''Sidney Sheldon's If Tomorrow Comes'' is a 1986 American television

miniseries In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...

based on the 1985 novel of the same name by

Sidney Sheldon Sidney Sheldon (February 11, 1917 – January 30, 2007) was an American writer. He was prominent in the 1930s, first working on Broadway plays, and then in motion pictures, notably writing the successful comedy '' The Bachelor and the Bobby-Sox ...

, starring Madolyn Smith,

Tom Berenger Tom Berenger (born Thomas Michael Moore; May 31, 1949) is an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes in ''Platoon'' (1986). He is also known for playing ...

and David Keith. It was directed by

Jerry London Jerry London (born January 21, 1937) is an American television director and producer. Life and career London has directed more than forty television movies, including the Emmy Award nominated '' Chiefs''. London won best director for James Cla ...

and the screenplay was written by Carmen Culver.

Plot summary

Trying to get justice for her wronged mother, financial expert Tracy Whitney is instead framed by a gangster for

bank fraud Bank fraud is the use of potentially illegal means to obtain money, assets, or other property owned or held by a financial institution, or to obtain money from depositors by fraudulently posing as a bank or other financial institution. In many ins ...

and sent to prison for fifteen years by a corrupt judge and a crooked attorney. At first a victim, Tracy makes alliances, learns valuable skills from her fellow inmates, and plots her escape. She abandons her plan in order to save the warden's young daughter from drowning, earning herself a pardon. After exacting revenge on the men responsible for her sentence, Whitney accepts an offer from the brutal Gunther Hartog to become his apprentice; under his tutelage, she becomes a master con artist and disguise expert. While plotting her biggest score, she crosses paths with another veteran con artist, Jeff Stevens, to whom she is attracted but is not sure she can trust. Trailing behind them is the unstable insurance investigator Daniel Cooper.

Cast

* Madolyn Smith as Tracy Whitney *

as Jeff Stevens * David Keith as Daniel Cooper *

Jack Weston Jack Weston (born Morris Weinstein; August 21, 1924 – May 3, 1996) was an American actor. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1976 and a Tony Award in 1981. Career Weston, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, usually played comic roles in fi ...

as Uncle Willie *

Richard Kiley Richard Paul Kiley (March 31, 1922 – March 5, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actor and singer. He is best-known for his distinguished theatrical career in which he twice won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Kile ...

as Gunther Hartog *

Liam Neeson William John Neeson (born 7 June 1952) is an actor from Northern Ireland. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Liam Neeson, several accolades, including nominations for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, BAFT ...

as Inspector André Trignant * Barry Jenner as Zeller *

Lane Smith Walter Lane Smith III (April 29, 1936 – June 13, 2005) was an American actor. His well-known roles included newspaper editor Perry White in the ABC series '' Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'', collaborator entrepreneur Nathan Bat ...

as Warden Brannigan *

CCH Pounder Carol Christine Hilaria Pounder (born December 25, 1952) is an American actress. She is best known for portraying Claudette Wyms in the FX police drama series '' The Shield'' (2002–2008), Mo'at in the ''Avatar'' (2009–present) franchise, ...

as Ernestine Littlechap *

Maryam d'Abo Maryam d'Abo (born 27 December 1960) is a British actress, best known as Bond girl Kara Milovy in the 1987 James Bond film '' The Living Daylights''. Early life Born in London to Georgian mother Nino Kvinitadze, daughter of General Giorgi Kv ...

as Solange

Production and broadcast

To play Tracy Whitney, Smith used sixteen different costumes, including a scene where she dons a latex mask, black hood, and wig to pose as an elderly woman. She called the miniseries "a very classy soap opera" that is "fun and adventuresome". The seven-hour miniseries was broadcast on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

in three parts on March 16, 17 and 18, 1986.

Home media

''If Tomorrow Comes'' was released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

by Anchor Bay on September 30, 1997 (318 minutes), and in a two-disc

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

set from

Image Entertainment RLJ Entertainment (formerly Image Entertainment) is an American film production company and home video distributor, distributing film and television productions in North America, with approximately 3,200 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 34 ...

on March 1, 2011 (313 minutes).

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1986 television films 1986 films 1980s American television miniseries Films directed by Jerry London Television shows based on American novels Adaptations of works by Sidney Sheldon