Bates Motel is a 1987 television movie about Alex West, a mentally disturbed youth who was committed to an asylum after killing his abusive stepfather. There he befriends Norman Bates and ends up inheriting the infamous Bates Motel. The film was originally produced as a pilot for a TV series based around the Bates Motel however it was never picked up by any network.

Plot

Alex West (Bud Cort) is a man who roomed with Norman Bates at the state lunatic asylum for nearly 20 years. After Bates' death, Alex finds that he is in Norman's will as the inheritor of the Bates Motel, which has been vacant since Norman's arrest. Alex travels to Bates' California hometown (which this film has renamed Fairville from the original film's Fairvale) and with a little help from a teenage runaway, Willie (Lori Petty), Alex struggles to re-open the motel for business, only to have strange things happen. Is someone trying to drive him away, or is the motel really haunted by the ghost of Norman's mother?

Cast

• Bud Cort as Alex West
• Lori Petty as Willie
• Moses Gunn as Henry Watson
• Gregg Henry as Tom Fuller
• Khrystyne Haje as Sally
• Jason Bateman as Tony Scotti
• Kerrie Keane as Barbara Peters
• Robert Picardo as Dr. Goodman
• Andy Albin as Mr. Yokes
• Dolores Albin as Mrs. Fisher
• Kelly Ames as Beth
• Robert Axelrod as Sheepskin Salesman
• Gary Ballard as Pastor
• Nat Bernstein as Salesman
• Peter Dobson as Billy Parks
• Timothy Fall as Terry Miller
• Carmen Filpi as Buddy
• Greg Finley as Attorney
• Kurt Paul as Norman Bates

Production

With the financial failure of Psycho III, Universal decided to continue the Psycho franchise as a television series; taking inspiration from the Friday The 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street TV series. In this televised spin-off of Psycho, Norman Bates is portrayed by Kurt Paul, who previously stood in as a stunt double for Anthony Perkins in Psycho II and Psycho III. Perkins declined involvement in the project and even heavily boycotted it. The film was made as a pilot for a weekly anthology television series, but the series was never picked up.^[1] Thus Universal decided to air the pilot as a made for TV film over the 4th of July weekend. The film received mostly negative reviews and low Nielson ratings.

Release

The film debuted on NBC on July 5, 1987.^[2]

Although it has been released on VHS in other countries, the film has still not officially been released on either VHS or DVD by Universal Studios in the United States.

References

External links

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