This eight-hour-long four-part CBS mini-series – based on the book of the same name by John Dean, the mild-mannered softly-spoken counsel to President Nixon – is widely regarded as the definitive telling of the Watergate scandal.
The docu-drama was a fairly exhaustive recreation of so many acts of willful deceit and tangled webs that the cast of characters became confusing. The dialogue – wherever possible – was verbatim, and some of the line-for-line scenes in the Oval Office were chilling, as when Dean (Martin Sheen) jokingly suggests to Nixon’s hatchet man Chares Colson (Michael Callan) that he send oranges to protesters arrested during the 1971 May Day demonstrations (Democratic presidential candidate Edmund Muskie had a habit of sending crates of oranges to supporters).
When Dean decides to blow the whole Watergate situation open, he seeks the best criminal lawyer in Washington DC, Charles Shaffer (Ed Flanders), to tell his story.
The $6 million-plus production took 82 days to shoot and was sold to 19 countries overseas.
John Dean
Martin Sheen Charles Colson
Michael Callan G. Gordon Liddy
William Daniels Fielding
Clifford David Charles Shaffer
Ed Flanders Jeb Stuart Magruder
Christopher Guest John Ehrlichman
Graham Jarvis John J. ‘Jack’ Caufield
Gerald S. O’Loughlin George Simonson
Alan Oppenheimer H.R. Haldeman
Lawrence Pressman John Mitchell
John Randolph Robert Mardian
Peter Mark Richman Ronald Ziegler
James Sloyan Richard M. Nixon
Rip Torn Richard Kleindienst
William Windom Maureen Dean
Theresa Russell Donald Segretti
Fred Grandy Liz Garfield
Jenny O’Hara Mrs Kleindienst
K Callan Herbert Kalmbach
William Schallert Earl Silbert
James Karen Neal
Paul Lukather J. Edgar Hoover
Logan Ramsey Egil Krogh
Kip Niven Sam Dash
David Sheiner L. Patrick Gray
Lonny Chapman Joey
Joe Mantell Frederick LaRue
Darrell Zwerling Jack Garfield
Terence McGovern E. Howard Hunt
James Greene Pat Nixon
Cathleen Cordell Senator Baker’s Wife
Mary Linda Rapelye Judge John Sirica
Al Checco Colson’s Secretary
Janice Kent May-Chapin’s Secretary
Mitzi Hoag Mr Dolman
William Kerwin Carol
Garn Stephens Paul
Jack Kosslyn Robert McCandless
Alan Haufrect Jane
Lee Kessler Marshall
Ron Recasner Moore
Dan Priest Hugh Sloan
Ralph Byers
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