Scatman Crothers Filmography

The Transformers: Season 04

Actors: Peter Cullen, Frank Welker, Gregg Berger, Susan Blu, Arthur Burghardt

Synopsis: The fourth and final season of the original Transformers cartoon series is actually a three-part miniseries titled "The Rebirth." The age-old war between the two rival Transformer factions, the Autobots and the Decepticons, takes the combatants to Nebulos, a planet controlled by evil telepaths. In Read More

The Transformers: The Movie

Actors: Leonard Nimoy, Robert Stack, Judd Nelson, Eric Idle, Orson Welles

Synopsis: In this theatrically released chapter of the 1984-1987 syndicated animated series, the struggle between the heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons is taken twenty years into the future as both sides must deal with a world-devouring being called Unicron (voiced by Orson Welles). Set in 2005, The Read More

The Transformers: Season 03

Actors: Peter Cullen, Frank Welker, Gregg Berger, Susan Blu, Arthur Burghardt

Synopsis: Season three of the cartoon series The Transformers opens with an elaborate five-part story (eminently suited to be "transformed" into a single two-hour TV movie), "The Five Faces of Darkness," set largely on Cybertron, home planet of the warring Autobots and Decepticons. This plotline serves to Read More

The Journey of Natty Gann

Actors: Meredith Salenger, John Cusack, Ray Wise, Scatman Crothers, Barry Miller

Synopsis: Disney's The Journey of Natty Gann stars Meredith Salenger in the title role. During the Depression, Natty's father (Ray Wise) takes a job in a Northwestern lumber camp, leaving his daughter behind in Chicago with the promise that he'll send for her when he's put together enough money. Unwilling Read More

The Transformers: Season 02

Actors: Peter Cullen, Frank Welker, Gregg Berger, Susan Blu, Arthur Burghardt

Synopsis: The robotic cartoon adventure series The Transformers begins its second season with the episode "Autobot Spike," in which one of the human allies of the Autobots in their ongoing battle against the Decepticons literally loses his mind to a super-Transformer. "Autobot Spike" is one of the few Read More

The Transformers: Season 01

Actors: Peter Cullen, Frank Welker, Gregg Berger, Susan Blu, Arthur Burghardt

Synopsis: Season one of the "cartoon commercial" The Transformers begins with the three-part "More Than Meets the Eye," which explains how the two warring Transformers armies from the planet Cybertron, Optimus Prime's good-guy Autobots and Megatron's bad-guy Decepticons, were placed in suspended animation Read More

The Transformers [Animated TV Series]

Synopsis: The Transformers was one of several syndicated half-hour cartoon series of the 1980s designed to promote a line of toys. In this instance, the playthings, marketed by Hasbro, were tiny robots that could be "transformed" into automotive vehicles, and vice versa. It was not for nothing that the Read More

Taxi: A Grand Gesture

Synopsis: Once again, Jim (Christopher Lloyd) has been carried to extremes by his latest enthusiasm. In this instance, Jim is obsessed with notion that, in order to experience full happiness, one must be generous with those less fortunate than themselves. Thus, Jim hands each of his fellow cabbies 1000 Read More

Twilight Zone: The Movie

Actors: Dan Aykroyd, Jeff Bannister, Patricia Barry, Peter Brocco, Albert Brooks

Synopsis: Based on the popular television series created by Rod Serling, this film of horror and the supernatural tells four separate stories--each by a different director: John Landis, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante and George Miller. In one, a bigot is taught a lesson when he is transported to experience the Read More

Two of a Kind

Actors: John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Charles Durning, Beatrice Straight, Scatman Crothers

Synopsis: John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John attempt to rekindle the box office sparks of Grease with this screwball fantasy comedy. The tale begins during a golf match in heaven among four angels --Charlie (Charles Durning), Earl (Scatman Crothers), Gonzales (Castulo Guerra), and Ruth (Beatrice Read More

Missing Children: A Mother's Story

Synopsis: Deserted by her no-good husband, Kate Bradshaw (Mare Winningham), an illiterate, unemployed mother of three, proves to be easy prey for a smooth-talking older woman, Mary Gertrude (Polly Holliday). Persuaded to enroll her kids in Mary Gertrude's "child care center," Kate soon realizes to her Read More

Rats

Actors: Sam Groom, Sara Botsford, Scatman Crothers, Lisa Langlois, Cec Linder

Synopsis: A super breed of rats is accidentally given large doses of steroids, and the rodents grow five to ten times their usual size. While the city is being overrun, a science teacher (Sam Groom) and a health inspector (Sara Botsford) struggle to survive while plotting the rats' demise. The film was Read More

Zapped!

