Donald Wrye
Alexis Winston is a young girl who dreams of becoming a champion figure skater. While practicing, Alexis suffers a terrible accident that takes her sight and threatens to destroy her dreams. In the midst of feeling sorry for herself she falls in love with a handsome young man named Nick who (with help from her family) helps her to realize that she can still fulfill her dreams.
Emma Norman spends a wild Spring break holiday on Mintners Cove beach, California, with her female friends, Lori, who seeks a new fling and academic Stefanie. There, slick stud Greg Vlasi gives them a good time and shoots video of them on beach and yacht (possibly drugged and/or drunk). The video is doctored and released onto the internet as porn distributed by Nick Bronson in LA. Soon Emma's promising career as Minneapolis school teacher is over. Her fireman fiancé David in home small-town Prairie dumps her, even her dad's firm gets boycotted.
When Donielle is just eight years old and attending her best friend's funeral she has a vision that her friend was murdered by his father. No one believes her and she is disowned by her mother. Years later and now a mother herself she drifts from town to town and they finally settle in a town that is in the grips of a serial killer.Only Donielle can "see" who the killer is and after he threatens her daughter she knows she must face him down. Based on actual events.
A woman intensely believes her husband will recover from a coma during the holiday season.
A former news reporter marries and tries to adjust to the life of a house wife and mother. However, her need for an adrenaline high is overpowering and she becomes a gambling addict.
Local Neo-Nazi thugs, financed by an outside racist attempt to create an atmosphere of fear in a small Montana community by intimidating black churchgoers, and Native American and Jewish residents.
Two single mothers, polar opposites in personality, join forces to track down their children that have been kidnapped by their ex-husbands.
College swimmer Chad Billingsley is his middle class family's pride and joy. After a moody phase of scared denial, he owns up to father, attorney Roger, that Rosalie Frank, the provocatively dressed waitress who attended his frat's last party and is missing since, had sex with five of them. Roger does his utmost to prevent the potential statutory rape case ruining his son's future, but confides in his moralistic wife, refuge house worker Karen, who instead of supporting the boys haunts them like Rosalie's mother Inez, with multiple tragic results.
Based on a true story about two sisters who sue their father for incest and child abuse. As the story unfolds, it is revealed that the father severely abused all six children, and committed incest with all four of his daughters.
Inseparable Alabama twin sisters, Betty Gay Wilson and Peggy Joy Lowe, are arrested and tried for conspiring to murder Betty's wealthy husband. These two sisters hire handyman James White to kill Betty's husband. White's love and devotion for Peggy compels him to obey their irrational orders and carry out the murder. White confesses to the murder and the twins are arrested, charged, and tried. Based on the true story of Alabama twins Betty Wilson and Peggy Lowe who were arrested and tried in 1992 for the conspiracy to murder of Betty's husband, a wealthy, well-known ophthalmologist, Jack.
Ever since Pam Cheney (Cheryl Ladd) lost her baby during labor, she has been struggling with depression. She is not only supported by her loving, but hard working husband Sean (Robert Desiderio), but also by her friends Ella (Polly Draper) and Terry Sabin (D. David Morin), who have also lost a baby at age three. One year after labor, Pam decides to finally take a proposal to adopt a toddler. Going through official agencies proves unsuccessful, partly due to Pam's age, partly due to the growing demand of adoption. She is advised to take care of an orphaned teenager instead, but Sean refuses this option.
Steve Thompson is losing himself, one memory at a time. Plagued with amnesia after getting a concussion, Steve is overwhelmed by his unrecognizable life and leaves his family in search of answers. But his quest only returns him back home, where he must face his demons and get at the truth.
When 30-year-old Allison Campbell wins a $2 million lottery, her family life turns upside down not just because of her winnings but because Allison is mentally handicapped. Kari, her younger sister, has been caring for Alison for 10 years. Problems arise when the girls' mother, Katherine, decides she wants Allison to live with her.
A wealthy man's daughter is kidnapped and placed in a box with air for only 83 hours.
