AllMovie

Previously filmed in 1950, Tennessee Williams' 1944 Broadway hit The Glass Menagerie was remade for television in 1973. Katharine Hepburn is top-billed as Amanda Wingfield, a faded southern belle who lives on her memories in a Depression-era St. Louis tenement. Sam Waterston narrates the story as Amanda's idealistic son Tom, who'd give anything to escape his mother's fantasy world. Tom's withdrawn, clubfooted sister Laura, who maintains the glass menagerie of the title, is portrayed by Joanna Miles, while Michael Moriarity plays the Gentleman Caller, whose presence disrupts the fragile existence of the Wingfield family unit. The Glass Menagerie represented Katharine Hepburn's TV movie debut, the first of many well-publicized, highly-lauded small screen appearances for the veteran actress. When originally telecast on December 16, 1973, The Glass Menagerie contained only one commercial interruption, thanks to the largess of sponsor IBM.