EDITOR’S NOTE: Elvis was on the CBS Late Movie on January 6, 1984.

As Elvis Presley (Kurt Russell) prepared for his first live performance in eight years at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, he remembers his life in this made-for-TV movie firected by John Carpenter and written by Anthony Lawrence.

Unlike so many of Carpenter’s work at this point, this wasn’t in the horror or fantasy genres. He told Film Comment, “I wanted to work with actors. I wanted to do a dramatic film. I wanted to do something different. And Elvis was the first thing that came along that I had any feeling for, personally-because I did have a feeling for Elvis, I liked him very much, cared about him. So it seemed like a pretty good package when it arrived. After it was over I was disappointed in some of my work, and I was disappointed that I didn’t have more participation in the editing.”

Elvis’ father is played by Russell’s own dad, Bing Russell, while his mother Gladys is Shelley Winters. The actress who played Priscilla, Season Hubley, would be married to Russell from 1979 to 1983. She’s the girl in the Chock Full O’Nuts that he encounters as Snake Pliskin in Escape from New York.

Russell visited the real Vernon at Graceland during filming. A supporter of the movie, Elvis’ father gave Kurt one of Elvis’s real jumpsuits, the Adonis. The actor had actually worked with Elvis, as his first movie was It Happened at the World’s Fair, a film during which he kicked Presley in the shins. He’s also the 12th cousin to Elvis.

He did not sing, though. That’s Ronnie McDowell. That said, Russell was so good at Elvis’ voice that he performed it in Forrest Gump.

When this was made, the drugs that fueled Elvis were only gossip. That part is missing, but the iconic stature of the King is what this movie is all about.

Also: another member of John Carpenter’s group of actors is in this. Charles Cyphers is also in his movies Assault On Precinct 13, The Fog, Halloween, Halloween II, Escape from New York and Someone’s Watching Me!