Just in time for beach season: A look at "Jaws"

If you were alive during the summer of 1975, you developed a new fear. Of sharks.

That was the summer of Steven Spielberg's "Jaws," the classic film, arguably the first blockbuster of the modern era, that film that made everyone afraid to go into the water.

Tonight at 9 the Bio channel premieres "Jaws: The Inside Story," a terrific two-hour, behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film.

The film features interviews with Richard Dreyfuss, Spielberg, producer Richard Zanuck, screenwriter Carl Gottlieb and other cast and crew members, plus vintage footage of folks like the late great Roy Scheider. They even got an interview with the lithe blonde woman who memorably played the first victim.

Spielberg describes the shoot as a nightmare that he stills dreams about, and the film shows that there were indeed a lot of obstacles. Mostly, it was because of Spielberg's own quest for excellence. He wanted to shoot on location in Martha's Vineyard, rather than a tank. And he wanted a 25-foot-long great white shark, that proved tough to operate. (Spielberg named the shark Bruce after his attorney.)

Some of this you might have heard before, but there are some surprises revealed (you'll never guess who the studio originally wanted to play Dreyfuss' part and who wanted the Brody part). Still, it's a great peek into the creative process of a film that 35 years later, still resonates.