Amerika – suggesting a Russified name for the United States – is an American television miniseries that was broadcast in 1987 on ABC. The miniseries inspired a novelization entitled Amerika: The Triumph of the American Spirit. Amerika starred Kris Kristofferson, Mariel Hemingway, Sam Neill, Robert Urich, and a 17-year-old Lara Flynn Boyle in her first major role. Amerika was about life in the United States after a bloodless takeover engineered by the Soviet Union. Not wanting to depict the actual takeover, ABC Entertainment president Brandon Stoddard set the miniseries ten years after the event, focusing on the demoralized American people a decade after the Soviet conquest. The intent, he later explained, was to explore the American spirit under such conditions, not to portray the conflict of the Soviet coup. Described in promotional materials as "the most ambitious American miniseries ever created," Amerika aired for 14½ hours over seven nights, and reportedly cost US$40 million to produce. The miniseries was filmed in Toronto, London, Ontario, and Hamilton, Ontario, as well as various locations in Nebraska – most notably the small town of Tecumseh, which served as "Milford," the fictional setting for most of the series. Donald Wrye was the executive producer, director, and writer of Amerika, while composer Basil Poledouris scored the miniseries, ultimately recording eight hours of music – the equivalent of four feature films.
Filmed in quasi-documentary fashion, the made-for-TV The Face of Rage is set in a rehabilitation facility. Here a group of rapists are required to confront their victims face-to-face. The film concentrates on the bitter verbal sparring session between assaulter Richard (Graham Bechel) and assaultee Rebecca (Dianne Weist). Director Donald Wrye co-wrote the screenplay for Face of Rage with Hal Sitowicz, drawing much of the dialogue from real-life transcripts. The film was first aired as an "ABC Theatre" presentation on March 20, 1983, preceded with an all too appropriate "parental guidance" proviso.
A steel factory that employs most of the town shuts down, leaving a man desperate to keep his family and friends together while alcohol consumes him in this depressing drama.
Successful divorce lawyer Jack Sturgess discovers that his own marriage is falling apart and must juggle his domestic conflicts with his clients' problems.
Fire on the Mountain is a 1981 made-for-television movie adaptation of the Edward Abbey novel, Fire on the Mountain, directed by Donald Wrye and starring Buddy Ebsen as John Vogelin, Ron Howard as Lee Mackie and Michael Conrad as Col. Desalius. The hero of the movie is Vogelin, a New Mexico rancher whose land adjoins the White Sands Missile Range and is about to be condemned by the United States Air Force to use his land to expand a bombing range. He is the last holdout among the several people whose land the Air Force wants, and he refuses to move. A young land developer, Mackie, is sent to vacate the rancher, but soon he joins in defying the military. Soon it boils down to a battle of wills between Vogelin and the equally bullheaded army officer Colonel Desalius.
A young girl is on top of the world until a tragic accident dashes her hopes and dreams of becoming a world-class figure skater. Only with the help of those who love her can she prove to the world -- and herself -- that she still has the potential to realize her dreams.
It's Christmas Eve 1944 in the small town of Bedford Falls, New York. A despondent and suicidal Mary Bailey Hatch is praying for guidance on what to do about an incident no fault of her own which threatens her name and the community standing of her longtime family business, the Bailey Building and Loan, which she took over after the passing of her father. What Mary does not know is that most in town, including her husband George Hatch and their children, are also praying for her. All the prayers are heard by Joseph, God's gatekeeper of prayers. As there are no other angels available on such a busy day, Joseph assigns Clara Oddbody, angel second class (i.e. she has yet to receive her wings), to Mary's case, which he reluctantly does as Clara has never been assigned a case on her own in the two hundred years she's been in heaven for good reason.
A vaudeville entertainer approaches middle age still not having attained success or stardom.
Based on the book by famed author John Gunther about the life and early death of his teenage son Johnny, who died from a brain tumor.
A constant runaway is given over to the care of the state and finds herself in a remand centre for girls. She is soon caught between the uncaring bureaucracy, the sometimes brutal treatment from her peers and her own abusive family, and only one care worker sees her potential to rise above her tragic circumstances.
An emotionally disturbed young boy shuts out all of his family and friends. A counselor tries to help bring him and his family together again.
