Washington: Behind Closed Doors
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John Ehrlichman
David W. Rintels
| Washington: Behind Closed Doors | |
|---|---|
 3-disc DVD cover | |
| Genre | Drama |
| Created by | David W. Rintels |
| Based on | The Company by John Ehrlichman |
| Written by | Eric Bercovici John Ehrlichman David W. Rintels |
| Directed by | Gary Nelson |
| Starring | Cliff Robertson Jason Robards Stefanie Powers |
| Theme music composer | Dominic Frontiere (5 episodes) Richard Markowitz (1 episode) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| Production | |
| Producers | Eric Bercovici Frank Cardea Stanley Kallis Norman S. Powell David W. Rintels |
| Cinematography | Joseph F. Biroc (6 episodes) Jack Swain (5 episodes) |
| Editors | Gerard Wilson (6 episodes) Harry Kaye (3 episodes) Arthur Hilton |
| Running time | 750 minutes |
| Production company | Paramount Television |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | September 6 – September 11, 1977 |
Washington: Behind Closed Doors is a 1977 American television miniseries produced by Paramount Television, that was broadcast in six parts, airing across six consecutive nights on ABC, from September 6 to September 11, 1977.[1]
The fictional story is loosely based on John Ehrlichman's 1976 book The Company, a novel inspired by the author's tenure as a top aide in the Nixon administration.
The film is a lavish fictionalized re-telling of the Watergate story (loosely based on ex-Nixon aide John Ehrlichman's novel The Company) mixing political intrigue and personal drama and centering on the rise of a power-hungry American president and the men with whom he surrounds himself in order to keep his grip on his office. The story builds from a soap-opera start into a trenchant study of power that corrupts.[2][3]
Primary cast
- Cliff Robertson as William Martin (Richard Helms, Director of Central Intelligence)[4]
- Jason Robards as President Richard Monckton (Richard M. Nixon, 37th President)
- Stefanie Powers as Sally Whalen
- Robert Vaughn as Frank Flaherty (Harry R. Haldeman, White House Chief of Staff)
- Lois Nettleton as Linda Martin
- Barry Nelson as Bob Bailey
- Harold Gould as Carl Tessler (Henry Kissinger, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs)
- Tony Bill as Adam Gardiner (Jeb Stuart Magruder, Special Assistant to the President)
- Andy Griffith as President Esker Scott Anderson (Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President)
- John Houseman as Myron Dunn
- David Selby as Roger Castle
- Meg Foster as Jenny Jamison
- Peter Coffield as Eli McGinn
- Frances Lee McCain as Paula Stoner Gardiner
- Barry Primus as Joe Wisnovsky
- Diana Ewing as Kathy Ferris
- Lara Parker as Wanda Elliott
- John Lehne as Tucker Tallford (John Ehrlichman, Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs)
- Alan Oppenheimer as Simon Cappell
- Nicholas Pryor as Hank Ferris (Ronald L. Ziegler, White House Press Secretary)
- Frank Marth as Lawrence Allison
- Thayer David as Elmer Morse (John Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation)
- George Gaynes as Brewster Perry
- Linden Chiles as Jack Atherton
- Skip Homeier as Lars Haglund
- John Randolph as Bennett Lowman
- Bonnie Bartlett as Joan Bailey
Release
The 12 ½‐hour television miniseries was broadcast in 6 parts, airing across six consecutive nights on ABC from September 6 to September 11, 1977.[1] The DVD was released on June 5, 2012.[5]
The show did well in the Nielsen ratings. The last segment (Sunday September 11) was the third-highest rated prime time program of the week (23.6 rating, 17.2 million homes); the Thursday episode was fourth (23 rating, 16.7 million); and the debut Tuesday episode ranked eighth (22 rating, or 16 million). Other parts finished 16th (Friday), 17th (Wednesday), and 25th (Saturday; typically a low viewership night) for the same week.[6]
