N.B.: Another cyborg post: half-bava, half-ChatGPT, and all right! I am now officially using ChatGPT to push out these Family Pictures Podcast posts, sue me! Which part is bava, which ChatGPT? Can you guess? Are you even reading, my big, beautiful bavabot-following!
We’re still making the donuts, and for episode seventeen on the Family Pictures Podcast we serve up the unthinkable: a TV movie. Not just any TV movie, but HBO’s 1993 dark comedy The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom that Television critic Matt Zoller Seitz in his 2016 TV (The Book) named the 2nd greatest TV-movie of all time, behind Steven Spielberg‘s Duel. High praise for a [cue deigning tone] TV movie.
Directed by Michael Ritchie (Fletch, The Bad News Bears), this one stars Holly Hunter in full Emmy-winning mode as Wanda Holloway, a Texas mom whose ambition for her daughter’s cheerleading career knows no bounds—including murder plots, sugar-filled bribes, and truly iconic hair.
Set in the refinery-shadowed town of Channelview, Texas, the film paints a portrait of a mother desperate to escape the fence-lined, dog-filled sameness of suburban life. And how does one escape? Through cheerleading, obviously. It’s Texas. That’s how social mobility works here. The film’s satire is sharp: moms with clipboards, pep rally politics, and training montages that could go toe-to-toe with Hoosiers. Except instead of boys and basketball, it’s daughters in sequins—and the stakes are murderous.
This film aired on HBO, which gives it that 90s prestige TV sheen, but let’s be honest—this is pure tabloid dynamite. Based on a true story, with a script sharp enough to cut pom-poms, the movie walks the line between camp and critique. We get fake murder contracts, late-night phone calls, courtroom dramatics, and a cheerleading constitution, all while Holly Hunter sips Diet Coke out of a gigantic sippy cup and plots her rival’s downfall with chilling precision.
Wanda (Holly Hunter) with gigantic sippy cup politely pissed the world is scheming against here and her daughter
So, why did we cover it? Primarily because it was MBS’s choice (blame this one on him 🙂 ), but also because Family Pictures isn’t just about haute taute movies with Criterion releases. Sometimes it’s about movies that mirror America’s obsession with ambition, status, and the perfect Texas ponytail. Female Trouble gave us camp via filth. Cheerleader Murdering Mom gives us satire via felony. And if that’s not family, what is?
