Big Emotions<i> ,</i> Little Screen : ABC’s ‘Baby M’ Relives the Agony in Stirring Style

“Baby M” is never anything less than excellent.

ABC’s two-part drama (9-11 p.m. Sunday and Monday on Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42) is a big, agonizing wallop of a story, reliving with stirring, wrenching intensity the historic, headlined custody battle between surrogate mother Mary Beth Whitehead and William and Elizabeth Stern.

Wearing a pageboy and bangs, JoBeth Williams acts her heart out as Whitehead, the New Jersey homemaker and mother who signed a $10,000 contract to bear Stern’s child, but later changed her mind about relinquishing the infant Melissa, sparking a shocking tug of war that raised lingering legal and moral questions.

The story begins joyously with Whitehead in the role of benevolent savior, agreeing to the surrogacy arrangement primarily from a desire to do a good deed for the childless Sterns (John Shea and Robin Strasser).

At first, Mary Beth is more than merely likable. In contrast to the reserved and colorless William Stern, a biochemist, and Elizabeth, a pediatrician, she’s a glowing presence, ebullient, free-spirited and open. She and her garbage-worker husband, Rick (Bruce Weitz), vow disinterest in keeping the child that the Sterns so desperately want, and a tenuous social friendship even develops between the two couples.

“Baby M” evolves subtly and compellingly under the patient, skilled guidance of writer/director James Sadwith. As Whitehead’s belly and maternal instincts grow, so do her dark moods and erratic behavior. One does feel the immediate bonding between mother and child in the delivery room, but even this fleeting euphoria carries ominous undertones, knowing as we do what it portends.

Even in empathizing with Whitehead’s motherly feelings, there’s no condoning her actions. With a desperate Whitehead at one point hiding out with her baby to keep it from its worried and distraught father, the story turns uglier and uglier, twisting toward the inevitable court battle in Part 2 that will uphold the validity of the surrogacy contract and deliver Melissa to the Sterns.

As “Baby M” notes, the ruling was later reversed by the New Jersey Supreme Court, which invalidated the contract, restored Whitehead’s parental rights and nullified Elizabeth Stern’s adoption of Melissa. The Sterns were allowed to retain custody of Melissa, but Whitehead was given partial, unsupervised visitation rights. The Sterns had opposed the visitation on the grounds that it would be disruptive and harmful to Melissa.

Drawn from court transcripts and other research, “Baby M” throws a harsh, unsympathetic light on Whitehead, depicting her as ultimately dishonest, manipulative and so emotionally unstable that you question her ability to suitably raise her other children, let alone Melissa.

Under methodical cross-examination by the Sterns’ lawyer (Dabney Coleman), her thin veneer of sincerity evaporates. The Sterns are shown as kind, quiet, caring and steady, Whitehead as sometimes mean, vindictive and selfish, willingly feeding the case’s carnival atmosphere, playing to the appallingly predatory media and exploiting Melissa when it suited her purposes.

Watching this admirable, finely acted drama, you are overwhelmed by a deepening sadness and awareness that Baby M’s case may not be over.

Whitehead--who divorced Rick Whitehead and has remarried--says she is working on a book about the case, much to the dismay of the Sterns, who have avoided publicity and sought to live quietly with Melissa.

So they’ve gone to court again, this time to seek final approval of the book and to prohibit its use of Melissa’s baby pictures. At 2 years of age, she is famous for all the wrong reasons.