The Babymaker: The Dr. Cecil Jacobson Story

Melissa Gilbert is Mary Bennett, a housewife in Oak Ridge Virginia who becomes pregnant from the artificial insemination program of Dr Cecil Jacobson (George Dzundza). However Mary testifies in a fraud suit against Jacobson, accused on 46 counts of using his own sperm to impregnate patients.

Gilbert's Mary rides a motorbike and her hair is short in the second half of the movie when the narrative jumps 5 years. She has a camp appearance in blonde wig as `Mrs Jones' in disguised testimony, has a touching moment crying in the arms of her friend Sue Castellano (Shanna Reed), and supplies a sly smile when Jacobson yells at her `I am not the father of that woman's child!'

The teleplay by Phil Penningroth and Sharon Elizabeth Doyle, based on a true story, begins with Sue's story of Jacobson using the hormone HCG to create a false pregnancy, another fraud count. When Mary consults Jacobson, this sets up the expectation that she too will be duped, so when she gives birth it's a surprise. It is that her son Jesse (Michael Charles Roman) suffers from a lazy eye condition that other children of Jacobson's patients also suffer from that makes Mary question the identity of his donors. Although it is used to allow Mary a chance to talk about her experience, a talk back radio program's initial parody of Jacobson's behaviour scores a laugh.

Director Arlene Stanford uses a bad music score by James McVay, black and white replays of previous scenes as flashbacks, and allows Reed to make as strong an impression as Gilbert.