The Survival of Dana

Survival of Dana is a 1979 CBS made-for-TV film, a teenage drama starring Melissa Sue Anderson, who experiences conflicting social values when her parents divorce and she moves from Fargo, North Dakota to the San Fernando Valley suburbs of Los Angeles.[2]

The Survival of Dana
GenreCrime
Drama
Written byFrank Norwood (teleplay)
Tom Lazarus (story)
Frank Norwood (story)
Directed byJack Starrett
StarringMelissa Sue Anderson
Robert Carradine
Marion Ross
Music byCraig Safan
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producersTony Converse
Roger Gimbel
ProducerMarc Trabulus
Production locationLos Angeles
CinematographyBruce Logan
EditorJoy Wilson
Running time96 min.
Production companyEMI Television
Release
Original networkCBS
Original releaseMay 29, 1979 (1979-05-29)[1]

The cast also includes Robert Carradine, Talia Balsam (Martin Balsam's only child), Marion Ross, and Judge Reinhold in his first film. Anderson was on hiatus from Little House on the Prairie and Ross (playing Dana's grandmother) was at the time a star on the series Happy Days. Survival of Dana was directed by Jack Starrett, whose only child, Jennifer, plays Lynn, one of the members of the antisocial clique.

Plot

Dana Lee Gilbert has moved from Fargo to the San Fernando Valley to live with her widowed grandmother after her parents' divorce. She finds her new school, Tremont High, was vandalized the night before by a teenage gang unknown to her led by Donny Davis. At the end of her first day, she watches the school's ice skating team practice and wants to try out for it. Waiting for her grandmother at a shopping mall, she meets another Tremont girl, Rona Simms, who shoplifts and they are both arrested. Banned from skating, she joins the gang and starts dating Donny. One of the gang's big plans brings them into conflict with adult criminals.[3]

Cast

References
  1. The Survival of Dana at Rotten Tomatoes, retrieved August 16, 2020.
  2. Earle Copp, "Copp's Beat: Has Walter Cronkite been forgotten?", The Free Lance Star (Fredericksburg, Virginia), June 9, 1981, p. 18.
  3. Steven Puchalski, "The Survival of Dana, 1979, Shock Cinema Magazine, 2012.


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