TV Reviews : Children’s Rights Focus of ‘Boy Nobody Wanted’

Chris Burke, whose character on the series “Life Goes On” has helped heighten sensitivity to the mentally and physically handicapped, steps into a featured movie role as a boy with Down’s syndrome who becomes the center of a major court battle involving children’s rights in “Jonathan: The Boy Nobody Wanted” (at 9 tonight on NBC, Channels 4, 36 and 39).

JoBeth Williams co-stars as a passionate social service volunteer who takes the boy out of a shelter for impaired children and into her own home.

“This boy is a person, not a statistic,” yells the Williams mom (based on the real-life Pat Heath, who waged holy legal war on behalf of Down’s syndrome victim Phillip Becker in a celebrated San Jose court case in the early 1980s).

With the child’s life literally at stake because of a faulty heart, his biological parents--a chilling, self-absorbed couple (Tom Mason and Alley Mills) who turn to God instead of doctors--refuse permission for heart surgery. Essentially, they can’t cope and would rather see the boy disappear into an institution, if not die.

The youth, with a 60 IQ and untapped possibilities for a full life, is movingly and jauntily played by Burke, whose affection for his new-found family is immense. Especially appealing as they grow to love in kind are his once surly adoptive teen siblings (the absolutely endearing Laurie Moore and the infectious Chris Demetral).

The movie may not be as potent as a similar fact-based TV movie aired last February, “The Broken Cord,” about fetal alcohol syndrome, but all these stories convey values and messages that break down our ignorance.