Joanna Kerns Filmography

Phil of the Future: Double Trouble

Crew: Director

Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers

Crew: Director

Synopsis: The second of two made-for-television "reunion" movies starring the cast of the popular TV series Growing Pains (1985-1992), this one begins as newly retired psychologist Jason Seaver (Alan Thicke) and his wife Maggie (Joanne Kerns, who also directed the film) prepare to sell the family house and Read More

Defending Our Kids: The Julie Posey Story

Crew: Director

Actors: Annie Potts, Michael O'Keefe

Synopsis: Annie Potts stars in the true story of Colorado housewife Julie Posey, whose sense of outrage goes into overdrive when her teenaged daughter is solicited online by a sexual predator. When her efforts to track down the pervert are thwarted, she briefly gives up -- only to be spurred forward with Read More

All Over The Guy

Actors: Dan Bucatinsky, Richard R. Ruccolo, Adam Goldberg, Sasha Alexander, Christina Ricci

Synopsis: Actor and playwright Dan Bucatinsky wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of his play I Know You Are, But What Am I?, though for the big-screen version, his slightly fractured love story was given a same-sex twist. Eli (Dan Bucatinsky) is a journalist working with a major L.A. newspaper who is Read More

Ally McBeal: The Obstacle Course

Crew: Director

Actors: Calista Flockhart, Peter MacNicol, Greg Germann, Lucy Liu, Portia de Rossi, Jane Krakowski, Lisa Nicole Carson, Vonda Shepard, Robert Downey, Jr., James LeGros

Girl, Interrupted

Actors: Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Clea Duvall, Brittany Murphy, Elisabeth Moss, Jared Leto, Jeffrey Tambor, Vanessa Redgrave, Whoopi Goldberg

Synopsis: In 1967, 19-year-old Susanna (Winona Ryder) feels that "reality is becoming too dense" and is diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. The doctor suggests to her parents that she be committed to the Claymore Hospital, and she spends the next 18 months struggling with her troubled psyche and Read More

At the Mercy of a Stranger

Synopsis: Habitually abused by her arrogant surgeon husband Thomas (Stephen Lang), successful realtor Elizabeth Cooper (Joanna Kerns) has decided to get a divorce. Shortly after this decision, Elizabeth is in conference with a new client, John Davis (Tim Matheson)--who stops her short by announcing that he Read More

Ally McBeal: Troubled Water

Crew: Director

Actors: Calista Flockhart, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Gil Bellows, Greg Germann, Lisa Nicole Carson, Jane Krakowski, Peter MacNicol, Lucy Liu, Portia de Rossi

The Closer

Actors: Tom Selleck, Ed Asner, Penelope Ann Miller, David Krumholtz, Hedy Burress

Synopsis: This TV sitcom series centers around Denver advertising man Jack McLaren (Tom Selleck), such a powerhouse that he's nicknamed "The Legend." In the opening episode, his agency's biggest client is the U.S. Army, but after Jack beats the President of the United States on the golf course, he's out of Read More

Emma's Wish

Actors: Joanna Kerns, Della Reese, Harley Jane Kozak, William R. Moses, Courtland Mead

Synopsis: Tired of the loneliness pervading her daily life, 75-year-old Emma blows out her birthday candles and makes a single wish: that she be allowed a month in which to care for and make peace with her estranged daughter. The next morning, she awakens 35 years younger but still wise. Masquerading as a Read More

Sisters and Other Strangers

Actors: Joanna Kerns, Debrah Farentino, George Grizzard, Audra Lindley, Gary Graham

Synopsis: Pragmatic businesswoman Gail Metzger (Joanna Kerns) has never seen eye to eye with her eccentric sister Renee (Debrah Farentino), a bad situation made worse when the two women butt heads over a real estate deal. Later on, Renee turns up dead, an apparent suicide. But as more "facts" come to Read More

Mother Knows Best

Synopsis: Ruthless social climber Celeste Cooper (Joanna Kerns) is determined to maneuver her grown daughter Laurel (Christine Elise) into a wealthy and prestigious marriage. But Laurel wants no part of her mom's machinations and weds the likeable but "socially undesirable" Ted Rogers (Grant Show). After Read More

