The Online Magazine
of Motion Picture
and Television
Music Appreciation
Film Score Monthly Subscribe Now!
film score daily 

SMALL SCREEN, BIG SCORES: PART THIRTEEN

A Chronology of Scores for TV Movies and Miniseries by Feature Composers (Plus a Bunch of Emmy Stuff Too)

By Scott Bettencourt


1991

ABSOLUTE STRANGERS - Charles  Fox
A husband struggles to decide whether to let his comatose pregnant wife bring their baby to term at the potential cost of her life; directed by Gilbert Cates, with Henry Winkler, Patty Duke, Richard Kiley and Karl Malden

AFTERMATH: A TEST OF LOVE - Leonard Rosenman
Moving docudrama from Gary Kinder's book Victim, with Richard Chamberlain as a doctor struggling to help his son, a survivor of Utah's infamous "Hi-Fi Murders."

BACKFIELD IN MOTION - Cliff Eidelman
Sports comedy with Roseanne and Tom Arnold

BEJEWELLED - Ken Thorne
Disney comedy mystery with Emma Samms, Dirk Benedict and Jean Marsh

THE BLACK VELVET GOWN - Carl Davis
Romantic drama with Janet McTeer and Bob Peck

BLOOD TIES - Brad Fiedel
Revisionist modern vampire story directed by Jim McBride, with Jason London, Michelle Johnson and Patrick Bauchau; the basic premise was reworked as a horrendously titled, short lived series, Kindred: The Embraced, which also featured Bauchau

THE BOYS - David Shire
James Woods as a non-smoking writer dying of lung cancer caused by his smoking writing partner, John Lithgow; written by William Link (writing partner of the late Richard Levinson)

BROTHERHOOD OF THE GUN - Joel Goldsmith, Jerry Goldsmith
Unsold Western pilot starring Brian Bloom, David Carradine, James Remar, and future film director Shawn Levy; score by Goldsmith Jr., theme by Goldsmith Sr.

CAROLINA SKELETONS - John Morris
Southern mystery with Louis Gossett Jr., Bruce Dern and Melissa Leo

CHAINS OF GOLD - Trevor Jones
Intended as a feature but ended up a cable movie; John Travolta plays a social worker trying to save a young boy from drug dealer Benjamin Bratt

CHANGES - Lee Holdridge
Charles Jarrott directed this Danielle Steel adaptation, with Cheryl Ladd, Michael Nouri, Cynthia Bain and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

CHERNOBYL: THE FINAL WARNING - Billy Goldenberg
Docudrama about the nuclear accident, with Jon Voight, Jason Robards and Sammi Davis

CLARISSA - Colin Towns
BBC romantic drama shown on Masterpiece Theater, with Sean Bean

COLUMBO: CAUTION! MURDER CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH - John Cacavas
Peter Falk goes after TV host George Hamilton, who murders a rival with poisoned cigarettes; directed by Daryl Duke

CRAZY FROM THE HEART - Arthur B. Rubinstein
Romantic comedy, as Christine Lahti falls for Ruben Blades; directed by Thomas Schlamme (Lahti's husband)

THE CRUCIFER OF BLOOD - Carl Davis
Fraser Clarke Heston directs his father Charlton as Sherlock Holmes in this adaptation of the play by Paul Giovanni (the late composer of The Wicker Man), which is a revisionist version of Conan Doyle's The Sign of Four

CRY IN THE WILD: THE TAKING OF PEGGY ANN - Sylvester Levay
Mountain man David Morse kidnaps Megan Follows in this true crime story

DAUGHTERS OF PRIVILEGE - Patrick Williams
Newspaper drama with Dick Van Dyke

DEADLOCK - Richard Gibbs
Score CD on Silva (as Wedlock); Lewis Teague directs this sci-fi thriller with Rutger Hauer and Mimi Rogers as prisoners on the run, co-starring Joan Chen and James Remar

DEADLY INTENTIONS -- AGAIN? - J. Peter Robinson
Sequel to the 1985 true crime drama (scored by Georges Delerue), with Harry Hamlin replacing Michael Biehn as the doctor convicted of plotting to kill his wife

DON QUIXOTE - Lalo Schifrin
Score CD on Prometheus; Fernando Rey is the man of La Mancha in this 1983 Spanish miniseries

DYNASTY: THE REUNION - Bill Conti, Peter Myers
The whole nighttime soap gang returns for a reunion movie, plus an overqualified Jeroen Krabbe

EYES OF A WITNESS - Charles Gross
Daniel J. Travanti and Jennifer Grey in a thriller set in Kenya

