Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) Chapter 12--THE END (and insights)

We are at the end.  We've made it through the first acknowledged Great American Miniseries.  As we enter the final lap, some lives are fraying (Peter Strauss' and Susan Blakely's) and some are flying (Nick Nolte's).  The problem child has wised up and become a dependable man with a son and a fiancee.  The once-dependable man is hassled and henpecked.  How will it end?

At the very end of Chapter 11, Nick's seemingly blissful existence was about to gain cloud cover as sworn enemy William Smith had found him.  He had beaten up William Smith a few years earlier, so badly that William lost an eye.  As Chapter 12 starts, Herbert Jefferson brings Nick the news that William is nearby.  For now, Nick is so happy with his son back and in love with Kay, who finally accepts his proposal of marriage because she's pregnant.  

Fortunes are up for Nick, but down for Peter Strauss, his political career on the rise, but very unpopular with the youth who are angry at his position on ROTC.  In fact, he orders an editorial written "drawing parallels between the New Left and Hitler."  That's how out-of-touch he's become.  Worse yet, Susan has become a full-time lush, so bad even the maid can't deal with her.  She and Peter have a massive fight where both admit it is time to think about their failing marriage.  

The students decide to picket Peter's house, throw rocks and get Susan to open the door, naked and drunk.  Peter blames the mayor, the police and everyone else but himself, and only because of the affects it may have on his political career.  This is where he finally snaps.  All the years of creating his perfect life have been derailed and he becomes...his brother.

He goes to the school paper and tears the place up, punching a guy, knocking down a shelf accidentally on a girl, who is blinded by the chemicals falling on her, all of it caught by salivating photographers.  Their lives have finally reversed, to some degree.  

Susan goes to the hospital to dry out, worried that she has ended her husband's career, but he now takes full credit.  The guilt is eating at him, especially when the blinded girl acts very heroic about her state.  Peter and Susan want another chance, if she can give up alcohol and he can give up politics.  

Peter and Susan travel to France for Nick and Kay's wedding.  It's a joyous wedding and other than a sip of wine for a toast, Susan doesn't drink.  Nick is thrilled to have Peter there.  His present to his brother is a radar that Nick has always wanted for his boat.  "This is the greatest damn wedding anybody ever had," Nick claims in drunken delight, before passing out.  "I'm afraid the wedding night might have to be postponed," Kay admits in good cheer.  

In case the true reversal of fortune for the leads has not become obvious, it's Susan who points it out, telling Peter she can't believe how well Nick has turned out.  "He's changed so much," she ruefully says.  "Haven't we all?" Peter adds.  "But he's changed for the better."  

Unable to sleep, Susan leaves Peter in bed and goes to a bar.  Who joins her there?  William Smith, of course.  A local rushes to Nick to tell him he's spotted Susan in a seedy strip club with William Smith.  Nick tracks her down and finds William trying to rape Susan.  When Nick bursts in, William holds a knife to Susan before the inevitable William-Nick fight.  Susan is beaten up a little, Nick must worse, but when Nick has the chance to kill William, the latter begs for his life and Nick leaves him with it.  As he tells Kay proudly, "I could have killed a man, but I didn't."

Naturally, Peter is angry at Susan, both full of excuses, and the subject of divorce comes up again, tabled again.  

William exacts his revenge, looking from yards away as his goons stab Nick.  When Kay finds him, he's barely alive.  That means a hospital scene!  Naturally, it's between the brothers, Nick barely able to speak, but wanting his brother there at the very end.  "You go get 'em...you go get the bad guys," Nick says.  "I don't know who they are anymore.  I think I'm one of them," Peter cries.  "No...you're not," Nick assures him and then dies.  This scene is brief and handled beautifully, where it could have easily been drawn-out and maudlin.

Nick's ashes are thrown into the ocean by his son and wife, with his brother, sister-in-law and loyal Herbert in attendance.  "He died on the happiest day of his life," Kay assures Herbert.  Peter and Susan are able to join hands with some amount of hope as the miniseries finally ends.

And there you have it, all of "Rich Man, Poor Man."  It still sparkles with true genius.  The early episodes looked like they might have to rely heavily on vets like Ed Asner and Dorothy McGuire, who were utterly fantastic, but the three leads definitely stepped up and controlled the 12 parts like pros.  Actually, it would stand to be some of their best work ever.  Sure, Nick Nolte rose to superstardom, but it was erratic and often fueled more by controversy than talent.  Peter Strauss and Susan Blakely stayed with television.  Peter would not only return for more of "Rich Man, Poor Man" in an ill-advised sequel, but would pretty much play the same good-guy character to this day (and in a few big miniseries).  Susan Blakely

What's new is not the story, but the telling.  The 1970 Shaw novel could have very easily been condensed into a major motion picture, probably cutting most of the characters and all of the charm, leaving us with cardboard characters and fey storytelling.  Instead, a bunch of brave people decided to try something different: taking a lot of what British television had been doing for ages (and, in truth American television had tentatively done previously), filming the whole story, or most of it, in epic style. We're not chopping Shaw down to two hours, or even three.  It received 12 episodes and was broadcast over enough time to keep viewers interested.  This is something new.  It's not the standard 20some episodes of a cop or hospital show, where viewers didn't have to watch every week to know what was happening, but it was given the opulent treatment of a successful television drama.  It's also not daytime soap opera, which had done all of these plots before, stretching them out over years at a time.  It's a mix. Thus the term miniseries.  Everything is wrapped up in a tight package, but the package is bigger than ever mounted before.  

