THE MIGRANTS was a made-for-television film that took a stark look at the lives of migratory farm workers, focusing on one family, “the Barlows”—headed by Cloris Leachman and Ed Lauter, with children Ron Howard, Lisa Lucas, and Dinah Englund (Leachman’s real-life daughter). Reuniting from AMERICAN GRAFFITI, Cindy Williams plays Ron Howard’s girlfriend, factory-line worker “Betty.”
Tom Gries directed the film, which aired on CBS on 3 February 1974. The production received six Emmy Nominations--for Best Special, Best Actress (Cloris Leachman), as well as directing, writing, cinematography, and one for Billy Goldenberg’s score. Goldenberg lost the Emmy to Fred Karlin for THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN.
In THE CONVERSATION, paranoid, secretive surveillance expert “Harry Caul” (Gene Hackman) has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on “Mark” (Frederic Forrest) and “Ann” (Cindy Williams) will be murdered. Allen Garfield plays Harry’s business rival, “William P. ‘Bernie’ Moran.”
Cindy Williams and Frederic Forrest in THE CONVERSATION
Francis Ford Coppola directed the 1974 thriller. David Shire’s score was released by Intrada in 2001. The low-budget ($1.6 million) production was considered a financial failure, but only in comparison to Coppola’s previous blockbuster, THE GODFATHER. THE CONVERSATION actually grossed an acceptable $4.4 million.
MR. RICCO is defense attorney “Joe Ricco” (Dean Martin), a smooth-talking widower whose friendships with cops blur ethical boundaries. He cheats at golf, and he tolerates all the weed his young associates smoke while doing legal research. Joe gets black radical “Frankie Steele” (Thalmus Rasulala) acquitted on murder charges, earning adoration from the counterculture and enmity from the Establishment. After two cops are killed, Frankie emerges as Suspect No. 1, so Joe gets pulled into dual intrigue—even as he investigates whether Frankie’s really guilty, he tries to track the fugitive down before trigger-happy police find him. Cindy Williams is Joe’s spunky secretary “Jamison,” and future “Miami Vice” star Philip Michael Thomas plays a suspect whose sister hires Joe.
Cindy Williams and Dean Martin in MR. RICCO
Paul Bogart directed this 1975 drama, which has an unreleased score by Chico Hamilton. MR. RICCO was the first in a three-movie deal between Dean Martin and MGM that was part of a contract for Martin to perform at MGM’s Las Vegas hotel and casino. However, the film grossed an anemic $2.4 million, and no further films with MGM were produced. This was Martin’s last lead role in a feature film, although he subsequently made appearances in Burt Reynolds’ two CANNONBALL RUN films.
Cindy Williams met Penny Marshall, first on a double date, and later at Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope company. The company hired them as comedy writers, because "they wanted two women" on a prospective TV spoof for the Bicentennial. While the two were writing for Zoetrope, Penny Marshall's brother, Garry Marshall, called to ask if they would like to make an appearance on an episode of “Happy Days,” a television series he produced.l
On "Happy Days," the two women were originally introduced as acquaintances of "Fonzie" (Henry Winkler). ABC immediately approached Williams and Marshall about starring in their own spin-off series, "Laverne & Shirley". Penny said yes, and Cindy said no. Cindy had just starred in AMERICAN GRAFFITI and THE CONVERSATION—the first a commercial hit, and the second a prestige film. She was busy auditioning for movies like STAR WARS and still had dreams of being a movie star.
So, ABC casting executive Michael Eisner recast the Shirley part with an actress named Liberty Williams, no relation to Cindy. Liberty Williams was an ABC extra and stock player at this point, known primarily for doing voice-over work playing “Jayna,” one of the Wonder Twins, on ABCs Saturday morning cartoon hit “The Superfriends.” Liberty Williams and Penny Marshall filmed a couple of scenes together as the new Laverne and Shirley, and this was presented to the ABC executives who gave it the go ahead, ready to film the new series with Liberty in the lead, not Cindy. The new pairing was good, but not great. ABC began to prepare the girls for the new series, but producer Garry Marshall pled with Cindy one last time to take the role, and finally she relented, and the rest is history. In an ABC vault somewhere there's the screen test showing Liberty Williams as Shirley, never seen by the general public. Michael Eisner talks about all of this on an Emmy TV Legends interview which can be seen on YouTube.
