The Ted Kennedy Jr Story

It's a long way from Doris Day comedies like Lover Come Back and That Touch of Mink for director Delbert Mann. This TV movie tackles another Kennedy family tragedy, this time focusing on the Massachusetts senator's 12-year-old son, who lost his leg to cancer, and valiantly struggled to resume a normal life. Part disease-of-the-week, part biography, this could have been an exercise in mawkish melodrama, but instead manages to be quite tender. Craig T Nelson (The Devil's Advocate) plays the senator and Susan Blakely (The Towering Inferno) is his wife, Joan.