The Boy in the Plastic Bubble is a
1976The year 1976 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*March 22 - Filming begins on George Lucas' Star Wars science fiction film...
made-for-TV movieA television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
inspired by the lives of
David VetterDavid Phillip Vetter was a boy from Shenandoah, Texas, United States who suffered from a rare genetic disease now known as severe combined immune deficiency syndrome . Forced to live in a sterile environment, he became popular with the media as the boy in the plastic bubble...
and
Ted DeVitaTed DeVita was a victim of severe aplastic anemia who was forced to live in a sterile hospital room for eight and a half years....
, who lacked effective
immune systemAn immune system is a system of biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumor cells. It detects a wide variety of agents, from viruses to parasitic worms, and needs to distinguish them from the organism's own...
s. It stars
John TravoltaJohn Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
,
Glynnis O'ConnorGlynnis O'Connor is an American actress, perhaps best known for her work in the mid-1970s, including her lead actress roles in the TV version of Our Town and the films Ode to Billy Joe and Jeremy, all of which co-starred Robby Benson.O'Connor was born in New York City, the daughter of stage, film...
,
Diana HylandDiana Hyland was an American actress best known for her television appearances and occasional films.-Career:Hyland made her acting debut in 1955 in an episode of Robert Montgomery Presents...
,
Robert ReedRobert Reed was a prolific American character actor of stage, film and television. In his first big break, he played Kenneth Preston on the popular 1960s TV legal drama, The Defenders, alongside E. G. Marshall. But he was best remembered for portraying the father, Mike Brady, on the popular...
, and P.J. Soles. It was written by
Douglas Day StewartDouglas Day Stewart is an American screenwriter. He graduated from Claremont McKenna College.-Writer:*Bonanza *Cannon *The Man Who Could Talk to Kids *Murder or Mercy...
, produced by
Aaron SpellingAaron Spelling was an American film and television producer. As of 2009, Spelling's eponymous production company Spelling Television holds the record as the most prolific television writer, with 218 producer and executive producer credits...
, and directed by
Randal KleiserJohn Randal Kleiser is an American film director and producer, perhaps best known for directing the 1978 musical film Grease.-Life and career:...
, who would work with Travolta again in
GreaseGrease is a 1978 American musical film directed by Randal Kleiser and based on Warren Casey's and Jim Jacobs's 1971 musical of the same name about two lovers in a 1950s high school. The film stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, and Jeff Conaway...
shortly after. The original music score was composed by
Mark SnowMark Snow is an American composer for film and television.Born in New York, he grew up in Brooklyn, graduating from the High School of Music and Art and, afterwards, the Juilliard School of Music...
. William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills was used for filming.
The movie first aired on November 1, 1976, on the
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
television network. The film entered the
public domainWorks are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
and is available from the
Internet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
. Despite the public domain status, the "ancillary rights" (and original elements) of the film belong today to
Columbia PicturesColumbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
via sister company
Sony Pictures TelevisionSony Pictures Television, Inc. is an American and global television production/distribution subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment. In turn, the latter is part of the Japanese conglomerate Sony.-Background:...
.
Plot summary
The film centers on the life of Tod Lubitch, who was born with an improperly functioning immune system. This means that contact with unfiltered air may kill him, so he must live out his life in incubator-like conditions. He lives with his parents, since they decided to move him from Texas Children's Hospital where he was being kept as a boy. He is constricted to staying in his room all his life, where he eats, learns, reads, and exercises, while being protected from the outside world by various coverings.
As Tod grows up, he wishes to see more of the outside world and meet regular people his age. He is enrolled at the local school after being equipped with suitable protective clothing, similar in style to a
space suitA space suit is a garment worn to keep an astronaut alive in the harsh environment of outer space. Space suits are often worn inside spacecraft as a safety precaution in case of loss of cabin pressure, and are necessary for extra-vehicular activity , work done outside spacecraft...
. He falls in love with his next door neighbor, Gina Briggs, and he must decide between following his heart and facing near-certain death, or remaining in his protective bubble forever. In the end, after having a discussion with his doctor who tells him he has built up some immunities which may possibly be enough to survive the real world, he steps outside his house, unprotected, and Gina and he ride off on her horse.
Reception
The "Bubble Boy" who inspired this film,
David VetterDavid Phillip Vetter was a boy from Shenandoah, Texas, United States who suffered from a rare genetic disease now known as severe combined immune deficiency syndrome . Forced to live in a sterile environment, he became popular with the media as the boy in the plastic bubble...
, questioned the film's depiction of how sterile Tod's use of the spacesuit was. Vetter scoffed at the idea that Travolta's character could simply wear the space suit back into the isolator without contaminating the bubble.
