Daddy, I Don't Like It Like This

Adell Aldrich (son of Robert Aldrich) directed this TV film I saw when it first aired. Starring Doug McKeon as a shy sensitive 10-year-old desparate for friends, Burt Young as his father and Talia Shire as his mother. We see the New York working class neighborhood where the boy is subjected to abuse from peers, parents, and teachers, the only respite is when he happens into a field and meets a dreamlike girl.

Though you can probably tell it's a TV movie, it's nevertheless a poignant look at a boy who can't cope with such a negative environment. I think the underlying purpose is to show what life is like to such kids, which is unusual in that usually similar films are told from the parent's point of view.

This movie was filmed in Corona, Queens, NY on 38th Avenue just off 108th street when I was a kid living with my Grandma. The house across the street is where most of the indoor scenes were done and a bunch of us kids got to be extras. Pretty cool. But very sad movie. Loved it.

Talia Shire and Burt Young were great. Sly came by our street to visit. I remember about a year before they started filming two guys showed up and asked how we'd like to have a movie made on our street.

We didn't believe them until the crews started rolling in and they used the back pantry and yard of my Grandma's house to store soda, food and stuff.

A Made for TV movie about a kid being the victim of emotional abuse and cruelty from his lower working class father and mother, teachers, the local kids in his neighborhood and just about any person he encounters or encounters him. You can empathize with this kid on so many levels. You would think he was stuck and born into an evil dimension. Not much as far as a plot is concerned but leaves a lasting impression after viewing it.