That Certain Summer

That Certain Summer
Genre	Drama
Written by	Richard Levinson William Link
Directed by	Lamont Johnson
Starring	Hal Holbrook Martin Sheen Joe Don Baker
Theme music composer	Gil Melle
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Richard Levinson William Link
Cinematography	Vilis Lapenieks
Editor(s)	Edward M. Abroms
Running time	73 min.
Production company(s)	Universal Television
Distributor	ABC
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	November 1, 1972

That Certain Summer is a 1972 American television movie directed by Lamont Johnson. The teleplay by Richard Levinson and William Link was the first to deal sympathetically with homosexuality. Produced by Universal Television, it was broadcast as an ABC Movie of the Week on November 1, 1972. A novelization of the film written by Burton Wohl was published by Bantam Books.

Divorced San Francisco contractor Doug Salter is looking forward to a summer visit from his fourteen-year-old son Nick, who lives in Los Angeles with his mother Janet. The boy does not know that his father is gay and committed to Gary McClain, his life partner of several years. Gary moves out temporarily in order to prevent Nick from suspecting the nature of their relationship. When Nick finds evidence of his father's secret life, the teen — filled with shame and disgust — runs away. Once reunited with his son, Doug attempts to explain his sexual orientation to him, with mixed results.

Looking back on the ground-breaking broadcast, Hal Holbrook recalls "I was an actor clearly not afraid of controversy . . . Anything that would make the audience think was worthwhile," although he turned down the role when it initially was offered to him. "I wasn't worried about whether the character was a gay person or not; the reason I turned it down, frankly, is I read the script and I didn't think much happened in it. I just thought it was kind of tame." After he discussed the script with Carol Rossen, who was to become his second wife, she responded, "You're going to get on the phone and call Hollywood and tell them you want to do this part before they give it to somebody else," and Holbrook did just that. He felt an emotional connection to the character in the film because at the time he had separated from his first wife and he hadn't told his two young children about the split. "It was very easy and natural for me to translate the emotional turmoil I personally was feeling into the turmoil [Doug] was feeling." The film remains important to him because it meant so much to so many people. "That's a good reason for being an actor, when you can do something decent that touches people's hearts and their minds, so you feel like you actually accomplished something," he says.

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