Wow, just wow


This is one of the very first sort of afterschool specials I saw as a kid, obviously a rerun because I was around 10 when I saw it so it was maybe 1984 when I saw it. It really freaked me out though. All I remember is this boy is talking with a girl, he pushes her innocently, in a frustrated manner, she falls backwards, cracks her head on a brick or something, and dies... he runs home, or bicycles home, tells his mom and she holes him up inside the walls of the house, and moves away, leaving him there.

A new family eventually moves into the house, one day he is looking through a pinhole in the wall, and gets spotted, whereby he freaks out, rushes through the wall, and the cops kill him or something...

That's all I remember of it, but it was very haunting, and very depressing.

I was also watching shows like Chiller Diller on weekends, The Incredible Doctor Phibes, Twilight Zone, and Night Gallery, so I was really interested in the macabre growing up.

This is the first time I thought about this special ina long time having found a link to it on a FAQ trivia site: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~gmemail/faq/index.html

Would be great to get those old shows back and see them again 20 years later, thirty years since they were released. Good stuff.

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A new family eventually moves into the house, one day he is looking through a pinhole in the wall, and gets spotted, whereby he freaks out, rushes through the wall, and the cops kill him or something...


i remember this, but I always wonder what happen to Ronald's mother? and how was he able to care for himself, without a job.

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His mother abandoned him there, which of course is definitely one of the most shocking plot points. She covers it up by covering him up and disappearing.

I have no idea how he cared for himself, whether he snuck out when the house was empty or had stockpiled food in there, how he went to the bathroom is anyone's guess, alot of loose ties I suppose in that story, but the general points are core fears for children, and hence the intensity of the movie, right?


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Ah! So she planned to come back for him when the press died down, but then when she passed away no one was left to come back for him?

Wow.

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He initially had food stockpiled under there, but when it ran out and he got desperate, he would go out into the house and steal/pilfer from the new owners' fridge and pantry.

The room that they walled Ronald up in was a bathroom under the stairs

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Ah that makes more sense, though how do you flush the toilet without raising suspicion? lol

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I suppose he would just wait until no one was in the house.

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How that little art set lasted all of those months is another question.

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She didn't move away. She had to go into the hospital for an operation, so she stocked him up on stuff and told him she'd return in several days, (or maybe a couple of weeks.) She dies, and the house is sold with Ronald still holed up in it.

I don't know about them replaying this as an afterschool special. It was a regular made-for-tv, primetime movie. It would have been too long for an afterschool special, and if they cut it down to fit, it must have been garbage compared to the original full-length show. I did catch it back in the 1980's on either a cable channel, or being played on a Saturday afternoon on a local channel. (I don't recall.) I also saw it in its first run on network primetime.

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Thanks MN, the reason my memory of the plot is so fuzzy is because I was probably 9 when I saw it on television.

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Like one reviewer stated "what if Ronald takes a stinky sh**?" . The smell would raise doubts...

Seriously, I think that the moment where Ronald listens that her mother died is really sad. Her mom was his only friend, supporter, etc.
Bad Ronald had bad luck... he didn't want to kill anybody and besides that, his mother dies.
A victim of society cruelty.


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Yeah, it's a terribly depressing movie... wonder which is more depressing.. Bad Ronald or Butterfly Effect.

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It wasn't run as an afterschool special (can you imagine them telling the bigwigs of its educational value?! :-) but ABC ran movies around 3:30 every afternoon, which is why you may be thinking it as one of those. ABC also ran the afterschool specials so it'd be easy to exchange one for the other. I'm dating myself, but I remember this when it first aired as a primetime made-for-tv movie.

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You're dating yourself?

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Right...I remember seeing this after school when I lived in San Jose, California. It was 1979 or 1980 so I was 8 or 9. I vividly remember this movie. I remember the girl hitting her head on a rock, I remember Ronald peeping at the new tenants, I remember him running out of the house screaming at the end and cops tackling him. I remember thinking that was a lame ending. I also remember watching a movie called 'Just One of the Guys' and thinking that the brother in that movie looked like Ronald. Weird the stuff your brain does...

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It was not an ABC After School Special. It was originally aired as made for TV movie. A movie like this is obviously not apppropriate for a children's program.

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I seriously doubt this is the type of movie that would be aired on an ABC after school special. I remember seeing this movie when I was real young on the CBS late night movie that was always on after the news. I think it is a shame that movies OLDER like this and many others are not available on VHS and/or DVD.

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Besides after school specials on ABC, they also used to do a 4:00 movie (or 4:30) with a weekly theme in the 70's. Planet of the Apes week, Godzilla week, war movie week, etc..

The first time I saw this was on ABC during a week when they were showing films about the occult and psychopaths. Remember it vividly.



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It was an ABC movie of the week.

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I remember my Dad watching it on TV and I caught bits and pieces of it: I specifically remember the ending (The peeking eye!) That image stayed with me for YEARS! Then as an adult I thought to look for the movie on eBay and found it (Im pretty sure it s a bootleg though) I thought it wouldnt live up to all the hype I surrounded it with for 25 years but it did! I still watch it ever once in awhile! Apart from "the eye" scene I also love the "Mrs Schumacher shocker" scene! Good movie, good movie, think I'll watch it now!

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More depressing than freaky or haunting. Unlikable characters, plotholes in the movies, but Scott Jacoby was great in this.

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CAPTAINTASS: Scott Jacoby (BAD RONALD) and Billy Jacoby (JUST ONE OF THE GUYS) were brothers.

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Yes, the brother in 'Just One Of The Guys' is played by Billy Jacoby, Scott's (Bad Ronald) real-life brother.
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Wonder what they're doing these days.

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I grew up in San Jose in the late-70's/early-80's (I still live there) and I too watched this movie on the channel 7 3:30 Movie. They played this one, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (just as good as Bad Ronald), The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (wasn't very good but the ending really freaked me out), Gargoyles (a classic), The Spell (which sucked) and Night Stalker all in one week.

Memories.

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Ronald wasn't shot by the police, they just took him away while he cried calling his mother.

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I saw "Bad Ronald" growing up in the '70s and early '80s on "The 4:30 Movie" on WABC-TV (Channel 7) in New York. It really scared the crap out of me after my family moved into a home with a closed off space. It was about three feet by three feet and could only be accessed from the attic. It was created when an extension was put on the house. The family who lived in the house before us had a son who died there. Or so we were told.

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