Robert Altman protégé
Joan Tewkesbury called the directorial shots on the made-for-TV The Tenth Month. After a whirlwind affair with famed concert pianist
Keith Michell, middle-aged, unmarried
Carol Burnett becomes pregnant. Rather than seek out the father, she decides to raise the baby by herself. Though she'd previously played comparatively "straight" roles in such films as
The Front Page (1974), The Tenth Month represented Carol Burnett's TV dramatic debut, as well as her first post-
Carol Burnett Show project (the producer was her husband
Joe Hamilton). Adapted by Ms. Tewkesbury from a novel by Laura Z. Hobson, The Tenth Month premiered on September 16, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide