Over the years, made for TV movies have taken a major fall in quality. Originally, they were made with much the same production values as the movies that were made for theaters. There were even cases of movies such as “The Killers” starring Lee Marvin & Angie Dickinson and the “Battlestar Galactica” pilot movie and a 1966 “Dragnet” movie, among others, that were originally made for TV but were released in theaters and made lots of money in the process. The “Battlestar Galactica” movie’s success was perhaps the most notable of these successes since it had aired on free network TV in the Fall of 1978, yet less than a year later in the Summer of 1979, it was a major hit in theaters.
However, ever since circa 1985, the quality of made for TV movies have severely declined to the point where many folks automatically assume that if a show is a made for TV movie, then its automatically no good. Nowadays, made for TV movies have cheap production values and have glossy looks to them. There is even a term of derision that is often applied to theater movies that critics do not like: TV Movie Syndrome.
TV Movie Syndrome concerns bland, homogenized products that are mixed in a blender with previous made for TV movies and then the results have a cookie cutter applied to it. These movies may be ostensibly different from each other, but essentially they are the same exact thing, only with different labels attached to them. None of the characters have any rough edges or interesting quirks. As a result, they come across as being humanoid robots. Subleties and nuances in the stories are glossed over. When you add it all up, you get something that is movie length, but really is not a movie.
The absolute worst made for TV movies are what are unfortunately the most common type of TV movie. That is, ripoffs of better movies from yesteryear. In the case of the movie at hand Mr. Rock ‘n’ Roll, what you have is a 1999 ripoff of a 1978 theater movie, “American Hot Wax” that was nothing short of dreadful. The amazing thing is that as awful as the 1978 original was, Mr. Rock ‘n’ Roll has somehow managed to be even worse than the original. Such is the state of made for TV movies today.
Judd Nelson stars as Alan Freed, a disc jockey in Cleveland who recognized early on that rock and roll was not just some fad. In real life, Freed was a sleazy character who claimed that he created rock music and whose claims were repeated by largely gullible reporters. Freed associated with a number of unsavory characters including mobsters. In Mr. Rock ‘n’ Roll, Freed is the dullest man alive who is married to the dullest woman alive. Needless to say, Freed in real life was a far more interesting character than what he comes across in this TV movie.
The incredible thing is that Mr. Rock ‘n’ Roll repeats all the mistakes that “American Hot Wax” made 21 years earlier. Freed is made out to be some sort of civil rights crusader, which is ridiculous. For instance, Freed is made out to be the victim of evil law enforcement agencies. This show even has FBI director J. Edgar Hoover saying that rock music is even more of a threat to America than Communism. There is nothing in Mr. Rock ‘n’ Roll about the fact that in 1962 Freed pleaded guilty to 2 counts of payola. Nor was there anything about the fact that Freed’s death in 1965 has been shrouded in mystery and controversy with many believing that he was murdered as opposed to the official findings that he had died of natural causes.
The real life story of Alan Freed is most interesting and could be the subject of a great movie. Its bad enough that Freed was the subject of a bad movie in 1978. Its even worse that it was the subject of a poor grade made for TV movie in 1999. Mr. Rock ‘n’ Roll is a movie to avoid like the plague.
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