Any time a based-on-fact TV movie is produced, there's always the question of whose version of the truth makes it on the air.
ABC's upcoming two-parter "Stay the Night" is no exception.The miniseries, which airs Sunday and Monday at 8 p.m. on Ch. 4, recounts the story of Jimmie Sue Finger (Barbara Hershey), who was convicted of persuading her 17-year-old boyfriend, Michael Kettman Jr. (Morgan Weisser), to kill her husband.
What makes this story even more unusual is that when the boy refused to implicate Jimmie Sue in the plot, his mother, Blanche (Jane Alexander) befriended the woman in order to trap her - and ended up truly liking her.
Not that Jimmie Sue would agree that the plot of "Stay the Night" is factual.
"This story, while it is a true story and it is absolutely based on fact, is definitely the Kettmanns' point of view of the facts, and definitely the court's point of view as well," Hershey said. "And it may very well be an accurate point of view. But it's not Jimmie Sue's point of view.
"The real Jimmie Sue to this days says she's totally innocent. That these were circumstances that just happened."
The producers and writers of the movie, however, believe that they've managed to convey what really happened.
"We went to great lengths to get input from both sides," said J.C. Shardo, the co-executive producer. "I interviewed Jimmie Sue's family and various people.
"But we went to great lengths after speaking to Jimmie Sue to see if we could find anybody that could give us information to support that. And we couldn't.
"Now, maybe Jimmie Sue knows some things that we don't know. But she didn't share them with us when we were in prison with her."
True-life crime stories are all the rage as television movies these days, but "Stay the Night" is superior to most. For one thing, Hershey, Alexander and Weisser turn in excellent performances.
For another, "Stay" breaks the crime drama mold. This is not a story about solving a crime - indeed, the audience knows whodunnit as soon as it happens. And young Mike is convicted and sent to prison before the end of Part 1.
What makes this miniseries compelling are the people involved. Not only do the Kettmans appear to be the all-American family, but Mike appears to be the all-American boy. Just 16 when the affair began, 17 at the time of the murder (Jimmie Sue was 34), Mike was a church-going, football-playing Eagle Scout.
And the relationship between Jimmie Sue and Blanche is all but impossible to believe.
"When I met the mother and she started to tell me this tale about Jimmie Sue and how much she hated her and what Jimmie Sue had done to her son - and then how she got to know Jimmie Sue and actually started to care for her, I thought, `This woman must be off her rocker.' At first.
"The, as she kept telling the story, I began to realize that she truly cared for Jimmie Sue . . . and that Jimmie Sue in fact had feelings for Blanche. So by the time I got to prison and met Jimmie Sue, she was just as fascinating as Blanche had made her out to be.
"Because Jimmie Sue has this wonderful capability of making you feel very important. She's very full of life. She is somebody that, if she didn't have this other side, she could be a wonderful friend. And that's what Blanche warmed up to, and that put Blanche in a very strange situation."
As a matter of fact, despite the fact that Blanche had worked long and hard to gain the conviction, when Jimmie Sue was found guilty Blanche burst into tears.
"Blanche herself is an extremely compassionate woman," said Alexander, who met the woman she portrayed several times. "She's always able to find the best in whomever. Jimmie Sue was a charismatic figure. Blanche really, I think, felt her maternal instincts coming out with regard to Jimmie Sue."
Extremely hard to believe.
But Hershey may have hit on the reason why the public is so taken with real-life crime stories in general, and this one in particular.
"I think the reason the appeal happens is that true life is stranger and more fascinating than anything we could dream up," she said. "And the fact that something happened, and we're watching something that happened, is never-endingly fascinating. Whereas something made up, you could dismiss."