FALSE ARREST - Sylvester Levay
Donna Mills is falsely accused of multiple-murder

FATAL EXPOSURE - Michel Colombier
Mare Winningham gets the wrong batch of pictures back from the photo shop and discovers evidence of murder

FEVER - Michel Colombier
Lawyer Sam Neill and ex-con Armand Assante try to rescue the woman they both love

FINDING THE WAY HOME - Lee Holdridge
Amnesiac George C. Scott ends up working with Latino farm workers

FIRE! TRAPPED ON THE 37TH FLOOR - Gil Melle
Office workers trapped late at night in a skyscraper fire; with Lee Majors, Lisa Hartman, Peter Scolari

FRANKENSTEIN: THE COLLEGE YEARS - Joel McNeely
Youth comedy with Christopher Daniel Barnes and William Ragsdale, directed by Tom Shadyac (Ace Ventura, Patch Adams, Bruce Almighty)

GESUCHT WIRD RICKY FORSTER - Pino Donaggio

GOLDEN FIDDLES - William Ross
Australian family drama with Kate Nelligan

GREAT EXPECTATIONS - Ken Thorne
Miniseries from the Dickens classic, with Anthony Calf as Pip, Jean Simmons as Miss Havisham, and Anthony Hopkins as Magwitch

GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT - Charles Bernstein
Martin Sheen struggles to prove adopted son Brendan Fraser is innocent of murder

HEADING HOME - Stanley Myers
Period romantic drama written and directed by David Hare, with Gary Oldman, Joely Richardson and Stephen Dillane

HELD HOSTAGE: THE SIS AND JERRY LEVIN STORY - Charles Fox
Suspense with Marlo Thomas and David Dukes

HER WICKED WAYS - Fred Karlin
All About Eve in TV journalism, with Barbara Eden and Heather Locklear

THE HEROES OF DESERT STORM - Sylvester Levay
Angela Bassett in a patriotic drama about our first Iraq war

IN BROAD DAYLIGHT - Patrick Williams
The residents of a small town take revenge against bullying Brian Dennehy and his family; with Cloris Leachman, Chris Cooper and Marcia Gay Harden

AN INCONVENIENT WOMAN - Craig Safan
Adaptation of the Dominick Dunne roman a clef based on the Alfred Bloomingdale/Vicki Morgan affair, with Jason Robards, Rebecca DeMornay, Jill Eikenberry, Chad Lowe, Peter Gallagher, and Roddy McDowall

INTO THE BADLANDS - John Debney
Western anthology with Bruce Dern, Mariel Hemingway, Dylan McDermott and Helen Hunt

IRAN: DAYS OF CRISIS - Philippe Sarde
Docudrama on the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, with Arliss Howard, Jeff Fahey, Alice Krige, Tony Goldwyn, Valerie Kaprisky, Ving Rhames and George Grizzard as President Carter

THE JOSEPHINE BAKER STORY - Georges Delerue
Lynn Whitfield plays the singer in this HBO biopic, with David Dukes, Ruben Blades, Louis Gossett Jr., and Craig T. Nelson as Walter Winchell

KEEPER OF THE CITY - Leonard Rosenman
Score CD on Intrada; Bobby Roth directs Louis Gossett Jr. as a cop tracking gangster-killing vigilante Anthony LaPaglia; written by Gerald DiPego (Phenomenon, The Forgotten) from his novel

KEEPING SECRETS - Patrick Williams
Suzanne Sommers in the Suzanne Sommers story, directed by John Korty

L'AMANT DE MA SOEUR - Claude Bolling
French adaptation of an Alan Aykbourn play

THE LAST PROSTITUTE - Fred Karlin
Romantic drama featuring the once-in-a-lifetime pairing of Sonia Braga and Wil Wheaton

THE LAST TO GO - John Morris
Family drama with Tyne Daly, Terry O'Quinn, William Sadler and Julianne Moore

LES CARNASSIERS - Philippe Sarde

LES RITALS - Antoine Duhamel

LETHAL INNOCENCE - Charles Gross
David Strathairn, Blair Brown and Brenda Fricker in this generically titled drama

LIES BEFORE KISSES - Don Davis
1990/1991 Emmy nominee Music Composition For A Miniseries Or Special; Jaclyn Smith discovers husband Ben Gazzara is a murder suspect

LIGHTNING FIELD - J. Peter Robinson
Psychic Nancy McKeon tries to rescue her kidnapped baby from devil-worshippers

LINE OF FIRE: THE MORRIS DEES STORY - Billy Goldenberg, Arthur B. Rubinstein
John Korty directs Corbin Bernsen as the Civil Rights attorney, co-starring Angela Bassett

