Saturday, September 07, 1985

THE CUCKOO BIRD Novelist Constance Beresford-Howe takes a bitterly funny look at a marriage gone haywire. Elizabeth Shepherd walks out on her philandering husband when he brings home his latest conquest, a young woman dubbed "the cuckoo bird". Kenneth Welsh is the smitten hubby and Robyn Sheppard is the young woman who gets more - and less - than she bargained for. (CBC).


LABOR OF LOVE Union politics, wildcat strikes, feuding families and illicit love affairs fracture a New Brunswick town in this screwball satire. Booth Savage, Don Francks, Maury Chaykin, Linda Goranson and Sheila McCarthy are among those out for whatever they can get. (CBC). LOVE AND LARCENY The amazing career of Betsy Bigley, a beautiful con woman who set Canada on its ear in the 1890s sounds like perfect fodder for the movie mill. From humble beginnings in Woodstock, the notorious Ms Bigley ensnared local yokels and the nation's power-brokers as she trundled her merry way to Toronto, Montreal and New York. Jennifer Dale has the plum role as brainy Betsy. Douglas Rain, Brent Carver and Kenneth Welsh are among those who open their hearts and wallets. (CBC) MURDER: BY REASON OF INSANITY In one of umpteen "based-on-fact" telefilms coming up this season, Jurgen Prochnow (Das Boot) stars as Adam Berwid, a man driven by private demons. Unable to adjust to America after his emigration from Poland, he turns his frustration and anger toward his wife. Committed for psychiatric observation, Berwid convinces authorities he can be safely given a day pass to leave the hospital. The stage is set for murder. Candice Bergen plays his terrified wife; Eli Wallach co-stars as the doctor who makes the fatal mistake. (CBS). IZZY AND MOE Jackie Gleason and Art Carney dump their Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton characters for this zippy comedy set in the Roaring Twenties. Izzy and Moe are ex- vaudevillians who put the bite on crime as federal prohibition agents. An odd couple of booze-busters indeed. But thanks to their show- biz savvy, they become stars of the department and targets of vengeful mobsters. (CBS and CHCH). AMOS Kirk Douglas stars as a 78-year-old rebel who incurs the wrath of Elizabeth Montgomery as the iron-willed, and perhaps homicidal, ruler of his nursing home. When fellow patients begin dying under mysterious circumstances, Douglas plots to expose the murderer while the murderer plots to end his meddling. Dorothy McGuire, Ray Walston, Don Reefer and Noriyuka "Pat" Morita are fellow patients who help Douglas's sleuthing. (CBS and CHCH). A LETTER TO THREE WIVES Joseph L. Mankiewicz's sparkling 1948 comedy gets another workout as Michele Lee, Loni Anderson and Stephanie Zimbalist star as three young wives who are stunned to learn one of their husbands has run off with with a notorious femme fatale. The question is: which hubby flew the coop? The candidates are Ben Gazzara, Michael Gross and Charles Frank. Ann Sothern, who played one of the wondering wives in the original version, is back as a mom in this one. (NBC and CTV). TOUGHLOVE Another fact-based drama. Lee Remick and Bruce Dern are at wits end with their hostile, drug-abusing teen-ager. In desperation, they turn to the controversial self- help group, Toughlove, whose credo is "parents are people too." Through the group they come to agree that unacceptable and distruptive behavior must be met with a firm but loving hand. Piper Laurie co-stars as a group member whose daughter self-destructs. (ABC and CITY). INTENSIVE CARE Liza Minnelli takes time out from her concert tours to go dramatic in the story of a mother who must cope with the physical and emotional trauma of watching her son die of an incurable disease. The drama is based on the experiences of Mary-Lou Weisman, whose book detailed her initial attempts to deny the horrible reality and her eventual realization that she must make every remaining day with her son a precious time. (NBC). AN EARLY FROST It could hardly be more topical. Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara are parents shattered by the news their homosexual son has been infected by AIDS. Aidan Quinn, whose career is in high gear after Reckless and Desperately Seeking Susan, plays the doomed young man. Hollywood veteran Sylvia Sidney plays Quinn's grandmother who, like the others, must steel herself for the inevitable. (NBC). THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF THE EWOKS George Lucas's cuddly critters are back. Little Aubree Miller, her Ewok friend Wicket and a feisty old man, Wilford Brimley, join forces for a daring mission in this sequel to last year's rating hit. The mismatched group battles a wicked witch and her towering marauders to rescue a captive Ewok family. (ABC). THE STONE PILLOW In a distinct change of pace, TV's slapstick queen goes dramatic. Lucille Ball stars as a New York bag lady existing on scraps, luck and dusty dreams. Daphne Zuniga co-stars as a social worker who pieces together the puzzle of Ball's broken life. Eight-time Emmy winner George Schaefer directs from a script by Rose Leiman Goldenberg, who wrote last season's The Burning Bed. Have hankies handy. (CBS and CTV). REUNION AT FAIRBOROUGH Robert Mitchum is a former American flyer who attends a reunion of his British-based Second World