I Want My Baby Back

I Want My Baby Back

Harriet Cralboni…..Sally Field
Nurse…..Melanie Hutsell
Mr. Blaylock…..Kevin Nealon
Social worker…..Tim Meadows
Judge Roberta Lewis…..Ellen Cleghorne
Mr. Fontel…..Mike Myers
Mrs. Fontel…..Julia Sweeney
Hasheem…..Adam Sandler
Pakistani Judge…..Rob Schneider


V/O: Tonight, an NBC World Premiere Movie. A true story, from the producers of They Took My Baby and What Have You Done With My Baby? and My Baby’s Where?, a story of one woman’s valiant fight against impossible odds. I Want My Baby Back: The Harriet Cralboni Story.

[SUPER: December 15, 1989. A woman is seen in a hospital room clutching a baby.]

Harriet Cralboni:
Hello, Amy! It’s just you and me sweetie, no daddy. But that’s okay, we’ll always be together because you’re mine! You’re mine, my baby!

Nurse: Miss Cralboni, you need to rest now. [Takes the baby from Harriet’s arms.]

Harriet Cralboni: Where are you taking my baby? I want my baby!

Nurse: To the nursery, where no one could ever possibly switch her with another baby. Now get some sleep.

Harriet Cralboni: My baby… My baby… I’ll only have my baby… My baby…

[The scene fades to a view of an apartment building. SUPER: December 17, 1989.]

[A man is holding the baby, playing with her.]

Mr. Blaylock: [Makes baby noises.] You’re such a cutie, aren’t you? Yes you are, you’re such a cute little baby! [Makes baby noises, as Harriet enters.] Oh, she’s a gorgeous baby! Just like her mother, but not half as sexy.

Harriet Cralboni: Thank you Mr. Blaylock, and thank you for bringing the typing over. I’ll try to have it done by Monday.

Mr. Blaylock: You know, you don’t have to do any of it if you’d . . . get a little friendlier with me, if you know what I mean. [Winks, then leans in to kiss her.]

Harriet Cralboni: Yes, I do know what you mean, and it’s out of the question!

Mr. Blaylock: Just forget about the typing Miss Cralboni, because you don’t work for me anymore. I could find a lot of other unwed mother typists who will play ball. [Gets up to leave.]

Harriet Cralboni: Oh, well! Well, fine then! Fine! [Shuts the front door after him.] Now don’t you worry, my sweetheart! Mommy didn’t want that filthy old job anyway! No I didn’t! I’ll find a new job, a great job! Everything’s going to be fine! [The buzzer rings and she opens the door.]

Social worker: Miss Harriet Cralboni?

Harriet Cralboni:
Yes.

Social worker: Give me the baby.

Harriet Cralboni: What?

Social worker: I’m with the child welfare department. We just got a call from Blaylock and his associates about you being unemployed and raising Amy in an unfit environment.

Harriet Cralboni: Oh! That’s a lie!

Social Worker: [Yanks Amy out of her arms.] That’s for the court to decide. [Rushes out the door.]

Harriet Cralboni: Oh! But that’s my baby! That’s my baby! I want my baby back, I want my baby back!

[An outside view of a courtroom is shown. SUPER: January 18, 1990.]

Judge Roberta Lewis: [Judge is seen banging with her gavel.] Order in the court! I will have order in the court! Now Miss Cralboni, as a woman and a mother, I sympathize with you, but I’m afraid the law is the law!

Harriet Cralboni: Your honor, may I say something? It’s true, I don’t have a job! But this baby is mine! She grew inside of me for nine months? Doesn’t that mean anything, or isn’t this America? Please, give me back my baby!

Judge Roberta Lewis: [Sobbing] Miss Cralboni, that was one of the most eloquent speeches I’ve ever heard! The bench rules for Miss Cralboni, the baby will remain with her!

