Scott Baio Fan Blog

Telecast  Date:  March  1982

SCOTT  BAIO impressively  undertook  the  challenging role  of  Francis   Geminiani,  an  introverted  young  Harvard  scholar  and  opera  music  lover  who  finds  himself  struggling  over  a  personal  identity crisis  regarding  his  true  sexual  nature  during  his  twenty-first  birthday  party.

In  riotous  attendance  at  this  Italian-American  family  gathering  are  his  divorced  blue-collar  father  Fran  ( Danny  Aiello ),  his  widowed  future  stepmother  Lucille      ( Anne  DeSalvo ),  their  garrulous  next  door  neighbor  Bunny  ( Sheree  North )  and  her  overweight  son  Herschel  ( John  Cassisi  who  earlier  co-starred  with  Scott  in  Bugsy  Malone ).

But  also  arriving  unexpectedly  at  the  celebration,  very  much  to  poor  Francis‘s  utter  dismay,  are  two  rich  school  friends –  Judith  ( Eve  Gordon )  who  naively  seeks  a  romance  with  him   and  her  brother  Randy  ( Eric  Schiff )  who  may  be  the  real  object  of  the  ambivalent  hero’s  unexpressed  affections.

Set  in  the  backyard  of  a  lower  middle  class  South  Philadelphia  neighborhood  during  the  summer  of  1973,  this  unique  coming-of-age  tale  focuses  upon  various  dysfunctional  characters  whose  tragi-comic  interactions  provide  the  story’s  touching  moments.

GEMINI was  a  special  HBO  cable  television  presentation  directed  by  Barnet  Kellman  and  performed  by  the  ensemble  cast  before  a  live  studio  audience.        Its  original  source  material  is  the  hit  Broadway  comedy-drama  Happy  Birthday,  Gemini by  the  award-winning  playwright  Albert  Innauranto.