Answered Prayer: “Prayers For Bobby” is a Groundbreaking Gay TV Movie

The NBC deal didn’t work out, and Sarandon moved on, but Sladek and Taaffe kept pitching the project. In 2000, they managed to sell it to Lifetime with Sela Ward attached to play Mary Griffith. But that deal didn’t pan out either.

A few years later, they sold it yet again, to Showtime, as a vehicle for Christine Lahti.

Incredibly, that deal also fell through, and at the end of 2007, Sladek had almost given up on TV for good. He and Taaffe were all set to finally produce it as the feature film they had originally envisioned.

Just before they were about to start production, Lifetime expressed interest again, this time with Sigourney Weaver in the lead.

“I thought how wonderful we could put this [classic book] in another form, for families to experience,” Weaver says. “It was driven by a commitment to Bobby. Hopefully it’ll start a dialogue for the people who think this issue [of homosexuality] is black and white.”

Weaver and Susan Ruttan (right) filming a scene from Prayers for Bobby

Soon the producers had assembled the rest of an impressive cast that includes LA Law’s Susan Ruttan and Frasier’s Dan Butler, who is openly gay and who plays a minister that Mary reached out to at the Metropolitan Community Church.

Scott Bailey, the star of the MTV series Saints and Sinners, plays Bobby’s boyfriend, David. And the film is directed by Russell Mulcahy, who has directed everything from Highlander to the music videos of Duran Duran, Elton John, and George Michael.

“I was really quite thrilled,” Mary Griffith said when she learned that her story would finally be told on screen. “How could I object to this terrific actress and all these people?”

One great irony is that many more people will probably see Prayers for Bobby as a heavily-promoted Lifetime TV movie than might have seen it as a smaller feature. And yet, the filmmakers claim they didn’t have to make major compromises on either their vision or their message.

“Predominantly, it’s the original script, the original vision and original work we started with by [writer] Katie Ford, who has been with us from day one,” Sladek says. “There were a lot of people along the way who wanted us to change it, temper it, add melodrama. But the three of us, [Ford, Taaffe, and myself], we stuck to our guns.”

Indeed, the story is told with subtlety and sophistication, and the performances — especially Ryan Kelley as Bobby and Weaver, who will almost certainly be in the running for an Emmy — are excellent. It may be the best TV movie on gay issues ever, precisely because there is absolutely nothing cautious or watered down in its execution.

Ryan Kelley and Sigourney Weaver

Photo credit: Angela Weiss/Getty Images

“This is a film that is about realization and reaching out and making amends and doing everything you can to love the people you love,” Weaver says simply.

Sladek makes it clear that this project is a labor of love for everyone involved.

“It’s a television film,” he says. “It’s not the case that anyone’s getting rich. But hopefully we’ll leave something behind that will make a difference. Hopefully it might save some lives.”

For more information on the film, or to send feedback to filmmakers, visit the movie’s website.

Prayers for Bobby will play three times on Lifetime: Saturday, January 24, 9-11 PM; Sunday, January 25, 8-10 PM; and Tuesday, January 27, 9-11 PM.