Actors: Scott Baio, Willie Aames, Felice Schachter, Robert Mandan, Heather Thomas

Synopsis: Carrie meets Porky's as Charles in Charge co-stars Scott Baio and Willie Aames re-team for this mischievous-minded teen comedy about a hormonal high school science student suddenly bestowed with telekinetic powers. Emerson High School genius Barney Springboro (Baio) has a keen understanding of the Read More

The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island

Synopsis: The seven stranded castaways find comical chaos when an insane scientist, his trusty sidekick and the title basketball tricksters, playing robots visit their tropic island nest in this third in a series of made-for-television films based on the enduring early '60s sitcom. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Read More

Magnum, P.I.: Lest We Forget

Synopsis: Supreme Court nominee Judge Robert Caine (Jose Ferrer) gives Magnum (Tom Selleck) 24 hours to locate the woman Caine married in Honolulu on December 6, 1941, when he was a Navy ensign and she was a prostitute. Someone is blackmailing the Judge, and he thinks that the long-lost (and presumed dead) Read More

Sunshine's on the Way

The Shining

Actors: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson

Synopsis: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" -- or, rather, a homicidal boy in Stanley Kubrick's eerie 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel. With wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and psychic son Danny (Danny Lloyd) in tow, frustrated writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) takes a job as the Read More

Bronco Billy

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, Scatman Crothers, Bill McKinney

Synopsis: Bronco Billy stars Clint Eastwood (who also directed) as the impresario of a seedy wild west show. Going along for the ride is spoiled socialite Sondra Locke, who is "initiated" by being pressed into service as the wrong end of a knife-throwing act. The rest of the troupe, like Eastwood himself Read More

Laverne & Shirley: Murder on the Moosejaw Express, Part 2

Synopsis: In the conclusion of a two-part story, Laverne (Penny Marshall) and Shirley (Cindy Williams) are still trying to solve a murder while hurtling towards Canada on the Moosejaw Express. The girls have been warned to "beware the bald man"--who has apparently already caught up with them and poisoned Read More

Laverne & Shirley: Murder on the Moosejaw Express, Part 1

Synopsis: In the first episode of a two-part story, Laverne (Penny Marshall) and Shirley (Cindy Williams) climb aboard the legendary Moosejaw Express in anticipation of a thrilling train ride from Wisconsin to Canada . It's thrilling, all right, but not in the way the girls had expected. No sooner has the Read More

Banjo the Woodpile Cat

Actors: Sparky Marcus, Scatman Crothers, Beah Richards, Jerry Harper

Synopsis: A rare TV project from animator Don Bluth, Banjo the Woodpile Cat begins in somewhere in the Great Midwest, where the title character, a mischievous kitten, pulls one too many pranks on his mom and dad. Fearing severe punishment, Banjo hops a truck bound for Salt Lake City. Here he is befriended Read More

Scavenger Hunt

Crew: Musical Performer

Actors: Richard Benjamin, James Coco, Scatman Crothers, Cloris Leachman, Cleavon Little

Synopsis: When millionaire Vincent Price dies, he leaves a riotous will which amounts to a scavenger hunt, the winner of which receives the entire willed fortune. So 15 potential heirs are sent on a zany quest where they must outrace and outsmart one another to inherit the big bucks. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Cheap Detective

Actors: Peter Falk, Ann-Margret, Eileen Brennan, Sid Caesar, Stockard Channing, Dom DeLuise, Louise Fletcher, John Houseman, Madeline Kahn, Scatman Crothers

Synopsis: Spoofing the entire 1940s detective genre, and his own performances as a bumbling private detective, Peter Falk plays Lou Pekinpaugh, a San Francisco private detective accused of murdering his partner at the instigation of his mistress, the partner's wife, Georgia Merkle (Marsha Mason). Police Read More

Vega$

Synopsis: In this film, the whereabouts of a runaway teenage girl are sought by a Las Vegas detective (Robert Urich), whose investigation uncovers more than he bargained for. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Mean Dog Blues

Actors: Gregg Henry, Kay Lenz, George Kennedy, Scatman Crothers, Tina Louise

Synopsis: Former TV documentary filmmaker Mel Stuart tries to inject an acceptable degree of verisimilitude in Mean Dog Blues. A victim of circumstance, country and western musician Paul Ramsey (Gregg Henry) finds himself on a Southern chain gang. Captain Omar Kinsman (George Kennedy) snarls a lot as the Read More

