For Life

A flinty matriarch keeps a tight rein on her late husband's ranch empire and her fractious brood in a large-scale Western that launched the careers of Lee Majors and Linda Evans, and revived that of screen legend Barbara Stanwyck.

The surrealistic ABC cop drama Day Break was aptly characterized by most observers as "24 Meets Groundhog Day." Taye Diggs starred as police detective Brett Hopper, whom when first we met him had just endured the worst day of his life, culminating in his arrest for the murder of Assistant District Attorney Alberto Garza. Although he had an airtight alibi, Hopper was unable to convince anyone of his innocence, suggesting that his arrest was part of a conspiratorial frame-up. While being aggressively grilled by homicide detectives Spivak (Mitch Pileggi) and Choi (Ian Anthony Dale), Hopper suddenly lost consciousness, awakening in an other-worldly hideaway presided over by a sinister shadowy figure (Jonathan Banks) -- who "entertained" the protagonist by showing a tape in which Hopper's girlfriend Rita Shelten (Moon Bloodgood) died horribly. At this point, Hopper was whisked back in time to the morning of his "worst day," only to find that he was condemned to live that same day over and over again until he was able to change its outcome. Alas, no matter how hard he tried to alter events, the day ended inexorably with his being arrested for murder and his witnessing of Rita's demise. Moreover, when the day started over again, Hopper found that the decisions he made during his previous "reliving" had had profound and disturbing consequences. In each episode, Hopper (the only person who knew that he and everyone around was trapped within the same ever-repeating time arc) was armed with knowledge he hadn't previously possessed, along with vital clues as to why all this was happening to him. Other players in this déjà vu nightmare were Hopper's partner, Andrea Battle (Victoria Pratt), who may or may not have been in on the conspiracy; his ex-partner (and Rita's ex-husband) Chad Shelten (Adam Baldwin), head of Internal Affairs and apparently a man with more than his share of dark secrets; Hopper's sister, Jennifer (Meta Golding), whose miserable domestic life weighed heavily on the plotline; and alleged gang leader Damien Ortiz (Ramon Rodriguez), who turned out to be even more a victim of circumstance than the hero. Created by Paul Zbyszewski, Day Break first aired on November 15, 2006.

The exploits of World War II bomber pilots are re-created in this 1960s series adapted from a 1949 film, focusing on missions of the 918th Flyer Squadron in England.

An outgrowth of a two-part dramatization on the CBS anthology Desilu Playhouse, The Untouchables was inarguably one of the most violent cop series ever seen on American network television. It was also one of the most popular, so draw your own conclusions! The series was based on the autobiography of Eliot Ness, a lifelong law enforcement officer and civil servant, and former treasury-department agent. While assigned to Chicago in the early 1930s, Ness and a small band of dedicated, incorruptible fellow agents--nicknamed "The Untouchables" by the press because of the fact that they could be neither bought off nor scared off--were instrumental in crushing the criminal empire of notorious gangland chieftan Al Capone. Though Ness spent much of the rest of his career in other cities, notably Cleveland, his Chicago years were, understandably, the focus of the series, which debuted October 15, 1959 on ABC. Winning the role of Ness over such candidates as Van Johnson, Van Heflin and Fred MacMurray, Robert Stack brought to the character just the right amount of tough, gimlet-eyed diligence, resisting the tempation to leaven the character with even a trace of humor or sentiment--at least during the first few seasons. Stack was seen in the two-part pilot (later released theatrically as The Scarface Mob) opposite Keenan Wynn as a fellow "Untouchable" and Neville Brand as scarfaced Al Capone. Wynn was abset for the series proper, in which Ness' team included agents Flaherty (Jerry Paris) and Youngblood (Abel Fernandez)--and, perhaps in a move to counter complaints that many of the series' real-gangsters were Italians, an Italian-American "Untouchable", Enrico Rossi (Nick Georgiade), was prominently featured in several episodes. Later additions to the "Ness boys" were agents Allison (Anthony George), Hobson (Steve London) and Rossman (Steve London). Throughout its four-season run, the series was narrated by legendary journalist Walter Winchell in his patented rat-a-tat-tat fashion. It proved to be the veteran newshawk's most successful TV venture, even though he almost never appeared on-camera (it wouldn't have made sense anyway, since Winchell's berat was New York, not Chicago) Of course, the series' real selling card was its colorful lineup of gangsters, murderers, thieves and extortionists. During the firs season, most of the villains was drawn from life, notably Capone's second-in-command Frank Nitti (Bruce Gordon), who appeared so often that he was virtually a costar. Among the other infamous reprobates who appeared in the series (usually played by top-rank guest stars) were Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik, Ma Barker, Bugs Moran, Jake Lingle, Mad Dog Coll, Dutch Schlultz and the Genna Brothers (the series sustained the illusion that Ness was in one way or another responsible for the downfall of all these characters, forcing the FBI and other official organizations to register complaints with ABC!) Inevitably, the writers ran out of genuine miscreants and began introducing ficitional villians--though after the series' second season, pressure from various special-interest groups dictated that none of the "imaginary" bad guys and bad guys be given Italian names (which explains why many of the lowlifes were played by such WASPish actors as Robert Redford. Its ratings reaching a peak during its second season, The Untouchables began bleeding viewers during season three thanks to competition from--of all things--the family-oriented musical series Sing Along With Mitch. Moving from Thursday to Tuesday during its final season, the series made a bid to broaden its appeal by "humanizing" the taciturn Elliot Ness and making the many killings "more motivated" (though the victims were just as dead!) Also, there were several eleventh-hour attempts to create Untouchables spinoffs starring the likes of Barbara Stanwyck, Dane Clark and Scott Brady, the latter cast as fabled newsman Floyd Gibbons. The Untouchables ended its network run on September 10, 1963, and thereafter thrived in off-network syndication: one of the few black-and-white, hour-long series to do so. A movie version of The Untouchables, starring Kevin Costner as Ness, Robert DeNiro as Capone, and Sean Connery, and directed by Brian DePalma, was released in 1987. The film inspired a second Untouchables TV series, which was syndicated for two seasons beginning in 1993. This time around Tom Amandes was seen as Ness (though he was replaced by a fictional hero after 15 episodes, while William Forsythe was an uncharacteristically sympathetic Capone.

A family relies on its religious values to solve various travails in this drama.

A music mogul plans for the future of his empire as his three sons and his ex-wife battle each other to become the next heir apparent to the hip-hop throne.