The Loneliest Runner is a semi-autobiographical made-for-television film written, produced and directed by Bonanza star Michael Landon.

It first aired on December 20, 1976 on NBC and starred Lance Kerwin, Brian Keith, DeAnn Mears, and Landon's Little House on the Prairie daughter, Melissa Sue Anderson.

As a 12-year-old suffering from chronic bedwetting, John wakes up early every day to change his soiled sheets and pajamas before his parents can see, running them down to the laundromat on the way to school.

John’s mother Alice is shrill and strident, accusing him of either being too lazy to get out of bed at night to urinate or being spiteful against her.

Pretty Nancy Rizzi, a new classmate and next door neighbor, takes an interest in John and they walk home together.

As they pull up, everybody sees John’s soiled sheet, which his mother had found and hung out of his bedroom window to humiliate him.

He tells his parents that he’s quitting the football team because he lost his gear, which he actually threw out so he wouldn’t have to go to practice and could get home in time to pull in his sheet.

He spies a mannequin clad in the uniform of the Los Angeles Rams, his favorite team, and runs around the store after changing into it.

John explains to his father that in the relaxed surroundings without the pressure of his mother's constant hectoring, he was able to stay dry that night.

As a child, he wet his bed until he was 14 and his mother, Peggy O'Neill, really did hang his sheets to dry outside of his bedroom window as punishment.

Landon cast actor Walker Edmiston, who had previously appeared on Bonanza, to play Doctor Claymore.

Landon also asked his on-screen daughter, Melissa Sue Anderson to play Nancy Rizzi, saying the part was perfect for her.