I don’t know how old I was when I first saw Fallen Angel, a 1981 made-for-tv movie in which Richard Masur plays Howie, a pedophile and child pornographer who preys on 12-year-old Jennifer Phillips (Dana Hill). It had to have been on some Lifetime-adjacent channel, and it had to have been before 1995, because by ’95 I was obsessed with Blood In, Blood Out: Bound by Honor (1993) and remember taking note of Masur and thinking “Oh, that’s that pedophile.” I regret to say that to this day it’s all I can think about whenever I see him in a movie. Poor guy, I’m sure he’s nice in real life. Anyway, I can’t recall how old I was when I stumbled on this movie, but I’m sure like most things in my life I was far too young, and this is probably how I learned what CSAM was. None of this is great is what I’m saying.

I also don’t know why I decided that Fallen Angel would be the first movie I’d look up when I posted that I was going to start a series called IS IT ON TUBI?, which I’m sure a billion people before me have already done. Like, why not Teenage Bonnie and Klepto Clyde, a movie I never shut the fuck up about? Who knows why I do anything I do. The thing is I think about this movie a lot, and given the State of It All™️ it’s hard to dodge this serious topic on a daily basis. Which is real awesome for the ole mental health. It’s a great time to be alive.

Anyways, yes: Fallen Angel is on Tubi.

The movie starts with a strung-out teen throwing a fit on a movie set (the filming location is an abandoned house); she’s pissed off and pregnant and the shoot is canceled. Howie is getting chastised by his boss or whatever, Dennis, who threatens to turn him in to the authorities if he doesn’t procure a new girl for their films. Meanwhile, Jennifer is at odds with her mother, Sherry (Melinda Dillon) who has quickly replaced her dead husband with one of his coworkers, Frank (Ronny Cox). Being a twelve-year-old and communicating with your mom sucks on a good day, and even though I find Frank to be overtly kind to Jennifer (he thanks her profusely when he asks to watch the baseball game, prompting her to change the channel!), I get it, man. I’m 44-years-old and I still don’t know how to talk to my mother.

Howie meets Jennifer at a local arcade and lays it on so thick that any adult would know in twenty-two seconds his entire fuckin deal, but unfortunately Jennifer buys into it hook, line, sinker. He convinces her to join his softball team, which he uses to traffic kids, he buys her a puppy, he takes her to the woods to show her dirty magazines, and man her mom (who seems benzo’d out most of the time) is just not asking any fucking questions at all. If someone bought my kid a puppy I’d tear their face off. Next thing you know he’s got her in that empty house with some other kids and Dennis is amped for a new film star, telling Howie to wear her down a bit more so she can be ready for four movies next week. Jesus Christ.

Howie takes her and another kid to the park to take pics of them kissing and, like, this is a public park. Maybe I’m looking at it through the lens of 2026, but if I saw a grown man taking pics of two preteens kissing I would deal with it harshly and get details later. This movie was made the year I was born (I wasn’t even conceived yet when it aired), but I feel like that kind of shit was always frowned upon. Soon they’re near a lake and he prompts them to take off their clothes. Jennifer balks but he threatens to have her dog killed in that way where it seems like he’s doing her a big favor. She takes a pill and undresses, crying the whole time.

Frank comes home with one of the CSAM magazines he stole from his coworker (?!?!) and shows Sherry an ad. It’s a picture of Jennifer. Sherry confronts Jennifer, who denies it’s her. Then Jennifer runs away, finds Howie, and implies that if he takes her in she’ll do whatever he’d like. He can’t resist that, so he takes her home to his apartment where three teenage boys also live.

Jennifer’s mom is of course hysterical that her daughter has taken off. She goes to the police station, where a cop does what cops do best and tells her he’s not interested in finding her at-risk, trafficked daughter, but maybe he’ll try. She says he can try, but she’s gonna actually find her. Where was this mama-bear mentality when a 40-year-old man was buying your sad daughter a dog named Fred? Too busy sucking face with your new man to notice, but better late than never I guess!!!!

Sherry confronts Howie after a softball game and asks if he’s seen Jennifer, and he’s like “Ummm… no.” I don’t think she’s buying it, especially when he insists she go home and wait for Jennifer to come back. Like, he really really insists she just go home. You’d think a seasoned pedophile would be able to act cool under scrutiny but this guy stinks!

Back at his apartment he gives the boys cold pizza (?!) and makes them stay in their room to eat it, which I find to be bizarre, but I’m not a pedophile so maybe they have different rules about pizza and where to eat it that I’m not privy to. With the boys out of sight he starts trying to talk Jennifer into taking their relationship “to the next level”, but before it goes any further SHERRY BUSTS IN AND SAVES THE DAY! Well, she takes Jennifer and the boys back with her anyway; my “saving the day” would look a lot different. Howie sadly looks out to the ether and says softly “Please don’t tell on me.” Sir, you’re not being forced to reenact the cover of Cannibal Holocaust. You should be grateful.

We get some legal stuff where they’re questioning Howie and he’s insisting he’s in love with the kids, not abusing them, and it’s society that’s wrong! Jennifer is asked to testify, something’s she’s not sure she wants to do, and her mother is extremely against. The legal team explains that her testimony can help Howie and, more importantly, protect other potential victims. Later, at the zoo, Jennifer panics as she looks at all the parents taking photos of their kids. She says she thinks she can testify after all.

Jennifer rides her bike around town and is cornered by Howie, who grabs Fred and acts menacingly as he tells her not to testify and reminds her they’ll ask her personal and embarrassing questions. She grabs Fred back after he says he loves her and she has a heart-to-heart with him. “Maybe I was a—” she stops herself before saying “whore”. “I’m not anymore.” Who wrote this??? This aired on CBS, for fuck’s sake!

Jennifer takes the stand while a voice over asks us to take seriously “adult/child relationships.” Jesus fucking Christ man. It warns parents that in the void of their negligence the pedophile thrives. In 1981 people cared about this shit and took it seriously I guess. In 2026 a child rapist runs America. What can you even say?

Having just rewatched Fallen Angel, I realized I memory-holed most of it. The only scene I really remembered was the taking-photos scene, and I misremembered it largely. Why it was made is beyond me, but I guess why is any very-special tv movie made? To make it. According to a February 1981 review in the New York Times:

Jim Green of Green/Epstein Productions, one of the executive producers, argues bluntly that ”I did not want to make this film – CBS asked us to make it.” He says the script went through 14 rewrites before the final version by Lew Hunter was accepted. He was determined to avoid sensationalism and the tendency of many television movies to exploit.

And, much like your typical very-special tv movie that centers around, say, drug addiction or eating disorders, the Times warned:

Parents may indeed come away from ”Fallen Angel” with a heightened sense of urgency. However, pedophiles and certain children may discover little more than another primer on the art of seducing and being seduced.

So, I guess there you have it. The movie that ruined Richard Masur for me before I ever even knew his name. I was sad to learn that Dana Hill died relatively young (in the hospital local to me); she received a Young Artist Award for this role, and the movie itself was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Drama Special (it lost to a movie called Playing for Time that I’ve never heard of and that is probably available on Tubi).

Thank god for CBS in 1981; without them we as a society would never know that CSAM is, in fact, bad. Maybe they should rerun it; America could certainly use the reminder.