Target: Favorite Son (1987)

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Target: Favorite Son is the 115-minute abridgement of the three-part TV miniseries Favorite Son. Adapted by Steve Sohmer from his own novel, the film stars Harry Hamlin as a freshman senator from Texas who has "greatness thrust upon him" when he is accidentally shot during the assassination of a visiting Nicaraguan contra leader. Almost as if rehearsed, Hamlin delivers an impassioned pro-contra speech--all of which is seen on live TV. Upon recovering, Hamlin is selected by his party to run for the Vice President's post. Meanwhile, FBI agent Robert Loggia investigates the assassination, and what he discovers could--to reuse the cliché--blow Washington DC wide open. Featured in the cast is James Whitmore as the President, whose political enemies do their best to hound out of office so that the supposedly honest-and-aboveboard Hamlin can assume the Presidency. At the time of its first telecast, Favorite Son received a great deal of press play due to a scene wherein Linda Koslowski, playing the ambitious, oversexed mistress of Hamlin's press aide, strips to bra and panties and asks one of her boss' assistants (Lance Guest) to tie her up. Nothing further is shown, of course, but this tiny, almost missable scene ended up as the focal point of the entire series, so long as the clean-up-TV brigades were concerned. Favorite Son originally aired October 30 and 31, and November 1, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi