Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

RELEASED TO TV IN 1976 and directed by Randal Kleiser, "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble" is a youth drama inspired by the true-life stories of David Vetter and Ted DeVita, both of whom lacked effective immune systems. John Travolta plays Tod Lubitch, a teen born with immune deficiencies in Southern Cal while Glynnis O'Connor is the girl next door with whom he slowly develops a relationship and inspires him to crave freedom from his germ-free 'prison.' Robert Reed & Diana Hyland are on hand as his parents.The opening act is relatively dull, but it's necessary because it establishes Tod's situation. Thankfully, the story perks up with the star power of Travolta and O'Connor. The former was 21 during shooting and is quite good as the protagonist while O'Connor is winsome as ever. She was almost 20 during filming and has a bikini sequence for those interested.At its heart, this is a coming-of-age movie but with a unique twist (the bubble boy). There are several well-done high school sequences, like the football field scene where the kids sneak away to smoke pot. Unrealistic? Not at all.The best part is the ending where we share in Tod's joy and sense of wonder at the most simplest things that normal people take for granted. I can relate because when I was his age I fell off a cliff and ended up in traction and a body cast for four months. While in the cast, I was laid-up at home on a lake, just like in the movie. When the cast was removed I walked with crutches to the woods & lake with sheer delight.The real-life bubble boys David Vetter and Ted DeVita were still alive when the movie was released. The former died in 1984 at the age of 12 & a half while the latter died in 1980 at the age of 18.THE FILM RUNS 1 hour, 36 minutes and was shot in Malibu Lake and Century City, California. WRITERS: Douglas Day Stewart and Joe Morgenstern.GRADE: B

The Boy in the Plastic Bubble: This is going to be a weird one. There is so much to unpack here. First of all, let me confess I watched the Rifftrax version of this film. It is a bit of a strange choice for Rifftrax. This, after all, is a drama writ large. It would be like a Rifftrax of Love Story or Terms of Endearment.The next thing to unpack is Seinfeld's Bubble Boy. He haunts this movie as it was such a wonderful parody of this film and circumstance. I spent the entire movie with the phrase "It's Moors" stuck in my head. The third unpacking is the cast of the film. You, of course, have John Travolta in short shorts. His real life love interest Diana Hyland who was 18 years his senior, divorcing her husband and unknown to both of them was about to get a tragic fatal disease that would not be out of place in the film itself. She, in a creepish aside, plays his mother in the film. I know I know it shouldn't matter. But like the actor playing Dexter marrying the actress playing his sister it illogically just seems…. well creepy. On the plus side, we have Robert Reed, Mr. Brady himself, as the father and a very young PJ Soles as one of the high school kids. Also on the plus side, this really isn't that bad a movie. Though based on a true story it really doesn't tie itself to the true life (and much more depressing) real life escapades. Travolta has a light touch and the film seems to do a nice job humanizing the issues at hand. In addition, if you are watching the Rifftrax version there are some pretty good riffs to keep you smiling through the slow bits. Definitely a fun time with Rifftrax and an interesting curiosity piece for those watching without.

1976's "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble" has gained legendary status in the careers of both John Travolta and Glynnis O'Connor, for it is due to their performances, and the genuine anguish in its depiction of budding adolescent love, that this TV-movie still endures beyond what all of the naysayers would have you believe. The early scenes with the very young Tod do tend to be overtly cloying, but it immediately establishes the young Gina's attitude toward her new neighbor, at one point actually calling him a 'monster.' As the years pass, she really only sees him once a year on his birthday, the only girl in attendance, now simply looking at him as a curiosity. Once the exposition concludes, the film can take its time with their relationship, how he's always watching her from his expansive pad, isolated from any germs that could easily spell death for him. It really is a marvelous script, Glynnis O'Connor's Gina at first willing to humiliate Tod just to impress her friends (among them Kelly Ward, Vernee Watson, and P. J. Soles), but gradually coming to realize how much he has idolized her, which both flatters her and scares her ("Tod, what are you doing to me?"). Yes, it may be carefully calculated, even contrived, but when the actors deliver, it has the desired effect. As for the ending that so many dislike, how could they conclude it any other way? SPOILER AHEAD- As Paul Williams sings "What Would They Say" (uncredited in the film itself), Tod chooses to be free to pursue his only love, leaving behind the dedicated parents responsible for his well-being, still asleep and unaware, equal parts heart warming and tragic, just like the angst of teenage love. No matter how old we get, we never forget that first love, or the obstacles that needed to be overcome, which Williams beautifully renders as Gina rides away with Tod at her back, toward a future unknown. What a delicate balance that couldn't be bettered, and it remains difficult to watch to this day without tearing up. Robert Reed, just as in THE BRADY BUNCH, is a warm and loving father, and this film, along with ROOTS, reignited his career back toward drama. Diana Hyland will always be remembered as John Travolta's first true love, tragically dead of cancer less than five months after this broadcast. The natural smile, fresh wholesomeness (even in a revealing bikini), a sweet girl next door quality that every boy fell in love with- the 19 year old Glynnis O'Connor was a huge cult figure at the time, on a par with Maureen McCormick, Jodie Foster, Tatum O'Neal, or Kristy McNichol, but appears to be criminally forgotten nowadays; she would continue to score impressively in films such as "California Dreaming" and "Those Lips, Those Eyes." Only months away from "Saturday Night Fever," John Travolta's movie career consisted of a bit in "The Devil's Rain" and a supporting villain in the just completed "Carrie," his dramatic capabilities as yet untested, so this sensitive but not saccharine portrayal was very real and precise (how about the reference to masturbation with fellow inmate John Friedrich, when they easily could have shied away from an honest depiction). This movie's cult should continue to grow, in spite of the dated 70s fashions, despite the raspberries from numerous hipsters, simply because the heart never stops yearning and no one forgets their first love.

1. I truly believe if this is Travolta's best movie.2. Glynnis O'Conner never got the respect she earned.3. Plus--she was Adorable.4. If Twentieth Century Fox could send the Master to Lucas and one of his Yodas' cleaned up the film technically-- people would pay 10 bucks to see it.5. It a shame the celluloid degraded. It almost aged like the actors?6. If anyone know who owns the master, please email me.7. I know a non-profit in San Francisco archived the movie, but it's the same horrid quality.8. A film like this should have been preserved.9. I hope someone is preventing this careless destruction of old movies?10. Maybe the actors have a better copy?11. I saw the original as a kid, and it was crystal clear; I think?