The brothers stepped into manhood in Part 5 of "Rich Man, Poor Man." Nick Nolte, now a boxer, has become a father and Peter Strauss, caring for his invalid mother, is rising up the ranks at a department store, having graduated college at last. Not doing quite as well is Susan Blakely, married to drunken Bill Bixby, with a child, though even her future had a hint of brightness peeking through.
Time is moving fast, as Part 6 finds us in 1954. It's no wonder Peter Strauss is doing so well at the small-town department store. When a shipment of "French scarves" does not arrive on time, he tells a panicked saleswoman, "I'll tell you what you do, tell them we're sold out and we're already re-ordering." Wise, so wise. Waiting for Peter in the TV section watching the news (voiced by George Gaynes, if anyone wants to know, though it's uncredited) about the Rosenberg electrocution is his former economics professor and friend Lawrence Pressman. Peter blows off his invitation to picket Sing Sing because of a proposal he's turned into boss Ray Milland that he's anxious to hear about. One might wonder if this is the moment where Peter's character finally tarnishes a bit, but let's be fair, he's never taken a stance on anything before because he's never had to. He let others make most of his decisions (even the ones he thought were his), so to castigate him suddenly as an arch-capitalist does him an injustice. It's simply the first time he's made a decision and it just so happens that he picked his own fortune over his friend's cause.
The proposal being discussed is for Ray Milland to build another store further in the suburbs, because Peter has amassed "demographic information" that says people will be moving out there. Ray doesn't want to lay out the capital, even though Peter reminds him of the 25 times he's been right with an idea Ray didn't like. And what if Ray says no? Peter threatens to take the idea to someone else. That's some of his father's spine, I think!
Things are not going so well for Nick Nolte, unhappily married to Talia Shire. He complains she's "getting a big can...and I gotta look at it!" Talia is particularly pissed when Nick gives their baby a snake for a present.
Doing very well is Susan Blakely, now a successful journalist. Arriving home from Asia, she passes when her boss Craig Stevens asks her to cover the big new department store going up in her former hometown. She wants something, "closer to home. I've got to get reacquainted with my son, not to mention my husband." Susan's welcome home present from hubby Bill Bixby is finding him with another woman (if not a young and uncredited Mary Crosby, then a lookalike).
So, Susan takes the job upstate to see Peter, who is being huffed at big time by Ray because of delays and zoning and whatnot, calling the whole thing "a $3 million mistake in judgment." He surprises her by showing her that the complex has a gigantic theater he's obviously built with her old treading-the-board days, even if he doesn't realize it. After snapping his photo, she begs him for help. With what? Wait and see.
Peter decides to solve his political zoning problems through good old Robert Reed, wearing an outfit that even Alice wouldn't bother to clean and iron: short-sleeve button-down shirt, shorts with a belt somewhere near his neck and high socks so large they have to be folder over to stay under his knees. Fairy Godmother Robert agrees to help, informing Peter it will take $10K to bribe a state senator into approving the zoning.
Susan throws a very swanky party with all sorts of cliche New York types (not to mention her vamp friend from the previous episode) and Peter is invited because he happens to be in the city. They pay a visit to her son's room and then to her studio (this has to be the world's largest small apartment, even though it's in her bedroom) to show him the proofs from the photo shoot she did with him. Peter is worried about Susan, and I think it's because she uses way too many multi-syllabic words. However, Susan says it's her marriage to Bill Bixby that isn't working. "Are you talking about a divorce?" incredibly naive Peter asks her, as if he's encountering a foreign concept. Both Susan and Bill want the divorce, but both also want custody of their son. Peter agrees to hire detectives to track Bill and make a suitable case against him...before taking her in his arms and kissing her with the intention to do just what Bill is doing to some other woman. "Wait," she says. "Oh God, I've waited," he replies and they go back to it until hearing that Nick will be in town for a fight!
When Susan and Peter arrive at the fight, Nick seems to be very much on the losing end, but he eventually prevails. "You going backstage?" Susan asks, using an odd word that makes it sound like they are going to see the Lunts or something. He's going, she declines (remember, she has not seen him since the brief look they exchanged when he found her at Robert Reed's house a loooooong time ago). The brothers are reunited for the first time since Nick was chased out of town.
