In the Best of Families: Marriage, Pride & Madness is a two-part American television miniseries directed by Jeff Bleckner and written by Robert L. Freedman, based on the 1988 non-fiction book Bitter Blood by Jerry Bledsoe.

Eager to play an antagonistic character, McGillis believed Susie suffered from some form of psychosis and prepared for the role by researching mental disorders.

The divorce takes a toll on Susie's health and she consults her uncle, Fred Klenner, a practitioner of quack medicine, who diagnoses her with multiple sclerosis.

Still pretending to work for the CIA, Fritz recruits an impressionable young man from Virginia named Ian Perkins to accompany him on covert missions.

In the Best of Families was written by Robert L. Freedman and directed by Jeff Bleckner, based on the 1988[4] nonfiction book Bitter Blood by Jerry Bledsoe.

[5] CBS had previously adapted another of Bledsoe's true crime books, Blood Games, into the 1992 television film Honor Thy Mother.

[6] Bledsoe noted that networks initially had little interest in adapting Bitter Blood due to its grisly ending which sees the two Lynch children killed.

"[8] While Bledsoe was unhappy with some of the changes the adaptation made, he was pleased to note that Freedman did take his "blistering" four pages worth of feedback about the script into account.

[9][10] Although Tom Lynch was against the miniseries being made, as were other surviving relatives of the victims, he and his wife met with Freedman before filming began to ensure their side of the story was heard.

"[16] Part of what attracted McGillis to the miniseries was its message about taking responsibility, a moral she thought had a lot of real-world relevance and something she felt the people around Fritz and Susie had failed to do.

"[18] Hamlin relished the challenge of portraying such a dark character and,[16] after years as the upstanding Michael Kuzak in L.A. Law, was thrilled that CBS trusted him with this role.

[16] Carradine did not consult with his character's real-life counterpart Tom Lynch for the role, instead describing himself as a minimalist actor who keeps his work and personal life separate.

[16] Wigatow and Bledsoe scouted locations in North Carolina's Piedmont Triad in the summer of 1993, before ultimately deciding to set up base in Carolco Studios, Wilmington.

[3] Specific locales included Airlie Gardens and Orton Plantation;[3] Tom and Susie's wedding scenes were shot at the former with hundreds of extras.

[2] In the Best of Families came out amid a national debate over excessive violence on television,[18] with politicians such as the United States Attorney General Janet Reno pushing for networks to showcase less on-screen brutality.

[25] The Wall Street Journal's Robert Goldberg was highly critical of what he felt was a gratuitous amount of violence used solely to shock audiences.

Goldberg condemned not just the script, but CBS's decision to even broadcast a program that, in his opinion, epitomized the very sort of television violence politicians were trying to put an end to.

"[27] Tim Funk's review in The Charlotte Observer derided the lack of nuance as exemplified by the over-the-top brutality and the one-dimensional villainy of Susie and Fritz.

Still, he acknowledged Bleckner's brisk direction and the strong cast, highlighting McGillis as the standout performer for immersing herself in the role so completely.

"[29] Sid Smith of the Chicago Tribune found the miniseries to be an entertaining watch, but noted that some aspects of Bledsoe's book did not translate well onto the screen resulting in forced expository dialogue.

Of the three leads, Smith praised Hamlin for his seamless embodiment of the "Manson-like" Fritz; he thought that Carradine pulled off his character's sweet naivete but fumbled in the emotional scenes; and he found McGillis unconvincing as the unstable Susie.

[30] Tom Dorsey of The Courier-Journal found the story compelling and, in contrast to Smith, praised McGillis' "convincingly eerie" portrayal as the best of the capable cast.