Set in roughly the same time period as “Happy Days,” the timeline of “Laverne and Shirley” started in approximately 1958, when the series began, through 1967, when the series ended. As with "Happy Days," it was made by Paramount Television, created by Garry Marshall (along with Lowell Ganz and Mark Rothman).
The series followed the lives of "Laverne DeFazio" (Penny Marshall) and "Shirley Feeney" (Cindy Williams), two friends and roommates who work as bottle-cappers in the fictitious Shotz Brewery in late 1950s Milwaukee, Wisconsin. From the sixth season onward, the series' setting changed to mid-1960s Burbank, California. Michael McKean and David Lander co-starred as their friends and neighbors "Lenny" and "Squiggy," along with Eddie Mekka as "Carmine Ragusa," Phil Foster as Laverne's father "Frank DeFazio," and Betty Garrett as the girls' landlady "Edna Babish."
Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams in "Laverne & Shirley"
"Laverne & Shirley" premiered as a mid-season replacement in the 1975–76 TV season, with its first episode airing in January 1976. The show followed its "parent series," "Happy Days," at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday nights, replacing "Welcome Back, Kotter," which ABC moved elsewhere to shore up another part of its schedule. The show was an immediate hit, and ended up as the #3 rated show for the year, eclipsing "Happy Days," which came in at #11.
Betty Garrett, Eddie Mekka, Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams
In its second season (1976-77), "Laverne & Shirley" did even better, earning the #2 spot for the year, behind "Happy Days" which came in at #1, giving ABC an incredible "one-two" punch to kick off its Tuesday schedule. Cindy Williams briefly walked off the show to protest Penny Marshall getting all the good lines. She returned two days later. "Laverne & Shirley" received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Comedy Series, losing to "Barney Miller."
Cindy Williams, Henry Winkler, and Penny Marshall
The third season (1977-78) was much the same, but with the shows' positions reversed. This time it was "Laverne & Shirley" at No. 1 and "Happy Days" at No.2. Cindy Williams received a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress in a Comedy Series, losing to Carol Burnett.
"Laverne & Shirley" continued as the most watched show on television during its fourth season (1978-79), while "Happy Days' dropped slightly to the No. 3 spot. (in a tie with another of its spin-offs, "Mork and Mindy.").
The show's fifth season (1979-80), however, proved how much "Laverne & Shirley" owed to its lead-in "Happy Days." ABC moved "Laverne & Shirley" to Thursday at 8 p.m. as a lead in for its new show "Benson." "Laverne & Shirley" was also opposite a little stiffer competition on the new night: "The Waltons" on CBS and "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" on NBC. Viewership dropped drastically. In an effort to improve the show's ratings, ABC moved "Laverne & Shirley" to Mondays at 8 p.m. in December, 1979. The ratings fared no better, so in February, 1980, the network moved the series back to its familiar Tuesday night berth right after "Happy Days." While "Benson" was able to finish in the #27 spot for the year, "Laverne & Shirley," which just a year earlier had been at #1, completely dropped out of the top 30 shows.
For the sixth season in September 1980, Laverne and Shirley and their friends all moved from Milwaukee to Burbank, California. The ladies took jobs at a department store, Frank and Edna managed a Texas barbecue restaurant called Cowboy Bill's, Carmine delivered singing telegrams and sought work as an actor, and Lenny and Squiggy started a talent agency called Squignowski Talent Agency. From this point until the end of the series' run, "Laverne & Shirley" was set in the mid-1960s. "Laverne & Shirley" was now back in its normal Tuesday night slot after "Happy Days," but both series were showing their age. "Happy Days" rated #15 for the year, and "Laverne & Shirley" came in at #20.
Season 7 (1981-82) was much the same. "Happy Days" dropped to #18, and "Laverne & Shirley" stayed at #20. In March 1982, Cindy Williams became pregnant with her first child. In May, Williams and her manager-husband Bill Hudson presented a list of demands to accommodate her pregnancy and pending childbirth, which Paramount refused. In August, two episodes into production of the series' eighth season, Williams left the show and filed a $20 million lawsuit against Paramount. The case was later settled out of court, and Williams was released from her contract.
