Cbs Again Stoops To Air ‘Babymaker’
CBS scraped the bottom of the barrel with 1994’s “Babymaker: The Dr. Cecil Jacobson Story” repeated at 9.
The fact-based movie does a shoddy job of telling the story of the Virginia fertility specialist who eventually was convicted of secretly inseminating patients with his own sperm.
The title is misleading. This is actually the story of two of Jacobson’s patients: Sue Castellano (Shanna Reed) and Mary Bennett (Melissa Gilbert).
Jacobson, played with a goofy fiendishness by George Dzundza, is given superficial treatment. Only in the brief trial scene is any light shed on why he did what he did.
But no groundwork is laid that gives you an inkling whether to believe him.
This is a classic example of how some network movies get made simply because they are easy to promote. The story’s sexual nature draws viewers like a magnet. Substance is secondary.
It certainly doesn’t take a two-hour-long movie to dramatize the concept that Jacobson’s patients felt violated. Most of the drama turns on Bennett’s personal denial that the good doctor who gave her a baby could be capable of such deceit - and then persuading her moody husband (Tom Verica) that she should testify in Jacobson’s trial.
You guessed it. “Babymaker” is a melodrama starring Gilbert, the fast-rising queen of inconsequential TV movies.
Jacobson, no doubt, is a dark and fascinating individual. But you won’t find out much about him, even though this ostensibly is his “story.”
Highlights
“Son-in-Law” (1993), FOX at 8: Pauly Shore is an annoying bore as a stand-up comedian, but it’s just that quality that has made him a comedy film star. Here, he is every parent’s nightmare. And very funny.
A college coed (Carla Gugino) shocks her mom and dad (Cindy Pickett, Lane Smith) when she brings her eccentric beau (Shore) home to South Dakota for Thanksgiving. Everything about him is obnoxious, yet he somehow eventually wins the family’s affection.
Oddly enough, it works.
“3rd Rock From the Sun,” NBC at 8: Albright (Jane Curtin) is visited by an old flame (Ed Begley Jr.), which introduces Dick (John Lithgow) to his first encounter with jealousy. There are plenty of great screwball laughs in this repeat.
“Disney’s Most Unlikely Heroes,” ABC at 8:30: Duh. Like we don’t know a plug for a new Disney movie when we see it. Roy E. Disney, who is Walt’s brother and Disney vice president, hosts the half-hour.
Featured are Steamboat Willie, Pinocchio, the seven dwarfs and Cinderella’s fairy godmother.
And, who’s this? Quasimodo? Star of Disney’s upcoming “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”? What a coincidence.
Nicolas Cage, Lindsay Wagner, Joan Rivers, Marilu Henner, Pat Sajak and Zachery Ty Bryan discuss their own heroes and lay it on thick while recalling their Disney favorites.
“Frontline,” KSPS at 8: “High Stakes in Cyberspace” is a fast-paced tour of the race to make the Internet (the hour focuses mainly on the World Wide Web) pay off for the people who have invested millions. Repeat.
“Coach,” ABC at 9:30: Hayden (Craig T. Nelson) is bitten by Luthor’s (Jerry Van Dyke) pet monkey, believed to be carrying a virus. That means quarantine time, and these guys are always a riot in close quarters. Repeat.
Cable Calls
“Buzzkill,” MTV at 10: Comedians Dave Sheridan, Travis Draft and Frank Hudetz offer a low-budget “Candid Camera” as they travel around the country armed with video equipment. Tune in and you’ll see they’re not quite as nice as Allen Funt but often funnier.
You’ll hope you never get caught in their scams.
“Chrome Soldiers” (1992), TBS at 7:35: Gary Busey, Ray Sharkey and William Atherton are wasted in this crude made-for-cable movie about a group of Vietnam vets who ride into a crooked little town to avenge a murder. (Time approximate following baseball.)
Talk Time
“Tonight,” NBC at 11:35: Actress Leslie Mann and country singer Garth Brooks.
“Late Show With David Letterman,” CBS at 11:35: Actress Sarah Jessica Parker, Jonathan Silverman (“The Single Guy”) and musician Lyle Lovett.
“Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” NBC at 12:35 a.m.: Rosie O’Donnell.