The film was nominated for four
Emmy AwardAn Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s,
winning one posthumouslyThe 29th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 11, 1977. The ceremony was broadcast on NBC. It was hosted by Angie Dickinson and Robert Blake.-Outstanding Comedy Series:*The Mary Tyler Moore Show**All in the Family...
for Hyland.
Impact
Days after
Bill Clinton was inaugurated as U.S. PresidentThe United States Presidency of Bill Clinton, also known as the Clinton Administration, was the executive branch of the federal government of the United States from January 20, 1993 to January 20, 2001. Clinton was the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second full term...
,
William SafireWilliam Lewis Safire was an American author, columnist, journalist and presidential speechwriter....
reported on the phrase "
in the bubbleBubble boy, boy in the bubble and boy in the plastic bubble are colloquialisms used to describe a person who must live in a microbiologically sterile environment for medical reasons...
" as used in reference to living in the
White HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. Safire traced that usage in U.S. presidential politics to a passage in the 1990 political memoir
What I Saw at the Revolution by
Peggy NoonanPeggy Noonan is an American author of seven books on politics, religion, and culture and a weekly columnist for The Wall Street Journal...
, where she used it to characterize
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
's "wistfulness about connection";
Richard Ben CramerRichard Ben Cramer is an American journalist and writer.-Biography:Cramer was raised in Rochester, New York and attended Johns Hopkins University earning a bachelor's degree in the Liberal Arts. He later went on to earn a masters degree in journalism at Columbia University...
used the phrase two years later in
What It Takes: The Way to the White House with reference to
George H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
and how he had been "cosseted and cocooned in comfort by 400 people devoted to his security" and "never s[aw] one person who was not a friend or someone whose sole purpose it was to serve or protect him." Noonan's use was a reference to
The Boy in the Plastic Bubble.
The film inspired the first song on the 1986
Paul SimonPaul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
album
GracelandGraceland was Paul Simon's highest charting album in the U.S. in over a decade, reaching #3 in the national Billboard charts, receiving a certification of 5× Platinum by the RIAA and eventually selling over 14 million copies, making it Simon's most commercially successful album...
. In 1992, the film's premise was satirized in the
seventh episode of the fourth season"The Bubble Boy" is the 47th episode of the American sitcom Seinfeld, as well as the nickname of Donald Sanger, one of the characters in the episode. It is the seventh episode of the fourth season. The episode was written by Larry David and Larry Charles, directed by Tom Cherones, and aired on...
of
SeinfeldSeinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
. It was also the subject of the 2001 comedic remake
Bubble BoyBubble Boy is a 2001 comedy film directed by Blair Hayes and stars Jake Gyllenhaal in the title role.-Plot:Jimmy Livingston was born without an immune system and is forced to live in a sterilized dome in his bedroom, earning him the title "Bubble Boy" by his neighbors...
and the 2007 musical
In the Bubble produced by
American Music Theatre ProjectThe American Music Theatre Project was introduced in May 2005 by Northwestern University’s School of Communication, in collaboration with the School of Music, Kellogg School of Management, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and the Graduate School...
and featuring a book by
Rinne Groff-Biography:Groff was trained at Yale University and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she currently teaches.A founding member of Elevator Repair Service Theater Company, she has been a part of the writing, staging, and performing of their shows since the company’s inception in...
, music by
Michael FriedmanMichael Friedman is an American composer and lyricist. He is a founding Associate Artist of The Civilians and an Artistic Associate at New York Theatre Workshop. He received a 2007 Obie award for sustained excellence. His musical Saved earned him a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Best Musical...
and Joe Popp and lyrics by Friedman, Groff and Popp.
The film was mentioned several times on the series
That '70s ShowThat '70s Show is an American television period sitcom that centers on the lives of a group of teenage friends living in the fictional suburban town of Point Place, Wisconsin, from May 17, 1976, to December 31, 1979...
, and in the film
SuperstarSuperstar is a 1999 comedy film and Saturday Night Live spin-off about a quirky, socially inept girl named Mary Katherine Gallagher. The character was created by SNL star Molly Shannon and appeared as a recurring character on SNL in numerous skits. The story follows Mary Katherine trying to find...
.
The film had a personal impact on Travolta and Hyland, who began a six-month romantic relationship until her death, after the film ended principal photography.
See also
- List of films in the public domain
- Bubble Boy
Bubble Boy is a 2001 comedy film directed by Blair Hayes and stars Jake Gyllenhaal in the title role.-Plot:Jimmy Livingston was born without an immune system and is forced to live in a sterilized dome in his bedroom, earning him the title "Bubble Boy" by his neighbors...
External links