series of 17 short stories by American writer John Updike form the basis for this examination of the rocky marriage of a New England couple. The movie was made for television in 1979 and directed by Fielder Cook. Updike's stories focus on the issues of fidelity and responsibility hiding beneath the calm veneer of American suburban affluence. Michael Moriarty plays Richard Maple, a non-conformist middle-class man married to Joan Barlow Maple (Blythe Danner). Glenn Close plays the home-wrecker Rebecca. The couple's problems are both traced to childhood incidents in which their propensity for taking the easy way out is established. ~

Too Far to Go is a collection of short stories by the American author John Updike published in 1979 in conjunction with the showing of a two-hour television movie on the NBC network with Blythe Danner, Michael Moriarty, Kathryn Walker and Glenn Close. The linked stories focus upon the marriage and eventual divorce of Richard and Joan Maple and depict a 1960s New York City and New England milieu through the 1970s typical of much of Updike's fiction. Many of the stories were initially published as occasional stories in The New Yorker from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. The story "Your Lover Just Called" was later adapted into a playlet by Updike himself. It is included in his collection More Matter (1999). Most of these stories were also included in Updike's 2003 collection The Early Stories, except those published after 1975; namely, "Waiting Up", "The Red-Herring Theory", "Divorcing: A Fragment", and "Here Come the Maples". In August 2009, Everyman's Library published The Maples Stories, a new edition of Too Far to Go, including the final Maples story "Grandparenting".

Airdate: March 12, 1979 on ABC

Theatrical Release Date: April 30, 1982