Terror in the Family

Actors: Joanna Kerns, Dan Lauria, Hilary Swank, Kathleen Wilhoite, Andrew Kavovit

Synopsis: Long before she became a two-time Oscar winner, Hilary Swank paid her dues in such hard-hitting TV movies as Terror in the Family. The actress is cast as Deena Martin, a profoundly troubled 15-year-old with a history of wild and abusive behavior. An argument over a boy Deena has been seeing Read More

No One Could Protect Her

Actors: Joanna Kerns, Anthony John Denison, Dan Lauria, Peter MacNeill

Synopsis: This made-for-TV shocker was inspired by a true story which occurred in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Housewife Jessica Rayner (Joanne Kerns) becomes the latest in a long line of victims when she is attacked in her own home by a vicious serial rapist and murderer who preys on blondes. The difference is Read More

See Jane Run

Actors: Joanna Kerns, John Shea, Katy Boyer, Lee Garlington

Synopsis: In this drama, a woman is found wandering the Boston streets in a blood-covered housedress and $10,000 in her pocket. The trouble is neither she (Joanna Kerns), nor the authorities know who she is or what happened to her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

No Dessert Dad, 'til You Mow the Lawn

Actors: Joanna Kerns, Robert Hays, Richard Moll, Larry Linville, Josh Schaefer

Synopsis: Anxious to quit smoking, a married couple tries hypnosis. When their opportunistic children see how well it works, they decide to use the techniques to improve the quality of their lives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Mortal Fear

Synopsis: Larry Shaw's adaptation of Robin Cook's Mortal Fear stars Joanna Kerns as a doctor working at a prestigious big city hospital. When patients start dying at an alarming rate, she must use all of her wits to defeat the personal at the hospital she begins to suspect are behind the mystery. ~ Perry Read More

Semi-Precious

Actors: Joanna Kerns, Stephanie Zimbalist, Gaby Hoffmann

The Nightman

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: A daughter haunted by the memory of a morbid love affair suspects that the man who once seduced her has returned to kill her after eighteen-years after being convicted and imprisoned for murdering her mother. Mother and daughter have both had a torrid love affair with the same man, and in the end Read More

The Man With Three Wives

Actors: Beau Bridges, Pam Dawber, Joanna Kerns, Kathleen Lloyd, Madge Sinclair

Synopsis: Beau Bridges stars in this fact-based TV movie as Dr. Norman Grayson (Beau Bridges, a man who may destroy his life because he loves not wisely but too well--and too often. Hopelessly smitten by three different women over the course of several years, Grayson ends up marrying all three, then spends Read More

Going Underground

Synopsis: Originally broadcast as a prime-time telemovie in 1993, Going Underground re-explores a thematic landscape charted on the big screen by Sleeping with the Enemy (1991). Joanna Kerns (Cross My Heart, Growing Pains) is Maryanne Walker-Tate, suburban housewife to Daniel (Tim Matheson) and mother of Read More

Growing Pains: The Truck Stops Here

Crew: Director

Synopsis: After a lengthy absence, Luke's truck-driver father George (Gary Grubbs) rolls back into his son's life, begging the boy to join him on his next road trip. When Luke (Leonardo DiCaprio) refuses, George claims to be suffering from a bad back. Mike (Kirk Cameron) thinks George is faking, but in fact Read More

Shattering the Silence

Actors: Joanna Kerns, Michael Brandon, George Gizzard, Dina Merrill, Richard Gilliland

Synopsis: When post-partum depression causes the reawakening of long-dormant and traumatic memories of childhood rape by her father, an angry young mother takes her tormentor to court and in so doing nearly destroys her family. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Desperate Choices: To Save My Child

Actors: Joanna Kerns, Bruce Davison, Reese Witherspoon, Joseph Mazzello, Jeremy Sisto

Synopsis: When his daughter Renee Witherspoon is stricken with leukemia, father Bruce Davison hopes to find a bone-marrow transplant within his own family. The most likely candidate is Renee's half-brother Joe Mazzello. But Joe's natural mother (and Renee's stepmother) Joanna Kerns, fearful that her son Read More

An American Summer

Actors: Michael Landes, Brian Austin Green, Joanna Kerns, Amber Susa

Synopsis: In this youthful drama, Tom, a 14- year-old who's parents have just divorced, is abruptly uprooted from his wealthy Chicago home and sent to the strange land of LA to live in the far-out beach bungalow of his aunt, an aging hippie still stuck in a by-gone era. He is unhappy with the new Read More

Growing Pains: Season 07

Actors: Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold, Jeremy Miller

Synopsis: A new production staff is at the helm as Growing Pains launches its seventh and final season. The most significant development this year occurs when aspiring actor Mike Seaver (Kirk Cameron) returns to his family's Long Island home accompanied by 15-year-old homeless youngster Luke Brower, played Read More

Deadly Intentions... Again?