Chico and the Man: Season 04

Actors: Jack Albertson, Della Reese, Scatman Crothers, Gabriel Melgar

Synopsis: Many viewers were astonished (and some were offended!) when the NBC sitcom Chico and the Man returned in the fall of 1977 for its fourth season. After all, how could the show include the name "Chico" in the title when everybody knew that the young comedian who'd played garage mechanic Chico Read More

Stay Hungry

Actors: Jeff Bridges, Sally Field, Arnold Schwarzenegger, R.G. Armstrong, Robert Englund

Synopsis: In this offbeat comedy, Jeff Bridges plays Craig Blake, a rich kid who works with a group of hard-living Southern real-estate men led by Jabo (Joe Spinell), who are buying up a business district in Birmingham, Alabama in order to clear the space and put in a new project. Craig is supposed to work Read More

Silver Streak

Actors: Gene Wilder, Jill Clayburgh, Richard Pryor, Patrick McGoohan, Ned Beatty

Synopsis: While taking a train trip from L.A. to Chicago, mild-mannered George Caldwell (Gene Wilder) makes the acquaintance of Hilly Burns (Jill Clayburgh). As they indulge in a brief bit of spooning, Hilly tells George that her boss is on the verge of exposing a group of vicious art forgers. Later that Read More

The Shootist

Actors: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, Bill McKinney, James Stewart

Synopsis: About ten minutes into The Shootist, Doctor Hostetler (James Stewart) tells aging Western gunfighter John Bernard Books (John Wayne), "You have a cancer." Knowing that his death will be painful and lingering, Books is determined to be shot in the line of "duty." In his remaining two months, Books Read More

Chico and the Man: Season 03

Actors: Jack Albertson, Freddie Prinze, Della Reese, Scatman Crothers

Synopsis: Season Three of the Freddie Prinze sitcom Chico and the Man begins with a two-part episode, as Ed Brown (Jack Albertson), curmudgeonly owner of a barrio garage and the employer of lovable Latino Chico Rodriguez (Prinze, of course), discovers to his dismay that his new landlady is his old enemy Read More

Chesty Anderson - U.S. Navy

Actors: Shari Eubank, Dorri Thompson, Rosanne Katon, Marcie Barkin, Fred Willard

Synopsis: Sequel to the 1970 Chesty Anderson sex comedy by the same director, this lame story with jokes to match focuses on the aptly-named Chesty (Shari Eubank), still a WAVE in the U.S. Navy, but now she is after the Mafioso who killed her younger sister. Chesty's allies are three of her Read More

Man on the Outside

Actors: Lorne Greene

Synopsis: Man on the Outside was the pilot film for the weekly ABC TV series Griff. Lorne Greene stars as retired police captain Wade "Griff" Griffin, who is galvanized back into active duty when his police-officer son is murdered before his eyes, and his grandson is kidnapped by a mob functionary. None of Read More

The Fortune

Actors: Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Stockard Channing, Florence Stanley, Scatman Crothers, Richard B. Shull

Synopsis: Three's a crowd in Mike Nichols's period caper comedy -- or is it? To dodge the 1920s Mann Act barring the transport of women across state lines for "immoral purposes," not-yet-divorced Nicky (Warren Beatty) has felonious buddy Oscar (Jack Nicholson) marry Nicky's runaway heiress sweetheart Freddy Read More

Sanford and Son: The Stand-In

Actors: Redd Foxx, Demond Wilson, Scatman Crothers, Billy Eckstine, Al Wilson

Synopsis: Scatman Crothers guest stars as Bow Legs, an old pal of Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx) (it was Bow Legs who introduced Fred to his late wife Elizabeth). At Bow Legs' behest, Fred's pals develop a nightclub act called "The Zanies." A last-minute crisis results in an impromptu song-and-snappy-patter Read More

Chico and the Man: Season 02

Actors: Jack Albertson, Freddie Prinze, Scatman Crothers

Synopsis: Freddie Prinze (Chico Rodriguez) and Jack Albertson (Ed Brown) are still on hand as the title characters in the warm-hearted ethnic sitcom Chico and the Man as the series enters its second season. Likewise, Scatman Crothers is back in the supporting role of ebullient neighborhood garbage collector Read More

