Playing with Fire

No, not the John Cena film from several years ago; rather, it's a made for television movie from 1985 that played on NBC during the month of April then was never available anywhere for viewing... until someone found a copy and uploaded it to archive.org yesterday: 

So, this Gary Coleman as a TEENAGE ARSONIST TV movie is formerly lost media. The story is not one I’ve followed too closely until recently, but for awhile now a lot of people were looking for this for nostalgic/curiosity’s sake; no one stated they still had a VHS recording, let alone a digital file. Via Jon W. of the rarefilmm website, I know the story is that someone yesterday uploaded a tape they had(which they got for free from a friend that was about to dispose of it) once they heard it was in high demand. This copy can be found at several locations: Internet Archive, a download from Jon W. or a copy on YouTube.

As it’s a TV movie, there is more than one famous face present. Coleman is a teenager who is troubled at home, due in part to his parents Ron O’Neal & Cecily Tyson separated and possibly on the road to divorce; there’s also the typical teenage bullying at school. Cases of arson suddenly pop up; it doesn’t take an in-depth investigation for the Fire Chief-Yaphet Kotto!-to determine who is responsible. Due to the genre, no surprise that this is both over the top and at times delves into histrionics. No offense to Coleman but seeing him light brush on fire or escalate in the movie’s most shocking scene while smiling or having a demented look on his cherub face is inherently funny. 

That said, the movie attempts to be serious in addressing Coleman’s problems as resulting from his parents not recognizing their son’s issues & a lack of communication between them. The acting from Gary wasn’t bad considering it was way out of his wheelhouse although of course the other famous faces were more impressive & did at least some heavy lifting. Teenage arson is still a phenomenon now so attempting to address and spotlight the issue… good intentions and all.

It's a flawed made for television production which nonetheless managed to entertain; even if something astounding like London After Midnight is never found, people like me will appreciate the discovery of random 80’s TV pictures that feature an 80’s star prominently and who of course delivers a PSA at the end. That wasn’t the highlight of the upload; none of the April 1985 commercials were cut out. It was tremendous viewing those pieces of nostalgia, and learning that there was once a short-lived sitcom called Sara starring quite the quartet:

Geena Davis
Alfre Woodard
Bronson Pinchot
Bill Maher