When someone laces a crabcake with poison and kills a power-hungry president of a local PTA, you have a MENU FOR MURDER. The suspects include the PTA officers and members: its secretary (Cindy Williams), treasurer (Morgan Fairchild), vice president (Julia Duffy), and members (Marla Gibbs, Joan Van Ark, and Edie McClurg), and Jane Carr.
Directed by Larry Peerce, the film was originally called by the name of its 1987 source novel by Valerie Wolzien—“Murder at the P.T.A. Luncheon.” The made-for-television film aired on CBS on 4 December 1990. Ron Ramin scored the film.
EARTH ANGEL was an out-of-this-world comedy that had the most popular girl of the class of 1962, “Angela” (Cathy Podewell), involved in a fatal car crash on prom night, being sent back to earth 30 years later on a mission: to set her old classmates’ problems right and to teach the man she left behind, the class nerd (Mark Hamill), to love again. Her own reward: admittance to heaven and eternity with James Dean.
Cindy Williams is “Judith Benson Boyd,” Angela’s best friend (and the only one who can now see her). Erik Estrada is “Duke,” the school jock, who was driving the car that crashed. Roddy McDowell is Angela’s guidance counselor, and Alan Young is Judith’s dotty dad.
Joe Napolitano directed this made-for-television film, which aired on ABC on 4 March 1991. Kevin Klinger provided the unreleased score.
Cindy Williams went to Vancouver to film BINGO, about a runaway circus dog that befriends a young boy, “Chuckie Devlin” (Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.), who has trouble fitting in with his friends. Williams and David Rasche played Chuckie’s parents, “Natalie and Hal Delvin.”
Robert J. Steinmiller Jr., David French, David Rasche, Cindy Williams and “Lace” in BINGO
Matthew Robbins directed the 1991 film. Richard Gibbs’ score was released by Bay Cities. BINGO cost $10 million to produce, but grossed only $8.7 million in U.S. theaters.
“Getting By” was a sitcom about two best friends and single mothers, one white and one black, who decide to split the mortgage on a new home in suburban Oak Park, Illinois and live there with their respective families. The women, widowed “Dolores Dixon” (Telma Hopkins) and “Cathy Hale” (Cindy Williams), whose husband ran off with another woman, were also co-workers, as they were employed as social workers for the Chicago Department of Social Services. Dolores had two sons, “Marcus” (Merlin Santana) and “Darren” (Deon Richmond). Cathy had two daughters, “Nikki” (Nicki Vannice) and “Julie” (Ashleigh Blair Sterling).
Cindy Williams and Telma Hopkins in “Getting By”
ABC gave “Getting By’ a try-out in the spring of 1993 at 9 PM Fridays, in the slot previously occupied by the creature sitcom “Dinosaurs.” There, the series did OK against CBS’s “Designing Women,” which was in its final season, and the NBC Friday Night Movie. But after 12 episodes, ABC declined to give the series a pick-up for the coming fall season.
The show was rescued by NBC, which had a hole to fill in its schedule on Tuesdays at 8:30 PM. “Getting By” premiered on NBC in the fall on 21 September 1993. In its new timeslot, the show faced off against two shows that tied for the #27 spot in the ratings that season—the tennis sitcom “Phenom” on ABC and the docudrama “Rescue 911” on CBS. After 15 episodes, “Getting By” was cancelled in February, with four more episodes being burned off in the late spring of 1994.
ESCAPE FROM TERROR: THE TERESA STAMPER STORY had been first told on the popular NBC reality series “Unsolved Mysteries,” hosted by Robert Stack. That episode had been so well received that NBC decided to commission a docudrama retelling of the story using actors to portray the real-life participants.
In the film, which takes place in 1982, impressionable Oklahoman Teresa Walden (Maria Pitillo) falls for smooth-talking mechanic Paul Stamper (Adam Storke) and marries him despite the concerns of her mom Wanda Walden (Cindy Williams). (Mom, as it turns out, had suffered from an abusive marriage to Teresa's dad.) Right off the bat, Paul socks Teresa and then buys her a huge house. She discovers he’s a thief and an addict, but she has a baby by him. In typical fashion, she keeps leaving him and returning like a yo-yo.
Michael M. Scott directed the made-for-television film, which aired on 23 January 1995. Philip Giffin 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.
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.
Of course, I have the issue of weekly Variety where those grosses WERE reported. As to the quote, I think they misunderstood me and got it wrong - but then that article was filled with that sort of thing. I remember at the time we were all taken aback how much misquoting there was. Lesson learned. I can't help what Variety reported about Varese Sarabande. I made the deal because I owned the music and was its publisher. You my believe what you will but I was there and know how it all happened. I began Varese on its soundtrack journey with that album - I badgered them into going into soundtracks, it's that simple.
