Leave Yesterday Behind

John Ritter puts in a great performance as Paul Stallings who is a polo player. During one game he is thrown from his horse and after the game found to be injured. He must deal with the life-changing realization that he is in fact paralyzed from the waist down. He decides he should visit his grandfather's (Buddy Ebson) farm. There he meets Marnie Clarkson (Carrie Fisher) who they start a friendship that soon blossoms into something more.

It is the performances that makes this late-70s TV movie great. Not only is Ritter great, but so is Carrie Fisher (who was just off her most famous role as Princess Leia in STAR WARS the year earlier). She really shows she had an ability to act in serious material, much like Ritter does here, too. The chemistry between the two is very good as well and believable. Buddy Ebsen is great as Ritter's doctor grandfather. Very nice to see him in a serious role after all I think I have ever seen him in was old BEVERLY HILLBILLIES reruns. Robert Urich also plays Fisher's boyfriend with plans of marriage.

Really to me a great movie, sadly has been forgotten with three leading actors that left us too soon. Might even get the tears coming in certain spots.

I have been living in the ranch house for over 23 years that this movie was made in.

A lot of things have changed; No hedge in the yard,pepper tree is huge, added a room,

The stables have been removed, but the original barn is still there.

I've seen the movie and looking for copies.

I have always enjoyed John Ritters work, drama as well as comedy.

The story is based on frustration and overcoming mans limitations. Well directed and well acted.

Carrie Fischer fit her part perfectly. And Buddy Epson is always a favorite in anything he has done.

Young people just discovering "Three's Company" from Nickelodeon would probably love to see the TV-movies the cast made during their summer hiatus (Suzanne Somers played a nightclub singer in "Happily Ever After", Joyce DeWitt played a prospective bride in "With This Ring" and John Ritter takes a dramatic leap here as a paraplegic). Casting Ritter as a wheelchair-bound horse-lover who finds love post-accident with none other than Carrie Fisher was a wild idea--even in 1978--but it pays off. It's a very sincere, heartfelt drama that surprises us not with its message but with the frank dialogue courtesy writer Paul Harrison and nice chemistry between the leads.

21 year old college student Paul Stallings (John Ritter) is paralyzed after a polo accident. He's bitter and angry. His girlfriend leaves him. He's recovering with his grandfather Doc (Buddy Ebsen). Marnie Clarkson (Carrie Fisher) lives in a neighboring ranch. David Lyle (Robert Urich) is her boyfriend.

This ABC TV movie is great for the combo of the 80's icons. Ritter and Fisher are stars at this point. They glow on screen. They are heads and shoulders above the rest. They are doing some heavy acting. They have a few pros beside them and the rest seem like extras off the streets. It's a melodrama love triangle with a movie of the week message. It is still fun to see Ritter and Fisher doing something so melodramatic.

Not sure why this got such high ratings. It's not terrible but also not fsntastic. John Ritter's acting is uninspired bordering formulaic. Grandpa just reminds of Hillbilly too much. Consuela (sp) the maid is excrutiating, as bad as Alice in Brady Bunch. The dialogue is neither good nor bad