If a fairly hokey and predictable novel like "Rich Man, Poor Man" could be done in this style, what about something bigger?  What if we don't just travel through 20 odd years with a few people and a bunch of costume changes?  What if we go even bigger?  After all, that's what Hollywood is known for. In the immediate future, there was the bravery of adapting Alex Haley's "Roots," a long but very stark look at the very heart of American society, and further down the road such enormous sagas as "Holocaust," a European-based equivalent of "Roots" and every bit as brave, "North and South" or "Winds of War."  But, "Rich Man, Poor Man," while sending producers scrambling for well-reviewed long novels, also realized that it wasn't necessarily the saga of the thing, but the soap in it too, which led to "The Thorn Birds" or "East of Eden."  Hell, some of them weren't even that intelligent and spread before us "Harem" and "Kane and Abel," pure trash dolled up to look like the millions of bucks they cost.  

But they were all successful, to varying degrees, and this push toward big television kept on going for 20 years.  It ended with cable television and the Internet pulling away focus, but that's a story for 1995 or so, not 1976.  In 1976, "Rich Man, Poor Man" was staggeringly new, full of vivacity and emotion, setting rules for an entire genre no one knew would necessarily follow.  After all, this could have been an enormous dud.  If viewers were not gripped from the onset, there was no chance of keeping them hooked (a lesson learned years later when the miniseries reached its most outlandish size with "War and Remembrance").  But, "Rich Man, Poor Man" hooks.  It has real characters, small-town people with real problems.  Sure, they get a little lofty at the end, but their problems are always real: fear, jealousy, happiness, love, loss.  That's the secret to all the Great American Miniseries: dress them up in whatever finery you want, cast the hell out of the piece, give it all the trappings, but make it somehow relatable to people turning on their television sets.  They aren't paying money to go to a theater and see this, so they aren't trapped.  The only way to keep them is to grab hold from the beginning and never let go.  From the moment Rudy Jordache plays his bugle to herald the end of a devastating world war and the moment Tom Jordache sneers at it, from Axel Jordache miserable in a basement bakery to Mary Jordache ignoring the badness to focus on her shining star son, or even the simplicity of Susan Blakely as a candy striper reading "Gone With the Wind" to wounded soldiers, these are people the folks at home can understand.  Understand them, understand their problems, and stick to that.  The problems may get loftier (in minute ways like state politics here or in massive horrors like slavery or concentration camps in later pieces), but the way the characters deal with them will not.  Watch Meryl Streep in "Holocaust" and though the world is exploding around her, she only wants her husband back.

And that, as I see it, is the secret to the Great American Miniseries, letting the viewers in for a limited time to emotions they can comprehend.  Television usually keeps us outside of the box, laughing at outrageous Lucy ruining Desi's show, or Dorothy and Sophia snapping at each other, or by having Dr. Kildare solve yet another medical mystery we would never have been able to understand, ditto for Jessica Fletcher, asking us to stop our lives and give them over to other people for 30 or 60 minutes.  Not so with the miniseries.  Sure, you can send us to Medieval Japan in "Shogun," but what are we asked to believe there?  That the hero wants to understand what he's never seen and then falls madly in love?  Not so far-fetched (emotionally).  What was the secret behind "A Woman Named Jackie?"  That one of the 20th Century's most discussed women loved and hated and regretted and feared.  Sounds real enough to me, no matter the costumes or the sources of those emotions.  

Unfortunately, not every miniseries will be this intelligent, but they don't have to be because not everybody wants to think with the television on, though they can still come inside.  What emotions are we expected to have for Ted Bundy in "A Deliberate Stranger?"  None, it's just there for shock value, as would be many true-crime sagas, but we breathlessly follow Mark Harmon's every move.  What are we to make of "Fresno" other than feeling the hangover that comes with biting the hand that feeds you (and badly)?  Nothing, it's just there because someone thought it would be clever.  Or traditional epics that had been filmed before like beloved "Ivanhoe" or "The Scarlet Pimpernel?"  Nothing, just bask in the glow of their incredible storytelling for which you don't have to leave your home and pay money for seats and popcorn to get drawn in.  Granted, Ted Bundy and the French Revolution are delicious hooks for a television audience and they deserve more than just an hour condensation, but there is also the value of pure entertainment to be considered.  After 12 episodes of Susan Blakely's moping in "Rich Man, Poor Man," one has had enough.  One can still relate, but one can also want it to end.  The great thing is that it does, because the miniseries always end.  They do not continue season after season.  With that, we're back to the brilliance of creating such a genre.  

Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) Chapter 11

Folks, we have hit the penultimate episode of "Rich Man, Poor Man."  There are only about 90 minutes left to wrap up the story.  In Chapter 10, brothers Peter Strauss and Nick Nolte were reunited after many years to face the death of Mama Dorothy McGuire.  Peter won his election to the state senate, which caused Susan to crawl further into the bottle and become a danger to his career.  Meanwhile, Nick got the money to start his yacht charter business in Marseilles with pal William Jefferson, though ever aware that the mob is on his tail for an offense committed many years ago.  However, a more recent fight may cause his security to unravel.

