General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Paternity

Paternity is a 1981 American romantic comedy directed by David Steinberg, written by Charlie Peters, and starring Burt Reynolds as Buddy Evans, a 44-year-old bachelor who manages Madison Square Garden and decides to hire a surrogate mother so he can have a child without marriage.¹^•² It was produced by Lawrence Gordon and Hank Moonjean for Paramount Pictures and released on October 2, 1981.¹

Key fact	Detail
Release	October 2, 1981, in New York City and Los Angeles; MPAA rating PG¹
Director / writer	David Steinberg (feature film debut) and Charlie Peters (feature film debut)¹
Working title	From Here to Paternity¹
Principal cast	Burt Reynolds (Buddy Evans), Beverly D'Angelo (Maggie), Norman Fell (Larry), Paul Dooley (Kurt), Elizabeth Ashley (Sophia Thatcher), Lauren Hutton (Jenny Lofton), Juanita Moore (Celia)¹
Production	Filmed July 14 to late October 1980 in New York and Los Angeles, interrupted by the July 1980 SAG strike¹
Box office	Domestic gross of $18,838,000 on a wide release in 1,072 theaters; the Village Voice called it a "flop" with an estimated gross of $8 million³^•¹
Critical reception	Metascore 45 (mixed or average) from 9 critic reviews; Tomatometer 26% from 4 reviews⁴^•⁵

Spoilers

Plot

Buddy Evans is a successful businessman who manages Madison Square Garden in New York City but is less successful in his personal relationships.¹ A confirmed bachelor living with his housekeeper Celia (Juanita Moore), he decides after coming into contact with several children that he is ready to be a father, and he resolves to hire a surrogate mother in the hope of having a son.⁶

He shares a taxi with Maggie (Beverly D'Angelo), a struggling music student who works as a waitress. When she professes only a clinical interest in the experience of child-bearing, he proposes the arrangement, and Maggie, hoping to study in Europe, agrees to cooperate for a fee of $50,000.² Conflicts and misunderstandings ensue, several of them provoked by Buddy's dates with old girlfriends, until the couple admits their mutual love; Buddy and Maggie reconcile just in time to make things legal on the way to the delivery room, so that Buddy becomes both a husband and a father.²^•¹

Production

The film carried the working title From Here to Paternity, reported by the Los Angeles Times on May 12, 1980.¹ Principal photography began on July 14, 1980, with locations in New York and Los Angeles. Filming was interrupted by the July 1980 Screen Actors Guild strike and resumed during the last week of October 1980.¹

The Cannonball Run dispute. Daily Variety disclosed in May 1980 that Paramount Pictures intended to sue The Cannonball Run, Golden Harvest Productions, and Twentieth Century-Fox, claiming they had induced Burt Reynolds to shoot The Cannonball Run (1981) rather than Paternity, the picture he was contractually bound to make; Paramount brought the suit on June 2, 1980, and as of October 2014 how it was resolved remained unknown. Reynolds remained the star of Paternity, but it filmed after The Cannonball Run. The Cannonball Run filmmakers extended an "olive branch" by shutting down their production for a weekend so Reynolds could film additional footage on Paramount's Rough Cut (1980).¹

Sally Field was considered for a role but did not participate, and Natalie Wood considered an offer to join the cast but did not appear.¹ The world premiere was held on September 24, 1981, at Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, benefiting Children's Village U.S.A., a facility for battered, abused, and neglected children; the premiere raised more than $200,000 for the nonprofit.¹

Reception

The film opened on October 2, 1981, in New York City and Los Angeles and ranked first at the box office in its first three weekends, opening at $3,610,147 in 1,072 theaters on its way to a domestic gross of $18,838,000.³ Despite that total, the Village Voice's list of Fall 1981 releases called Paternity a "flop" with an estimated boxoffice gross of $8 million.¹

Critics were largely negative. Roger Ebert, film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013, gave the film two stars, writing that it was "absolutely predictable at every moment" and that its timing was "so slowpaced and stately that there are times when this doesn't feel like a comedy, it feels like a historical romance."⁷ Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "a knuckleheaded romantic comedy vehicle for Burt Reynolds" and criticized first-time director Steinberg's handling of a chase sequence.² Vincent Canby of The New York Times found almost everything in the film "tired and perfunctory" except the performances of D'Angelo, Hutton, and Ashley.⁴ The film's Metascore on Metacritic is 45, based on 9 critic reviews.⁴

Later release

Paternity returned to home video when Kino Lorber released it on Blu-ray on July 16, 2024, with a new audio commentary and vintage TV spots.³^•⁸ It remains available for digital rental and purchase on platforms including Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, and Fandango At Home.⁶

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1980s › Comedy-dramas of the 1980s

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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