J.A. PrestonFilmography

Harvest of Fire

Actors: Lolita Davidovich, Patty Duke, J.A. Preston, Jean Louisa Kelly, Tom Aldredge

Synopsis: At first glance, the made-for-TV Harvest of Fire would seem to be a gender-switch variation on the theatrical feature Witness (1985), but it is much more than that. Assigned to investigate the possibility of a hate crime when three barns are burned in an Amish community in Iowa, FBI agent Sally Read More

A Few Good Men

Actors: Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland

Synopsis: In this military courtroom drama based on the play by Aaron Sorkin, Navy lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) is assigned to defend two Marines, Pfc. Louden Downey (James Marshall) and Lance Cpl. Harold Dawson (Wolfgang Bodison), who are accused of the murder of fellow leatherneck Pfc. William Read More

Captain Ron

Actors: Kurt Russell, Martin Short, Mary Kay Place, Benjamin Salisbury, Meadow Sisto

Synopsis: After he inherits a yacht, Chicago businessman Martin totes his family to the Caribbean to claim it. Not having any skill at boating, he hires long-haired, one-eyed low-life Captain Ron, to pilot the heap to Miami. During the journey, the somewhat inept sailor frequently loses his way while Read More

Steel Justice

Actors: Robert Taylor, Joan Chen, J.A. Preston

Synopsis: In this futuristic sci-fi fantasy, a police officer is assisted in stopping crime by a giant mechanical dinosaur. The great creature was transformed from a child's toy by an enigmatic time traveler. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Tales From the Crypt: Curiosity Killed

Synopsis: "Curiosity Killed" concerns Dan (Kevin McCarthy) and Cynthia (Margot Kidder), a couple whose marriage is a shadow of its former self. Dan's pal, Billy (J.A. Preston), offers some friendly advice on how to get Cynthia out of his life once and for all; however, Cynthia has plans of her own for Dan. Read More

Aftermath: A Test of Love

Actors: Richard Chamberlain

Synopsis: Aftermath: A Test of Love begins where most TV movies end. Based on fact (as recorded in Gary Kinder's book Victim), the story revolves around the family of Richard Chamberlain, an aloof obstetrician. The family falls victim to a violent, random crime, depicted in gruesome detail. Chamberlain's Read More

Narrow Margin

Actors: Gene Hackman, Anne Archer, James B. Sikking, J.T. Walsh, M. Emmet Walsh

Synopsis: Narrow Margin directed by Peter Hyams and loosely based on the classic film noir of the same title, tells the story of a resourceful District Attorney who must return a witness to San Francisco alive so she can testify in a trial. Carol (Anne Archer) is in the bathroom of the hotel room of her Read More

Fire Birds

Actors: Nicolas Cage, Tommy Lee Jones, Sean Young, Bert Rhine, Bryan Kestner, Dale Dye

Synopsis: Nicolas Cage stars in the below-par action film Firebirds -- a dying ember from Reagan-era nationalistic jingoism. In this Top Gun retread, Cage plays Jake Preston, a hotshot Army helicopter pilot who is being trained to use the U.S. Army's Apache aircraft to destroy the drug fields of a South Read More

Law & Order: Out of the Half-Light

Synopsis: In a fictionalized replay of the notorious Tawana Brawley incident, African-American teenager Astrea Crawford (Kisha Miller) claims that she was gang-raped by white policemen. As Greevey (George Dzundza) and Logan (Chris Noth) pursue their investigation, assistant D.A.'s Stone (Michael Moriarty) Read More

The Court Martial of Jackie Robinson

Actors: Andre Braugher, Stan Shaw

Synopsis: Made for the TNT cable network, The Court Martial of Jackie Robinson concentrates on the wartime service of major league baseball's first black player. Robinson (Andre Braugher), a star athlete at UCLA, is drafted during World War II. He hopes that his academic record will assure him entry into Read More

Sunset

Actors: Bruce Willis, James Garner, Malcolm McDowell, Mariel Hemingway, Kathleen Quinlan, Dermot Mulroney

Synopsis: Director Blake Edwards departed from his customary sex farces to direct an unusual satirical Western comedy-thriller. In 1927, legendary lawman Wyatt Earp (James Garner) comes to Hollywood to serve as an advisor to a film studio making a movie about Earp's life. He meets silent screen cowboy star Tom Mix Read More

Hunter: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Synopsis: A kiln explosion nearly wipes out an art class attended by Dee Dee McCall (Stepfanie Kramer). Though at first it looks like an accident, McCall receives a tape suggesting that the explosion was deliberately triggered. The subsequent murder of an EPA inspector who had been investigating reports of Read More

Amazing Stories: The Pumpkin Competition

Actors: Polly Holliday, June Lockhart, J.A. Preston

Moonlighting: In God We Strongly Suspect

Synopsis: This episode opens with the grave announcement that it has NOT been filmed in 3-D (the glasses didn't show up in the mail). Once this is established, we segue into the curious tale of the Great Kandinski, a famous escape artist who has recently died. Inasmuch as Kandinski had threatened to come Read More

The George McKenna Story

Actors: Denzel Washington

Synopsis: This made-for-TV drama was based on the true story of George McKenna (played by Denzel Washington in one of his first leading roles), an educator in Los Angeles who faced the greatest challenge of his career when he was named Principal of George Washington Memorial High School. Located in a Read More

The A-Team: Trial by Fire

Synopsis: In the second episode of The A-Team's three-part Season Five opener, the Team is betrayed by Vietnam vet Josh Curtis (Sandy McPeak) and forced to stand trial for their lives, accused of killing their former commanding officer Col. Morrison and robbing a Hanoi bank. Curiously, Murdock (Dwight Read More

