Something About Amelia Plot Summary and Details

First offered as an ABC Theatre presentation on January 9, 1984, Something About Amelia stars Ted Danson in an "against type" role to end them all. Danson is the well-to-do, loving husband of Glenn Close, and the doting father of teenager Roxanne Zal. Zal's mother can't understand why the girl has been depressed and withdrawn of late. It takes a session with her school guidance counselor to get Zalto admit the source of her depression: Her father has had sexual relations with her. Zal's mother goes through the expected anger and denial upon hearing this news....but the girl is, alas, telling the truth. Wisely, scriptwriter William Hanley does not present Ted Danson's character as a monster, despite the monstrosity of his behavior. The point of the drama is that incest is not exclusively the dominion of lower-class, poorly educated, abusive parents--and that it is tragically possible for even the most "mature" of grownups to confuse love with sex. Dismissed by an otherwise perceptive TV movie critic as merely "typical," Something About Amelia chalked up one of the highest-ever ratings for a TV movie, and won a well-deserved Emmy for young Roxanne Zal.