#TBT: Remembering The Groundbreaking AIDS TV Movie “An Early Frost” On Its 30th Anniversary

It was a tough road to the small screen
From: NewNowNext

 This month marks the thirtieth anniversary of a landmark in TV history, and how the media portrayed AIDS and the people affected with and by it.

Before And The Band Played On, Angels In America, Philadelphia and Longtime Companion, there was the the NBC TV movie An Early Frost, which first aired to much controversy on November 11th, 1985.

 Environmental lawyer Michael (played by Aidan Quinn) is rushed to the hospital after a coughing fit, and learns he is HIV-positive, transmitted from his unfaithful partner Peter (D.W. Moffett).

Michael has to inform his parents (Ben Gazzara and Gens Rowlands), and deal with, what was at the time, a terminal illness, and society’s ignorance, fear, and hatred surrounding the disease.

 As searing and unforgettable as it was, the drama behind the scenes was just as noteworthy, with network censors and frightened executives wringing their hands over what the finished product would look like.

Director John Erman and screenwriters Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman had to endure constant interference , until Erman put his foot down.

However, the filmmakers were dogged by executives from the network’s standards and practices division. (The script had already gone through 14 rewrites.) The standards and practices men were always on set. Primarily, they did not want the film to condone homosexuality, a message directly at odds with the director’s objectives. Most egregiously, standards and practices wanted the film to depict Peter, who may have inadvertently infected his lover, as a villain. Erman had had enough.

“I said, ‘If you persist in this, I will have to take it to the press, because this is just beyond the pale. I wouldn’t dream of playing this relationship in anything but a positive way.’” The executives backed off on that matter, but remained on set to ensure there was no physical contact between Quinn and Moffett.

Aidan Quinn was not the first choice to play Michael (Jeff Daniels turned the role down), but fresh from Desperately Seeking Susan, he was eager to participate.

Quinn had no qualms about playing a man with AIDS for several reasons. “You go with the best stories out there and the best journey you want to take,” he says. Coming from the theater, Quinn added, he knew people affected very early in the epidemic. Finally, he was eager to play opposite acting heavyweights Rowlands, Gazzara, and Sidney.

There was no dissent from management or friends, he says: “Because I wouldn’t surround myself with people that would say something like that to me. And even if they thought it, they wouldn’t say it.”

After all of the behind-the-scenes drama, An Early Frost was number one in the Nielsen ratings the night it aired, watched by 34 million people. It was nominated for 14 Emmy Awards but won just four, for sound mixing, editing, cinematography, and outstanding writing in a miniseries or special (curiously, The Normal Heart would suffer a similar fate almost three decades later).

What may be its greatest legacy is that it helped dispel myths, and opened a dialogue, forcing American TV viewers to confront the reality of AIDS, as its government continued to ignore it, and ignorance about the disease was running rampant.