DIVORCE WARS: A LOVE STORY {UNAIRED EXTENDED VERSION} (TV)
Summary
This made-for-television drama film follows a rising-star divorce attorney in Seattle who finds himself facing the sudden end of his own marriage. This asset features an unaired extended rough cut of the film, with opening and closing credits and some audio elements missing.
The story begins as Jack Sturgess spends a fun day with his wife Vickey and their two kids, Jason and Amanda, taking photos for their Christmas card. At work, he butts heads with one Fred Bemous, whose soon-to-be ex-wife Sylvia is Jack's client, and then heads to his law school class, where he explains how the "contract of marriage" has shifted over the years as societal expectations of partnership change. One student, Belinda Wittiker, wonders if he chose such a lucrative and destructive career purely for the money, but he assures them all that he "believes in family." Elsewhere, Fred is outraged to find that Sylvia has changed the locks and barred him from their home, and he takes his revenge by having her Mercedes towed and shipped to Bainbridge Island – and then sending it tumbling off the ferry into the bay. Vickey tours the farm she's just bought with Jack alongside her "dingbat" friend Cleo, and she admits that Jack, who greatly prefers sailing to farming, will rarely be there. Jack advises colleague Leslie Fields on handling a divorce between a 50-something Iranian man and his 18-year-old bride, and Fred humiliates Sylvia by scattering explicit Polaroids all around the courthouse, prompting Jack to suggest a restraining order.
Jack goes for his usual morning run, listening to recorded depositions as he does so, and returns home to find that Vickey plans to take the kids to visit his parents, with whom he shares a frosty relationship. In court, Jack defends a young man, Greg Zapelli, whose hasty marriage to the much older and wealthier Barbara Hanson has unsurprisingly collapsed. Barbara's lawyer, the renowned Max Bernheimer, is impressed by Jack's methods and agrees to a settlement, and the press, gathered outside to report on the high-profile case, declares the victorious Jack to be "the one to get" for divorce matters. Vickey begins to reconsider her own happiness as she and her friends gather for their monthly wine-tasting party, and Jack celebrates with his lawyer pals before stopping at a store to buy a flag of Senegal as an inside joke for Vickey. Back at home, however, Vickey is frustrated both by Jack's lack of transparency about his work and by her own father's recent engagement barely a year after her mother's death.
Jack meets with Arthur and Martha Lazar, who seem very uncertain about divorcing, and Fred continues antagonizing Sylvia by selling another of their cars, a Rolls-Royce. Belinda calls Jack, who ends up taking her sailing, and the two impulsively make love after confessing their attraction to one another. Vickey has lunch with her future stepmother, Adele Burgess, who frankly admits to having old-fashioned ideas of marriages and to enjoying "being needed" by a partner. Jack wrestles with his sense of regret about Belinda, admitting that he enjoyed the lack of "effort" in their dalliance, and he later informs Fred that the cars – and the kickbacks he has illegally received at work – are "community property," meaning that Sylvia is entitled to half of their value. Jack and Vickey attend her dad's wedding and begin to argue about their dissimilar backgrounds, with Jack suggesting that she's always been "protected in life," unlike himself. Later in the day, Jack is stunned when Vickey declares that she wants a divorce.
Jack argues that he has provided a comfortable and happy life for his wife and kids, but she explains that she feels "owned" and wishes to find her own joy apart from him. She asks him to leave the family home to avoid uprooting the kids, hoping that they can remain "friends" afterwards. At the same time, Fred sneaks into his former house and tries to plead with a bat-wielding Sylvia, and a much more peaceable husband, Barry, asks for Jack's help in conducting a "fair" split from his wife Jill, though Jack warns him about the dangers of being too generous with his potential future earnings. Upset about Vickey, he scolds Leslie regarding her Iranian couple case, and Leslie seems ashamed of herself when she manipulates the court by suggesting that the young wife speaks little English and was tricked into "white slavery" by her older husband.