Season 8 (1982-83) saw "Happy Days" falling to #28 and "Laverne & Shirley" falling to #25. Williams’ absence was explained by having Shirley moving out of the apartment to be with her husband Walter after he was transferred out of the country. Despite the departure of Williams, ratings were still good, and ABC asked Penny Marshall to return for a ninth year, but she insisted that the show move its production base from Los Angeles to New York. Eyeing the cost of such an endeavor, and given the age of the show, ABC quietly canceled "Laverne & Shirley" in May 1983 after 178 episodes.
The theme song from the series ("Making Our Dreams Come True" as performed by Cyndi Grecco) was released as a single from Cyndi's LP by the same name and became a radio favorite, becoming a top-30 American hit in 1976.
In 1976, Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams released an album, performed in character, titled "Laverne & Shirley Sing," which contained some original songs along with some 1950s and 1960s standards. The album was originally released on Atlantic Records. On November 11, 2003, Collector's Choice released it on CD.
Movie producer “Harry Schecther” (Stephen Nathan) has fallen on hard times, so he’s cranking out cheap porno flicks in order to keep his once-successful studio solvent. After creditors threaten Harry with foreclosure, he dreams up a desperate final gambit: making an all-singing, all-dancing X-rated movie. THE FIRST NUDIE MUSICAL depicts his bumbling attempts to get the job done, despite a miniscule budget, tight schedule, and uncooperative leading lady “Mary La Rue” (Alexandra Morgan). To make matters worse, Harry is forced to hire “John Smithee” (Bruce Kimmel), the dim-bulb son of a studio creditor, as his director. Cindy Williams co-stars as Harry’s loyal, wise-cracking secretary, “Rosie.”
In addition to co-starring in the 1976 film, Bruce Kimmel wrote the screenplay, composed the music and lyrics, and co-directed the film with Mark Haggard. The score was released on LP by Varese Sarabande in 1978, and re-issued on CD in an expanded version by Kritzerland in 2011.
THE FIRST NUDIE MUSICAL was made independently on a $150,000 budget. Paramount later acquired the film for $300,000, but $125,000 had to be paid to Irving Levin of National General Pictures who claimed he had a prior verbal commitment to distribute the film. Bruce Kimmel, along with the film’s producers, later sued Joe Brooks, who had lent $25,000 to help finance the production and allegedly made the commitment to Levin. Though Kimmel and the other plaintiffs acknowledged that Brooks had the right to sell the film, they claimed he had only been authorized to offer it to “major studios.” The outcome of the lawsuit could not be determined. (Maybe Bruce could help us out here.)
Since Paramount, the studio where “Laverne and Shirley” was in production, coincidentally also had the distribution rights to THE FIRST NUDIE MUSICAL, executives there were nervous about the film. It contained full frontal nudity (not Cindy Williams, of course, who was one of the stars) as well as a dancing dildos song-and-dance number and show tunes with double-entendre meanings such as “Come, Come Now.”
Cindy Williams in THE FIRST NUDIE MUSICAL
Williams said that she was not at all apprehensive about doing the film, “because it was by my dear friend, Bruce Kimmel, who wrote it, directed it and starred in it. We’d known each other since we were 18 and attending Los Angeles City College in the theater arts department. We did many shows together there and became great friends. Years later, about 1970, he came over to my house and told me about this idea he had. He’s always been a prolific writer of musicals and music. He said, ‘Cynthia…’—he always calls me Cynthia—'I want to do a send-up of a porn movie, and do it to music.’ He said he would call it The First Nudie Musical, which made me laugh. He said he was going to shoot it on 8mm black-and-white and blow it up so it has that grainy appearance. This was back when porn films were like that. They were shot on 8mm and then blown up so they looked grainy. He wanted Jack Nicholson to star in it. I told him I thought it was possible but, of course, we didn’t get Jack and [Bruce] ended up shooting it in color. I thought it was a great idea to do a send-up of pornography and show how silly it is.”
