"Addie and the King of Heats" is the last of four TV movies about a girl growing up in a small Midwestern town in the 1940s and 50s. The series began with "The House without a Christmas Tree" in 1972. The stories are by Gale Rock, and tell of her experiences growing up with her widower father and grandmother in Clear River, Nebraska. Her real hometown was Valley, Nebraska.
Although all of the stories are good, none of the three that followed the original could match it. This one has a different twist in that Addie is now 14 years of age, and her views about aspects of life have changed considerably (maturated, for one thing) from those she displayed as a 10-year-old.
In this film, her father, Jamie Mills, is dating a widow who recently moved back to their town and set up shop as a beautician. At the same time, Addie's regular teacher is getting married and going on leave for two weeks for her honeymoon, and when the substitute teacher shows up the next day, Addie has a crush for Mr. Davenport.
At the end of the first story, Addie was at arm's length with her dad and in voice-over implied that while cordial for the rest of their lives, they would still not be very close. But this film, clearly implies otherwise. After initial teenage jealousy about her dad's affection for another woman, Addie implies that she and her dad would be closer together from this time forward. When Addie attends the King of Hearts dance, she meets her teacher's fiancé. By this time she has accepted her dad's new lady friend, but after her teen heartache, she vows again, as she had in her first film, that she would never marry.
The regular cast were all on board for this final film, with Diane Ladd added as Irene Davis, and Richard Hatch as the substitute teacher, Mr. Davenport. This film doesn't have anything to tie it to the Christmas or holiday season, but it's a type of family movie that many people like at those times of the year.