Jack bonds with Amanda as she frets about the perils of her teen years, assuring her that he will prevent a divorce if possible. Vickey convinces Jack to try mediation rather than involving other attorneys, but Jack quickly loses patience with the mediator's "amateur psychology" approach and storms out. Jack then hires Leslie as his own representation, though she voices her dislike of his "win at any cost" style, and Belinda begins to grow uncomfortable with their secret relationship, feeling that Jack just "wants someone to hurt." Fred takes a chainsaw – and a sledgehammer – to Sylvia's garage and car, and Barry is upset when Jack unexpectedly raises the issue of custody as a "distraction" to confuse Jill and her lawyer. Fred tries to "attack" Sylvia with his docile Bassett Hound, and Jack and Vickey have a heated fight in which she demands to "be what she is" and he accuses her of harboring an immature expectation of adult happiness. She counters that he has not fulfilled his "marital obligation" for some time, and he leaves in a rage.
Arthur and Martha struggle to split up their knick-knacks as Jack learns that Vickey has retained Max Bernheimer, though Leslie is excited by the challenge. Max carefully explains the three stages of a divorce, and Leslie scores her first win when Jack is legally barred from the family home. Vickey is then shocked to find that Jack has put the house up for sale, and Max, explaining that the home is technically in the firm's name, suggests that it's "not worth it" to fight against Jack's expertise. Leslie jubilantly reports that Max and Vickey have "caved" and given up the house, though Belinda is uncomfortable when Jack brings her into his formal marital bed, and she finally realizes that his feelings for her are less than entirely genuine. Vickey tries to reassure a resentful Amanda and Jason, promising that Jack will remain their devoted father regardless of their marriage, and when Fred flees town, Sylvia blames Jack for "hounding" her ex into running away.
Jack visits the farm and finds the Senegal flag, and he has a change of heart when Max points out that "nobody wins" in a divorce. He decides that he and Vickey will "be together in a different sense" and proposes joint custody and five years of spousal support, and Max urges him to offer the olive branch in person. Jack heads to his former house, where he happily greets the kids and gives Vickey the flag, and the two finally agree to be "friends." Commercials deleted.
(For the official 96-minute version that aired on ABC on March 1, 1982, see B:15395.)
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: November 30, 1999
- RUNNING TIME: 2:27:46
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 131124
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama; Divorce; Marriage; Families; Lawyers
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Frank Konigsberg … Executive Producer
- Donald Wrye … Executive Producer, Director, Writer
- Sam Manners … Producer
- Barry Jossen … Associate Producer
- Linda Elstad … Writer
- Paul Chihara … Music by
- Tom Selleck … Cast, Jack Sturgess
- Jane Curtin … Cast, Vickey Sturgess
- Candy Azzara … Cast, Sylvia Bemous
- Joan Bennett … Cast, Adele Burgess
- Maggie Cooper … Cast, Leslie Fields
- Charles Haid … Cast, Fred Bemous
- Viveca Lindfors … Cast, Barbara Hanson
- Philip Sterling … Cast, Max Bernheimer
- Dorothy Fielding … Cast, Cleo
- Mimi Rogers … Cast, Belinda Wittiker
- Joe Regalbuto … Cast, Barry Fields
- Alan Oppenheimer … Cast, Arthur Lazar
- Erica Yohn … Cast, Martha Lazar
- David Young … Cast, Greg Zapelli
- Lara Swimmer … Cast, Amanda
- Joshua Ramsell … Cast, Jason
- Ted D'Arms … Cast, Larry Davis
- Richard Montague … Cast, David Saul
- Clare Nono … Cast, Donna
- J. Brennan Smith … Cast, Eddy
- Patricia E. Magnano … Cast, Pat
- Kathy Lichter … Cast, Millie
- Megan Dean … Cast, Francine
- Meleesa Wyatt … Cast, Bet
- Marilyn Bennett … Cast, Jill
- Lee Corrigan … Cast, Jill's Lawyer