“All of our friends from school are in it from the theater arts department. It was sort of like, ‘I’ve got a barn, you bring the costumes.’ That’s how we did it, and it turned out to be extremely funny. As my godmother said, ‘It’s risqué.’ There is nudity in it—not me. I do say a couple of things in it that got me the moniker in People magazine, “Little Miss Filth Mouth.”
The film was being touted as “the first R-rated screen musical ever made.” It was released during the first week of March 1976 in twelve cities, not including Los Angeles or New York, and opened to mixed critical reception. Though reviewers acknowledged potential in the premise, the execution was criticized as amateur. Cindy Williams was criticized by Bill Diehl of the St. Paul Dispatch, who published an article contending that fans of Williams’ ABC series “Laverne & Shirley” would be appalled at her appearance in the “tasteless, disgusting, revolting” film.
An article in the 30 April 1976 Hollywood Reporter stated that Kimmel was dissatisfied with Paramount’s advertising campaign, which included an ad featuring two musical notes in the shape of breasts and another showing a man in tails dancing with a nude girl with film wrapped around her.
Hoping to emphasize the innocent nature of the film in order to draw a wider audience, Kimmel petitioned to handle the advertising campaign before the film’s 5 May 1976 Los Angeles opening. Paramount granted Kimmel’s request and provided $20,000 for the revamped campaign. The article argued, however, that Kimmel’s ads, showing “the title of the picture enclosed around silhouettes of four dancing nudes,” may have also misled potential viewers, suggesting the film was mostly nude when none of the film’s stars took off their clothes.
By July 1976, Paramount had halted domestic distribution of the film after only 99 playdates and disappointing results, although the film had covered its costs. (A theater in Charlotte, NC reported that only one person came to the show at 7:30 PM Saturday night.) About a year later, Northal Film Distribution purchased “worldwide rights” to the film from Paramount. Northal re-released the film in mid-1977, and made the deal with Varese for the soundtrack release.
SUDDENLY, LOVE saw two young lovers—“Regina Malloy” (Cindy Williams), a child of the ghetto determined to escape her alcoholic, bickering parents (Eileen Heckart and Scott Brady), and “Jack Graham” (Paul Shenar), a socially prominent attorney with a long standing health problem—attempt to defy every obstacle to their romance and ultimate marriage.
Stuart Margolin directed this made-for-television drama, which aired on NBC on 4 December 1978. David Rose provided the unreleased score.
AMERICAN GRAFFITI followed a group of friends during the summer evening before they set off for college. MORE AMERICAN GRAFFITI shows where they end up a few years later on New Years Eve. The film, set over the course of four consecutive New Year's Eves from 1964 to 1967, depicts scenes from each of these years, intertwined with one another as though events happen simultaneously. Confusion is lessened by the use of a distinct cinematic style for each section.
Most of the main cast members from the first film returned for the sequel, including Candy Clark, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips, Charles Martin Smith, Bo Hopkins, and Harrison Ford. Richard Dreyfuss was the only principal cast member from the original film not to appear in the sequel.
In 1964, “Steve” (Ron Howard) and “Laurie Bolander” (Cindy Williams) are now a young married couple expecting twins. By 1967, Laurie wants to get a part-time job, but Steve is adamant that she remain at home with the children.
Cindy Williams (far right) in MORE AMERICAN GRAFFITI
It was executive producer George Lucas, inspired by Francis Ford Coppola's THE GODFATHER PART II (1974), who wanted to make his 1979 sequel darker and more complicated. Lucas planned to shoot the time periods in four distinct styles, reflecting changing cinematographic trends of the 1960s. The 1964 drag racing segment was captured in widescreen Panavision, with an emphasis on simple compositions. To convey newsreel or documentary photography for the 1965 Vietnam sequences, multiple hand held 16mm cameras were used. The 1966 “hippie” story employed split screen (like WOODSTOCK) and other experimental devices to represent psychedelic cinema, and the 1967 period was photographed with long lenses in a “television commercial style.” Furthermore, each story was divided into twelve scenes lasting approximately two minutes, based on the idea that the average duration of a 45-rpm record is two minutes. Therefore, a single song was planned for each scene.
