David Dukes

A group of young troublemakers try to help a sea lion escape to the ocean. Five 2nd-grade kids who don't follow strict rules by their school principal Brinway are dubbed "Stinkers" by him. On the class visit to an aquarium the Stinkers decide that a sea lion called Slappy doesn't feel too good there, "free" him, and plant him into Brinway's hot-tub.

A Broadway actress fresh out of rehab navigates sobriety, her career, demanding daughter, and supporting her troubled friends' personal crises. A boozy Broadway actress comes out of a 12-week cure to face the problems of her best friends as well as her needy daughter. She tries to balance the terrors of returning to work with the demands of all around her with humor and insight, while staying off the booze. —Ed Lorusso Thirty-eight year old Georgia Hines, a divorced Broadway actress, has just been released from rehab for alcohol abuse after a three-month stint. Despite not particularly liking the taste of alcohol, she used it as a means to deal with her professional and personal insecurities. She is uncertain if she can handle life on the outside, but she will receive the support of her two best friends--the perfectly beautiful Toby Landau, and struggling gay actor Jimmy Perrino. Two of the many potential issues in Georgia's life that may derail her recovery are if she ever reconnects with David Lowe, an unsuccessful playwright who was her last boyfriend and who walked out of their relationship without a word, and how she will eventually revive her acting career. Despite those and the many other potential issues, Georgia's now seventeen year old daughter, Polly, is able to negotiate with both her parents to live with Georgia in this, her senior year at high school, before she heads off to college the following year. Polly loves her mother despite Georgia largely not having been there for Polly for much of her life. But as Toby and Jimmy deal with their own many insecurities, and as Polly negotiates her way through what is the difficult period of most female's lives of transitioning into womanhood, Georgia may have to be the one providing support to her family and friends, and her family and friends may not be able to be there for her if she does fall off the wagon. —Huggo

As New York City Police Detective Edward Delaney (Frank Sinatra) counts the days to his retirement, a psychotic serial killer commits random murders throughout the city with an unusual weapon. At the same time, Edward's wife, Barbara (Faye Dunaway), contracts a mysterious illness after her kidney operation that leaves her physician, Dr. Bernardi (George Coe), stumped. The seriousness of Barbara's illness could rob Edward of all he has to live for and shows his tender side as he frets over his younger wife. Every time the killer commits another murder, Barbara experiences a relapse and a thunderstorm inexplicably erupts. Although Captain Broughton (Anthony Zerbe), his superior, orders Edward off the case, he is obsessed after a coroner named Dr. Sanford Ferguson (James Whitmore) reveals the killer used an odd form of pickax. Edward teams up with Christopher Langley (Martin Gabel), a museum curator specializing in military weapons, who identifies the murder weapon as a mountain climber's ice ax. At a store specializing in mountain-climbing equipment, the owner supplies a list to Edward and Christopher of individuals that purchased the specific tool, narrowing their search. Monica Gilbert (Brenda Vaccaro), the wife of one murder victim, helps the men eliminate suspects until they home in on an individual who lived in all the neighborhoods, where the murders occurred. Edward goes to a large high-rise apartment building complex where he bribes Charles Lipsky (Joe Spinell), the doorman at the high rise block, to gain entry to a posh apartment owned by Daniel Blank (David Dukes), a publishing executive, who is revealed to be the killer. A confrontation occurs in which Edward finds the ice ax and faces the killer. Blank admits to Edward to being the serial killer, but refuses to be taken into custody and tells Edward to follow legal procedure. When Blank phones the police to report that Edward has broken into his apartment without a search warrant and is threatening him, Edward shoots Blank dead, eliminating the killer for good.... but also destroying his career. Edward escapes prosecution for entering a person's residence without a warrant and killing an unarmed suspect, but is prematurely dismissed from the police force and his pension is revoked. Never the less, Edward returns to the hospital to be at his wife's bedside before she quietly passes away.