-rise in which they work. Believing that they will surely die, the seven begin sharing their deepest secrets. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Dick Van Dyke put his image and his career on the line with this searing TV movie about a "social drinker" who becomes a full-fledged alcoholic. Van Dyke plays a loving husband and father with a solid job and an excellent reputation, who blows it all with his excessive drinking. His wife (Lynn Carlin) tries to be supportive, but even she throws in the towel as Van Dyke's illness worsens. The film refuses to cop out with a happy ending, leaving Van Dyke as low as he can get short of sleeping in the gutter. Morning After was something of a public "A.A." testimonial for Dick Van Dyke, who had recently come to grips with his own real-life alcoholism. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season Seven of Ironside begins as Chief Ironside (Raymond Burr) goes head-to-head with the staff of a smarmy gossip magazine that has held a grudge with the San Francisco police department ever since the "botched" investigation of a missing actor. Now the magazine is going after Ironside himself, threatening to tell all about the Chief's alleged romance with a notorious Madam (Dorothy Malone). Ironcially, Ironside soon finds himself having to protect the lives of the magazine's employees from a mysterious bomber. A key player in the proceedings is an elderly caretaker William Schallert who seems to know more than he's letting on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Roy (Kevin Tighe) tries to arrange a date between wife's cousin and his coworker John (Randolph Mantooth)--and one can only imagine how happy John is over this situation. Squad 51's caseload in this episode includes saving a youngster whose arm is caught in a swimming-pool drainpipe, a woman who suffers an epileptic fit after barely averting a car accident, and a young man who has been shot by his own father-in-law. Also: a case of tetanus poisoning, and an overweight man whose pacemaker fails at a crucial moment. Featured in the cast is a very young, pre-Little House on the Prairie Melissa Gilbert, and former child actress Patricia McCormack (The Bad Seed). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Czech filmmaker Milos Forman's first American production stars Linnea Heacock as Jeannie Tyne, a runaway teenager. While she wanders aimlessly around New York, her suburban parents, Lynn (Lynn Carlin) and Larry (Buck Henry), desperately search for their "missing" daughter. Larry and his best friend, Tony (Tony Harvey), inaugurate a search, but their expedition is sidetracked by a drinking binge at a local bar. Meanwhile, Lynn and Tony's wife, Margot (Georgia Engel), begin discussing their sex lives. Jeannie does finally return home, to constant questioning by her parents about which drugs she has taken; later, after Lynn and Larry join a support group for the parents of runaway children, they turn around and get stoned on marijuana themselves during one of the group meetings, then lapse into a randy game of strip poker -- little realizing that their daughter is close at hand and within earshot. As a critically revered lampoon of late-'60s sensibilities, Taking Off is full of "unknown" Manhattan-based performers who became famous during the '70s and '80s, including Paul Benedict, Vincent Schiavelli, Allen Garfield, Audra Lindley, and, in fleeting roles as auditioning singers, Carly Simon, who performs "Long Time Physical Effects," and Kathy Bates (billed as Bobo Bates), who performs "Even the Horses Had Wings." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When Jimmy Price (Jim Brown) wins an upset victory for sheriff, he becomes the first black man ever to hold the job (or any elective office) in anyone's memory in his rural southern county. He also sets off an ominous rumblings as the entire county seems split apart by his presence -- Mayor Parks (Fredric March) offers him the support of his office, but many whites aren't prepared to accept a black man as sheriff, while most of the whites that can accept him aren't saying so too loudly; a lot of older black residents, remembering decades of Jim Crow laws that only lately disappeared, are more confused than encouraged by Price's victory, while younger, more radical black citizens like George Harvey (Bernie Casey) have little use for Price's straight-arrow personality; they expect him to show them favoritism, and when he doesn't, they suspect him of being an nothing but a white man in black skin. Even Price's own wife (Janet MacLachlan) wonders if the cost of his being sheriff is too high. He finds himself alone, walking a tightrope between all of the forces pulling at him, and then the whole situation threatens to explode when he arrests the good-for-nothing son (Bob Random) of a wealthy man from the next county, who has killed a child while driving drunk. Soon the local klavern of the Ku Klux Klan is planning a meeting, and a lynch mob seems to be gathering across the county line to break the prisoner loose and take care of the sheriff. Price finally gets some unexpected help from his embittered predecessor, John Little (George Kennedy) -- Little would like nothing more than to sulk over losing his longtime job, but with his wife's coaxing he realizes that he can't let Price fail without the risk of destroying everything he worked for years to build. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide