Beacon Hill (TV series)

*Beacon Hill*
Beacon Hill
Genre	Drama
Composer	Marvin Hamlisch
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	11 (+2 unaired)
Production
Executive producer	Beryl Vertue
Producer	Jacqueline Babbin
Running time	60 minutes
Production company	Robert Stigwood Organization
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	August 25 –; November 4, 1975

Beacon Hill is a prime time period drama series which aired on CBS in 1975. Set after World War I in Boston's Beacon Hill area, the show was conceived as an Americanized version of the popular British series Upstairs, Downstairs (1971–1975) and focused on the wealthy Irish-American Lassiter family and their Irish immigrant servants, who reside together on Louisburg Square.^[1]^[2]

The show was produced by Jacqueline Babbin^[1] and Beryl Vertue, the former literary agent of Upstairs, Downstairs co-creator Jean Marsh.^[3]^[4]

Production

The first episode cost $900,000 to produce, and the music was composed by Marvin Hamlisch.^[1] Christopher Schemering of The Soap Opera Encyclopedia called Beacon Hill "the most touted prime-time soap since the Lana Turner-George Hamilton debacle The Survivors".^[1]

The series premiered on August 25, 1975, with an "impressive audience" of "43% of people watching TV" that evening, but it could not sustain those ratings.^[1] Schemering wrote that "the overly large cast and fragmented stories did not allow the audience to get its bearings."^[1] The show was cancelled after 11 weeks (two further episodes remained unaired) with its last episode airing on November 4, 1975.^[1]

Cast and characters

The show starred Stephen Elliott as patriarch Benjamin Lassiter, a self-made businessman and éminence grise at Boston City Hall, and Nancy Marchand as his wife Mary, an elegant society woman from a wealthy family. They have five children; eldest daughter Maude (Maeve McGuire), who is married to yachting enthusiast Richard Palmer (Edward Herrmann); middle daughter Emily (DeAnn Mears), who is married to stockbroker Trevor Bullock (Roy Cooper) and is the mother of the spoilt Betsy (Linda Purl); "plain jane" Rosamond (Kitty Winn), who helps out the family business; bohemian Fawn (Kathryn Walker), who is having an affair with her Italian piano teacher Giorgio Bellonci (Michael Nouri); and Robert, the Lassiters’ only son, who has returned from France after losing an arm in World War I.

The servants consist of Arthur Hacker (George Rose), the family butler; his wife Emmeline (Beatrice Straight), the head housekeeper; his niece Maureen Mahaffey (Susan Blanchard), who works as a maid; his nephew Brian Mallory (Paul Ryan Rudd), the chauffeur who is having an affair with Rosamond; former chauffeur Harry Emmet (Barry Snider); footman Terence O'Hara (David Rounds); cook William Piper (Richard Ward) and his son Grant (Don Blakely); Marilyn Gardiner (Holland Taylor), Mary's personal assistant and secretary; and maids Eleanor (Sydney Swire) and Kate (Lisa Pelican).

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	US viewers (millions)
1	"Pilot"	Fielder Cook	Sidney Carroll	August 25, 1975 (1975-08-25)	23.1^[5]
2	"The Colonel and the Fawn"	Burt Brinckerhoff	Irving Gaynor Neiman	September 2, 1975 (1975-09-02)	17.6
3	"The Marblehead Club"	Peter Levin	David Wiltse	September 9, 1975 (1975-09-09)	14.6
4	"The Poor Little Thing"	Peter Levin	Story by : Sidney Carroll Teleplay by : David Wiltse	September 16, 1975 (1975-09-16)	15.2
5	"The Soldiers"	Peter Levin	David Wiltse	September 23, 1975 (1975-09-23)	12.2
6	"The Shining Example"	Peter Levin	Sidney Carroll	September 30, 1975 (1975-09-30)	14.3
7	"The Speakeasy"	Peter Levin	David Wiltse	October 7, 1975 (1975-10-07)	12.7
8	"The Million Dollar Gate"	Peter Levin	Allan Sloane	October 14, 1975 (1975-10-14)	9.7
9	"The Suitors"	Paul Lammers	David Wiltse	October 21, 1975 (1975-10-21)	8.2
10	"The Test"	Peter Levin	Story by : Sidney Carroll Teleplay by : George Baxt	October 28, 1975 (1975-10-28)	10.8
11	"The Pretenders"	Mel Ferber	Story by : Anne Howard Bailey Teleplay by : Irving Gaynor Neiman	November 4, 1975 (1975-11-04)	10.5
12	"The Debut"	unknown	unknown	unaired	unaired
13	"The Visit"	unknown	unknown	unaired	unaired

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Schemering, Christopher (September 1985). The Soap Opera Encyclopedia (1st ed.). Ballantine Books. pp. 38–39. ISBN 0-345-32459-5.
^ Andrews, Bart; Dunning, Brad (1980). The Worst TV Shows Ever. New York: E. P. Dutton. pp. 7–14. ISBN 0525475923.
^ "Beryl Vertue OBE: Producer and Chairman". Hartswood Films. 2012. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
^ "Beryl Vertue". BBC. 16 June 2004. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
^ Bruce B. Morris, Prime Time Network Serials: Episode Guides, Casts and Credits for 37 Continuing Television Dramas, 1964-1993, McFarland and Company, 1997.

External links

Beacon Hill at IMDb

[1985_Encyc-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Schemering, Christopher (September 1985). The Soap Opera Encyclopedia (1st ed.). Ballantine Books. pp. 38–39. ISBN 0-345-32459-5.

[2] Andrews, Bart; Dunning, Brad (1980). The Worst TV Shows Ever. New York: E. P. Dutton. pp. 7–14. ISBN 0525475923.

[3] "Beryl Vertue OBE: Producer and Chairman". Hartswood Films. 2012. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 25 September 2015.

[4] "Beryl Vertue". BBC. 16 June 2004. Retrieved 25 September 2015.

[5] Bruce B. Morris, Prime Time Network Serials: Episode Guides, Casts and Credits for 37 Continuing Television Dramas, 1964-1993, McFarland and Company, 1997.

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