ABC
November 12, 1976
TV-Movie
DVD
B
I can best describe this "based on a true story" (not really) story as moving kitsch. That is, it's hokey and manipulative, but there is something touching about it. Travolta was a teen idol by then (and still very much on the rise), so I appreciate his willingness to play such an unusual character who is not "cool" in any traditional way. Reed as his father starts out looking like first-season Mike Brady and progresses to, well, Variety Hour Mike Brady. (But more about that later.) There are moments, like when Travolta is in his Scooby Scuba outfit talking about being an alien as his high school friends smoke dope, that stretch and even snap the limits of credibility, but it is oddly compelling. And I like that Glynnis O'Connor plays a flawed but likable love interest. (In real life, Travolta began his tragic romance with Diana Hyland, who plays his mother and who would be dead in March.)
Travolta's WBK classmate Vernee Watson plays Gwen here. Kelly Ward, who plays Tom Shuster here, would be Putzie in Grease, as well as have a role on M*A*S*H. "Obnoxious Reporter" (he's not that bad) Timothy Hines would appear on the last season of The Bob Newhart Show, while Ralph Bellamy who's the unaging Dr. Gunther here, would also do BNS. And, yes, that's Newhart's Dr. Phil Newman (Howard Platt) as a neighbor. Randal Kleiser would go on to direct Grease and Blue Lagoon, among other, well, kitsch.
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