We pick up the story three years after we last left it, in 1965.  Susan, sober at breakfast, is still a bit touchy, especially when Peter's career intrudes on their time together.  She has had no letter from her son, but she actually delights in a letter from Nick, who reveals in minute detail what has been going on with his yacht charter business.  "Yeah, but is he making any money?" Peter asks, now as icy and cold as perhaps his old mentor Robert Reed.  Nick and Susan came face to face with each other and settled their past in Chapter 10.

All is not actually well in this house.  Knowing Nick needs rich people to charter his boat, which he has named after his long-ago love Fionnula Flanagan, Susan suggests Peter tell Van and his wife Dorothy Malone they should hire him.  Yes, she admits she wants him gone for a while because "he scares me," although she can't explain why.  Peter says he might have to bring his political backer home for lunch, which Susan takes as a warning not to get "looped before lunch."

Peter has to dart off to his old college, where he's donated some equipment to the school paper he once helped to run.  The current editor, a youth of another generation, challenges him.  He wants to know if Peter will run for national election in 1966, and Van Johnson asks if he would vote for him.  Seemingly not, as Peter represents the old guard, though Peter reminds him of his voting record and that they actually may be on the same page.  Peter takes the ribbing, which Van Johnson sees as a sign that Peter may have "the right touch" with the youth.  The conversation then turns to Susan, whom Van hints is becoming a political liability.  Peter suggests Van and Dorothy use Nick's boat.

And they do.  The two arrive looking like the lead characters in "La Cage Aux Folles" (okay that's a cheap shot since Van Johnson still had the role of Georges in that show looming on his fading horizon), both sporting fake hair and lots of make-up.  The only problem is that their cook has never materialized and the Van Johnsons were promised a good cook.  The one they hired has landed himself in jail, but they find one in volunteering Kay Lenz, a perky blonde with legs for days (and a black eye from the cook who landed himself in jail by giving it to her).  The snappy banter between Kay and Nick is proof that sparks will fly.  That's been obvious since the movies started using sound, but it's a BIG ongoing way of introducing lovers in miniseries.  She gets the job and the yacht "shoves off."

Kay has a hit with her first dish, fish chowder, which Van and Dorothy adore.  "You better hang onto her, we may be taking her home with us," Van tells Nick, much to Dorothy's dismay.  She's noticed her husband looking at Kay.  She needn't worry, as Van Johnson plays this role gayer than any other role he played on film, and that's pretty damn gay, but then again, Dorothy Malone is intent on stealing whatever moment she can, even if it's campy and in a caftan.

Nick has of course fallen for Kay already, and acts like a goofy teenager around her, the second step to love after snappy banter in the handbook.

Two weeks go by, with Van and Dorothy having had a wonderful time, but Nick confides in Kay, now wearing nothing but skimpy bikinis, that they have no charters lined up and they desperately need money.  He also tells her about his son and how his wife took him.  "She was an alley cat...and so was I, no better," he notes, an awfully mature statement from our growing-and-learning bad boy.  As for his son, it's rather unbelievable that nitwit Talia Shire has managed to keep him hidden all these years, especially now that bigwig Peter Strauss has people looking for him.  But, that's Irwin Shaw's issue; we just have to deal with it.

Just when you thought there was no camp in "Rich Man, Poor Man," and I admit that we've made it through nearly 11 episodes with it relegated safely to Bill Bixby, who was dispatched ages ago, old hams Van Johnson and Dorothy Malone spew it all over the place.  You see, Dorothy wants to get into port and Van orders Nick to do it.  However, there are rocks in their path, so they have to take the long way, which will mean another night on board.  Dorothy, stripping down to a very unflattering bathing suit (from a very unflattering caftan), threatens to swim back if the boat isn't turned the right way and Van, as drunk as she is, orders Nick to do so.  Nick refuses and as Dorothy is wailing, Van Johnson punches Nick Nolte.  Yes, Van Johnson, who spent much of his career cuddling up to the likes of Judy Garland, punches one of film's all-time badasses, Nick Nolte

Actually, Van departs, sober, apologizing for his behavior and giving Nick a lot more than promised, also telling him he'll refer his rich friends.  Dorothy even tells Kay "you're a good cook."  They want to book the entire month of June next year.  See, sober movie stars can be humble.  With violins going full tilt, Nick asks Kay to stay on permanently, wrapping her in his arms.  After having had sex, Kay wants to know where the name of the boat came from, but he replies, "someone I knew I was a boy," which is the truth.  His language is awfully flowery as he confesses his love to Kay.

Meanwhile, back in the USA, Peter has tracked down Nick's old manager Norman Fell, living in squalor, on his quest to locate Nick's son.  It turns out that the mafia no longer cares about the vendetta and Nick is not only safe to return, but "he can lead the Columbus Day Parade down Fifth Avenue," in Norman's colorful language.  Norman knows the name by which Talia Shire goes, but not where she lives.  Peter calls Nick in France to tell him he's found his son and to get home immediately!

That's good news for Nick's son, but Susan's son is in trouble.  He's being kicked out of school, which means he could be sent to Vietnam.  Peter promises as soon as he reunites Nick and his son, they can fly to California and deal with her son.

