Based very loosely on Golden Girl, the biography of NBC anchorwoman Jessica Savitch who was dispatched to the great newsroom in the sky by way of a car crash in 1983, this romantic offering comes not only, one suspects, with much of the truth shaved off, but also advocating the theory that behind every successful woman is a man operating the strings.
Pfeiffer is Sally Attwater, the overly eager, bubbly blonde country girl who lands a job at a local TV newsroom after her demo tape catches the eye of more experienced newsman Warren Justice (Redford). Through a mixture of ingenuity and sheer homespun cheek, she soon finds herself on screen, going from presenting the weather (clad in a sou'wester) to covering local beauty contests, at the same time undergoing a name change from Sally to Tally after an autocue slip. Meanwhile, Justice becomes her mentor, inspiring her to swap her initial automotive presenting style for something altogether more human, and adopting a relationship that spills off camera as rapidly as her career skyrockets.
As you might expect, this is streaked with overtones of Redford's previous romantic foray The Way We Were, with much footage of the couple sharing quality time in picture-postcard settings obviously aimed at the triple-ply hanky brigade. Fortunately, both leads give credible enough performances - Pfeiffer, in particular, reads the news like a natural - to cut through the mire of slush, while a host of supporting players add some much-needed edge, especially Stockard Channing's splendidly bitchy news anchor.
Where the film slips up is in its valiant efforts to spice up what is ultimately a straightforward romantic drama by injecting a vein of social conscience - a lengthy prison riot, for example is dragged out to such extremes that it fails to convince. Ultimately, though, while both Redford and Pfeiffer are capable, they are deserving of stronger stuff than this kind of Sunday afternoon time-filling movie.