Impact On Popular Culture
- David Vetter's story, along with that of aplastic anemia patient Ted DeVita, directly inspired a 1976 made-for-television movie "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble," starring John Travolta and Diana Hyland. The movie was not authorized by Vetter's family.
- In 2006, the PBS documentary series American Experience aired The Boy in the Bubble, a program about Vetter's life and death.
- David himself was featured regularly on "3-2-1 Contact".
- Vetter's story inspired the 2001 comedy film "Bubble Boy", starring Jake Gyllenhaal.
- The video for Simply Red's "The Air That I Breathe" is also a nod to Vetter's story.
- An episode of Seinfeld was loosely based on the bubble boy concept.
- The 1986 film "Crystal Heart," originally released as "Corazón de Cristal," was also inspired by his life.
- The opening song on Paul Simon's 1986 album "Graceland" is titled "The Boy in the Bubble". The lyrics deal with the complex human consequences of modern technology, and include the lines "Medicine is magical and magical is art/The boy in the bubble/And the baby with the baboon heart." (The latter reference is to Baby Fae, who was the subject of another widely publicized medical experiment that also ended in tragedy.)
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