Letters from Frank

(CBS, 11/22/1979, 120 mins). Art Carney is a newspaper executive who is frustrated at being put out to pasture after 35 years in favor of a computer, but his wife’s unbridled enthusiasm about their new house, the death of his older brother, and the problems of his divorced son, recently remarried, bring home to him an important message about a man’s responsibilities. An up and coming young Canadian actor named Michael J. Fox here had one of his earliest TV roles as Carney’s grandson.

Production Companies The Jozak Company, Cypress Point Productions, Paramount Network Television. Director Edward Parone. Executive Producer Gerald W. Abrams. Producer Ronald Shedlo. Teleplay Elinor Karpf, Stephen Karpf, Larry Grusin. Based on a Story by George Thompson. Photography Roland ‘Ozzie’ Smith. Music Ernest Gold. Editor Scott C. Eyler. Art Director Trevor Williams.

Cast Art Carney (Frank Miller), Maureen Stapleton (Betty Miller), Mike Farrell (Richard Miller), Gail Strickland (Marlene), Mary Jackson (Edna Miller), Jenny O’Hara (Patty Miller), Lew Ayres (Dan Miller), Margaret Hamilton (Grandma Miller), Michael Goodwin (Mr. Carstairs), Michael J. Fox (Ricky Miller), Margaret Martin (Millie), Shirley Barkley (Minnie), Guy Bannerman (Mechanic), Robert Stelmach, John Roeder, Wayne Cox.