It was directed by Robert Fuest with a screenplay by David Wiltse and starring Sharon Gless, Julie Kavner, Don Johnson, Arthur Hill, and Audra Lindley.

Spirited investigative TV reporter Kaye Foster (Gless) arrives in Stepford to do a story on the American town with the lowest crime and divorce rates and the tightest real-estate market in the country.

She immediately notices the beautiful, but compliant and domestic women of the town, who take a pill four times a day when an eerie siren sounds (they each claim it is for a thyroid condition).

Megan is refreshingly down to earth, and Andy is interviewing to join the police force and become a member of the Stepford Men's Association, headed by refined but vaguely hostile Dale "Diz" Coba (Hill).

Kaye needs a research assistant, and after being turned off by the seemingly plastic and subservient women of Stepford, she jumps at the chance to hire Megan.

Kaye is shaken when Barbara Parkinson (Lindley) "accidentally" nearly runs her down with her car, then exhibits strange, repetitive behaviors at the accident site, yet has no recollection of the incident the next day.

Andy assumes the job with the Stepford Police, and Megan has chosen a house when she is sent to the Men's Association and disappears for a few days.

Suspicious, Kaye sneaks into a garden party at the association attended by the townswomen; there, three new "sisters" are welcomed, including Megan.

"[2] The film was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1981 for Best Television Feature or Miniseries to writer David Wiltse.