Plot

A loosely-based autobiography of Michael Landon's teenage years as he struggles with his identity and eventually finds success on the school's track team.

Michael Landon's semi-autobiographical sketch of his earlier life. It's the story of Gene Orowitz, a high school student struggling with his bed-wetting, who finds success as a distance runner on the track team.—Anonymous

At twilight, a small airplane touches down the runway of an airport in Collingswood, New Jersey. Coming out of the plane is famed movie director Gene Orman, who is in town to attend the premiere of his latest film. Before they reach the theater, Gene requests his limo driver to stop outside his childhood home. He gets out and tearfully looks ahead as we flash back thirty years earlier, where we see him as a shy teenager named Eugene Orowitz, struggling with his identity and his parents, sharp-tongued mother Harriet and Sam, the bullied manager of the local movie theater, who was unable to pursue his dreams of becoming a screenwriter.

Bonnie, Eugene's girlfriend, instantly falls for new transfer student Bob Woods. That night, at the theater, Bob's constant horseplay disrupts Eugene and Bonnie's viewing of a movie that Sam comes over and escorts him out, and when Gene later walks Bonnie to home, Bob and his cronies show up at her house and Bob challenges Eugene to a fight, but chickens out. Embarrassed and humiliated, Eugene walks home alone, but is met by some schoolmates who take him to a local bar to drown his sorrows over the possible breakup of Bonnie, but they get into a restroom fight with a brutish patron, with the boys managing to escape the bar before the cops are called.

Later, at home, Eugene is making a sandwich in the kitchen when Sam comes in. Eugene emotionally tells him that he chickened out to a fight and unable to defend Bonnie's honor. Sam tells him he knows how Eugene feels because he has a dictator of a boss, Jake Bellow, who berates him in front of all the co-workers, but because he values his job, he has no choice but to take it. To change his image, he starts private javelin throwing classes with Coach Sutter, who gets more impressed with Eugene that Sutter signs him up for local track meets and lights up the attention of schoolmate Cathy Stanton. One night, Gene sits through a double showing of Samson and Delilah and when leaving, he observes the film's poster outside the theater and believes he should start growing his hair to not lose his strength and confidence. The next day, Cathy, fearing Eugene's grades are starting to slip, meets up and offers to help tutor him.

At this time, Eugene's hair is growing longer and it does not sit well with his school principal, Mr. Collins, who orders to get his hair cut or be barred from future track meets. That night, an angry Harriet, after receiving a phone call from Collins, goes off on Eugene and thinks he is crazy for letting his hair grow, but Sam manages to understand where Eugene is coming from when Sam notices him carrying two heavy trash cans over his shoulder for the night's garbage collecting. The next day, Sam takes Eugene to see his brother, Joe, a famous physician. Sam agrees to help him as long as he keeps it a secret from everybody, including Harriet and Cathy. They come home, much to Harriet's horror, to see Eugene's head wrapped in bandages to cover up the long hair, but he tells Harriet he is fine and goes to change for practice.

To celebrate his winning of a recent track meet, Eugene takes Cathy to a drive-in restaurant. As they leave, they get into a fender-bender with Bob and Bonnie in the car behind them. Bob again challenges Eugene to a fight and he clocks Bob with one punch, sending him to the ground. Shocked, but amazed, Eugene and Cathy happily leave, as Bob struggles to get up. This gives Bonnie a chance to try and win Eugene back, but turns her down. Later, Eugene meets Sam at the theater and tells him about a possible scholarship to USC if he wins a track meet on Saturday. This causes Sam to finally stand up to Bellow, who allows him to take no more than two hours off to see Eugene perform, but Cathy also worries about their relationship if he gets the scholarship, but the two make a pact to stay close forever. Sam is also worried, too, but tells Eugene he loves him very much, either way.

The next day, at the track meet, Eugene and Cathy anxiously wait for Sam, who is forced to load film cans to the theater when a delivery truck breaks down. Unfortunately, the heavy lifting becomes too much for Sam to handle and collapses with a heart attack. Shortly after, a policeman shows up to bear the bad news to Eugene and Cathy and offers them a ride to the hospital. Distraught, Eugene walks over and peels off the bandages, revealing a huge head of hair. He grabs the javelin and throws it clear across the field. At the hospital, he and Cathy meet a devastated Harriet. She fears that she and Eugene will not make it on their own and he agrees to go in to talk to Sam. The doctor tells Eugene they numbed Sam to get rid of the pain, but not certain if a heart transplant is possible. Eugene tells Sam the good news about the scholarship and Sam tells Eugene to look at a script he worked on for the last few months, but before Eugene can ask what it is about, Sam's life support system flat-lines and Eugene rushes to get help.

The film then flashes back to the present time where Gene's friend Cy is explaining the delay to an assistant on the limo's phone. Cy tells Gene they need to rush to the theater before the show starts. When they arrive, Gene is greeted by many fans and is met by Cathy, who tells him Harriet is in the lobby signing autographs and Gene and Cathy are met by an older and friendlier Bellow, who is honored to have Gene at the theater. Waiting years to pay Bellow back, Gene tells him that some of the marquee lights are out and orders him to fix them himself. As Gene and Cathy walk inside, Bellow looks up at the marquee saying the movie's title, Sam's Son, which he gives a sarcastic reaction.