TV Guide: Fred Gwynne

Listing: Munsters

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 08:00:00 -0400

Sun Oct 19 08:00 AM TVLAND

Video: Cotton Club, The

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:54:27 -0400

Combining electric song and dance performances with drama (both on and off screen), Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club (1984) looks back to the 1920s-1930s peak of the legendary Harlem nightclub where only blacks performed and only whites could sit in the audience. Mixing historical figures with characters loosely based on actual people, Coppola and co-writers William Kennedy and The Godfather's Mario Puzo create a panorama of love, crime, and entertainment centered on the Club. Among them are cornet player Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere, playing his own solos), who escapes psycho gangster benefactor Dutch Schultz (James Remar) for a George Raft-type Hollywood career as a gangster film star; Schultz's nubile mistress Vera Cicero (Diane Lane), who loves Dixie against her mercenary instincts; Cotton Club Mob owner Owney Madden (Bob Hoskins) and close associate Frenchy Demarge (Fred Gwynne); Vincent (Nicolas Cage), Dixie's no-good Mad Dog Coll-esque brother; Club tap star Sandman Williams (Gregory Hines), who woo

Video: Ironweed

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:17:19 -0400

Based on the William Kennedy novel of the same name Ironweed is set in the waning years of the Depression. Jack Nicholson plays a washed-up ballplayer who deserted his family back in the teens when he accidentally killed his son. Since that time, Nicholson has been a shabby barfly, living from drink to drink. Wandering into Albany, New York, Nicholson blearily seeks out his girlfriend and erstwhile drinking companion Meryl Streep. The two derelicts touch base in a mission managed by minister James Gammon, and later in Fred Gwynne's squalid gin mill. Over the next few days, Nicholson takes a few minor jobs to support his habit, while his mind wavers between past and present. A chance for a reconciliation with his wife Carroll Baker comes to naught when a group of local, baseball-bat wielding reformers take it upon themselves to drive all bums out of Albany. Directed by Hector Babenco (Kiss of the Spider Woman) , Ironweed is, at 144 minutes, far too long to sustain audience interest in the plight of its charact

Video: Munsters: Season 2, The

Video Detective — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:46:25 -0400

Season two of The Munsters finds that monstrous Munster aggregation -- Frankenstein Monster look-alike Herman Munster (Fred Gwynne), his vampirish spouse ,Lily (Yvonne de Carlo), their werewolf son, Eddie (Butch Patrick), and Lily's Dracula-like Grandpa (Al Lewis) -- still innocently terrifying their neighbors, random visitors, and potential boyfriends of the Munsters' gorgeous niece Marilyn (Pat Priest), the only normal-looking member of the family. Of course, we all know that, despite their fearsome appearance, the Munsters are gentle and good-hearted...but if the rest of the world knew this, there wouldn't be any show, would there? The first of the season's 32 episodes is Herman's Child Psychology, in which Eddie plans to run away from the Munster Mansion (provided he can avoid the full moon, one supposes!) Later episodes of note include Happy 100th Anniversary, with Herman and Lily taking odd jobs (the odder the better) to afford anniversary presents for one another; Just Another Pretty Face, wherein a bo