CINDERELLA LIBERTY was Allyn Ann McLerie's second film directed by Mark Rydell. The picture was shot mainly on location in Seattle, as well as in Tacoma, WA. McLerie played social worker "Miss Watkins" who bursts in on sailor "John Baggs, Jr." (James Caan) and a woman he is seeing, "Maggie Paul" (Marsha Mason), and demands to know how much John contributes to the household and if he is the father of Maggie’s unborn baby. John Williams' score was released by Intrada in 2008.
The disturbing, controversial NBC TV-movie BORN INNOCENT was one of the most popular television-made dramas from the 1970s. In the film, young Linda Blair was cast as a teen runaway facing hard time in a girls reform school. The gritty, documentary-like production was filmed on a low-budget in New Mexico. Joanna Miles co-starred as a sympathetic, well-meaning teacher, and Allyn Ann McLerie played "Emma Lasko," a hardened housemother.
The film, which aired on 10 September 1974, was directed by Donald Wrye and has an unreleased score by Fred Karlin.
The film received a number of theatrical bookings overseas, no doubt enhanced by Linda Blair's notoriety for her role in THE EXORCIST.
In the 1976 Watergate political film ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, Washinton Post reporters Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) mistake Allyn Ann McLerie's "Carolyn Abbott" for someone else, in this scene:
The film was directed by Alan J. Pakula. David Shire's score was released by Film Score Monthly in 2007.
Allyn Ann McLerie appeared as a regular in the television series "The Tony Randall Show, which premiered on ABC on 23 September 1976. In the series, Randall starred as "Walter Franklin," a middle-aged widowed judge in Philadelphia. The show followed the reserved Franklin dealing with being a single parent, raising his teenage daughter (Devon Scott) and preteen son (Brad Savage). At times, he also had to play surrogate parent to his daffy English housekeeper (Rachel Roberts), whose inedible cooking was a frequent source of humor. At work, Judge Franklin had to contend with his dour and stuffy secretary, "Miss Reubner" (Allyn Ann McLerie), and his court reporter, "Jack Terwilliger" (Barney Martin), as well as presiding over court cases.
The show fought against strong Thursday night competition on CBS from #18 "Hawaii Five-0". Nevertheless, it ended up as the #29 rated show for the season. Even so, the show was cancelled by ABC. Perhaps in recognition of the strong battle it had put up against its competition, the show was picked up by CBS for a second season. CBS slotted the show on Saturday night against the second half of ABC's "Starsky and Hutch." When ABC replaced that show at mid-season with the much stronger "Love Boat" (#14 for the season), CBS tried to protect "The Tony Randall Show" by moving it to a earlier slot on Saturday against the weaker competition of ABC's "Operation Petticoat" and NBC's "Bionic Woman." But the show's ratings did not improve, and it was cancelled after 37 episodes.
Cast of "The Tony Randall Show" Front: Brad Savage (Oliver Wendell Franklin), Tony Randall (Walter Franklin). Back: Rachel Roberts (Mrs. McClellan), Barney Martin (Jack Terwilliger), Penny Peyser (Bobbi Franklin), Allyn Ann McLerie (Mrs. Reubner).
The 1980 television mini-series BEULAH LAND focuses on the titular Georgia plantation in the Antebellum South, starting in 1827 and proceeding well past the Civil War. Lesley Ann Warren stars as the emerging matriarch, "Sarah," who takes over the plantation after marrying the likable, but feeble "Leon" (Paul Rudd). "Meredith Baxter" is Sarah's older sister while Michael Sarrazin plays "Casey Troy," Sarah's 'knight in shining armor' from the North.
Eddie Albert and Hope Lange play the elders of Beulah Land. Dorian Harewood, Franklyn Seales, Grand L. Bush and Jean Foster have important black roles. Paul Shenar plays a literal slave-driver with Jenny Agutter as his woman of dubious morality. Don Johnson appears as "Bonard Davis," a rash young man from a neighboring plantation and Madeline Stowe is his maybe (or maybe not) wife. Allyn Ann McLerie is his mother, "Edna Davis."
Virgil W. Vogel was the original director of the three-episode mini-series, but when he suffered a heart attack during production, he was replaced by Harry Falk. Allyn Ferguson's score for the film has not had a release.
In the 1983 television mini-series THE THORN BIRDS, Allyn Ann McLerie played "Mrs. Smith." Daryl Duke directed the series. Henry Mancini's score was released by Varese Sarabande in 2004.
In her second television series, Allyn Ann McLerie played "Florence Bickford," Molly Dodd's mother in "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd". The show depicts the life of "Molly Bickford Dodd" (Blair Brown), a divorced woman in New York City with a lifestyle that could be described as both yuppie and bohemian. Molly seems to drift from job to job and relationship to relationship. Her ex-husband "Fred" (William Converse-Roberts), a ne'er-do-well jazz musician, still cares for her. In fact, nearly every man (and the occasional woman) she meets adores her. Her warmth and emotional accessibility are the root cause of most of Molly's problems in life.
NBC first broadcast the show as a summer replacement in 1987, running 13 episodes. "Molly Dodd" was critically acclaimed and a moderate ratings success (it was featured in the network's then-powerhouse Thursday night lineup), but was not included in the network's fall schedule. It was a mid-season replacement for NBC again in spring 1988, with 12 episodes (a season-ending 13th episode was produced but not aired). NBC canceled "Molly Dodd" after this second short season.
After being canceled by NBC, the Lifetime cable network picked the show up, first re-airing the 26 episodes originally produced, then commissioning three more 13-episode seasons for 1989, 1990, and 1991. Lifetime would continue to air "Molly Dodd" in reruns after original production stopped.
The cast of "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd" Front: Allyn Ann McLerie, Blair Brown Back: Show creator Jay Tarses, James Greene, William Converse-Roberts
Just about every other second tier star appeared in a "Police Academy" movie, so why not Allyn Ann McLerie? In truth, McLerie appeared in the film POLICE ACADEMY: MISSION TO MOSCOW because her husband, George Gaynes, was its star. MISSION TO MOSCOW was the seventh film in the series, and widely considered to be the worst. Nevertheless, it was actually filmed on location in Moscow, where, in the midst of shooting, the entire 52-member cast and crew had to retreat quickly when government troops began their October 4th, 1993 assault on the Russian parliament building. After a few days indoors, and confident that President Boris Yeltsin had regained control, filming was able to resume in Red Square.
McLerie plays the uncredited bit part of "Irina Petrovskaya." Composer Robert Folk provided his seventh "Police Academy" score for this 1994 film. This film would be the final screen appearance of Allyn Ann McLerie, who retired from film acting at the age of 68.
Allyn Ann McLerie had an acting career that stretched over 6 decades, and a marriage to actor George Gaynes that lasted just as long (from 1953 until his death in 2016.) The couple had two children. Not a bad legacy.
