‘The Substitute Wife’

This unique love story about sod-busting pioneers on a 19th-Century Nebraska plain features a frankness and sexual maturity rare for network movies. Starring Farrah Fawcett as a village prostitute who’s transformed into prairie bride, the 1994 movie’s originality (from a terrific script by Stan Daniels) brings luster to TV pictures. Endearing and unpredictable under the direction of Peter Werner, the film finds a spirited mother of four (Lea Thompson) discovering that she’s dying and setting out to find a woman to take her place. This is all so her husband (Peter Weller) won’t be left to tend the land and raise their children by himself (NBC Sunday at 9 p.m.).