The Transition

Valerie Bertinelli made the transition from sitcoms to TV movies with ease. The success of "One Day at a Time" gave her the clout to pick and choose her projects. At 24, Valerie knew it was time for her to break away from her squeaky clean image and tackle something she could sink her teeth into. Valerie very carefully picks and chooses the projects, and she's really gotta feel that when she reads something she gets a feeling whether it interests her or not, and very rarely a producer will try to talk Valerie into doing something she doesn't want to do.

On the strength of her talents and range, she landed roles in made-for-television movies that other actresses were unable to carry.

The Seduction of Gina (Jan 17, 1984) was her first challenging dramatic role. Valerie played a woman addicted to gambling who loses everything and very nearly her life. Valerie states that TV movies were starting to get really big back then. There weren't a lot of actresses her age doing television movies, so, Val started doing them, and the ratings were amazing, so people wanted to watch them.

Although Gina was a world away from Barbara Cooper, Valerie and her manager knew if they really wanted to grab the attention of America, they had to be willing to take even more risks. Her manager says that they gotta seek out that special picture that's just a little bit different than the next one; there's so many movies each week on television, the only way to stand out is for your subject matter to be a little bit different than the movie the night before and the night after.

Their strategy paid off. Shattered Vows (Oct 29, 1984) gained national attention. The critics loved it, and Valerie's fans watched the young actress stretch to new heights playing a nun who falls in love with a priest. Valerie states it was just one of ones that Jack kept bringing to her, really good roles, and it happened to be another good role for her. Someone states that Valerie is one of the all-time best actresses he ever worked with from the pure reason she comes to the set like a child, just open, what you want her to do, she's already done her homework, but she's willing to throw herself into your hands, and run with the ball. The thing he likes about Valerie is she keeps challenging herself, keeps taking roles that make her grow as an actress and as a person.

The small-screen teen queen with the button nose and flowing brunette hair now graduated to roles that were rich in drama. Valerie's mom states that she enjoys the movies, except, she told Valerie to please do a comedy sometime soon and it's always movies about problems and crying and it's just hard for her to deal with; she just wants to see her do comedy.

More TV movies, Silent Witness (Oct 14, 1985), and Rockabye (January 12, 1986) followed.

Not everything Valerie tried turned into gold. Her move to major motion pictures proved to be a dissapointment, with films like Ordinary Heroes (1986), and Number One With a Bullet (1987), but Valerie is a consistent winner on the small screen. Her movies are among the most-watched on TV, making Valerie Bertinelli one of the most bankable stars in the business today.