So, what happened to Talia and the kid?  Well, Talia divorced Nick on grounds of desertion (which she actually did to him), sent the kid to a military school and has become a hooker.  "She's a professional.  When I had her, she wasn't even a gifted amateur," Nick quips in a rare display of actual humor.  Susan interrupts Peter's telling of the tale to Nick with a drunken harangue about her son again.  Nick and Peter actually notice that perhaps their lives have turned.  Nick is convinced that life would be the same if he had stayed: Peter would be successful and he would be the reject.  But, Nick's boat is a success, he's happy and in love, while Peter has a stressful career and a wife he always wanted, neither of which bring him any happiness.  Nick says aloud that he never knew "life could be so good."  Oh, Nick, if only you knew!  That is a miniseries kiss of death!  But, you couldn't know that since you are helping to invent these questionable rules.

Nick goes to find his son Michael Morgan at the military school, but tight-ass colonel in charge has a file on the kid that says his father is dead.  Nick flings his passport at him and then they exchange some witty banter about the kid's mother.  Nick is informed that Michael has been "a problem" for fighting, but the colonel refuses to let the boy go until both parents agree to take him out.  Nick shows him the file on Talia and they can't wait to get rid of him fast enough.

It's here, with only moments to go in the second to last episode of the piece, that we know for sure Nick's character has become a man.  He gets a child.  Sure, he sired the kid, but he was never a father.  Only oceans of time and space have made him ready for the task.  It's worth nothing that Peter, who has always been the stable one, doesn't have a child.  His was miscarried and the only one he has access to is his wife's by a former marriage and he's living 3000 miles away.  Once again, the question is asked, who is the rich man and who is the poor man?  We're not talking about money anymore, we're talking about quality of life.

But perhaps we always have been.

But you knew that.  We've been through enough together to be on the same page, my friends.

From there, it's off to California to meet Susan's son, future soap hunk Leigh McCloskey.  He couldn't be less excited to see them.  He's an ass from the start.  Talking to Susan, in yet another turban, he confesses that his girlfriend's family doesn't like him, because they think he smokes pot.  "Well, do you?" Susan asks.  "No, Mother, I prefer booze, like you," he sasses.  Peter has to play the heavy, referred to as "the plastic hippie" by his stepson.  Apparently, Leigh has always thought Peter had his real father killed, and he blames his mother for both abandoning and spoiling him.  In fact, he wants nothing to do with either of them and asks to be cut from their lives, for the most part (one assumes he'll still take their money).  "Goodbye Mother, I'll write to you," he says insincerely, crushing fragile Susan even further.

Six months later, Michael has become his father's right arm on the yacht, blending into the family Nick has created along with Herbert and Kay seamlessly.  However, one afternoon, Nick and company leave the boy in charge of the boat.  His head is turned by two French cuties he invites aboard.  Meanwhile, Nick proposes to Kay in a very cute way, but Kay uses Michael as an excuse.  She feels the timing isn't right, but tells Nick to ask her again after the boy has had time to get used to things.

Herbert arrives with the news that Michael, trying to impress the girls, took the boat out and banged it up.  Nick goes out furiously looking for him, roaming the streets all night.  How will Nick handle it?  Like his father would have, with a beating (that we see in a flashback)?  Nope, not this Nick.  He hugs his son and chirps, "tomorrow I'm going to show you how to fix a propeller."

Aww, that's sweet, and it would be a perfectly happy ending to the day if it weren't observed by returning William Smith, sporting a patch over one eye and a lot of hatred in the other.

Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) Chapter 10

Once teenage dreamers, the three leads of "Rich Man, Poor Man" are about as adult as possible when Chapter 10 starts.  Peter Strauss is running for public office, supported in words, but not spirit, by his wife Susan Blakely, who has just miscarried, and Nick Nolte wants to leave the merchant marines to start a yacht charter business on the French Riviera.  For once, it's Nick who seems the happiest of the lead characters, though that can always change quickly as the plot starts to come to its climax.

It's 1962, Marseilles.  Nick and his buddy Herbert Jefferson are still technically tied to the merchant marines and thus the merciless and very childish hazing of muscular moron William Smith.  After enjoying two days away, they come back to two day's worth of dirty dishes, cleaned up just in time for William Smith to dirty the whole kitchen again.  He's s different kind of villain than any other in the movie.  The first was Ed Asner, an immigrant with crushed dreams that proved too heavy to bear, but not a bad man at heart.  Then there was Robert Reed, who deflowered the leading lady and has been playing puppeteer with the lives of the leads for decades, though not without their knowledge of agreement, a manipulative man who likes to enjoy power, but also does good with it.  William Smith is just a cartoon bully.  He looks like a cartoon villain and is written like one, so ridiculously evil that he's not even worth enjoying as a character because you know he'll get his miniseries comeuppance in a big way (though, not to ruin anything, it only partially happens here--we have to wait for "Rich Man, Poor Man Book II" to get the true end of his inane plotting).  He's the prototype for a lot of miniseries villains to come, the main one being Adolph Hitler.  Even in the miniseries that are told from Hitler's point of view, or try to imbibe the story with some semblance of German sympathy, Hitler is always the raving lunatic who will meet the bad end, so let him overact the hell out of his scenes because our leads will always end up just fine (well, except in "The Bunker," where he is the lead).

