The Children of Times Square are alienated and disenfranchised kids from all over the country. With nowhere to go and no real purpose in life, they converge on the streets of New York, totally vulnerable despite their outward toughness. Howard Rollins plays a ruthless cocaine dealer who, in the tradition of Fagin, wins the confidence of many of these kids and organizes them into a criminal gang. The film traces the "recruitment" by Rollins of two teenagers, runaway Brandon Douglas and New Yorker Danny Nucci. Joanna Cassidy plays Douglas' mother, who desperately tries to free her son from Rollins' influence. Made for TV, Children of Times Square debuted on March 3, 1986.