Desperate Lives

Desperate Lives
DVD cover
Genre	Drama
Written by	Lew Hunter
Directed by	Robert Michael Lewis
Starring	Tom Atkins Diane Ladd Doug McKeon Helen Hunt Diana Scarwid
Music by	Bruce Broughton
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Executive producers	Arthur Fellows Terry Keegan
Producer	Lew Hunter
Production location	William S. Hart High School in Newhall, Santa Clarita, California
Cinematography	Joseph Biroc
Editor	Les Green
Running time	96 minutes
Production companies	Fellows-Keegan Company Lorimar Television
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	March 3, 1982 (1982-03-03)

Desperate Lives is a 1982 American made-for-television drama film about drug use in a high school. The film has a very strong anti-drug message.

Plot summary

The Cameron family seems, on the surface, to be the perfect family, but things are not as they seem. Their two teenage children, Scott and Sandy, fall in with the wrong crowds at their high school and eventually become involved with drug experimentation. Sandy, after ingesting angel dust made by her boyfriend in the school's chemistry lab, jumps through a glass window of the school (purposely cutting her arms with the cut glass in the process) and is subsequently paralyzed from the fall.

A caring idealistic guidance counselor, Eileen Phillips, sees the problem that is going on in the school and, after other tragic incidents involving two other students (one of which involves Scott and his girlfriend smoking drugs and crashing their car off a cliff) and when no one else on the staff is willing to do anything about it, takes the steps to deal with and confront the problem. The aftermath of this tragedy makes Scott and Sandy's parents realize that even their "perfect" kids can be affected by drugs, especially after Scott has a violent reaction and goes into the hospital.

At a school assembly, Eileen storms in and confronts the students about the increasing drug use, sending a message to the crowd about the effects of what the drug problem is doing to the kids and the tragedies that resulted because of it.

Cast

• Diana Scarwid as Eileen Phillips
• Doug McKeon as Scott Cameron
• Helen Hunt as Sandy Cameron
• William Windom as Dr. Jarvis
• Art Hindle as Stan
• Tom Atkins as John Cameron
• Norman Alden as Coach
• Tricia Cast as Susan Garber
• Sam Bottoms as Ken Baynes
• Diane Ladd as Carol Cameron
• Grant Cramer as Steve
• Michele Greene as Julie Jordan
• Terry Alexander as Robert Walsh
• Dr. Joyce Brothers as Mrs. Watson
• Aggie Terry as Cindy
• Katherine Kelly Lang as Mary
• Susan McClung as Sarah
• Clayton Rohner as Monte
• Jenny Parsons as Olivia
• Mykel T. Williamson as Jack
• Jane Milmore as Jane
• Curt Ayers as Jesse
• Michele Laurita as Diana
• Glenn-Michael Jones as Al
• Joey Green as Howard
• Michael Cummings as Brad Davis
• Viola Kates Stimpson as Grandmother

Production notes

• The theme song to "Desperate Lives" was written and sung by Rick Springfield.
• Some of the movie was filmed at William S. Hart High School in Newhall, Santa Clarita, California.

Home media

Desperate Lives was released on DVD on April 21, 2010.

In popular culture

When hosting a 1994 episode of Saturday Night Live as the star of Mad About You, Helen Hunt showed clips of her earlier acting career during her opening monologue, including the scene from Desperate Lives where her character jumps out the window.^[1]

A Keyboard Cat video featuring clips from the film was uploaded to YouTube in 2009. However, it was later taken down for copyright reasons, because the video also contained the music video for "You Make My Dreams" by Hall & Oates.^[2][3]

References

1. "March 19, 1994 – Helen Hunt / Snoop Doggy Dogg (S19 E16)". The 'One SNL a Day' Project. WordPress. 11 September 2019. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
2. McCarthy, Caroline. "YouTube pulls audio from greatest music video ever". CNet. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
3. Barnett, Lindsay (16 July 2009). "Keyboard Cat falls victim to copyright law". L.A. Unleashed. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 3 June 2021.

External links

• Desperate Lives at IMDb
• Yahoo! profile