In a truly grotesque piece of business that is handled with "Rich Man, Poor Man's" usual flair for knowing exactly what to show and what not to show, William Smith follows his favorite target, Herbert Jefferson, into his cabin where he more than suggests they are going to have sex.  Herbert Jefferson tries to fight him off, but William Smith puts him in a choke hold and the camera pans down to his foot closing the door.  William Smith emerges smiling and sated when Nick Nolte sees him.  Nick goes to his friend, but we only HEAR him say, "it's alright, I'm okay" and then Nick is in the dining room where we know he's going to exact some sort of revenge.

He throws his drink in William Smith's face and they agree to a rumble.  Nick was warned not to fight, lest someone recognize him from his past life as a boxer and remember the crime from which he's running.  The two tussle with the rest of the crew watching and Nick actually knocks him out.  "I've seen that guy fight as Sunnyside Gardens," one of the crew members says, right before William pulls a knife and jams it into Nick's leg in a surprise attack.  Nick beats him to a bloody pulp.  No use being upset as they take William Smith off in a stretcher, looking like he's lost an eye.  The character deserved it he was merely a plot device to bring Nick back to reality.  The captain doesn't turn him into the French authorities, but he does tell him to leave ship in NYC, where the man who recognized him knows he can cash in on what he knows.

Back in New York, Peter has become a popular politician fighting against the corruption of the old guard, running for a state senate seat, but losing steam.  Wife Susan Blakely is a shellacked politician's wife with a hairdo and wardrobe that bore even her.  His campaign manager, Van Johnson, has brought his wife along, played by the 1950s most questionable Oscar winner, Dorothy Malone.  She's an old hand at surviving politics.  She has a dose of realism and a big drink for Susan (which has already started to become a problem for the latter).  Dorothy and Susan watch as Peter, Van and the others start to play politics every bit as hard as what he's supposedly fighting.

While Dorothy and Susan are enjoying their drinks, a call comes in that Peter's mother, Dorothy McGuire, is very ill.  "Damn it," he curses, having to leave politics for his mother, who used to be the darling of his life but has turned into a petty annoyance (in truth, the character has been turned from a wonderfully-developed and understanding woman into a rather idiotic shrew, so it's hard to work up a whole lot of sympathy).

As Nick's boat steams into the New York harbor, one cannot help but notice a IMMENSE error.  The camera pans around the buildings and comes to rest on the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center.  Watching such a noticeable camera move is obviously a shock to anyone watching "Rich Man, Poor Man" after 2001 will obviously be startled by the gleaming towers, but that's not the problem.  The problem is that it's 1962, more than a decade before they were completed and years before they were even started!  That's simply bad editing.  No one noticed that?

William Jefferson and Nick Nolte have to part, at least for now, their dreams of chartering yachts in France put on hold.  Nick returns to the fleabag where he had hidden out before shipping off to find out that Peter had stopped by looking for him.  "Want me to get him?" his friend asks.  "What I want, in this order, is a bottle, a blonde, something to eat and a newspaper," Nick decides.  Nick realizes he's been recognized on the boat and he's told the mob guys are still after him, so Nick needs a gun.

Just as Nick is given the gun, Peter comes into the room, starting at the barrel of it.  It's a hokey go-to-commercial moment that we will see over and over again in the ensuing years, and one that even daytime soap operas had down pat by 1976.  It would take nighttime soap operas to make a moment like that carry interest for an entire summer, rather than through a few minutes of advertising for cat chow and bleach alternatives.

The brothers have not seen each other in many years, and it may seem strange that a VIP like Peter Strauss, risking being caught in a seedy motel with his on-the-lam brother, a gun and a hooker (the blonde is still there), has to deliver the news about their mother in person, but that's drama for you.  Peter simply drops the news about their mother's condition amid all the squalor and the two drive upstate.  Nick is the chattier one, seemingly proud of his brother.  Peter is most happy to announce he's "finally" married Susan.  They seem as different as, well, a rich man and a poor man, but even Peter takes a swig out of the bottle as they dash to face mom in the hospital.

Dorothy McGuire has made it through all of "Rich Man, Poor Man," including the weird character transformation, and she certainly deserves the hospital deathbed scene you knew was coming the moment we heard she was sick.  It even starts with a priest, a monsignor, no less, having just administered last rights.  "She's been holding on until you could get here," he tells Peter.  The doctor isn't even sure she can hear, but no actress is going to give up this chance!  She seems catatonic, clutching rosary beads, but then her hand twitches.  She speaks, incomprehensibly, asking for Peter, not realizing it's her other son there with her.  "Is that you?" she asks him, slowly.  He pulls out a present he long ago promised her, a scarf with a Mediterranean map, lying a little and saying he already has his operation going and his son back with him.  She has a slow apology for short-changing him.  "I gave so much to [Peter], there wasn't enough left over for you," she says, no doubt sparking water works in millions of viewers.  "Try not to hate me," she asks and then asks Nick to hold her as she finally dies.  It's interesting to note that Peter has not been in the room the whole time.  It's her wayward son, the one she discarded, who is with her as she breathes her last.  Nick acts the moment beautifully, quietly realizing the impact of the moment.

Susan is out in the hallway, not having seen Susan since her night with Robert Reed, but he can only handle so much emotion.  "Am I the only one who needs a drink around here?" he asks.  Robert Reed, sporting gray hair and a weird accent, weirder than before, is at the funeral.  He also hasn't seen Susan or Nick since the night as his house.  "I hope we can get together, discuss old times," he says like the cunning fox he is, but Susan is mature now.  "I'm really not one for discussing old times," she retorts, pulling her hand away from his.  Peter is the only person there who doesn't know the secrets that could still split them all.

