Born Innocent
DVD cover
Directed by	Donald Wrye
Written by	Book: Creighton Brown Burnham Teleplay: Gerald Di Pego
Starring	Linda Blair Richard Jaeckel Kim Hunter
Distributed by	NBC World Premiere Movie
Release date(s)	September 10, 1974
Running time	98 minutes
Language	English
IMDb profile

For the Redd Kross album, see Born Innocent (album).

Born Innocent was a television movie which was first aired under the NBC World Premiere Movie umbrella on September 10, 1974. To this day, it has remained one of the most controversial films ever aired on American television. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (458x648, 79 KB) Summary http://www. ... Linda Blair (born January 22, 1959) is an American actress famous for her role as the possessed child in The Exorcist. ... Richard Jaeckel Richard Hanley Jaeckel (October 10, 1926 - June 14, 1997) was an American actor. ... Kim Hunter (b. ... September 10 is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years). ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Redd Kross, an alternative rock/garage rock/power pop/cover version band from Hawthorne, California had their roots in 1978 in a band called The Tourists begun by Jeff and Steve McDonald while the brothers were still in middle school. ... Born Innocent is the debut album originally released by Redd Kross in 1982. ... A television movie (also known as a TV film, TV movie, TV-movie, feature-length drama, made-for-TV movie, movie of the week (MOTW or MOW), single drama, telemovie, telefilm, or two-hour-long drama) is a film that is produced for and originally distributed by a television network. ... NBC, (Formerly an acronym for the National Broadcasting Company until 2004), is an American television and radio network based in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... September 10 is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years). ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... This article is about television in the United States, specifically its history, art, business and government regulation. ...

The movie starred Linda Blair (fresh off her success with The Exorcist) as a teenage runaway, who was eventually sentenced to do time in a juvenile detention center, which doubled as a reform school for the girls. Blair's character, Christine Parker, came from an abusive home. Her father (played by Richard Jaeckel) beat her up, which caused Chris to run away many times. Her mother (Kim Hunter) was unfeeling, sitting in her recliner, watching television and smoking cigarettes all day. While the movie has a morality play tone, showing the harsh effects of the detention center on a young girl, it also blames society for Christine's downfall, as her social worker does not find out that her parents caused her to run away, and then had her sent off to reform school when she told others. Linda Blair (born January 22, 1959) is an American actress famous for her role as the possessed child in The Exorcist. ... The Exorcist is a 1973 film, based on the novel by William Peter Blatty first published in 1971. ... Richard Jaeckel Richard Hanley Jaeckel (October 10, 1926 - June 14, 1997) was an American actor. ... Kim Hunter (b. ...

One scene in particular that gained the movie infamy was the rape of Blair's character by the other girls with a toilet plunger handle; this scene had the distinction of being the first all-female rape scene aired on American television. This scene was not glossed over in promotional spots for the movie; Linda Blair's screams as she was being attacked were aired in the promos, with the announcer intoning, "She was born innocent, but that was fourteen years ago!" Common household plungers A plunger is a common device used to release stoppages in plumbing. ...

The scene drew much outcry on its first airing and was eventually pulled from the movie entirely when it was blamed for the rape of an eight-year-old girl, committed by some of her peers with a glass soda bottle. The California Supreme Court would declare the film was not obscene, and that the network which broadcast it was not liable for the actions of the persons who committed the crime. Olivia N. v. National Broadcasting Company, 126 Cal. App.3d 488 (1981). The Supreme Court of California is the state supreme court in California. ... // Case citation is the system used in common law countries such as the United States, England and Wales, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and India to uniquely identify the location of past court cases in special series of books called reporters or law reports. ...

In a response to the incident, re-airings in the late 1970s and 1980s did not air any of the sequence. The real-life rape, in part, helped establish the Family Viewing Hour which became mandatory for the networks in the late 1970s, as the movie was aired in the eight and nine o'clock hours on the East Coast, when some children may not have been in bed. The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... The Family Viewing Hour was an idea mandated by the Federal Communications Commission in 1975, stating that each television network in the United States has a responsibility to air family friendly programming in the first hour of the primetime lineup (8:00 to 9:00 p. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... EDT (shown in yellow) is UTC-4 The Eastern Time Zone of the Western Hemisphere falls mostly along the east coast of Northern America and the west coast of South America. ...

After the edited re-airings in the 1980s, the movie disappeared from circulation completely. In 2004, VCI Entertainment released Born Innocent on DVD with the rape scene intact, the first time it has been seen by the general public in thirty years. 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External link

• Born Innocent at the Internet Movie Database