Griffin and Phoenix (1976 film)

Griffin and Phoenix sometimes subtitled A Love Story is a 1976 American television romance film produced by ABC Circle Films starring Peter Falk and Jill Clayburgh as titular characters Geoffrey Griffin and Sarah Phoenix. Written by John Hill and directed by Daryl Duke, it first premiered on the ABC television network on February 27, 1976, and was also released to theaters in select countries under the title Today Is Forever from 1977 through 1980. It was nominated in the category of Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography at the 28th Primetime Emmy Awards.

The film begins with Geoffrey Griffin Peter Falk in the midst of a camping trip with his estranged wife Jean Griffin Dorothy Tristan and children Randy Randy Faustino and Bob Stephen Rogers at Yosemite National Park. His children and especially his wife are bored with the trip and uninterested in any family togetherness, despite his insistence. As the family is traveling back home, Griffin is driving the car while his wife and kids are being hauled in the camper behind him. He has a flashback to a doctors visit where he is told that he has an inoperable form of terminal melanoma and will soon die, which is assumed to have been the motivating factor behind his initiative to take the trip, which his family had talked about doing before he and his wife separated. After becoming increasingly frustrated at his familys apathy about the trip, their reviling attitude toward him, and their trivial demands such as that he stop to walk the dog, he detaches his car from the camper and drives away, deserting them.Sarah Phoenix Jill Clayburgh is introduced as she is receiving news from her doctor that she also has a terminal disease, leukemia. She is in denial regarding the diagnosis, and following an angry outburst she consults another doctor who delivers the same information. Griffin is seen driving to Los Angeles, where he meets with his brother George John Lehne who updates him on his exwife and children and gives him 1,500 to spend at his leisure. Faced with his grim diagnosis, Griffin expresses his interest in a course entitled Psychological Processes of Death and Dying, which he attends. Phoenix is also in attendance at this class, and it is where the two characters first meet. After class, Griffin asks Phoenix to meet him the following Wednesday night for dinner if she was interested. She is guarded and shows a lack of interest in developing a close relationship with Griffin due to her terminal illness, and instead of showing up for the date she spies on Griffin from the

Source: Wikipedia