Something About Amelia

Anyone remember this horrendous tv movie from 1984? I was a teenager when I saw it and I've always been horrified by the ending. Ted Danson molests his daughter but instead of going to jail he has to go into therapy because it would be wrong to break up a family. I wonder how many molested kids killed themselves after seeing this movie. I can't believe Ted Danson and Glenn Close agreed to be in it. Maybe the ending was changed after they signed on?

• Breathe OP, just Breathe!

• It got a lot of critical praise.

• I didn't remember the ending but I saw it. Was in love with the name "Amelia" due to the Amelia Bedelia books but this ruined it for me. Creepy movie along the lines of afterschool special, "Don't Touch"

  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286597/

• "I wonder how many molested kids killed themselves after seeing this movie." Probably zero (which should be a disappointment to hysterics like you who want to believe that all abused kids are suicidal)

• [quote]I wonder how many molested kids killed themselves after seeing this movie. I'm sure none did. p.s.-- Mary!

• R4. I was thinking of an abused kid who may have been thinking about turning the parent into the police but after seeing the movie worried that the parent wouldn't be sent to jail so why bother?

  OP

• Frau thread ...

• There should be a new children's book called "Something about Amelia Bedelia." Mr. and Mrs. Rogers tell their maid, Amelia Bedelia, to "go into the special area and dust it thoroughly" (meaning she should go into the nicest parlor and clean it up), and she brings in child protective services to have them both arrested.

• R3. I remember that Don't Touch afterschool special. It was creepy but it didn't traumatize me because the molester went to jail. And those Amelia Bedelia books were awesome.

• Wasn't this the first mainstream TV movie to focus on the subject of child molestation and rape? Of course it would have "a pat" ending. That's what society wanted, the fantasy that all families can be repaired and put back together with counseling. At least it brought the subject matter to the spotlight.

• [quote]Wasn't this the first mainstream TV movie to focus on the subject of child molestation and rape? You're forgetting "Mother, May I Sleep with Stranger Danger?"

  Tori%20Spelling

• I remember that movie and I've never forgotten it.... because the ending WAS creepy and gross. It was completely disturbing that the father got off (so to speak) completely free. Sad thing is, that is probably exactly what happened in most molestation/abuse cases back then.

• "I was thinking of an abused kid who may have been thinking about turning the parent into the police but after seeing the movie worried that the parent wouldn't be sent to jail so why bother?" Many people who are abused by a family member don't tell because they DON'T want that person to go to jail.

• Glenn Close and Ted Danson producing children together is enough of a traumatizing image in and of itself.

• R12. Unfortunately, parents who molest still get much shorter jail sentences than strangers. I think it should be the other way around or at least equal. At least when a kid is molested by a stranger they can go home and be comforted by their parent. When a parent does it a kid has no one to turn to for protection. R13. I've heard a lot of people say that but I've never understood it.

  OP

• R10 is completely correct - this was a groundbreaking subject for television at the time. But it did reinforce the mistaken idea that molestation/incest is something that can be "fixed" with therapy. Never was it even suggested that this was a sexual crime - it was more like just an episode of bad parenting, with a little therapy thrown in to help the family work out their issues.

• [R15] They don't want to report it partially because there's guilt involved in being responsible for destroying your family. Obviously, that guilt isn't based on truth, but to a kid in that situation, it is.

• R11, "Amelia" was also groundbreaking because the child could have been from any number of upper-middle class American homes, as the child appeared so "normal." There was the false assumption that educated, wealthy families did't have "poor people's problems." Professional men could always hire a callgirl "if they needed something a little extra," was the crazy theory of the day.

  R10

• R15, child molesters are smart enough to mindfuck their victims, convince them that if they try to get help they'll bring disaster. And if the molester is a family member, they'll mindfuck the entire family into believing that they must maintain the status quo at all costs. Obviously if the molester is the family breadwinner, there's a fear that telling will put the entire family out on the streets. Of the child is afraid that if they tell they'll be put in foster care, and that foster families will be worse than the one they have now. There may be threats to beloved persons or animals. There's the fear of scandal, which can be terrifying to a child already on the edge. Sadly, it's very common for other family members to share these fears, and to tell the victim of sexual abuse that trying to get help will be worse than the abuse.

• There was also the assumption that they wouldn't molest a kid if they were getting enough sex from their spouse. There was a scene in Amelia where a therapist tells Glenn Close's character that she should try being more affectionate towards her husband. I'm sure she was dying to rip his clothes off after finding out that he was raping their daughter.