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Actors: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, William Redfield, Dean R. Brooks, Scatman Crothers

Synopsis: With an insane asylum standing in for everyday society, Milos Forman's 1975 film adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel is a comically sharp indictment of the Establishment urge to conform. Playing crazy to avoid prison work detail, manic free spirit Randle P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) is sent to the Read More

Coonskin

Actors: Barry White, Charles Gordone, Scatman Crothers, Philip Thomas

Synopsis: Fritz the Cat and Heavy Traffic helmer Ralph Bakshi subsequently directed the über-controversial animated feature Coonskin (aka Streetfight, 1975). Bakshi opens and closes the film with a live-action tale that stars Scatman Crothers, Miami Vice's Philip Michael Thomas, Charles Gordone, and Barry White Read More

Linda Lovelace for President

Actors: Linda Lovelace

Synopsis: Voter apathy in the United States is at an all-time high, and the general consensus of the American attitude is that there simply isn't anyone worth voting for. A multi-ethnic, politically diverse committee comes together to name a new candidate that America can really get behind. When someone Read More

Friday Foster

Actors: Pam Grier, Yaphet Kotto, Godfrey Cambridge, Thalmus Rasulala, Eartha Kitt

Synopsis: In this blaxploitation film, statuesque action star Pam Grier is cast as comic-strip heroine Friday Foster. A freelance photographer with an insatiable thirst for adventure, Friday unearths a conspiracy to assassinate several prominent black political leaders. The film also features Yaphet Kotto, Godfrey Cambridge Read More

Black Belt Jones

Actors: Jim Kelly, Gloria Hendry, Scatman Crothers, Alan Weeks, Eric Laneuville

Synopsis: Robert Clouse, director of Enter the Dragon, returned with this blaxploitation actioner starring Jim Kelly as an instructor at a martial-arts school in the Watts section of Los Angeles. Teaming with former Bond girl Gloria Hendry, Kelly saves the school and Hendry's dad (Scatman Crothers) from the Read More

Hong Kong Phooey [Animated TV Series]

Chico and the Man: Season 01

Actors: Jack Albertson, Freddie Prinze, Scatman Crothers

Synopsis: Season One of Chico and the Man begins as crotchety garage owner Ed Brown (Jack Albertson), the last remaing WASP in a predominately Mexican-American neighborhood of Los Angeles, begrudgingly hires affable Hispanic youth Chico Rodriguez (Freddie Prinze) as a mechanic and Jack-of-all-trades. Read More

Chico and the Man [TV Series]

Actors: Freddie Prinze, Jack Albertson, Scatman Crothers

Synopsis: Produced by James Komack (Welcome Back, Kotter), the weekly, half-hour NBC sitcom Chico and the Man was built around the talents of 20-year-old standup comedian Freddie Prinze, who had scored a sensation during his first appearance on The Tonight Show. Born in the LA barrio, the "Hugarican" Read More

Truck Turner

Actors: Isaac Hayes, Yaphet Kotto

Synopsis: Isaac Hayes puts his gun where his groove is in his role as hard-case bounty hunter Mack "Truck" Turner, three years after composing the legendary score for Shaft (1971). Ex-football star turned skip-tracer, Turner specializes in bringing in the criminals police are too scared to chase, and when Read More

The Sty of the Blind Pig

Actors: Mary Alice, Scatman Crothers, Maide Norman

Synopsis: An uprooted African-American family is forced to confront their traditional values and ponder the effect that the emerging civil rights movement will have on their lives after relocating from the deep-south to Chicago in the filmed version of Phillip Hayes Dean's insightful and acclaimed stage Read More

Kojak: The Corrupter

Synopsis: Not long after a brand-new staff goes to work at the Duchess Jewelry Company, the owner is found murdered. At first, it looks like a simple mugging, but Kojak (Telly Savalas) suspects that something more sinister is afoot. Launching an investigation, Kojak ends up targeting a smuggling ring Read More

Ironside: The Last Payment

Synopsis: Much against the wishes of Chief Ironside (Raymond Burr), Mark (Don Mitchell) goes undercover to smash an extortion ring preying on ghetto dwellers. It's a personal crusade for Mark: one of the ring's victims is his friend Gilbert, who is forced to pay huge sums of money each week lest harm befall Read More

The King of Marvin Gardens

Actors: Henry Foehl, Frank Hatchett, Scott Howard, Wyetta Turner, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Ellen Burstyn, Julia Anne Robinson, Scatman Crothers