Harriet Cralboni: [Cheers, jumps up and down] I’ve got my baby back! I’ve got my baby back! [The social worker hands Amy back to her.]

Nurse: Hold on a minute! That’s not her baby! And I would know, because I switched them. I switched the babies!

[The social worker takes Amy and leaves.]

Harriet Cralboni: Oh! Oh! Where’s my baby? [Grabs the nurse and shakes her around.] Tell me where my baby is! Give me my baby! Give me my baby! Give me my baby!

[We see a moving view of a street in a suburban neighborhood. SUPER: January 18, 1990. 1 hour later. The other parents come out of a house.]

Mrs. Fontel: Oh honey, I’m so nervous!

Mr. Fontel: Do you think that woman running down the street is her?

Mrs. Fontel: I hope so!

[Harriet rushes up to their door.]

Harriet Cralboni: Are you Mr. and Mrs. Avery Fontel?

Mrs. Fontel: You must be Harriet Cralboni, come in!

Harriet Cralboni: Oh! I want my baby!

Mr. Fontel: As do we. As do we.

Social worker: Mr. and Mrs. Fontel, I believe this is your baby.

Mrs. Fontel: I’ve got my baby!

Mr. Fontel: [Stifling tears] And I believe this little darling is yours! [Mr. Fontel gives Amy back to Harriet.]

Harriet Cralboni: I’ve got my baby back!

Mr. Fontel, Mrs. Fontel, and Harriet Cralboni: We’ve got our babies back!

Harriet Cralboni: Oh, sweetie! Hello, my little baby! This is mommy talking to you! And nothing is ever, ever going to separate us again!

[A man enters the house.]

Hasheem: Not so fast! That child is half mine!

Harriet Cralboni: Hasheem, when you left me, you gave up all rights as a father!

Hasheem: We’ll see what the court has to say about that. The court . . . [Pulls Amy out of her arms.] . . . in Pakistan! [Leaves]

Harriet Cralboni: That’s my baby! Give me back my baby! I want my baby!

[Footage is shown of a marketplace. SUPER: January 24, 1990 Karachi, Pakistan.]

Pakistani Judge: Order in the court! [Bangs the gavel] I will have order! Miss Cralboni, the Pakistani court sympathizes with you! But I’m afraid Pakistani law is Pakistani law!

Harriet Cralboni: [Stands up, wearing a burqa.] Your honor, may I speak? I may be a stranger here in your country, but I have to believe that the bond between a mother and her child is just as strong here as it is in America! And if it isn’t, I feel sorry for Pakistan! And indeed, the entire Nation of Islam!

Pakistani Judge: Miss Cralboni, that is without question the most insulting speech I have ever had the misfortune to hear. Up until that, I was ready to give your child back. But now I have no choice but to lock you away forever!

Harriet Cralboni: I want my baby! [Two guards go to her and take her away.] I just want my baby! Give me my baby! Give my baby! Give my baby back! I want my baby! I want my baby!

[The Pakistani skyline is shown.]

V/O: On May 14, 1993, Harriet Cralboni was awarded custody of her child.

On May 15, 1993, Cralboni was informed that the babies had never really been switched and this was not her daughter.

On May 17, Cralboni was reunited with her original daughter from before the switch.

On May 18, that daughter, the real Amy Cralboni, filed for divorce from her mother.

Every year in the United States 200,000 babies are switched at birth and sent to Pakistan.

Three days later, 30,000 are returned.

[Harriet is shown locked in a cell with her face pressed up against the bars.]

Harriet Cralboni: Where’s my daughter? I want my baby back. Give me baby, I want my baby back, I want my baby…

[Music plays, SUPER: The End.]

[Fade]

Thanks to Leadcrow90 for this transcript!

SNL Transcripts

Author: Don Roy King

Don Roy King has directed fourteen seasons of Saturday Night Live. That work has earned him ten Emmys and fourteen nominations. Additionally, he has been nominated for fifteen DGA Awards and won in 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.

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