Room Upstairs

More a series of ragged comic anecdotes than a unified whole, the made-for-TV The Room Upstairs top-bills Stockard Channing as a Boston teacher of the hearing-impaired. Strapped for cash, Ms. Channing converts her family home into a boarding house. Six tenants with varying degrees of eccentricities and personal hang-ups take up residence, including soft spoken cellist Sam Waterston. Various crises involving her boarders inspire Ms. Channing to come out of her own emotional shell--she even stops her chain-smoking. Based on a novel by Norma Levinson and originally telecast as a Hallmark Hall of Fame special, The Room Upstairs was filmed on location in Boston and Vancouver.