Synopsis: Dreams die hard in wintry Atlantic City in Bob Rafelson's downbeat character drama. Depressive deejay David Staebler (Jack Nicholson) tends to his grandfather as he philosophizes on late-night Philadelphia talk radio. When his huckster older brother Jason (Bruce Dern) calls out of the blue one Read More

Lady Sings the Blues

Actors: Tracee Lyles, Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, James Callahan, Paul Hampton

Synopsis: Diana Ross plays the magnificent, tragic song stylist Billie Holiday, who while writhing in a strait jacket in a prison cell, awaiting sentencing on drug charges, reflects on her turbulent life. Raped in her youth by a drunk (Adolph Caesar), then compelled to work as a domestic in a Harlem Read More

Adam-12: Hot Spell

Synopsis: During a particularly oppressive heat wave, Officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) answer several "routine" calls which yield surprising results. In one instance, a report of a theft culminates in a drug bust--and in another, a neighbor's complaint results in the capture Read More

Chandler

Synopsis: In this murder mystery, a private investigator falls for the former mistress of a racketeer who is slated to be a witness for the state. He is supposed to be quietly guarding her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Great White Hope

Actors: James Earl Jones, Jane Alexander, Lou Gilbert, Joel Fluellen, Chester Morris

Synopsis: Although the characters' names were changed, The Great White Hope was a thinly veiled account of the trials and tribulations of boxer Jack Johnson, based on the play by Howard Sackler and directed by Martin Ritt. James Earl Jones stars as boxing great Jack Jefferson, who defeats Frank Bardy Larry Pennell Read More

The Aristocats

Actors: Phil Harris, Eva Gabor, Sterling Holloway, Scatman Crothers

Synopsis: The Aristocats was the first Disney Studios animated feature to be produced after Walt Disney's death. A wealthy woman leaves her vast fortune to her four cats: the well-bred Duchess and her kittens, Berlioz, Toulouse, and Marie. Jealous butler Edgar, eager to get his mitts on the cats' legacy Read More

Bloody Mama

Actors: Shelley Winters, Pat Hingle, Don Stroud, Diane Varsi, Bruce Dern

Synopsis: Shelley Winters, who once played the spoofish "Ma Parker" on Batman, brings the same larger-than-life approach to her portrayal of real-life Ma Barker in Bloody Mama. Presiding over her outlaw gang, consisting mainly of her goonish sons, Ma goes on a Depression-era rampage of bank robbery, murder Read More

Chesty Anderson

Synopsis: Chesty (Shari Eubank), a member of the U.S. Navy, is notified that her sister has been found dead in a garbage chopper. She suspects the head of the local trash-hauling company is responsible. She enlists three of her fellow female sailors (who are also kung fu experts) to go after him and get Read More

Three on a Couch

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Janet Leigh, Mary Ann Mobley, Gila Golan, Leslie Parrish

Synopsis: Artist Christopher Pride (Jerry Lewis) has just been commissioned to work in Paris. Wanting to kill two birds with one stone, he plans to bring his soon-to-be bride along to celebrate their honeymoon. Unfortunately, his girlfriend (Janet Leigh) is a psychiatrist trying to contend with a trio of Read More

The Patsy

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Ina Balin, Everett Sloane, Phil Harris, Keenan Wynn

Synopsis: Toward the end of Jerry Lewis's Paramount studio period, Lewis slapped together this bitter comedy about Hollywood phoniness and fame that has to be the most rancid portrait of the Hollywood star system in the Rat Pack era this side of Clifford Odets. When a famous entertainer suddenly is killed Read More

Lady in a Cage

Actors: Olivia de Havilland, Ann Sothern, Jeff Corey, James Caan, Jennifer Billingsley

Synopsis: Olivia de Havilland stars in this sensationalistic shocker as Mrs. Halyard, a wealthy widow recuperating from a broken hip. Inside her mansion, she becomes trapped between floors in her elevator. She activates an emergency alarm but succeeds only in attracting the attention of the wino (Jeff Read More

Bonanza: The Smiler

Actors: Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Herschel Bernardi

Synopsis: Bonanza marked the beginning of its third season by moving from Saturdays at 7:30 PM EST to its now-legendary Sunday 9 PM berth, where it would remain for the next eleven years. Telecast September 24, 1961, the inaugural third-season episode, "The Smiler", was written by Lewis Reed. Defending the Read More

The Sins of Rachel Cade

Actors: Angie Dickinson, Peter Finch,