Of course, I have the issue of weekly Variety where those grosses WERE reported. As to the quote, I think they misunderstood me and got it wrong - but then that article was filled with that sort of thing. I remember at the time we were all taken aback how much misquoting there was. Lesson learned. I can't help what Variety reported about Varese Sarabande. I made the deal because I owned the music and was its publisher. You my believe what you will but I was there and know how it all happened. I began Varese on its soundtrack journey with that album - I badgered them into going into soundtracks, it's that simple.
I was just providing my sources (or lack thereof), not questioning you. I'm glad to give you the opportunity to set the record straight after nearly 42 years.
The 1974 theatrical film THE STEPFORD WIVES had already had two made-for-television sequels—THE REVENGE OF THE STEPFORD WIVES (1980) and THE STEPFORD CHILDREN (1987). So, the next natural follow-up had to be THE STEPFORD HUSBANDS.
In the film, “Jodi and Mick Davison” (Donna Mills and Michael Ontkean) are a stressed-out Manhattan couple whose marriage is hurting. Jodi’s college pal “Caroline” (Cindy Williams) persuades the pair to move to charming, tranquil Stepford, Conn., which consists entirely of gorgeous Colonial homes, perfectly groomed yards and too-happy couples. Sarah Douglas is the town doctor, and Louise Fletcher is the founder of the Stepford Institute for Human Behavior.
Cindy Williams, Sarah Douglas, Donna Mills, Michael Ontkean, and Louise Fletcher in THE STEPFORD HUSBANDS
Fred Walton directed this made-for-television film, which aired on CBS on 14 May 1996. Dana Kaproff provided the unreleased score.
On 27 April 1999, CBS broadcast THE PATTY DUKE SHOW REUNION MOVIE (officially called THE PATTY DUKE SHOW: STILL ROCKIN' IN BROOKLYN HEIGHTS). The original show had been produced for United Artists and broadcast by ABC. This movie was produced by UA's successor MGM.
The film brought back all of the main cast, and centered around the now-grown "twins" being reunited back in Brooklyn Heights to foil the scheme of Patty's nemesis, "Sue Ellen Caldwell" (played by Cindy Williams), to turn the girls' high school into a lucrative shopping mall. The recurring role of Sue Ellen had been played by Kitty Sullivan in the series, but she hadn't pursued acting after the series ended.
Christopher Leitch directed the film, which had an unreleased score by Richard Bellis.
For most of the next decade, Cindy Williams did guest shots on numerous television series, such as “7th Heaven,” “8 Simple Rules,” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” In 2012, she co-starred with John Heard in the feature film STEALING ROSES
In this comedy-drama, Heard plays a man who is terrified at the prospect of losing his seriously ill wife (Williams) to cancer. So, he plans a bank robbery to pay for her medical treatments, with help from his eccentric friends - while his son (Mark Famiglietti), a cop, tries to stop him.
Cindy Williams and John Heard in STEALING ROSES
Megan Clare Foster wrote and directed this independently produced film. Although it played a few film festivals, the picture was unable to find a distributor and was never commercially released to theaters. The film has no credited music score.
The 2010’s brought Williams only an occasional television appearance, TV movie, or little seen feature. During the decade, however, she also made numerous appearances on the stage. She was awarded a Star for Television on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in a double ceremony with Penny Marshall on August 12, 2004. In 2015, Williams’ memoir, Shirley, I Jest! - A Storied Life (co-written with Dave Smitherman), was published.
Of her role on “Laverne and Shirley,” Williams said, “We made sure the joke was always on us, we never made fun of anyone else. We also wanted to keep the wolf nipping at our heels, like how are we going to pay the rent, how are we going to pay the electric bill. So we kept it grounded in that. We also made sure it was extremely funny to us.”
And us as well. Thanks for the laughs, Cindy.
Ron Howard, Penny Marshall, Cindy Williams, and Henry Winkler
I was just providing my sources (or lack thereof), not questioning you. I'm glad to give you the opportunity to set the record straight after nearly 42 years.
Well, to be fair, what better place to set the record straight on film grosses than in a tribute thread to someone whom you knew for 50 years?
I was just providing my sources (or lack thereof), not questioning you. I'm glad to give you the opportunity to set the record straight after nearly 42 years.
Well, to be fair, what better place to set the record straight on film grosses than in a tribute thread to someone whom you knew for 50 years?
Looking at your posting history, I'm beginning to understand all this.
