Two-four-six-eight;
What makes TV salivate?
The answer is, true-life stories with the juicy elements of Willing To Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story. From the moment the first reports of this bizarre tale hit the newswires, a TV movie was inevitable.
The title of the ABC Sunday Night Movie, which is based on court records, published accounts and interviews, suggests a saga of bubble-brained yokels, but this is not the case. The adults are rational and intelligent — at least until one unpredictably goes over the top — and the kids are sharp and well adjusted.
Willing to Kill is really a tale of maternal love run amok, fueled by the common malaise of a parent trying to live vicariously through a child’s achievements. Instead of a mother and cheerleading, it just as easily could have involved a father and a youth league baseball or football.
Lesley Ann Warren, who excels at playing troubled souls, stars as Wanda Holloway, a single parent who returns to the small town in Texas in which she was raised. Wanda quickly reconnects with Verna Heath, a casual acquaintance from the past, played by the ideally down-to-earth Tess Harper.
Wanda’s daughter Shanna and Verna’s Amber also become fast friends, even though the two girls wind up competing regularly against each other in extracurricular activities.
Olivia Burnette, who rose above her material on The Torkelsons, offers a heart-tugging portrayal of Shanna, which overshadows Lauren Woodland’s performance as Amber.
No matter what it is that Shanna and Amber do, Amber, who comes from a family of over-achievers, seems to be just a notch ahead. This isn’t a big deal to the girls, but it begins to eat at Wanda.
The resentment has a bit of a history. When they were growing up, Verna was usually the belle of the ball, popular with all the right cliques. Wanda, meanwhile, had strict, repressive parents, and was forced to watch most of the fun from the background.
Wanda becomes obsessed with her daughter coming out on top of Verna’s just once, no matter what the price. If it’s sports, Wanda buys the best coaching available for Shanna. Ditto cheerleading. When the two girls face off in an election, Wanda goes into hock to run a Ross Perot-style campaign for Shanna. All in vain.
Positive actions having failed, Wanda stoops to dirty tricks in a bid to undermine Amber.
This campaign of jealousy destroys Wanda’s friendship with Verna, creates a chasm between the youngsters. Other members of the community can’t believe how carried away she has become on behalf of her daughter. Even Shanna wishes she would back off.
Burnette steals the most poignant scene in the piece, a heart-to-heart, mother-daughter conversation in which the child begs her mother to allow her to live her own dreams.
The situation gets totally out of hand when someone jokingly suggests to Wanda that the easiest thing to do would be just to have Verna and/or Amber killed. Wanda doesn’t laugh.
Her reaction is along the lines of “why didn’t I think of that?” The more she does think of it, the more enticing the notion becomes.
When the thought becomes action, she finds herself in serious trouble with the law in a case that attracts nationwide attention.
Everything about this story is hard to believe, but nothing more so than the epilogue that has been attached to the end of Willing To Kill.
“Amber Heath and Shanna Harper are sophomores at Channelview High School, where they are both members of the National Honor Society…Though Amber and Shanna see each other every day, they still don’t speak…Verna Heath juggles duties as a mother and teacher and (she and Wanda) continue to live in the same neighborhood, around the corner from each other.”
ON TV
Program: The ABC Sunday Night Movie: Willing To Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story.
Starring: Lesley Ann Warren, Tess Harper
Airs: 9 p.m. Sunday, WPLG-Ch. 10, WPBF-Ch. 25
