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. Tom Butterfield, the subject of The Children Nobody Wanted, died less than a year after this TV movie's debut.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide