17. The Boy Who Drank Too Much (1980)
Scott Baio (yes, Charles In Charge Scott Baio) plays a high school hockey player named Buff who is struggling with alcoholism in the appropriately titled The Boy Who Drank Too Much. While its approach is that of a typical after school special, the film was presented as a prime time made-for-TV movie that took itself a little more seriously than other films that have touched on the topic. In the film, 15-year-old Buff lives in a crappy apartment, in a bad section of town, with his widowed, alcoholic dad (Don Murray). Like father, like son. Buff is a sloppy drunk who can't hold his booze and keeps a bottle under his pillow. Eventually a passed-out Buff is rushed to the hospital with alcohol poisoning and shipped off to rehab to start his journey to recovery. The Boy Who Drank Too Much embraces nearly every anti-abuse cliché, and is so slow, sappy and self-important that it's almost unbearable at times. Nevertheless, an awkward (and unintentionally hilarious) scene featuring the main character wetting his pants at a party is reason enough to give this film a revisit.
