Labor of Love: The Arlette Schweitzer Story

Warmth, honesty and self-deprecating good humor are rare in TV drama these days, but this fact-based story of Arlette Schweitzer, who was a surrogate mother for her daughter's child, gives a refreshing dose of each of these qualities. Vidpic features a fine script, good directing and an excellent performance by Ann Jillian in the title role.

Warmth, honesty and self-deprecating good humor are rare in TV drama these days, but this fact-based story of Arlette Schweitzer, who was a surrogate mother for her daughter’s child, gives a refreshing dose of each of these qualities. Vidpic features a fine script, good directing and an excellent performance by Ann Jillian in the title role.

When Arlette’s 15-year-old daughter Christa (Tracey Gold) discovers after a routine physical examination that she was born without a uterus, Arlette promises to bear a child for her. While neither really considers the implications, this is no idle promise.

A few years later, after Christa is married, mother and daughter set out to make their dream a reality despite the initial reluctance of Arlette’s husband, Dan (Bill Smitrovich), and Christa’s new husband, Kevin (Donal Logue), as well as the opposition of the family doctor, assorted specialists and the local hospital medical board.

What ensues is a painful odyssey through medical procedures, critical scrutiny by the press and public, and the emotional ups-and-downs of pregnancy and childbirth.

Each of the relationships between the central characters is subjected to the stress of this unusual pregnancy, but despite it all, these people carry on with courage and good humor.

While the story would be an easy mark for the formulaic brand of weepy melodramas, writer Susan Baskin and director Jerry London, along with the fine cast, make a real effort to provide a counterpoint to the natural pathos of the story.

It is striking to see basically normal, well-adjusted people facing a difficult, though certainly not tragic, obstacle with good humor and quiet courage.

Jillian is outstanding, with a natural warmth and vitality in the role. Gold, Smitrovich and Logue are also excellent.