[ April 12, 2026 ]
Tonight's Saturday night feature was a made-for-tv movie that went on to become a teenage cult classic, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, starring John Travolta, Robert Reed (Carol Brady's husband on The Brady Bunch), Glynnis O'Connor and Diana Hyland. Executive Producers were Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg. Who can forget John Travolta in the bubble? It was Travolta's first feature-length film, and it catapulted him to stardom.
I loved this gloriously dated film about teen love. It was a total guilty pleasure. And looking at it now in the rear view mirror reminds me of that carefree era and all that we've lost.
Then Welcome Back Kotter star John Travolta headlines the made-for-TV Boy in the Plastic Bubble. Douglas Day Stewart's fact-based teleplay casts Travolta as Tod Lubitsch, a teenager who was born without disease immunities. Tod is forced to live out his life in incubator conditions; whenever he vetnures into the outdoors, he must be encased in a huge plastic bubble. When he falls in love with Gina Biggs (Glynnis O'Connor), Tod must decide between staying safe and following his heart, which would mean facing near-certain death. Diana Hyland won an Emmy for her portrayal of Travolta's mother. Incidentally, Hyland and Travolta became real-life lovers, a relationship that was tragically terminated when the actress died of cancer. Boy in the Plastic Bubble was first telecast November 12, 1976. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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I stumbled upon it accidentally — not sure how it fell into the public domain, but for those feeling nostalgic for the seventies, a carefree, almost silly time — this is it.
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