Pressman, Michael

Doctor Detroit

Picket Fences - Season 1

While Ally McBeal garnered more attention, Picket Fences garnered more acclaim. It was justified. Set in Wisconsin, the Emmy-winning drama plays like The Andy Griffith Show by way of The Commish. The focus is on small-town life from a law and order perspective. The action revolves around Sheriff Jimmy Brock (Tom Skerritt), his physician wife Jill (Kathy Baker), and their children, Kimberly (Holly Marie Combs), Matthew (Justin Shenkarow), and Zack (Adam Wylie). Storylines alternate between personal issues, like puberty and pre-marital sex, and criminal cases. As Matthew quips, "Things happen around here." At city hall, Jimmy works with officers Kenny (Costas Mandylor) and Max (Lauren Holly), dispatcher Ginny (Zelda Rubinstein), and coroner Carter Pike (Kelly Connell), who likes to exclaim, "Let me exhume the body!" Judge Henry Bone (Ray Walston) and attorney Douglas Wambaugh (Fyvush Finkel) dominate the courthouse. Cases include such tragi-comic crimes as a serial bather ("Frank, the Potato Man") and a cupid killer ("Be My Valentine"), but serious issues also come into play, such as assisted suicide ("Sacred Hearts") and incest ("Nuclear Meltdowns"). Unlike Twin Peaks, to which it was sometimes compared, Picket Fences could be heavy-handed, but piety never trumped entertainment, and Baker, Skerritt, Walston, and Finkel all won Emmys for their work.

Notable guests are a hallmark of every David E. Kelley production, from Chicago Hope to Boston Legal (and beyond). The first season attracted Carnivále's Michael J. Anderson ("Mr. Dreeb Comes to Town"), Evening Shade's Michael Jeter ("Frog Man"), and Man of La Mancha's Richard Kiley ("Thanksgiving"). The series also features one of the last of the old-fashioned orchestral scores, Stewart Levin's distinctive piano theme. Picket Fences ran for four seasons on CBS (when Kelley left between seasons three and four, ratings took a nosedive). Afterwards, Combs joined Charmed, Baker joined Kelley's Boston Public, and Holly joined NCIS. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

PICKET FENCES Season 1 is the first season of the critically acclaimed series from creator David E. Kelly ("Ally McBeal", "Boston Legal") starring Tom Skerrit and Kathy Baker, in the story of a sherriff and his family in Rome, Wisconsin, a town where things never seem to be business as usual. This long-awaited fan favorite is available on 6 discs.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II - The Secret of the Ooze

The evil Shredder believes he's found what gives the turtles their power and proceeds to create dangerous mutants. Armed with Professor Perry's anti-mutant antidote, it's up to the crime fighting turtles and a pizza delivery boy to conquer these mutants.

To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday

Michelle Pfeiffer's husband, television producer David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal), is partially responsible for this entertaining tearjerker about a widower (Peter Gallagher) who can't let go of his late wife and whose relationship with his adolescent daughter (Claire Danes) is stalled as a result. Invited for a weekend at the beach by his worried sister-in-law (Kathy Baker), Gallagher's character faces various humiliations (he's been set up to meet a single woman) and fatherly crises (his growing girl is attracted to a local boy). Pfeiffer plays the ghost of the dead woman and Danes is terrific, but it's Gallagher who gets a rare opportunity to carry the ball for an entire feature, and he does it very well. Michael Pressman directed what is, in the end, a very nice movie. --Tom Keogh

The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training

The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training is the comic and poignant second-in-the-series of adventures with the pint-sized sandlot ballplayers initiated with the smash success, The Bad News Bears. The picture picks up the Bears' career a year after their infamous second-place finish in the North Valley League. Faced with a chance to play the Houston Toros for a shot at the Japanese champs, they devise a way to get Texas to play at the famed Astrodome. On their pilgrimage to Houston, the Bears gain a new coach; dump that coach; add a new pitcher who can't get his fastball over the plate; find another coach who shows him how it's done, and go on to a come-back victory with all eyes on Japan.

Bad News Bears Triple Play (3-pack)

Three bad news Bears movies about the hard-luck team as it rises to success in the Little League World Series.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 12-JUL-2005
Media Type: DVD

Some Kind of Hero

Corporal Eddie Keller just spent six years as a prisoner of war. Now he's coming home. Richard Pryor wowed audiences with his moving portrayal of the former POW who tries to return back to the normal life he remembered before the war. The only problem is, nothing is as he remembered it. Pryor's brilliant comedic talents make this the rare sort of drama that you can watch with a smile on your face. Margot Kidder and Ray Sharkey are excellent in touching supporting roles. Richard Pryor is Some Kind of Hero, in a role that is arguably the best of his career.

And the Children Shall Lead

In 1964 segregation is a reality in Catesville, Mississippi, but 12-year-old Rachel doesn't notice it because she has many white friends. When a group of civil rights activists comes to town, the tension between black and white citizens grows. It's now up to Rachel and her friends to persuade the adults to overcome the racial barriers that divide them.

The Great Texas Dynamite Chase

Joshua's Heart [Region 2]