| Original 1985 ABC Press Release found within the Press Kits |
John Jakes’ “North and South” and “North and South, Book II” (based on the best selling novels, “North and
South,” and “Love and War”) will be brought to the screen by David L. Wolper Productions and Warner Brothers
Television as a two 12-hour “ABC Novels for Television” during the 1985-1986 season.
The 24-hour miniseries, a panoramic saga of two American families- one from the North, one from the South- living
through the turbulent two decades leading to the Civil War and the four fierce years of a nation divided against itself,
marks the first time an epic novel and it’s continuation, both best-sellers, have been dramatized in the same season.
“North and South,” which brings to life the ferocious nation conflicts and agonizing splits in personal loyalties which
ripped the nation in the years preceding the War Between the States, will air in six parts: Sunday, Nov. 3; Tuesday,
Nov. 5; Wednesday, Nov. 6; Thursday, Nov. 7; Saturday, Nov. 9 and Sunday, Nov. 10 (all times 9:00-11:00 p.m.,
EST.)
“North and South Book II airing in Spring 1986, follows the characters through the historic events and individual
trails and triumphs of the Civil War years.
“North and South” stars (in alphabetical order) Kirstie Alley as Virgilia Hazard, Georg Stanford Brown as Grady,
David Carradine as Justin LaMotte, Phillip Casnoff as Elkanah Bent, Lesley-Anne Down as Madeline Fabray, Genie
Francis as Brett Main, Terri Garber as Ashton Main, Wendy Kilbourne as Constance Flynn, Jim Metzler as James
Huntoon, James Read as George Hazard, Lewis Smith as Charles Main, John Stockwell as Billy Hazard and Patrick
Swayze as Orry Main.
Special guest stars (in alphabetical order) are Johnny Cash as John Brown, Olivia Cole as Maum Sally, Morgan
Fairchild as Burdetta Halloran, Robert Guillaume as Frederick Douglass, Hal Holbrook as Abraham Lincoln, Gene
Kelly as Sen. Charles Edwards, Robert Mitchum as Col. Patrick Flynn, M.D., Jean Simmons as Clarissa Main, David
Ogden Stiers as Congressman Sam Greene, Inga Swenson as Maude Hazard and Elizabeth Taylor as Madam Conti.
“North and South” was filmed on location in Charleston, S.C.; St. Francisville, La.; Natchez, Miss. Reader, Ark.;
and Southern California. Among the locations are many historical homes and monuments whose authentic Southern
furnishings have been preserved and restored.
“North and South” and “North and South, Book II” follow the history of two families – the Mains, South Carolina
plantation owners, and the Hazards, Pennsylvania industrialists. They are united by honor and friendship, yet alienated
by geography and ideology. The bonds between and within these families are tested and transformed over more that
two decades as their lives intersect with the pivotal individuals and sweep of historical events that lead to the dissolution
of the Union and the horror of the Civil War.
“North and South” reveals the forces that tore the United States asunder. In 1842, the Mains and the Hazards each
send a young son – Orry and George – to West Point. There a friendship is born that ultimately entwines family
members – older and younger – in love, in business and in the passionate philosophical differences that are sending the
nation inexorably toward armed confrontation. As the families’ paths cross history’s milestones – the Mexican War, the
rise of the abolitionists, the election of Lincoln, John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, the secession of South Carolina,
the firing on Fort Sumter – their way of life and dreams for the future are forever altered.
“North and South, Book II” plunges the Mains and Hazards into war years. Once proud officers in the same army,
Orry and George now serve opposing sides, lending their military knowledge to other former classmates – Grant,
McCellan, Lee, Pickett, Jackson – and their aid to the highest quarters, Presidents Lincoln and Davis. Capture by the
enemy throws George into the unspeakable inhumanity of the South’s Libby prison and puts the depth of this and Orry’
s bond to a supreme test. George’s younger brother, Billy Hazard, and Orry’s young cousin Charles Main, who
followed in their West Point footsteps, now face one another in battle – friend against friend, the war’s ultimate tragedy.
The long four years from Sumter to Appomattox, will change every member of these two American Families, Orry’s
beloved Madeline suffers a final confrontation with her brutal husband, Justin LaMotte. Then in a gesture of love for
Orry when she fears a family secret will shame him, she leaves him and their plantation home for the city of Charleston,
where she changes her name and immerses herself in caring for the war’s wounded. Hot-headed loner Charles Main
finds love with an equally independent widow. George’s wife Constance faces multiple burdens of a husband in prison,
the shameful culmination of her sister (-in-law was left off) Virgilia’s abolitionist fanaticism, and the thread to Hazard
Iron posed by her brother and sister-in-law’s insidious scheme for war profiteering.
Hoping to profit too from the ascendancy of the Confederacy is Orry’s amoral, ambitious sister Ashton. Her
marriage to easily manipulated South Carolinian James Huntoon is no bar to an affair with Orry and George’s long-
standing enemy, Elkanah Bent, nor to her participation in Bent’s plot to assassinate Jefferson Davis. No link between
the Mains and the Hazards is stronger than the marriage of Billy Hazard to Orry’s younger sister, Brett. Living virtually
as a foreigner in the North at the outbreak of the way, she makes a heart-stopping trek behind enemy lines to join her
beleaguered mother at the war-ravaged plantation, Mont Royal.
Executive producers of “North and South” are David L. Wolper and Chuck McLain. Paul Freeman is the producer
and the director is Richard T. Heffron.
