Sunshine (The TV Show)

Today is the birthday of John Denver (1943-1997). In 1974, there was a TV movie (followed by a short-lived tv series) called Sunshine that used Denver’s recent hit “Sunshine on My Shoulder” as its theme song. Though I wasn’t much older than the child star at its center, I was a devotee of both. The story was a weepie about a young, good looking hippie couple with a child. Christina Raines (from Robert Altman’s Nashville) played the mother, who’s dying of cancer. Cliff de Young was the musician husband, left to raise the child on his own. Interestingly, de Young had been a real life rock musician prior to becoming an actor, and it’s him covering the Denver song on Sunshine’s theme.

Here’s a snippet: