Summary

One in this series of dramatic specials presented by Hallmark. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Anne Tyler, this story concerns Ira and Maggie Moran, a Baltimore couple married for twenty-nine years. During the course of an eventful one-day car journey, they bicker, renew their love, and review their life together. As the story unfolds, Ira, a wry pragmatist, and Maggie, a dreamer with often unrealistic expectations, set out for the funeral of Maggie's best friend's husband. Arriving at the church, they are surprised when Maggie's friend, who wants to recreate the glory of her wedding day, asks them to sing "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing" during the service. Following the funeral, Ira and Maggie encounter a detour which takes them by the hometown of their son Jesse's ex-wife Fiona. Since the divorce, Maggie has nurtured a quaint -- or, in Ira's view, preposterous -- notion of reuniting the estranged couple. At the heart of her concern is the well-being of Leroy, the couple's daughter, who lives with her mother. Over a few beers, Fiona admits to Maggie that she still loves Jesse; Maggie fibs a little and tells Fiona that Jesse, a failed musician who has gone through a score of girlfriends since the divorce, still keeps a present from Fiona under his pillow. Taking her plan a step further, Maggie, despite Ira's objections, invites everyone to a fried chicken dinner and sets about orchestrating a family reconciliation. Includes commercials and promos. This program is closed-captioned.

("Hallmark Hall of Fame" aired on NBC from 1952 to 1978; network affiliation varies after 1978.)

(Beginning with the live telecast of the opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors" on December 24, 1951, Hallmark has sponsored a series of dramatic specials which, since 1952, has aired under the title "Hallmark Hall of Fame." From 1952 to 1955 Hallmark also presented "Hallmark Hall of Fame," a weekly half-hour dramatic anthology series hosted by Sarah Churchill. The first program, "Dr. Serocold," was televised in January 1952 under the title "Hallmark Television Theatre." This series also ran under the title "Hallmark Summer Theatre" in July and August 1952.)