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a sequel to "Deadly Intentions," the protagonist, Dr. Charles Raynor, who was convicted of attempted murder, has been paroled. He goes home to his second wife. He is determined to get revenge upon those who had him convicted for trying to kill his first wife. ~ Sandra Brennan Read More

Captive

Actors: Barry Bostwick, Joanna Kerns, Chad Lowe, John Stamos, Patricia Charbonneau

Synopsis: The quiet family life of an Oregon couple and their infant is shattered when two criminals whacked-out on drugs burst into their home and hold them hostage. The film is based on a true story. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Great Los Angeles Earthquake

Synopsis: The superb, utterly convincing special effects in the two-part TV movie The Big One: The Great Los Angeles Earthquake cannot be faulted. Less convincing are the scenes in which the fictional TV reporters, demoralized and in tears, can't bring themselves to describe the extent of the destruction. Read More

Blind Faith

Actors: Joanna Kerns, Robert Urich

Synopsis: Originally telecast in two parts, Blind Faith was adapted from a fact-based book by investigative author Joe McGinniss. The scene is Toms River, New Jersey; the year is 1984. Insurance salesman Rob Marshall (Robert Urich) informs the authorities that his wife Maria (Joanna Kerns) has been murdered Read More

The Great L.A. Earthquake

Growing Pains: Season 06

Actors: Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold, Jeremy Miller

Synopsis: Season six of Growing Pains begins with 21-year-old Mike Seaver (Kirk Cameron) moving to New York to pursue an acting career, an action staunchly opposed by his parents, psychiatrist Jason (Alan Thicke) and TV journalist Maggie (Joanna Kerns). More family fireworks ensue when Mike's sister Carol (Tracey Gold Read More

Street Justice

Actors: Michael Ontkean, Joanna Kerns, Catherine Bach, J.D. Cannon, Jeanette Nolan

Synopsis: In this convoluted drama, a CIA agent is finally released after spending the past thirteen years imprisoned in the Soviet Union. The joy of his homecoming is shattered when he discovers his wife married to another and that his daughter has grown up. When he learns that his wife's new husband is Read More

Growing Pains: Season 05

Actors: Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold, Jeremy Miller

Synopsis: As season five of Growing Pains gets under way, neither psychiatrist Jason Seaver (Alan Thicke) nor his TV-journalist wife Maggie (Joanna Kerns) are pleased that their son Mike (Kirk Cameron) has become engaged to Julie (Julie McCullough), the young woman whom the Seavers had hired as nanny for Read More

The Preppie Murder

Actors: William Baldwin

Synopsis: Based on a true story, The Preppie Murder begins on August 26, 1986. This was the day that 18-year-old Jennifer Levin (Lara-Flynn Boyle) was strangled to death in Central Park. The prime suspect, Jennifer's 19-year-old boyfriend Robert Chambers (William Baldwin), confesses to the crime. The Read More

Those She Left Behind

Actors: Gary Cole, Joanna Kerns, Mary Page Keller, Colleen Dewhurst, George Coe

Synopsis: The ordeal of young husband Scott Grimes (Gary Cole) begins when his wife Sue (Mary Page Keller) unexpectedly dies in childbirth. Unprepared to be a single parent, Scott seeks out help from his mother-in-law (Colleen Dewhurst) and from professional caregivers. Still, he is overwhelmed by the Read More

Growing Pains: Season 04

Actors: Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold, Jeremy Miller

Synopsis: The number of children in the Seaver family increases from three to four in season four of Growing Pains, as mom Maggie (Joanna Kerns) takes a brief leave from her TV reporting job to deliver a baby daughter named Chrissy (played by twin infants Kirsten and Kelsey Dohring). While Maggie's hubby Read More

