Kennedys

Entertainment Weekly, Feb 16, 1990, by Ken Tucker (First issue of Entertainment Weekly)

We all know that, Lonesome Dove aside, long miniseries are supposed to be out of fashion. This one, about the early years of a family that has been subjected to a lot of TV-movie exploitation, has been in the works for years, and was cut almost in half from its original 11 hours. So it seemed that The Kennedys of Massachusetts would have to be a botched job, a dreadful drag.

Instead, over its three days, the miniseries delivers the week's most affective drama and best acting, with William Petersen and Annette O'Toole offering remarkably detailed, unsparing portrayals of Joe and Rose Kennedy, the couple who built Camelot for their kids.

Based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's book "The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys," the movie is like The Brady Bunch with brains and Boston accents. We watch the youthful Joe Jr., John, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, Jean, and Ted grow up and meet their fates. But The Kennedys of Massachusetts stops when John becomes President; here, it's the parents who matter.

Until now, William Petersen has pursued a career as a thoughtful action-hero in such movies as To Live and Die in L.A. and Manhunter; his complex, devious, grinning family-man Joe Kennedy is thus a complete departure for him, and so utterly successful that Petersen is at first unrecognizable in the role.

Much of the credit for the artistic success of The Kennedys of Massachusetts must go to director Lamont Johnson, who does something rarely attempted in historical TV movies; He leaves in the politics. Joe and his obstreperous brood discuss isolationism, prejudice against Irish Catholics, and New Deal democracy around their dinner table. Even if you don't believe the conversation could possibly have been as lively and articulate as is it here, it's still solid, thought-provoking chatter.

SOME OTHER THOUGHTS FROM WILLIAM

Co-star Petersen claims to understand well the continuing appeal that the Kennedys appear to hold for so many people. "I started reading about the Kennedys when we started doing this (mini-series)," he reports. "I had known about them, but since then, I've become fascinated with the whole history (during which) they've been in the forefront of America. I've read 12 or 13 different books about them, and I really feel that this book ("The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys") is absolutely the fairest and truest journalistic approach that's been written, without bias one way or another.

"I think our great attraction to the Kennedys is as a family unit, and what an amazing family it is. Rose and Joe were very remarkable people who wanted a tremendous amount for their family, and who had a tremendous love for their family. It was the goal of their life to raise their children, and to give them the things they felt they should have, and I think that's very admirable."

William Petersen, a 36-year-old Chicago stage actor, plays Joseph P. Kennedy throughout the miniseries. "He was a complex man who led an incredibly intense life," said Petersen. "In many ways he was a wonderful father. He had this overwhelming -- I don't want to say libido. I think of it more in terms of hubris. There was intense karma in that family; they lived all of their karma in one lifetime. Tragedies befell them instantly upon their successes. It's a Greek saga; this is how we were, this is what we did, and this is what we get."

And William Petersen says: "If at the end of this thing the audience can say about Joe and Rose Kennedy, 'This is who they were, this is what they believed, and this is how they dealt with their lives in this century,' then we will have accomplished a great deal. I think it's an important American story. And who knows what awaits the Kennedys. The story is certainly not over."