"Babymaker: The Dr. Cecil Jacobson Story" (8 p.m., Ch. 5) is yet another example of how made-for-TV movies can trivialize and exploit just about any real-life events.
This is the story of the Virginia doctor who was convicted on multiple counts of fraud for telling women they were pregnant when they weren't - and using his own sperm to impregnate up to 75 of his patients.George Dzundza plays Jacobson, but they might just as well have used animation for the part because the doctor is nothing more than a cartoon. The question of why he would do all of this is never addressed in any coherent way.
And Melissa Gilbert and Shanna Reed are a couple of the female patients Jacobson has defrauded.
All in all, it's an exercise in exploitation. Even with all the clinical talk and the fact that it's based on truth, it plays like bad fiction.
And "bad" is the operative word here.
If that's not enough, "Babymaker" is another example of how the LDS Church is treated differently by moviemakers.
One scene finds Jacobson introducing himself to a couple, telling them, "I've been married for more than 20 years and have seven children of my own."
"Seven?" says the husband. "You're Catholic."
"Mormon," Jacobson replies.
His religion has absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the movie. It's completely irrelevant to the plot, such as it is.
And if Jacobson had been Jewish or Methodist - or even Catholic - that bit of dialogue would never have appeared in the script.