Dixon Carter Lee
Headliner
- Joined
- Nov 22, 1999
- Posts
- 48,681
I was watching it on the Hallmark Channel when I realized I knew one of the writers. I spoke to him yesterday about the show, and we talked about how good it was, and how he was proud of the whole thing except the last two hours when they ran out of money and had to change the book's story and shoot a simpler ending.
Anyway, I guess it didn't occur to me back in the 70s, but I noticed a deliberate casting of television "father figures" to play the white oppressors (Lorne Greene, Chuck Connors, Robert Reed, Lloyd Bridges, Ralph Waite, etc.) which I thought was brilliant.
The whole series really stands up. It's well acted, well researched, well produced, and really has a good sense of time and place. I still think it's one of the best things I've ever seen on television. Even LaVar Burton was good.
I can't think of anything on television today that would make an entire country set aside a week to watch, you know, aside from a fucking war, or a reeeeeeally long helicopter car chase.
Anyway, I guess it didn't occur to me back in the 70s, but I noticed a deliberate casting of television "father figures" to play the white oppressors (Lorne Greene, Chuck Connors, Robert Reed, Lloyd Bridges, Ralph Waite, etc.) which I thought was brilliant.
The whole series really stands up. It's well acted, well researched, well produced, and really has a good sense of time and place. I still think it's one of the best things I've ever seen on television. Even LaVar Burton was good.
I can't think of anything on television today that would make an entire country set aside a week to watch, you know, aside from a fucking war, or a reeeeeeally long helicopter car chase.