"Long time, no see," Nick says boisterously when he sees Susan, which only they understand. Later that evening, Susan tells Peter she will be at his hotel room the next afternoon, not bothering to check in at the desk! Peter gives her the there's-no-other-girl-for-me speech and they kiss.
Susan comes home to find her son being taken on a stretcher to the hospital. That's a miniseries special, heaven followed by hell, not that the miniseries invented soap opera twists, but they did take them to new heights.
Talia is FURIOUS that Nick plans to give Peter the $3K that was intended for his schooling back when Ed had to use it to bail him out of jail. He had tried to return it in the last episode, but the family had moved and he didn't try to track them. Once again, Talia gives a performance so annoying you can't wait for the moment Nick is somehow free of her.
Bill and Susan keep an all-night vigil at the hospital, waiting for news of their child. When allowed into his room, it's Bill he wants, not even noticing Susan. Bill and Susan have plenty of time to be honest with each other, and it's not discussion full of recrimination, interrupted only by the doctor telling them there's "no change" (as Susan puffs on a cigarette in the waiting room).
Nervous Nick shows up at Peter's hotel room to give him the money. Peter had not actually heard the story of the $3K, so Nick fills him in (and any viewers late to the miniseries). "I've had that thing on my back for six years and now I'm rid of it and rid of all you with it," he says gleefully. That has to sting! "You know what I think? It's a stupid gesture," Peter informs him, trying to play peacemaker, offering Nick a partnership in...well...he doesn't quite say, but whatever comes their way. "If you come in with me...there is nothing that can stop us," Peter offers, but Nick is furious and the discussion ends in an argument fueled by pride. "Say hello to the old lady for me, will ya?" Nick says as he bounces out of Peter's life again.
When Nick returns home, with flowers no less, he finds Talia and the baby gone. A note echoes what she said the night before, that "I cannot go on living with a crazy man who gives money to millionaires." He borrows $500 from Normal Fell to chase his son to Chicago.
Because their son has made it through the worst, Bill has asked Susan for another try at their marriage, disappointing to Peter, who will have to continue pining for Susan. "You are asking me to roll over and play dead," angry Peter says, trying to get her to see it his way. As usual, the universe exists only in his worldview, which goes no further than two feet from his mind.
We're just about halfway there now and still the miniseries is gripping. Yes, it plays as corny after nearly 40 years, but only because it was so endlessly imitated and because Shaw's plot twists are overly obvious. But that's only a problem when the writing sags, which it rarely does. Now that the three main characters are adults, it's engaging to see them with entire new sets of problems and choices.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) Chapter 5
Chapter 5 starts things fresh in "Rich Man, Poor Man." Ed Asner has succumbed to his failures, having bailed Nick Nolte out of one last jam, pulling the rug out from Peter Strauss' dream in the process. However, Ed is the failure of the past and Nick is the failure of the present. "Rich Man, Poor Man" hinges on the future of the American dream and somehow, plucky Peter Strauss will come to represent that, good and bad.
It's now 1950 and prodigal son Nick is returning to his small hometown, but wife Talia Shire is not allowed to detrain with him. "This ain't a social call," he tells her, though she's so far into wild overacting (her gum chewing would do a 1930s moll proud), that she isn't really paying attention anyway. Also on the train with them is Normal Fell, Nick's boxing manager. Didn't know Nick was a boxer? Yeah, we kind of skipped that part, so Normal has some dialogue with a fellow train passenger to clear it all up.
When Nick arrives on his street, he finds the long-discussed supermarket has indeed put his family out of business and his house is actually nowhere to be found. An unkindly neighbor who remembers Nick as "a little gangster" can't help. "They just left, that's all I know," she says, before deciding to tell him that his pa, Ed Asner, offed himself.