Writer and director Bill Norton thought that cutting between four different time frames would be too jolting for most of the audience, and also didn't like the various film formats used for each of the four storylines. Years later, Lucas would admit that Norton was right.
The sequel cost eight times as much as the original AMERICAN GRAFFITI, but was brought in within its $3 million budget and forty-five-day schedule. The film didn’t gross anywhere near its predecessor, but was still still profitable, pulling in $21.5 million.
As with the original film, the film’s music consisted solely of pop/rock songs, again released on a double LP from MCA. Unlike the original, however, the soundtrack has not seen a CD re-issue.
SPACESHIP, a spoof of ALIEN-type space adventures, began life as THE CREATURE WASN’T NICE. It was written and directed by Bruce Kimmel, and in a 1981 interview he described the main characters, the crew of the spaceship Vertigo:
“Cindy [Williams] plays “Annie,” the officer in charge of morale who ends up being in charge of everything because she’s the only one with any sanity. I play “John,” the NASA apprentice trainee, who’s also the ship’s cook and general floor washer. Gerrit [Graham] plays “Arthur Rodzinski,” the second-in-command, a very obnoxious low-life in need of women all the time.
“Leslie [Nielsen] plays “Captain James ‘Jimmy’ Jameson,” who is very stalwart and heroic, except that he makes decisions by listening to what other people say and then assumes they’re his own ideas. Patrick [Macnee] plays “Dr. Stark,” the typical obsessed scientists, who thinks he’s the voice of reason and is always saying things like ‘This is very important for mankind.’ There always seems to be one of these guys who says ‘The creature means no harm,’ as he gets his arms ripped off.”
Leslie Nielsen and Cindy Williams in SPACESHIP
Kimmel said, “I wrote Cindy’s part for her, but she hated the first draft because she had no character. We talked about it and came up with what she wanted to do. I rewrote it, and it became a very nice part. We worked extremely well together.”
On 23 October 1981, the film had a sneak preview in a Los Angeles theater.
After the preview, the film went back into editing, and the search for a distributor began. Ultimately, Almi Films signed on to distribute the picture. The film was given the revised title of SPACESHIP, perhaps to evoke memories of Leslie Nielsen’s 1980 hit film AIRPLANE. The film opened on 15 July 1983 in Louisville, KY, and a few weeks later turned up in a few Illinois towns.
Distribution of the film was limited, and by 1984 it had been released on VHS. When the film was released on DVD in the late 1990s, Leslie Nielsen’s billing was changed from third to first, and the film was retitled NAKED SPACE, most likely to piggyback off the success of Nielsen’s most recent hit films, the NAKED GUN series (1988-1994).
David Spear’s score for the film was released by BSX in 2007 under its original title, THE CREATURE WASN’T NICE.
...and Mr. Kimmel not long ago released his director's version of the "The Creature Wasn't Nice" on his Kritzerland label in a very tasty DVD edition that includes lots of extras. From the Kritzerland website:
The DVD is loaded with extras, including: BOTH VERSIONS OF THE FILM THREE COMMENTARY TRACKS – one with writer/director Bruce Kimmel, one with Kimmel and star Cindy Williams, and one with Kimmel and editor Marshall Harvey. TWO EPISODES OF OUTSIDE THE BOX, Bruce Kimmel’s critically acclaimed musical comedy web series. THE HONEYMOON SKETCH – a sketch from the TV variety series Dinah and Her New Best Friends, featuring Cindy Williams and Bruce Kimmel and written by Kimmel. RODZINSKI REMINISCES – New 2019 video with Gerrit Graham CREATURE COMFORTS – New 2019 video with Ron Kurowski on playing The Creature THEATRICAL TRAILER FOR SPACESHIP COMPLETE SOUNDTRACK AND SONGS IN 24-BIT
In the made-for-television thriller WHEN DREAMS COME TRUE, Cindy Williams plays “Susan Matthews,” a would-be artist working part-time as a tour guide in an art museum. Her boyfriend is “Alex” (Lee Horsley), a workaholic police detective who is inordinately proud of his Gypsy heritage. He’s never done anything spontaneous in his life; he’s handsome but boring.
