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Once filming finished, however, obstacles remained to overcome. Advertisers, fearful of controversy, refused to buy ad time. Once again, Tartikoff refused to back down. He felt the movie was too important and viewers needed to see it, so, even with no major sponsors, NBC aired it at a loss of $500,000.

An Early Frost debuted on Monday, November 11, 1985 as the top-rated program for the night--even beating out Monday Night Football. It went on to garner 14 Emmy nominations, winning four along with several other prestigious awards. Tom Shales, of the Washington Post, even called it "The most important TV movie of the year."

Much of that success was due to the cast. Aidan Quinn as Michael, and Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazarra as his parents, grounded the film and brought great emotional depth and connection to the story's central family. The supporting cast included numerous young actors who would go on to have great careers, with John Glover (Smallville, Love! Valour! Compassion!) as Victor Dimato, Terry O'Quinn (Lost) as Dr. Redding, and Bill Paxton (Aliens, Titanic, Big Love) as Michael's brother-in-law.

In the commentary featured on the DVD release, Quinn divulges that several other actors had turned down the role, but he was eager to take the part. "People always ask me, 'Gosh, wasn't that a brave choice for you to do that.' No! It wasn't at all. To me, it wasn't brave because it was something I was invested in and cared about. Number two, it was with phenomenal actors who I had always loved. And three, it was a beautiful script and it was a great part, and I was well paid! What's so brave? There's nothing brave about it!"

Twenty-one years later, An Early Frost still holds up. Except for the advanced medical knowledge we now have, it easily could have been made today. The reactions of Michael's parents as they struggle to accept a son they feel they no longer know resonate deeply. In some ways, the film shows how little attitudes have progressed from those days, but it's more a testament to skill of the actors and writers that brought the story to life. You can feel the heart and passion that went into each scene.

Out actor John Glover, who plays Victor, a flamboyant gay man in the last stages of AIDS whom Michael meets in the hospital, explained that everyone involved was aware of the significance of the movie. "Everybody who was in or concerned with it knew how important it was to humanize these people that the disease was happening to. It was important to get this message out there to people."

And get the message out they did. Timed with Hudson's death a month before the movie's broadcast, An Early Frost brought the subject of AIDS to the forefront of American discussion. People Magazine even featured Quinn on the cover of for a special AIDS issue. In the DVD's commentary, Quinn states that An Early Frost "had the greatest effect of social change of anything I've ever done."

AIDS activist and poet, Jim Hyde, author of Up the Hill Backwards, has lived with HIV for twenty-five years. He recalls watching An Early Frost when it first aired.

"I remember it as it was right smack in the worst of the pandemic,” Hyde says. “Very powerful. I felt the film on a visceral level. I was both heartbroken by it's truth and heartened by the fact that everyone involved with the film took a huge chance in putting this movie out while people living with AIDS not only battled illness, but also the awful stigma attached to it. In some way, I felt validated as a human being in the public eye, perhaps for the first time since being infected."

The DVD's commentary (as well as the Emmy winning 1987 documentary Living With Aids by Tina DiFeliciantonio which is also included) manages to be moving, entertaining, and informative all at the same time. It also does a remarkable job of creating the sense of the time and place during which the movie was filmed. To be sure, we've come a long way since 1985, but An Early Frost also illustrates how far we still have to go. "I'm hanging in there until they find a cure," says Victor at one point. Two decades later, we're still hanging in there waiting for a cure.

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