The 1980s
"Damien the Leper Priest" 1980
This version of the life of Father Damien is really worth watching. Father Damien leaves Belgium to dedicate his life helping people in the Lepers colony on the island of Molokaï.
(keep an eye out for David Ogden Stiers!)
"Played a bearded, cigar-smoking, cynical Irishman. We had a tragic development on that shoot. David Janssen played Father Damian for the first day of shooting and dropped dead that night. The business being a business, they re-cast and got Ken Howard to play the part and we went on."
"Prime Suspect" 1982
A serial killer known as "The Golden Girl Killer" spreads panic. His victims are young girls with blond hair. After a short period of no disappearances the killer strikes again. The cops arrest Frank Staplin [Farrell], a businessman with no criminal record at all. He makes himself prime suspect by making some contradictory statements. The press picks up on this and points Staplin out as the killer.
"First time I got to play a kind of heroic type (the wrongly accused hero) and be the guy to carry the movie. It was fun."
"Memorial Day" 1983
An unplanned reunion of a couple of Vietnam-veterans bring back memories that a successful lawyer tried so hard to forget.
Q: isn't that.....?
A: yes...that is Shelley Fabares on the cover.
"One of my favorites. (I developed and co-produced the movie). An important early story about the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on Vietnam veterans." "[Shelly and I] were already dating when this was being put together. Happily, I chose to not mention her name because I didn't want it to seem that I was pushing her into it and the casting director and director decided to use her on their own. (With my happy approval, I might add.)
"M*A*S*H- Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" 1983
The two hour finale of TV's most popular series ever. For more info on MASH go to the Hunnicutt-section or to the links-page where you'll find lists of other MASH sites. I really don't know how many times I've seen this movie, but I still need a hanky to watch it.
"Most of the memories of the show are wonderful, this "episode" was the most wonderful. When we determined that we wanted to bring an end to the show (and unlike most series, this decision was ours, not the studio's or the network's), the one thing we said we wanted was an episode that ended the war. We wanted the chance to say goodbye to each other in character and goodbye and thank you to the audience. Well, first of all, the studio and the network were panicked by our decision to end it. When they assimilated that, they then objected to our idea of an end-of-the-war episode. When we asked why, they said that the show was very successful not only in its original showings, but also in syndication across country (and around the world). They said experience had shown that shows that were successful in syndication didn't continue to do well when they had an "ending" episode. Since that made no sense to us we asked what they based that statement on and they used as an example "The Fugitive", the very successful show based on the character of Dr. Sam Sheppard. David Janssen played Dr. Richard Kimble, who escaped after being convicted of killing his wife and spent his days as a fugitive, trying to find the "one-armed man", who, as only he knew, was the actual killer. Their research showed that when they ended that series by having him catch the one-armed man and be cleared, the audience for the syndicated episodes dropped off alarmingly and they didn't want that to happen to us. "Ah, yes," we answered, "but you see, everyone already knows the Korean war ended. We don't think we'll be telling them something that will shock them into turning off the episodes."
Odd thinking in television. The long and the short of it is that they agreed to let us make a 2 hour movie for television that ended the series, but they still refuse to run it in syndication (for fear, I guess, that those poor folks out there who think the war is still going on might be dismayed at the news and stop watching the show).
The movie became a 2 and 1/2 hour show and remains the most-watched single television event in American history. It was a wonderful and heart-breaking experience, as we knew it would be. I remember the director, Burt Metcalfe, who was also our exec. producer, saying, "This is the first time I can remember telling actors not to cry." It was very hard to separate our personal relationships from those of the characters, and we all had an overwhelming awareness that each scene, each shot, each set represented "the last time" for something or someone. It was wonderful and awful and I wouldn't change a thing."
In the last episode of MASH, you buried a time-capsule as part of the show. But what did you put in the time-capsule you and the others later "secretly" buried?
"Oh, a teddy bear of Radar's, one of my red undershirts, etc., a token of personal connection from each of us. The "secretly buried" time capsule was dug up by a crew working on studio expansion and cast aside because they didn't think it was such a big deal. Oh well."
"Private Sessions" 1985 
Pilot for a possible tv-series about a psychotherapist who breaks the first rule of his professional code by getting involved in the personal life of his patients.
"It was a pilot, which had me concerned when I agreed to make it, but decided to risk it. They say any television movie in which the protagonist is alive at the end is a potential pilot for a series. It was actually fun. I played a psychotherapist and the idea was that this guy was one who would go out and dig into the facts pertinent to some of his cases in order to come up with hard-to-figure answers. Not a bad shows - and actually not a bad premise. Who knows why some things are picked up and others aren't, but I know there was a lot of bad blood and difficult business dealings between the company that made the picture and NBC. The company went under shortly after the picture was completed."
"Vanishing Act" 1986
Harry Kenyon [Farrell], just married, reports his wife's missing. After a while a woman shows up, claiming to be his wife. Really would love to tell the clue to this all, but that would ruin the film. Best go and watch it yourself.
"Great fun. Shot it in Banff, Canada, and had a good time. A lot of good actors involved and the premise was a kind of mis-lead that was great fun. What wasn't fun was that I had thrown my back out putting my motorcycle on a truck just a couple of days before leaving for Canada. As anyone who has had back problems knows, that can be rough and this was no exception. So I was somewhat limited physically during much of the filming and was in regular chiropractic treatments throughout. I'm not sure what might have been different had that not been the case, but can't help but think there would have been a difference."
"Incident at Dark River" 1989
A father [Farrell] sues the local factory when his daughter dies from the effects of pollution after playing near the river where the factory dumps its chemical waste.
"Again, a pretty good film, I think. I produced this as well. Helen Hunt worked with me in it, as well as Tess Harper. We shot it in Ogden, Utah."
"David [Reiss] and I came up with the story, which is the basis for the script but not the script itself, which we hired a well-respected writer to do. The idea was one that grew out of an experience I had had some years earlier. I was doing some political campaigning in a beautiful little town in the northern part of the state of New Hampshire and was struck by an awful smell that permeated this beautiful place. I asked someone what it was and the response was, "That's the smell of money." It seems the economic mainstay of this town was a pulp mill (I think it pulverized and converted wood, sawdust and other leavings from the lumber industry) which used heavy chemicals, and the odor was seen as the trade-off required for people to make a living there."
"I was struck by 1) the willingness of people to make that choice and 2) the fact that neither the company nor the townspeople apparently made the demand that something be done to alleviate the problem. The idea of how much power economic pressure can bring to bear stayed with me."
"Later I had an almost identical response to a similar question in a small town in Oregon and decided I wanted to make a film called "The Smell of Money", which was the original (and I still think the better) title for what became "Incident at Dark River". In the original story, the lead character, finally having been frustrated at every turn, went in to the factory, cleared everyone out, planted a charge and blew up the offending machinery. When we turned in the script the network decided it couldn't/wouldn't show that, so we changed it to the sledge-hammer attack.
"A Deadly Silence" 1989
On true facts based drama about a high-school student who hired a co-student to kill her incestuous father. Farrell plays her lawyer who tries to prove the fact that the girl was abused to court. What never really was very clear was the fact whether or not the abuse actually had taken place. Based on the book of Dena Kleiman, NY Times journalist.
"The film was based on a book (of, I believe the same name) and is a true story. It's my belief that the incest occured."