In 1976, John Travolta was one of the hottest new talents around. So a vehicle had to be created for the heart throb from “Welcome Back Kotter.” Something that would show the world his vast dramatic range and cast him apart from the…shall we say “challenged”…Vinnie Barbarino. And that dramatic vehicle was none other than the blockbuster TV Movie Of the Week “Boy In The Plastic Bubble.”
Yes, John Travolta was the first “bubble boy” to grace the screen, long before Jerry Seinfeld made it popular. Like the bubble boy in the Seinfeld episode, Travolta is an angry young man who likes to engage in board games with those on the outside from the inside of the plastic bubble. Unlike the Seinfeld episode, he plays chess instead of Trivial Pursuit. This is probably because this movie was made about 10 years before Trivial Pursuit was invented.
We first meet Travolta’s parents, played by Diana Hyland and none other than Robert Reed, in the beginning of the show. Apparently, they have had a son who was born with no immune system and lost him already. Hyland’s character finds out she’s pregnant. But there is no way of knowing whether this child will also have no immune system. Robert Reed looks like the original Mike Brady with his hair straight and parted on the side. Before he went all perm on us.
In a strange sequence, Hyland is giving birth to her son (who will grow into Travolta’s character, Todd) by cesarean in an operating theater that is packed to the gills. Reed asks the doctor who turns out to be some immunologist why they have to have “all these people” in the theater, who are presumably doctors. This reminds me of the Seinfeld episode of the Junior Mint operation. But in this case, they all get up and leave.
Had they tossed a Junior Mint, something different might have happened. But as they feared, Hyland has given birth to a child with no immune system who has to live in a bubble. At the hospital.
Hyland and Reed are pretty upset that their kid has to live in a bubble at the hospital when the little girl next door gets to swing on the swings with her mom. So they arrange to have the child, who is now about 4, brought home. On the first night that he is home, they decide to have a “romantic evening.” But the little boy starts choking and that spoils that. In retrospect, we can imagine Reed’s relief.
Todd, or Toddy as he is known, grow up to be John Travolta, who hangs out in a bigger bubble in the house in shorts and a t-shirt all of the time and stalks the little girl next door, who has grown up to be Glynnis O’Connor, the poster child of bad 1970s movies, by spying on her with binoculars. She is his only link to the outside. Periodically, the doctor comes by and tells Travolta of doctors who are experimenting with procedures that will free him from the bubble. In Russia. Finland. South America. Everywhere but the United States.
Reed turns into the afro version of Mike Brady. Complete with 1970s style mustache. You can almost see him cruising for action on Sunset Drive. Thank God he quit the Brady Bunch. First “Pray For The Wildcats” and now this.
Travolta cannot move outside a yellow mark that is on the outside of the entrance to his bubble world. Any gift has to be sterilized. He has an amazing assortment of albums, magazines and things for a guy who has to live in a sterile world. And for a guy who can’t take a regular bath or a shower (he admits this to O’Connor) his hair looks, well, very Vinnie Barbarino.
O’Connor’s character, Gina, is a little witch who invites Toddy to the beach for 4th of July. Where she rides a horse. Wherever that beach is, I don’t want to lay on the sand. Anyway, she decides to have some fun by “holding hands” with him with the gloves that go inside the bubble. He’s thrilled to bits. Then she tells him that it was a dare. He falls to pieces in the bubble and has to be removed from the beach.
Travolta spends some time in a hospital where he meets another boy who is in a bubble due to chemotherapy. The boy says that he wants to go out and get a hooker the minute he gets well. Travolta is worried about the germs. But we know what he’s thinking. He would like to be with a woman. And that woman would be O'Connor's character. Because she is the only girl he knows.
Anyway, he becomes very close to O’Connor, uses a spacesuit to actually go to school and desires to break free from the bubble world. One morning, while his parents are asleep, he calls the doctor over (who just happens to go inside while the parents are in bed). He asks him how long he can last if he goes out of the bubble. The doctor has no answer. He could live or he could drop dead from a cold. He has no idea. Apparently, Travolta’s body has built up some sort of immunities, but they have never been tested.
So after the doctor leaves, he steps out of that darn yellow line and into the germ world. He looks at his parents in bed, then rushes off to see O’Connor who is grooming her horse. All the while, corny music is playing. Not as bad as the music in Saturday Night Fever, but corny. He touches her face and then they ride off on the horse into the sunset.
Travolta had an alleged romance with Hyland during this movie. Hyland tragically died from cancer (she was the original mom in Eight Is Enough). Also starring in this film is PJ Soles, who was one of Travolta’s co-stars in “Carrie.” For some reason, she goes around wearing what appears to be a gown at school. I remember 1976 very well. I don’t remember anyone dressing like this. The photo above depicts a scene from the school where Todd is in his spacesuit and Soles is in her gown.
This film depicted Travolta as not being as dumb as Barbarino, but still having great hair. But a year later, he was back to playing the…shall we say “challenged” Tony Manero in “Saturday Night Fever.” A role that was very similar to that of Vinnie Barbarino. Except he danced.
I always liked John Travolta and he was fortunately able to overcome this film and continue with a career that has spanned several decades