Every week we take a look in the RTÉ Guide archives to check out the cover stories from years gone by. On this week in 1986, the cover story in the RTÉ Guide was devoted to the TV movie An Early Frost, starring Ben Gazzara, Gena Rowlands and Irish-American actor Aidan Quinn. It was the first film about AIDS featuring major stars to be broadcast on a mainstream US television network. An Early Frost first aired in the US in November 1985, and arrived in Ireland when RTÉ broadcast it on this week forty years ago.
The film told the story of a young gay lawyer, Michael (Quinn), who visits his parents to tell them he has AIDS. It depicts the cruelty and prejudice experienced by people with the disease in the 1980s and was viewed as groundbreaking at the time.
The RTÉ Guide explained that An Early Frost is "a significant new film-for-television which deals, in a completely-non-sensational manner, with one of the most serious issues confronting the world today, the spread of the disease AIDS. It does so with sympathy and avoids exploiting the controversial subject matter for shock effect. However, some viewers may consider this film unsuitable for their children to watch."
In a panel accompanying the piece on the film, a doctor provided information on the AIDS crisis and while the explanation feels very much of its time, it also declared that
"We owe an immense debt of gratitude to the gay communities, particularly in America, who are the "unsung heroes" of this epidemic. By volunteering their time and by permitting extensive investigations into themselves and their lifestyles, we have learnt an immense amount about this infection in a relatively short time."
The doctor also pointed out that
There is considerable fear for the future of the intravenous drug abusers in Ireland, as a substantial portion tested for exposure to the virus are positive. There is a higher rate of expression of the infection as full-blown AIDS in this group, and an increased risk of spread by ordinary heterosexual intercourse, both among the drug abusers and into the rest of the community through prostitution. It is in this group that infection of the newborn Is most common and pregnancy encourages the expression of the disease in an infected mother. There is no prospect of a cure or vaccine on the horizon, and even if one comes, it may be horren- dously expensive and difficult.
An Early Frost was nominated for 14 Emmy awards, winning three, as well as multiple Golden Globes, winning one. On the night it aired in the US, it topped the Nielsen viewer ratings and was described by the Washington Post as "the most important TV movie of the year"
