n 1981, CBS television premiered The Children Nobody Wanted as it’s Christmas movie of the week.

Frederic Lehne stars as the real-life Tom Butterfield, a college student distressed by the plight of homeless children. He’d like to adopt a few of these kids, but Missouri law prohibits such a circumstance for an unmarried man. At great personal cost to himself both financially and emotionally, the 21-year-old Butterfield becomes the youngest single adult ever to be granted a foster-parent license, using this privilege to set up a Boy’s Town-like home for unwanted youngsters.

Lehne’s costar is Michelle Pfeiffer, on the threshold of bigger things, it meant her first stand-out performance.

Years later, Pfeiffer has been very fond of this work, she has become to say in interviews that “it was the first time I’d ever gone to an audition where the producers didn’t want me to be pretty.” (New York – June 19, 1989)

It was filmed in Marshall, Missouri, where his story continues to take place on a ranch refuge for his “Butter Boys.” Tom Butterfield, the subject of The Children Nobody Wanted movie, died less than a year after this TV movie’s debut.

Cast

Crew

Filming Locations

Marshall, Missouri, USA

Release Dates

USA – December 5th, 1981

International Titles

Original Title (USA) – The Children Nobody Wanted
West Germany – Der Junge Adoptiv-Vater
Portugal – Filhos do Desespero
Spain – Los niños que nadie quería
France – Pour l’amour d’un enfant