A LITTLE PIECE OF HEAVEN - Don Davis
1991/1992 Emmy nominee Music Composition For A Miniseries Or Special; Kirk Cameron kidnaps a child to be a playmate for his retarded sister; directed by Mimi Leder

LONG ROAD HOME - Craig Safan
John Korty directs Mark Harmon in a drama about sharecroppers

LOVE KILLS - Stanley Clarke
Erotic noir with Virginia Madsen and Lenny Van Dohlen

LOVE, LIES AND MURDER - Charles Bernstein
True crime drama with Clancy Brown, Sheryl Lee and Moira Kelly

MARK TWAIN AND ME - Laurence Rosenthal
1:23 on the 2-disc composer promo Laurence Rosenthal: Music For Television; Daniel Petrie directs Jason Robards as the writer, Talia Shire as his wife

MISSION OF THE SHARK - Craig Safan
Docudrama based on the true-life "Indianapolis story" made famous in Jaws, with Stacy Keach, Richard Thomas and David Caruso as crewmen on the torpedoed WWII ship imperiled by sharks

MRS. LAMBERT REMEMBERS LOVE - Lee Holdridge
Charles Matthau directs his father Walter and Ellen Burstyn

MURDER IN NEW HAMPSHIRE: THE PAMELA WOJAS SMART STORY - Gary Chang
Teacher Helen Hunt's seduction of student Chad Allen leads to murder

A MURDER OF QUALITY - Stanley Myers
Denholm Elliot as George Smiley in this mystery from the John LeCarre novel, with Joss Ackland, Glenda Jackson, Billie Whitelaw and Christian Bale

NAPOLEON ET L'EUROPE - Wojciech Kilar
Jean-Francois Stevenin plays the Emperor in this French miniseries

NEVER FORGET - Henry Mancini
Holocaust survivor Leonard Nimoy takes Holocaust deniers to court; with Dabney Coleman and Blythe Danner, directed by Joseph Sargent

ONE AGAINST THE WIND - Lee Holdridge
Score CD on Intrada; Judy Davis helps allied soldiers in WWII occupied France; with Sam Neill, Denholm Elliott and Kate Beckinsale

102 BOULEVARD HAUSSMANN - George Fenton
Alan Bennett teleplay with Alan Bates as Marcel Proust

ONE SPECIAL VICTORY - Billy Goldenberg
John Larroquette is forced to coach a mentally handicapped basketball team

OUR SONS - John Morris
An unlikely friendship develops between two very different women (Julie Andrews, Ann-Margret) whose sons (Hugh Grant, Zelkjo Ivanek) are lovers and one is dying of AIDS

THE OWL - Sylvester Levay
Adrian Paul is a superhero vigilante; directed by "Alan Smithee" (not a good sign)

PALOMINO - Dominic Frontiere
Lindsay Frost, Eva Marie Saint and Rod Taylor in a Danielle Steel adaptation

PARIS TROUT - David Shire
3:32 on the composer promo CD David Shire: Film Music; Pete Dexter adapts his superb Southern Gothic novel for HBO, with Stephen Gyllenhaal directing Ed Harris, Barbara Hershey and Dennis Hopper

PAYOFF - Charles Bernstein
Keith Carradine, Kim Griest and Harry Dean Stanton in a casino heist

PERFECT HARMONY - Billy Goldenberg
Choirmaster Peter Scolari tries to defuse racial tensions in a Southern private school

PLYMOUTH - Brad Fiedel
The residents of a small town move to the moon

PRIME SUSPECT - Stephen Warbeck
The first of the great British mystery series, with a superlative Helen Mirren as Scotland Yard DCI Jane Tennyson, investigating a serial killer; with Tom Bell, John Benfield, John Bowe, Zoe Wanamaker, Tom Wilkinson, and Ralph Fiennes in a small role as the boyfriend of a victim

THE RETURN OF ELIOT NESS - Lee Holdridge
Robert Stack recreates his role from The Untouchables, with Lisa Hartman and Charles Durning

ROBIN HOOD - Geoffrey Burgon
Score CD on Silva; This Fox TV movie was originally developed as a feature for John McTiernan to direct, but Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves got there first, so John Irvin directed with Patrick Bergin, Uma Thurman, Jurgen Prochnow, Jeroen Krabbe, and Edward Fox

SARAH, PLAIN AND TALL - David Shire
2:35 on the composer promo CD David Shire: Film Music; This period prairie romance starring Glenn Close and Christopher Walken, from the Patricia MacLachlan novel, inspired two sequels and a stage musical

