Hunter

"Hunter" was a better than average "TV cop show"; most crits I have read of it showered it with compliments - fast moving, well acted, realistic etc. The one aspect no critic drew attention to was the nastiness of the story. Two children were abducted by anti-abortion zealots and their death was threatened if the TV news programmes that night did not broadcast a film showing an abortion.
It's a strong story and a rivetting one since not only was it well acted but it was intelligently and craftilly written.
But the use of children in drama is something that should be deliberated on, surely, for a good deal of time; and I wonder if it was. Or was the storyline so strong that it was decided that that took preference over the moral rectitude of using children's possible deaths as drama. Of course it might have been assumed by the play's nakers that the issue was one that should be faced by the public.
The trouble is that issues are not things people ponder much over if presented as drama - it's the dramatic excitement of the story that is prominent.
I recall that Hitchcock was asked about what he would not put in a film of his and he replied something to effect that he would not use children's sufferings or death to enhance the suspense. He had used it once in "Spellbound" and I had the feeling that he wished he hadn't.
He never did again.