Main Cast: Bonnie Bedelia, Brian Kerwin, Ed Asner, John M. Jackson, Lois Smith
Release Year: 1991
Country: US
Run Time: 200 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
The two-part, four-hour TV movie Switched at Birth is based on an actual event which began unfolding in Wauchula, Florida in 1978. Brian Kerwin and Judith Hoag play the new parents of a baby girl; a few days later, another couple, played by John M. Jackson and Bonnie Bedelia, have a baby at the same hospital. Kerwin and Hoag's baby is healthy; Jackson and Bedelia's baby has a heart defect. Switched at Birth traces the lives of the two girls over a period of eight years--up to the point of a tragedy which opens the possibility that the girls may not have been given over to the correct parents at the hospital. The four parents involved find themselves in court, battling over custody of the surviving child. This intensely personal problem is bloated into a cause celebre by the press and by parents' rights pressure groups. Edward Asner and Caroline McWilliams appear as the opposing attorneys. Those who'd been following the two-part Switched at Birth during its first telecast in April of 1991 may have found themselves in family conflicts of their own, inasmuch as Part Two was shown opposite the network TV premiere of Die Hard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Eve Gordon - Darlena; Patricia Allison - School Principal; Vivian Bonnell - Nurse Ford; Ashlee Buhler - Gina Twigg, Age 4; Kay Cole - Dr. Joynes; Lois de Banzie - Dr. Kite; Grant Gelt - Ernie Twigg, Age 11-14; Beth Grant - Sophie; Judith Hoag - Barbara Mays; Rance Howard - Frank; Mario Machado - Philadelphia Anchor; Caroline McWilliams - Lois Morehead; Tom Middleton - Bob Mays Sr.; King Moody - Dr. Zelf; Ariana Richards - Kimberly Mays, Age 9-11; Beth Richards - Kim Mays, Age 4-6; Miguel Sandoval - Dr. Benito Rojas; Jacqueline Scott - Ruth Mays; Ben Slack - Pastor John; Dale Swann - Dr. Stan Block; Joe Whipp - Dr. Peter Ter Horst; Kelli Williams - Irisa; Luana Anders - Nurse Ames; Hal Smith - Apartment Manager; John Wesley - Lester Dodge, P.I.; Andrew Craig - Vendor; Richmond Harrison - Process Server; Allison Mack - Normia Twigg, Age 6; Andrew Magarian - Steven Tate; Herb Mitchell - Dr. Marvin Cook; Adilah Barnes - Tracy's Mom; Erika Flores - Arlena Twigg, Age 9-11; Stephanie Shroyer - Mrs. Hampton; Valentino - Emily
Credit
Bruce A. Simon - First Assistant Director, Waris Hussein - Director, Paul Dixon - Editor, James Galloway - Editor, Barry Morrow - Executive Producer, Richard Heus - Executive Producer, Marvin Hamlisch - Composer (Music Score), Donald L. Harris - Production Designer, Robert Steadman - Cinematographer, Michael O'Hara - Screenwriter
When Arlena Twigg becomes ill, a blood test reveals that she is not the biological daughter of Regina and Ernest Twigg. When Arlena dies at the age of nine, her parents search for their biological daughter who is being raised as Kimberly Mays.
Kimberly Mays (born November 1978) was born in a Wauchula, Florida, hospital and switched at birth with Arlena Twigg, a girl who died at age nine (Aug 1988) of complications following surgery for a heart defect. Mays was the subject of a bitter custody battle in the late 1980s and early 1990s between her biological parents, Ernest and Regina Twigg of Sebring, Florida, and Bob Mays, the man who raised her after she was switched at birth. Though Mays won the right to stay with Bob Mays in a 1993 Florida court proceeding, she later ran away from Bob Mays and moved in with the Twiggs. Her early adulthood was troubled, as she battled marital woes and lost custody of her own child for a time.
The court battle was the subject of a book The Baby Swap Conspiracy by Loretta Schwarz-Nobel.
Kimberly Mays and Arlena Twigg were born within a few days of each other in 1978. Kimberly went home with Bob Mays and his wife, who died a few years later. The Twiggs took home the Mays' biological daughter, whom they named Arlena. The Twiggs learned that Arlena had the wrong blood type to be their biological daughter at age 9. Following Arlena's death, the Twiggs sought information about their biological daughter and located Kimberly Mays. Bob Mays agreed in 1989 to grant the Twiggs visitation rights to Kimberly, but later cut off the visits. The Twiggs sued for increased visitation or custody of Kimberly. A Wauchula, Florida circuit court ruled in 1993 that Kimberly would be allowed to cut off all contacts with her biological family and that Bob Mays was her psychological father.[1]
