''Cracked Up'' is a 1987 American TV film starring

Ed Asner Eddie Asner (; November 15, 1929 – August 29, 2021) was an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild. He is best remembered for portraying Lou Grant during the 1970s and early 1980s, on both ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' a ...

. It was one of the first films about the crack cocaine epidemic.

Cast

Edward Asner Eddie Asner (; November 15, 1929 – August 29, 2021) was an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild. He is best remembered for portraying Lou Grant during the 1970s and early 1980s, on both ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' a ...

as Vincent Owens *

Raphael Sbarge Raphael Sbarge (born February 12, 1964) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Jake Straka on ''The Guardian'' (2001–04), Jiminy Cricket / Dr. Archibald Hopper on '' Once Upon a Time'' (2011–18) and Ins ...

as Chris Mcnally * James Wilder as John Owens *Marilyn Jones as Terri Sandusky *Richard Holden as Ed Sandusky *

Kim Delaney Kim Delaney (born November 29, 1961) is an American actress known for her starring role as Detective Diane Russell on the ABC drama television series ''NYPD Blue'', for which she won an Emmy Award. Early in her career, she played the role of Je ...

as Jackie *

H. Richard Greene H. Richard Greene (sometimes credited as "Richard Greene") is an American film, television, and stage actor, acting coach, and guest professor at UCLA. Career Television Roles He has appeared in TV shows such as '' Matlock'', ''According t ...

as Coach Frank Malvin *F J O'Neil as Dr Carl Eckhart *Terence Alexander as Wilbert Fletcher

Production

In 1986 a special aired on American TV called ''48 Hours on Crack Street''. A few weeks later, in October, Aaron Spelling Productions approached writer-producer

Peter Lefcourt Peter Lefcourt (born 1946) is an American television producer, a film and television screenwriter, and a novelist. Lefcourt's early career involved writing teleplays for primetime series such as ''Cagney and Lacey'', ''Scarecrow and Mrs. King'' ( ...

to make a crack-related projected. "They wanted it to be the first crack movie on," Lefcourt said. "Crack is hot." The first draft was delivered in January 1987. Filming started on 9 March and the show aired in May. "I didn't want to make another ''48 Hours on Crack Street''," said Lefcourt. "Movies have been made about cocaine, and they are so predictable. After a while, the audience's eyes glaze over. They know the kids are going to get screwed up and their parents are going to tear their hair out." "We hope we've addressed this realistically," said director Karen Arthur. "We want to appeal to the youth audience and hope that through this film, kids who are contemplating putting this stuff in their throats, or have, will gain some courage not to, or to stop."

References

External links

''Cracked Up''
at

TCMDB Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of A ...

''Cracked Up''
at

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Complete film
at

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Review
in ''

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'' 1987 television films 1987 films ABC network original films Films about drugs Films directed by Karen Arthur {{US-tv-film-stub