The Morning After is a 1974 American made-for-television drama film starring Dick Van Dyke and Lynn Carlin, based on the best selling novel by Jack B. Weiner, and with a screenplay by Richard Matheson.
[1] Van Dyke played a successful public relations writer who has a serious drinking problem that threatens his marriage and life.
He is given a jolting reason to quit drinking after his boss scolds him for appearing half drunk at an important business meeting, then ruining a dinner party at his home and even hitting his wife in a drunken rage.
It is revealed in the film that Charlie's father was an alcoholic and his mother was abusive, ignoring him while lavishing her affections on his younger brother.
In massive denial and pain, he drops out of therapy and continues to drink, culminating in a physical assault on Fran as she tries to drag him out of a bar.