Magnum, P.I.: L.A., Part 1

Synopsis: Season Seven of Magnum, P.I. begins with a two-part episode (originally telecast in a single two-hour timeslot) largely set in Los Angeles. Magnum (Tom Selleck) arrives in La-La-Land to deliver some legal papers on behalf of Robin Masters. Befriending a comedienne named Marti Jensen (Mona Miller) Read More

Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins

Actors: Fred Ward, Joel Grey, Wilford Brimley, J.A. Preston, Kate Mulgrew, George Coe

Synopsis: Adapted from the "Destroyer" series of novels and comic books (not exactly the level of Ian Fleming), Remo Williams (Fred Ward) is a New York cop who works for a top-secret government agency accountable directly to the President of the U.S. After his reluctant induction into this agency, Remo is Read More

Quincy, M.E.: Baby Rattlesnakes

Synopsis: The opening episode of Quincy, M.E.'s eighth season finds medical examiner Quincy (Jack Klugman in the middle of another sociological dilemma. 14-year-old Ethan Kellough (DeVoreaux White, former member of a vicious street gang called the "Ravnes", is the prime suspect in the drive-by shooting of a Read More

Little House on the Prairie: Second Chance

Actors: Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, Melissa Gilbert, Matthew Laborteaux

Synopsis: Hester-Sue (Ketty Lester) is astonished when her ex-husband, Sam Terhune (J.A. Preston), who left her years ago for another woman, suddenly shows up in Walnut Grove. Insisting that he has giving up drinking, gambling, and womanizing, Sam tries to charm his way back into Hester-Sue's heart. Read More

The White Lions

Actors: Michael York, Glynnis O'Connor, Donald Moffat, J.A. Preston, Roger E. Mosley

Synopsis: This easy-going television movie is about Chris McBride (Michael York), a real-life naturalist who brings his wife and daughter to an African wildlife preserve to join him in a research project. The area has a special meaning to him because he was born there. His wife is not as enthusiastic as he Read More

Body Heat

Actors: William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, J.A. Preston, Mickey Rourke

Synopsis: Lawrence Kasdan's first directorial effort is a throwback to the early days of film noir. The scene is a beastly hot Florida coastal town, where naive attorney Ned (William Hurt) is entranced by the alluring Matty (Kathleen Turner in her film debut). Ned is manipulated into killing Matty's much Read More

High Noon, Part Two: The Return of Will Kane

Actors: Lee Majors

Synopsis: Taking over for Gary Cooper, Lee Majors stars as Marshal Will Kane in this made-for-TV movie set a year after the original High Noon ends. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Real Life

Actors: Charles Grodin, Frances Lee McCain, J.A. Preston, Matthew Tobin, Albert Brooks

Synopsis: Albert Brooks made his feature-length debut as a writer and director with this wickedly funny satire, in which Albert Brooks plays "Albert Brooks," an arrogant and self-centered comedian who has decided to make a documentary film. Following the lead of the infamous pre-Real World PBS series An Read More

Two-Minute Warning

Actors: Charlton Heston, John Cassavetes, Martin Balsam, Beau Bridges, Marilyn Hassett

Synopsis: Larry Peerce directed this tired disaster movie about a mad sniper loose in a football stadium. At the beginning, the sniper picks off a cyclist for practice and then takes roost in the top tower of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Sent in to stop the terror is Captain Peter Holly (Charlton Heston Read More

The Jeffersons: Lunch with Mama

Actors: Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, Roxie Roker, Franklin Cover, Ned Wertimer

Synopsis: Louise (Isabel Sanford) wants her husband, George (Sherman Hemsley), to accompany her to the funeral of her old friend. But George refuses, insisting that he must keep a luncheon date with Mother Jefferson (Zara Cully). Will this be the episode in which George is finally forced to choose between Read More

Good Times: Willona's Dilemma

Synopsis: J.J. (Jimmie Walker) invites his deaf art school classmate Walter Ingles (J.A. Preston) to dinner at the Evans house. Also at the table is Willona (Ja'net DuBois), who is recovering from yet another disastrous romance. Perhaps inevitably, Willona and Walter are attracted to one another -- but will Read More

All in the Family: Archie the Donor

Actors: Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner, Betty Garrett, Sorrell Booke

Synopsis: Hoping to get in good with his employer, Mr. Sanders (Sorrell Booke), and thereby land a promotion to dispatcher, Archie makes a huge charitable contribution to his boss' favorite charity. Unfortunately, he also unknowingly signs a contract donating his body and vital organs to science -- and Read More

The Spook Who Sat by the Door

Actors: Tom Alderman, Kathy Berk, Colostine Boatwright, Sidney Eden, Frank E. Ford, Robert Franklia, Martin Golar, Don Greenlee, Jeff Hamilton, Jim Heard, Virgie Johnson, David Lemieux, Frank Lesley, Tyrone Livingston, Walter Lowe, Clinton Malcome, Rodney McGrader, Ponciano Olayta, Jr., Kenneth Lee Orme, Audrey Stevenson, Orlanders Thomas, Perry Thomas, Maurice Wicks, Bobbie Gene Williams

Synopsis: Sam Greenlee's cult favorite novel of political unrest was brought to the screen in this drama, which also earned a small but loyal following. A congressman hoping to attract African-American voters during an election year decides to make political hay by pointing out that the Central Intelligence Read More

Mississippi Summer

Synopsis: This poorly-wrought drama attempts to raise social consciousness and inspire folks to register for the vote as it chronicles the exploits of an interracial acting troupe who travel about giving a play about voter registration. Set during 1964, the troupe members get along well initially. Read More