North And South 1985
Dimitri Rajawi
Started watching this classic miniseries again earlier this week. Love all of John Jakes' books, to me he is still the master of the historical drama despite his retirement (Ken Follett is a close second). My wife has never seen it and she is watching with me. She is a bit taken aback by the depictions of slavery, and she is finding the show depressing and tough to watch. I told her that at its heart, this is a story about the friendship between two men who met as cadets at West Point and are best friends despite being from completely different worlds.
I do appreciate how the villains (Elkanah Bent, Justin LaMotte, Ashton) are so over the top evil. One thing that has definitely changed for me on this viewing is my views towards Kirstie Alley's character, Virgilia Hazard. I recall greatly despising this woman when I first saw this series. But on this viewing, I have come to see that she wasn't an evil person, she was just very passionate about a cause she found important, and frustrated that not enough people in her family agreed with her.
On another note, I do miss the classic days of the TV miniseries event. It was such a simpler time. The first book was 6 two-hour episodes airing over the span of a week in November 1985. I think the VCR was around because I remember recording shows at the time. But it seemed to me that these miniseries were truly "event television". If you missed it, you missed it. And I am not sure if there were re-run airings. Nowadays the miniseries are considered "limited series" and air one episode a week over a span of 10 weeks or so, and if you miss one airing, don't worry, because your DVR can record the 3 AM showing at any point during the week.
George/Constance and I love that James Read and Wendy Kilbourne met and fell in love, married, and are still together all these years later as are Genie Francis (Brett) and Jonathan Frakes (Stanley).
Brett/Billy - I loved that the sweet sister "won" over her sexy, older sister even though Terri's Ashton was a hoot. And possibly UO, I preferred original Billy (John Stockwell) to Parker Stevenson's in Book II.
Virgilia/Grady - although it had such a sad ending but it would have been unbelievable if they had been allowed to have a happily ever after. I greatly disliked how they changed Virgilia's storyline from the book as she was so bad-ass in Book III (and when I say I rewatch, I rarely watch Heaven and Hell).
But my favorite storyline was that of the two friends, Orry and George, and that last scene from Book One where George helps Orry escape and they embrace, not knowing if they were ever see each other again, always makes me tear up.
I did love how so many in Hollywood were in this, even those who had pretty decent careers going (i.e. Linda Evans was one of the queens of nighttime TV as Dynasty's Krystle Carrington). And I thought Hal Holbrook made for a great Lincoln although Daniel Day-Lewis will always be the epitome of Lincoln to me. George Stanford Brown, just a few years removed from his memorable performance as Tom in Roots.
This really had it all - friendship, romance, soapy/trashy goodness, fight scenes (and not just those from the battle scenes) secrets, scandal, gorgeous locations, beautiful costumes, and all set against the backdrop of the Civil War.
I was in Charleston for my honeymoon and dragged my husband to Boone Hall, the plantation they used for Mont Royal, although my biggest interest was the African-American history. It was astonishing and sobering to see the brick slave cabins (some of the only ones in existence in terms of standing all these years later) and think about the history there.
Just finished my rewatch of Book One, and I dial back a little on my earlier comments about Virgilia. I think she started out as good intentioned... she was vehemently against slavery, and she clashed with Orry and his family about it. But after Grady died, she ventures from advocating a cause that she believed in into cuckoo land. She blamed the South and Orry in particular for killing Grady, and then tried to get Orry killed.
Fully agree that George and Orry have one of the best friendships in TV. These two were like brothers and would do anything for each other. And this was in the days before telephones and Facetime... they lived far apart so they had to make the effort of physically travelling to see each other. It would be months between when they saw each other, and they would just pick up right where they left off. I felt sad for them knowing they would be divided by war and not sure when they would see each other again.
When I first saw this show years ago, I was much younger and not aware of who any of these famous people were. I remember my parents mentioning some actors but the names didn't register with me. Then I remember watching again on VHS tape some years later and seeing the names in the credits and I had fun picking them out in the cast. This was way before the days of Wikipedia (or even probably IMDB) so it wouldn't have been as easy to find out who played who without watching.
Brett/Billy - I loved that the sweet sister "won" over her sexy, older sister even though Terri's Ashton was a hoot. And possibly UO, I preferred original Billy (John Stockwell) to Parker Stevenson's in Book II.
Anyone see "The Blue and the Gray"? How is it? That one is a little before my time but I remember my parents watching it. All I remember is a house burning and someone (I think maybe Stacy Keach's wife) dying in the fire. Will probably check it out.
Speaking of Stacy Keach, I remember a few more mini-series I enjoyed - Mistral's Daughter and Princess Daisy. Totally soapy and trashy and with MD, the ridiculousness of Stefanie Powers, then well into her 30s playing Maggy as a teenager, but I was so bummed when they took it off of YT. I also enjoyed I'll Take Manhattan with Valerie Bertinelli.
Wife and I started Book 2 last night... it turns out she doesn't really like either Billy! She didn't like the first one because she thought he looked too young ("like a kid playing army dress up"). But she doesn't like Parker Stevenson either ("such a bad actor"). I don't know the backstory of the replacement... did the first one have a conflict, or was it simply a case of Kirstie Alley wanting her then-husband on the show so they fired the first one?
Her favourite character is Charles. I told her that Charles gets recast as Kyle Chandler for Book 3 and she was disappointed, as she likes Lewis Smith. But she was heartened to know that at least he makes it to Book 3! Was there any reason for that recast? I remember Kyle Chandler being an up-and-coming actor from "Tour of Duty" and "Homefront" but not sure if Smith was unavailable or if they wanted a change.
One question that she had that I wasn't able to satisfactorily answer... Bent got dismissed from West Point. If so, how did he end up as a commanding officer in the U.S. Army in the Mexican-American War that had the power to send Orry to his intended death? The show never really addressed that and it's been far too long since I've read the books so not sure if there was a better explanation there.
I remember when this aired back in the day, and I was watching it with my mother and sister and one of us commented during the first few scenes that it was 'very like Dynasty', and we all agreed. Except we then realized that one of us had meant the music, another the clothes, and the third meant the house exterior!
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