Michael Pierson, a successful lawyer, suffers a bad coughing jag at work and is rushed to the hospital. There he learns from a doctor that he has been exposed to HIV. At home, he receives another piece of disturbing news: his lover, Peter, confesses that he had sex outside the relationship because Michael is a workaholic and is living in the closet. Michael, in a rage, throws Peter out of the house. He then travels to his parents' home to inform them that he is gay and has AIDS. Michael's father, Nick, is a lumber company owner, and his wife, Kate, is a former concert pianist, housewife, and grandmother. The couple's daughter, Susan is married and has a child. Nick reacts angrily to the news, while Kate attempts to adapt to the situation. Nick initially refuses to speak to Michael for a day before breaking silence by saying, "I never thought the day would come when you'd be in front of me and I wouldn't know who you are." Susan, who is pregnant, refuses to see Michael, saying that she "can't take that chance," and Nick explodes when Michael tries to kiss Kate. Kate remembers reading in a magazine article that HIV is not transmitted through casual contact and tries to get the rest of the family to accept Michael. Michael eventually winds up in the hospital and meets a fellow patient named Victor, a flamboyant homosexual with AIDS. The film depicts Victor's death and shows a nurse throwing Victor's few possessions into a garbage bag because she fears that the items could be contaminated. Afterwards, Michael returns home and discovers Peter came to visit, and the two quickly reconcile. Peter asks Michael to go back home with him, but Michael insists that he cannot. As he continues to struggle coping with his diagnosis, Michael attempts suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning, but is stopped by Nick. The two argue and Nick insists that Michael keep fighting. The film ends with Michael taking a taxi cab back to Chicago, telling his parents he loves them before he goes.
The teleplay for the film by Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman spent two years in development and underwent at least thirteen rewrites before the Standards and Practices division at the network accepted it for airing.
Reviews, awards, and aftermath
Tom Shales of The Washington Post called An Early Frost "the most important TV movie of the year." The film was number one in the Nielsen ratings during the night it aired, garnering a 23.3 share and watched by 34 million people. The film was nominated for 14 Emmy Awards and won three, including Outstanding Writing For a Movie or Miniseries for Cowen and Lipman for their teleplay. Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Aidan Quinn, Sylvia Sidney and John Glover were all nominated for their performances, as was John Erman for his direction. The film was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Television movie and won Sylvia Sidney the Golden Globe Award for. It also won the Peabody Award. The network, however, lost $500,000 in revenue because advertisers were leery about sponsoring the film. The film conveyed the prejudices surrounding HIV/AIDS at the time and the then common limited understanding by the general public of the methods of transmission and likelihood of infection.