However, Susan, in yet another turban, can't help but remember the past and as Nick drinks heavily, he's a little fuzzy on things.  Peter brings up the fact that Nick set the fire that fateful night at Robert's place, asking him why he set the fire.  Luckily, the conversation steers clear of the exchanged glance Nick and Susan shared that night, but when a guest calls Peter away, Susan plays martyr and snaps at Nick, "now would be as good a time as any to tell him."  "There's nothing to tell.  Really.  Truth is, my eyes were so burned from that fire, everything is a blur," he gallantly replies.  Susan has a panic attack and Nick comforts her, but one of Peter's political cronies storms in with good news, though Peter seems oblivious to the fact that it's a bad time; Nick and Susan clearly see the absurdity.

It's a moment like the above that begs the question, once again, of just who is the rich man and who is the poor man?  On the surface, life has sucked for Nick, yet he's always content, always able to deal with what life throws him, while Peter has boxed himself into a shrink-wrapped life that is rather unpleasant and entirely too clinical.  Unfortunately, the acting isn't always consistent enough to completely power this question, but at least the writing realizes it.  A lot of bigger and grander miniseries will be coming that ask bigger and grander questions in far more stilted or laughable ways.  "Rich Man, Poor Man" yet again glosses over the truth with a light touch, just enough to make one aware that it has not spiraled into epic boredom, grasping to get to the end because it has to (take that "Scarlett").

The brothers meet in the kitchen in the middle of the night and it's the first time they use the title words to describe each other.  It turns out Nick is richer by almost $50K, a complete surprise to him.  You see, the last time they met, when Nick gave Peter the $3K he felt he owed Peter for Ed bailing him out of jail, Peter took the money and invested it.  It's grown into piles of money, money Nick can use to finance the dream he had with Herbert Jefferson in France.

As Nick and Herbert depart, and after Nick says "I'm running out of people to hate," finally aware that his brother has never been his enemy," Peter promises to find Nick's son for him.

On election night, the race is close, but it seems Peter is winning when of course more drama gets in the way.  Susan is at home, drunk as hell smashing her beloved photographic history with a hammer.  "I want to take you to bed," Peter says, meaning put her to bed, but Susan has a different take on it.  "You won't be the first, and if I play my cards right, you won't be the last either!" she spits.  Miniseries mantra: when things seem good, they are about to go downhill quickly.  Susan is a crying mess when the press arrives at Peter's house to announce he's won the election.  It's his most exalted moment and her biggest nightmare.  There is no happiness for someone without unhappiness for someone else.

If Chapter 10 taught any lesson, it's that those who seem to be at the bottom have nothing to lose and all to gain.  Nick is a man running for his life who walks into a huge amount of money and can finally set his life on course.  Meanwhile, Peter is a man at the top, which is a tough place to be because one cannot go any higher, one can only fall, and with the mess Susan has turned into, she's threatening to drag him down with her.

Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) Chapter 9

The brothers of "Rich Man, Poor Man" seem to be going through a change.  Who is good and who is bad?  It's hard to tell.  Sure, Nick Nolte has to leave the country for pissing off the Mafia, but it's self-protection.  It's Peter Strauss as the hard-nosed businessman who is becoming less attractive.  Age and money have given him an ego, but then again, the people around him (his mother, his boss, even Susan Blakely) are also fairly unpleasant people, nothing like the hopeful innocents who celebrated the end of World War II.  As we pick up the story in 1962,  it's unclear who is to be admired anymore.

Peter is breaking up the financial partnership with Ray Milland, who is as upset as Peter's mother.  "Who retires at 35?" Ray asks.  "He has no time for anything, not even his mother," Dorothy complains.  The next step is politics, as local bosses try to draft him into running, not caring what party he's affiliated with.  He also proposes to Susan AGAIN and she puts him off AGAIN, though her reasons are wearing awfully thin, so thankfully this time, she agrees to marry him!  Yes, in fact, here is a television moment that is different: a wedding begins the episode rather than ending it.  


I'm not entirely sure what Susan's outfit is all about: turban on her head, fur-ringed around the neck.  Dorothy talks during the wedding, telling an uninterested Ray she wishes her other son were there, but "he's in South America, the merchant marines."  Give that about eight seconds to settle in and we're doing 70s stereotyping without apology.  Nick gets off his ship and there is a man resting on the ground with his sombrero over his face.  


Nick sees a fight going on at the wharf, where insanely muscular William Smith almost kills a guy with his bare hands.  They take an instant dislike to each other.  


In high contrast, Peter is on the golf course, the ultimate rich man's enclave.  He's playing with his old pal Tim McIntire, who wants to replace him at the company and is also dating Kim Darby.  Peter tells him Kim is seriously mentally wigged out, but Tim doesn't believe him.


From there, Peter goes to meet the political bigwigs, headed by none other than Van Johnson (wearing a big wig on his head, FYI).  They want Peter to run, but Peter takes the high road: no deals or anything without his knowledge.  Basically, he doesn't want to be in any one's back pocket.  You have to laugh at that sort of naiveté, and I'm sure audiences in 1976 did, as they would elect unknown Jimmy Carter over known quantity Gerald Ford, their first chance to blot the stain of Watergate.  Unctuous Van agrees to the terms, though with a glint in his eye that says, "yeah, whatever."