South,” and “Love and War”) will be brought to the screen by David L. Wolper Productions and Warner Brothers
Television as a two 12-hour “ABC Novels for Television” during the 1985-1986 season.
The 24-hour miniseries, a panoramic saga of two American families- one from the North, one from the South- living
through the turbulent two decades leading to the Civil War and the four fierce years of a nation divided against itself,
marks the first time an epic novel and it’s continuation, both best-sellers, have been dramatized in the same season.
“North and South,” which brings to life the ferocious nation conflicts and agonizing splits in personal loyalties which
ripped the nation in the years preceding the War Between the States, will air in six parts: Sunday, Nov. 3; Tuesday,
Nov. 5; Wednesday, Nov. 6; Thursday, Nov. 7; Saturday, Nov. 9 and Sunday, Nov. 10 (all times 9:00-11:00 p.m.,
EST.)
“North and South Book II airing in Spring 1986, follows the characters through the historic events and individual
trails and triumphs of the Civil War years.
“North and South” stars (in alphabetical order) Kirstie Alley as Virgilia Hazard, Georg Stanford Brown as Grady,
David Carradine as Justin LaMotte, Phillip Casnoff as Elkanah Bent, Lesley-Anne Down as Madeline Fabray, Genie
Francis as Brett Main, Terri Garber as Ashton Main, Wendy Kilbourne as Constance Flynn, Jim Metzler as James
Huntoon, James Read as George Hazard, Lewis Smith as Charles Main, John Stockwell as Billy Hazard and Patrick
Swayze as Orry Main.
Special guest stars (in alphabetical order) are Johnny Cash as John Brown, Olivia Cole as Maum Sally, Morgan
Fairchild as Burdetta Halloran, Robert Guillaume as Frederick Douglass, Hal Holbrook as Abraham Lincoln, Gene
Kelly as Sen. Charles Edwards, Robert Mitchum as Col. Patrick Flynn, M.D., Jean Simmons as Clarissa Main, David
Ogden Stiers as Congressman Sam Greene, Inga Swenson as Maude Hazard and Elizabeth Taylor as Madam Conti.
“North and South” was filmed on location in Charleston, S.C.; St. Francisville, La.; Natchez, Miss. Reader, Ark.;
and Southern California. Among the locations are many historical homes and monuments whose authentic Southern
furnishings have been preserved and restored.
“North and South” and “North and South, Book II” follow the history of two families – the Mains, South Carolina
plantation owners, and the Hazards, Pennsylvania industrialists. They are united by honor and friendship, yet alienated
by geography and ideology. The bonds between and within these families are tested and transformed over more that
two decades as their lives intersect with the pivotal individuals and sweep of historical events that lead to the dissolution
of the Union and the horror of the Civil War.
“North and South” reveals the forces that tore the United States asunder. In 1842, the Mains and the Hazards each
send a young son – Orry and George – to West Point. There a friendship is born that ultimately entwines family
members – older and younger – in love, in business and in the passionate philosophical differences that are sending the
nation inexorably toward armed confrontation. As the families’ paths cross history’s milestones – the Mexican War, the
rise of the abolitionists, the election of Lincoln, John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, the secession of South Carolina,
the firing on Fort Sumter – their way of life and dreams for the future are forever altered.
“North and South, Book II” plunges the Mains and Hazards into war years. Once proud officers in the same army,
Orry and George now serve opposing sides, lending their military knowledge to other former classmates – Grant,
McCellan, Lee, Pickett, Jackson – and their aid to the highest quarters, Presidents Lincoln and Davis. Capture by the
enemy throws George into the unspeakable inhumanity of the South’s Libby prison and puts the depth of this and Orry’
s bond to a supreme test. George’s younger brother, Billy Hazard, and Orry’s young cousin Charles Main, who
followed in their West Point footsteps, now face one another in battle – friend against friend, the war’s ultimate tragedy.
The long four years from Sumter to Appomattox, will change every member of these two American Families, Orry’s
beloved Madeline suffers a final confrontation with her brutal husband, Justin LaMotte. Then in a gesture of love for
Orry when she fears a family secret will shame him, she leaves him and their plantation home for the city of Charleston,
where she changes her name and immerses herself in caring for the war’s wounded. Hot-headed loner Charles Main
finds love with an equally independent widow. George’s wife Constance faces multiple burdens of a husband in prison,
the shameful culmination of her sister (-in-law was left off) Virgilia’s abolitionist fanaticism, and the thread to Hazard
Iron posed by her brother and sister-in-law’s insidious scheme for war profiteering.
Hoping to profit too from the ascendancy of the Confederacy is Orry’s amoral, ambitious sister Ashton. Her
marriage to easily manipulated South Carolinian James Huntoon is no bar to an affair with Orry and George’s long-
standing enemy, Elkanah Bent, nor to her participation in Bent’s plot to assassinate Jefferson Davis. No link between
the Mains and the Hazards is stronger than the marriage of Billy Hazard to Orry’s younger sister, Brett. Living virtually
as a foreigner in the North at the outbreak of the way, she makes a heart-stopping trek behind enemy lines to join her
beleaguered mother at the war-ravaged plantation, Mont Royal.
Executive producers of “North and South” are David L. Wolper and Chuck McLain. Paul Freeman is the producer
and the director is Richard T. Heffron.
| Copyright ABC Public Relations Dept. |