Growing Pains: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Jane Powell makes her first series appearance as Jason's lively widowed mom Irma. Returning from a vacation cruise, Irma surprises one and all by bringing along her new boyfriend Wally (Robert Rockwell), whom she plans to marry. Despite Irma's assurances that this situation is no different than Read More

Cross My Heart

Actors: Martin Short, Annette O'Toole, Paul Reiser, Joanna Kerns, Jessica Puscas

Synopsis: Martin Short and Annette O'Toole star in this comedy documenting a date from hell. Short is David, a sunglasses salesman, who makes a date with Kathy (Annette O'Toole) in order to celebrate his new promotion. David and Kathy have gone out a few times before, but they both think that this is the Read More

Mistress

Actors: Victoria Principal, Don Murray, Kerrie Keane, Alan Rachins, Guy Boyd

Synopsis: A kept woman learns to live independently in this made-for-TV melodrama. Her troubles begin after her successful and much loved "sugar daddy" suddenly dies, leaving her with nothing but her own strong will and very few real job skills to survive. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Growing Pains: Season 03

Actors: Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold, Jeremy Miller

Synopsis: Laid-back psychiatrist Jason Seaver (Alan Thicke) is still conducting his business from his Long Island home as Growing Pains launches its second season, but Jason's wife Maggie undergoes a radical change of scenery when she leaves her job at the "Long Island Herald" behind to accept a post as TV Read More

Growing Pains: Season 02

Actors: Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold, Jeremy Miller

Synopsis: Season two of Growing Pains serves up 22 new episodes featuring the Seaver clan of Long Island: stay-at-home psychiatrist Jason Seaver (Alan Thicke), suburban-newspaper reporter Maggie Seaver (Joanna Kerns), and their children Mike (Kirk Cameron), Carol (Tracey Gold), and Ben (Jeremy Miller). In Read More

A Bunny's Tale

Actors: Lela Rochon

Synopsis: A Bunny's Tale is a TV-movie adaptation of Gloria Steinem's experiences as a Playboy bunny. Engaged by a magazine to write an investigative article on publisher Hugh Hefner's nightclub chain, Ms. Steinem (Kirstie Alley) poses as a young girl named "Marie" and enters the Bunny training program at Read More

Growing Pains: Season 01

Actors: Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold, Jeremy Miller

Synopsis: As season one of Growing Pains gets under way, Long Island housewife Maggie Seaver (Joanna Kerns) lands a job as a reporter for a local newspaper. Since it has always been the Seavers' philosophy that at least one parent should always be home to look after youngsters Mike (Kirk Cameron), Carol (Tracey Gold Read More

Deadly Justice

Actors: Richard Crenna

Synopsis: Made for television, Broken Badge originally aired as The Rape of Richard Beck. Richard Crenna plays Beck, a hard-bitten cop who has little patience for female rape victims. Then he himself is sexually assaulted by two assailants. Crenna's excellent performance notwithstanding, the teleplay by James G. Hirsch Read More

Stormin' Home

Synopsis: In this drama, a divorced and irresponsible motocross racer grows up as he prepares to run the Big Race. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Hunter: Pilot

Synopsis: Hunter launches its seven-season run with the series' two-hour pilot, starring former football proFred Dryer as Rick Hunter, a mobster's son who has grown up to become a thoroughly incorruptible LAPD detective sergeant. Hunter's "Dirty Harry" tactics and his flagrant flouting of the rules have Read More

Hunter [TV Series]

Actors: Fred Dryer, Michael Cavanaugh

Synopsis: Inspired by the popular Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry movies, the weekly, hour-long NBC cop drama Hunter starred former NFL star Fred Dryer as the Eastwoodesque title character, LAPD detective sergeant Rick Hunter. Originally operating out of the Homicide department, Hunter spent the series' first Read More

The A-Team: A Nice Place to Visit

Synopsis: The A-Team sneaks into a small and remote town, there to attend the funeral of a fellow Vietnam veteran. They soon discover that their friend was murdered by members of the vicious Watkins family, who also hold the townsfolk in a grip of terror. Thus the team's mission is twofold: To seek revenge Read More