Nick meets another seagoing reject, Herbert Jefferson Jr.  Herbert is friendly, but Nick tries to keep to himself.  In comes William Smith, who slings every racial epithet at Herbert Jefferson, with whom he refuses to be in the same room.  Nick doesn't say a thing, but finds Herbert Jefferson later to explain that he can't be caught fighting or else someone will recognize him.  


Still going with the fur theme, this time on her peignoir, Susan is very pregnant and very ill-tempered.  She yaps at Peter any chance she gets and though she denies missing her old life, she clearly does.  As Peter is about to leave for the day, Susan starts having horrible pain.  She's lost the baby.  


Waiting outside his home when Peter gets there is nutso Kim Darby, who tells him, "I wish it were her who died," not at all what Peter wants to hear, and she continues shouting through the door when he locks her out.  Alone, he can have his first breakdown of the entire miniseries.  However, he always makes conversation swing back to himself, even with Susan at the hospital where he offers to get out of politics if she doesn't like it, but since he feels he can fix the entire system from within, he wants to keep at it.  She has no choice but to agree.  


At a stopover in the French Riviera, Nick (who kind of speaks a bit of French) and Herbert Jefferson decide to buy a boat in order to give charter tours so they can live there the whole time.  However, the boat costs $15K.  Nick somehow thinks he can get the money and his son and live comfortably there.  


Despite Peter's warning, Tim marries Kim, giving Dorothy and Ray a chance to bitch to each other again.  Even at her wedding, Kim starts in on Peter.  It's at the wedding that Susan gets to meet Van and the rest of the political team.  They have their own ideas about what to do with Susan during the campaign, none of which seem to thrill her.

Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) Chapter 8

"Rich Man, Poor Man" is a whole lot more exciting for the poor man right now.  Attracting trouble like a magnet, Nick Nolte re-entered the boxing world, still intent on finding his wife and kid, only to come up against Mafia-backed boxing superstar George Maharis, not to mention George's sexually voracious wife.  By the time Episode 7 ended, Nick needed to leave the country quickly.  As for Peter Strauss, he's become a bland businessman, though a rich one, still wanting Susan, though he makes no effort to see her unless they happen to end up at the same party where he finds out she's divorced.

Susan is dealing with a cantankerous son, who has a rather bad attitude and still doesn't understand why his parents are divorced.  He's supposed to go on a field trip, giving Susan an excuse to spend the day with Peter.  "You're right on time," Susan tells him when he arrives.  "Give or take 13 years," Peter chirps, as in love with her as ever.  Their day consists of Charlie Chaplin movies and a goony Italian restaurant with checkered table cloths and a man with an accordion.  They argue at dinner for absolutely no reason, except to postpone yet again the two of them having more than two minutes of possible happiness.  But, a kiss softens the moment and leads to Peter and Susan FINALLY having sex for the first time...ever!

Peter proposes, but Susan prevaricates over and over, substituting witty remarks for real answers.  When Susan returns home, she finds Bill Bixby there, much to her son's delight, but the dread of the set designer, because Bill loves nothing more than to chew the scenery.  He even turns on the waterworks in a grand piece of manipulation.  He livens up things, that's for sure, but his style is on a different planet than rock-ribbed Susan and Peter.  "I want to come home," Bill tells her, and if she agrees, there goes Peter's latest attempt to be with Susan.  But, you knew that was coming, because "Rich Man, Poor Man" is nothing if not stalwart in its plotting: when people are happy, the universe steps in to botch it up.

Nick had been sent to NYC by his boxing manager Norman Fell to escape the mob and the police, and instead of going to Norman's friend to get him immediately into the merchant marines, Nick pays a visit to the private investigator he's been using to find his wife and son (not that the guy has done anything but soak Nick).  The PI tells him there are people looking for Nick and he wants nothing to do with him.  It will take $500 to get Nick into the merchant marines.

The only place he can go for that kind of cash is his brother.  Peter isn't at home but Dorothy McGuire is.  Peter's new found wealth has been a boon to her, as she now dresses like a fancy lady, wearing jewels and even plays cards with the maid.  When Nick arrives at the house, Dorothy is so shocked she faints.  There's a lot of catch up to do, and Dorothy goes into her poor little old lady routine that she's so honed on Peter, but Nick is tougher than his brother and hits her up for the money he needs.  She assures him Peter will not find out, "not the way he pinches pennies these days."  Despite the problems Nick has caused over the years, Dorothy does tell him "I wish we had longer."

Dorothy is not at all happy when Peter brings Susan Blakely.  The old lady finds Susan's behavior, divorce, parenting skills and just about everything else shameful.  She thinks Susan is after Peter's money.  "What's she doing, looking over the place before she moves in?  And where do I go? Into the maid's room...?" Dorothy wonders, the annoying personality of the character front and center, a long way from the loving and understanding mother who helped her horrible husband run a bakery while she proudly raised her sons.  "I will not have that slut in my house!" she demands.  "She is not a slut and this is not your house," Peter replies angrily.  When Dorothy refuses to even speak to Susan, Peter threatens to cut her off financially, more proof that he's become a scary self-focused businessman.

