North and South (TV miniseries)

North and South is the title of three American television miniseries broadcast on the ABC network in 1985, 1986, and 1994. Set before, during, and immediately after the American Civil War, they are based on the 1980s trilogy of novels North and South by John Jakes. The 1985 first installment, North and South, remains the seventhhighest rated miniseries in TV history. North and South Book II 1986 was met with similar success, while 1994s Heaven and Hell North and South Book III was poorly received by both critics and audiences.

The initial 1985 miniseries cast Patrick Swayze as Orry Main and James Read as George Hazard with LesleyAnne Down as Orrys love interest Madeline and Wendy Kilbourne as Georges future wife Constance. Kirstie Alley played Georges outspoken abolitionist sister Virgilia, with Genie Francis as Orrys good sister Brett and Terri Garber as his selfish and wicked sister Ashton, as well as Philip Casnoff as Elkanah Bent, George and Orrys nemesis. All of these actors returned for the 1986 sequel, joined by Parker Stevenson as Billy Hazard, Georges brother and Bretts husband.North and South 1985 also featured many wellknown actors as guest stars, including Elizabeth Taylor as bordello proprietor Madam Conti, David Carradine as the sadistic Justin LaMotte, Hal Holbrook as Abraham Lincoln, Gene Kelly as Bents father Senator Charles Edwards, Robert Mitchum as Colonel Patrick Flynn, M.D., Johnny Cash as abolitionist John Brown, Jean Simmons as Orrys mother Clarissa Main, Mitchell Ryan as Orrys father Tillet Main, John Anderson as Georges father William Hazard, Jonathan Frakes as Georges older brother Stanley Hazard, Inga Swenson as Georges mother Maude Hazard, Robert Guillaume as abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Morgan Fairchild as Burdetta Halloran, David Ogden Stiers as Congressman Sam Greene, and Olivia Cole as Madelines devoted but doomed servant Maum Sally. John Jakes wife Rachel also made an appearance in Episodeas Lincolns wife Mary. North and South Book II 1986 saw the return of Carradine as LaMotte, Holbrook as Lincoln, and Stiers as Congressman Greene, as well as new guests Lloyd Bridges as Jefferson Davis, Anthony Zerbe as Ulysses S. Grant, Nancy Marchand as Dorothea Dix, James Stewart as Miles Colbert, Wayne Newton as Captain Thomas Turner, and William Schallert as Robert E. Lee, with Linda Evans as Rose Sinclair and Olivia de Havilland as Mrs. Neal. 1994s Heaven and Hell featured Peter OToole as louche actor Sam Trump and Billy Dee Williams as F

Source: Wikipedia