AMY FISHER STORY, THE (TV)
Summary
This made-for-TV movie dramatizes the true story of Amy Fisher (played by Drew Barrymore), the Long Island teenager who was arrested for shooting the wife of her alleged lover, Joey Buttafuoco, in May 1992. Told from from several points of view, the story begins during Fisher's September, 1992, hospitalization after a suicide attempt, where her recollections of events leading up to the shooting are shown in flashbacks. Flashback sequences are interspersed with present-day scenes that convey the viewpoints of other central figures in the story and New York Post reporter Amy Pagnozzi's key role in covering the case. In a flashback, Amy's parents give her a customized car for her 16th birthday and carte blanche for clothes at the mall. The Fisher home life is portrayed as isolated and uneasy, and Amy's relationship with her father is shown to be hostile and explosive. The story jumps ahead to Fisher's arrest in May 1992 for attempted murder, Pagnozzi interviewing Fisher's high school classmates, and a cynical, media-savvy Fisher meeting with her attorney, Eric Naiburg, in jail. In a flashback, Amy meets auto mechanic Joey Buttafuoco, a man in his late thirties, at Buttafuoco's auto body shop where her car is being repaired after an accident. They flirt openly, and Amy begins making repeated visits to the shop. The two are shown having an affair, first at the Fisher house and later at motels.
Amy begins hinting to Joey that she wants the kind of family life that he shares with his wife, Mary Jo. When Amy becomes increasingly demanding, Joey begins to pull away from her. Amy uses sex, and later, money, to convince Stephen Sleeman to follow Mary Jo Buttafuoco, which leads to an aborted attempt by the two on Mary Jo's life. Amy finds another young man, Peter Guagenti, to drive her to the Buttafuoco house where she shoots Mary Jo in the head. The incident is shown first from the point of view of the shocked Guagenti and later, from Mary Jo's point of view. Mary Jo later identifies Amy in a line-up, but Amy gets out on bail from the sale of her story to a movie company. Her personal trainer and lover, Paul Makely, videotapes her making remarks that could be damaging to her case, and he sells the tape to a TV tabloid show. Amy pleads guilty and her sentence is reduced through plea-bargaining. When the Makely videotape is televised, a distraught Amy calls Pagnozzi to tell her that the tape was edited to make her look cold and remorseless. After surviving a suicide attempt, Amy sends her own tape to the press, in which she states that her father abused her. Amy's mother meets with Pagnozzi and seems unable or unwilling to comprehend the magnitude of her daughter's actions. Includes commercials, promos, public service announcements, and an ABC News Brief with Sheilah Kast.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: January 3, 1993 Sunday 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:56:16
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:28366
- GENRE: Docudrama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Crime and criminals - Drama; Docudrama
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV, 1993
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - 2000 Flushes toilet bowl cleaner
- TV - Commercials - Actifed sinus medicine
- TV - Commercials - Alka Seltzer Plus cold medicine
- TV - Commercials - Burlington Coat Factory
- TV - Commercials - Continental Airlines
- TV - Commercials - Cortizone-10 skin cream
- TV - Commercials - Crest Complete toothbrush
- TV - Commercials - Diet Pepsi
- TV - Commercials - Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner
- TV - Commercials - Drixoral cold/allergy medicine
- TV - Commercials - Duracell batteries
- TV - Commercials - Energizer batteries
- TV - Commercials - Habitrol nicotine transdermal system
- TV - Commercials - Hot Pockets snack food
- TV - Commercials - MCI long-distance phone service
- TV - Commercials - McDonald's
- TV - Commercials - People magazine
- TV - Commercials - Ragu pasta sauces
- TV - Commercials - Sinutab sinus medicine
- TV - Commercials - Surf detergent
- TV - Commercials - TV Guide magazine
- TV - Commercials - Theraflu flu medicine
- TV - Commercials - Tide laundry detergent
- TV - Commercials - Ultra Slim Fast weight loss drink
- TV - Commercials - Weight Watchers diet program
- TV - PSA - "Life's Too Short...Stop the Hate" (Leadership Conference Education Fund, Inc.
- TV - PSA - Partnership for a Drug Free America
- TV - Promos - "American Detective"
- TV - Promos - "Chaplin" (feature film)
- TV - Promos - "Civil Wars"
- TV - Promos - "Coach"
- TV - Promos - "Dead Before Dawn"
- TV - Promos - "FBI: The Untold Stories"
- TV - Promos - "Full House"
- TV - Promos - "General Hospital"
- TV - Promos - "Good Morning America"
- TV - Promos - "Hangin' With Mr. Cooper"
- TV - Promos - "Home Improvement"
- TV - Promos - "Jack's Place"
- TV - Promos - "Matlock"
- TV - Promos - "Primetime Live"
- TV - Promos - "Roseanne"
- TV - Promos - "Scent of a Woman" (feature film)
- TV - Promos - "The Jackie Thomas Show"
- TV - Promos - "The Running Man"
CREDITS
- Andrew Adelson … Executive Producer
- George W. Perkins … Producer
- Andy Tennant … Director
- Janet Brownell … Writer
- Michael Hoenig … Music by
- Drew Barrymore … Cast, Amy Fisher
- Anthony John Denison … Cast, Joey Buttafuoco
- Harley Jane Kozak … Cast, Amy Pagnozzi
- Tom Mason … Cast, Eric Naiburg
- Laurie Paton … Cast, Mary Jo Buttafuoco
- Ken Pogue … Cast, Elliot Fisher
- Linda Darlow … Cast, Rose Fisher
- Gabe Khouth … Cast, Tim Russo
- Garry Davey … Cast, the Detective
- Dwight McFee … Cast, Daniel Severin
- Philip Granger … Cast, Williams
- Stephen Cooper … Cast, Chris Drellos
- Matthew Walker … Cast, "Current Affair" Reporter
- Walter Marsh … Cast, Judge Marvin Goodman
- Terry King … Cast, Fred Klein
- Charles Siegel … Cast, Marvyn Kornberg
- Lindsay Bourne … Cast, Ed Grilli
- Ken Angel … Cast, Stephen Sleeman
- Michael Iacobucci … Cast, Peter Guagenti
- Garry Chalk … Cast, "Hard Copy" Reporter
- Phillip Maurice Hayes … Cast, Paul Makely
- Kim Kondrashoff … Cast, John
- Terry David Mulligan … Cast, Rafael Abramovitz
- Kevin Hayes … Cast, "Hard Copy" Anchor
- Robin Mossley … Cast, the Doctor
- Michael Sicoly … Cast, Mr. Russo
- Michelle Grana … Cast, Mrs. Russo
- For "ABC News Brief":
- Sheilah Kast … Reporter