User Reviews

"When, Jenny? When?" (1978) was a half hour TV broadcast that I viewed early in 1979, mostly because I had a crush on its pretty star, Maureen McCormick, best known as Marcia Brady. Here, she plays Jenny, a high school girl who is regarded by the football squad as an easy lay. She has low self esteem and doesn't think anyone would like the real Jenny, an opinion formed by her mother's negative influence. Jenny allows the boys to take advantage of her because she loves sex and doesn't like to be alone. Olivia Cole plays her guidance counselor, who helps Jenny realize that sex is a shared extension of one's inner beauty, the true meaning of what it is to love. Fortunately for Jenny, there is one jock (Clark Brandon) who has a crush on her but has been too shy to say so, until his teammates disregard for Jenny forces him to speak up in her defense, costing him an opportunity to be team captain. Both characters realize that they've been used and the final sequence brings them together. Maureen was 22 at the time, balancing major TV roles with minor parts in theatrical features, while continuing a singing career that began with the Brady kids. The theme song is a sorrowful new recording of "When Will I Be Loved?" which was popularized by Linda Ronstadt (alas, the singer is uncredited). Directed by Ted Post ("Hang 'Em High," "Beneath the Planet of the Apes," "Magnum Force") and scripted by John Farrell, who also wrote other episodes of INSIGHT. This was a syndicated broadcast when I viewed it in 1979, last airing in 1987 on HBO or Cinemax.