War bomber crew and meets his wartime sweetheart, Deborah Kerr. Their bittersweet relationship is given a jolt when Mitchum learns of a daughter, and meets a granddaughter, he didn't know he had. Judi Trott plays the spunky grandchild. (CHCH). PLUS Michael J. Fox, who's had a hot summer with Back to the Future and Teen Wolf, joins Justine Bateman, Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter Birney in England for FAMILY TIES VACATION; Stephanie Zimbalist is an attorney desperately in love with her escaped convict client, Alec Baldwin, in LOVE ON THE RUN; Robert Conrad plays a tough cop and his real-life son, Shane, plays a wayward teen-ager in CHARLEY HANNAH; Cops James Woods and Larry Riley are thwarted in getting a conviction in a case of murder in BADGE OF THE ASSASSIN; Kenny Rogers escapes his humdrum life by joining a round-up of WILD HORSES; Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) comes out of retirement to clear his former secretary, Della Street, of a murder charge in THE RETURN OF PERRY MASON; Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly become reluctant allies for A NICE, PLEASANT, DEADLY WEEKEND IN PALM SPRINGS; Andy Griffith, Ron Howard, Don Knotts and Jim Nabors RETURN TO MAYBERRY; Colin Friels is an Englishman banished to an Australian penal colony FOR THE TERM OF HIS NATURAL LIFE; Kristy McNichol stars as an illiterate teen-ager who overcomes insurmountable odds to become a doctor in LOVE, MARY; Ed McNamara is an old Newfoundland seadog who teaches his grandson some lessons in life in BAYO; Martin Sheen stars as Eddie Zigo, the New York detective who helped crack the Son of Sam murders, in OUT OF THE DARKNESS; Valerie Bertinelli is torn between duty and loyalty when she sees her brother-in-law commit a rape in SILENT WITNESS; Han-Sheng Tsai stars as an immigrant from feudal China struggling to adjust to the Canadian west in CHUNG CHUCK; Marguerite Hickey is a young midwesterner who yearns for success as a ballet dancer in MIRRORS; Barbara Eden is back in scanties for I DREAM OF JEANNIE: 15 YEARS LATER; Ellen Burstyn, Sam Robards and Robert Prosky star in the story of a young man who vanishes while driving from Ottawa to Colorado in BRIAN WALKER, PLEASE CALL HOME; William Korbut plays a half-Indian boy raised as a Jewish kid in the sentimental drama ISAAC LITTLEFEATHERS; Margaret Langric is a teeny-bopper thrown into romantic frenzy when her mysterious cousin visits in MY AMERICAN COUSIN. AND Farrah Fawcett begins a painful reconciliation with her estranged mother- in-law, Colleen Dewhurst, in LIVING ARROWS; Lindsay Wagner and Jack Scalia are involved in an extra-martial affair in THE OTHER LOVER; David Hasselhoff and Stepfanie Kramer pursue the ghost of Jack the Ripper in TERROR AT LONDON BRIDGE; August Schellenberg stars as Jake Striker, the man who pioneered the dangerous business of heli-skiing, in STRIKER'S MOUNTAIN; the private pain and public joy of John Lennon and Yoko Ono are captured by Mark McGann and Kim Miyori in IMAGINE: THE STORY OF JOHN AND YOKO; Robert Urich and Carl Weathers take over from Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier in a remake of Stanley Kramer's THE DEFIANT ONES; Martin Sheen, Melinda Dillon, Matthew Laborteaux, Roxanna Zal and Lukas Haas are a family devestated by alcoholism in SHATTERED SPIRITS; Alcoholism is also Elizabeth Taylor's curse in FROM THIS DAY FORWARD; Don Owen's rebel (Peter Kastner) from 1964's Nobody Waved Goodbye is now grown and has a rebel of his own (Isabelle Mejias) to contend with in UNFINISHED BUSINESS; Lindsay Wagner, Nancy McKeon and Chris Sarandon are involved in a bitter custody battle IN THE BEST INTEREST OF TRACEY; Emmanuel Lewis is a lonely lad who finds adventure while LOST IN LONDON; Frederic Forrest makes urban delinquents Christopher Penn and Tate Donovan toe the mark on a cattle ranch in NORTH BEACH AND RAWHIDE; Bonnie Franklin is a nun who sets up a halfway house for women on parole in SISTER MARGARET AND THE SATURDAY NIGHT LADIES; Tony Lo Bianco must face the knowledge his teenage son has had sexual relationships with an older man in WELCOME HOME, BOBBY. ALSO Carl Marotte and Carolyn Dunn are teen- agers looking for love at a FUN PARK; Julian Glover and Charles Brauer are pursued by Cossacks as they uncover THE SECRET OF THE BLACK DRAGON; Faye Dunaway is one of Peter Ustinov's suspects in Agatha Christie's 13 FOR DINNER; George C. Scott is back as the controversial American general in THE LAST DAYS OF PATTON; Dyan Cannon searches for her son, missing in Nazi Germany, in JENNY'S WAR; Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings are trapped by Geronimo's warriors in a remake of STAGECOACH; Robert Mitch-um, his son Christopher and his grandson Bentley star as three generations of a family in conflict in PROMISES TO KEEP; Richard Crenna portrays Solidarity leader Lech Walesa in SQUARING THE CIRCLE; Kathleen Quinlan is a young doctoral student who opens a half-way house for teenage prostitutes in CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT; Margot Kidder is forced to fend for herself when hubby David Ackroyd walks out in PICKING UP THE PIECES; Lisa Hartman is a detective from Wyoming who snares James Brolin's help in solving the murder of her best friend in BEVERLY HILLS COWGIRL BLUES.