The Littlest Victims

The Littlest Victims is a 1989 CBS-produced biographical drama about Dr. James Oleske. The TV film was written by Kenneth Cavender and J.J. Towne and directed by Peter Levin. Dr. Oleske was the first U.S. physician to diagnose AIDS in children during the epidemic's early years when it was widely thought to be spread only though homosexual sex. It starred Tim Matheson as Oleske and was first broadcast on April 23, 1989.[1] [2]

The Littlest Victims
GenreDrama
Written byJ.J. Towne
Kenneth Cavander
Directed byPeter Levin
StarringTim Matheson
Theme music composerJoel Rosenbaum
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producerMarian Brayton
ProducersDerek Kavanagh
Fern Field
Norman Brooks (supervising producer (as Norman G. Brooks)
Anne Carlucci (supervising producer)
Production locationsAtlanta, Georgia
CinematographyJohn McPherson
Running time1hr. 40 min.
Production companyCBS
DistributorCBS
Release
Original networkCBS
Picture formatColor
Audio formatStereo
Original releaseApril 23, 1989 (1989-04-23)

Storyline

In 1982, Oleske is practicing medicine at Newark, New Jersey's New Jersey Medical School when he discovers several of his pediatric patients failing to thrive and suffering from what appears to be suppressed immune systems. Most of his patients are impoverished inner city African Americans and Hispanics who are either intravenous drug users or the heterosexual partners thereof. His efforts to convince the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that AIDS is the cause of this threat falls on largely deaf and hesitant ears, while another doctor asks him about whether or not Bible belt politicians will enjoy having to tell their voters that their taxes are being spent on homosexuals and I.V. drug users in the largely liberal coastal cities where many of such groups of people and their AIDS cases are from.

Later, he receives a report from the CDC about infected transfusions and blood products and finds one of his pediatric patients had received blood from a donor who later developed and died of the disease, much to the anger of the patient's family over not being told this beforehand. TV reporters appear in the hospital wearing disposable latex gloves, surgical clothes and masks, afraid of becoming infected by being in the same room or building with Oleske and his AIDS patients as well as one of the hospital's orderlies is also scared as he is married until Oleske calms him down and tells him that he's also married and with children but is not afraid because it can't be spread through the air.

Another of his patients, an adult female former prostitute and I.V. drug user, is informed by him that her child has the disease, indicating that its virus was passed to her child through her blood while she was pregnant, meaning that she became infected before she stopped drugs and prostitution. After her child dies of AIDS, she returns to her former lifestyle.

The publicity of Oleske's work on AIDS also causes problems with his family in his private life as his children are subjected to ridicule from their peers about this. In 1984, another one of his child patients dies of AIDS and is buried in a Gospel music style funeral that Oleske attends, and Oleske finally receives approval of his work from the CDC and promises to continue his work among his patients, even though they will eventually die young.

References
  1. Willman, Chris. "TV Reviews : A Lowbrow Look at the 'Littlest Victims' of AIDS" Los Angeles Times, April 22, 1989
  2. The Littlest Victims hollywood.com, accessed February 27, 2016
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