V

Actors: Jane Badler, Marc Singer, Peter Nelson, Faye Grant

Synopsis: In this sprawling television miniseries, originally aired in May 1983 on NBC, a race of seemingly human-like aliens arrive en masse on Earth. These "Visitors" promise cooperation and friendship -- then launch a clandestine takeover of the planet by accusing the entire scientific and medical Read More

Magnum, P.I.: Two Birds of a Feather

Synopsis: In search of lost treasure, international adventurer Sam Hunter (William Lucking) crash-lands his plane on the Robin Masters estate. Magnum (Tom Selleck) quickly deduces that the crash was no accident, and that someone wants Hunter dead. He also has the eerie feeling that he's met Hunter before. . Read More

Laverne & Shirley: The Fashion Show

Synopsis: Laverne's new boyfriend (Larry Breeding) makes his living as a glamour photographer. Jealous over the fact that her beau spends all his working hours with gorgeous models, Laverne (Penny Marshall) tries to invade the glamour world herself--and ends up strutting down the runway of a major fashion Read More

Magnum, P.I.: The Last Page

Synopsis: Vietnam veteran Taylor Hurst (Robert F. Lyons) hires Magnum (Tom Selleck) to locate his missing girlfriend. It turns out, however, that the girl is only peripherally connected to Hurst's hidden agenda, which involves a complex and very lethaly scheme for revenge. Honolulu's famous Punchbowl Read More

A Wedding on Walton's Mountain

Actors: Ellen Corby, Judy Norton-Taylor, Morgan Stevens, Ralph Waite

Synopsis: A Wedding on Walton's Mountain has no John-Boy (Richard Thomas) or Olivia (Michael Learned),but does feature five regulars from the long-running TV series: Ralph Waite as John Walton, Ellen Corby as Grandma, Mary Elizabeth McDonough as Erin, Jon Walmsley as Jason and Judy Norton-Taylor as Mary Read More

Mother's Day on Walton's Mountain

Actors: Jon Walmsley

Synopsis: The second of three TV-movie spinoffs of the long-running series The Waltons, Mother's Day on Walton's Mountain marked the return of actress Michael Learned in the role of Olivia Walton, a part she had relinquished when her contract expired one year before the original series' cancellation in Read More

Marriage Is Alive and Well

Synopsis: In this made-for-TV movie, a wedding photographer learns the secrets of marriage while working at several ceremonies. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Coma

Actors: Geneviève Bujold, Michael Douglas, Elizabeth Ashley, Rip Torn, Richard Widmark

Synopsis: A feisty, feminist intern uncovers a medical conspiracy in this icy thriller about mysterious goings-on at Boston Memorial Hospital. When her best friend and aerobics partner, Nancy Greenly (Lois Chiles), emerges in a vegetative state from a routine abortion, Dr. Susan Wheeler (Genevieve Bujold) Read More

Quincy, M.E.: Touch of Death

Synopsis: In an episode obviously inspired by the death of Bruce Lee, Quincy's assistant Sam (Robert Ito) takes it personally when his cousin Tad Kimura, a martial-arts movie star, dies mysteriously while filming his latest picture. As Quincy (Jack Klugman) prepares to perform an autopsy, Sam begs him not Read More

Charlie's Angels: The Blue Angels

Actors: Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith, David F. Doyle, Ed Lauter

Synopsis: The Angels return to their police department roots in order to find out who has been tipping off prostitutes and pimps during a city-wide police crackdown. Sabrina (Kate Jackson) is assigned to the vice squad, Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) poses as a police-academy cadet, and Jill (Farrah Fawcett-Majors) Read More

Emergency!: Firehouse Quintet

Synopsis: Not a sequel to the earlier episode "Firehouse Quartet" (which concerned a makeshift singing group), this episode finds the Squad 51 basketball team going all the way to the semi-finals. Unfortunately, a steady stream of emergency calls makes it difficult for the team members to prep for the big Read More

Ape

Actors: Rod Arrants, Joanna Kerns

Synopsis: This laughable Korean rip-off of King Kong was released the same year as Dino De Laurentis's trumpeted remake to sponge up some free hype from that film's massive publicity machine (in some areas it was retitled The New King Kong). Despite the fact that the poorly-handled big-studio film was Read More