PaleyArchive ColorBars TopBanner2

THEN CAME BRONSON {TV MOVIE PILOT} (TV)

Summary

The made-for-television film is the first in the dramatic adventure series about a disillusioned San Francisco newspaperman who quits his job and becoming a drifter, searching for the meaning of life on his motorcycle.

The program begins as Jim Bronson is summoned to the Golden Gate Bridge, where his friend Nick is threatening to jump, saying that his life is meaningless. He tells Jim that his beloved motorcycle is now his, and although Jim tries to stop him, leaps to his death. Distraught, Jim visits Nick’s widow, who says that their lives were just starting to improve, although they had no money, and questions why he did it. Back at the office, Jim’s editor is uninterested in the fact that Jim’s latest obituary is about a friend of his, telling him to clean up his act or lose his job. Jim meets with a friend and admits that he is disillusioned about his job and his life, and his friend advises him to “discover surprises” and have an adventure. Jim buys Nick’s motorcycle from his widow and heads off with no destination in mind, eventually ending up at a beach, where he sees a young bride stripping off her wedding dress and throwing her ring in the surf. He takes the ring and drives off, and he meets the woman again on the road when she nearly runs him off. They have a confrontation at a gas station, but when a policeman arrives, she denies that the car is hers and is forced to head off with Jim, much to her annoyance.

When he asks, she refuses to reveal her name, and he takes her to a brickyard where they can work and earn a day’s pay, but she refuses. Later, when they camp out and he cooks dinner, he declines to share his meal, saying she did not work to earn the money to feed herself, and she demands to know if it is part of his “motorcycle outlaw code.” He eventually gives her his jacket to sleep under and beds down elsewhere, and though she at first rebuffs his attempts to take shelter in her “tent” when it begins raining, she gives in and allows him cover. In the morning, she celebrates the good weather and asks to be his friend, but he says that it is a “heavy thing.” He asks what she is running from, but she refuses to elaborate. They travel to a train station and he attempts to send her off to Los Angeles, giving her back the ring that she left on the beach. She declines it and asks if she will see him again, but he merely rides off—and returns shortly, where they reunite and depart together again. They come across a group known to Jim, a man known as “Papa Bear” and his many children, and he invites them to have dinner with them. Papa Bear then works on an abstract art piece and talks with Jim about the girl, asking if Jim is in love with her. He says he doesn’t know, and tells Papa Bear that he quit the paper in San Francisco for “a lot of reasons,” wondering if it was the right thing to do. Papa Bear simply says that he has been in the same position and is “still growing.” The girl tucks the children in for the night and they ask her to stay and be their mother, but Papa Bear says that she cannot stay because she still has “someone to find.” He warns her against being in love with Jim, saying that while he is a good person, being tied to a domestic life would be “death to him.”

Jim and the girl soon leave and come across a “hill-climb” in which motorcyclists attempt to mount a steep hill on their bikes without falling. Jim enters the challenge, using the girl’s watch for his entrance fee, and though he wipes out on his first attempt, he succeeds the second time, and he and the girl share a triumphant kiss. He takes her shopping and buys her a dress with his winnings, and when they stop to camp, she thanks him “for being himself” and asks him questions about his origins, which he answers. They note the “distance” between them, and the relationship between them grows as she expresses her longing for him. The next day, they stop at a diner, where a careless man tries out Jim’s motorcycle and ends up driving it into a lake. They haul it out with some difficulty and Jim restores it overnight. As Jim and the girl wash in the lake, she asks if there is an “us” between them. Back on the bike, he asks about her aborted wedding, and she says she was scared. He tells her that love requires “giving yourself away,” and she says that she doesn’t want to lose him. They suddenly get into a crash and are both injured, although not gravely. Jim is taken to the hospital with a concussion, and the girl stays by his bedside. When he awakens, they talk and she debates staying with him or returning to her hometown, and he says that they “can’t lose something they never had.” When he departs the hospital on his repaired bike, she declines to accompany him, say she has gone “as far as she needs to.” She reveals that her name is Temple Brooks, and they sadly bid each other goodbye. Commercials deleted.

Details

  • NETWORK: NBC
  • DATE: March 24, 1969 9:00 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 1:00:00
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: B:18349
  • GENRE: Drama
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Drama; Action/Adventure
  • SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1969-1970
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • Robert H. Justman … Producer
  • Denne Bart Petitclerc … Writer
  • William A. Graham … Director
  • George Duning … Music by
  • Michael Parks … Cast, Jim Bronson
  • Bonnie Bedelia … Cast, Temple Brooks
  • Akim Tamiroff … Cast, Papa Bear
  • Gary Merrill … Cast, Inspector Otis
  • Bert Freed … Cast, Editor Carson
  • Sheree North … Cast, Gloria Oresko
  • Martin Sheen … Cast, Nick Oresko
  • Michael Bell … Cast, Petty
  • Gene Dynarski … Cast, Boots Kowalski
  • Bruce Mars … Cast, Troy
  • Ted Gehring … Cast, Diner Owner
  • Peter Brocco … Cast, Stationmaster
  • Stanley Schneider … Cast, Deputy
  • Stu Klitsner … Cast, Businessman