Just as Kevin Sullivan was inspired by the works of Max Braithwaite for his series, Wind at My Back, he has continually been moved by the writings of many other authors and endeavored to turn their stories into successful films.  One of these movies is Butterbox Babies, which is based on the true Canadian scandal surrounding the management of a maternity home on the east coast of Canada during the Great Depression.

CBC Halifax Reporter Bette Cahill was assigned to an expose about the home’s scandalous dealings with baby deaths and illegal black-market adoptions nearly 50 years after the fact. She turned her findings into a book titled “Butterbox Babies” and when Sullivan Entertainment’s Executive Producer, Trudy Grant, saw the story featured on a CBC news program in 1992, she knew it had the makings of a powerful film.

Sullivan Entertainment then bought the rights to the story and began the writing process with playwright Raymond Storey, who is also behind the screenplays of such Sullivan productions as Sleeping Dogs Lie, Road to Avonlea, An Avonlea Christmas and Wind at My Back.

Catherine Fitch with Susan Clark in "Butterbox Babies".

Two years later, the actual filming of the $3 million movie began.  It stars Emmy Award-winning actress Susan Clark as Lila Young – the founder of the maternity home – and veteran actor Peter MacNeill, as her husband.  MacNeill has also worked with Sullivan on the series Road to Avonlea, playing Emmett Grier in the Season 4 episode “Evelyn”, featuring Meg Tilly.

The film also features a number of Avonlea stars, including Cedric Smith (Alec King), Catherine Fitch (Selena Dale), Chris Wiggins (Mr. McCorkadale), Shannon Lawson (Miss Gordon) and Corinne Conley (Eleanor McHugh), to name a few.

When Butterbox Babies premiered on CBC in January of 1995, it was the biggest Canadian TV movie hit in CBC’s history, with a total of 3.2 million viewers.

To see a preview of the film, as well as information about the cast and production, click here!