Broadway salute to Tony Award-winning actress Angela Lansbury in a star-packed gala November 17,1996 at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway. The event was to benefit the American Foundation for AIDS research (AmFAR) and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Long a supporter of AmFAR and a deeply committed friend to all people with HIV/AIDS, Lansbury was also presented with a humanitarian award at this star-packed celebration.
The producers of In Search of America never declared outright that the made-for-TV film was intended as a series pilot, but there sure are plenty of loose plot ends. Carl Betz and Vera Miles play the parents of shaggy-haired college dropout Jeff Bridges. At the boy's suggestion, Betz and Miles pack their family--including grandma Ruth McDevitt--into a 1928 Greyhound bus and hit the road, in search of you-know-where. The picaresque plotline brings the family in contact with a variety of colorful characters. Written by Lewis John Carlino, a name that would mean a lot more to filmgoers after The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (1976), In Search of America was first telecast March 23, 1971.
A wife is sick and tired of her husband's infidelities, so she leaves home and goes back to grad-school. There she meets many self-confident women who help her find her own voice.
Bob and Joanna, both over 40 years old, have a baby with the Down syndrome. Their doctor advises them to give the child away, not to "waste their time" with a kid with a mental deficiency. But the parents decide to keep their son, to allow him a life with dignity and to support him as best as possible. And their devotion bears fruit...
If Carol Channing didn't exist, no one could have made her up. One in a billion, Carol , at 89, remains an unstoppable, megawatt dynamo. Broadway diva extraordinaire is just the icing. Carol Channing hovered at the pinnacle of the entertainment world from the late-1950's through the 1960's and beyond, living life sensationally large. As Carol has observed, '...if you're lucky enough to have two hit shows, the world passes through your dressing room'. At 89, she remains irrepressible.
A disillusioned housewife on a vacation in the woods is disturbed by her husband continually trying to get her to come home and, more ominously, a mysterious howling at night.
Veteran character actor and Tony Award winner, Mary Louise Wilson, age 79, teaches her first acting class to skeptical members of the YouTube generation, smashing their red carpet illusions and challenging them to bring emotional honesty into their acting. Features interviews with Frances McDormand, Melissa Leo, Tyne Daly, Estelle Parsons, Valerie Harper and playwright Doug Wright, discussing what it means to be a character actor, whether acting can be taught, what constitutes 'talent,' and whether the profession is harder for women.