Mrs. Washington Goes To Smith premieres on Hallmark

Tonight is the much anticipated Hallmark original movie, Mrs. Washington Goes To Smith. If you are spending a Saturday night at home… there is no better way to spend it than watching a Hallmark channel movie.  Always family friendly – I don’t think they will disappoint with Mrs. Washington Goes To Smith.

From hallmark.com,

Recently divorced and with no true direction to her life, Alice Washington (Cybill Shepherd) returns to Smith College to finish her degree. Unfortunately, her excitement quickly turns into frustration when the prim-and-proper Alice is accidentally paired with roommate Zoe Burkis (Corri English), a pink-haired rebel the same age as Alice’s kids, who has come to Smith specifically to get away from her mother. As the semester progresses, so does Alice’s personal growth. She becomes Smith’s oldest-ever basketball player, and reconnects with her youthful spirit in building a relationship with Zoe. But everything she has worked for is put at risk when she begins sharing a mutual attraction with her poetry professor, Terry O’Neil (Jeffrey Nordling), who Zoe also has a serious crush on. When the college dean catches wind of the alleged teacher-student relationship, it puts the budding romance – and Alice’s resurgent education – in jeopardy.

I love Cybill Shepherd!  I’ve always found her brassiness endearing.  I first became a fan of Shepherd during Moonlighting.  And I’m sure she will be great in Mrs. Washington goes To SmithMrs. Washington Goes To Smith also stars Corri English and Jeffrey Nordling.

While the film’s story is indeed fictitious, the Ada Comstock Scholars part of the tale is very much real.  From the press release,

It was started back in 1968 when several members of the Smith College faculty noted that a number of women deemed beyond the traditional student age were retuning to the school to complete an education they previously had abandoned. They had wanted to attend part-time, however, and were in need of greater financial and educational flexibility than was provided to their younger and more full-time counterparts.

Thus was born 41 years ago what came to be called the Mature Women’s Program at Smith, which allowed 18 women over the age of 22 to enroll at Smith part-time and complete their degrees. Some 35 women would enter the school under the program’s auspices between 1968 and ’75, whereupon the name was changed to the Continuing Education Degree Program.

It was during that same year that Smith established the Ada Comstock Scholars Program, which set neither age limits on enrollment nor time limits on completion of a degree. The idea was for women whose education had been interrupted by, say, marriage and children to finally finish up that education.

So this Saturday night, August 1, 2009 at 9:00 PM EST get your popcorn and tune into the Hallmark Channel and watch Mrs. Washington Goes To Smith.