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An Early Frost is a 1985 TV movie, and the first major film to deal with the topic of HIV/AIDS. It was first broadcast on the NBC television network on November 11, 1985. It was directed by John Erman, screenplay by Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman, story by Sherman Yellen and starred Aidan Quinn as Michael Pierson, a Chicago attorney who goes home to break the news that he is homosexual and has AIDS to his parents, played by Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands. Tom Shales of the Washington Post called An Early Frost "the most important TV movie of the year," although he had misgivings about the... MORE

An Early Frost is a 1985 TV movie, and the first major film to deal with the topic of HIV/AIDS. It was first broadcast on the NBC television network on November 11, 1985. It was directed by John Erman, screenplay by Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman, story by Sherman Yellen and starred Aidan Quinn as Michael Pierson, a Chicago attorney who goes home to break the news that he is homosexual and has AIDS to his parents, played by Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands. Tom Shales of the Washington Post called An Early Frost "the most important TV movie of the year," although he had misgivings about the character played by Quinn, writing that "the central character has been made so far removed from the stereotypical homosexual that it could be argued he is stereotypically unstereotypical." The film was number one in the Nielsen ratings during the night it aired, garnering a 23.3 share (the film outperformed a San Francisco 49ers-Denver Broncos game broadcast on ABC and a Cagney & Lacey episode dealing with abortion on CBS). The film won Sylvia Sidney the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or a TV Movie. It also won a Peabody Award and an Emmy Award for Outstanding LESS