• Lucy was offered the role of Amelia but she turned it down on the advice of Gary. He thought playing a character who was getting finger banged by her dad might hurt her image.

• Ted Danson was beyond creepy. I couldn't sleep for weeks after watching it. I feel you, OP.

• [quote]I was thinking of an abused kid who may have been thinking about turning the parent into the police but after seeing the movie worried that the parent wouldn't be sent to jail so why bother? We get that, hon. We're all thinking you're a hugely overwrought Mary with a victim fetish and a wild imagination.

• They should have called it "Something about 'I'll Feel Ya.'" "Fallen Angel," about child porn, was much more disturbing and graphic, especially for a TV movie.

• I remember that at the end the father apologizes to the daughter in tears, and then a disclaimer came up saying that the therapy depicted in the film was "controversial." In real life, in the unlikely event they did talk the dad into going into therapy, he would have just sat there rationalizing it and making it all other people's fault, because that's the way pedos think and WHY THEY CAN'T BE CURED WITH THERAPY. So, yeah, this was an extremely destructive message to broadcast and it wouldn't be too far-fetched to assume there were dad-raped kids that ended up being scapegoated by their families and killing themselves.

• Oh, yeah, as I recall the very next TV movie that Ted Danson appeared in was an adaptation of Jonathan Kellerman's "When the Bough Breaks," in which he played a child psychologist who busts a pedo ring. I always admired him for that.

• With a film like this I would question the director and producers. Was the producer having a problem with their own behavior and this script made it seem...not so bad.

• Yes, at the time, it was supposed to be really good and sensitive! Even the title lets the molester off - it's as if Amelia has the problem.

• Little House on the Prairie's special episode was much better. I think it was called Sylvia.

• To be honest, I was a victim of molestation by a step -uncle at the time of the movie's release. During those times, folks just DID NOT TALK OR ACKNOWLEDGE molestation at all. So, it was sort of comforting knowing that the movie came out and just mentioned the issue. On an absurd note, I couldn't watch the movie because it was past my bedtime. I still don't discuss it at all to this day. have not told my husband. In my case, it was "only once" and just fondling. And no, you do not want the family member to go to jail so this keeps the whole problem secret. But due to the secrecy of the crime- he molested his daughter for YEARs, and then when when she was "too old" - moved on to my sisters and me, then onto his grandaughters.

  anon

• The movie is on youtube btw

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DVld0Q6-UwHs

• I just read Melissa Francis' autobiography. She played Cassandra on Little House* and the younger sister in Something About Amelia. She said that after the movie aired, a girl at school came up to her and told her that her father was doing it to her. Melissa was horrified and didn't know how to react. Luckily, the girl also told a teacher, and shortly thereafter, disappeared from school. It definitely was a taboo subject not talked about, so it was a groundbreaking movie in that respect. * She was on Little House: A New Beginning but I felt compelled to read all of the Melissa's autobiographies, as well as Alison Arngrim's (also an incest victim).

• I was put off by the crudeness in There's Something About Amelia. I couldn't believe the cum in her bangs scene became a mainstream nationwide symbol of the film. Where's the Hayes Act when you need it?

• [quote]But due to the secrecy of the crime- he molested his daughter for YEARs, and then when when she was "too old" - moved on to my sisters and me, then onto his grandaughters. How kind of you to continue keeping his secret, even when you realized he was victimizing younger relatives.

• Damn, an orangutang has nothing on the puss of Missy Francis.

  Nels%20Oleson

• I sort of remember Amelia being a bit of a teenage minx. Didn't she seduce her father and then cry incest when her mother caught her sniffing his underwear threatening to send Amelia to an all-girls school?

• I just remember the dead eyed actress who played Amelia and Glenn Close channeling Florence Henderson as the mom.

• R36, You do not realize the lingering tragedy of children that are sexually abused. Many find it almost impossible to maintain "normal" and healthy relationships.

• [quote] I just remember the dead eyed actress who played Amelia Roxana Zal

  http://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/roxana_zal/pictures/14091763/

• Creepy and disturbing.

• I remember Danson masturbating to a Shirley Temple film.

• Which one, R41? Please, do do tell.

• Could you imagine the beak on a love child of Glenn Close and Ted Danson? It'd probably resemble a toucan.

• R43 Not to mention the forehead--you could land an aircraft carrier on it!