"Karen Ann Quinlan died June 11, 1985."
It looks like the movie was made in 1977 -- "In the Matter of Karen Ann Quinlan." It seems reasonable to me that a repeat would be on in 1981. Karen Quinlan lived for a long time after she was taken off the ventilator.
"Michael was not Catholic. He received a special dispensation to marry Terri after the couple received prenuptial counseling."
Normally, you don't need a special dispensation to marry a non-Catholic, unless there are special circumstances. There are certain things the nonCatholic must agree to (mainly allow the children to be raised Catholic), but other than that, it is very common for a non-Catholic and Catholic to marry. In order to marry in the Catholic Church, a Catholic must marry someone that is baptized.
Terri would have been 17 in 1981, would she not? Or did you mean the movie might have been repeated in 1990 or 1991? I wouldn't think it would be repeated then unless there were some 'propelling event'; networks generally had enough to fill up their airtime by then. Still, it would be interesting to know whether Michael's story is at all plausible. I wonder if there are any television scnedule records in machine-readable form?
> a Catholic must marry someone that is baptized
Hint: Why do you think that is? And what are the consequences?
BTW, IMDB does not show the movie as ever having been released on video. Unless the movie was broadcast sometime after about 1984 or so, it would seem unlikely anyone would have recorded it off air. Very curious--I'm really wondering when ItMoKAQ was last broadcast. I wonder if there's any realistic possibility that Terri even could have seen it with Michael.
Back in the 1940's, after WWII, my Roman Catholic half-brother married out of the church. So happy that he had come home from the war safely, his wife decided to take Catholic instruction, catechism, I think, and they remarried in the church.
These parts of your statement aren't accurate. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
1633 In many countries the situation of a mixed marriage (marriage between a Catholic and a baptized non-Catholic) often arises. It requires particular attention on the part of couples and their pastors. A case of marriage with disparity of cult (between a Catholic and a non-baptized person) requires even greater circumspection.
And:
1635 According to the law in force in the Latin Church, a mixed marriage needs for liceity the express permission of ecclesiastical authority.137 In case of disparity of cult an express dispensation from this impediment is required for the validity of the marriage.138 This permission or dispensation presupposes that both parties know and do not exclude the essential ends and properties of marriage; and furthermore that the Catholic party confirms the obligations, which have been made known to the non-Catholic party, of preserving his or her own faith and ensuring the baptism and education of the children in the Catholic Church.139
http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p2s2c3a7.htm#1633
A Catholic can marry a baptized non-Catholic in the Church, with express permission, and a Catholic can marry a non-baptized person in the Church, with express dispensation.