In 1842, Orry Main (Patrick Swayze) leaves Mont Royal, the family cotton plantation near Charleston, South Carolina, to attend West Point for two years of officer training.
On the way, he stops a runaway carriage and meets and falls in love with Southern belle Madeline Fabray (Lesley-Anne Down), who agrees to write to him.
On arrival at the academy, Orry meets fellow cadet George Hazard (James Read), the son of a rich Pennsylvania industrialist. They will become lifelong friends.
Life at the academy is difficult in these pre-Civil War years, and Orry meets with abolitionists for the first time.
Orry and George’s real nemesis, however, is a drillmaster called Elkanah Bent (Philip Casnoff) – a cruel and relentless persecutor who takes particular pleasure in humbling Ohio cadet Ned Fisk (Andy Stahl) at sword practice but is humiliatingly defeated by Orry.
Bent is so hell-bent on revenge that even saving his life during a demerit points-chase is cruelly ‘rewarded’.
Two years pass, and the cadets get their first leave. Orry visits George’s family and is impressed by the ironworks they own (Hazard Iron). He also meets George’s sister Virgilia (Kirstie Alley in an annoyingly screechy performance), a rabid abolitionist who refuses to sit at the dinner table with him because his family has slaves on their plantation (largely out of economic necessity).
On his trip home, he learns that Madeline is to marry another local plantation owner, Justin LaMotte (played to a dastardly turn by David Carradine), at the behest of her father, Nicholas (Lee Bergere) and discovers why he hasn’t received any letters from her. LaMotte is a cruel and violent man, as Madeline learns on her wedding night.
Back at West Point, Bent arranges for Ned Fisk to be thrown during a hellish ride on his fiery mount Satan and bluffs his way out of a court-martial. But Orry and his pals arrange for the academy president to find his ‘love rival’ in Alice’s bed and bully him out of West Point after a promise of eternal revenge.
Orry begins a secret affair with Madeline while Bent plays his secret trump card – Ohio Senator Charles Edwards (Gene Kelly) is his natural father – to get commissioned as an infantry captain in President Polk’s war to wrest Texas from Mexico.
He sends lieutenants Orry and George on a virtual suicide reconnaissance at Churubusco. Shell-hit Orry is crippled for life, but Constance (Wendy Kilbourne), the daughter of Colonel Patrick Flynn MD (Robert Mitchum) – who saved Orry from worse – becomes George’s true love and agrees to marry him. He eventually inherits half of the family ironworks and – sickened by war – leaves the military.
The 12-hour miniseries, based on a best-seller by John Jakes, was originally telecast in the US in six two-hour segments on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
The series then descends into soap opera-style melodrama in the manner of Dynasty – albeit with even more cleavage!
Musical icon Johnny Cash plays John Brown in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo designed to bring “star power” to the series. Other big-name cameos include Robert Guillaume (as Frederick Douglass), Elizabeth Taylor (as a madam in a New Orleans brothel) and Gene Kelly.
The warfare, conflicts and dangling plots at the end of the “final” episode were picked up the following spring with the 12-hour North and South: Book II.
Orry Main
Patrick Swayze Madeline Fabray LaMotte
Lesley-Anne Down George Hazard
James Read Elkanah Bent
Philip Casnoff Ned Fisk
Andy Stahl Virgilia Hazard
Kirstie Alley Justin LaMotte
David Carradine Nicholas Fabray
Lee Bergere Alice Peet
Terri Gardner Sen. Charles Edwards
Gene Kelly Constance Flynn Hazard
Wendy Kilbourne Patrick Flynn
Robert Mitchum Garrison Grady
Georg Stanford Brown Brett Main
Genie Francis Ashton Main Huntoon
Terri Garber James Huntoon
Jim Metzler Charles Main
Lewis Smith Billy Hazard
John Stockwell John Brown
Johnny Cash Maum Sally
Olivia Cole Burdetta Halloran
Morgan Fairchild Frederick Douglass
Robert Guillaume Abraham Lincoln
Hal Holbrook Clarissa Main
Jean Simmons Congressman Sam Greene
David Ogden Stiers Maude Hazard
Inga Swenson Madam Conti
Elizabeth Taylor William Hazard
John Anderson Stanley Hazard
Jonathan Frakes Isabel Truscott Hazard
Wendy Fulton Priam
David Harris Tillet Main
Mitchell Ryan Cuffey
Forest Whitaker Corporal Owens
Michael McClendon Semiramis
Erica Gimpel Forbes LaMotte
William Ostrander Salem Jones
Tony Frank
Related Posts
Beulah Land 1 9 8 0 (USA) 3 x 120 minute episodes Beulah Land was a three-night drama series adapted from the Deep…
Frontier 1 9 6 8 (UK) 8 x 55 minute episodes This drama series - the first to be broadcast by the…
Oranges and Lemons 1 9 7 3 (UK) 4 x 60 minute episodes This short ITV Sunday night drama series from London Weekend Television…
On arrival at the academy, Orry meets fellow cadet George Hazard (James Read), the son of a rich Pennsylvania industrialist. They will become lifelong friends.
He sends lieutenants Orry and George on a virtual suicide reconnaissance at Churubusco. Shell-hit Orry is crippled for life, but Constance (Wendy Kilbourne), the daughter of Colonel Patrick Flynn MD (Robert Mitchum) – who saved Orry from worse – becomes George’s true love and agrees to marry him. He eventually inherits half of the family ironworks and – sickened by war – leaves the military.