SATURDAY'S - Patrick Williams
Pilot for a never aired romantic anthology series

A SEASON OF GIANTS - Riz Ortolani
Score CD La Primavera di Michaelangelo on Fonitcera; John Glover as Leonardo, the late Mark Frankel as Michaelangelo, with F. Murray Abraham, Steven Berkoff, Ian Holm, and Raf Vallone

SEPARATE BUT EQUAL - Carl Davis
George Stevens Jr. writes and directs this story of the Supreme Court's ruling on desegregation, with Sidney Poitier as Thurgood Marshall and co-starring Burt Lancaster and Richard Kiley as Earl Warren

SHE STOOD ALONE - Michael J. Lewis
Mare Winningham and Ben Cross start a girls' school for black children in 1830s Connecticut

SON OF THE MORNING STAR - Craig Safan
Score CD on Intrada; Safan's finest score, for this unusually ambitious miniseries adapted by Melissa Mathison from Evan Connell's historical novel, with Gary Cole as Gen. George Custer, and Rosanna Arquette, David Strathairn and Dean Stockwell

THE STORY LADY - Lee Holdridge
Jessica Tandy has to balance her life as a mother and grandmother with her new job reading stories to children on TV

THE STRAUSS DYNASTY - Laurence Rosenthal
Biopic on the musical family, with Anthony Higgins, Edward Fox, Alice Krige, John Rhys-Davies and John Gielgud

THE SUMMER MY FATHER GREW UP - Lee Holdridge
Family drama with John Ritter and Margaret Whitton

SWITCHED AT BIRTH - Marvin Hamlisch
When a ten year old girl dies, her parents discover that they'd been raising another couple's child all along, and try to get custody of their biological daughter

TATORT - BIS ZUM HALS IM DRECK - Tangerine Dream

TRACKS OF GLORY - Bruce Rowland
Australian period race relations bicycle racing miniseries

UNA VITA IN GIOCO - Luis Bacalov

VENDETTA: SECRETS OF A MAFIA BRIDE - Riz Ortolani
Mob drama with Carol Alt, Eric Roberts, Burt Young, Billy Barty, and Eli Wallach

THE WHEREABOUTS OF JENNY - Patrick Williams
Hide in Plain Sight again, more or less, with Ed O'Neill in the James Caan role of a man whose ex-wife and family disappear into Witness Protection

WHICH WAY HOME - Bruce Rowland
Cybill Shepherd and four Cambodian orphans escape the Khmer Rouge

WITHOUT WARNING: THE JAMES BRADY STORY - Georges Delerue
HBO movie with Beau Bridges as the Reagan aide who became a gun control activist after his near-fatal shooting by John Hinckley; with Joan Allen as his wife and David Strathairn as his doctor

A WOMAN NAMED JACKIE - Lalo Schifrin
Larry Peerce directs Roma Downey as Jackie, Stephen Collins as JFK, Joss Ackland as Ari Onassis, and Sarah Michelle Gellar as the teenage Jackie

YES VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS - Charles Bernstein
Charles Bronson as the reporter who answers the famous query from a little girl reader; with Richard Thomas and Ed Asner, directed by Charles Jarrott


1990/1991 Emmy nominees:

MUSIC COMPOSITION FOR A SERIES (DRAMATIC UNDERSCORE)

Bruce Babcock - The Father Dowling Mysteries (The Consulting Detective Mystery)
Don Davis - My Life and Times (The Collapse of '98)
John Debney - The Young Riders (Kansas)
Dennis McCarthy - Star Trek: The Next Generation (Half a Life)
Joel Rosenbaum - Jake and the Fatman (God Bless the Child)

MUSIC COMPOSITION FOR A MINISERIES OR SPECIAL (DRAMATIC UNDERSCORE)

Richard Bellis - It, Part 1
Chris Boardman - Johnny Ryan
Don Davis - Lies Before Kisses
James DiPasquale - The Killing Mind
Patrick Williams - Decoration Day

MAIN TITLE THEME MUSIC

Stanley Clarke - Hull High
Ray Colcord - Singer and Sons
Lee Holdridge - ABC's World of Discovery
Thomas Newman - Against the Law
Michael Skloff - Dream On


Parts One (1954-1968), Two (1969-1971), Three (1972-1973), Four (1974-1975), Five (1976-1977), Six (1978-1979), Seven (1980-1981), Eight (1982-1983), Nine (1984-1985), Ten (1986-1987), Eleven (1988), and Twelve (1989-1990) of this series can be accessed on the website.


Our webmaster has helpfully figured out how to funnel most of our spam into a junk mailbag. However, to be sure that your letter gets read, please make your subject heading as specifically film music related as possible. Thank you.

MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com


Past Film Score Daily Articles

Film Score Monthly Home Page
© 1997-2009 Lukas Kendall. All rights reserved.