Nick, who has played more scenes in the rain than a duck, is somewhat dumbstruck, but all is literally sunshine and roses for Peter, who is graduating from college and has been offered a "teaching fellowship" at Columbia. There at graduation is the ever-weird Robert Reed, more fey than ever, asking about Susan. He informs Peter that he tracks Susan and she's no longer an actress. He takes delight in torturing these two, even though they have no idea they are being tortured. "She's in the book, under her maiden name," he advises Peter should he want to go to NYC and see her.
Things are also going very well for Peter at Ray Milland's department store, where old Ray feels paternal to him and even gives him a fancy watch and a job offer, in that order. "What would the job be?" Peter asks. "Just what you've been doing, little bit of this little bit of that, only more so," Ray says, with is either the worst description of a retail job in television history or the best offer the CIA could give without having to be specific. When Ray hears the only other offer Peter has is teaching, he launches into a tirade about progress and money that would make old Adam Smith come back to life. It is also a speech that contains most of the nuggets adding up to so many of "Rich Man, Poor Man's" themes.
Ray calms down enough to inform Peter that he has "a new gimmick they've come up with to scare you...high cholesterol!" It's 1950, remember, a time when people wrapped butter sticks in bacon. So, he needs some help running the store, some help that comes with "zing" and freshness, but NOT a business school "snot."
When Peter tells his mother the news, Dorothy McGuire, who has turned into a sickly old lady in the three years since we last saw her, isn't impressed with the money Ray has offered or the diploma Peter shows her. However, she may be going around the bend a little because she wishes Ed could see the diploma, and Peter has to remind her he's dead. She feels since no body was ever discovered, "he's somewhere this minute laughing up his sleeve." She's also gone all guilt-mother-from-hell on him. When he says he's going to New York, she says, "don't worry about me, I'll just eat a nice can of beans of something." She tells her son to remind his friend to "drive carefully...I don't know what'll happen to me if something happens to you." Well, it seems she wouldn't bother with mourning, that's for sure. It's a shame that the writing for this character has become downright bad because Mother Jordache has been one of the most consistently complex and interesting characters, with McGuire giving a fantastic performance.
Since he is going to New York City anyway, Peter decides to look up Susan. She's living in Greenwich Village with now-husband and still-sloshed Bill Bixby and a baby. Bill and Peter do not exactly hit it off, with Bill tossing nasty quips about "the Great American Dream" Peter's way, though Peter doesn't get too riled.
Susan has taken up photography, but has yet to sell a photo. She long ago realized acting wasn't her thing, though she can still quote her beloved "As You Like It." A very uncomfortable dinner follows, complete with a vamp girlfriend of Susan's and Bill's increasingly bad attitude. Peter sleeps with the vamp, but leaves at 4am to get to his knew job, though she gets awfully crazy about it. First she plays the lonely card and then hurls an ash tray at his head.
Drunken Bill couldn't be pulled from sleep and had an article due ("this month's rent"), so Susan finished it for him. Actress, photographer, writer. An argument ensues because Bill is jealous of Peter. "You're having your name taken out of the telephone book!" he roars. "Oh, really?" she replies. "No, O'Reilly." Crickets. The argument continues, but Bill manages to joke his way back into Susan's good graces.
Peter has been "working pretty hard" at the store, but still keeps in touch with his economics professor, Lawrence Pressman, a rather bland character until he invites Peter to attend a rally against killing the Rosenbergs. That instantly makes him a lefty, which was not a good thing to be in 1950.
Peter is frustrated at his stagnating life (which is actually going pretty well) and more fits from his mother, and right before a big fight of Nick's, Talia goes into labor with their first child. He packs her off to the hospital with Norman while Nick stays and fights. Nick, still in his gloves, rushes to the hospital to find out he has a son. "There ain't nothing in the world's gonna stop me now," he says.
It's now 1950 and prodigal son Nick is returning to his small hometown, but wife Talia Shire is not allowed to detrain with him. "This ain't a social call," he tells her, though she's so far into wild overacting (her gum chewing would do a 1930s moll proud), that she isn't really paying attention anyway. Also on the train with them is Normal Fell, Nick's boxing manager. Didn't know Nick was a boxer? Yeah, we kind of skipped that part, so Normal has some dialogue with a fellow train passenger to clear it all up.
