''Isabel's Choice'' is a 1981 American

made-for-television A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a Terrestr ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by Guy Green, starring

Jean Stapleton Jean Stapleton (born Jeanne Murray; January 19, 1923 – May 31, 2013) was an American character actress of stage, television and film. Stapleton is best known for her portrayal of Edith Bunker, the perpetually optimistic and devoted wif ...

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 ...

Peter Coyote Peter Coyote (born Robert Peter Cohon; October 10, 1941) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author, and narrator of films, theater, television, and audiobooks. He worked on films, such as ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (1982), '' C ...

and Betsy Palmer. It 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 ...

as ''The CBS Wednesday Night Movie'' on December 16, 1981.

Synopsis

Isabel Cooper (Jean Stapleton) is a widow who prides herself on her years of devotion and loyalty as secretary to Lyman James (Richard Kiley), a top executive in a large corporation. Lyman retires when a dynamic young executive, Wynn Thomas (Peter Coyote) is hired to assume the presidency Lyman thought would be his. Under Thomas' presidency, Isabel is promoted to an executive position that she had worked towards for several years. Lyman later seeks comfort in Isabel when his wife is killed suddenly in a plane crash. As Lyman and Isabel's relationship progresses, he plans to propose and assumes that she will end her career to stay home with him. Isabel is forced to choose between the executive life she worked so hard to establish and the comforts of marriage that Lyman is willing to offer.''Isabel's Choice''
at ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', retrieved April 26, 2016.

Cast

as Isabel Cooper *

as Lyman Jones *

as Wynn Thomas * Betsy Palmer as Ellie Fineman *

Mildred Dunnock Mildred Dorothy Dunnock (January 25, 1901 – July 5, 1991) was an American stage and screen actress. She was nominated twice for an Academy Award for her works in ''Death of a Salesman'' (1951) and '' Baby Doll'' (1956). Early life Born in B ...

as Helen *Sally Kemp as Miss Hamilton * Irene Tedrow as Mrs. Harper *Douglas Robinson as Supervisor * Howard Morton as Miles

Home media release

The film 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 ...

in 1989 by Bridgestone Multimedia Group and has long been out of print. To date, it has not been released on

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 ...

References

External links

* * 1981 television films 1981 films 1981 drama films CBS films Films directed by Guy Green American drama television films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films {{US-tv-drama-film-stub