The same Ted Lange who spent several years in the innocuous role of the bartender in TV's The Love Boat was the screenwriter for the far-from-innocuous "black pride" effort Passing Through. Nathaniel Taylor plays African-American jazz musician Warmack, who is bedeviled by crooked, homicidal record executives. At the behest of his grandfather Papa Harris (Clarence Muse), Warmack seeks out inner strength by studying his family roots. Inspired by the example of his African forebears, Warmack successfully trounces the evil record moguls after they arrange the death of his best friend. Passing Through director Larry Clark took on the project as a means of completing his UCLA film degree.