By Erin Free
In this regular column, we drag forgotten made-for-TV movies out of the vault and into the light. This week: the 1979 youth drama Young Love, First Love, starring Valerie Bertinelli, Timothy Hutton, Fionnula Flanagan, Arlen Dean Snyder and Dee Wallace.
Even though it has shrunk and shrivelled somewhat over the last ten years or so, there has always been a big, strong barrier between small screen stars and big screen stars. From around the 1960s onwards, many main players from successful TV series attempted – with varying degrees of success – to crossover to the more lucrative and critically appreciated world of big screen cinema. Many small screen TV stars, however, instead carved out their own prized piece of territory in their initial medium, working on a variety of diverse projects via the telemovie format. The telemovie has always been just as wide-ranging in terms of content as feature cinema, and a long list of small screen stars have kept it interesting for decades without ever really trying to make it as a “movie star”, so to speak.
Alongside the likes of Jaclyn Smith, Donna Mills, Shirley Jones and many others, Valerie Bertinelli has enjoyed a long-time small screen career while also achieving great diversity in her roles. Bertinelli first broke out as a teen star on the long running TV sitcom One Day At A Time (1975-1984), charming audiences as Barbara Cooper, the adolescent daughter of Bonnie Franklin’s hard-working single mother. During the popular show’s long run, and then even more so when it ended, Valerie Bertinelli featured in a host of other TV shows and creative ventures (particularly in the field of on-screen cookery), and was also famously married to guitar godhead Eddie Van Halen for twenty years.
The almost ridiculously engaging and likeable actress also went deep into the telemovie field, spreading her wings with strong titles like The Princess And The Cabbie (1981), The Seduction Of Gina (1984), Silent Witness (1985), Ordinary Heroes (1986), Pancho Barnes (1988) and many more. Bertinelli’s first telemovie starring role, however, came with 1979’s deeply affecting teen drama Young Love, First Love, which would today be tightly located within the “Young Adult” media format. The film’s frank nature represented something of a break from One Day At A Time, which the actress was still appearing in at the time. For Valerie Bertinelli – who was nineteen when Young Love, First Love first aired on November 20, 1979 on major US network CBS – this telemovie was a major career move.
Young Love, First Love also represented a major career stepping stone for young actor Timothy Hutton, who was also just nineteen when the telemovie first aired. After supporting turns in a small selection of telemovies (the most important and impressive unquestionably being 1979’s Vietnam-themed drama Friendly Fire with Carol Burnett and Ned Beatty), Young Love, First Love was Hutton’s first major lead role, and it came just two years before he went supernova with his dazzling, heart-wrenching, Oscar winning performance in Robert Redford’s acclaimed 1980 drama Ordinary People. After that huge success, Hutton became a major movie star with fantastic films like Taps (1981), Daniel (1983), The Falcon And The Snowman (1985) and Q&A (1990), and didn’t return to television until the 1990s.
Benefitting enormously from the charm, warmth, talent and chemistry of its gifted young stars, Young Love, First Love is a simple (but never simplistic) youth romantic drama that also boasts important players behind the camera. The director is the ever-reliable Steven Hilliard Stern (who helmed essential TV movies with 1977’s Escape From Bogen County, 1982’s Mazes And Monsters and 1984’s Draw!, along with interesting features like 1971’s B.S I Love You and 1979’s Running), while the script comes from Dan Polier Jr. (who created the short-lived but enjoyable youth TV series California Fever), and the story is courtesy of Norma Klein, a prolific and frequently provocative children’s and young adult author who also penned the hugely popular novel Sunshine, which was adapted into the equally popular 1973 telemovie starring Cliff De Young and Cristina Raines. It’s a strong combination of talent, and it pays off big dividends.
High school students Robin Strand (Bertinelli) and Derek Clayton (Hutton) couldn’t be more different. She’s a loose, liberated LA girl from a very free-thinking family who drinks, smokes and parties, while he’s a conservative farm-boy from Oklahoma who’s moved to LA after the death of his parents to live with his older sister. Almost instantly attracted to each other after a few initial setbacks (Robin is a little unsettled to see keen hunter Derek shopping for a rifle while she’s looking for a new pair of jeans), this unlikely pair finds a surprisingly wide area of common ground and embarks on a relationship. Problems arise over the issue of sex and when to have it, amongst other things, as well as through the wildly diverse natures of their respective families.
Despite the simple nature of its narrative, there’s a lot going on in Young Love, First Love, especially around the sensitive and keenly intelligent manner in which it treats its teenaged characters. These are smart, fully rounded young people, and the film is incredibly frank in the way it deals with their issues. Their clash in ideals is presented without melodrama, and there is a surprising lack of judgement when it comes to usually frowned-upon things like teenage partying and sexuality. The fact that Robin and Derek want to get it on – even though he’s reticent – is presented as part and parcel of growing up, though its importance is never understated. It’s rare to see this kind of matter-of-factness about young people, especially in the often-hysterical world of the telemovie, and it’s wholly impressive.
Unlike many youth-themed dramas, the adults are all fully realised here too, with Robin’s divorced mother Audrey (the excellent Fionnula Flanagan) and her new partner Howard (Arlen Dean Snyder is great) particularly vivid. The scene in which the freewheeling Audrey reacts so positively to Robin’s stated intention to have sex with her new boyfriend is an eye-opener, as is the unflinching follow up scene in which Robin visits her mother’s gynaecologist to discuss birth control options. Dee Wallace also shines as Derek’s conservative but soulful sister, making the most of a role that could have been cliched and largely negative in tone.
Gently paced, director Steven Hilliard Stern lets his scenes unspool with an admirably unhurried feel, capturing the nuance of every moment and really letting his young stars shine. In one memorable scene where Robin and Derek audition for the school choir, Bertinelli and Hutton perform full versions of, respectively, Carole King’s “You’ve Got A Friend” and John Denver’s “Sunshine On My Shoulder.” It’s a daring move, but the emotion that plays out in and around the songs really informs the drama, and the performances are truly charming. Bertinelli, by the way, also sings the film’s very sweet theme tune.
Savvily managing to be both wholesomely earnest and liberally free-thinking at the same time (just like its lead characters), the compelling and richly enjoyable Young Love, First Love plays out like the long lost and forgotten adaptation of a great Young Adult novel that never was. Emotionally intelligent and often surprising, it also represents the impressive coming together of a bona fide telemovie queen and one of the most essential young actors of the 1980s. That alone makes Young Love, First Love a near-essential.
Availability: Young Love, First Love is relatively easy to find online in a fairly clear, nice-sounding (if not exactly razor-sharp) presentation.
If you enjoyed this review, check out our other vintage telemovies Escape From Bogen County, The Death Squad, Hit Lady, Brian’s Song, The Defiant Ones, A Cry For Help, Trilogy Of Terror, Policewoman Centerfold, Smash-Up On Interstate 5, Something Evil, Savage, A Step Out Of Line, The Boy In The Plastic Bubble, The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission, A Very Brady Christmas, The Gladiator, Elvis, The Rat Pack, Silent Victory: The Kitty O’Neil Story, Terror Among Us, The Hanged Man, Hardcase, Charlie’s Angels: Angels In Vegas, Vanishing Point, To Heal A Nation, Fugitive Among Us, To Kill A Cop, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Police Story: A Chance To Live, Murder On Flight 502, Moon Of The Wolf, The Secret Night Caller, Cotton Candy, And The Band Played On, Gargoyles, Death Car On The Freeway, Short Walk To Daylight, Trapped, Hotline, Killdozer, The Jericho Mile, Mongo’s Back In Town and Tribes.
