Patty Duke-Astin is Jeanne Bosnick, divorced wife of football player Mike (Fred Dryer), car saleswoman, and mother of 11 year old Joey (Ricky Schroder). As Joey acts out, Jeanne agrees to have a Big Brother for him - nightclub owner Arnie Potts (James Farentino), and after the initial awkwardness, Arnie becomes a positive influence. However when Arnie falls in love with Jeanne, this puts his position as Big Brother in jeopardy.
Duke looks very beautiful, thin except in one scene where a belted dress makes her tummy protrude, with shoulder-length brown hair and dark roots, and sensually crossing one leg as she sits on her bed in one scene. She supplies tears at a proposal, is strong in a rejection, and sings My Blue Heaven. Duke is funny in mime battling with Joey over the car radio and removing his foot from resting on a desk, the sour look on her face when repeating the idea of Big Brother, answering the suggestion of a stress-reducing technique of hanging upside down with `Only bats do that', in her wide-eyed reaction to Arnie's first appearances, her quick move from saying goodbye to Arnie and going back to Joey, and in her silly reaction to Joey telling her how she pretty she looks.
The teleplay by Shelley List and Jonathan Estrin includes an implausible lines like Joey saying how he wishes `I were happier more of the time' and `Everybody leaves', and bad ones like `Either love him or leave him'. The narrative also provides hackneyed conflict in jealousy raised by Jeanne then Joey, and that old standby of jokes made as a way of emotional distance - `Stop pretending you don't feel anything' - since Arne being the former manager of a vaudeville comedian allows for his banter eg impersonations of W C Fields. The dialogue does include laughs eg Jeanne referring to the troublemaker Joey as `John Dillinger', `Take off the hairshirt. We all make mistakes', and the idea of a near kiss between Jeanne and Arnie after a heimrich maneuver. Director Lou Antonio frames Jeanne and Arnie amusingly either side of a car in one scene, however it is telling how unfunny the Abbott and Costello Who's on First routine is as performed by Joey and Arnie. The pivotal angle to this triangle is Arnie, and in spite of fake looking stomach padding to make him look overweight, Farentino makes the sad Arnie enormously likeable and touching.
Duke looks very beautiful, thin except in one scene where a belted dress makes her tummy protrude, with shoulder-length brown hair and dark roots, and sensually crossing one leg as she sits on her bed in one scene. She supplies tears at a proposal, is strong in a rejection, and sings My Blue Heaven. Duke is funny in mime battling with Joey over the car radio and removing his foot from resting on a desk, the sour look on her face when repeating the idea of Big Brother, answering the suggestion of a stress-reducing technique of hanging upside down with `Only bats do that', in her wide-eyed reaction to Arnie's first appearances, her quick move from saying goodbye to Arnie and going back to Joey, and in her silly reaction to Joey telling her how she pretty she looks.
The teleplay by Shelley List and Jonathan Estrin includes an implausible lines like Joey saying how he wishes `I were happier more of the time' and `Everybody leaves', and bad ones like `Either love him or leave him'. The narrative also provides hackneyed conflict in jealousy raised by Jeanne then Joey, and that old standby of jokes made as a way of emotional distance - `Stop pretending you don't feel anything' - since Arne being the former manager of a vaudeville comedian allows for his banter eg impersonations of W C Fields. The dialogue does include laughs eg Jeanne referring to the troublemaker Joey as `John Dillinger', `Take off the hairshirt. We all make mistakes', and the idea of a near kiss between Jeanne and Arnie after a heimrich maneuver. Director Lou Antonio frames Jeanne and Arnie amusingly either side of a car in one scene, however it is telling how unfunny the Abbott and Costello Who's on First routine is as performed by Joey and Arnie. The pivotal angle to this triangle is Arnie, and in spite of fake looking stomach padding to make him look overweight, Farentino makes the sad Arnie enormously likeable and touching.