When the feature film “Buddies” and the television film “An Early Frost” premiered 40 years ago, in the fall of 1985, AIDS had belatedly been breaking into the public consciousness. It also includes a sex scene — something other early AIDS films completely avoided — in which David and Robert engage in safer sex. Yet the production of “An Early Frost” was fraught with concerns about depicting both homosexuality and AIDS. Despite losing NBC $500,000 in advertisers, “An Early Frost” drew 34 million viewers and was showered with Emmy nominations the following year. A quilt of stories emerges“Buddies” and “An Early Frost” opened up AIDS and HIV as subject matters for film and television.