Also not happy with Peter is his boss, Ray Milland.  His scheming daughter, Kim Darby (the one who poisoned Dorothy against Susan), has convinced him that Peter has "seduced" her and Ray insists they get married, complete with full partnership and stock.  Peter develops a spine and tells Ray off with huge gumption.  "I'm sick and tired of dragging you into the 20th century with you fighting me every step of the way," he begins, then tossing everything at Ray that's been built up over the years, not to mention quitting.  Maybe there is a bit of an idealist left in this character after all.  Somehow, this tirade works and Ray way too suddenly realizes his daughter has been lying and gets over his anger.  It's a very bizarre scene that spins way too fast.

Digging his new-found cojones, Peter offers to "take care" of Bill Bixby for Susan, so he summons Bill and offers him a job that will keep him from New York City.  The money he tosses at Bill is attractive, but Peter forbids him from even saying goodbye to his son.  "You can write him a nice letter," Peter snarls before Bill asks for a car too.

Hours before he's supposed to ship out, Nick is cornered by the mob (in a movie theater, no less).  However, he manages to evade all 428 goons and get to his ship.

Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) Chapter 7

Chapter 6 of "Rich Man, Poor Man" wasn't good for couples.  Talia Shire took the baby and left Nick Nolte, which is actually a plus for the story.  Unfortunately, Susan Blakely's sick child brought her and wayward spouse Bill Bixby closer together, pushing off the romance with Peter Strauss for which they both had been pining since high school.

It's now 1958, another four years gone by.  Peter gets a bizarre call from his old friend Lawrence Pressman to meet him the next day because he's in trouble.  The phone rings mom Dorothy McGuire too, asking who called.  "You mean that Bolshevik?" she pipes in before setting off one her zillionth tirade about her husband having faked his death, still alive somewhere.

Nick heads to Los Angeles to reconnect with boxing manager Norman Fell, after having abruptly left him, desperate for work. At the gym, he meets Norman's current big deal, arrogant and obnoxious George Maharis and his wife Lynda Day George.  Rusty Nick gets knocked around by cocky George, but blond stunner Lynda takes a liking to Nick.  Lynda tells Nick that she and George "don't sleep together" when he's preparing for a fight, which Nick takes as a veiled invitation.  That's exactly how she meant it.

Over the years, Peter has become a very big deal at what has become an empire fashioned from Ray Milland's department store.  What hasn't changed is Ray's daughter Kim Darby, who still pines for Peter.  To trap him into some time together, she's moved heaven and earth to secure tickets to "West Side Story" on Broadway.  Broadway fans will know that's a factual absurdity as "West Side Story" was not a gigantic hit and a year into its run (of less than two years), tickets would have been pretty easy to come by.  "Afterwards, you can take me to supper...that's so you won't feel so emasculated," Kim tells him.  Uh huh.  Luckily for Peter, company lawyer Dick Sargent calls, so Kim has to scoot.

Then comes the mysterious lunch with Lawrence, clearly on edge.  He's up for tenure, but his leftist politics may kill that.  He swears he's not a Communist, but he can't simply admit that because he feels it's a violation to be asked.  So, he wants Peter to tell the board for it.  "I'm taking a principle stand but I want you to bail me out," he says frankly.  Making it even more difficult is that Peter's boss is on the tenure board and his future is in jeopardy if he helps Lawrence.  Success is starting to turn Peter into a member of the stuffy old guard.

Dick throws a party and Susan Blakely is there, but Kim clings to Peter and tries to assert rights over him, getting awfully clingy.  "No wife, nothing like that?" Susan asks him.  "I don't even have a dog," he replies.  Susan has also finally shed her drunken husband, but her date to the party is an oaf that sets Peter on edge.  "You and I are going to be married one of these days...it's ordained, it's inevitable," Peter crows, having waited so long for her.

However, Kim isn't playing nice.  Peter takes the drunken girl to her hotel, but she starts getting aggressive in the cab.  When he rebuffs her, and she screams that he only used her to get in good with her father.  "I just wanted you to make love to me," she tells him when they get to her destination.  Peter still doesn't fall for it and Kim launches into a tirade that ends with, "I'll get you, you bastard," but starts with another condemnation of his status as a stuffed shirt, the second time in this episode that accusation has been lobbed against him.

Norman and his boxing boys are in Las Vegas for George Maharis' big fight, a sold out affair.  Nick is still being used as a sparring partner for George, though both he and Norman know Nick could easily beat the hell out to him.  There is a lot more going on with them, such as the scary dude who seems to have control over George and the hotel employee who follows Lynda and reports on her movements to George.  That means he must know all about the tawdry affair Lynda and Nick are conducting.

Meanwhile, Nick has hired a private eye to find his son, but he's always short on cash and the PI dangles details in front of him as a way to extort money from gullible Nick.

As expected, George has found out about his wife and Nick, so he beats the stuffing out of her in a surprising bit of gore for this miniseries, but one that sets the stage for lots of upcoming brutality in the next 20 or so years.  Lynda tries to warn Nick that George will come after him, claiming George "is a murderer."  Indeed, George races over to Nick's motel, but Nick is prepared for him.  In fact, Nick baits George and George lunges at him.  The two scuffle and Nick finally gets to show his real boxing talent.  Normal shows up and tells Nick that George is being supported by the Mafia, so Nick better leave town go as far as the ocean, "cross that ocean and don't come back for 10 years."  That's going to hurt his plans to find his son.  The people in the next room have called the police, so now the mob and the cops will be after Nick, still attracting trouble every time he blinks.

Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) Chapter 6

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.