When Nick arrives on his street, he finds the long-discussed supermarket has indeed put his family out of business and his house is actually nowhere to be found. An unkindly neighbor who remembers Nick as "a little gangster" can't help. "They just left, that's all I know," she says, before deciding to tell him that his pa, Ed Asner, offed himself.
Nick, who has played more scenes in the rain than a duck, is somewhat dumbstruck, but all is literally sunshine and roses for Peter, who is graduating from college and has been offered a "teaching fellowship" at Columbia. There at graduation is the ever-weird Robert Reed, more fey than ever, asking about Susan. He informs Peter that he tracks Susan and she's no longer an actress. He takes delight in torturing these two, even though they have no idea they are being tortured. "She's in the book, under her maiden name," he advises Peter should he want to go to NYC and see her.
Things are also going very well for Peter at Ray Milland's department store, where old Ray feels paternal to him and even gives him a fancy watch and a job offer, in that order. "What would the job be?" Peter asks. "Just what you've been doing, little bit of this little bit of that, only more so," Ray says, with is either the worst description of a retail job in television history or the best offer the CIA could give without having to be specific. When Ray hears the only other offer Peter has is teaching, he launches into a tirade about progress and money that would make old Adam Smith come back to life. It is also a speech that contains most of the nuggets adding up to so many of "Rich Man, Poor Man's" themes.
Ray calms down enough to inform Peter that he has "a new gimmick they've come up with to scare you...high cholesterol!" It's 1950, remember, a time when people wrapped butter sticks in bacon. So, he needs some help running the store, some help that comes with "zing" and freshness, but NOT a business school "snot."
When Peter tells his mother the news, Dorothy McGuire, who has turned into a sickly old lady in the three years since we last saw her, isn't impressed with the money Ray has offered or the diploma Peter shows her. However, she may be going around the bend a little because she wishes Ed could see the diploma, and Peter has to remind her he's dead. She feels since no body was ever discovered, "he's somewhere this minute laughing up his sleeve." She's also gone all guilt-mother-from-hell on him. When he says he's going to New York, she says, "don't worry about me, I'll just eat a nice can of beans of something." She tells her son to remind his friend to "drive carefully...I don't know what'll happen to me if something happens to you." Well, it seems she wouldn't bother with mourning, that's for sure. It's a shame that the writing for this character has become downright bad because Mother Jordache has been one of the most consistently complex and interesting characters, with McGuire giving a fantastic performance.
Since he is going to New York City anyway, Peter decides to look up Susan. She's living in Greenwich Village with now-husband and still-sloshed Bill Bixby and a baby. Bill and Peter do not exactly hit it off, with Bill tossing nasty quips about "the Great American Dream" Peter's way, though Peter doesn't get too riled.
Susan has taken up photography, but has yet to sell a photo. She long ago realized acting wasn't her thing, though she can still quote her beloved "As You Like It." A very uncomfortable dinner follows, complete with a vamp girlfriend of Susan's and Bill's increasingly bad attitude. Peter sleeps with the vamp, but leaves at 4am to get to his knew job, though she gets awfully crazy about it. First she plays the lonely card and then hurls an ash tray at his head.
Drunken Bill couldn't be pulled from sleep and had an article due ("this month's rent"), so Susan finished it for him. Actress, photographer, writer. An argument ensues because Bill is jealous of Peter. "You're having your name taken out of the telephone book!" he roars. "Oh, really?" she replies. "No, O'Reilly." Crickets. The argument continues, but Bill manages to joke his way back into Susan's good graces.
Peter has been "working pretty hard" at the store, but still keeps in touch with his economics professor, Lawrence Pressman, a rather bland character until he invites Peter to attend a rally against killing the Rosenbergs. That instantly makes him a lefty, which was not a good thing to be in 1950.
Peter is frustrated at his stagnating life (which is actually going pretty well) and more fits from his mother, and right before a big fight of Nick's, Talia goes into labor with their first child. He packs her off to the hospital with Norman while Nick stays and fights. Nick, still in his gloves, rushes to the hospital to find out he has a son. "There ain't nothing in the world's gonna stop me now," he says.
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