In her dreams, Susan meets a tender romantic fellow (David Morse), who protects her from a stalking stranger, then makes love to her in the hallway of her apartment. When the man in her dreams actually turns up at the museum, Susan finds out that his name is “Robert,” then tails him until they finally meet. Romance blooms. But Susan’s erotic fantasies turn grisly when she starts dreaming about the murders that are rocking the city.
Cindy Williams and David Morse in WHEN DREAMS COME TRUE
John Llewellyn Moxey directed the film, which aired on ABC on 28 May 1985. Gil Mellé provided the unreleased score.
In the comedy-suspense tale TRICKS OF THE TRADE, two women involved with a newly murdered stockbroker—“Catherine Todson” (Cindy Williams), his pampered wife, and “Marla” (Markie Post), a high-priced call girl with whom he had been a regular—find themselves targets while looking for the killer.
Jack Bender directed this made-for-television film, which aired on CBS on 6 December 1988. Walter Murphy provided the unreleased score.
I'm not sure we sued Joe Brooks and I'm not sure it was he who made the deal with Irving Levin - but maybe I'm wrong. Certainly, I was not a party to any lawsuit. I do remember having to pay off Levin, which was ridiculous but that's the show business. World Northal did not make the deal with Varese, I did. They had nothing to do with it. It was Varese Sarabande's first soundtrack album. Furthermore, while you post stuff about it not doing well in its Paramount engagements, that is partially true but only because Paramount did nothing to promote it. However, it did just fine here in LA in two theaters for two weeks and could have and should have run longer but unfortunately the head of Paramount Pictures called Ted Mann personally and asked him to pull the picture. THAT is why we were able to get the film back, because of that call. We threatened to sue and they gave us the film back, at which point we made the deal with World Northal. But you stop there and don't say that the film was a big ol' success for World Northal, running three months at one theater in NY and then going wide - the week it went wide it was the fourth highest grossing film in the United States of America, right under Star Wars, You Light Up My Life (Joe Brooks again), and The Spy Who Loved Me. And it played many engagements, mostly on the East Coast but throughout Middle America from 1977 all the way through the early 1980s. Just thought we should add that to the record.
Re The Creature Wasn't Nice - I'd like to know where that quote from me came from. Please cite it because I would never have phrased anything like that. She didn't hate the first draft because other than a few minor things I changed before we shot the picture, it basically WAS the first draft. She did what she always does - brings all kinds of wonderful things to the character. Same with Nudie, same with everything we did together and we did lot together.
Her death was very hard to deal with. We'd just wrapped filming on a new streaming series I created, where she played the lead character's grandmother, which I wrote especially for her. That was mid-November of 2022 and the last thing we said to each other on her last day was, "We'll probably still be doing this stuff when we're 100." She was one of a kind, a beautiful soul, and I'm grateful we had one final adventure together - our friendship spanned close to sixty years and I loved her dearly. And yes, I always called her Cynthia, from the day I met her, our first day at LACC.
Re The Creature Wasn't Nice - I'd like to know where that quote from me came from. Please cite it because I would never have phrased anything like that. She didn't hate the first draft because other than a few minor things I changed before we shot the picture, it basically WAS the first draft. She did what she always does - brings all kinds of wonderful things to the character. Same with Nudie, same with everything we did together and we did lot together.
I'm not sure we sued Joe Brooks and I'm not sure it was he who made the deal with Irving Levin - but maybe I'm wrong. Certainly, I was not a party to any lawsuit.
As near as I can determine, the lawsuit was reported in a 30 April 1976 issue of the Hollywood Reporter, (pages 1 & 20). The article suggests that Brooks allegedly made the commitment to Levin, which is what I stated.
World Northal did not make the deal with Varese, I did. They had nothing to do with it. It was Varese Sarabande's first soundtrack album.
That was supposedly reported in a 15 February 1978 Variety news item. I say "supposedly," because I am relying on a second-hand report of what the item said, not having seen it myself.
[You] don't say that the film was a big ol' success for World Northal, running three months at one theater in NY and then going wide - the week it went wide it was the fourth highest grossing film in the United States of America, right under Star Wars, You Light Up My Life (Joe Brooks again), and The Spy Who Loved Me. And it played many engagements, mostly on the East Coast but throughout Middle America from 1977 all the way through the early 1980s. Just thought we should add that to the record.
