 born innocent is a 1974 american television movie which was first aired under the nbc world premiere movie umbrella on september 10, 1974. highly publicized and controversial, born innocent was the highest-rated television movie to air in the united states in 1974. the movie deals with the physical, psychological and sexual abuse of a teenage girl, and included graphic content never before seen on american television at that time. ==plot== linda blair stars as a 14-year-old runaway who, after getting arrested one too many times, is sentenced to do time in a girls' juvenile detention center, which doubles as a reform school for the girls. blair's character, christine parker, comes from an abusive home. her father (played by richard jaeckel) beat her on a regular basis, which caused chris to run away many times. her mother (kim hunter) is just as troubled as chris is; unfeeling, sitting in her recliner, watching television and smoking cigarettes all day, and in denial as to what her husband is doing. while the movie had a morality play tone, calling attention to the harsh conditions of juvenile detention centers, it also blamed society for christine's downfall. all through the movie, chris' social worker never realizes that her parents caused her to run away and the juvenile justice system focused all the blame and punishment on christine for her bad behavior. with the exception of one dedicated counselor (played by joanna miles), the reform school personnel were mostly apathetic and allowed an unhealthy, destructive culture to fester in the school. by the very end of the movie, despite the counselor's best efforts to help christine talk about her problems, she watched helplessly as an innocent, decent girl is transformed into a violent, pathological, manipulative and cold person, no longer having any guilt or remorse for her actions and will most likely become an adult criminal. ==cast== * linda blair as chris parker * joanna miles as counselor barbara clark * allyn ann mclerie as emma lasko * [[mary murphy (actress)|mary murp
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