1 9 7 5 (USA)
1 x 120 minute episode
13 x 60 minute episodes
Blending drama, virtuoso acting, social commentary and soap opera, the British series Upstairs Downstairsdrew crowds of viewers to the American PBS channel.
This short-lived but lavish period drama series from CBS was ostensibly an adaptation of the superb UK series, but placed in an American setting.
The various storylines revolved around the lives of the wealthy Lassiter family in 1920s Boston and their household staff.
Ben Lassiter (Stephen Elliott) was a hard-driving industrialist and political boss, and the powerful patriarch of a family that included his worry-prone wife, Mary (Nancy Marchand), their suicidally depressed son, Robert (David Dukes) – who had lost an arm in the war – and four daughters of widely differing personalities.
Fawn Lassiter (Kathryn Walker) was the “free-spirited” Bohemian offspring who drank too much, stripped at parties, and lived with poets; Emily Bullock (DeAnn Mears) had discovered alcohol; Maude Palmer (Maeve McGuire) was married into a thoroughbred family, and Rosamond Lassiter (Kitty Winn) was plain and unmarried.
The household staff, directed by the head butler Arthur Hacker (George Rose), had its own set of problems, and their lives, as one might suspect, were totally enmeshed with those of their employers.
His wife, Emmeline Hacker (Beatrice Straight), was something of a heartless slave-driver, having none of the sympathetic qualities that endeared the character of Mrs Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs.
Brian Mallory (Paul Rudd) was a brash lad who was determined to rise in the world in a hurry.
The cast was huge (and recruited mostly from the Broadway stage), the sets, costumes and production values were the best, and a special two-hour advanced premiere on 2 August 1975 received top ratings.
Despite being a show of the highest quality, the audience steadily declined, and the series (which aired on Tuesdays at 10:00 pm) was largely unsuccessful.
CBS cancelled the programme after only 13 episodes.
Benjamin Lassiter
Stephen Elliott
Mary Lassiter
Nancy Marchand
Mr Hacker
George Rose
Mrs Hacker
Beatrice Straight
Trevor Bullock
Roy Cooper
Robert Lassiter
David Dukes
Richard Palmer
Edward Herrman
Maude Palmer
Maeve McGuire
Emily Bullock
Deann Mears
Giorgio Bellonci
Michael Nouri
Betsy Bullock
Linda Purl
Terence O’Hara
David Rounds
Brian Mallory
Paul Rudd
Harry Emmet
Barry Snider
Eleanor
Sydney Swire
Marilyn Gardiner
Holland Taylor
Fawn Lassiter
Kathryn Walker
William Piper
Richard Ward
Rosamond Lassiter
Kitty Winn