Good to know. I was unable to come up with any box office numbers for the film on either its initial or re-release.
In 1969 New York City, two hippies, “Fred Wook” (Eric Roberts) and “Jesus Monteya” (Cheech Marin), flee the U.S. to avoid arrest by the FBI and hide out in the jungles of Central America. Fred is an idealist, working on an underground newspaper with his friend “Sammy” (Robert Carradine), while Jesus is a stoner whose brain has been fried after being given huge amounts of LSD by researchers (the theory being that acid and appropriate visual stimulation can turn pacifist hippies into committed soldiers; Jesus proves their failure by wishing them 'peace' as he leaves the lab.) The two flee the inner-city commune in which they are living, leaving behind Sammy who feels it is important that he keep writing and publishing their message, and Fred's girlfriend, artist “Petra” (Julie Hagerty).
Twenty years later, the two hippies have a RUDE AWAKENING when they return to New York City to find that their two best friends have become straight-arrow members of the Establishment. Petra is a highstrung businesswoman, and she’s horrified when they arrive on the rug of her sterile condo.
Sammy and his wife “June” (Cindy Williams) have cornered the market in tanning salons. The revolution, except in ultraviolet rays, got lost somewhere along the way. But it probably goes without saying that the reappearance of the two old comrades-in-arms does a lot to rekindle these ex-radicals’ former beliefs.
Buck Henry, Andrea Martin, Cindy Williams, and Robert Carradine in RUDE AWAKENING
David Greenwalt began directing the film but was replaced by producer Aaron Russo after Greenwalt became ill. None of Jonathan Elias’ score appeared on the song-track CD released by Elektra Records. The $10 million production was a bust at the box office, grossing just $3.2 million.
In PERRY MASON: THE CASE OF THE POISONED PEN, at an award ceremony for writers, celebrated author, “Bradley Thompson” (David Warner) causes quite a stink as not only do his fellow writers despise him for stealing their ideas over the years but he ends up in a confrontation with both “Della Street” (Barbara Hale) and “Ken Malansky” (William R. Moses), as his book based on a Perry Mason case led to the death of an innocent man. But when Thompson collapses and dies from poisoning, it is Bradley's former wife “Martha Robertson” (Barbara Babcock) who is charged with the murder.
As usual, “Sergeant Brock” (James McEachin) believes he has an open and shut case, but Mason delves deeper into the life of Thompson proving that everybody at the writers' conference had strong motives for wanting him dead. Not least is “Rita Sue Bliss” (Cindy Williams) who was once romantically connected to him. But he also plagiarized her work as well.
Kiel Martin, Barbara Babcock, Cindy Williams, and Tony Lo Bianco in PERRY MASON: THE CASE OF THE POISONED PEN
Christian I. Nyby II directed this made-for-television film, which aired on NBC on 21 January 1990. Dick DeBenedictis scored the film.
“Normal Life” was a situation comedy based on the real and unconventional home life of rocker dad Frank Zappa and his children. In the re-invented storyline about a family of self-proclaimed liberals, Max Gail is “Max Harlowe,” a stay-at-home writer father, Cindy Williams is “Anne,” his exceptionally family-involved wife, and their three independent (but close) children are played by actual Zappa siblings Moon Unit Zappa and Dweezil Zappa, and Josh Williams (no relation to Cindy).
Max Gail and Cindy Williams in “Normal Life”
CBS gave the series a spring 1990 try-out as one of many shows to fill in for the failed Lindsay Wagner drama “Peaceable Kingdom,” which lasted just 7 episodes. “Normal Life” alternated with Valerie Bertinelli’s sitcom “Sydney” in the 8:00 and 8:30 PM Tuesday timeslots in the spring and summer of 1990.
The series faced the sitcoms “Growing Pains” and “Head of the Class” on ABC (the #21 and #26 shows, respectively that season), not to mention NBC’s “Unsolved Mysteries” (the #11 show). Both sit-coms were cancelled after their 13-episode orders had played out.
