An Unexpected Family

This rose-tinted, made-for-cable soap opera (which first aired in December of 1996) is reminiscent of '30s tearjearkers like PENNY SERENADE (1941), which mingled light comedy with bathos. Lending substance to this laughter-tinged melodrama is Stockard Channing, who charmingly plows through bogus plot contrivences to win over the sniffle-prone as well as more cynical viewers.

Career woman Barbara Whitney (Stockard Channing) relishes her comfortable Manhattan lifestyle and upscale job at a major art museum. Unprepared for the complications of parenting, she is forced to learn when her irresponsible sister Ruth (Christine Ebersole) leaves her two children with her ...