Consenting Adult

Well, I was dealing with these very same issues, at the time that I saw this television show, in 1985. I actually taped the show, well of course, as Marlo Thomas was one of my favorite actors. This story, dealt with the very topical subjects of coming out to your parents, friends and family during a very scary period of time, when AIDS was devastating our community. Though somewhat superficial, due to the subject matter, and the fact that this was a broadcast television show, it had special meaning to anyone dealing with all of the conflicting emotions related to coming to terms with your own homosexuality during a very conservative time. A time whose conservatism, unfortunately, is being mirrored in 2005, nearly 20 years later.

I believe this show should be made available for all to see as it treats the subject with some honesty and tenderness.

I've just transferred the show from my old and deteriorating video tape to DVD and hope it will last another 20 years. Gosh, I can't believe how far we've come in 20 years, and yet how far we have yet to go.

Sometimes We Think That TV does not deliver anything better than The Real Cinema Theater Plays but with this film The director showed a good story, well done , good acting and most of all very well structured with many topics that were ahead to that edge in the middle of the 1980's Decade! It was about Love, Forgiving, Redemption, and Accepting! I enjoyed this movie, specially for focusing in discuss if Homosexuality was an illness or just a natural expression of sexual orientation! Good for the Director!

Movie-of-the-week about a gay young man who comes out to his parents. Martin Sheen plays the father--frustrated, embarrassed and angry--who turns his son away, but mom Marlo Thomas reaches out to her boy with love and understanding. TV not tackling taboo territory, but taking baby steps (still); it's about as sexually frank as the glossy coming-out opus "Making Love" from 1982 (and with just a whiff of a mention of "that disease" that dare not speak its name). Writer John McGreevey, adapting Laura Z. Hobson's novel, keeps shifting the narrative back to the parents--ostensibly because Sheen and Thomas are the movie's stars. Naturally, the straight-laced couple would be shocked and confused by their son's revelation (that's only natural), but just whose story is this?

I saw this film when it came out on TV. I was thoroughly impressed with the way this subject was handled. Marlo should be very proud of her work. I was 26 when I saw this and think this is a film all young people should see when considering coming out to their parents.

As a gay teenager coming up when this movie came on for the first time it actually made the idea of coming out a bit easier! This movie though it only mentioned AIDS once was very well made and everything was done in good taste! I think the caste was superb with such heavy weights as Martin Sheen and Marlo Thomas and at that time Barry Tubb was a relative newcomer and the perfect choice to play Jeff he is a good looking actor and he helped prove that anyone can be gay and that it is not a sickness but a way of life! I wish someone would buy the rights to this movie and put it on Video or DVD. We need more movies like this that parents can watch with their gay children so that the coming out process will be easier on both!